Colleen Ann WALKER

Name: |
Colleen
Ann
WALKER |
Sex: |
Female |
Date of Birth: |
26 Jul 1974 |
Age Now: |
31 |
Age when missing: |
16 years |
Height (cm): |
175.0 |
Build: |
Thin |
Hair Colour: |
Brown |
Eye Colour: |
Brown |
Complexion: |
Light Brown |
Nationality: |
|
Racial Appearance: |
Aboriginal |
|
|
Circumstances -
Colleen was last seen on 14 September 1990 at Bowraville NSW. |
Please sign this petition calling for a Royal
Commission into the unsolved murders of Colleen Walker-Craig, Evelyn Greenup and
Clinton Speedy-Duroux.
Reward of $250,000 to solve deaths of Evelyn Greenup,
Clinton Speedy-Duroux and Colleen Walker
NSW Police
A $250,000 reward is on offer for information leading
to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the
deaths of children Evelyn Greenup, Clinton Speedy-Duroux and Colleen Walker.
The deaths of three persons in their prime and the
fact the killer has not been brought to justice had caused considerable
distress to the Bowraville community where all three children lived.
The loss of three children within the space of five
months was particularly devastating for this tight-knit community.
The lives of these three young people have been cut
tragically short and their loss has left a tragic mark on their families and
friends.
Sixteen-year-old Colleen Walker disappeared on 13
September, 1990 and her weighted down clothing was later found in the
Nambucca River.
Although her body has never been found, she is
presumed dead.
Four-year-old Evelyn Greenup is believed to have been
murdered on 4 October, 1990.
Her remains were found in bushland in April 1991.
And sixteen-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux was
murdered on 1 February, 1991.
His remains were located in bushland a few weeks
later.
The three deaths were investigated by Strike Force
ANCUD.
A $50,000 government reward was offered in relation to
the murder of Colleen Ann Walker in May 1995 and increased to $100,000 in
March 1997.
Rewards have not previously been offered in relation
to the other children.
Detectives investigating the children's deaths have
conducted extensive enquiries but have exhausted all leads.
It's hoped that this substantial reward, linking all
three cases for the first time, will hopefully now persuade somebody who can
help to contact police.
Police want to help the families of these three
children put the tragic past behind them and rebuild their lives.
Do you have information that can help police with this case?
Any information you have about this is worth giving to police, no
matter how small or insignificant it may seem.
You can provide information to police via any of the methods
below:
Any information provided will be treated in the strictest
confidence.
Your help may give police the clue they need to close this case
and provide some comfort for the families of victims.
How to claim your reward
- Contact Crime Stoppers or your local Police Station.
- Identify yourself and indicate you have information about a
crime and that you wish to claim a reward.
- You will then be put in contact with a police officer
involved in the investigation of that case.
The Ghosts Of Bowraville
"Sunday" 20 July 1997 - Program Transcript
Chris Bullock: Seven years ago, two children from a small country town were
found bashed to death. One was a teenage boy, the other a four-year old girl.
Both had been stabbed in the head.
Another teenager who disappeared at the same time is still missing, but most
people expect her body too will be found in the bush, eventually.
This is a rural community with deeply enmeshed and complicated family ties, and
police who were unable to pick their way through the maze to find a killer. They
thought they had: a local man was tried, and found not guilty.
Hello, I'm Chris Bullock and this is Background Briefing.
In the New South Wales country town of Bowraville, the police are turning up the
heat in a renewed effort to catch a killer, or killers.
Richard Morecroft: New South Wales Police have renewed their investigation into
the murders of three children on the State's north coast seven years ago. The
bodies of four-year-old Evelyn Greenup and 16-year-old Clinton Speedie were
found in bushland near the town of Bowraville.
Colleen Walker, also 16, is still missing, presumed dead.
Reporter: The investigation remains unsolved, the killer still at large. While
police won't say what's led them to reopen the investigation into the Bowraville
murders, today they issued a fresh appeal for information.
Policeman: With the passage of time, this investigation is very difficult, and
we need every assistance we can obtain from the community and that assistance
would help us greatly.
Chris Bullock: The new investigation at Bowraville is part of a big drive by the
new Police Commissioner, Peter Ryan, to clean up some of the State's many
unsolved murders. More than one murder in ten in New South Wales goes unsolved,
that's the worst rate in the country.
Peter Ryan being an experienced homicide detective from England, took one look
at the figures and decided to act. His Deputy Commissioner and Head of Special
Operations, is Jeff Jarratt.
Jeff Jarratt: There's a community - and rightful community - expectation that
police will from the very outset of any homicide, take the view that this is the
most serious form of offence in our society, and police will do their level best
to unearth the circumstances and to take a suspect before a court for the due
process of law to be applied. Commissioner Ryan, on arriving here, was
dissatisfied with the level of unsolved homicides or murders, and has set about
a series of re-investigations. Our overall homicide rate is extraordinarily low
in this country, relative to most westernised countries. It has not really moved
in New South Wales in 25 years, it has remained constant - not as a percentage
of the population, but in round about 100 murders a year. So it's relatively
low.
Chris Bullock: And the statistics suggest that the rate of unsolved murders has
increased threefold in the last 20 years in New South Wales.
Jeff Jarratt: Certainly it is at a much higher level than we are happy with, and
that's why we're revisiting many of these investigations, and so far,
successfully in quite a few cases.
Woman: Say hello to your family.
Chris Bullock: Bowraville could be any one of a hundred country towns in
Australia. Situated 20 kilometres upstream on the Nambucca River in northern New
South Wales, it's a timber town running out of timber.
There's a small factory producing animal hides, and a few tourists who come to
look at the memorabilia in the Settlers' Museum.
Bowraville's main asset is the surrounding countryside of rolling green hills
and thick forests.
Some of the locals expect that refugees from the city will soon 'discover'
Bowraville, as they did the nearby town of Bellingen.
At the western edge of Bowraville, on the road to the cemetery, is The Mission.
You're going to hear a lot about The Mission; this small Aboriginal housing
estate gets its name from the old days when it was a government-controlled
reserve.
As a girl, Clarice Greenup lived on The Mission, but she moved into the town
some years ago. She's one of several aunts of the murdered child Evelyn Greenup.
Clarice Greenup: I hate the thought of even going past The Mission. You couldn't
even let the kids go outside unless someone was out there actually watching them
and keeping an eye on them. We lived in fear, I mean I remember when I used to
drive to Macksville by myself in a car I'd be always looking in the rear-view
mirror thinking all of a sudden if you see this car coming out of nowhere,
you're thinking My God, where did this car come from? It's a horrible feeling,
it really is. Something out of the movies is what it felt like.
I've got a 14-year-old son and when he's not home, when it's dark, I start
panicking. I don't know about anybody else, but if I lived on The Mission I
think I'd be panicking too, but I mean you can go down the street late at night
and you still see our kids running around the streets. So to tell you the truth,
I don't think the parents have learned anything. They might be 14 and 15 and 16
year old kids, but they are still vulnerable.
Chris Bullock: Clinton was a big boy wasn't he?
Clarice Greenup: Yes, he was a big boy.
Chris Bullock: All the children were living or staying at The Mission when they
disappeared.
Today three remembrance plaques stand forlornly in a small park opposite the
houses along Cemetery Road.
A few hundred metres away, the Aboriginal section of the cemetery is well-kept.
It's expanding much more rapidly than it should - there's a high mortality rate
on The Mission, especially amongst young men.
Most of the adult residents of The Mission are unemployed, with little chance of
a job unless they decide to leave town, and some have since the children
disappeared.
The murders have traumatised this small community. Some people seem to wish it
would all go away, others refuse to stop searching. Clarice's sister, Barbara
Greenup-Davis, was living in Sydney at the time of the disappearances; she
returned to Bowraville very soon afterwards.
