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Mum's death 'suspicious'INGRID BOWNTuesday, 28 June 2005Police yesterday confirmed they were treating as suspicious the death of young mother Kristy Scholes - a close relative of missing Dubbo woman Lateesha Nolan.
Ms Scholes, 24, was reported missing about 10pm last Wednesday after not being seen for at least a day.
Police found her body in a locked spare bedroom of a home she had been house-sitting - a home which belonged to the grandmother of Lateesha Nolan and was the location she was last seen on January 4.
The house was next door to Ms Scholes' own home in Bunglegumbie Road, West Dubbo.
Her cause of death could not be established, although police said she was surrounded by a number of items including pillows and blankets, and they had been waiting on the results of an autopsy performed on Friday afternoon.
Although unable to release exact details of the autopsy, Orana crime manager Detective Inspector Mick Willing said the death was now being treated as suspicious and Strikeforce Durkin had been set up to investigate.
He said the investigation would take into account Ms Scholes' relationship with Ms Nolan - who was the cousin of her defacto partner - but any connection between the disappearance and the death was "purely speculative" at this stage.
He said "common sense" would suggest the two should be looked at together.
Inspector Willing said a number of people had already been interviewed and more were yet to be interviewed. This included family members who had been in Sydney.
He said Ms Scholes' children - a three-year-old boy and four-year-old girl - had been interviewed using specialist police.
It is believed they were in the house while their mother was dead in another room and that a number of other people were also at the home during the day looking after them. However, it appeared nobody realised she was behind the locked door.
A friend had spoken to Ms Scholes by phone earlier in the week - the last contact she is known to have had - and the same woman reported her missing, police said.
Lateesha Nolan, a 24-year-old mother of four, was last seen at the same Bunglegumbie Road house about 9.30pm on January 4.
She told her relatives she would be "back in a sec", leaving her wallet and cigarettes at the house.
But she never returned and her blue Ford Falcon station wagon was found abandoned the following afternoon at a parking bay beside the Macquarie River.
Police are seeking any information on Ms Scholes' movements from Monday June 20 onwards.
Anyone with information should contact Dubbo police station on 6881 3222.
