[3] Family members and supporters have attributed this to racial prejudice from the police, the media and the legal system, which have all been accused of downplaying the severity of the crime because the victim was Aboriginal.
[3] This was despite a taxi driver preparing to give testimony, and allegations that Kiem had already confessed to killing Hart after having sexual intercourse and then using her clothes to bound her arms behind her body before abandoning her and ignoring her pleas for help.
[2] McQuire singled out The Morning Bulletin, criticising the local newspaper for labelling Hart as a prostitute (despite not having anything to verify the claim) while describing the accused by his occupation as a railway fettler.
[2] Writing for News Corp Australia in 2022, journalist Sherele Moody shared similar views and said the Hart murder was a "shining example" of how women of colour had been let down by the Australian legal system while also accusing the media of framing the suspect into a "regular hard working bloke".
[6] Despite this, the lead investigator into Kirstenfeldt's death Milton Hasenam confided in his son that he strongly believed that she had been murdered although he had concluded she had taken her own life in the final report he had submitted to the coroner.
[7] Police closed the investigation in 2021 after Steven Henry Kiem, the only person suspected to be involved with Hart's murder, died on 11 September 2019 at the age of 69.
[6][7][8] Queensland Police Service Acting Commissioner Mike Condon said his view is that the file would now be classed as inactive with no further action to be taken due to a number of factors including Kiem's death, the lack of potential for new evidence, the age of any surviving witnesses.
[7] Condon said he believed the jury should have heard Kiem's alleged admissions to his then-wife of tying up the victim and leaving her in a location where she couldn't reach a place of safety.
[7] An exhumation of Hart's remains at the North Rockhampton Cemetery was expected to occur in July 2021 but this was delayed until August 2022 when they were finally returned to Cherbourg where eight of her siblings are buried.
[11][10] The traditional owners of the land the North Rockhampton Cemetery sits on, the Darumbal people, held a corroboree and smoking ceremony before the exhumation.