Barbara Greenup-Davis: People don't want to talk about it, people want to forget
that these murders ever took place. That seems to be the overall feeling that
you get out there in the wider community other than individual family members,
seem to want to know who's responsible for the atrocities that have been
inflicted on both Evelyn and Clinton, and at this point in time the
disappearance of Colleen. I don't expect you to understand but feeling the
presence of those who have gone before you in your home or around you at certain
times, is very much a real part of our lifestyle. And like I say, I've not only
felt but I believe I've witnessed Evelyn's presence in my home over the years
since their murder. And I don't believe I'm the only one. I believe most of my
sisters have had a similar occurrence. Now I like to believe that when she's
with me it's because she's in a safe place.
Chris Bullock: The three kids disappeared during, or perhaps shortly after,
parties held at The Mission. The parties were social get-togethers rather than
special celebrations, and they were commonplace.
The teenagers Colleen and Clinton were at the parties to socialise. In Evelyn's
case, the party was held at the house in which she lived, with her mother,
grandmother and two brothers. Evelyn was sleeping in a bedroom.
PARTY MUSIC
Finding out what happened to them next is the hard part.
Sitting in an interview room at the Sydney Police Centre, the Commander of the
new investigation measures his words very carefully. Detective Inspector Rod
Lynch brought Ivan Milat to trial for the backpacker murders, and he's been
given the Bowraville brief with the hope of similar success, success that eluded
his predecessors.
Rod Lynch: It's clear that Colleen Walker, the first girl to go missing, went
missing from Bowraville on or about the 14th of September 1990. There is some
dispute as to the possible sightings which cover a matter of two days. That
information has varying levels of substance, and that's one of the tasks of this
task force to investigate those aspects and satisfy ourselves as to the actual
fact.
Chris Bullock: So you're still not sure of exactly when and from where, Colleen
Walker disappeared.
Rod Lynch: Not 100%.
Chris Bullock: To what percent are you sure that she disappeared from the
vicinity of that party that night?
Rod Lynch: Well that is a version supplied to us, but there are other versions
of sightings later, and that's where the problem lies at the moment, because
people are giving their recollections I presume, as truthfully as they can, and
that causes some troubles and problems as far as this investigation.
Chris Bullock: The credibility of the information is causing problems?
Rod Lynch: That is so. Because it is difficult at this stage to identify the
exact time of the last sighting.
Chris Bullock: At the time Colleen Walker disappeared, she was staying at the
house of Thomas Duroux and Marje Jarrett, opposite where the three plaques now
stand. Colleen had been looking forward to a trip to western New South Wales.
Marje Jarrett: She was staying here with us when that happened, and she was
going away that morning about three o'clock with my daughter to Goodooga, and I
was going to the bingo over the road, and Thomas and my brother was here
watching TV the last time we saw her, when she brought her clothes here to get
ready to go. But when she went to the party, we've never seen her since - that
was only next door.
Chris Bullock: So she disappeared after the party as far as you're concerned?
Marje Jarrett: Somewhere, sometime that night. Because my daughter came in to
get her, to go to the train, and she wasn't there. I said, 'Look, I don't know
where she is.' This was three o'clock --
Chris Bullock: On the Friday?
Marje Jarrett: -- to Sydney, yes. Well yes that was a Thursday; on Friday
morning, and she went to some places where she thought she might be, but she
wasn't there.
Chris Bullock: And there was also a football carnival here that weekend wasn't
there? So there were a lot of people from out of town around.
Marje Jarrett: Yes, same time. Then when I saw her mother and father next day,
then, I tried to tell them; they said, 'Oh we know she went to Goodooga, I said,
'I'm trying to tell you, she never went. We haven't seen her since last night.'
So they let it go till Monday, I think, before I think they contacted the
police.
Thomas Duroux: We had to wait 24 hours or something.
Marje Jarrett: We just kept asking everybody did they see her, well nobody saw
her. And somebody thought they saw her here next morning. I said, 'She wasn't
here because I was here all morning, and her clothes and that are still in
here.' I got her mother to come and check it out even - everything was still in
the bag in her room. She was staying in that room with my daughter.
Chris Bullock: The immediate reaction of the police was to assume Colleen Walker
had run away. Several weeks after her disappearance, and despite the
protestations of her family, police still believed Colleen may have run away to
Sydney.
Barbara Greenup-Davis.
Barbara Greenup-Davis: The kids will tend to roam from Bowraville to Macksville,
to Nambucca in a day, and then journey back to their home, pretty much by
night-time. Running away - look, I ran away when I was 13, but I tell you, I
didn't run away out there to the big world, I ran away to my stepfather in
Sydney. Colleen had no intentions of running away from home; she was leaving
their community to go to Sydney, to stop over at her aunty's place and travel on
from there to another Aboriginal community where I'm sure she would have been
safe and welcome. Unfortunately she didn't leave their own community.
Chris Bullock: Many people thought the police had not taken Colleen Walker's
disappearance seriously enough. Frustrated, they went to their Catholic priest,
Father Bernie Ryan at St Mary's Church in Bowraville.
Bernie Ryan: The leader of the Land Council at that time, Larry Kelly, and I
were approached by some of the people who said they were somewhat apprehensive
about talking to the police, and so we set up a little office down in the Land
Council, and people who wanted to, came along and we talked mainly about the
actual course of events on the night at the party, on the night that Colleen
disappeared.
Chris Bullock: Was a record taken of this?
Bernie Ryan: Yes.
Chris Bullock: In written form, or audio?
Bernie Ryan: Written.
Chris Bullock: And it was all handed to the police, was it?
Bernie Ryan: Yes.
Chris Bullock: So a full record of all those discussions, which may, given the
current investigations, be of some value, has all gone to the police?
Bernie Ryan: Yes, they have everything.
Chris Bullock: Three weeks after Colleen Walker disappeared, four-year-old
Evelyn Greenup went missing. Evelyn also disappeared during, or soon after, a
party, and the party was held at the house she lived in.
Clarice Greenup: Well when I first heard about it, I was sitting up, just up the
road, inside with a friend of mine. And I sort of saw Evelyn's mother come down
this way, but she never came to my house, she went to two doors up from where
I'm living now, and asking people there had they seen Evelyn, and I didn't know
till about - oh, it must have been about 8 o'clock, when my brother came down
asking me did I see Evelyn, and I said, 'No,' I said, 'why?' And he said, 'We
can't find Evelyn.' So he was sort of in a panic, and then I just sort of
started panicking too, because I mean, a little four-year-old girl, and no-one
seemed to have known where she was. We were sort of in a daze, and wondering
well what's going on in our community.
Chris Bullock: In Evelyn Greenup's case, Rod Lynch seems to have more to go on.
Rod Lynch: There are versions of sightings of her on the 4th in the town of
Bowraville, but there are also other versions indicating she may have gone
missing during the night of the 3rd.
Chris Bullock: Which was when the party was.
Rod Lynch: That is so.
Chris Bullock: And was the party in the house in which she was asleep?
Rod Lynch: That is so, yes.
Chris Bullock: And was she asleep alone in that room?
Rod Lynch: No, she wasn't.
Chris Bullock: Who else was there ?
Rod Lynch: Her two brothers and her mother were sleeping in that particular
bedroom.
Chris Bullock: And is it the case that one shoe was found with her and the other
shoe of that pair was found in the house, in that room?
(continued in part 2)
(continued from part 1)
Rod Lynch: That is so. When her remains were located there was a shoe at that
site, and a matching shoe was found sometime later in the dwelling where the
party was held.
Chris Bullock: And how significant would you believe that to be?
Rod Lynch: There are various scenarios to explain that situation. But it must
have a strong indication she was taken from the premises itself.
Chris Bullock: As the Head of this Task Force, can you go through those
scenarios with me at all?
Rod Lynch: No, I'd rather not at this stage, because it could impact
detrimentally on the investigation.
Chris Bullock: Evelyn Greenup did have one daily habit: early each morning she
would walk, together with her younger brother Aaron, from her mother's house to
where her father was staying, at the home of Marje Jarrett and Thomas Duroux.
Thomas Duroux: He used to get them ready for school, and the little boy came
round that day on his own - Aaron - and she never turned up. That's when they
reckon they saw her downtown at the swimming hole somewhere.
Chris Bullock: So every morning Evelyn and her brother would come down here to
see their dad before going to school.
Marje Jarrett: Yes well sometimes they'd come down before he went to work, and
if they were here, I'd keep them here and send them down to school, or they'd go
back home again.
