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Our
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episodes deal with serious and often
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00:00:27
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please see the show notes for this
00:00:31
episode on your app or on our website.
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It was getting late on the afternoon of
00:00:41
Wednesday, December 7, 1994, and married
00:00:44
couple Joy and Roger Memory were
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seriously starting to worry. Their
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daughter, 22-year-old Elizabeth, had
00:00:52
been scheduled to attend an important
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doctor's appointment earlier that day,
00:00:56
and they'd been eagerly waiting to hear
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how it went.
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For the past year, Elizabeth had been
00:01:02
experiencing bouts of severe abdominal
00:01:04
pain, and she'd been hoping that this
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specialist appointment might finally
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explain why. When Roger called Elizabeth
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earlier that day to ask how it went, she
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didn't answer her phone.
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He left a message on her answering
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machine, but by 6:00 p.m. she still
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hadn't returned his call.
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Joy tried Elizabeth again. Still no
00:01:27
answer.
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The memory's worry only increased after
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receiving a phone call from Elizabeth's
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boyfriend, Jason, asking if Elizabeth
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was with them. Jason said he, too, had
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been trying unsuccessfully to get in
00:01:41
touch with Elizabeth all day. They'd had
00:01:44
dinner plans the previous night that
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Elizabeth canled at the last minute
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after being asked to work overtime.
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She worked as a bartender at the
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Manhattan Hotel, a pub in the outer
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Melbourne suburb of Ringwood, which was
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just a short drive from her home.
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Their anxiety spiking, Roger and Joy
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Memory drove past the pub to check if
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Elizabeth's car was in the car park.
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Upon seeing it wasn't there, they
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continued on to Elizabeth's flat in
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Ringwood East, which was an 8-minute
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drive away.
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By the time they arrived, it was nearing
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1000 p.m.
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All the lights were off inside, but they
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were relieved to see Elizabeth's car, a
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red Mazda hatchback, parked in its usual
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spot in the driveway.
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They knocked on the flat's front door.
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There was no answer.
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This caused genuine concern for the
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doing parents.
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Elizabeth adored her car. She considered
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it her ticket to independence, and if
00:02:48
she planned on going somewhere, there
00:02:50
was no way she'd leave it behind without
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telling anyone her plans. The only
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explanation the memories could think of
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was that Elizabeth must be sick or
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injured inside the flat.
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At that moment, Jason pulled up.
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The trio examined the property and
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discovered that one of the windows was
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slightly a jar.
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Unsure of what else to do, Jason agreed
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to break in.
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With Roger and Joyy's help, he slowly
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managed to shimmy his way inside.
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The memories waited anxiously outside
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while Jason looked around.
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Then they heard his house.
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At first glance, Elizabeth's flat looked
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like it always did. The front door
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opened to the small living room, which
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was relatively neat and organized.
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There were a few haphazard items in the
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entranceway and clean laundry hanging on
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a small foldup clothes source. The
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adjoining kitchen was spotless. The only
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thing out of place was a single used
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coffee mug that sat in the sink.
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But the hallway told a different story.
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Just outside of Elizabeth's bedroom, a
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large pool of blood stained the hallway
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carpet.
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It looked like someone had tried to mop
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it up.
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Jason let the memories inside, but
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between the three of them, it was
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obvious that Elizabeth wasn't there.
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The only things that appeared to be
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missing were Elizabeth's duna, her black
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leather purse, her house keys, and her
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car keys.
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The memories didn't know what to think.
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With everything else in the flat
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appearing normal, the only explanation
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they could think of was that Elizabeth
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had been badly injured.
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Frantically, they started calling nearby
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hospitals asking whether their daughter
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had been admitted as a patient. When
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none of the hospitals answered in the
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affirmative, Roger called the police.
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By 11 p.m., uniformed officers from
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Ringwood's criminal investigation branch
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arrived at the flat. Inspecting the
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scene, it was clear to them that the
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blood in the hallway had been there for
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some time. It had been a swelteringly
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hot day in Melbourne with the
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temperature soaring to almost 40° C, and
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the blood had dried brown.
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But the police also noticed some things
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that the memories had missed.
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Inside the flat was a bucket filled with
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wet rags. The toilet paper holder was
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also missing and there was no toilet
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paper anywhere in the house. It was
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obvious that someone had tried to clean
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up the scene.
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Some portions of the hallway wall had
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been wiped down, but not thoroughly.
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Down low, just above the skirting
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boards, several small spatters of blood
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remained.
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Despite the blood, there was no evidence
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of forced entry or signs of a struggle,
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and the police weren't able to ascertain
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what had happened inside the flat.
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Elizabeth's case was handed to the
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missing person's unit, who wanted to
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learn more about the 22-year-old.
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As far as Roger and Joy Memory were
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concerned, Elizabeth was everything
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they'd ever wanted in a daughter.
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As the only girl and youngest in a
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family of three children, Elizabeth had
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grown up to be an independent, sociable,
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and friendly young woman. She had a
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joyful laugh and curly dark hair, and
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people naturally gravitated to her. That
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was what made her such a good fit at the
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Manhattan Hotel, where she was liked by
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customers and co-workers alike.
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But the bartender gig was just
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temporary.
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Elizabeth had recently graduated from
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LRO University with a degree in politics
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and was pursuing a career in journalism.
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Passionate and idolistic about current
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affairs, she often wrote to the age
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newspaper to express her views on a
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range of topics.
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So the Japanese aren't playing it fair
00:07:33
in trade relations with the US. She'd
00:07:35
written to the editor earlier that year.
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Surely it's time someone started playing
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the Americans at their own dirty game.
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In another, she voiced her
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disappointment in the lack of services
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available for people with mental
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illness, stating, "It is about time that
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the issue of mental health is properly
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addressed in this country."
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Elizabeth had dreamed of one day being a
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broadcast journalist and was taking
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steps to make that happen. Having
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recently applied for a position with
00:08:07
commercial television network Channel
00:08:09
10,
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not only was her future looking bright,
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but she had great relationships with her
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parents and her boyfriend and a solid
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network of close friends.
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The memories assured investigators that
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Elizabeth had no enemies, wasn't
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involved in anything nefarious, and
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there was no one who could possibly wish
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her harm.
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Hoping to piece together Elizabeth's
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last known movements, the police began
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doornocking homes in the area. They also
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set up a caravan opposite Elizabeth's
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flat where people could report anything
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they thought might be helpful.
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The street that Elizabeth lived on,
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Bedford Road, was a busy thoroughare.
00:08:53
And because the night she went missing
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had been such a hot one, police were
00:08:57
hopeful that more people might have been
00:08:59
out than usual.
00:09:02
Maybe someone had witnessed something
00:09:04
significant.
00:09:06
An old school friend of Elizabeth's
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reported having seen her at the Ringwood
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Aquatic Center at around 10:00 a.m. on
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the day before she went missing.
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Elizabeth had gone for a swim and
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chatted to a man whom she appeared to
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know. He was described as tall,
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athletically built, and good-looking
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with tanned skin and sandy hair shaved
00:09:29
at the back and sides, but thicker on
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top.
00:09:32
A member of the public had also seen
00:09:34
Elizabeth at the pool that day,
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recognizing her from an article about
00:09:38
her disappearance.
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He told the police that Elizabeth had
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been in the water when he noticed a man
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standing at the side of the pool
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verbally abusing her, quote, "Like you
00:09:49
wouldn't believe."
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Horrified by the language the man was
00:09:53
using, the concerned citizen considered
00:09:55
stepping in. But the man, who matched
00:09:58
the description provided by Elizabeth's
00:10:00
school friend, abruptly walked away with
00:10:03
a distinct limp.
00:10:06
A few hours after this encounter, one of
00:10:08
Elizabeth's neighbors was on their way
00:10:10
to run an errand when they reportedly
00:10:12
saw Elizabeth standing in the driveway
00:10:14
of her unit arguing with a man.
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The two were loading shopping bags into
00:10:20
the boot of a Blue Holden Gemini when
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Elizabeth turned and stormed into her
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unit with the man following behind.
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The neighbor only saw them from a
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distance and therefore didn't notice any
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distinguishing characteristics, but she
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described the man as being solidly built
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around 6 ft tall with light brown hair.
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Later that afternoon, the local posty
00:10:45
saw Elizabeth in the street and they had
00:10:47
a brief chat. The posty didn't notice
00:10:50
anything unusual about Elizabeth or her
00:10:52
behavior, telling the police that she
00:10:54
was her typical friendly self.
00:11:00
Investigators also spoke to Elizabeth's
00:11:02
co-workers at the Manhattan Hotel.
00:11:06
Despite its ambitious name, The
00:11:08
Manhattan was a workingclass pub that
00:11:10
attracted what journalist Ian Monroe
00:11:12
described as a clientele of hardrinking
00:11:16
knockabout types.
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On the evening of Tuesday, December 6th,
00:11:21
Elizabeth was scheduled to work at the
00:11:23
Manhattan from 5 until 8:30 p.m., after
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which she was supposed to have dinner
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with her boyfriend Jason and his
00:11:30
parents.
00:11:32
But it had been a busy evening, and as
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she was nearing the end of her shift,
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her manager asked if she could stay
00:11:38
until closing time. Elizabeth had called
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Jason from work to let him know about
00:11:44
the change of plans.
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Neither Jason nor any of the Manhattan
00:11:49
staff noticed anything unusual about
00:11:51
Elizabeth's behavior that night, and she
00:11:54
didn't report any issues with any of the
00:11:56
patrons.
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She clocked off at 11:45 p.m. and drove
00:12:01
the short journey home.
00:12:04
Police could tell that she'd arrived
00:12:06
there safely because her car and workclo
00:12:08
were found at the unit.
00:12:11
The only item of clothing that appeared
00:12:13
to be missing was a white t-shirt that
00:12:15
Elizabeth often wore to bed, indicating
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she'd changed into that upon returning
00:12:20
home from work.
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What happened between then and when her
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parents arrived at her flat the
00:12:26
following night remained unknown.
00:12:30
A woman named Andrea lived with her two
00:12:33
poodles in the adjoining unit to
00:12:35
Elizabeth's.
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She told police that at around 1:30 a.m.
00:12:39
on Wednesday, December 7, her typically
00:12:42
quiet dogs started barking incessantly
00:12:45
at the fence that separated the two
00:12:47
properties.
00:12:49
Andrea had gone outside to try and calm
00:12:51
them down.
00:12:53
Shortly after, she heard a loud bang
00:12:55
from Elizabeth's unit.
00:12:58
She peered outside and noticed an old
00:13:00
white car parked near the front gate.
00:13:03
Andrea didn't know exactly what make or
00:13:06
model the car was, but suggested it
00:13:08
could have been a Toyota Celica or
00:13:10
something similar.
00:13:12
It was dirty with four round headlights
00:13:15
and its front grill appeared to be
00:13:17
missing.
00:13:18
She went back to bed and when she left
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for work around 7:00 a.m., the white car
00:13:24
was gone.
00:13:28
But something significant had happened
00:13:31
during the time that Andrea went back to
00:13:33
sleep. At around 3:30 a.m., a milkman
00:13:37
was doing his early morning rounds when
00:13:39
he noticed that Elizabeth's red Mazda
00:13:41
hatchback had been backed up to the
00:13:43
front door of her unit.
00:13:46
Around that same time, a truck driver
00:13:48
passed Elizabeth's unit and saw what he
00:13:51
believed to be a small powder blue
00:13:53
sedan, possibly a Datson, exit the
00:13:56
driveway and erratically enter Bedford
00:13:58
Road.
00:14:00
Another motorist was traveling through
00:14:02
the area sometime between 3:45 and 4:15
00:14:06
a.m. when they saw a red hatchback
00:14:08
driving unusually slowly on Bedford
00:14:10
Road. They caught a quick glimpse inside
00:14:14
and saw that a lone male was behind the
00:14:16
wheel.
