00:00:00
Today's episode was originally a premium only release, meaning it was only available for our paying subscribers.
00:00:08
Given that we never intended to keep premium episodes behind a permanent pay wall, these remaining episodes are now
00:00:14
being released to all listeners as part of our case file archive series to mark our 10-year anniversary.
00:00:21
If you're interested in supporting the show, you can still find our subscriber channels on Patreon, Apple Podcasts, or
00:00:28
Spotify. However, please note that moving forward, we will no longer be producing premium only episodes. Paid
00:00:36
subscribers will continue to receive new case file episodes one week early and ad
00:00:41
free, as well as episodes of Behind the Files, where the case file team answers your questions and discusses the recent
00:00:48
cases we have covered. As always, I'd like to offer a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has
00:00:56
listened and supported the show over the years, especially our Patreon and premium subscribers. We appreciate each
00:01:03
and every one of you. Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
00:01:24
any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers, for
00:01:31
confidential support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this
00:01:37
episode on your app or on our website. >> [music] >> On the night of Thursday, April 8, 1998,
00:01:47
Luke Nolan and his partner Angela were driving along the Hume Highway, [music] one of Australia's major interstate
00:01:54
roadways. The Hume stretches for 840 km between the capital cities of Melbourne and
00:02:01
Sydney. With the dozens of exits and interchanges dotted throughout, Luke and Angela were heading to the New
00:02:09
South Wales border city of Aubry for the Easter break. As they traveled north on a quiet and
00:02:16
remote stretch of the highway between the Victorian towns of Euroa and Manila, the couple encountered something that
00:02:22
made them markedly uneasy. A large red freight truck with a white semi-trail was weaving in a snake-like
00:02:31
way. across the northbound roads double lanes. Luke and Angela suspected the truck's
00:02:38
driver was either drowsy or on something. Wanting to get a safe [music] distance
00:02:43
away, Luke moved into the right lane to overtake the truck. Just as he drew near, the truck veered
00:02:51
over into his lane. Luke hit the brakes and pulled back. When the truck was back in the left
00:02:59
lane, Luke tried once more to overtake, but it swerved again. It took Luke three more attempts before
00:03:07
he was finally able to overtake the dangerous truck, and it gradually became a [music] distant speck in his rear view
00:03:14
mirror. A short time later, at 12:15 a.m. on Friday, April 9, Victoria Police's major
00:03:46
collision investigation unit were alerted to an incident on the Hume Highway near Violet Town, the halfway
00:03:53
point between Euroa and Benella. The request for the major collision squad's presence highlighted the
00:04:00
seriousness of the matter, as they were only ever summoned to vehicular incidents that resulted in
00:04:06
life-threatening injury. The team immediately left their office in Melbourne and headed up the Hume
00:04:13
Highway, where the densely populated cityscape soon gave way to long stretches of agricultural fields,
00:04:20
rolling hillsides, and thicket of trees. The highway consisted of four lanes, two
00:04:27
in each direction, with a large grassy median strip between them. Even with their lights on and sirens
00:04:35
blaring, it took the major collision team 2 hours to reach the remote location where the incident had
00:04:41
occurred. They could easily tell when they were drawing close to the site as an uncharacteristically long traffic jam
00:04:49
had formed despite the early hour. The Hume was particularly busy that [music] night as travelers drove to or
00:04:57
from Regional Victoria for the Easter break. Police further ahead were directing cars
00:05:04
to turn off the highway at an exit before Violet Town, but the detour was slow moving.
00:05:11
The major collision team veered onto the gravel that boarded the road and slowly
00:05:16
drove past the bumper-to-bumper traffic until they spotted the incident site artificially lit up in the distance.
00:05:24
They parked well clear of the [music] debris and walked the rest of the way. By now, it was 3:00 a.m. and icy cold.
00:05:36
The surrounding countryside was still blanketed in pitch black darkness. As the major collision team approached
00:05:44
the scene, [music] they realized the incident involved a Mazda Bravo four-wheel drive that had been towing a
00:05:50
caravan. The two vehicles had separated and rolled in different directions. The caravan had come to rest upright on
00:05:59
the median strip in the middle of the highway. A rectangular section had been torn
00:06:05
cleanly from the back right hand panel, leaving a gaping hole that exposed a tartan mattress within.
