Those were the words of John Fitzgerald outside the Hobart Magistrates Court on Monday after a coroner named his former neighbour and childhood playmate as the killer of his beloved girlfriend. 

After 24 days of hearings and hundreds of pages of evidence spanning almost 50 years, Coroner Simon Cooper handed down his findings into the death of Hobart woman Lucille Butterworth.

Coroner Cooper found Geoffrey Charles Hunt, 66, strangled Ms Butterworth and dumped her body near the Derwent River after offering her a ride to New Norfolk on August 25, 1969.

Ms Butterworth was 20 when she vanished from a Claremont bus stop, and the case is one of Tasmania’s most baffling cold cases.

She was well-liked typist and part time model who was close with her family, and soon to be married to Mr Fitzgerald.

A botched police investigation treated her disappearance as a runaway, and Coroner Cooper said the case was not dealt with professionally until Detective David Plumpton, Senior Constable Christine Rushton and Constable Cary Millhouse took over in 2011.

Mr Fitzgerald made a plea to Hunt to reveal where Ms Butterworth’s body was.

“We need to know, it’s the most important thing,” he said.

He said the findings brought some closure.

“The worst thing over the 47 years was suspecting people but not knowing.”

Ms Butterworth’s brothers Jim and John said they want the Director of Public Prosecutions to act on the findings.

Tasmania Police is preparing a file for the DPP, and the Butterworths say they will fight to have their day in court.

The family feels let down by the justice system, and wants criminal charges laid on Hunt.

“We were betrayed in the beginning, and I hope we don’t get betrayed in the end,” he said.

“We’re very pleased with today’s results.

“You move on, but you never forget.”

He said it had been an anxious few months waiting for the findings.

John Butterworth said he was satisfied with the result of the inquest, which he and Jim sat in on every day.

“Her memory will always live on with us.”

The inquest heard that Ms Butterworth became agitated and accepted a lift when she believed she had missed her bus to New Norfolk to attend a charity meeting and stay with Mr Fitzgerald. 

Counsel Assisting the Coroner Simon Nicholson said it was unlikely Ms Butterworth would have gotten into a car with a stranger.

Coroner Cooper said it was Hunt who picked up Ms Butterworth from the bus stop, and she would have recognised him from New Norfolk. 

“On the journey to New Norfolk Mr Hunt stopped the FB Holden, strangled Miss Butterworth in the vehicle and thereafter disposed of her body on the southern bank of the Derwent River, past the Lime Kilns area roughly halfway between Granton and New Norfolk,” Coroner Cooper said.

“I am unable to make any finding as to whether Miss Butterworth was alive or dead when Mr Hunt disposed of her body.”

Hunt, a convicted murderer and rapist, was named as the main person of interest in 2015.

He took the stand to give evidence last year but denied knowing Ms Butterworth, despite living next door to her fiance in New Norfolk.

Witnesses described seeing a turquoise “old bomb” car near the bus stop at the time Ms Butterworth disappeared.

Hunt told the inquest he sometimes drove a turquoise Holden, but did not drive it on the day in question.

One of Hunt’s colleagues gave evidence that he got a ride home with Hunt on August 25, 1969 when Ms Butterworth disappeared, which placed him in the area.

The evidence of former police officers was heard, including evidence that Hunt admitted to the murder of Ms Butterworth in 1976.

It was put to the inquest that when Hunt was arrested for the brutal murder of car saleswoman Susan Knight he admitted to also killing Ms Butterworth.

Evidence of former police officers Barry Dillon and Ken O’Garey was that Hunt picked up Ms Butterworth from the bus stop and during the journey to New Norfolk he pulled over and tried to kiss her, before strangling her to death and dumping her body at the water’s edge.

Hunt denied the admissions.

“I am satisfied to the requisite standard that the confessions described by Mr Dillon and Mr O’Garey of Mr Hunt as to his involvement in the disappearance of Miss Butterworth took place as described by them and that those confessions were true,” Coroner Cooper said.

The inquest also heard evidence of incompetent police investigations, and that Ms Butterworth was mistakenly classed as a runaway. 

It took months, and even years, for a proper investigation to get underway. 

“Indeed, few officers involved in the investigation, other than Detective Inspector Plumpton, Senior Constable Rushton, and Detective Constable Millhouse emerge from this case with any real credit,” he said.

“It is a matter of real regret that it was not until 2011 when Inspector Plumpton, Senior Constable Rushton and Constable Millhouse became involved in the investigation that it was dealt with appropriately and professionally.”

Constable Millhouse said he was pleased with the outcome, which he described as “five years of hard work”.

“We’re pleased we’ve been able to give some closure to the family.”