00:14:18
At around 4:45 a.m., another witness
00:14:21
reported seeing a white two-door sports
00:14:23
car parked across Elizabeth's driveway.
00:14:27
A forensic examination of Elizabeth's
00:14:30
car revealed traces of blood on the back
00:14:32
seat. There was also soil and dust
00:14:36
wedged in the wheel trim and doors,
00:14:38
which none of Elizabeth's loved ones
00:14:40
could explain.
00:14:42
They described her as a city girl who
00:14:44
drove exclusively on sealed BMAN roads.
00:14:49
Armed with these reported sightings, the
00:14:51
police's priority was to identify the
00:14:53
man Elizabeth was seen arguing with the
00:14:56
day before she went missing.
00:14:58
Descriptions of the person she'd been
00:15:00
talking to at the aquatic center were
00:15:03
strikingly similar to the one she was
00:15:05
seen arguing with in her driveway a few
00:15:07
hours later. Yet, none of Elizabeth's
00:15:10
close friends or family had any idea who
00:15:13
he could be. Police couldn't even be
00:15:16
certain if both encounters involved the
00:15:18
same man or two separate individuals.
00:15:22
Elizabeth was a prolific diary writer
00:15:25
who recorded everything that was going
00:15:26
on in her life. But when police obtained
00:15:29
her diaries, they found nothing to
00:15:31
suggest this man's identity.
00:15:34
Elizabeth hadn't mentioned having any
00:15:36
altercations with anyone, nor had she
00:15:39
voiced any concerns over anything else
00:15:41
going on in her life.
00:15:44
But one detail was giving the police
00:15:46
serious pause.
00:15:48
Elizabeth didn't live alone, but with a
00:15:51
close friend named Justine, not her real
00:15:54
name.
00:15:56
The two had known each other for years
00:15:58
and were members of the same dance club.
00:16:01
However, in the days leading up to
00:16:03
Elizabeth's disappearance, Justine had
00:16:05
broken her ankle in a horse riding
00:16:07
accident and gone to stay with her
00:16:09
boyfriend on the Morningington
00:16:10
Peninsula.
00:16:12
Unable to drive, she had left her car
00:16:15
parked outside of the unit alongside
00:16:17
Elizabeth's Mazda.
00:16:20
Not many people knew about this, meaning
00:16:23
that to the naked eye, it would have
00:16:24
appeared that at least two people were
00:16:27
home on the night that Elizabeth went
00:16:28
missing.
00:16:30
If someone had gone to the unit with the
00:16:32
intention of harming Elizabeth, it
00:16:34
therefore stood to reason that they knew
00:16:37
she would be home alone.
00:16:40
on her bed. Police had found a
00:16:42
half-written letter to a friend in
00:16:44
England.
00:16:45
They theorized that Elizabeth could have
00:16:48
been in the middle of writing the letter
00:16:49
when she was interrupted by a knock at
00:16:51
the door. Recognizing the visitor, she
00:16:55
let them inside.
00:16:58
Alternatively, it was also possible that
00:17:00
the offender was already inside the
00:17:02
house when she arrived home and had been
00:17:05
laying in wait.
00:17:08
Regardless of how they got in, police
00:17:10
believed Elizabeth was likely caught off
00:17:12
guard when the offender launched a fatal
00:17:15
attack in the hallway, as there were no
00:17:17
signs of a struggle.
00:17:19
They didn't think it was a planned
00:17:21
attack, but more a spur-of-the- moment
00:17:23
situation.
00:17:25
In a bid to cover up what he'd done, the
00:17:28
offender then used the Duna from
00:17:30
Elizabeth's bed to transport her body to
00:17:32
the backseat of her own Mazda, which he
00:17:35
then drove on a dirt road until finding
00:17:37
a suitable location to dispose of her
00:17:39
body.
00:17:41
Afterwards, he spent a considerable
00:17:43
amount of time cleaning up the crime
00:17:45
scene before fleeing in the early
00:17:47
morning hours.
00:17:50
with two cars spotted in the area over a
00:17:52
period of around 3 hours, a white sedan
00:17:55
as well as a blue one. It was also
00:17:58
possible that the offender had been
00:17:59
helped by an accomplice.
00:18:05
As police continued interviewing
00:18:07
co-workers from the Manhattan Hotel, it
00:18:10
emerged that a bouncer who worked at the
00:18:12
pub called Bruce Simpson, not his real
00:18:14
name, had a crush of sorts on Elizabeth.
00:18:18
Some thought it went beyond that,
00:18:21
describing Simpson as obsessed with
00:18:23
Elizabeth.
00:18:25
Having recently come out of a violent
00:18:27
and volatile marriage, he even referred
00:18:29
to her as his substitute wife to some.
00:18:33
Simpson liked to joke around with
00:18:35
Elizabeth, but he'd recently taken
00:18:38
things too far with what he considered
00:18:40
to be a prank that she didn't find
00:18:42
funny.
00:18:43
Elizabeth had been standing with her
00:18:45
hands behind her back when Simpson came
00:18:47
up behind her and placed his testicles
00:18:50
in her hands.
00:18:52
On the night of Tuesday, December 6,
00:18:55
Bruce Simpson had been at the Manhattan,
00:18:57
not as an employee, but a patron.
00:19:01
2 days into the investigation into
00:19:03
Elizabeth's disappearance, he
00:19:05
voluntarily presented himself to the
00:19:07
Ringwood Police Station after word got
00:19:09
out that the cops were looking for him.
00:19:12
Simpson told the police that he'd been
00:19:14
drinking at the Manhattan on Tuesday
00:19:16
night with his female housemate. He said
00:19:19
they went home at around midnight and
00:19:21
didn't leave their house again.
00:19:25
Police were skeptical, particularly
00:19:27
because they'd already spoken to
00:19:29
Simpson's ex-wife, who told them that he
00:19:32
had been fixated on Elizabeth.
00:19:35
They arranged for a tap on his home
00:19:37
phone and closely monitored his
00:19:39
movements while focusing on the more
00:19:41
pressing matter at hand, finding
00:19:44
Elizabeth.
00:19:49
After a week passed with no sign of
00:19:51
Elizabeth, the case was handed over to
00:19:54
the homicide squad who explained their
00:19:56
working theory to the public for the
00:19:58
first time.
00:20:00
A spokesperson for the missing person
00:20:02
unit told reporters, "The background we
00:20:05
have on Elizabeth cannot identify anyone
00:20:07
who would wish her harm. She is an
00:20:10
extremely intelligent and well-liked
00:20:12
young woman."
00:20:14
This was backed by a homicide squad
00:20:16
detective who stated, "There is no
00:20:19
reason at all to believe that anyone
00:20:21
would want to do Elizabeth harm. We
00:20:24
think she was most likely an innocent
00:20:26
victim."
00:20:28
For Elizabeth's parents, Joy and Roger
00:20:31
Mey, the reality that Elizabeth's
00:20:33
disappearance was now considered a
00:20:35
homicide was difficult to comprehend.
00:20:39
Despite the evidence that had been
00:20:40
uncovered so far, the memories had been
00:20:43
clinging to hope that Elizabeth would be
00:20:45
found alive.
00:20:47
Until anything was confirmed, they
00:20:49
refused to think otherwise.
00:20:52
A distraught Joy made an emotional
00:20:54
appeal to the public, saying,
00:20:58
"If there is anyone out there hurting
00:21:00
her, she doesn't deserve it. She is such
00:21:03
a caring, lovely girl. She has never
00:21:06
hurt anyone."
00:21:09
Based on the information gathered so
00:21:11
far, police believed that Elizabeth's
00:21:13
killer likely frequented either the
00:21:15
Manhattan Hotel or the Ringwood Aquatic
00:21:18
Center, and that they had free time
00:21:20
during the day. Their decision to
00:21:23
transport Elizabeth's body using her own
00:21:25
car also indicated a basic knowledge of
00:21:28
forensics.
00:21:30
Scientific analysis of the soil
00:21:32
recovered from Elizabeth's car
00:21:34
identified two potential origins, both
00:21:36
within an hour's drive of Melbourne.
00:21:40
The first was King Lake, a town
00:21:42
approximately 50 km north of Ringwood,
00:21:45
which is primarily composed of forest
00:21:47
and farmland and is gateway to the King
00:21:50
Lake National Park. The second location
00:21:53
was Silven, a farming area 25 km east of
00:21:57
Ringwood, notable for the Silven
00:21:59
Reservoir and its surrounding eucalyptus
00:22:01
forest.
00:22:03
Based on these findings, the police
00:22:05
concluded that Elizabeth's body was
00:22:07
within a 100 km radius of Melbourne.
00:22:11
With King Lake National Park alone
00:22:13
covering a radius of 57,000 acres, this
00:22:17
barely narrowed things down, but the
00:22:20
locations were a clue within themselves.
00:22:23
The homicide detectives knew that
00:22:25
killers typically hide their victims in
00:22:27
areas they are familiar with. So, it
00:22:30
stood to reason that Elizabeth's killer
00:22:32
had some kind of connection to one of
00:22:34
these locations.
00:22:36
One of the big unanswered questions was
00:22:39
whether Elizabeth voluntarily let the
00:22:41
offender inside or whether they had
00:22:43
broken in. Due to how hot it had been on
00:22:47
the night she went missing, Elizabeth
00:22:49
had left some of the windows to her unit
00:22:51
open.
00:22:52
It was possible that the offender had
00:22:55
gained access this way.
00:22:57
Elizabeth's housemate, Justine, also
00:23:00
said that some of the windows didn't
00:23:02
lock properly and that she had easily
00:23:04
broken in herself on several occasions
00:23:07
after accidentally locking herself out.
00:23:11
There was also the question of whether
00:23:13
anyone else might have a key to the
00:23:14
unit. Justine had been planning on
00:23:17
moving out later that month and had
00:23:19
arranged for a friend to pick up some of
00:23:22
her furniture, but she couldn't recall
00:23:24
whether or not she had given them a key.
00:23:27
Elizabeth's boyfriend, Jason, told the
00:23:29
police that he'd once gone to the unit
00:23:31
when Elizabeth wasn't home. Painters had
00:23:34
been working on the outside of the
00:23:36
building at the time and had told Jason
00:23:38
where he could find a key hidden in the
00:23:40
backyard.
00:23:43
While it was possible that the offender
00:23:45
knew where this key was hidden, police
00:23:47
were convinced it was more likely that
00:23:49
Elizabeth knew her killer and had to let
00:23:51
them inside.
00:23:53
But given the late hour of their visit,
00:23:56
the question was who would she have felt
00:23:59
comfortable enough to open the door for?
00:24:05
On Saturday, December 17, the telephone
00:24:08
intercept on Bruce Simpson's home phone
00:24:11
picked up something of interest.
00:24:14
During a phone conversation with an
00:24:16
associate named Barry, Simpson said that
00:24:18
he'd been quote hassled to the max over
00:24:22
Liz going missing.
00:24:25
He asked Barry if the police had spoken
00:24:27
to him, adding reassuringly,
00:24:30
"You're all right. I haven't told the
00:24:32
police that I came to your joint late
00:24:34
that night."
00:24:36
This was significant because Simpson had
00:24:39
told the police that after he'd returned
00:24:41
home from the Manhattan around midnight,
00:24:43
he hadn't left again.
00:24:46
Catching him in a lie, the police spoke
00:24:48
to Bruce Simpson again 2 days later.
00:24:52
He came clean, admitting that the real
00:24:55
reason he'd been at the Manhattan on
00:24:57
December 6 was because he was looking
00:24:59
for Barry.
00:25:01
Barry was his drug dealer and he was
00:25:03
hoping to score some cannabis.
00:25:06
Unable to find him at the pub, Simpson
00:25:08
said he and his housemate Jenny returned
00:25:11
home at midnight, but he then left the
00:25:13
house alone at around 2:00 a.m. to drive
00:25:16
to Barry's to buy the drugs.
