NEW EPISODE: Revelle Balmain – The Night Revelle Vanished
NEW EPISODE OUT NOW
Revelle Balmain: The Night Revelle Vanished
Revelle Balmain. Image: NSW Police.
On 5 November 1994, 22-year-old Revelle Balmain was making ordinary plans for the night ahead. Within roughly an hour, the calls stopped, the pages went unanswered, and a trail of her belongings began appearing on the streets of Kingsford.
Our new episode returns to the final confirmed hours of Revelle’s life using the 2026 coronial findings, separating what the records establish from what witnesses later recalled.
The last confirmed call
At about 7:15–7:30 pm, Revelle returned a page from her friend Kate Brentnall. She said she was still with a client and would be leaving shortly. Her plan was simple: go home, change, call Kate again, then meet up before going out later that night.
That promised call never came.
A timeline full of collisions
The account given by Revelle’s client, Gavin Samer, placed her leaving him at about 7 pm after he drove her toward the Red Tomato Inn. But Revelle’s call with Kate appears to place her with a client slightly later. The evidence never resolved that contradiction cleanly.
Kingsford, Sydney. Streetscape image used for location context.
Then the pager goes quiet
From 8:24 pm onward, messages came from work, her friend and her boyfriend. There is no apparent response from Revelle. Meanwhile, telephone traffic involving people connected with Select Companions continued through the evening.
Revelle was also expected at a later booking at about 10:30 pm. The 2026 findings concluded that the original investigation’s intense focus on Samer meant other avenues, including the agency and that later booking, did not receive enough attention.
Her belongings appear in the streets
A resident of Ainslie Street left home at 8:10 pm. By 11:20 pm, a bag containing Revelle’s personal property was outside the house. More belongings were found around Kingsford the following morning, including cards, keys, a shoe and other items.
It creates one of the case’s darkest windows: sometime between an ordinary phone call and the late evening, Revelle disappeared from every communication channel she normally used while pieces of her life began turning up nearby.
What the 2026 inquest found
The coroner found that the evidence did not establish where, how or by whom Revelle was killed. The matter was referred back to the NSW Police Unsolved Homicide Unit for further investigation.
Listen to the new Coffee and Crime AU episode now for the full timeline, the conflicting accounts, and the questions that remain more than three decades later.
If you have information relevant to Revelle Balmain’s disappearance, contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Image credits: Revelle Balmain portrait supplied by NSW Police. Kingsford streetscape used for location context.
