Garry Lynch Tribute Onlinetributes.com.au

Garry Lynch, the father of the murdered Sydney nurse Anita Cobby and foundation member of the Homicide Victims Support Group, died at a western Sydney nursing home.

The former Royal Australian Navy graphic artist, who was 90, had Alzheimer's disease. His wife, Grace, and daughter, Kathryn, had been at his bedside on Saturday.

The Lynch family were catapulted into the spotlight after Anita, 26, was abducted near Blacktown railway station one night in February 1986 while walking to her parents' home in Blacktown. The Sydney Hospital nursing sister had moved back with her parents after the breakdown of her marriage.

Her battered and naked body was found in a Prospect cow paddock with her throat cut. The Lynches' heartfelt pleas for information about the killing sparked the largest manhunt in Australian history and ignited unprecedented public rage, including calls for the reintroduction of capital punishment.

Gary Murphy and his brothers, Les and Michael, and John Travers and Michael Murdoch were convicted of the murder of the former Miss Australia Quest entrant.

The late Justice Alan Maxwell described the killing "as one of the most horrifying and physical and sexual assaults" in his 40 years in law and recommended that the files of the five men be marked "never to be released" - for the first time in Australian judicial history.

Yesterday the former detective inspector Ian Kennedy, who led the murder investigation, paid tribute to the compassion, courage and dignity of "a lovely man".

"When I asked him to co-operate with the media at the start of the investigation, to try to get us some public assistance, little did I know that through his dignified manner it would actually lead to that vital piece of information being provided," Mr Kennedy said. "In some ways, he himself assisted in solving his daughter's murder."

Later the family helped set up the Homicide Victims Support Group and lectured police on how to deal with the relatives of homicide victims. Mr Lynch became the first civilian to join the Serious Offenders Review Council.

A funeral will be held this week at Pine Grove Cemetery, where Anita was interred. Mr Lynch is survived by his wife and daughter, her husband and their two children, and his sister, Blanche.