00:25:19
He said the reason he didn't tell police
00:25:21
this at the start was because he didn't
00:25:23
want to get Barry in trouble.
00:25:27
Simpson's admission only increased
00:25:29
police suspicion as the drive to Barry's
00:25:32
put him within closer proximity to
00:25:34
Elizabeth's unit.
00:25:36
They spoke to Barry who said he'd been
00:25:38
so drunk and stoned on the night in
00:25:40
question that he didn't remember a
00:25:43
thing.
00:25:44
But Simpson's housemate Jenny backed his
00:25:47
story. She said Simpson was only gone
00:25:50
for 20 or 30 minutes and that they
00:25:53
smoked the cannabis together upon his
00:25:55
return before retiring to their separate
00:25:57
bedrooms.
00:25:59
With Elizabeth's killer believed to have
00:26:01
spent hours at her unit, Jenny's alibi
00:26:05
essentially cleared Simpson, but the
00:26:07
police weren't fully convinced. He
00:26:10
quickly rose to the position of prime
00:26:12
suspect.
00:26:15
Then another call came through that
00:26:17
caught their attention.
00:26:22
A member of the public urged the police
00:26:24
to look into a man named Shane Bond. He
00:26:28
claimed that Bond was a regular at the
00:26:30
Manhattan who drove an old white Datson
00:26:33
Coupe and had a proven history of
00:26:35
violence towards women. According to the
00:26:38
tipster, Bond had once followed an
00:26:41
ex-girlfriend home and bashed her new
00:26:43
boyfriend in a jealous rage, landing him
00:26:45
with a conviction.
00:26:47
What's more, his ex-girlfriend resembled
00:26:50
Elizabeth, and she too worked in a bar.
00:26:54
He also walked with a limp, which was
00:26:56
the result of an indoor cricket injury.
00:27:00
Police spoke to Shane Bond on Thursday,
00:27:02
December 22.
00:27:04
He said he didn't recall what he had
00:27:07
been doing on the night of Tuesday,
00:27:08
December 6th, but denied being at the
00:27:11
Manhattan Hotel.
00:27:13
Bond said he only drank there on
00:27:15
Saturdays during the football season,
00:27:17
which had ended months prior, and that
00:27:20
although he'd seen Elizabeth working
00:27:22
there before, he didn't know her, and
00:27:24
they'd never spoken.
00:27:27
While the police were speaking to Bond,
00:27:29
they couldn't help but notice that
00:27:31
despite his limp and strong build, he
00:27:34
didn't match the description of the man
00:27:36
seen arguing with Elizabeth on the day
00:27:38
she went missing.
00:27:40
He also had deep acne scars on his face,
00:27:43
a distinctive feature that none of the
00:27:45
witnesses had noted.
00:27:48
Police therefore ruled Bond out as a
00:27:50
suspect and continued with their
00:27:52
investigation.
00:27:56
They were interested in speaking to the
00:27:57
younger brother of Elizabeth's
00:27:59
housemate, Justine, 19-year-old Andrew
00:28:02
Crump.
00:28:04
He still lived with his parents, who
00:28:06
were among the few people who knew that
00:28:08
Justine was staying with her boyfriend
00:28:10
at the time Elizabeth went missing.
00:28:13
But when police reached out to Crump in
00:28:16
late December, they were told that he
00:28:18
and a friend had made the impromptu
00:28:20
decision to move to Queensland on
00:28:21
Saturday, December 17, just 10 days
00:28:24
after Elizabeth went missing.
00:28:28
Police tracked Andrew Crump down and
00:28:30
spoke to him on the phone.
00:28:33
He said the last time he'd been at the
00:28:35
Bedford Road unit was a week or two
00:28:37
before Elizabeth went missing.
00:28:40
According to Crump, he'd stopped in to
00:28:42
visit his sister, but she wasn't at
00:28:45
home, so Elizabeth had let him in to use
00:28:47
the toilet and make a phone call.
00:28:50
He didn't have anything useful to add to
00:28:53
the investigation.
00:28:56
As the weeks ticked by, the list of
00:28:58
persons of interest grew, but the police
00:29:01
were no closer to finding Elizabeth or
00:29:03
her killer.
00:29:05
To add insult to injury for the Memory
00:29:08
family, as December came to a close,
00:29:11
Elizabeth received the dream job offer
00:29:13
from Channel 10 that she'd been hoping
00:29:15
for, serving as a painful reminder of
00:29:18
the potential that had been ripped from
00:29:20
her.
00:29:22
By May 1995, there still hadn't been any
00:29:25
major breakthroughs in the case, and
00:29:27
searches had revealed no sign of
00:29:29
Elizabeth's body.
00:29:32
Police announced a $100,000 reward for
00:29:35
any information that led to an arrest,
00:29:37
the largest ever reward in Victorian
00:29:39
history at that time.
00:29:42
And with that, the tips started
00:29:45
trickling in.
00:29:53
As the unsolved murder of Elizabeth
00:29:55
Meyer continued to put residents of
00:29:57
Melbourne on edge, the rumor mill swung
00:29:59
into overdrive.
00:30:02
One woman came forward to report that a
00:30:04
man she knew had threatened her with the
00:30:06
warning that he would quote do exactly
00:30:09
the same to you that I did to Elizabeth
00:30:12
Mambry.
00:30:14
This man who lived locally and was a
00:30:16
known methamphetamine user had also
00:30:18
allegedly made a comment suggesting he
00:30:20
had thrown Elizabeth's body down a
00:30:22
minehaft.
00:30:24
Police looked into him but deemed him an
00:30:27
unlikely suspect.
00:30:29
At about 6'3 with a goatee and visible
00:30:32
tattoos, nothing about him fit the bill
00:30:35
of the man Elizabeth had been seen
00:30:36
arguing with. One of his friends also
00:30:40
labeled him a [ __ ] artist,
00:30:42
suggesting the claims he made about
00:30:44
Elizabeth were complete lies.
00:30:47
In September 1995, a woman called
00:30:50
Crimestoppers to report something she'd
00:30:53
heard on the grapevine.
00:30:56
Apparently, around the time that
00:30:57
Elizabeth was killed, a man named either
00:31:00
Shane or Sha was rumored to have had
00:31:03
blood all over his walls.
00:31:05
His explanation for the blood was that
00:31:08
he'd bitten his tongue while having an
00:31:09
epileptic fit.
00:31:12
Detectives went to interview this
00:31:14
tipster, but she refused to name her
00:31:16
source.
00:31:18
They assumed she was talking about Shane
00:31:20
Bond, a customer at the Manhattan, whose
00:31:23
name had previously been put forward by
00:31:25
another member of the public.
00:31:28
The detectives looked into Bond and
00:31:30
noted that he'd moved since they'd
00:31:32
spoken to him in December 1994.
00:31:36
His current whereabouts were unknown.
00:31:40
But having already questioned him and
00:31:42
with no mention of there being any blood
00:31:44
on his walls at the time, the detectives
00:31:47
dismissed the tip off.
00:31:50
While investigators continued to work
00:31:52
tirelessly on the case, by the first
00:31:54
anniversary of the crime, they were no
00:31:56
closer to a resolution.
00:31:59
On Thursday, December 7, 1995, the
00:32:02
memories once again appealed for help
00:32:04
from the public with Roger telling
00:32:07
reporters,
00:32:08
"We have to believe it's most probable
00:32:11
that Elizabeth was murdered on the night
00:32:13
12 months ago in her unit. However, it's
00:32:17
difficult for us to come to terms with
00:32:19
that without having some evidence to
00:32:21
support it.
00:32:23
We just need a resolution as to what
00:32:25
actually happened and then we can move
00:32:28
to the next day.
00:32:33
Behind the scenes, the wheels continued
00:32:36
to turn and tip offs continued to
00:32:38
trickle in.
00:32:40
In September 1996, the police announced
00:32:44
that they'd made a breakthrough after a
00:32:46
woman came forward to provide further
00:32:48
information about the white sedan that
00:32:50
was seen at the front of Elizabeth's
00:32:52
unit on the night she went missing.
00:32:55
Newspapers reported that the car had
00:32:57
been identified as a mid 1970s model
00:33:00
white Datson 240K that was in need of
00:33:03
repair.
00:33:05
The front grill or surrounds of the
00:33:07
headlights might have been missing, and
00:33:09
the number plates were more recent than
00:33:11
would typically be seen on a 1970s
00:33:14
vehicle.
00:33:15
The police also released a sketch of the
00:33:18
man Elizabeth was reportedly seen
00:33:20
arguing with on the day of her
00:33:21
disappearance.
00:33:24
Luke Ford, not his real name, was
00:33:27
reading the newspaper when he recognized
00:33:29
himself as fitting the suspect's sketch.
00:33:33
He also owned a white Datson 240K like
00:33:36
the one described in the article.
00:33:39
Ford contacted the police to identify
00:33:41
himself and agreed to be interviewed.
00:33:44
But the truth was police already had
00:33:47
their eye on Ford.
00:33:49
It had emerged that he'd lived in the
00:33:51
unit on Bedford Road before Elizabeth
00:33:54
and Justine moved in, and that in
00:33:57
December 1994, he still had a key to the
00:34:00
back door.
00:34:02
Since moving out, he'd maintained a
00:34:05
relationship with the woman who lived
00:34:06
next door.
00:34:09
Ford also had a criminal record that
00:34:11
included offenses for assault,
00:34:13
intentionally causing injury, theft, and
00:34:16
deception.
00:34:18
Coincidentally, he'd also worked at the
00:34:20
Manhattan Hotel years earlier before
00:34:23
Elizabeth did and still drank there from
00:34:25
time to time.
00:34:28
Perhaps most noteworthy of all was the
00:34:30
fact that after Elizabeth's
00:34:32
disappearance, he'd reportedly
00:34:34
handpainted his white Datson black.
00:34:38
But Luke Ford told the police that he'd
00:34:41
never met Elizabeth.
00:34:43
Asked as to his whereabouts on the night
00:34:45
of her disappearance, he said he'd been
00:34:47
at his girlfriend's house.
00:34:50
Although police had no evidence to
00:34:52
suggest otherwise, they remained
00:34:54
suspicious of Ford.
00:34:57
He wasn't the only name on their list
00:34:59
that continued to crop up throughout
00:35:02
1996 and 97. Multiple people came
00:35:06
forward to say that Andrew Crump, the
00:35:08
brother of Elizabeth's housemate, had
00:35:10
made a series of incriminating
00:35:12
statements over the years.
00:35:15
According to more than six reports,
00:35:17
Crump told some people that he was at
00:35:20
the unit on the night Elizabeth was
00:35:21
killed and saw who was responsible.
00:35:25
He'd supposedly told others that, quote,
00:35:28
"Liz is in a safe place, and police
00:35:31
wouldn't find her body because it was in
00:35:33
an area of thick bush."
00:35:36
One relative told the police that when
00:35:38
Crump was asked about Elizabeth, he
00:35:40
said, "She's in a river."
00:35:44
There were other things about Andrew
00:35:46
Crump that concerned investigators.
00:35:49
During a follow-up interview in August
00:35:51
1995, he told police that he once had to
00:35:55
move Elizabeth's car because it was
00:35:57
blocking his sister's vehicle.
00:35:59
But Justine told the police this never
00:36:02
happened. Their unit had space for three
00:36:05
cars with direct street access, and
00:36:08
there had never been a circumstance
00:36:10
where she would have had to ask Crump to
00:36:12
move either vehicle.
00:36:14
According to information later released
00:36:16
by the Sydney Morning Herald, Crump had
00:36:18
also been accused of a series of small
00:36:21
burglaries in the area around the time
00:36:23
of Elizabeth's disappearance.