Chris Bullock: But they always came together.
Marje Jarrett: Always came together, yes. But the little boy came on his own
because he followed somewhere else down; they were all drinking up there, see,
and that fellow got up and he came this way, and little Aaron came with him, and
the little girl never came with him.
Chris Bullock: Given that it was that time in the morning, and the little boy
had woken up probably because of the party, I mean maybe, you know it's possible
Evelyn was still asleep.
Marje Jarrett: I think not, I don't think so. Because I don't think she was down
this way that morning. I don't think anyone saw her in town, I don't think
anyone had seen her since that day before.
Chris Bullock: And you didn't see her ever again after that party?
Marje Jarrett: No, only the little fellow came down here the next day.
MUSIC
Chris Bullock: At the time Colleen and Evelyn disappeared in late 1990,
16-year-old Clinton Speedy was living in another part of New South Wales with
his mother. Clinton came to Bowraville just before Christmas, to stay with his
father, Thomas Duroux.
At the end of January, Clinton went to a party at The Mission. In the early
hours of the morning after the party, he left with his girlfriend, Kelly
Jarrett, and another friend, Jay Hart. They went to Jay Hart's caravan, which
was a short walk, and they continued drinking. The following morning, nobody
could find Clinton Speedy.
Thomas Duroux: He was only here for a short while, about a month. And after we
all just walked the town just trying to find out questions ourselves, but we
couldn't just - it didn't do any good, and we all just tried to rally around and
see what we could do, but couldn't do anything, couldn't find him. So we had to
bring in the police then after that, we just couldn't do anything on our own.
Rod Lynch: Clinton spent the night of the 31st of January 1991 in a caravan with
a young lady he was keeping company with, and another person, and he went
missing from that caravan as far as we can ascertain.
Chris Bullock: Two weeks later, Clinton's body was found, just off one of the
backroads into Bowraville, Congarinni Road. A heavy blow had crushed his skull
and he'd been stabbed in the face with a sharp instrument.
CAR
Congarinni Road begins just east of Bowraville, and winds through several
kilometres of thick bush with some cleared farming areas, until it reaches
Congarinni Bridge, and the road to Macksville.
CAR CROSSING WOODEN BRIDGE
Neville Buchanan, a local elder and a noted bushman, took me to the places where
Clinton and Evelyn were found.
FOOTSTEPS IN BUSH
Colleen Walker was Neville's niece, and Evelyn was his grand-niece. He and
others spent many days over several weeks searching through the bush along
Congarinni Road. Clinton's body was found first, near an old quarry halfway
along the road.
Neville Buchanan: This is the location where we found Clinton's body - wattle
trees and the gum, and the bloodwood tree. A lot bullrushes here too. I was up
there with the father, and I wouldn't let the father come down because I didn't
want him to see the sight. But my brother, and Larry Kelly and Louis Kelly came
down here and they saw it. They came back and said it was not a terrible good
sight to see. White as a sheet, just like they'd seen a ghost.
Chris Bullock: Is this bush along this road bush that the kids, all of those
kids, would have known?
Neville Buchanan: Well they know this part of the road and part of the bush
because they used to walk along this road. It's not far to Macksville. We were
all in groups; there were some groups here and some groups back there, some
groups this way, but most of the people still stood back at Bowraville,
drinking. That's why I wondered why they never said much. People like them still
drinking back there and never came in and helped.
Chris Bullock: Maybe they don't care.
Neville Buchanan: I think they should care because it was their nieces, there
were uncles back there drinking, uncles and aunties, grandmother. They should
have been down here with us. They never ever came and helped. And that's my
doubts about 'em.
Chris Bullock: Do you talk to them about it?
Neville Buchanan: I never talk to them. But one day I probably will. One day
when I get close enough to them and talk to them, because they don't talk to me.
WALKING IN BUSH - CAR ON DIRT ROAD
Chris Bullock: Evelyn Greenup was found two months later, when a search party
discovered her remains 3 kilometres closer to Bowraville from where Clinton
Speedy was found. Evelyn had been dumped 50 metres from the road. Neville
Buchanan knows the spot well.
WALKING IN BUSH
Chris Bullock: This is it?
Neville Buchanan: Right there, she was, just where the tree was, just missed
her, missed her little body. I was walking along there, me and my nephew, and
all of a sudden this little spirit grabbed us, grabbed me by the arm; one leg
was missing, one shoe was missing, she had one shoe on, and no clothes, the
clothes were gone.
Chris Bullock: Are you assuming that an animal took that leg?
Neville Buchanan: I assumed it was an animal that took that leg. And she was
just laying face down that way. It was very lucky that when the fella felled this
tree, if he'd have felled the tree a bit further over that way, he would have
covered the body - we wouldn't have found the body. When they die, the spirit
lives on, like she was lost, she was down there, she was lost; although her
remains might have been here, but her spirit was wandering around lost. But why?
Why do it to a little four-year-old girl? You know. We believed she was dead at
The Mission, but why bring her body here? Someone must have had something to do
with the murders. We still want answers. People still live with those things in
Bowraville. People are not letting out; people are not talking. Nobody's
talking. You'd think the blackfellas forgot what was going on.
Chris Bullock: Do many people come out to these sites where the bodies were
found, these days?
Neville Buchanan: No, not many come out here now. I don't know, I wish we could
get answers.
WALKING IN BUSH - MUSIC
Chris Bullock: Several searches failed to find the other girl, Colleen Walker,
although a bag containing some of her clothes was fished from the river at the
end of Congarinni Road.
By this stage, Bowraville was awash with rumour and innuendo. Community
accusations were increasingly being levelled at one person, a young white man.
Jay Hart was well-known on The Mission. He worked the local hide factory and had
many Aboriginal friends and drinking companions - and he'd attended all the
parties that preceded the disappearances.
When Clinton Speedy went missing after spending the night in Jay Hart's caravan,
the police had to take community suspicions seriously. The caravan was parked
outside the home of his mother, Marlene Hart, a short walk from The Mission.
Clinton had gone there in the early hours of the morning after the party, with
his girlfriend Kelly Jarrett and Jay Hart. They drank some more alcohol and
watched music videos before going to sleep.
The next morning, Kelly Jarrett woke to find Clinton had gone. He wasn't seen
again until the discovery of his body along Congarinni Road.
The suspicions and anger of Aboriginal residents were reflected in a Weekend
Australian magazine article. It detailed allegations and suspicions about a man
called "Fred", which was clearly a pseudonym. The article said "Fred" had formed
relationships with several black women in Bowraville.
Reader: One woman is supposed to have woken and found "Fred" watching her from
the foot of the bed. Another claims to have surprised him lurking in a corridor
of her home early one morning. Others said he'd been chasing teenagers, and
tried to pick up Colleen Walker on the night she went missing.
Chris Bullock: The article appeared on Saturday, April 6th, 1991, and Jay Hart
was arrested for the murder of Clinton Speedy two days later.
Within months, Jay Hart was also charged with the murder of the four-year-old,
Evelyn Greenup, and he was committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court on both
charges.
The Director of Public Prosecutions wanted Jay Hart to be tried for both murders
at a single trial. The DPP gave Justice Badgery-Parker a set of similar facts
evidence, which was as follows:
Clinton Speedy and Evelyn Greenup both disappeared after parties, both of which
were attended by Jay Hart. The remains of both victims were found along
Congarinni Road. There was no attempt to bury either body, and both victims had
penetrating injuries to the skull.
When the judge said, 'No, all of that isn't enough to show that one person
committed both murders,' it was a major setback for the DPP and the police.
Jay Hart was only tried for the murder of Clinton Speedy.
The DPP believed it had a strong case against Hart, despite a lack of any
forensic evidence to connect him to the crime. Their case relied on
circumstantial evidence, in particular, the testimony of a neighbour who told
the court she'd seen Jay Hart leave home in his mother's car about 5am on the
morning in question and not return until over an hour later.
The Crown Prosecutor told the court that while Clinton's girlfriend slept, Jay
Hart had time to kill Clinton Speedy, drive 8 kilometres to Congarinni Road,
dump the body and drive back.