00:06:14
The Mazda had landed upside down on the other side of the highway. Several items had tumbled out of the
00:06:21
vehicle as it rolled, including a coloring book, pencils, [music] children's slippers, various toys, and
00:06:28
empty fast food cups. Protruding from a shuttered window was a small pair of blood streaked feet.
00:06:37
They belonged to a young boy who was lying face down on the roof inside, clearly deceased.
00:06:45
One of his hands still grasped an Easter egg wrapped in gold foil that he had been holding at the time of the
00:06:51
collision. The child was identified as 12-year-old Nikki Fleming. He had sustained severe
00:07:00
head injuries as well as fractured ribs and a broken leg and collarbone. Nikki had been traveling with his father
00:07:08
who was behind the wheel as well as his brother and sister. They had been rushed to hospital by the
00:07:15
time the major collision team had arrived. Their injuries varied in severity, though all miraculously survived.
00:07:25
Ian Fleming, Nikki's 45-year-old father, had a broken arm, a lacerated forehead,
00:07:31
and [music] a deep cut across his nose. His eldest, 13-year-old son, suffered a fractured skull.
00:07:39
Ian's [music] 8-year-old daughter was being treated for minor cuts and grazes. While recovering in hospital, Ian
00:07:48
Fleming was able to recall the leadup to the collision. He had left his home on the seaside
00:07:55
Morningington Peninsula Shire southeast of Melbourne at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 9.
00:08:02
He and his children were going on their annual Easter camping trip in the northeastern Victorian town of Bright,
00:08:09
more than 4 hours away. The children's mother had decided she wanted to do other things that weekend,
00:08:16
so it was just Ian and their kids. After packing the caravan, Ian drove north until he reached the Hume Highway.
00:08:27
Shortly before 11 p.m., Ian noticed his petrol tank was running low. Bright was still over an hour and a half
00:08:35
away, so Ian had to stop somewhere to refuel. He saw a sign up ahead for Violet Town
00:08:42
and safely reduced his speed to [music] take the turn off. Just before the exit, Ian was startled
00:08:50
by a loud bang. Ian's body immediately jolted forward with such intensity that it left him
00:08:58
feeling dazed. Within seconds, his car veered out of control. Ian's mind raced as he tried to
00:09:06
understand what had happened. He thought he must have blown a tire or the car was
00:09:11
malfunctioning in some other way. He desperately tried to regain control, but the car seemed to have a will of its
00:09:19
own. It mounted the median strip and flipped before rolling over and over for what
00:09:26
seemed like forever. When the car eventually came to a stop on its roof, Ian could hear his daughter
00:09:34
whimpering and he called out asking if she was all right. Ian removed his seat belt and fell to
00:09:42
the roof. His daughter did the same, [music] as did his oldest son. 12-year-old Nikki didn't move.
00:09:53
Ian managed to escape the wreck. Broken glass coated the road. The roof inside the car was stained with
00:10:02
blood. Ian dragged his children out one by one. The two older children were hurt, but
00:10:11
conscious. Nikki wasn't responding to his father at all. He had died on impact. Ian had no idea what had happened.
00:10:29
When first responders arrived, they initially thought the incident was a single vehicle collision as there were
00:10:35
no other impacted vehicles or victims in the vicinity. It wasn't until they spoke with
00:10:41
witnesses an hour after the crash that they learned a large red freight truck with a white semi-trail was responsible.
00:10:50
It had been cited driving erratically along the Hume, drifting between lanes and almost hitting other motorists in
00:10:57
the leadup to the crash. There was no clear explanation for the truck's reckless driving. It had been a
00:11:05
clear night with perfect conditions. The incident occurred on a straight stretch of road in the middle of empty
00:11:13
fields. Ian Fleming hadn't noticed the truck at all as it carelessly barreled up behind
00:11:20
him. What happened next was described as every highway users's worst [music] nightmare.