00:36:26
A woman who lived on his street also
00:36:28
claimed she once woke up to find him
00:36:31
standing in her bedroom doorway.
00:36:34
The police questioned Andrew Crump again
00:36:37
in late January 1997.
00:36:40
Asked where he was on the night
00:36:42
Elizabeth went missing, Crump said he'd
00:36:44
been at his parents' house. The next
00:36:47
day, he had gone to visit a friend who
00:36:49
lived near Bedford Road, but they hadn't
00:36:51
been home, so he went to the nearby
00:36:53
Bedford Road shops.
00:36:56
Crump said he knew someone who worked at
00:36:58
the hairdressing salon there, but he
00:37:00
soon left because she was too busy to
00:37:02
meet with him.
00:37:04
He added that while he was at the shops,
00:37:06
he noticed two men walking near
00:37:09
Elizabeth and Justine's unit. One was
00:37:12
wearing a t-shirt with an eagle on it
00:37:14
that he thought could be a
00:37:16
Harley-Davidson motorcycle shirt. The
00:37:19
man then got into a maroon colored
00:37:21
sedan.
00:37:23
The police visited the staff who had
00:37:25
been working at the Bedford Road
00:37:27
hairdressing salon on Wednesday,
00:37:28
December 7, 1994, and showed them a
00:37:31
picture of Andrew Crump. Nobody
00:37:34
recognized him. They also spoke to a
00:37:38
woman who claimed that she had been in
00:37:39
Crump's car shortly after he left
00:37:41
Melbourne to move to Queensland and had
00:37:44
found a black leather purse in the glove
00:37:46
box.
00:37:47
According to this woman, she asked Crump
00:37:50
who the purse belonged to and he said a
00:37:53
friend named Liz.
00:37:55
While these factors were indeed
00:37:57
suspicious, the police had no evidence
00:38:00
to implicate Andrew Crump and they
00:38:02
mostly palmed off his incriminating
00:38:04
comments as trivial.
00:38:06
If anything, they thought he was just
00:38:09
seeking attention.
00:38:14
By August of 1999, the unsolved case was
00:38:18
approaching its fifth anniversary, and
00:38:20
still the Meamry family were no closer
00:38:22
to finding the answers they so
00:38:24
desperately sought.
00:38:26
For Elizabeth's parents, Roger and Joy,
00:38:29
one of the biggest struggles they faced
00:38:31
was not knowing where their daughter's
00:38:33
body was.
00:38:35
They felt robbed of their right to give
00:38:37
Elizabeth a proper burial and have
00:38:39
somewhere they could go to honor her.
00:38:42
In the leadup to Australia's missing
00:38:44
person's week that year, Roger and Joy
00:38:47
proposed that a memorial garden be
00:38:49
established within Melbourne's Colton
00:38:51
Gardens for those who shared their
00:38:53
experience of ambiguous loss.
00:38:56
They wanted to create a tranquil space
00:38:58
where people could go to reflect and
00:39:00
remember their loved ones when they
00:39:02
didn't have anywhere else to do so.
00:39:05
With financial backing from a private
00:39:07
philanthropic organization, the garden
00:39:10
went ahead and was opened by the state
00:39:12
premier as a group of homing pigeons
00:39:14
were released into the sky.
00:39:17
A park bench overlooked a serene lily
00:39:19
pond with a plaque that declared
00:39:23
a special place for those with missing
00:39:25
persons.
00:39:28
Joy Memory told reporters that their
00:39:30
unresolved grieving had no end.
00:39:35
We are left in the anger stage. She
00:39:37
said, "We are intensely angry that
00:39:40
because of somebody's cowardly act, they
00:39:42
have deprived us of the normal human
00:39:45
right to have a funeral and a place to
00:39:47
place flowers.
00:39:49
You've got to have somewhere that's
00:39:51
yours that you can come to, like a
00:39:53
cemetery.
00:39:54
This is second best, but it's better
00:39:57
than having nothing at all."
00:40:02
With no breakthroughs by the year 2000,
00:40:05
the case was handed over to Detective
00:40:07
Senior Sergeant Ronles to see if Fresh
00:40:10
Eyes could identify something that the
00:40:12
original investigators might have
00:40:13
missed.
00:40:15
Detective believed the answer to who
00:40:18
killed Elizabeth Mamry had probably been
00:40:20
staring police in the face all along.
00:40:24
As he later told the Sydney Morning
00:40:26
Herald, "The answer is always in the
00:40:29
file and quite often we have already
00:40:31
spoken to him."
00:40:34
Police suspicion remained on some of the
00:40:37
names that had come up early in the
00:40:38
investigation, including Bruce Simpson,
00:40:41
Luke Ford, and Andrew Crump, but there
00:40:44
wasn't a single piece of physical
00:40:46
evidence to link any of them to the
00:40:47
crime.
00:40:49
With no answers forthcoming by August
00:40:52
2000, a coronial inquest was held to
00:40:54
clarify the circumstances surrounding
00:40:56
Elizabeth's death. When the coroner
00:41:00
handed down their findings on Tuesday,
00:41:02
August 29, all they were able to
00:41:04
determine was that Elizabeth had died by
00:41:07
an unknown cause at her Ringwood unit on
00:41:09
December 7, 1994.
00:41:13
On the state of the available evidence,
00:41:15
the coroner formally concluded, "I am
00:41:19
unable to identify the person or persons
00:41:21
who contributed to the death of the
00:41:23
deceased."
00:41:26
But the inquest reignited public
00:41:28
interest in Elizabeth's case, and new
00:41:30
tips started to come in.
00:41:33
One individual reported information that
00:41:35
led the police to search for Elizabeth's
00:41:37
body in Ringwood Lake, but nothing of
00:41:40
interest was found.
00:41:42
DNA samples were obtained from several
00:41:45
persons of interest and compared against
00:41:47
some cigarette butts that were found in
00:41:49
Elizabeth's car. However, none of the
00:41:52
profiles matched.
00:41:57
While the coroner had been unable to
00:41:59
highlight a prime suspect in Elizabeth's
00:42:01
murder, the homicide squad suspicions
00:42:04
remained on Bruce Simpson, the bouncer
00:42:06
who had allegedly been obsessed with
00:42:08
Elizabeth.
00:42:10
Unconvinced of the alibi provided for
00:42:12
him by his then housemate Jenny,
00:42:14
Detective decided to poke around a bit
00:42:17
to see if he could find any cracks in
00:42:19
Jenny's story.
00:42:21
It soon emerged that a friend of Jenny's
00:42:24
named Naomi had her own questions about
00:42:26
Bruce Simpson's possible involvement.
00:42:30
Naomi told the police that Jenny had
00:42:32
given her the same story about the night
00:42:34
of Elizabeth's disappearance, saying
00:42:36
that Simpson briefly went out to buy
00:42:38
cannabis, and the two then smoked
00:42:40
together before going to bed in separate
00:42:42
rooms.
00:42:44
But while Jenny had told the police that
00:42:47
Simpson hadn't left the house again
00:42:49
after that, she'd told Naomi she wasn't
00:42:52
so sure. According to Naomi, Jenny was
00:42:57
worried that Simpson might have left the
00:42:59
house after she fell asleep. The very
00:43:02
thought made her visibly distressed.
00:43:05
Knowing that the police were sniffing
00:43:07
around for information, Jenny allegedly
00:43:10
reasoned, "If they break me, they break
00:43:13
the case, and that is why the police are
00:43:16
going for me."
00:43:18
These comments led Naomi to believe that
00:43:21
Simpson might have killed Elizabeth and
00:43:23
she told Jenny as much.
00:43:26
Jenny allegedly responded.
00:43:29
Whoever did it never meant to do it.
00:43:33
Investigators became increasingly
00:43:35
suspicious of Jenny's story after
00:43:37
finding out that she'd told Naomi that
00:43:39
the police had shown her photos of the
00:43:41
crime scene when they had never done any
00:43:44
such thing.
00:43:46
By 2003, Detective Viddles was convinced
00:43:49
that Jenny knew more about Elizabeth
00:43:51
Membersy's disappearance than she was
00:43:52
letting on. In the hopes of encouraging
00:43:56
her to come clean, Jenny was charged
00:43:58
with attempting to pervert the course of
00:44:00
justice.
00:44:02
But she stuck by the alibi she had
00:44:04
provided for Simpson, saying the comment
00:44:07
she had made to Naomi about breaking her
00:44:09
to break the case had been misconstrued.
00:44:13
According to Jenny, what she meant was
00:44:15
that the police must think that if they
00:44:18
crack her, they'd crack the case. It was
00:44:21
the only reason she could think of to
00:44:23
justify their ongoing interest in her.
00:44:30
The magistrate ultimately threw the case
00:44:33
against Jenny out after finding
00:44:35
insufficient evidence to proceed with
00:44:37
the charges. But that didn't lessen the
00:44:39
police interest in Bruce Simpson.
00:44:42
They commenced an undercover operation
00:44:45
using what's known as the Mr. big
00:44:47
technique, an elaborate and sometimes
00:44:49
controversial covert policing method
00:44:52
that aims to extract confessions from
00:44:54
suspects in serious crimes where
00:44:57
forensic evidence is lacking.
00:44:59
An example of how the Mr. Big method was
00:45:02
used to catch a killer can be heard in
00:45:04
episode 54 of Case File, which covers
00:45:07
the murder of Queensland school boy
00:45:09
Daniel Morg.
00:45:11
A similar undercover operation was also
00:45:14
orchestrated against Luke Ford, the
00:45:16
former tenant of Elizabeth's unit, who
00:45:18
reportedly still had a key at the time
00:45:20
she went missing.
00:45:23
While all this was going on,
00:45:25
investigators also took another look at
00:45:27
Andrew Crump, the brother of Elizabeth's
00:45:29
housemate.
00:45:31
They were particularly interested in why
00:45:33
he had left Melbourne so quickly after
00:45:35
Elizabeth's disappearance and examined
00:45:38
the circumstances leading up to that
00:45:40
trip. Crump had driven to Queensland
00:45:42
with a friend of his named Frank.
00:45:46
According to Frank, just before they
00:45:48
left Melbourne, Crump said there was
00:45:50
something he needed to do first.
00:45:53
He claimed that his boss had asked him
00:45:55
to fill a hole and said that he'd be
00:45:57
back soon.
00:45:59
Frank told police that Crump then went
00:46:02
away and returned about 45 minutes
00:46:04
later.
00:46:06
He didn't recall any other details about
00:46:08
the hole or where it was supposedly
00:46:11
located.
00:46:13
At the time of Elizabeth's
00:46:15
disappearance, Andrew Crump had been an
00:46:17
apprentice plumber. The police tracked
00:46:20
down his former employer to see if they
00:46:22
could verify his story, but they had no
00:46:25
knowledge of any such hole.
00:46:28
In fact, Crump hadn't even been actively
00:46:30
working for them at the time. He'd been
00:46:33
on work cover since 1992 after
00:46:36
sustaining a workplace injury.
00:46:40
Again, while these details were
00:46:42
intriguing, they didn't shed any further
00:46:44
light for the police.
00:46:46
Over the years, they'd questioned Andrew
00:46:49
Crump numerous times and had tested his
00:46:51
DNA against the cigarette butts found in
00:46:54
Elizabeth's car, and still they hadn't
00:46:57
found a single piece of evidence to link
00:46:59
him to the crime.
00:47:01
By 2005, the homicide squad felt
00:47:04
confident enough to eliminate him as a
00:47:06
suspect.
00:47:08
The undercover operations against Bruce
00:47:10
Simpson and Luke Ford had also failed to
00:47:13
garner any incriminating evidence. And
00:47:16
after 10 years, they too were discounted
00:47:19
as possible suspects without any charges
00:47:21
ever being laid against them.
00:47:24
The fact that Elizabeth's murder had
00:47:26
gone unsolved for over a decade was
00:47:29
difficult for her family to accept.
