Queensland man pleads guilty to cold case rape and murder of Linda Reed 37 years ago

A man who raped and murdered a Gold Coast woman snatched from a shopping centre almost 40 years ago killed again less than two years later, a court has heard.

Troy James O’Meara pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to murdering and raping Linda Reed, who was never seen alive again after taking a lunch break from her retail job in Pacific Fair shopping centre at Broadbeach on December 13, 1983.

She was 21 and building her first home with her husband.

Reed was eating lunch in her car when…