00:11:27
The Waywood truck clipped the rear of the Flemings caravan, which caused the Mazdar in front to go wildly astray.
00:11:38
There was little Le Ian Fleming could do to prevent what happened next. The caravan was hit on its right hand
00:11:45
side, causing it to veer violently to the left. This made the Mazda jack knifed to the right toward the median
00:11:53
strip. The caravan was wrenched free and slid across the road on its side before
00:12:00
somehow riding itself and coming to rest on the median strip. It had a few minor dents and scratches
00:12:08
and the rear right panel had been cleanly torn off by an eyebolt on the front of the truck.
00:12:15
Otherwise, the caravan was in remarkably good condition. The same couldn't be said for the Mazda.
00:12:24
The truck driver had swerved to the right to avoid the caravan as it swung violently.
00:12:30
This caused the truck to collide with the driver's side of the Fleming's Mazda and hit it again when the car rotated.
00:12:39
The car was sent into a high velocity roll that left a perfect impression of its side in the bumen.
00:12:46
It rolled three times before its crushed wreckage finally came to rest 105 m down
00:12:53
the road. A collision squad reconstruction expert calculated that the truck, which was
00:13:01
carrying upwards of 40 tons, had been exceeding the speed limit at 106 km hour before the driver slammed the brakes 10
00:13:10
to 20 m behind the caravan. It was too little, too late. The Mazda had slowed down to 88 km hour
00:13:21
in preparation for taking the exit to Violet Town. The truck driver had failed to react
00:13:28
sooner, causing the fatal and devastating crash. It was speculated that the driver had
00:13:35
been tailgating the Mazda, following too closely and not leaving a safe distance
00:13:40
between them. Ian Fleming's field of vision was obscured by the caravan, so he wasn't
00:13:47
aware of the danger right behind him. The truck disappeared in a cloud of dust immediately after the collision.
00:13:57
No one caught a glimpse of the driver and none of the witnesses followed in pursuit as they had pulled over and
00:14:04
assumed the truck would do the same. This categorized the incident as a hit and run, a criminal offense.
00:14:14
Police established a roadblock further north where the Hume Highway crossed over into New South Wales, hoping to
00:14:21
intercept the fleeing truck there, but it didn't appear. The morning sun revealed the full scope
00:14:31
of the crime scene. Investigators likened it to a bomb site. An aerial view of the crash showed
00:14:39
debris strewn 400 m up the highway. Black skid marks left by the missing truck showed how it had swerved around
00:14:48
the debris and onto the gravel along the shoulder of the road before regaining control and fleeing the scene.
00:14:56
Double tracked tire tracks arched across both northbound lanes of the highway and
00:15:01
continued onto the median strip. This meant the truck traveled for some meters on the grass after the collision,
00:15:09
perhaps giving the driver enough time to slow down and veer left to take the Violet Town exit.
00:15:17
If not, they must have continued straight up the highway and taken another exit further ahead.
00:15:25
By the time the major collision investigation unit were beginning their search for the truck, it already had a
00:15:31
near 4-hour head start. There were multiple routes it could have taken in every direction.
00:15:40
By daybreak, it might have already been many hundreds of kilome away. The section of road where the fatal
00:15:51
crash occurred remained blocked over the busy Easter weekend. With such a large-scale crime scene on a
00:15:58
busy interstate highway, part of the challenge was sorting out which pieces of debris belonged to it and which
00:16:05
didn't. All up, it took investigators more than 12 hours to collect evidence and
00:16:12
document the crime scene. Double the time it usually takes. All sorts of unrelated vehicle
00:16:20
components were found amongst the wreckage until a major collision team member stumbled upon an accident
00:16:26
investigators version of a jackpot. Some small pieces of amber glass from a broken indicator light.