00:47:32
Looking for a way to unleash the rage
00:47:34
and frustration she constantly carried
00:47:36
inside her, Joy Memory installed a
00:47:39
punching bag in her backyard and took to
00:47:41
pounding it anytime she needed a
00:47:43
release.
00:47:45
As she later told journalist John
00:47:47
Sylvester, she eventually had to give
00:47:49
this up after permanently damaging three
00:47:52
of her fingers from overuse.
00:47:56
Despite their lack of breakthroughs, the
00:47:58
homicide squad was not sitting idly by.
00:48:02
By 2006, Detective SS and his team had
00:48:05
reviewed almost 1,000 pieces of
00:48:07
information and interviewed around 3,000
00:48:10
people, though they were still no closer
00:48:13
to making an arrest.
00:48:15
On Friday, January 6th, 2006, the police
00:48:19
announced that the existing reward for
00:48:21
information relating to Elizabeth's
00:48:23
murder was being increased to $1
00:48:26
million.
00:48:28
They also said that the Office of Public
00:48:30
Prosecutions would consider indemnity
00:48:32
for anyone who had acted as an accessory
00:48:35
to the murder but had not committed the
00:48:37
principal crime themselves.
00:48:40
Desperate to solve the case and bring
00:48:42
relief to the Memory family, Detective
00:48:45
told reporters,
00:48:47
"There are people in the community who
00:48:49
believe we know who is responsible. The
00:48:52
reality is we don't. We're no closer
00:48:56
than day one.
00:49:02
Later that day, the police received a
00:49:05
call.
00:49:06
The man on the other line said this
00:49:09
wasn't the first time he'd made contact
00:49:10
with the police to name this particular
00:49:13
individual, but he was adamant that the
00:49:15
lead needed to be looked into more
00:49:17
thoroughly.
00:49:19
The name he put forward was Shane Bond.
00:49:23
According to the tipster, word had it
00:49:26
that on the night Elizabeth went
00:49:27
missing, Bond had come home covered in
00:49:30
blood.
00:49:33
Detective reviewed the case file and
00:49:35
discovered that Shane Bond had been
00:49:37
nominated as a person of interest six
00:49:39
times over the years.
00:49:42
In addition to this most recent claim,
00:49:44
there was also the tip off from a woman
00:49:46
back in 1995 who claimed that the walls
00:49:49
of Bond's flat had been covered in blood
00:49:51
at the time Elizabeth went missing.
00:49:54
However, because Bond had been spoken to
00:49:57
just 2 weeks after Elizabeth
00:49:59
disappeared, any new information that
00:50:01
had come in afterwards wasn't looked at.
00:50:05
As it was later explained to the Sydney
00:50:08
Morning Herald, he was seen as
00:50:11
eliminated, but he was never eliminated.
00:50:16
A detective was assigned to look into
00:50:18
the claims that Shane Bond had returned
00:50:21
home covered in blood on the night in
00:50:23
question.
00:50:24
In 2007, he tracked down Bond's former
00:50:28
housemate, a man with a criminal record
00:50:30
of his own.
00:50:32
The housemate told police that in the
00:50:35
early morning hours of Wednesday,
00:50:36
December 7, 1994, he'd awoken to the
00:50:40
sound of the front door being slammed.
00:50:43
He got up to see what was going on and
00:50:46
went into Bond's bedroom.
00:50:49
According to this witness, Bond was
00:50:51
standing in the corner of the room,
00:50:53
coated in blood from head to toe.
00:50:57
Bond explained that he'd had an
00:50:59
epileptic fit during which he'd bitten
00:51:02
his tongue.
00:51:04
The housemate didn't believe him. There
00:51:06
was too much blood for that to be the
00:51:08
case, and he assumed that Bond had
00:51:11
probably been in a fight.
00:51:13
Then the next day, Bond apparently told
00:51:16
his housemate that he was in trouble,
00:51:19
quote, over the Elizabeth Memory thing
00:51:21
and had to leave.
00:51:24
As far as the housemate was concerned,
00:51:26
Bond had a habit of lying, and he
00:51:29
therefore didn't think to tell the
00:51:30
police about any of this.
00:51:34
But he did spread the word to others in
00:51:36
his circle who had then taken it upon
00:51:38
themselves to come forward and to
00:51:40
nominate Bond as a person of interest.
00:51:44
The police looked into Shane Bond's
00:51:46
movements from the time and discovered
00:51:48
that his Medicare card had been used to
00:51:51
see a doctor in the Queensland town of
00:51:53
Kabula 2 days after Elizabeth went
00:51:55
missing.
00:51:57
While this supported the notion that
00:51:59
Bond left the state in the days
00:52:01
following the crime, the records from
00:52:03
that practitioner had been destroyed in
00:52:05
a fire, and police therefore weren't
00:52:07
able to establish what he had sought
00:52:09
medical attention for.
00:52:12
The police became interested in Shane
00:52:15
Bond. Very interested.
00:52:18
That interest only grew after a woman
00:52:20
named Relle, who knew Bond from high
00:52:22
school, discovered that he was being
00:52:24
looked into and came forward with a
00:52:26
story of her own.
00:52:29
Michelle claimed that she had been
00:52:31
drinking at the Manhattan Hotel about a
00:52:33
week before Elizabeth went missing.
00:52:36
As a regular at the pub, she knew
00:52:38
Elizabeth to be bubbly and friendly. But
00:52:41
on this particular evening, she had
00:52:43
seemed out of sorts.
00:52:45
Michelle said she asked Elizabeth what
00:52:48
was wrong, and after a bit of probing,
00:52:50
she admitted that Shane Bond had been
00:52:52
hassling her for a date and wouldn't
00:52:55
leave her alone.
00:52:57
Knowing Bond personally, Relle
00:52:59
recommended that Elizabeth tell him to
00:53:02
[ __ ] off.
00:53:04
Elizabeth seemed unsure. She asked if
00:53:07
she should do it, and Michelle
00:53:09
responded, "Yes, I honestly think you
00:53:12
should."
00:53:14
Michelle claimed that as soon as she
00:53:16
found out Elizabeth was missing, she
00:53:18
immediately suspected that Shane Bond
00:53:21
could be involved,
00:53:23
but she never told anyone about their
00:53:25
conversation, fearful that she could
00:53:27
have inadvertently played a role in
00:53:29
whatever happened to Elizabeth because
00:53:31
of what she told her to do.
00:53:37
When the police spoke to Shane Bond 2
00:53:39
weeks after Elizabeth went missing, he
00:53:41
claimed that it had been a couple of
00:53:43
months since he'd been at the Manhattan
00:53:45
Hotel, and that while he'd seen
00:53:47
Elizabeth working there before, he
00:53:49
didn't know her personally.
00:53:52
Relle's tip off brought all of that into
00:53:54
question. And there were other
00:53:57
suspicious factors, too.
00:54:00
Old co-workers of Bonds claimed that
00:54:02
he'd abruptly stopped to drinking at the
00:54:04
Manhattan after Elizabeth went missing
00:54:06
and had even avoided a function that had
00:54:08
been thrown there shortly after.
00:54:11
The owner of a house where Bond was a
00:54:14
border in 1997 told the police she was
00:54:17
cleaning up after him one day when she
00:54:19
found a news article about Elizabeth
00:54:21
Mey.
00:54:22
The accompanying photo of Elizabeth had
00:54:25
its eyes gouged out.
00:54:28
Another witness said that he'd been
00:54:30
watching the TV news with Bond when a
00:54:32
story about the search for Elizabeth's
00:54:34
body came on.
00:54:36
Bond apparently remarked that he had
00:54:38
known Elizabeth, adding that he'd gone
00:54:41
to the Manhattan Hotel on the night she
00:54:43
went missing and they'd gotten into a
00:54:45
fight.
00:54:47
With all this information coming to
00:54:49
light, Shane Bond quickly became the
00:54:52
investigation's number one focus.
00:54:55
By 2007, he was no longer living in
00:54:58
Melbourne, but was working in the mining
00:55:00
industry in Western Australia's Pilra
00:55:02
region.
00:55:04
A detective traveled to the Pilra to see
00:55:07
what he could uncover.
00:55:09
Several co-workers who'd spent time with
00:55:11
Bond in the mining camps revealed that
00:55:14
he had made some comments that further
00:55:16
invalidated the story he told police
00:55:18
back in December 1994.
00:55:22
A former workmate of Bonds claimed to
00:55:24
have once overheard him telling someone
00:55:26
about a bartender from Melbourne whom he
00:55:28
tried to pick up in a pub.
00:55:31
Later, they'd gone back to one of their
00:55:32
houses for a drink, and Bond had tried
00:55:35
to make a move on her. The woman wasn't
00:55:38
interested, and she'd hit Bond, which
00:55:41
triggered him to punch her hard enough
00:55:42
that she fell over and smashed her head
00:55:45
on a coffee table.
00:55:47
Bond allegedly said that somebody else
00:55:50
had then helped him dispose of the
00:55:51
woman's body in a river somewhere.
00:55:55
Another person shared a contrasting
00:55:57
story in which Bond told them that
00:55:59
Elizabeth had had her throat slid.
00:56:03
A man named Kevin told police that he'd
00:56:06
recently asked Bond what he knew about
00:56:08
the Elizabeth Memory case after finding
00:56:10
out that the cops were in the Pilbro
00:56:12
investigating the crime.
00:56:15
At first, Bond palmed Kevin off, saying
00:56:18
he knew nothing, but later on, over a
00:56:22
few beers, he allegedly told Kevin that
00:56:24
he'd been seeing Elizabeth for a few
00:56:26
weeks before she went missing.
00:56:29
Bond apparently said that the police
00:56:32
were interested in him because he'd been
00:56:33
drinking at the Manhattan on the night
00:56:35
Elizabeth was last seen alive.
00:56:39
Kevin said that Bond told him that
00:56:41
Elizabeth had been bashed. And while he
00:56:44
made it clear he had nothing to do with
00:56:46
it, the conversation left Kevin feeling
00:56:49
a little shaken.
00:56:51
He was struck by the way Bond seemed to
00:56:54
remember the incident like it was
00:56:55
yesterday.
00:56:57
And there was one comment in particular
00:56:59
that he couldn't get out of his mind.
00:57:02
Bond had apparently told him, "It
00:57:06
doesn't matter anyway. They will never
00:57:08
find the body.
00:57:13
With so many contrasting stories, it was
00:57:16
difficult for the police to know which
00:57:18
ones held weight. They placed a tap on
00:57:21
Bon's phone, hoping that the increased
00:57:24
heat would encourage him to say
00:57:25
something incriminating.
00:57:27
A friend of Bond's called to let him
00:57:30
know that the police had been to see him
00:57:31
about Elizabeth's case. He said that
00:57:34
he'd provided the police with a
00:57:36
statement in which he said that Bond
00:57:38
drank at the Manhattan Hotel in 1994 and
00:57:41
would have known Elizabeth.
00:57:44
This wasn't welcome news to Bond who
00:57:47
snapped. You shouldn't have said
00:57:49
anything about her. [ __ ] hell.
00:57:52
The friend reassured Bond that he had
00:57:55
nothing to worry about, but this did
00:57:57
little to quell the panic in Bon's
00:57:59
voice. I know, but [ __ ] hell, he
00:58:03
said. All because of [ __ ] rumors,
00:58:06
mate. It shits me up the wall.
00:58:10
On Wednesday, January 16, 2008,
00:58:14
detectives summoned 41-year-old Shane
00:58:16
Bond to the Calguli police station for a
00:58:19
formal interview.
00:58:21
He was casually dressed in a black
00:58:23
singlet with a pair of sunglasses on his
00:58:25
head as he sat down and was asked to
00:58:27
tell the detectives everything he knew
00:58:29
about the Elizabeth Memory case, no
00:58:32
matter how insignificant it might seem.
