For Margaret Dodd it was the ultimate insult.

Already angry at police over their investigation of her daughter’s murder, she was enraged when officers returned Hayley’s belongings in a bag marked “garbage disposal”.

That was nine months after the 17-year-old vanished from the side of a country road in Badgingarra on July 29, 1999.

“To have my child’s belongings delivered in that way, what are they trying to do?” Mrs Dodd said.

Camera Icon Margaret Dodd was devastated police delivered Hayley’s belongings marked ‘garbage disposal’. Credit: WA News

She had been publicly fighting with police over their decision to downgrade the investigation from a homicide inquiry to a missing person case within two months.

She accepted an apology from then assistant commissioner Bob Kucera over the garbage bag incident, but it would characterise her fractious relationship with WA Police over the next 18 years.

Mrs Dodd has been candid in her criticism of the police handling of the investigation, making no secret of her belief that more could have been done at the beginning to solve the case.

The inquiry’s original lead investigator, former detective Edward Rowe, said this week that the decision by his superiors to downgrade the inquiry was a missed opportunity to catch Hayley’s killer earlier.

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When police ran out of leads, Mrs Dodd fought doggedly to keep them interested. “We have had to fight for everything that police have done in this investigation,” she said in 2002.

She battled for a year to have the State Government offer a reward for information, with a $50,000 bounty posted five days before the first anniversary of Hayley’s disappearance.

Two years later it was doubled to $100,000, drawing criticism from Mrs Dodd who believed it was “too little, too late”.

“The money should have been offered when the case was still fresh in people’s memories,” she said. “That would have given it extra publicity. But now we are already three years down the track.”

Camera Icon Hayley Dodd was last seen on July 29, 1999.

About a month later it was raised to $250,000, prompting new witnesses to come forward, but the information still did not lead to a breakthrough.

Mrs Dodd enlisted a private investigator, an indigenous tracker, a psychic, a cadaver dog and visited a murderer in jail who claimed knowledge of Hayley’s disappearance, leaving no stone unturned in her quest for answers. In 2004, Mrs Dodd returned to North West Road with private investigator Mick Buckley and Aboriginal tracker Kevin Cameron, to no avail.

In 2008, Mrs Dodd demanded an inquest, claiming police had botched the case. “I don’t want to give up on solving Hayley’s case, like the police have, and I think a coronial inquest will stimulate the case again, get it back in the public’s mind and maybe provide new leads,” she said.

The coroner agreed to an inquest, but it was postponed after officers from the cold case homicide squad launched a fresh investigation to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of Hayley’s disappearance. That investigation went nowhere, sparking renewed pressure for an inquest.

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Police launched another review of the case, appointing cold case investigator Det-Sgt Darren Bethell in August 2013.

Det-Sgt Bethell’s focus quickly turned to one of the original suspects, former Badgingarra resident Francis John Wark, who was serving time in a Queensland jail over a strikingly similar crime.

The policeman ordered testing of evidence taken from the old utility Wark was driving the day Hayley disappeared.

It uncovered an earring almost identical to the pair Hayley was wearing that day — a key piece of evidence that led to his conviction.

Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said yesterday he was glad justice had finally been served for Hayley.

Camera Icon Cadaver dog handler Martin Dominick, takes his charge Baz along a Badgingarra road. Credit: WA News

But he said lessons would be learnt from the case, acknowledging that resourcing had been an issue early in the investigation.

“There were actually quite a number of different inquiries happening at the same time and that certainly put pressure on resources, so that was an element, yes,” he said.

Mrs Dodd has spoken to Det-Sgt Bethell to thank him for his work. But she has remained uncharacteristically silent since the guilty verdict on Monday.

She has been focused on preparing a victim-impact statement to be delivered when Wark returns to the Supreme Court on Tuesday for a sentencing hearing.

It is a mammoth task, trying to condense almost two decades of pain, torment and disappointment into a single document for a judge to consider when deciding Wark’s jail term.

And even when Wark does learn his fate, Mrs Dodd’s fight will be far from over.

She is still pushing the State Government to deliver on no-body, no-parole laws, which would keep Wark behind bars for ever if he does not reveal the location of Hayley’s body.

Mrs Dodd’s battle will not be won until she can put her daughter to rest.