00:16:34
Most significantly, [music] one of the pieces had a serial number on it. Investigators contacted the makers of
00:16:43
the glass, a company called Hela Australia, and provided the serial number. Hela's records revealed they had fitted
00:16:51
that same kind of light to various boats and cars, as well as many trucks over the years, though they couldn't pinpoint
00:16:59
which exact vehicle the glass from the crime scene had originated from. Looking closely at the back right hand
00:17:07
panel torn from the caravan, investigators noticed a rectangular indentation imprinted on the aluminium.
00:17:15
It looked like an inverted V or perhaps the top of an A. Investigators thought it might be the
00:17:23
impression of a number plate. At this early juncture, the police had few details to go on. All they knew was
00:17:32
that they were looking for a red freight truck with a white semi-trail, a broken
00:17:37
amber indicator light, and possibly a license plate that featured the letter V or A.
00:17:44
Ian Fleming appealed to the hit run driver from his hospital bed. He was in shock over losing Nikki, whom
00:17:52
he described as a beautiful child and much loved son and brother with a wide range of interests, including softball,
00:18:00
drama, and a jazz ballet. When Ian first learned that the person responsible for Nikki's death had fled
00:18:08
the scene, he was furious. Since then, he'd come to understand that the driver likely panicked and made a
00:18:16
spur-of-the- moment decision to leave. Ian remained hopeful they would do the right thing. He begged the unknown
00:18:25
driver, "I'd like him now to think about what he's done and honor himself and step forward, please."
00:18:39
Investigators were aware that it wasn't unusual for hit-run offenders to give themselves up in the days following
00:18:46
crashes. Sometimes they needed to come to grips with what had happened or sober up from
00:18:52
stimulants they had taken. Hitrun offenders almost always told someone what they'd done. If not, the damage to
00:19:01
their vehicle raised questions and they'd be dobbed in. The police knew in this circumstance
00:19:08
that there was no way the truck driver hadn't realized the damage they'd caused. As a spokesperson stated,
00:19:16
"It is obvious to us the driver knew he had been in a very serious collision, and he showed considerable skill to get
00:19:24
back on the road. A 12-year-old boy deserves more than to be left by the side of the Hume Highway for dead."
00:19:34
Truckers shared news of Nikki Fleming's death over their vehicles CB radios, calling the person responsible a
00:19:41
mongrel. They urged him to come forward and stop giving them all a bad rap. Rival truck drivers accused each other
00:19:50
of being responsible. Crimestoppers also received a deluge of tip offs from individuals with personal
00:19:58
vandettas against particular truckies, from former partners to neighbors who were sick of seeing rigs parked in their
00:20:05
street. Investigators followed up each lead and interviewed many drivers, ruling them
00:20:12
out one by one. As time wore on, it became clear that Ian Fleming's impassioned plea had
00:20:20
fallen on deaf ears. With no one coming forward to claim responsibility, [music] detectives were
00:20:27
facing the worst case scenario. The driver seemingly hadn't told a soul, and the damage to their truck had either
00:20:35
gone unnoticed or was discreetly repaired before it raised any questions. Investigators suspected they were
00:20:44
looking for an owner driver rather than a company driver as the collision damage
00:20:49
would be easier to hide if the trucky wasn't answerable to anyone. Back at their Melbourne office, the
00:20:57
major collision investigation unit got back to work. Not being trucking experts, they were
00:21:04
about to take a steep learning curve. If the truck driver was heading north along the Hume Highway just before
00:21:11
Easter, he had to be going home because most truck depots would be closed over the long weekend.
00:21:18
It was unlikely he would sit outside a closed depot and wait 4 days for them to open again.
00:21:26
Inquiries at the State Motor Registration Board revealed that there were 160,000 trucks registered on
00:21:32
Australian roads. Finding the one responsible was going to be a massive undertaking.
00:21:43
In the meantime, forensic analysts examined the evidence from the crime scene. The truck had left smears of red
00:21:51
paint on the Mazda and caravan. Under a microscope, the paint was shown to have an ironbased undercoat with an epoxy
00:21:59
primer and a top coat. The top coat was made from an organic red pigment. Most people see a red car or truck, but
00:22:09
can't differentiate between different shades and color bases. This was purplish red.
