For years, Hazel Vidler sent birthday and Christmas cards to her son. According to the coronial findings, he recognised her handwriting, and Hazel was known for keeping cards ready to send.
Around 1979 or 1980, the cards stopped.
That ordinary change became one of the clearest signs that something had happened to Hazel. For decades, her whereabouts remained unknown. On 9 February 2026, at the Coroners Court in Forster, Magistrate Towney found that Hazel Vidler was deceased and that she died sometime in or after 1979. The available evidence did not allow the court to determine where she died, the cause of death, or the manner of death.
Hazel Clare Knight was born on 23 October 1922. Across her life, she was known by several names. The coronial findings record that Hazel worked as a dancer and choreographer in Kings Cross under a stage name, and later worked as an advertising executive. People who knew her remembered her as independent and fashionable.
Hazel married Edward James Vidler on 4 September 1964. By the late 1970s, land records showed Hazel and Edward were connected to a Putta Road property at Upper Lansdowne, near Taree. Edward later said the land was one hundred acres and that he and Hazel lived in a shed he had built on the property. By approximately 1979, there was no known reliable evidence of Hazel's whereabouts.
Edward gave several accounts of the last time he said he saw Hazel. In a police interview in 2022, he said Hazel had told him she no longer wanted to live in Taree. He said he drove her into Taree so she could catch a bus, that he parked the car, and that when he returned, the bus and Hazel were gone. He said he later reported her missing.
Other accounts differed. A family member remembered Edward giving shifting details about Hazel's last known movements. A woman who later became Edward's second wife told police Edward had said Hazel ran away in Taree and that he thought she had run away with someone.
The coroner did not choose one version as true. She found that Edward's accounts were contradictory and could not be relied upon.
An independent record complicated the timeline. Hazel and Edward's divorce was heard in the Family Court of Australia on 29 May 1980 and became final on 30 June 1980. The coroner noted that, under the law at the time, Edward would have had to tell the court the separation had begun before 29 May 1979 at the latest.
In 2021, Hazel's son went to police to ask what information existed about the missing person report Edward had claimed to have made. Police found no record of such a report. A report was formally taken on 22 July 2021, and Strike Force Koradji was established because of the suspicious circumstances.
Investigators searched for traces of Hazel under multiple names and surnames. They checked banking, passport, Centrelink, Medicare, police, court, land registry, and national births, deaths, and marriages records. No result showed Hazel had lived on under any of those names.
The coronial findings also recorded serious allegations concerning Edward's behaviour toward women and children, including accounts from later partners. Edward had died before investigators could put those allegations to him. The coroner recorded significant suspicions about any role Edward may have played in Hazel's disappearance or death, but could not make a positive determination that Edward ended Hazel's life.
The final finding was careful and limited. Hazel Vidler died in 1979 or later. Her place of death could not be determined. Her cause of death could not be determined. Her manner of death could not be determined.
The coroner recommended that the investigation be referred to the Manning Great Lakes Police District and the Missing Persons Registry for monitoring, so that if Hazel's remains are ever located, they can be identified and her family notified.
Hazel's case remains unresolved. There is no conviction, no confirmed death location, and no official finding of homicide. What remains is the long silence after 1979, the cards that never came again, and a family still without the full answer.