However, two other witnesses told the court they'd seen Clinton Speedy, or at
least someone who looked like him, hitch-hiking out of Bowraville early that
morning. One said he saw Speedy at ten to five in the morning, the other said
she'd seen a boy who looked like Speedy hitch-hiking at the same spot at twenty
past six.
Hart's barrister, Kim Roser, believes this was the crucial piece of evidence.
Kim Roser: Well viewed objectively, it appeared that there was some fundamental
problems with the Crown case. Those problems were probably best summarised in
the directions of law that the trial judge gave to the jury at the conclusion of
the murder trial. And one of the directions that the judge gave the jury was
that they had to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the young Aboriginal
person who'd been seen standing at the side of the road at a time when the Crown
case suggested Clinton Speedy had already been murdered by Mr Hart, was not in
fact Mr Speedy. And it seemed that it would be very difficult for a jury to ever
be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the two persons who saw the young
Aboriginal person, were mistaken. It was never suggested that they were lying,
and so that seemed to be one of the fundamental problems that the Crown case
contained.
Chris Bullock: The jury, to the disbelief of the family and friends of Clinton
Speedy, found Hart not guilty. The not guilty verdict, by an unfortunate
coincidence, was handed down on the third anniversary of the discovery of
Clinton Speedy's body.
There were angry scenes in Bowraville, outside the home of Jay Hart's mother,
Marlene Hart. Several times over the previous three years her house had been
attacked, windows broken, and 'Killer' spray-painted on the buildings.
After Jay Hart was found not guilty, a group of Aboriginal people converged on
Marlene Hart's house. Standing between the angry group and the house was Fred
Walker, an Aboriginal Police Liaison Officer.
Fred Walker was in a very difficult position: Colleen Walker was his niece and
he sympathised with the crowd. But Fred Walker also knew he had the best chance
of defusing the situation.
Fred Walker: Oh you know, I just went there because I didn't want the police to
go there, I just thought it would have got out of hand if the police went there;
I thought I might have been able to convince them to leave.
Chris Bullock: What were they doing?
Fred Walker: Going off their heads there, you know. When I went there I could
see - I felt the same way, I wanted to lash out too. But I couldn't, I knew I
couldn't, I had to get there and try to get them away from there, you know. And
I could see the hate in their faces too you know. One bloke said to me that I
had no feelings, and I shouldn't be there, I should be over there with them, and
they had a go at me. Well that's when people are hurting you know, they say
these things. I know I'd do the same thing if I were there too. But that comes
with the job you know, and I've got to accept it.
Then I get to the stage when I think I'm not good enough for the position, you
know, I shouldn't be in the position; I should let someone else come in who
could take it all you know. And I just look at the negative side all the time,
like I said, you know, I should look at the positive side; and people keep
reminding me, you know; a lot of people out there think a lot of you, and are
glad you're there, and you know, you're helping them. And I know that.
Chris Bullock: Has the community recovered to some extent, given that it's now
more than six years since Clinton was murdered?
Fred Walker: I don't think they have. There's a lot of grief out there, a lot of
people don't know how to handle grief too you know. Maybe they should seek
counselling. I carried a lot of grief with myself because of what had happened
to Evelyn, I looked after Evelyn when his mother went up to Armidale for months;
and Colleen is my niece, you know. And it gets to me a lot, you know.
Chris Bullock: The family of Jay Hart, many of whom live in and around
Bowraville, also suffered greatly from their ordeal. Several family members
politely declined interviews, but they told me the financial and emotional
strain had been enormous.
Kim Roser says Jay Hart's life has been shattered.
Kim Roser: Jay Hart lived in Bowraville, he had family with whom he worked. He
had a place to live, he had a social life, and one assumes some desire to remain
there. As a result of this episode, he was precluded from living in Bowraville,
he was incarcerated for eight months whilst the judicial wheels turned, and that
involved losing his home, losing his employment, and losing the ability to go
and do whatever he wanted. So one I suppose could say, that he paid a
substantial price.
Chris Bullock: Jay Hart now lives far away, about six hours' drive from
Bowraville. He agreed to see me at his new home, but he was unwilling to be
interviewed without being paid. The trial process, he told me, had left him
owing several thousand dollars to family and friends, and given that his story
was the only thing he could sell, that was his price.
After the failure of the Speedy trial, the DPP decided not to go ahead with the
Evelyn Greenup murder charge against Jay Hart. The police were back at square
one, with two unsolved murders and one unsolved disappearance.
The head of the original investigation, Detective Alan Williams, went to
Bowraville to meet with family and friends of the three children, and he dropped
what was to some people, a bombshell.
Father Bernie Ryan was at that meeting.
Bernie Ryan: Alan came down I think almost the week after the trial, and
expressed his regrets that they didn't get a conclusion to the case at that
stage. And at the end of the meeting he made a remark that possibly somebody
within the Aboriginal community might have been involved. To me, that came as
quite a shock I must say.
Chris Bullock: Many people in Bowraville, including Clinton's father, Thomas
Duroux, assumed the police had the right man. The acquittal of Jay Hart came as
a shock to him, and life hasn't become any easier in the three years since then.
Thomas Duroux: You can't go on living like this all the time, you've got to get
some results, someone's got to know something and if they do I wish they'd come
forward and let us know.
Marje Jarrett: I'd say there's a lot of cases you read about that it has
happened, never found anything out. Somebody must have a guilty conscience.
Thomas Duroux: I couldn't walk around with something like that hidden all the
time anyway.
Chris Bullock: And how big a problem would it be if the police did find somebody
who was involved and that person or those people were Kooris?
Marje Jarrett: I don't know, oh dear, just hope it's not that way.
Thomas Duroux: Well it's not as if we've been expecting something like that;
y'know we've got this one idea set and that's sort of it.
Chris Bullock: Have you been re-interviewed yet?
Thomas Duroux: No, no, not yet.
Chris Bullock: Have you, Marje?
Marje Jarrett: No.
Chris Bullock: You both took part in the court case previously, didn't you?
Marje Jarrett: Yes, yes, yes.
Chris Bullock: But for Evelyn Greenup's aunts, Clarice and Barbara, the idea
that secrets were being kept in the Aboriginal community came as no surprise.
Barbara Greenup: The mere fact that they seem to have focused so much of their
early inquiries on one individual, from my point of view, was very naive for
police you know. I mean I'm not a lawyer, and I'm certainly not a policeman, but
I would think if you even suspect the family or family members maybe involved,
then you're going to keep more aware and more focused on their activities. And
even the questioning, where they were, and what they were doing at the time the
murders took place, people may look at the two teenagers and say, 'Well there
are so many possibilities' but what possibilities have you got with a
four-year-old? Four-year-olds don't drink, they don't do drugs, they don't do
sex, they don't do parties. Teenagers do these things, and yet there seems to
have been nobody in the community that knows of anything, yet there were so many
around at the time.
Clarice Greenup: You go to any Aboriginal mission in Australia, everybody'll
know what everybody else is doing. What time you went to sleep, what time you
went to town - the people on The Mission know what's going on and who's doing
what and who's been here and who's been there. And then all of a sudden, our
mission seems to know - nobody knows anything, they've sort of clammed up. So
there is still a lot of suspicion and we're still angry, but we don't want
revenge, all we want is justice.
RAIN FALLING
Chris Bullock: It was pouring with rain when I went to talk to Father Bernie
Ryan at St Mary's Church in Bowraville. The church is on a hill, and you can see
The Mission from there.
At the heart of the Bowraville mystery is the widely-held belief that someone
who was at The Mission when the children disappeared, knows what happened.
Father Bernie Ryan.
Bernie Ryan: Well it's just hard to judge, isn't it, but you've got to look at
the Leigh Leigh case, don't you, and the movie, which I haven't seen myself, but
I understand that the main theme is do you dob your mates in, and I think you've
got a situation like that, plus a much deeper Aboriginal cultural trait I think,
which is that they select what information they feel that you are entitled to.
And given the very strong family ties, it's even deeper than the dobbing
question. It's your business, you know, your business. It's a strange
conglomerate that in one sense, in a community like this, certain of my
business, most of my business, is everybody's business. But there's certain
business that's yours and if I know it, I have to respect that it's yours.