00:22:17
Paint samples were requested from companies that had red branded trucks, including Australia Post and Mac Trucks,
00:22:24
as well as from the paint manufacturers themselves. None matched the paint from the
00:22:30
collision. A gantry on the New South Wales border photographed all trucks that crossed
00:22:37
from Victoria. 30 km further up the road, the trucks were photographed again and their speed
00:22:44
was calculated from the time between the photos. Infringement notices were issued to
00:22:50
truckies who were found to be speeding. 50 black and white photos of trucks were
00:22:56
taken in the period between 10:30 p.m. on April 9 and 6:00 a.m. on April 10. None of the vehicles featured damage
00:23:06
consistent with the collision. When the Mazda Bravo and the Caravan were forensically examined, photographs
00:23:14
of the damage were sent to the major collision investigation unit. They arranged to get a blown up picture
00:23:21
of the caravan's rear right hand panel where the truck had made initial contact.
00:23:27
Upon studying the images closely, investigators deduced the letter V or A impressions were the wrong size to be
00:23:35
lettering from a license plate. The shapes had to have been made by something on the front of the truck's
00:23:42
bullbar. They could now see there was a rectangular shape with the inverted V as
00:23:49
well as some circles and a rectangular tear. Trucks had all sorts of signage on their
00:23:55
fronts. Investigators knew if they could identify what imagery caused the strange
00:24:01
impression, they might be able to identify the truck. However, by the eighth week of the
00:24:09
investigation, the case had stalled. After a massive interstate search, all possible leads had reached dead ends.
00:24:19
By now, Nikki Fleming had been laid to rest in a moving service attended by 350 family members and friends.
00:24:28
Despite the outpouring of love and grief, the culprit continued to show no remorse by refusing to come forward.
00:24:38
No one was more invested in finding the person responsible than Senior Constable
00:24:42
Casten Schulz of the Major Collision Investigation Unit. The case preoccupied his mind at all
00:24:49
times, and he agonized over the evidence, trying to uncover something they had missed.
00:24:55
He even bought every trucking magazine he could find in the hopes they featured an image of the truck they were
00:25:01
desperately looking for. Having a son of his own only amplified Constable Schulz's drive to find Nikki
00:25:09
Fleming's killer. Constable Schulz worked the case full-time. After one shift, he drove to a local
00:25:18
industrial estate where several trucking yards were located. He drove by each site before coming
00:25:25
across a red truck parked up the road. What caught his eye were two small canvas covers on the left and right hand
00:25:34
sides of the bullbar under the headlights. The insignia on the covers was a big white W with a red star in the middle.
00:25:44
It was the logo for Western Star, an international truck manufacturer. Schulz had examined pictures of the
00:25:53
Fleming's caravan panel thousands of times and all of a sudden it clicked. The inverted V was in fact the center of
00:26:02
a W. The truck at the center of the collision was a Western Star. Heler Australia, the company that fitted
00:26:13
the truck's amber glass indicator light, had a contract with Western Star. Finally, the case was moving forward.
00:26:22
Constable Schulz got out of his car to take a closer look at the red truck. It showed no sign of damage or repair
00:26:29
consistent with the Violet Town collision. The truck's driver was nevertheless tracked down and ruled out.
00:26:38
Constable Schulz had found the right [music] type of truck, just not the one he was looking for.
00:26:46
The major collision team could now further narrow down their search by finding out which Western Star trucks
00:26:52
were fitted with the model of Hela light fragments found at the crime scene. Records indicated that 1,732
00:27:02
trucks built since 1993 had the hella amber light. As it turned out, the measurements of
00:27:12
the indentations left by the truck's bullbar weren't standard. The vertical sections were 75 mm wide,
00:27:21
while most vertical uprights on bullbars were between 90 and 100 mm wide. There were only a few manufacturers who
00:27:30
made 75 mm uprights. One of them was King Bars in Queensland. Western Star trucks were manufactured in
00:27:40
Queensland, so it stood to reason that King Bars might be their supplier of choice.
