Mother of murdered woman Lesley Larkin fears she’ll die without knowing who killed her daughter

“My greatest fear... is my life will end and I will never know what happened to her.”

Pat Lliess has just turned 88 and for the past 35 years, she’s had to live with incredible anguish - not knowing who killed her daughter, Lesley.

“Why? How? How could anyone do that to a defenceless little creature like Lessie was?” she told 9News.

The year was 1984. Thirty-one-year-old Lesley Larkin had recently moved to Noosa, a popular holiday destination on the Sunshine Coast.

She’d only been there for three weeks when she was bludgeoned to death inside her apartment.

“She was beaten to death, there’s no doubt about it,” Ms Lliess said.

But exactly who did the abhorrent crime remains a mystery to this day.

Queensland man Michael John Welsh was the last person to see Lesley alive.

He’s always strongly denied having any involvement in Ms Larkin’s murder but he doesn’t deny turning up at her door, unannounced, on the night she was killed.

Mr Welsh had previously told police he went there to offer Ms Larkin a job at his Hastings Street restaurant.

He claims he left soon after, but around midnight was woken by the sound of Ms Larkin's dog outside his bedroom.

The then 37-year-old lived 100 metres away from the young woman’s unit.

He maintains he went to return the dog and found Ms Larkin's naked body inside her bedroom, bloodied and battered.

“It was a lot of stress in my life. I don’t want to go through it again, thank you,” Mr Welsh said when approached by 9News at a Sunshine Coast shopping centre.

Ms Larkin’s grieving mother simply wants justice, though time is against her.

Police have reopened the cold case and anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.