00:58:36
Speaking calmly, Bond said all he knew
00:58:39
was what he'd heard on the news.
00:58:42
He said that he used to drink at the
00:58:44
Manhattan Hotel, mostly on the weekends,
00:58:46
and that he might have met Elizabeth
00:58:48
once, but he wasn't there on the night
00:58:50
she was last seen alive.
00:58:53
He also admitted to owning a white
00:58:56
Datson at the time.
00:58:58
One of the detectives then asked Bond
00:59:00
point blank whether he had murdered
00:59:02
Elizabeth.
00:59:04
"No, I didn't," Bond replied
00:59:06
defensively.
00:59:08
asked why they should believe him, he
00:59:11
responded.
00:59:12
"One, because I didn't do it. Two, I
00:59:16
might have known her as a barmaid once
00:59:18
or twice, but that's it."
00:59:22
Bond denied that he'd ever come home
00:59:24
covered in blood or that he'd fled
00:59:27
Melbourne in the days after Elizabeth's
00:59:29
disappearance.
00:59:31
asked about the claims that he'd been
00:59:33
hassling Elizabeth at work before she
00:59:35
went missing. Bond became visibly
00:59:37
exasperated.
00:59:39
"This is getting beyond a joke," he
00:59:42
mumbled. "I didn't do it."
00:59:46
After 56 minutes of questioning, Bond
00:59:49
was released without charge.
00:59:52
But the police were not ready to give
00:59:54
up.
01:00:03
While Shane Bond remained the police's
01:00:05
number one suspect, they still weren't
01:00:07
ready to arrest him. Their
01:00:10
investigations continued, and in 2008,
01:00:13
they spoke to a retired detective named
01:00:15
John Wild, who claimed he had
01:00:18
information that had been ignored for
01:00:20
years. According to John, he had visited
01:00:24
the Manhattan Hotel on the night of
01:00:26
Tuesday, December 6th, 1994, and had
01:00:29
witnessed an unsettling incident
01:00:30
involving Elizabeth Mamry. While John
01:00:34
wasn't a regular at the Manhattan, he
01:00:36
recognized Elizabeth because she had
01:00:38
lived near him as a teenager, and he
01:00:40
often saw her walking to school.
01:00:44
On the night in question, John claimed
01:00:46
that he'd overheard Elizabeth speaking
01:00:48
to a man in the gaming room.
01:00:51
John initially thought the man was a
01:00:53
bouncer as he was tall and looked like a
01:00:56
bodybuilder.
01:00:58
Things sounded friendly at first with
01:01:00
Elizabeth greeting the man with a hello.
01:01:03
But after a while, John noticed that the
01:01:06
two appeared to be arguing.
01:01:09
Although he couldn't hear what they were
01:01:11
saying, their facial expressions and
01:01:13
body language suggested something was a
01:01:15
miss.
01:01:17
At one point, John said he saw the man
01:01:19
grab Elizabeth by the wrists.
01:01:22
A short while later, he grabbed her
01:01:24
again, and Elizabeth tried to pull away
01:01:26
from him.
01:01:28
John said that the pair left the gaming
01:01:30
room together at around midnight, with
01:01:32
one of them walking in front of the
01:01:34
other.
01:01:36
John claimed that he'd called
01:01:37
Crimestoppers to report this interaction
01:01:40
at least 10 times over the years and
01:01:42
that he'd even reached out to the
01:01:44
homicide squad directly, but no one had
01:01:46
ever taken a statement.
01:01:50
By 2010, the investigation into
01:01:52
Elizabeth's suspected murder had been
01:01:54
going on for more than 15 years. Over
01:01:58
that time, searches for her body had
01:02:00
been conducted around the King Lake and
01:02:03
Silven areas, in bushland near
01:02:05
Hillsville, and in disused mine shafts
01:02:08
around the Warrenai area.
01:02:11
Not a single clue had been found.
01:02:14
The police still didn't have any DNA,
01:02:17
CCTV footage, confessions, eyewitness
01:02:20
accounts, covert surveillance, or
01:02:22
anything concrete to tie Shane Bond to
01:02:25
the crime. But they did have statements
01:02:27
from at least 10 witnesses alleging that
01:02:30
he had implicated himself in Elizabeth's
01:02:32
disappearance.
01:02:34
By April that year, Bond had left the
01:02:37
mining industry and was back in
01:02:39
Victoria.
01:02:41
Despite the lack of physical evidence,
01:02:43
police decided it was time to make their
01:02:46
move.
01:02:47
On Tuesday, April 20, they visited Bond
01:02:50
at his home in Dawn Valley and placed
01:02:53
him under arrest for the murder of
01:02:54
Elizabeth Membry.
01:02:58
It was the news that Members had been
01:03:00
anxiously waiting for. They hoped Bond's
01:03:03
arrest would bring them one step closer
01:03:05
to finding their daughter's body so they
01:03:08
could give her the dignity of a proper
01:03:09
burial.
01:03:11
But sitting across from Bond in court as
01:03:14
he was formally charged for Elizabeth's
01:03:16
murder and watching him deny involvement
01:03:19
was a traumatic experience in itself.
01:03:22
Speaking about the experience to the age
01:03:25
afterwards, Joy said, "You don't cope,
01:03:29
you manage. It's literally a dayby-day
01:03:32
situation dealing with normality.
01:03:35
It's almost impossible, but you just
01:03:38
have to find some means of coping.
01:03:42
Detective acknowledged the sheer number
01:03:44
of police who had worked on the
01:03:46
investigation to bring it to this
01:03:48
conclusion, telling reporters,
01:03:51
"Every case that we take on is personal.
01:03:55
In our office, we have a motto and that
01:03:57
is failure is never an option.
01:04:00
I'm relieved that after 15 and 1/2 years
01:04:04
that we finally reached this stage.
01:04:10
Shane Bond's trial commenced in the
01:04:12
Supreme Court of Victoria in February
01:04:15
2012.
01:04:17
Pre-trial hearings had barred any
01:04:19
mention of his criminal record or
01:04:21
history of violence against women.
01:04:24
The lead prosecutor told the jury that
01:04:26
despite the lack of a body, it was
01:04:28
beyond reasonable doubt that Elizabeth
01:04:31
memory had been murdered.
01:04:33
They painted Shane Bond as having been
01:04:35
fixated on Elizabeth and said he was the
01:04:38
person seen arguing with Elizabeth at
01:04:40
the pool and in her driveway on the day
01:04:43
she was killed.
01:04:45
Feeling rejected by her, he went to her
01:04:47
home in the middle of the night where he
01:04:49
attacked her, wrapped her body in her
01:04:51
duna, and then dumped her at an unknown
01:04:54
location before attempting to clean the
01:04:56
crime scene.
01:04:58
The prosecution said that Bond then fled
01:05:01
the state seeking medical attention for
01:05:03
an unknown issue before returning to
01:05:06
Melbourne once he thought it was safe to
01:05:08
do so.
01:05:09
Over the years, he repeatedly implicated
01:05:12
himself in the crime by making comments
01:05:14
of varying degrees to numerous people.
01:05:19
But Bond's defense team criticized the
01:05:22
fully circumstantial case, pointing out
01:05:24
that the prosecution had failed to
01:05:26
uncover a single piece of physical
01:05:28
evidence to tie Bond to the crime.
01:05:32
They presented the initial police
01:05:34
interview with Bond, conducted 2 weeks
01:05:36
after Elizabeth went missing, during
01:05:38
which the detective explicitly remarked
01:05:41
that Bond looked nothing like the
01:05:43
suspect sketch of the man seen arguing
01:05:46
with Elizabeth.
01:05:48
Additionally, Bond's obvious acne scars
01:05:51
hadn't been mentioned by any of the
01:05:53
witnesses.
01:05:55
The defense argued that the only thing
01:05:57
tying Bond to the crime was the
01:05:59
incriminating statements he'd allegedly
01:06:01
made over the years, pointing out that
01:06:04
these were put forward by people years
01:06:06
after the fact.
01:06:08
Furthermore, the defense suggested some
01:06:10
of these so-called witnesses had been
01:06:12
influenced by various factors such as
01:06:15
ongoing rumors and gossip, a desire to
01:06:18
claim the milliondoll reward, and
01:06:21
personal vandettas against Shane Bond.
01:06:24
They argued that there had been other
01:06:26
suspects over the years, namely Bruce
01:06:29
Simpson and Luke Ford, who also had
01:06:31
criminal records.
01:06:34
Based on the available evidence, these
01:06:36
men could have just as easily been
01:06:38
responsible.
01:06:40
For legal reasons, the jury weren't told
01:06:42
that these other suspects had already
01:06:44
been thoroughly investigated and cleared
01:06:46
by police. This left the defense free to
01:06:50
present circumstantial evidence that
01:06:52
implicated an offender other than their
01:06:54
client.
01:06:56
It wasn't their intention to suggest
01:06:58
that one of these men was guilty. They
01:07:00
simply wanted to show how a
01:07:02
circumstantial case could just as easily
01:07:04
be built against one of them.
01:07:07
Each of the witnesses who'd implicated
01:07:09
Bond had their motives and reliability
01:07:12
called into question by the defense
01:07:14
during cross-examination.
01:07:17
The former mining workmates were asked
01:07:19
why they never bothered to query Bond
01:07:21
further on the alleged admissions he'd
01:07:23
made about Elizabeth during drinking
01:07:25
sessions.
01:07:27
One was asked why he only came forward
01:07:29
after he and Bond fell out over a work
01:07:31
issue.
01:07:33
It was also shown that this witness had
01:07:35
added more incriminating details to his
01:07:38
story as time went by.
01:07:41
When it came to Relle, the woman who
01:07:44
alleged Elizabeth had complained that
01:07:46
Bond was hassling her. The defense
01:07:48
pointed out that there was no evidence
01:07:50
to prove this conversation ever
01:07:52
happened.
01:07:53
Relle hadn't even talked about it to a
01:07:55
friend.
01:07:57
If it did occur, the defense asked
01:07:59
Michelle why she hadn't come forward
01:08:01
until years later and only when the
01:08:03
milliondoll reward was announced.
01:08:07
Michelle said she had been young at the
01:08:09
time and hadn't understood the law. She
01:08:12
said it was only after Bond became a
01:08:14
suspect that she started to think the
01:08:16
encounter could hold significance,
01:08:19
remarking, "I didn't know what was
01:08:21
relevant. I didn't put two and two
01:08:23
together. Call me stupid.
01:08:27
John Wild, the retired detective who
01:08:30
testified to having seen Elizabeth
01:08:32
arguing with a man in the Manhattan
01:08:34
Hotel's gaming room on the night she was
01:08:36
last seen alive, admitted on the stand
01:08:38
to having issues with his mental health.
01:08:42
As did the woman who testified that Bond
01:08:44
had defaced newspaper pictures of
01:08:46
Elizabeth memory.
01:08:49
As for Bond's former housemate, who
01:08:51
claimed that Bond had come home on the
01:08:53
night of the crime covered in blood, the
01:08:55
defense argued there were numerous
01:08:57
reasons why the jury should question his
01:08:59
reliability.
01:09:01
Not only was it known that the housemate
01:09:03
held animosity towards Bond, but he also
01:09:06
struggled with substance and alcohol
01:09:08
use, which could have damaged his
01:09:10
memory.
01:09:12
A former colleague of this man said that
01:09:14
he'd once remarked, "My head was that
01:09:17
[ __ ] from drugs and grog that I
01:09:20
started to wonder whether I did it."
01:09:26
During the 8-week trial, the defense
01:09:28
also called other suspects in the case
01:09:30
to the stand in a bid to prove that
01:09:33
there was just as much circumstantial
01:09:34
evidence to implicate them as there was
01:09:36
to implicate Bond.
