Missing mum owed money to gangs: inquest
A SINGLE mum who went missing 15 years ago from her home in NSW's Blue Mountains was in debt to bikie gangs and was suicidal, an inquest has heard.
Belinda Peisley, a 19-year-old mother of two, was last seen at her Trow Avenue home in Katoomba on September 26, 1998.
Police believe Ms Peisley's disappearance was drug-related and suspect foul play because she had inherited a substantial amount of money two years before her disappearance.
They are now treating her disappearance as a homicide, and detectives launched a major search for a body last week near a patch of bushland in the Blue Mountains, including behind a school in Blackheath.
An inquest in Katoomba on Thursday heard Ms Peisley had been in withdrawal from heroin on the day of her disappearance and was "out of control" and had been on anti-depressants.
Wanda Loyndes, an acquaintance of Ms Peisley, said she had been talking to her hours before she disappeared on September 26.
"She wasn't right. She suffered from really bad depression and she told me about taking her life."
Ms Loyndes said that while she didn't know Ms Peisley "that well", she knew she wanted a new start in life and a new identity.
"I believed that she committed suicide or ran away and started a new life, that was my theory."
Ms Loyndes said Ms Peisley told her she owed a taxi driver named Darrell, who had bikie links, "one or two thousand dollars".
"She said she owed the Rebels (motorcycle gang) a lot of money.
"She said she owed money to Darrell, he was a Nomad.
"It was building up and she owed a bit."
The inquest heard that on the night of her disappearance, Ms Peisley was "very upset" that her house had been broken into.
She suspected her friend Heidi Wailes and Ms Wailes's boyfriend Jeremy Douglas had stolen items, including a TV.
Mr Douglas is a person of interest at the inquest.
Counsel assisting the inquest, Philip Strickland SC, said there were inconsistencies between what Ms Loyndes told the inquest and her statement to police in 2010.
In her statement, Ms Loyndes said she had called a taxi to collect Ms Peisley to "get her out of there" on the night she disappeared.
But she told the inquest on Thursday that Ms Peisley had in fact been picked up by Mr Douglas and Ms Wales in a maroon-coloured Jaguar.
"Is this the truth, Ms Loyndes?" Mr Strickland asked.
"Yes, I am telling the truth, thank you," Ms Loyndes replied.
The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Paul MacMahon was adjourned to April 10.
Another person of interest has been subpoenaed to give evidence.
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