A couple accused of murdering Amber Haigh, a teenage flatmate, over two decades ago, will face a judge-alone trial next year.
Robert Samuel Geeves, 62, and his wife Anne Margaret Geeves, 62, pleaded not guilty to the 19-year-old’s murder in NSW Supreme Court on Friday through audio-visual link from the Goulburn and Silverwater correctional camps.
Their joint two-month trial will begin on June 17, 2024, at the NSW Supreme Court in Wagga Wagga.
On June 19, 2002, Haigh was reported missing after failing to return to her residence in Kingsvale, southern New South Wales, where she and her six-month-old son had been living with the couple.
According to police, the couple left the young mother off at Campbelltown station on June 5 with the intention of taking her to Mt Druitt in western Sydney to visit her sick father in hospital.
Money was withdrawn from her bank account at a Campbelltown ATM later that night.
Her body was never discovered.
In June 2002, Haigh died as a consequence of homicide or other misadventure, according to a 2011 inquiry.
For the next decade, the crime remained mostly unsolved until 2020, when Strike Force Villamar II initiated a new inquiry.
In April, NSW Police boosted the reward for information from $100,000 to $1 million.
In May, the pair was detained and accused at a property in the Riverina town of Harden.
