A coroner finally declared in May this year that the 32-year-old mother died at the hands of her now-deceased boyfriend, Les “Grumpy” Sharman, on or about January 18, 2012, somewhere in Clumber, Queensland.
Despite coroner Christine Roney acknowledging Greer was not adequately supported by authorities as a known domestic violence victim, she has refused her daughter’s request that an inquest be conducted into the suspected death.
The coroner has told Lili there would be no “public benefit” of an inquiry, ruling there is no evidence her mother’s death could have been prevented.
“I am always obliged to consider the public benefit of an inquest proceeding and I am unable to see one here based upon the current state of the evidence,” the coroner wrote to Lili.
“It can’t be concluded that if (Greer) had more support, she would have stopped seeing (Sharman).”
Lili, 23, cannot understand – or accept – the coroner’s observation that, based on the current evidence, an inquest into her mother’s death is not in the public interest, or that the death could not have been prevented.
She believes there are multiple reasons her mother’s death is in the public interest, most notably that looking at ways her mother was failed by others could help prevent others dying.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to try to prevent domestic violence,” she said.
“There’s a lot of issues that could be brought to light with this case… there’s so many things that could change.
“We need an inquiry to help guide the police and other authorities on how they can prevent future deaths in similar circumstances.”
Lili says there are many questions that need to be answered about why her mother wasn’t given better help when many other people were aware she was being abused.
The coroner’s findings into Greer’s suspected death found “shortcomings … identified in the police response to reports of serious domestic violence by Mr Sharman against Tina”, as well as concerns she may not have been given information about domestic violence support services by police, or by the rehabilitation center she attended while being abused by Sharman.
About 17 months before Greer is believed to have died, police had responded to a witness report that Sharman had tried to run her over with his ute, the coroner’s report noted.
Three months after that, police responded to a report Greer had been seen running down a road screaming and bleeding.
Her face was bruised and swollen.
She told police her injuries had happened she had an accident mowing the lawn, denying Sharman had assaulted her.
Sharman had also threatened to kill Greer if she tried to leave him, according to the report.
Lili said it should have come as no surprise that her mum denied her partner was behind the attacks.
“What woman or man is going to report their partner who’s standing right next to them when they’ve got to go back and live with them?”
Lili said that while she never saw Sharman hit her mother, she witnessed him dragging her and was privy to her mother’s various injuries, including black eyes.
“I saw him drag her down the hallway and I had to try to stop it,” she said.
In the letter the coroner sent to Lili denying her request for a coronial inquest, the coroner said “more support” would not necessarily have meant Greer would have stayed away from Sharman.
“While it might seem logical to have done so, matters of emotion and attachment are rarely rational,” the letter reads.
Lili claimed the attitude that her mother’s death could not have been better prevented was “so out of touch” in 2022, when the difficult and complex nature of domestic violence is becoming widely known.
‘If I don’t do this, it’s never going to happen’
Of course, Lili also wants an inquest to find her mother’s remains, and to find out more about what happened.
She further wants an inquest to examine how the police investigated her mother’s disappearance – and whether the processes were as best as they could have been.
Greer disappeared after she dropped 13-year-old Lili at her friend’s house, then went to see Sharman at Clumber on January 18, 2012.
She never returned to pick up her daughter, and it’s not known what happened to her.
Greer’s car was found three days after she vanished, abandoned at the end of a dirt track at Clumber near the Moogerah dam, containing all her usual belongings.
Sharman was a person of interest in the case, but the Finks bikie gang member – who was 26 years older than Greer – was never arrested over her disappearance.
It was later discovered that he had a friend dispose of a mattress and several other items days after Greer went missing.
Sharman, and any hope of him being convicted, died in a car crash in 2018.
His death left Lili fearing she could never find out what happened to her mum.
Lili’s hopes that she would get answers were raised in January 2020 when police announced a $250,000 reward for anyone who had information that could lead to a conviction of a person for her murder.
However, nothing came of the search.
Lili said each development and bit of hope was “retraumatizing”.
“It’s a horrible feeling,” she said.
But hope is what is driving Lili to continue to fight for answers for her mother, and to try to get changes to stop others suffering the same fate.
“It’s a dangerous emotion, but it’s also motivating,” she said.
The petition already has more than 12,700 signatures.
Lili said she feels she has no choice but to keep fighting for her mum, despite her grief.
“If I don’t do this, it’s never going to happen,” she said.
“So I need to do it. There’s no choice in the matter really.”
A spokesperson from the Coroners Court of Queensland told 9news.com.au the state coroner is considering an application to hold an inquest.
Queensland Police have confirmed Greer’s case remains an open investigation.
A police spokesperson has said an investigation into Greer’s disappearance began within 24 hours of the report being made, and that extensive investigations have been conducted in the years since.
“Over and covert investigations remained underway in 2018, prior to the death of a suspect,” the spokesperson said.
The police reward for information about Greer’s disappearance still stands, and has been widened to include any information which could assist in locating her remains or which leads to the conviction of a person or persons who acted as an accessory to her murder.