00:27:47
According to King Bar's manager, only one bullbar fit the measurements of the suspect truck, a 4964F
00:27:55
heavyduty road train bar. A wooden mockup made to the King Bar's specifications was placed against the
00:28:03
Fleming's caravan panel. It fit like a glove. Same with the Mazda panel. The King Bar's manager sent his receipt
00:28:14
books to Melbourne. His records revealed that 679 Western Star trucks had the heavy duty
00:28:22
road train bullbar. Of these, 206 were fitted with the bullbar and the Western Star canvas
00:28:30
covers. For an investigation that had begun with 160,000 possible trucks, police were now
00:28:39
down to 206. Each of these trucks had to be located and checked. This proved difficult as
00:28:48
the trucks traveled the entire country. A four-page questionnaire was distributed to police and was to be
00:28:56
filled out each time a Western Star truck was pulled over, listing make, model, color, and most importantly, any
00:29:04
damage to its exterior. This meant the hit-run driver would have every traffic cop looking for him.
00:29:13
The plan also compelled every innocent truck driver to be on the lookout for the culprit in order to take the heat
00:29:20
off them. Forensic officer Ted Kennedy Ripen had been assisting detectives with the case,
00:29:29
but in midepptember he temporarily stepped away to go on personal leave. During his break, Ted and his family
00:29:37
holidayed with his in-laws in the northern Victorian town of Auka. At around lunchtime on Saturday,
00:29:44
September 12th, Ted and his father-in-law went for a drive and pulled into a service station to get
00:29:50
some petrol. When Ted exited the car, he noticed a red truck parked on the other side of
00:29:57
the station. As his father-in-law filled the tank, Ted walked over to the truck for a
00:30:03
better look. With no sign of the truck's driver, Ted approached cautiously from the side.
00:30:12
The vehicle's big silver logo caught his eye. It read, "Western Star." "Right sort of truck," Ted thought.
00:30:24
After examining paint samples for months, he also knew it was exactly the [music] right purplish red color.
00:30:32
Ted looked at the bullbar to see if there was any signs of damage. It was then that he spotted a crack in
00:30:39
the bottom rung on the right hand side consistent with the Violet Town collision.
00:30:46
He also saw a damaged indicator light that someone had tried to repair. The truck had Western Star canvas covers
00:30:54
on the front and the eyebolt was in the correct position to have made the tear in the caravan panel.
00:31:03
With growing excitement, Ted realized his stroke of luck. He walked around the truck to see if
00:31:09
there was any damage to the paintwork and found a scrape the size of a 10-centent coin close to the Hela light.
00:31:18
Everything was consistent with Violet Town. As Ted leaned in to inspect the scraped
00:31:25
paintwork, the truck driver stepped down from the truck's cabin. Ted hadn't noticed him there and nearly
00:31:32
jumped out of his skin. [music] When Ted Kennedy Ripen came face to face with the truck driver, who could be the
00:31:44
man they'd been hunting for 6 months, the first thing he thought to say was, "How big's your engine?"
00:31:53
Playing it cool, Ted pretended he was a trucking enthusiast. The truck driver's initial suspicion
00:32:00
relaxed as the two men started talking trucks. "Do you own it?" Ted [music] asked. The
00:32:08
driver replied nonchalantly with a laugh. "Nah, the bank owns it." This meant he was an owner driver, just
00:32:17
the type investigators suspected was responsible for the hit and run. [music] Ted returned to his father-in-law and
00:32:26
wrote down the truck's details. He then contacted the major collision investigation unit and provided a
00:32:32
detailed description of the truck. What Ted didn't know was that an officer in Victoria had pulled over the same
00:32:40
truck 3 days earlier and filled out the questionnaire provided by case investigators.
00:32:47
The driver's name was Brett Kilmore. He was from Queensland and was a 30-year-old father of two.
00:32:56
Two hits on Kilmore's truck in 5 days pushed it to the top of the investigation.