That's a deeper level than dobbing I think.
Chris Bullock: You're describing also a terribly difficult barrier for the
police to overcome, aren't you?
Bernie Ryan: Sure, yes. Yes I think they've got quite a contract on their hands.
Chris Bullock: A study by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and
Research, analysing murders over 25 years, has some striking findings about the
relationship between victims and suspects.
It found 75% of murdered teenagers were killed by someone they knew. The other
25% are called 'stranger homicides', but for child victims under the age of ten,
95% were killed by someone they knew, and for 80% the murderer was a family
member.
So how much notice should investigators take of figures like these, especially
in a place where half-a-dozen extended families make up nearly the entire
community? Rod Lynch.
Rod Lynch: One must keep them in the back of one's mind, and balance them with
the facts of the individual cases. But in my view an investigation should never
be conducted in accordance with statistics.
Chris Bullock: There is one special requirement for the detectives in the new
Bowraville Task Force. They must have no connection with the last one.
Rod Lynch says this is a firm rule.
Rod Lynch: Naturally we confer if required with former investigators of the
original investigation, but I wanted a new approach with completely new people
so that attitude could be encouraged.
Chris Bullock: How much harder is it to run an investigation seven years after
the facts?
Rod Lynch: Well it's much more difficult than conducting the original
investigation. There's memory loss, on the part of witnesses; people draw
conclusions and it's difficult sometimes to interpret fact from what is actually
general discussions or someone's belief or thoughts in regard to a matter.
Chris Bullock: So over seven years, people may have built up their own mental
scenario of what happened and then that becomes fact when you talk to them about
it.
Rod Lynch: It becomes fact to them. We have disproved a number of versions given
during the original investigation, and we are continually disproving versions
given to us through our present investigation. Having said that there is a large
amount of information we've got that is factual and quite clearly factual.
Chris Bullock: To what extent in an investigation like this, is there a danger
in focusing too much on one person, or on one lead?
Rod Lynch: Well the way I've structured this Task Force, that will not happen.
There's no possibility of group think coming into this investigation.
Chris Bullock: And how much new information have you got since you started this
re-investigation?
Rod Lynch: We've received at this stage, 19 calls in the last couple of weeks;
we've received 19 calls that's supplied fresh information; that information's
been of varying levels of value at this point, on initial analysis.
Chris Bullock: And is all of that information that's come from people who live
in the area, or who were in the area at the time?
Rod Lynch: Basically from people with knowledge of Bowraville. All those people
have been interviewed personally, or will be interviewed personally.
Chris Bullock: Are you aware of the sense, particularly amongst the families of
the victims, that there has been a problem of trust between themselves and
police investigators in the past? Have they talked to you about that?
Rod Lynch: It has been raised with me. One must gain the trust of the local
community from whom we're attempting to obtain information, and I've personally
kept in close contact with certain nominated representatives of each family.
Chris Bullock: There is one person who can't be charged with murdering Clinton
Speedy - Jay Hart. To do so would put Hart in what American lawyers call a
position of 'double jeopardy'.
Kim Roser.
Kim Roser: If Jay Hart were to be charged with the murder of Clinton Speedy, he
would be entitled to argue successfully that those proceedings could not
proceed. It's called a plea in bar; there is a principle that you cannot be
tried for an offence in respect of which there has been a previous trial, and
the previous trial has reached a decision one way or the other.
Chris Bullock: Rod Lynch is not prepared to say if Jay Hart remains a suspect.
But Jeff Jarrett, the Deputy Commissioner, says an acquittal should not hinder
further investigations.
Jeff Jarratt: I think the fact that someone is discharged, or the person is
found not guilty, that means that there's been insufficient evidence to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that the person is guilty, does not automatically mean
that the person is innocent.
Chris Bullock: But that's what the law considers it to mean if they're found not
guilty.
Jeff Jarratt: Certainly the person cannot be re-charged with that offence, that
is the end of the matter. And so for all intents and purposes, the person is
innocent in the eyes of the law, but I think it's still an important point to
say that at that point it doesn't prevent proper and further investigation where
that's warranted.
Chris Bullock: In the Aboriginal community of Bowraville, there's a deep and
enduring grief. The non-Aboriginal people of Bowraville too, are more than just
interested bystanders in a macabre murder mystery.
Lyn an Alan Summerville are long-term residents; Alan was raised there. Now they
run the takeaway food shop in the middle of town, opposite the Post Office, and
next to the Bowraville Land Council. They have a broad, mixed-race clientele,
and like everybody else, a view on the matter.
Lyn Summerville: Yes, there's definitely been a lack of justice on both sides.
Chris Bullock: And how do people express that lack of justice?
Alan Summerville: Most of the people that you talk to just generally don't
believe the police did a thorough investigation of it.
Chris Bullock: Why?
Alan Summerville: Well I believe that they thought they had their man, and that
was it.
Chris Bullock: Do people talk about it much still?
Lyn Summerville: No, they don't talk about it much any more. Only when something
happens to bring it back to the limelight.
Chris Bullock: And something has happened, there's a re-investigation and
they're re-interviewing people.
Lyn Summerville: It should have happened a long time ago. Everybody basically I
think is pleased that things will finally, hopefully, be brought to a head and
thoroughly and properly investigated.
Chris Bullock: And if there is a thorough and proper investigation which comes
up with nothing ?
Lyn Summerville: I don't know if I really like to look at it from that angle;
I'd like to be a little bit more positive and think that there has to be an
answer somewhere. There has to be an end to it, because if there's no end to it,
there's always going to be this cloud hanging over Bowra.
Chris Bullock: Has that cloud been hanging over it for seven years?
Lyn Summerville: Most definitely, most definitely.
New reward for serial killer
Exclusive by Kara Lawrence
April 07, 2007 12:00
FOR 16 years, the suspected serial killings of three children in the small
community of Bowraville in the state's north have gone unsolved.
But police and relatives are hopeful the cases will take a new turn with the
annoucement of a $250,000 reward for information leading to their killer or
killers.
Police Minister David Campbell yesterday announced the reward for information
leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the murders of
Evelyn Greenup, Clinton Speedy-Duroux and Colleen Walker.
The previous reward was $100,000 and it was only for Colleen's murder.
She was the first to disappear, on September 13, 1990.
The sixteen-year-old's body was never found but her weighted-down clothes were
later recovered from the Nambucca River.
Evelyn Greenup was just four when she disappeared from her home on October 4,
1990. Her remains were found in bushland six months later.
Clinton Speedy-Duroux, 16, was killed on February 1, 1991, and his remains found
in bushland weeks later.
A man local to Bowraville at the time, Jay Thomas Hart, was charged with
Clinton's murder in 1994 but acquitted.
He was later charged with Evelyn's murder but acquitted after a 2006 trial.
An inquest in 2004 was told the three killings had "direct or indirect sexual
overtones".
Mr Campbell yesterday said the loss of the three children was devastating for
the tight-knit community.
"There can't be many people in the community who did not know someone affected
by these terrible events," he said.
The murdered children's relatives said yesterday that with the community being
so small, someone must have crucial information and urged them to come forward.
Leonie Wilmshurst, partner of Clinton's brother Marbuck Duroux, 34, said that
when Marbuck was diagnosed with motor-neurone disease more than two years ago he
was only given six months to live.
"His dying wish would be to see someone come forward with some information," she
said.
She said the tragic loss of Clinton had affected their own sons, aged 9 and 11,
who wanted to see justice for their father.
Evelyn's aunt Michelle Straede said Evelyn's mother had never gotten over the
loss of her first child, despite bearing other children.
"Evelyn would have turned 21 this year so it's a very sad time for us," she
said.
Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, who has devoted 10 years to trying to solve
the case, welcomed the reward.
"The increase in the reward is a positive thing which hopefully will encourage
someone to come forward with fresh information," he said.
Lone cop to tell inquest name of killer suspect
By Alex Mitchell February 8, 2004 The Sun-Herald
Police will name a suspected serial killer when NSW Coroner John Abernethy opens
an inquest tomorrow into the disappearance and presumed murder of 16-year-old
Colleen Walker 14 years ago.
