Disappearance of Karen Williams

On 4 August 1990, 16-year-old Karen Williams left Sergio’s Restaurant in Coober Pedy with three other people. The group was picked up in a car and ridden to the proximity of Medway Drive, where the three other people got out of the vehicle. 

 A short time later Karen was glimpsed in a vehicle at the Caltex Service Station, Coober Pedy. The vehicle then left the service station and drove south along Hutchinson Street before turning left onto the Stuart Highway. Karen has not been glimpsed since.

Following a substantial inquiry, police accused a man with her murder, Nikola Novakovich, but in August 2016 he was acquitted by a Supreme Court judge, who heard the case in the absence of a jury, of both killing and manslaughter. 

Due to modifications to legislation in recent years regarding “double jeopardy” culprits can potentially be prosecuted again if a ‘fresh and compelling’ indication is located.

Jim Pearce, QC, told the court “Since sunrise on August 4, 1990, there have been no confirmed or credible sighting of her, no record of her accessing her bank account or availing herself of social security payments".

“From that moment on, none of her friends, family, or acquaintances have listened or seen anything of her.

“In combination, those components give rise to the severe inference that she perished sometime on that Saturday morning.”

Novakovich, 42, has pleaded not guilty to killing Miss Williams at Coober Pedy on August 4, 1990.

Her disappearance has become one of South Australia’s most popular cold cases, provoking repeated and intensive searches of mine shafts in and around the town.

Opening the trial, Mr. Pearce said Miss Williams, 16, was a “polite, well-liked, co-operative, impressive and well-groomed” teenager who enjoyed socializing with friends.

He said much of that socializing was done at the Opal Inn and, when that hotel shut, both the nearby roadhouse and a restaurant called Sergio’s.

Mr. Pearce said that, in 1990, Novakovich was 18 years old and worked at the bakery across the road from the Opal Inn. He said their ways crossed when, after a night of socializing, Novakovich decided to give Miss Williams and three of her friends a lift home in his stepmother’s orange Datsun 180B.

He said that when Novakovich dropped the friends off, Miss Williams declined to get out of the car and asked to be taken to her aunt’s home around the corner.

“From that moment on, her friends never saw or heard from her again,” he said.

“The last they ever saw of her was as she was being driven away by Novakovich.”

Mr. Pearce said Miss Williams was last glimpsed many minutes later by roadhouse employee Claudette Noble.

The roadhouse, he said, was in the different direction from the house to which Miss Williams had wanted to be taken.

“Just before sunrise, Ms. Noble saw a car pull into the service station ... Karen Williams was in the front passenger seat, Novakovich was driving,” he said.

“Novakovich got out, put some petrol in his car ... sometime later he drove off, and Karen Williams was still sitting in the car.”

Mr. Pearce said Ms. Noble saw the car drive away and, by following its headlights, saw it turn onto the highway headed toward Port Augusta.

“An hour or so later, Ms. Noble saw Novakovich’s car once more, traveling away from the highway,” he said.

“Novakovich was driving, there was no indication of Karen Williams".