Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon: Fresh search for girls who went missing from Adelaide Oval 52 years ago
A privately funded three-day search is underway in South Australia’s north for the remains of 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe and four-year-old Kirste Gordon, who were last seen alive more than half a century ago.
Joanne and Kirste disappeared from a football game at Adelaide Oval on August 25, 1973. No one was ever charged over their disappearance. The girls had left their families to walk to the oval’s toilets but never returned.
Witnesses at the oval claimed they saw the two girls being forcibly removed and carried away by a man, believed to have been aged in his 40s.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today 
Despite searches, a $5000 reward at the time and widespread media attention, the kidnapping quickly became a cold case, with police believing the girls were abducted and then murdered.
The Yatina site has been described in a handwritten claim by convicted paedophile Mark Trevor Marshall, who accused his father, Stanley Arthurt Hart, of the girls’ abduction and murder.
One of the sites is a small farm outside Yatina and a tunnel near the Pekina Reservoir, a short distance from the rural community, where Marshall claimed the girls’ remains were hidden in barrels.
On Monday, South Australia Commissioner of Police Grant Stevens confirmed a private search, north of Adelaide, was being conducted but that SA Police did not believe there was any new evidence to warrant further investigation.
“There is a private search being conducted in the north of South Australia,” he said. “We have previously searched that location and at this point in time we don’t believe there is any evidence that warrants any further investigation in relation to those circumstances.”
A previous investigation into the tunnels at the reservoir was conducted in 2009 by police, and while detectives did discover barrels, they contained no evidence of the girls inside.
Detectives have also conducted searches of nearby wells and Hart’s farmhouse, but all have failed to provide any evidence.
Anyone with any information into the disappearance is being urged to contact police.
:quality(85):upscale()/2025/05/13/916/n/1922153/b22f98046823b2e8c5c2f9.44451748_.jpg?w=390&resize=390,220&ssl=1 "Doechii’s Nail Artist Talks Trends, Music Videos, and More")