00:33:04
Investigators worked to determine if they could place Brett Kilmore on the Hume Highway on the night of Thursday,
00:33:10
April 8, 1998. They checked Kilmore's mobile phone records and discovered that his device
00:33:18
had been traveling north along the Hume Highway that very night. At 10:09 p.m., he placed a call near the
00:33:26
town of Nagambi. Violet Town was a further 60 km away. Travel timings aligned for him to have
00:33:35
been involved in the collision. Kilmore's mobile had no further activity until 1:49 the following morning, almost
00:33:45
2 hours after the crash. Call towers pinpointed his location around the regional city of Sheperton,
00:33:53
less than an hour's drive northwest of Violet Town, indicating that Kilmore exited the Hume shortly after Violet
00:34:00
Town and continued along the New Highway. This was not a typical [music] route truck drivers used when traveling north
00:34:09
and explained why Kilmore went unnoticed after the crash. This data also showed that Kilmore had
00:34:17
stopped his truck for quite some time in the middle of the night before continuing on.
00:34:24
It turned out Brett Kilmore was the focus of three other investigations pertaining to car collisions that took
00:34:31
place after Violet Town. Two occurred in South Australia and another was in New South Wales.
00:34:40
In fact, at the time investigators were honing in on Kilmore, his red Western Star truck was in for repairs.
00:34:48
If damage on the truck was being repaired, then possible evidence from the Violet Town collision could be lost.
00:34:56
It was imperative that the truck be impounded and forensically examined without delay.
00:35:07
Members of the major collision investigation unit traveled to Queensland and immediately swooped on
00:35:12
Brett Kilmore's truck. Inside, [music] investigators found a strange device wired to the engine and hidden in a
00:35:20
compartment in the sleeper cabin. Known as a whizzer, this was used to override speed limiters on trucks.
00:35:30
Prior to the Violet Town crash, the offending truck was traveling at 106 kmph. Western Star Trucks were speed limited
00:35:40
to 100 km per hour. That meant the suspect used a device to override the speed limiter. And here it
00:35:49
was. There were three huge round fuel tanks on the right hand side of Kilmore's truck under the driver's door.
00:35:59
One of the fuel tanks had a huge dent in it, [music] but had been turned around,
00:36:03
so the dent faced inwards and couldn't be seen. This was definite evidence [music] of
00:36:09
Violet Town. The cracked bullbar was also consistent with the crime scene. Furthermore, a tiny patch of canvas
00:36:19
found embedded into a screw from the caravan's rear right panel was a perfect match for the hole in the Western Star
00:36:26
road train cover. On Tuesday, October 7, 1998, almost 6 months to the day since the Violet Town
00:36:36
collision, a tall, lanky man walked into a Nala police station in Queensland. It was Brett Kilmore.
00:36:45
He explained that a New South Wales police officer had asked him to report to the station in regards to a collision
00:36:52
he'd been involved in. Victoria's major collision team was waiting out the back of the station.
00:37:01
Kilmore's arrival had been a trap they'd arranged with their interstate colleagues.
00:37:07
After being informed that Kilmore was present, they ushered him into an interview room.
00:37:14
Kilmore didn't appear nervous until the officers introduced themselves. We're from the Victoria Police and we
00:37:22
would like to ask you some questions about a collision at Violet Town on April 9 this year.
00:37:29
Kilmore was immediately rattled and replied, "What Victorian collision? I thought I
00:37:36
was here about a New South Wales collision." Then Kilmore began to shake. After a moment of anxious silence, he
00:37:47
asked, "Should I ring a solicitor?" [music] Investigators told Kilmore that it was
00:37:57
up to him, but cautioned that anything he said would be used as evidence. Kilmore stared at the floor before
00:38:05
announcing, "I've been waiting for you Blok to come around for 6 months." With that, the floodgates opened.
00:38:17
Kilmore denied driving erratically that night, but admitted to taking no do caffeine tablets that can restore mental
00:38:25
alertness and wakefulness in moments of fatigue. Despite knowing that driving while
00:38:31
fatigued was dangerous, [music] Kilmore blamed the pressures placed on truck drivers, especially owner operators.
00:38:40
He said he often drove for excessive hours to make ends meet as he had once been sacked for running late.
