Missing Person Alert

Circumstances

Date of Disappearance

January 8, 1987

Notes

Nenita Evans With Anna never formally reported to the police, Leonardi was not questioned at the time of her disappearance. He continued working in the Melbourne Club and soon revealed a weakness for the maids working alongside him. Nenita was a more recent immigrant from the Philippines, having moved to Melbourne in January 1985 when she married her husband, Greg Evans. The two had met in Manila some time before and the marriage was a natural step for them. In the late 1980s, Nenita Evans began working at the Melbourne Club as a maid and she soon would be caught in the mystery that surrounded Leonardi. The two initially did not get along, but eventually they became closer. Leonardi is rumored to have helped Nenita with a promotion from maid to housekeeper which upset some of the others who had been there before her. He frequently drove Nenita home to the suburb of Altona, some distance away from his own home which later raised questions. According to her husband, Nenita told him that the women at her office were jealous that Leonardi liked her but that he appreciated her hard work. Nenita enjoyed her work and was particularly interested in her responsibility for managing the floral decorations around the club. She began taking classes in flower arrangements and began to consider taking that interest professional. At some point, Nenita’s husband received an anonymous call, warning him that Nenita and Leonardi were involved in an affair. Both denied the accusations, but it is not clear how convinced Greg was. With the rumors hanging over her head, apparently uncomfortable relationships with some of her colleagues, and a desire to shift more permanently into flower decoration as a career, Nenita finally quit her job at the Club in November 1986. The last sighting of Nenita was by her old colleagues and Leonardi on January 8, 1987. She had stopped by the Club one last time to chat with her friends. She was showing off a book she had made with various flower arrangements and left at approximately 2:00pm (14:00) to head to her interview with a florist in Fitzroy. Nenita was never seen or heard from again. There is nothing to suggest her leaving was voluntary; she did not pack anything with her and her passport was left behind. Nor were her bank accounts ever used again. The investigation into Nenita’s disappearance was pulled in more than one direction. On the one hand, rumors were now spreading about her relationship with Leonardi. The man was known to be violent towards his family and had previously beaten one of his daughters quite badly. His children were supposedly frightened of him and the signs suggested he might have spread that violence on to others. Simultaneously, there were also suggestions that Nenita’s husband was abusing her, rumors Leonardi helped spread. Eventually, the coroner ruled that she had likely died as a result of foul play but that the perpetrator could not be identified. Leonardi attended the coroner’s hearing, but did not testify during the proceedings. Nenita was 32 when she disappeared, putting her time of birth around 1955. Unknown to many, Nenita had left behind a living piece of her past. At the tender age of 19, she found it necessary to leave behind an infant at an orphanage in the Philippines. The child would remain there for approximately a year and half before being adopted by a family from France. The boy, named Matthieu Heimel, would immigrate with his new family and his connection to Nenita went unremarked for some time. Eventually, Matthieu relocated himself to Perth, Australia where he married and had two sons of his own. He began to research his familial heritage and was able to locate his biological father who pointed him towards his mother’s family. Ultimately, Matthieu’s investigation into his parentage would eventually lead him to Melbourne and the unusual connections between the three women. With the help of his efforts, renewed interest in the cases was sparked in the latter 1990s and police announced in 1998 that they would try testing again DNA they had collected from the body of Milagros. They hoped it would point them towards her killer and new technology might offer new insights.

Location of the Disappearance or Crime Scene

Potential Circumstances

Alone, Extramarital Affair, Foreign Resident, Multiple Victims, Pre-arranged Meeting, Prior Communication

Vehicle

License Plate

Photo of Vehicle

Suspect

Suspect Description

Photo of Suspect