01:09:39
In closing arguments, the prosecution
01:09:41
told the jury to discount any other
01:09:44
suspects, saying that the investigation
01:09:46
had been flawed from the start because
01:09:48
the police initially had tunnel vision
01:09:51
on Bruce Simpson.
01:09:53
The only person responsible, the
01:09:55
prosecution concluded, was Shane Bond.
01:10:00
They also told the jury that if they
01:10:01
believed the story that Bond allegedly
01:10:04
told a mining buddy about a bartender
01:10:06
fatally hitting her head on a coffee
01:10:08
table, they could also consider the
01:10:10
charge of manslaughter.
01:10:13
The defense reminded the jury that after
01:10:15
hearing from 76 witnesses and seeing
01:10:18
exhibits from both legal teams, what
01:10:21
happened to Elizabeth still remained a
01:10:23
mystery.
01:10:25
The fact is, Bon's lawyer said, very
01:10:28
little is known about what happened to
01:10:30
Elizabeth memory in the unit on that
01:10:32
night.
01:10:34
Virtually nothing is known about how she
01:10:36
died or indeed why she died. In those
01:10:40
circumstances, it is simply not possible
01:10:42
to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt
01:10:45
of the guilt of the accused.
01:10:48
They said it was a more reasonable
01:10:51
possibility that Elizabeth's killer
01:10:53
still hadn't been found and that the
01:10:55
answers lay with whoever the man was
01:10:57
seen arguing with Elizabeth on the day
01:10:59
she disappeared.
01:11:01
We don't know who it is and we can't
01:11:03
work out who it is. Bond's lawyer said,
01:11:07
"But there is a real possibility that
01:11:09
this person has not come forward because
01:11:11
they were involved in the killing of
01:11:13
Elizabeth Meamry."
01:11:16
When the jury retired to deliberate,
01:11:18
nobody expected a quick decision. But as
01:11:22
the days continued to tick by with no
01:11:24
verdict, it became abundantly clear just
01:11:27
how torn the jury was.
01:11:30
8 days later, they were finally ready.
01:11:34
On Saturday, April 28, 2012, the jury
01:11:38
announced their verdict regarding Shane
01:11:40
Bond's involvement in Elizabeth Mery's
01:11:43
death.
01:11:44
Not guilty.
01:11:47
Bond sobbed as the verdict was read
01:11:50
aloud.
01:11:51
After being acquitted of all charges, he
01:11:54
quickly left the court, surrounded by
01:11:56
family members who'd been supportive
01:11:57
throughout the entire process.
01:12:00
Roger and Joy Memory were crushed.
01:12:04
It was difficult for them to think that
01:12:06
the police had failed by not targeting
01:12:08
Bond more aggressively in the early days
01:12:10
in favor of chasing other suspects.
01:12:14
Outside court, they faced reporters blur
01:12:17
eyed with the joy saying through tears,
01:12:21
"It's not the end. We're not giving up.
01:12:24
Something will happen, I hope, for
01:12:27
Elizabeth and other women out there who
01:12:29
aren't safe."
01:12:32
But it wasn't just the verdict that left
01:12:34
the memories reeling. They'd found the
01:12:37
entire trial painful because of both the
01:12:40
subject matter and the way they were
01:12:43
treated.
01:12:44
They had been given no special rights in
01:12:46
the court. They weren't allowed to
01:12:48
examine the evidence like Bond and his
01:12:51
family were, and they weren't given any
01:12:53
of the court papers, forensic photos, or
01:12:56
transcripts that the jury, members of
01:12:58
the press, and others were given access
01:13:00
to.
01:13:02
This meant that many times when a
01:13:04
certain subject was being discussed, the
01:13:06
memories couldn't even understand or
01:13:09
follow along. They had also been warned
01:13:12
not to bring any attention to
01:13:13
themselves, and because of that, they
01:13:16
felt like their every move was being
01:13:18
scrutinized.
01:13:20
One detective even snapped at them when
01:13:22
they unintentionally arrived late one
01:13:24
day because their bus had been stuck in
01:13:26
traffic.
01:13:28
Overall, they felt that the process had
01:13:31
very little to do with Elizabeth and
01:13:33
that they had been treated like their
01:13:35
presence was a nuisance.
01:13:38
Roger later told a journalist for the
01:13:40
CRA Times, "It was just pathetic the
01:13:44
whole thing." Joy agreed, saying, "There
01:13:48
needs to be change. We felt like we were
01:13:51
in a horror movie."
01:13:57
By 2014, the memories weren't any closer
01:14:01
to the answers they'd been waiting 20
01:14:03
years for.
01:14:05
Since Shane Bond's trial, changes had
01:14:07
been made to Victoria's double jeopardy
01:14:09
laws, which meant that he could be tried
01:14:12
for Elizabeth's murder again if new and
01:14:14
compelling evidence emerged.
01:14:17
However, nothing had yet been
01:14:19
forthcoming.
01:14:21
Even though Bond was acquitted, because
01:14:24
someone had been charged and put to
01:14:26
trial, the investigation was no longer
01:14:28
considered active.
01:14:30
Unless a breakthrough piece of evidence
01:14:32
emerged, it was likely that Elizabeth's
01:14:35
murder would languish in the cold case
01:14:37
files alongside roughly 280 other
01:14:40
unsolved homicide cases in Victoria.
01:14:44
To mark the 20-year anniversary of
01:14:46
Elizabeth's disappearance, Roger and Joy
01:14:49
spoke to the ABC about their experience.
01:14:53
"We're left up in the air," Joy said.
01:14:56
"We've got no body. We don't know why,
01:14:59
how, or where. So, the anxiety is
01:15:02
extreme all the time, the not knowing.
01:15:07
But the memories made it very clear that
01:15:09
they'd never give up their quest for the
01:15:11
truth.
01:15:13
You can't, Roger said. It's a hole in
01:15:16
your heart you can't just paper over.
01:15:19
It's our beloved daughter.
01:15:22
The memories urged anyone with
01:15:24
information to contact Crimestoppers,
01:15:27
reiterating that it wasn't too late.
01:15:32
Wanting at least one positive thing to
01:15:34
emerge from their ordeal, the memories
01:15:36
joined a 2014 inquiry to investigate
01:15:39
whether victims of crime and their
01:15:41
families should be allowed to be more
01:15:43
involved with the criminal process.
01:15:46
Roger and Joy detailed their negative
01:15:49
experience at Bond's trial for the
01:15:51
Victorian Law Reform Commission
01:15:54
along with submissions from 40 other
01:15:57
relevant parties. It became part of a
01:15:59
328 page report released in 2016 titled
01:16:04
the role of victims of crime in the
01:16:06
criminal trial process.
01:16:09
This aimed to transform Australia's
01:16:12
justice system by strengthening victim
01:16:14
rights and fostering a more respectful,
01:16:17
inclusive culture.
01:16:20
By this point, the memories were in
01:16:22
their 70s and the clock was ticking on
01:16:25
their desire to obtain answers for their
01:16:27
daughter before it was too late.
01:16:30
Speaking to the age about their push to
01:16:32
get the case reinvestigated,
01:16:34
Roger said, "I am 76 years old and we
01:16:39
desperately want to find the truth for
01:16:41
Elizabeth. We will not be on this earth
01:16:44
forever. There is a sense that we have
01:16:46
failed her. We are caught in this sort
01:16:50
of halflife."
01:16:53
In 2017, the police agreed to review the
01:16:56
evidence in Elizabeth's case one more
01:16:59
time,
01:17:01
and they noticed that there were several
01:17:03
lines of inquiry that hadn't been fully
01:17:05
investigated when it came to one
01:17:08
particular person of interest.
01:17:13
Andrew Crump, the brother of Elizabeth's
01:17:16
housemate, had come up early in the
01:17:18
investigation.
01:17:20
There were certain factors that made him
01:17:22
suspicious, such as the fact that he'd
01:17:25
unexpectedly left Melbourne 10 days
01:17:27
after Elizabeth went missing, and that
01:17:29
he'd mentioned having to fill in a hole
01:17:31
for his boss before he left the state.
01:17:35
Then there were the strange comments
01:17:37
he'd allegedly made to friends and
01:17:39
family over the years, including that he
01:17:42
was at the unit on the night Elizabeth
01:17:43
was killed and he knew where her body
01:17:46
was.
01:17:47
Despite previous allegations of stalking
01:17:50
and breaking and entering, the police
01:17:52
had mostly dismissed Andrew Crump as a
01:17:54
person of interest in Elizabeth's case,
01:17:57
putting his comments down to attention
01:17:59
seeking.
01:18:01
But when they reviewed the case file in
01:18:03
2017, they realized that certain factors
01:18:07
might have been overlooked.
01:18:10
When they'd first questioned Crump back
01:18:12
in 1994, he said the last time he had
01:18:15
gone to Elizabeth's unit was a week or
01:18:17
two before she went missing when he
01:18:19
stopped by to see his sister, but she
01:18:22
hadn't been at home.
01:18:24
Crump claimed that Elizabeth had let him
01:18:26
in so that he could use the toilet and
01:18:29
make a phone call.
01:18:31
Looking back, police realized the
01:18:34
potential significance of this story.
01:18:38
Among the only items missing from
01:18:40
Elizabeth's unit following her
01:18:42
disappearance were the toilet roll
01:18:44
holder and toilet paper.
01:18:47
It occurred to them that Crump could
01:18:49
have fabricated the story about using
01:18:51
the toilet inside the unit so there
01:18:53
would be a reasonable explanation for
01:18:55
why his fingerprints or DNA might be at
01:18:57
the crime scene.
01:19:00
Then there was his claim that he had
01:19:01
once had to move Elizabeth's car because
01:19:04
it was blocking his sister's vehicle. a
01:19:06
claim which his sister denied.
01:19:10
The police wondered if this too could be
01:19:12
a way to justify the presence of his DNA
01:19:14
inside the vehicle.
01:19:18
Back in October 2009, Andrew Crump had
01:19:21
voluntarily provided a DNA sample to be
01:19:24
tested against cigarette butts found in
01:19:26
Elizabeth's car.
01:19:28
His DNA didn't match, and the sample he
01:19:31
provided had since been destroyed.
01:19:34
However, in 2011, Crump's DNA had been
01:19:38
obtained for a second time after he was
01:19:40
accused of raping and assaulting his
01:19:42
former partner in Queensland.
01:19:45
He was convicted of those charges and
01:19:47
sentenced to 4 years in prison, and his
01:19:50
DNA was subsequently entered into a
01:19:52
national database.
01:19:55
In 2018, Victoria Police requested that
01:19:58
Crump's DNA sample be tested against all
01:20:01
of the samples taken from the Elizabeth
01:20:03
Meyer crime scene.
01:20:06
A sample taken from the driver's side
01:20:08
seat cover and another from an apparent
01:20:10
blood stain on the driver's side door
01:20:12
revealed some unexpected results.
01:20:16
While both of the samples contained
01:20:18
Elizabeth's DNA, they also contained DNA
01:20:22
from someone else.
01:20:24
Andrew Crump.
01:20:29
While this was a major discovery for the
01:20:32
police, it still wasn't the smoking gun
01:20:34
they needed to make an arrest.
01:20:37
The DNA profile on the driver's side
01:20:39
seat cover only showed that Crump was 52
01:20:42
times more likely to be a contributor
01:20:45
than a random Caucasian member of the
01:20:47
Australian population.
01:20:49
It also contained a DNA profile from a
01:20:52
third unidentified person.
01:20:55
In forensic biology, this was considered
01:20:58
a relatively low likelihood ratio.
01:21:02
As for the blood sample on the door, it
01:21:05
was determined that Crump was 2,300
01:21:08
times more likely to be the contributor
01:21:10
than a random Caucasian member of the
01:21:12
Australian population.
01:21:15
While this held a stronger likelihood
01:21:17
ratio, it still wasn't conclusive enough
01:21:19
to prove Crump's guilt.