The inquest is the latest chapter in the heart-wrenching saga of three
Aboriginal children, whose tragic fate has haunted the rural township of
Bowraville on the mid-North Coast since 1990.
Mr Abernethy will hear police, scientific, medical and community witnesses
during the two-week inquest to be held in Bellingen.
Central to the police evidence is that a local identity is the prime suspect in
the long police investigation conducted by Strike Force Ancud.
The sole police witness, Detective Sergeant Gary Jubelin, who will start his
evidence tomorrow morning, has been tracking the mystery disappearance of
Colleen Walker since the taskforce was created by former police commissioner
Peter Ryan in 1997.
He and Detective Senior Constable Jason Evers have logged thousands of
kilometres in travel and hundreds of hours of testimony to discover what
happened to Colleen and any link to the murder of her four-year-old cousin,
Evelyn Greenup, and 16-year-old Clinton Speedy.
The first to disappear was Colleen, who vanished on September 13, 1990. Despite
the offer of a $50,000 reward, her whereabouts remain a mystery and her body was
never found.
The second victim, tiny Evelyn, went missing on October 4, 1990, and her body
was found on April 27, 1991. Clinton was reported missing on February 1, 1991,
and his body was found dumped in bush on February 18.
Both had been killed by blows to the head. All three were from the Aboriginal
housing estate on the outskirts of Bowraville, known as "The Mission", or "The
Mish".
On April 8, 1991, a local white labourer, Jay Thomas Hart, then 25, was arrested
and charged with Clinton's murder. On October 16 1991, while on bail, he was
rearrested and charged with Evelyn's murder as well. He pleaded not guilty to
both charges.
On June 3, 1992, the NSW Supreme Court granted him bail of $85,000, with the
condition that he not enter the Bowraville area.
When a Supreme Court jury in Grafton cleared Hart of Clinton's murder on
February 18, 1994 - the third anniversary of the discovery of his body - angry
relatives demonstrated in the main street of Bowraville.
They threw bottles and rocks, overturned garbage bins and smashed shop windows
before police reinforcements were rushed to the scene from Macksville, Nambucca
Heads, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Taree.
With the failure of the trial, the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not
to go ahead with the Evelyn Greenup murder charge against Mr Hart.
For the Aboriginal community, the news was devastating. For the police, it was
deeply disappointing and frustrating - they were back with two unsolved murders
and a mystery disappearance.
Over the intervening years, the case has been the source of pain and simmering
resentment among the 1000 population of Bowraville. Mr Hart, who now lives away
from the area where he grew up, has been requested to appear before Mr Abernethy
during the inquest.
Asked if Mr Hart would testify, Sergeant Jubelin said: "It would be
inappropriate for me to make any comment on that."
Coroner links man to three disappearances
By Les Kennedy - SMH September 11, 2004
For 14 years, Bowraville has been haunted by the disappearance of three of their
children.
At the packed Bellingen local court yesterday, the State Coroner, John
Abernethy, moved closer to healing the pain of the former Aboriginal mission on
the mid-North Coast.
Mr Abernethy said he would recommend to the Director of Public Prosecutions
"that a known person" be charged with the murder of a four-year-old girl who
disappeared from her sleeping mother's bedroom on October 4, 1990.
But while not naming the suspect, he said he would urge the DPP to take into
account the circumstances surrounding the murder of a 16-year-old boy on
February 1, 1991; the September 3, 1990 disappearance of a 16-year-old girl; and
the relation of Jay Thomas Hart, 38, to each case.
However, Mr Abernethy said that there was not sufficient evidence for a jury to
convict a person of the murder of the 16-year-old girl in the absence of a body.
Hart, a white man and former Bowraville resident, was acquitted by a jury in
February 1994 of the 16-year-old boy's murder.
He cannot not be retried even with new evidence.
The boy was last seen asleep with his girlfriend in Hart's caravan. His body was
found near a bushland marijuana crop four kilometres from Bowraville.
The four-year-old girl's remains were also found close by. Only the clothes that
the 16-year-old girl was last seen wearing were found.
Hart, who declined to give evidence at two hearings of the inquest in Bellingen
this year, did not attend the court yesterday.
He has been branded by police in evidence at the inquest as the killer of all
three children.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Sergeant Matt Fordham, told the inquest yesterday
that Hart was the last person seen with all three children.
He said Hart coveted the 16-year-old boy's girlfriend and was also seen near a
lane where the drunken 16-year-old girl - who he was trying to pick up - had
walked to her home on the night she disappeared.
Series 7 Episode 7
Wednesday, 18
April, 2007 - Living Black
Welcome to Living Black. Hello. I'm Karla Grant. This week
the NSW Police Minister, David Campbell, announced an
increase in the reward for information leading to the arrest
and conviction of those responsible for the murders of three
children from Bowraville on the mid-North Coast of NSW in
the early 1990s. The reward was increased from $100,000 to
$250,000. Video journalist Kris Flanders brings us this
report.
VOICEOVER: If the quiet waters and surrounding
bushland of the Nambucca River could speak, they would
reveal the identity of the Bowraville serial child killer.
It was here in 1990 that the weighted-down clothing of
missing 16-year-old Colleen Walker was discovered. Her
remains have never been found. Six months later, the body of
16-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux was found buried in nearby
bushland. Soon after, the body of 4-year-old Evelyn Greenup
was discovered only metres away. In less than five months
three children from Bowraville's Aboriginal community were
killed. Almost two decades on, no-one has ever been
convicted of the three murders. In an effort to close
the case, the NSW Government has posted a $250,000 reward.
DAVID CAMPBELL, NSW POLICE MINISTER: The reward is for
information that would lead to the charge and conviction of
a person or persons responsible for these particular
murders. It's not just that someone comes forward and says,
"I heard this." There has to be some substance behind it.
VOICEOVER: News of a reward increase has been welcomed
by the families of the three victims.
PAULA CRAIG, COLLEEN WALKER'S SISTER: Now that it's
gone up, and for the three kids, I mean, it gives us a bit
of hope. And hopefully from this we might get someone
ringing up with some more information. Marbuck Duroux is the
brother of Clinton Speedy. One of his last wishes before he
was diagnosed with motor neurone disease was to see a
conviction of the person or persons responsible for
Clinton's muder.
LEONIE WILMSHURST, MARBUCK DUROUX'S PARTNER: It's been
so long and it'd just be good to see some closure for
Clinton's family, especially for Marbuck.
REBECCA STADHAMS, EVELYN GREENUP'S MOTHER: It would be
real good news if someone does come forward and give that
information to the police to help us, to help them with the
kids.
MICHELLE STRAEDE, EVELYN GREENUP AUNTY: And it'll
finally give Evelyn - she can rest in peace, like all the
kids can.
VOICEOVER: Despite the years of pain and grief
felt by family members, they've never lost hope.
LEONIE WILMSHURST: The pain's still raw, and it really
hasn't been dealt with, and I don't think it will be until
we get some justice.
PAULA CRAIG: It might just jog people's memory. The
thing that I've always thought is that someone might know
something small and think it's not of great concern but it
could be that little piece of the puzzle that could help
out.
MICHELLE STRAEDE: It's finally showing that people are
listening and that there is a serial killer out there, still
on the loose after 16 years.
VOICEOVER: The Police Minister is determined to see
that justice prevails.
DAVID CAMPBELL: These are three murders over a
relatively short period of time in the one community and
there's a lot of impact on the community. That's why
the police want to get closure.
VOICEOVER: The families of the victims now hope that
the reward will uncover new information.
PAULA CRAIG: That's the biggest hope for this reward,
is that we will have new evidence and maybe find Colleen's
remains and put her at rest.
LEONIE WILMSHURST: Eventually, I would like to see a
parliamentary inquiry into the original investigation, most
definitely. So the family members can have answers. They've
been looking for answers for so long.
MICHELLE STRAEDE: Please come forward, because it'll
help Rebecca and her family. Look at your own kids that you
may have now. You'd most likely be anonymous. So just come
forward, because it will help a family to become a whole
family again.
