Dr Mary McMillan was returning from Antarctica, so it was not until her ship arrived in Argentina that she learnt Professor Lily Pereg and her sister Pyrhia Sarussi were missing.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The pair were last heard from on January 11, and their bodies were found by police in a shallow grave in the Argentinian city of Mendoza at the bottom of a property occupied by Ms Sarussi's 36-year-old son, Gil Pereg. Police prosecutors arrested Pereg and have charged him with murder.
ALSO READ:
Dr McMillan said she was due to return to work on the UNE campus today and described Prof Pereg as not just a colleague, but a real friend.
“It was quite a shock to get the news she was missing, and then over the weekend to have the confirmation – ,” Dr McMillan said.
“It’s disbelief. It’s a really surreal kind of thing. It’s something that happens in movies and not something that happens to someone you know and work with.
I originally started there on a part-time contract because someone had resigned.
- Dr Mary McMillan
“She was a very gentle person and it is so hard to picture anything violent happening to her because she was very gentle and generous with her time.”
Dr McMillan said Prof Pereg was on of the reasons she got her job with UNE.
“When my contract ended she hired me as a research assistant in her lab and to cover some casual teaching and things for her,” she said.
“So, she kind of kept me in pay for at least six months.
“Then my contract came up and then because she was leading the group that I worked for at the time, she was the one who got to organise my next contract. So, I feel like I do owe her quite a bit.
Dr McMillan said Prof Pereg had made her pathway through life a little bit easier.
“I think that’s one of the things that we’ve all appreciated about her, that she’s really taken the time to help and to mentor,” she said.
“There’s a lot of academics coming through that she helped as well. Not everyone is so generous with their time and advice and experience.
“She was a good mentor and that’s what I hope I can do in the future for other people as well.”
Prof Pereg was born in Israel, studied science for her degree in Tel Aviv, and completed a Master’s in Israel. She completed her PhD at University of Sydney in 1998, and appointed as a lecturer at UNE in May 2001.
She was appointed a full professor at UNE days before she travelled to the US and on to Argentina and told colleagues she was excited to be catching up with her sister and nephew in Mendoza.
