Juanita Nielsen

Juanita Nielsen
Juanita Nielsen in the early 1970s
Born	Juanita Joan Smith (1937-04-22)22 April 1937 New Lambton, New South Wales, Australia
Died	Unknown (disappeared 4 July, 1975)
Nationality	Australian
Spouse(s)	Jorgen Fritz Nielsen (1962-1965)

Juanita Joan Nielsen (née Smith) (22 April 1937 – disappeared 4 July 1975) was an Australian publisher, activist for urban conservation and community issues–particularly anti-development campaigns–and heiress. She disappeared in Kings Cross, Sydney in early July, 1975. The people responsible for her disappearance have never been identified and no trace of her has ever been found.

Nielsen was born Juanita Joan Smith in New Lambton, New South Wales to parents Neil Donovan Smith and Vilma Grace Smith (née Meares) (1905–1978). Her parents separated soon after her birth and she was raised by her mother at Killara, Sydney. Her father, Neil was an English-born heir to the Mark Foy's retail fortune via his parents, John Joseph Smith (1862–1921), who was a Chairman and Managing Director of Mark Foy's Ltd, and his wife, Kathleen Sophie Foy (1870–1919). Kathleen Smith was a sister of Mark Foy and Francis Foy.

Nielsen was educated at Ravenswood School for Girls, Gordon, Sydney. She worked at Mark Foys from 1953 until she travelled abroad in 1959. In 1962, she married a Danish seaman named Jorgen Fritz Nielsen at Kobe, Japan although the marriage only lasted for a few years. Nielsen returned to Sydney in 1965 and returned to work at Mark Foys for about 5 years. In the early 1970s, she was the publisher of NOW, an alternative newspaper in the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross. She lived in a terrace house at 202 Victoria Street, and she became involved in a campaign against a proposed development project in her street and across the suburb.

Nielsen disappeared on 4 July 1975 and it is generally believed that she was kidnapped and murdered because of her anti-development and anti-corruption stances. A coronial inquest determined that Nielsen had been murdered, and although the case has never been officially solved, it is widely believed that Nielsen was killed by agents of the developers. The circumstances of her disappearance were fictionalised in the films Heatwave and The Killing of Angel Street.