Kris Flanders with that report. The announcement by the NSW
Government to increase the reward for the unsolved
Bowraville murders is welcomed not only by the family
members, but the detective leading the investigation,
Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin. He joins me now. Detective
Inspector Jubelin, welcome to the program. Thank you. First
of all, what do you hope this increase in reward money will
achieve?
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN, NSW POLICE HOMICIDE
SQUAD: We see the increase in reward as being a positive
step. We're hoping that by increasing the reward it might
encourage people that have information to come forward and
provide it to the police. It also gives the community of
Bowraville hope in the fact that they realise that we're
continuing on with the investigation and hopefully that it
will be resolved.
KARLA GRANT: What kind of evidence or information
would you be looking for?
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN: What we are asking
for is anyone who has any information - be it small, or they
might consider it's not even relevant to the investigation -
if they got have any doubts, I would encourage those people
to provide that information to police. The type of
information that we are looking for is anything in relation
to the murder of Evelyn Greenup, Clinton Speedy and Colin
Walker. So anyone that has anything that they think might be
of assistance to police, I would encourage them to provide
that information to police.
KARLA GRANT: OK, well, it's a very small community,
and many people are related or know each other well and
there might be fear of coming forward with information in
the case, just in case they're implicated or blamed or
embarrassed or even threatened for taking so long to speak
up. What would you say to them if they are listening right
now?
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN: I understand
people's concern. It is a small country town and a very
tight-knit community. I can understand people's reluctance
to come forward. What I would say those people, if they do
have information, if that they provide that to police we can
treat it with the strictest of confidence and protect their
identity if necessary.
It is only as recent as last year that more people have come
forward and provided information that we were following up
as late as last year.
KARLA GRANT: So what should people do if they think
they have any information that could help, no matter how
small? Some might think that after 16 years what they know
may not help.
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN: Yes, I know that's
probably a perception that a lot of people have. These
events occurred 16 years ago, and what possibly could new
information how could that assist the investigation? As I
said, last year we recieved some fresh information that we
followed up. And it could be a small amount. It is like
putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and just that one piece of
information we are looking for, that person might have it.
So we encourage them to come forward and provide the
information to police. If they want to contact me directly,
I can be reached through the homicide office of NSW police,
or they can pass the information on to the Crime Stoppers
hotline of the New South Wales police.
KARLA GRANT: You have worked on this case for some 10
years now. You must have become very close to the family.
What has it been like for them?
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN: It's a devastating
situation. You have got a small country town and a small
community within that town, and they have had three of their
children's lives taken way too early. The pain is still
there for the community. I see that every time I speak to a
member of the community, you can still see the pain that
they are carrying with the loss of these three children.
What I'm hoping - and I believe this is also from the
community's point of view - that some form of closure will
come into play if we can have the person responsible for
murdering these children brought before justice.
KARLA GRANT: Finally, are you confident that you will
indeed solve this case and that you will find the killer?
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN: It has been a long
investigation, a long, hard investigation, but one thing
that I am confident - and something that I have said to all
the relatives of the children - is that we are never going
to give up on the investigation. It's a message I'd like to
send out to the person responsible for murdering these
children, or persons responsible, is that we are not going
to give up on it. I've assured the family that we won't give
up on it. We gain strength, from the police point of view,
in the fact that the family are still keen and still
championing the cause that we solve this matter. So we will
continue on, and that's the message I'd like to also send
out to the community that the deaths of their children
haven't been forgotten and we would do everything in our
power to bring the person or persons responsible to justice.
KARLA GRANT: Detective Inspector, thanks very much for
joining us.
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN: Thank you, Karla.
That was Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin who is leading the
investigation into the Bowraville murders. And if you have
any information that you think may be of assistance in
solving these murders, you're urged to contact the Crime
Stoppers hotline on: 1800 333 000
Serial
killer suspect still free despite new evidence
A SUSPECTED serial killer has escaped
retrial despite "fresh and compelling" evidence that
he had killed three young people being presented to
the government in a secret police report.
The suspect was the only person at the scene of
the disappearance of each of the children in the small
town of Bowraville, on the state's Mid-North Coast.
New investigations revealed evidence linking him
to one of the victims after the teenager's
disappearance, homicide officers have claimed.
A clincher was that never in Australian history
had three children from a country town been murdered
within six months of each other - never mind by more
than one killer - said the report, rejected by
Attorney-General John Hatzistergos.
Mr Hatzistergos has refused to use the state's
double jeopardy laws to recharge the man, who has twice
been acquitted of murder, on the ground there was "no
reasonable prospect" of gaining convictions.
The report, by Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin,
who headed Strike Force Ancud which reinvestigated the
20-year-old killings, has been obtained by families of
victims Colleen Walker, 16, Evelyn Greenup, 4, and
Clinton Speedy Duroux, 16 under Freedom of Information
laws.
The children lived three doors away from each
other and disappeared in 1990 and 1991.
A local man was acquitted in 1994 of the murder of
Clinton, who was last seen in the man's caravan, and in
2006 he was acquitted of the murder of Evelyn, abducted
after a party at her mother's house attended by the man.
The body of Colleen has not been found but her
clothes were discovered along the same road where the
bodies of the other two children were left in the bush.
"I believe that this man is responsible for the
murders of Clinton Speedy and Evelyn Greenup, the
suspected murder of Colleen Walker and disposal of their
bodies," the report said.
"After [he] was charged with the murder of Clinton
Speedy in April 1991, no other murders of this nature
occurred in the area."
Clinton's sister-in-law Leonie Duroux yesterday
said they could not understand why Mr Hatzistergos never
spoke to the police in the eight months it took him to
reject their submission.
"If the matter took eight months to consider one
would assume there was some merit in the application,"
Ms Duroux said. "If the decision was that difficult
would it have been more appropriate to have a court
decide the strength and weaknesses of the evidence?"
Opposition police spokesman Mike Gallacher has
asked Mr Hatzistergos to review his refusal in the light
of the report and pledged the Coalition would reconsider
the case if they are elected next year.
The families have invited Mr Hatzistergos, Premier
Kristina Keneally and Director of Public Prosecutions
Nicholas Cowdery to a public meeting in Bowraville on
December 11 to explain.
THE laws, which had blocked people being tried
twice for the same offence, were overturned in 2006
directly because of a campaign by the Bowraville
families. Along with the police, they want the suspect
to face trial again for the murders of Clinton and
Evelyn and to be charged with Colleen's murder.
A study conducted by the Australian Institute of
Criminology's National Homicide Monitoring Program said
the murder of three children from a small country town
over six months was unique and "the likelihood of three
separate offenders committing those murders appears even
more remote".
Bowraville's Unfinished
Business
Sunday, 17
October, 2010 - SBS
It's been 20 years since three Aboriginal
children disappeared from the NSW town of Bowraville;
their unsolved deaths a source of continued anguish
for their extended families.
Watch Online: Bowraville's Unfinished
Business
Two of these children, four-year-old Evelyn Greenup
and 16-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux, were
murdered. Colleen Walker, 16, is still missing,
presumed dead.
Over the years, the grieving families of these three
victims have continued their efforts to have the
same man retried for the deaths. They believe the
circumstances surrounding all three deaths should be
put before the Court at the same time.
Now, changes to double jeapardy laws mean the
families' hopes may be realise. They hold hopes the
Attorney-General will use his power under new
retrial laws to have the cases reopened.
Video journalist Kodie Bedford spoke with relatives
of these lost children in Bowraville about the pain
they still suffer.
UPDATE
The families of the three Bowraville
children whose deaths remain unsolved have called
for a parliamentary inquiry after New South Wales
Attorney-General John Hatzistergos rejected their
application to pursue a further trial.
Leonie Duroux, the sister-in-law of murder victim
Clinton Speedy-Duroux, said the families were very
upset by the Attorney-General’s decision.
“We’ve got no justice. We kept our silence since the
submission [was made]. We have been dignified, done
all of the right things hoping the system would give
us a chance. All we wanted was a day in court,” Ms
Duroux said.
The families argue the Attorney-General did not
fully investigate the matter.
