{"id":487168,"date":"2026-02-18T04:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487168\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T04:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:20:10","slug":"hunt-for-second-man-involved-in-a-horrific-rape-near-elwood-beach-in-victoria-1998","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487168\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunt for second man involved in a ‘horrific’ rape near Elwood Beach in Victoria 1998"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detectives are hunting for a second man involved in the “horrific and unimaginable” rape of a 19-year-old woman almost three decades ago.<\/p>\n

The woman was walking on a St Kilda road in Victoria<\/a> on January 23, 1998, when she was abducted by two men.<\/p>\n

She was dragged into a waiting car and driven to a carpark on Elwood Beach, where she was raped.<\/p>\n

\"MelbourneMelbourne from Elwood Beach. (Getty)<\/p>\n

The woman reported the rape and underwent a forensic medical exmaination but police were unable to \ufeffidentify the offenders.<\/p>\n

There was a breakthrough in 2021 when Travis Rielly was arrested on unrelated dangerous driving charges in Queensland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His genetic material was a positive match with the DNA taken from the woman in 1998.<\/p>\n

Rielly admitted he helped shove her into the back of the car, covered her mouth as she screamed for help and took turns raping her.<\/p>\n

He told the court he met the other men that same night and never saw them again.<\/p>\n

Detectives are still trying to find the second man and appealed to the public today to reach out with any information.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Travis Scott Rielly, 58, was sentenced in September, 2025. (9News)<\/p>\n

\ufeff”To be a 19-year-old woman, walking home after a night out with friends, then suddenly her world is changed in a horrific and unimaginable way,” Detective Senior Sergeant Brett Robinson said.<\/p>\n

“Whilst we are pleased we have been able to give her some answers and closure with a nearly ten-year prison sentence for one of the males, it still looms over her every day that there is a second man still living his life, not being held to account for this heinous crime.<\/p>\n

“We will not stop; we will not give up on this investigation until we have answers. Until this male is in custody and justice is served for the victim.”<\/p>\n

The judge in \ufeffRielly’s trial said the woman had been an aspiring painter and was due to begin an art course.<\/p>\n

Now in her 50s, she suffers \ufefffrom post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and agoraphobia, and has been unable to hold down a job.<\/p>\n

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)<\/a><\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detectives are hunting for a second man involved in the “horrific and unimaginable” rape of a 19-year-old woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-487168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}