01:21:22
To strengthen their case, the police
01:21:24
tried to verify certain assertions that
01:21:27
Crump had made over the years. They
01:21:30
tracked down Frank, the former friend
01:21:32
who joined Crump on his impromptu move
01:21:34
to Queensland in December 1994.
01:21:38
The police first spoke to Frank in 2003,
01:21:42
which was when he told them that Crump
01:21:44
said he'd had to fill in a hole for his
01:21:46
employer before leaving Melbourne.
01:21:49
This time, Frank confirmed his previous
01:21:52
story, but added another detail.
01:21:56
According to Frank, as they were driving
01:21:58
out of Melbourne, Crump drove past
01:22:00
Elizabeth's unit on Bedford Road.
01:22:04
In Frank's view, this was strange.
01:22:07
it wasn't the most direct route and he
01:22:10
could see no reason for it.
01:22:13
The police then spoke to Andrew Crump's
01:22:16
parents.
01:22:17
Both of them confirmed that Crump had
01:22:20
been living with them in December 1994.
01:22:23
But given the passing of time, neither
01:22:25
could recall whether he had been home on
01:22:27
the night of Tuesday, December 6.
01:22:30
However, there was one detail that
01:22:33
police found significant.
01:22:36
In contrast to Crump's previous claim
01:22:38
that he'd last stopped by the Bedford
01:22:40
Road unit a week or two before Elizabeth
01:22:43
went missing, his mother had a different
01:22:45
story.
01:22:47
She said that Crump had gone to the unit
01:22:49
a few days before Elizabeth's
01:22:51
disappearance on Sunday, December 4, and
01:22:55
Elizabeth had refused to let him inside.
01:22:59
Convinced that the killer could have
01:23:01
been staring them in the face all along,
01:23:03
the police wanted to proceed with
01:23:05
charges against Andrew Crump. They
01:23:08
prepared a brief of evidence which they
01:23:10
presented to the Office of Public
01:23:12
Prosecutions for consideration.
01:23:15
While all this was going on, Roger Mey
01:23:17
was battling dementia.
01:23:20
Joy memory told journalist John
01:23:22
Sylvester that her husband sometimes
01:23:25
walked around the ward he was in
01:23:26
cradling a picture of Elizabeth and
01:23:29
crying.
01:23:30
By the time the memories were told about
01:23:32
the breakthrough, Roger was too ill to
01:23:35
understand.
01:23:37
And after reviewing the evidence, the OP
01:23:40
declined to press charges anyway.
01:23:43
Not only did they think that the
01:23:45
evidence fell short of what would be
01:23:47
required to secure a conviction for
01:23:49
reasons that haven't been made publicly
01:23:51
available, it was also deemed unlikely
01:23:54
that Crump would be found mentally fit
01:23:57
to stand trial.
01:24:01
On Monday, February 6th, 2023, Roger Mey
01:24:05
passed away at the age of 83 without the
01:24:08
answers he'd spent almost 30 years
01:24:11
fighting for.
01:24:13
Joey told the age, "I just hope he is up
01:24:17
there and is reunited with our
01:24:19
daughter."
01:24:23
On the same day that Roger passed away,
01:24:26
Victoria police made an application to
01:24:29
set aside the findings of the 2000
01:24:31
coroner's inquest into Elizabeth
01:24:33
Memory's death on the basis that there
01:24:35
were new facts and circumstances
01:24:37
pursuant to the case, namely that
01:24:41
further investigations had identified a
01:24:43
person who may have contributed to her
01:24:45
death.
01:24:47
Based on the strength of the new
01:24:49
material provided, coroner John Kaine
01:24:51
agreed that it was appropriate to reopen
01:24:54
the investigation.
01:24:56
In October that year, he granted a
01:24:59
second inquest, which was scheduled to
01:25:01
take place in 2025.
01:25:04
The inquest would involve Judge Kaine
01:25:06
reviewing all the evidence presented at
01:25:09
the 2000 inquest along with the new
01:25:11
evidence uncovered during the latest
01:25:13
reinvestigation.
01:25:16
Andrew Crump himself was not legally
01:25:19
obliged to give evidence at the inquest,
01:25:22
but on Sunday, April 27, 2025, he did
01:25:26
provide a statement to the Queensland
01:25:27
Police at the coroner's request.
01:25:31
Crump stated that he did not remember
01:25:33
the last time he had seen Elizabeth and
01:25:36
he couldn't recall if he saw her on
01:25:38
December 6th, 1994.
01:25:41
He agreed it was possible that he might
01:25:44
have seen Elizabeth when his sister
01:25:46
wasn't at the unit, but denied that
01:25:48
there was ever any romantic relationship
01:25:50
between them.
01:25:52
Asked about the incriminating statements
01:25:54
he had allegedly made to others about
01:25:56
Elizabeth's death, he denied ever saying
01:25:59
such things and flatly rejected the
01:26:02
suggestion that he could have harmed
01:26:04
Elizabeth.
01:26:06
Overall, nothing was uncovered by the
01:26:08
Queensland police that opened any new
01:26:10
lines of inquiry.
01:26:13
The inquest also scrutinized the DNA
01:26:16
evidence that supposedly connected
01:26:18
Andrew Crump to Elizabeth's car.
01:26:21
Judge Kaine found that the two DNA
01:26:23
profiles were of too low likelihood
01:26:26
ratio to be considered compelling.
01:26:29
He also took issue with the fact that
01:26:31
the sample on the car seat provided a
01:26:33
third DNA profile from an unidentified
01:26:36
individual.
01:26:38
Furthermore, he found it significant
01:26:40
that despite extensive testing, none of
01:26:43
Crump's DNA was found inside Elizabeth's
01:26:46
unit.
01:26:48
After reviewing all of the available
01:26:50
evidence, Judge Kaine handed down his
01:26:53
findings on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.
01:26:57
He stated that there was much evidence
01:27:00
to justify the police attention being
01:27:02
focused on Andrew Crump and accepted
01:27:05
their conclusion about Crump's
01:27:07
involvement in Elizabeth's death.
01:27:10
However, the coroner stated,
01:27:13
"I have concluded that the evidence
01:27:15
falls just short of the coronial
01:27:17
standard of proof, and I am therefore
01:27:20
unable to find that Mr. Crump caused or
01:27:23
contributed to the death of Ms. Memory.
01:27:26
There are many gaps in the evidence of
01:27:28
Mr. Crump's movements and activities on
01:27:31
6 and 7 December 1994.
01:27:34
There are many inconsistencies and some
01:27:37
contradictory aspects to the evidence.
01:27:41
This combined with the DNA evidence
01:27:43
being at best inconclusive has persuaded
01:27:47
me to come to the conclusion that I
01:27:49
have.
01:27:52
Like the coroner before him, Judge Cain
01:27:54
agreed that Elizabeth Memory had died at
01:27:57
her unit on December 7, 1994 from an
01:28:00
unknown cause.
01:28:02
He had no further comment beyond that
01:28:06
unless any significant new evidence
01:28:08
emerged. Judge Kaine reiterated that
01:28:11
this latest inquest would be the final
01:28:13
hearing.
01:28:15
He acknowledged the pain of Elizabeth's
01:28:17
loved ones, stating,
01:28:20
"Miss Memory's family, in particular her
01:28:22
mother and prior to his death, her
01:28:25
father, have suffered unimaginable grief
01:28:28
and anguish over the last 30 years
01:28:30
through the criminal investigation,
01:28:32
criminal trial, and now two coronial
01:28:36
investigations with no answers and no
01:28:39
closure.
01:28:40
It is regrettable that I have not been
01:28:42
able to provide the closure that Ms.
01:28:44
Mey's family would want, but the
01:28:47
evidence simply does not support a
01:28:49
conclusion other than the one I have
01:28:51
come to. I convey my sincere condolences
01:28:55
to Miss Mey's family for their loss.
01:29:02
Joy Memory was baffled with no
01:29:05
recommendation of charges being laid
01:29:07
against Andrew Crump. This effectively
01:29:10
meant that the investigation into his
01:29:12
possible involvement had run its course.
01:29:16
85year-old Joy told Judge Cain his
01:29:19
decision was unfair.
01:29:22
Convinced that the police had finally
01:29:24
found the killer, Joy said, "I cannot
01:29:28
live another few years not knowing what
01:29:30
happened with my daughter. All I want
01:29:34
out of life is my daughter found. I want
01:29:37
justice for Elizabeth.
01:29:39
That's all I want.
01:29:42
But Judge Kaine reiterated his decision
01:29:45
and said the inquest would be the final
01:29:47
stage of the investigation unless any
01:29:50
new and compelling evidence emerged.
01:29:54
If there were any positives for Joy to
01:29:56
take away from the experience, it was
01:29:58
that unlike Shane Bond's trial, she felt
01:30:01
she was treated with warmth and
01:30:03
compassion this time around.
01:30:06
Outside the coroner's court, Joy told
01:30:08
reporters that she intended to give up
01:30:11
for the time being, adding, "But you
01:30:15
never say die."
01:30:18
As of May 2026, Elizabeth Memory's body
01:30:21
still hasn't been found.
01:30:24
Andrew Crump denies any involvement in
01:30:27
her death and has never been charged
01:30:29
with her murder or with any other
01:30:31
offenses related to her disappearance.
01:30:34
Case file acknowledges his presumption
01:30:36
of innocence.
01:30:38
Shane Bond has been acquitted of all
01:30:40
charges and denies any involvement with
01:30:43
Elizabeth's disappearance and case file
01:30:46
does not suggest otherwise.
01:30:49
In the years following his trial, Bond
01:30:51
has spoken about how the allegations
01:30:53
against him and the subsequent media
01:30:56
attention ruined his life.
01:30:59
According to an article in the Herald's
01:31:01
son, Bond struggled to find work because
01:31:04
of his association with the case.
01:31:07
He began using methamphetamine and moved
01:31:09
around the country in the hopes of
01:31:11
finding anonymity.
01:31:14
After Bond was hit with unrelated
01:31:16
driving and dishonesty charges in 2016,
01:31:20
Detective Ronles told the Sydney Morning
01:31:22
Herald, "I know of cases where the worst
01:31:26
thing to happen to an accused is an
01:31:28
acquitt,
01:31:31
the $1 million reward for information
01:31:33
that leads to the conviction of
01:31:35
Elizabeth's killer is still available.
01:31:38
Anyone with information relating to the
01:31:40
case is encouraged to contact
01:31:42
Crimestoppers on 1 800LE300
01:31:46
or submit a confidential report online
01:31:49
at crimestoppersvic.com.au.
01:31:55
Despite the years of disappointment and
01:31:58
heartache Roger and Joy Memory endured,
01:32:00
reporters who spoke to them always
01:32:02
observed how their faces lit up whenever
01:32:05
they spoke about Elizabeth.
01:32:07
They described her as everything they'd
01:32:09
ever wanted from a daughter and said
01:32:11
that the day she was born was the
01:32:13
happiest day of their lives.
01:32:16
They would not stop fighting for her
01:32:18
because if the tables were turned, they
01:32:21
knew she would not stop fighting for
01:32:23
them.
01:32:24
We loved her dearly. She was a dear
01:32:27
daughter and we miss her terribly. Roger
01:32:30
once told the age, "We are very grateful
01:32:33
for the years that we had with her, but
01:32:35
we're also very disappointed and very
01:32:38
angry that we don't have more years with
01:32:40
her."
01:32:42
In 2005, Roger told John Sylvester that
01:32:46
they feared that who Elizabeth was as a
01:32:49
person would become overshadowed by the
01:32:51
mystery of her case.
01:32:53
"People really liked her." Roger said
01:32:57
she had this magnetic personality.
01:33:00
She was pretty and elegant and had a
01:33:02
quiet presence.
01:33:04
Even when I just walked into a shopping
01:33:06
center with her, I would walk a little
01:33:09
taller.