“During the time the Attorney-General had the
submission he didn’t make any contact with the
detective who has been investigating the case [and]
no contact with the witnesses,” she said.
“He didn’t come to Bowraville. For such an important
decision he should’ve visited the place”.
It’s been 20 years since three Aboriginal children
disappeared over the course of 5 months from the
northern New South Wales town.
Sixteen year old Clinton Speedy-Duroux and
four-year-old Evelyn Greenup were murdered, their
bodies found four kilometres apart in bushland just
outside the community.
Colleen Walker, 16, is still missing and presumed
dead after her weighted down clothes were discovered
in the Nambucca River seven months after she
vanished in September 1990.
A Bowraville man was charged over the murders of
Clinton and Evelyn but he was separately tried and
acquitted in both cases. No charge has been laid for
Colleen’s death.
The families have continued their efforts to have
this same man retried, believing the circumstances
surrounding all three deaths should be put before
the courts at the same time.
In 2006 the State Government modified the double
jeopardy law, allowing the NSW courts to over ride
this principle, which says an acquitted man cannot
be tried twice.
High profile law firm Allens Arthur Robinson made a
submission to the Attorney-General on behalf of the
families to have the case reopened under these new
laws.
It took eight months for the Attorney-General to
reach his decision.
In a statement to Living Black, lawyers acting for
the families expressed their disappointment.
“This was an opportunity for the Attorney to test
this important new legislation and allow a court to
assess the significance of the evidence. It is an
opportunity that this Attorney has passed up”,
lawyers Oscar Shub and Brendan Ferguson said via a
spokesperson.
The lead detective in the case Detective Inspector
Gary Jubelin said he would be meeting with the
families in the near future.
“It is my intention to properly assess the
information supplied by the Attorney-General, then
seek advice and see if there is anything further
that can be done to find justice of the families of
the three murdered children.”
The Attorney-General released a statement last
Friday saying he was concerned nobody has been
brought to justice over these deaths.
“Decisions of this type however must be made
objectively and on the basis of all the available
evidence,” Mr Hatzistergos said.
“The Crown Advocate, The Director of Public
Prosecutions and Solicitor General have all
considered this matter, and are of the view that
there is no reasonable prospect of success.”
The families of the three victims have said they
will not give up but conceded they are running out
of options.
“If there was a change of parliament we could
resubmit the submission [to a new
Attorney-General]”, Ms Duroux said.
“We’re not giving up just yet. We’re going to keep
on fighting.”
TRANSCRIPT
MICHELLE STADHAMS, EVELYN’S AUNTY: Rebecca had
come in and said, "Evelyn's missing", and I said to
her, you know, "What do you mean missing?" I just
started spinning because I just couldn't believe
what I was hearing.
KODIE BEDFORD: Michelle Stadhams is reliving
the night her niece Evelyn Greenup disappeared. It's
now been 20 years since Evelyn's death, but the
memories are still fresh.
MICHELLE STADHAMS: I had to go around and tell
everybody else, you know, get up looking for her, we
can't find her.
KODIE BEDFORD: Evelyn was one of three
Aboriginal children to disappear from the Bowraville
mission in northern NSW. All three disappeared over
the course of five months. 16-year-old Colleen
Walker was the first to go missing in September
1990. Her body was never found, but her weighted
down clothes were discovered here in the Nambucca
River seven months later. Four-year-old Evelyn was
murdered in October 1990, and in February 1991,
16-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux had also been
murdered. Both Clinton and Evelyn's remains were
found four kilometres apart in the same tract of
bushland just outside the town. For the families,
the pain of losing their loved ones has been
intensified by the fact no one has been convicted
over their deaths.
DIANNE DUROUX, CLINTON’S AUNTY: The pain is
still there. You know, I don't think it will ever go
away. You know, to find out, you know, something
like that had happened to him and where they found
him and, you know, how he was found.
MICHELLE STADHAMS: We want justice. We want
someone behind bars. We want to be able to say, "You
did this to our girl, you took her away." We want
someone to be accountable for taking her life.
KODIE BEDFORD: For the past 14 years,
Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin has led the police
investigation into the deaths. During that time he's
become close to the grieving families.
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR GARY JUBELIN, NSW POLICE:
They've taken comfort from the fact that people do
care, and that people are trying to help them find
out what happened to their children and then bring
justice.
KODIE BEDFORD: A local Bowraville man was
charged over the murders of Clinton and Evelyn, but
he was separately tried and acquitted in both cases.
No charge has yet been laid for Colleen's death.
Over the years the families of the three victims
have continued their efforts to have the same man
retried for the deaths, believing that the
circumstances surrounding all three deaths should be
put before the court at the same time. And with the
2006 legislation now allowing the NSW courts to
override changes to the double jeopardy principle,
which says an acquitted person cannot be tried
twice, they hold hopes that the NSW Attorney-General
will use the new retrial laws to have the cases
reopened. Sydney barrister Chris Barry believes it
will be rare that a case is able to meet the strict
criteria necessary for this to happen.
CHRIS BARRY, BARRISTER: For them to do that
that they need to satisfy the court of criminal
appeal that there is fresh and compelling evidence
against the particular person and the court of
criminal appeal needs to be satisfied that it's in
the interests of justice that the person be retried.
High profile law firm Allens Arthur Robinson has
taken up the case on the families' behalf. In a
statement to 'Living Black' they said: "This is a
case that deserves wider attention and our team
working on the matter is very committed to assisting
the families in whatever way it can." The matter was
submitted to the NSW Attorney-General eight months
ago, and the families are still waiting on a
decision. In the meantime, they are sustained by the
memories of the children they lost.
DIANNE DUROUX: Dancing all the time. He was
always doing some Michael Jackson move. Yeah,
dressing the kids up when he used to stay with me.
MICHELLE STADHAMS: The first thing you'd see
were her curls and her blue eyes and her smile. You
know, we couldn't protect her in life but we're
going to fight for her and make sure she gets the
justice that she deserves. That's the least we could
do for her, you know.
KODIE BEDFORD: It is not known how long it
will be until the cases' future is determined.
Justice
sought in Bowraville murders
Belinda Scott | 6th October 2010 - Coffs Coast
Advocate
A FORMER Bowraville resident may become the
first person to be re-charged under changes to
double jeopardy law which came into force in 2006.
The matter is currently before the NSW
Attorney General John Hatzistergos.
The man has been acquitted twice on murder
charges following the deaths of three Bowraville
children 20 years ago.
“The matter is currently being reviewed and is
not yet resolved; as such, the Attorney General
cannot provide any further comment on it,” a
spokesman for Mr Hatzistergos said yesterday.
Colleen Walker, 16, Evelyn Greenup, 4, and
Clinton Speedy, 16, were murdered in late 1990 and
early 1991 at Bowraville.
The remains of Clinton Speedy and Evelyn
Greenup were later found near the town.
The clothes last worn by Colleen Walker,
weighted down by rocks, were found in the Nambucca
River by a fisherman. Her remains have never been
found.
Despite the efforts of NSW Police homicide
detectives from Strike Force ANCUD, no-one has been
convicted of the murders.
The same man was tried for the murder of
Clinton Speedy in 1994 and for the murder of Evelyn
Greenup in 2006.
He was acquitted on both occasions but the
families of the three victims have continued their
efforts to have him tried again.
In 2006 they campaigned successfully to have
the NSW Government to change the double jeopardy
legislation, which prevented anyone from being tried
twice for the same crime.
The changes made four years ago mean that the
same person could be tried again, if fresh and
compelling evidence was found against the person and
if in all the circumstances, a re-trial was in the
interest of justice.
“We want justice for our kids,” said Evelyn
Greenup’s aunt, Michelle Stradhams.
“Evelyn’s life was taken so early.
“Justice would provide healing for the family
and community.”
The new legal push by the three Bowraville
families is being assisted by The Public Interest
Law Clearing House, a senior counsel and
international law firm Allens Arthur Robinson,
working on a pro bono basis.
“This is a case that deserves wider
attention,” said spokesman for Allens Arthur
Robinson, Chris Fogerty.
“Our team working on this matter is very
committed to assisting the families in whatever way
it can.”