00:38:48
Kilmore said that he hadn't seen the Fleming's caravan until it was too late to avoid it. He tried to blame bright
00:38:56
lights on a vehicle behind his truck for distracting him, but this didn't add up.
00:39:02
Investigators had interviewed multiple witnesses and none reported seeing a car with bright lights or high beams behind
00:39:09
the truck. Kilmore admitted that he had collided with the Fleming's caravan and car. He
00:39:17
then veered off the Violet Town exit before stopping up the road. From there, he could see cars on the
00:39:25
Hume Highway screeching to a halt in the aftermath of the collision. Kilmore claimed to have seen other cars
00:39:33
navigate around the crash and keep driving, which led him to believe it mustn't have been that serious.
00:39:41
A mix of fear and panic propelled him to drive on and to not go back. A week later, Kilmore paid a repairer in
00:39:51
Queensland $100 to fix his damaged bullbar. Checking Kilmore's mobile phone records
00:39:58
for the week after Violet Town, investigators rang every number with the Queensland prefix07.
00:40:06
Eventually, they located the repairman. The major collision detective introduced
00:40:12
himself over the phone and said, "I'm making inquiries about a hit run in Victoria where a young child was killed.
00:40:21
I believe you may have repaired a truck that was involved in the collision. There was a pause at the other end of
00:40:29
the phone before the man replied. You're not going to tell me that the bloke who came in here killed that kid
00:40:36
at Violet Town. I had a feeling about that bloke. I even told my mate in the factory next door
00:40:44
that it might be him. The repairer's voice shook as he spoke. It was clear he was upset that he hadn't
00:40:53
trusted his instincts and contacted authorities earlier on. There was nothing that could be done to
00:41:03
prove or disprove whether Kilmore had taken any illegal substances in the leadup to the collision.
00:41:11
Investigators suspected Kilmore had deliberately collided with the other vehicles in the 6 months after the
00:41:17
event. This would give him a legitimate reason for claiming repairs to his truck while
00:41:23
concealing the damage that occurred outside Violet Town. Brett Kilmore faced 10 charges,
00:41:31
including culpable driving, failing to stop at an accident, failing to render assistance, and a string of other
00:41:38
offenses relating to the injuries to the Fleming family. He made no formal plea and faced trial
00:41:46
in March 2000, [music] nearly 2 years after the devastating collision. Kilmore maintained that it was a
00:41:55
horrific accident and not gross negligence. After 2 days of deliberation, the jury
00:42:02
returned a guilty verdict on all counts. Brett Kilmore was impassive as the judge
00:42:09
read out his sentence of 5 years in prison with a 3-year minimum sentence. Nikki's mother was angry that the 3-year
00:42:18
suspension of Kilmore's driver's license would coincide with his prison sentence
00:42:23
[music] instead of being instituted following his release. Relatives and friends met to celebrate what would
00:42:31
have been Nikki Fleming's 14th birthday [music] the same week Brett Kilmore was found guilty.
00:42:37
In a victim impact statement, Nikki's brother told the court that he had lost his brother and his best friend in the
00:42:44
collision. Nikki's mother said both of her surviving children were traumatized by
00:42:51
what had happened. outside the court, she told reporters of her pain. Every day I don't have my son. Every day
00:43:03
I have that loss. When asked about Brett Kilmore, she simply said, "I hope that every day he's
00:43:12
in jail, he thinks about driving carefully when he comes out." Following the closing of the case, Ted
00:43:21
Kennedy Ripen, who had stumbled upon Brett Kilmore's truck, received commendations from the chief
00:43:27
commissioner of police. For a long time thereafter, he was known as truck stop Ted. [music]
00:43:35
Senior Constable Casten Schultz of Victoria Police's major collision investigation unit spoke out about why
00:43:42
he and his team were so dogged in their pursuit of the Violet Town offender. He said
00:43:50
it's an affront that somebody could just not come forward. It goes against honor
00:43:55
and standing up [music] for yourself and taking responsibility for what you did.
00:44:01
You [music] have to be held accountable.