EXCLUSIVE
For years, Harmony Bryant’s tragic death was dismissed as a simple car accident, even though her family insisted evidence showed it was something much more sinister.
Now they fear something even worse.
Eight years after Harmony’s death, a coroner finally ruled that the 26-year-old had been murdered, but by then the trail had gone cold and the culprit had never been located.
Now her family has been hit with fresh grief amid growing concerns their daughter may have been the victim of a suspected serial killer haunting northern New South Wales.
“I’ve been watching other cases for years and thought they were similar,” Harmony’s heartbroken mother Karen Bryant told Daily Mail Australia.
“It’s been a long time and there are so many.”
Harmony’s mangled body was found with extensive burns and broken bones near her burnt-out car in Bonny Hills bushland, south of Port Macquarie, on August 16, 2003.
For years, Harmony Bryant’s tragic death was dismissed as a simple car accident, even though her family insisted that all evidence showed it was much more sinister.
Harmony’s mangled body was found with extensive burns and broken bones near her burnt-out car in Bonny Hills bushland, south of Port Macquarie, on August 16, 2003.
Her family now fears Harmony may have been the victim of a suspected serial killer roaming northern New South Wales, where there is a catalog of 67 unsolved murders and disappearances.
While in intensive care and unable to speak, Harmony had attempted to communicate by silently articulating what had happened to her, but to no avail.
“The fear in his eyes is something that will never, ever leave us,” mother Karen said at the time.
Harmony died in the hospital a month later without being able to reveal her secrets.
Since then, Karen, from Evans Head, fought tirelessly for her daughter’s death to be investigated, but faced a wall of resistance from local police.
The mother of five was convinced that Harmony did not die in a car accident, but that someone had violently attacked her only daughter and then staged the accident.
She was finally vindicated when the coroner’s inquest in 2011 finally found there could be no doubt that Harmony had committed a crime.
The inquest heard Ms Bryant’s car left the road while under control and she even managed to avoid a tree.
The car was found burning in dense bush in Bonny Hills.
But her purse, car keys and traces of blood were found at the top of a cliff 600 meters away.
Harmony’s siblings, including Jeremy (center), urged their mother Karen (right) to step back from the investigation for her own well-being.
Deputy State Coroner Malcolm MacPherson told the inquest that the system had failed Harmony and her family and offered his sincere condolences.
He criticized the initial police investigation and recommended that the reward for information leading to a conviction be increased to $250,000.
He also referred the investigation to Unsolved Cases of the State Crime Command, Homicide Brigade.
However, the search for his killer has so far proven fruitless.
But chilling new details about the suspected serial killer terrorizing the New South Wales coast south of the paradise coast of Byron Bay have sparked new fears for Harmony’s family.
Tammy Bryant grew up with her “fun and energetic” cousin Harmony and forged a close bond with her over their age difference of just 18 months.
The horrific circumstances that led to his death are still etched in his mind today.
“I woke up to a phone call from my dad in the early hours of the morning to tell me she had been found,” Tammy told Daily Mail Australia.
“It was winter and I remember thinking that I must be cold lying in the bush.”
Harmony (holding microphone) and her cousin Tammy (right) were very close growing up.
The Gold Coast mother hadn’t realized her cousin’s murder was among the many unsolved attacks stretching from Byron to the Central Coast until last week.
But now he has no doubt they are connected and has spoken out in the hope that this can help his family finally get justice and unmask the killer on the loose.
“There are many people missing or murdered; there have to be links there,” he said. ‘It has been a big shock for me.
‘We talk a lot about Harmony and I use her story to warn my own daughter about how to be safe.
“There are too many cases out there and I think a murderer could be responsible for many of them.”
He has criticized detectives for failing the family after Harmony’s death by ruling it out as a traffic accident.
But Taylor lives in hope that one day the killer will be identified.
“It was a mistake from the beginning, tests and opportunities were missed for so many years when no one was working on it,” he said.
But one day they will make a mistake and tell the wrong person. No one can keep a secret like that forever.
Harmony’s mother, Karen, has all but given up hope after decades of trying to uncover the truth of what happened to her son.
“It doesn’t matter what I say now because it will never happen,” he admitted.
While in intensive care and unable to speak, Harmony Bryant (pictured with her brother Jeremy) attempted to communicate by silently saying what had happened to her, but to no avail.
‘I would love for it to happen. When the investigation was over, my children sat down with me and talked to me about it.
“They said mom, we’ve already lost Harmony and our dad, we can’t lose you too, you have to take a step back.”
The family is urging anyone with information about Harmony’s death to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.