Transcript of 1: Episode 1: Niamh

When 18-year-old Niam May went missing back in 2002, her family did everything they could to help police try and find her. But like so many missing person's cases, there comes a time when the leads dry up and there's nowhere left to look. Back then, there were no podcasts, and social media was still a couple of years away. But times change, and in recent years, Niam My sister, Fannula, began listening to true crime podcasts and realized their potential to make a huge difference, especially in unsolved cases like theirs. She realized that a podcast about Niam might bring about the answers the family were looking for. When Faneula contacted us, we agreed to help her reinvigorate the investigation into what happened to Niam. So for the last few years, I've been working with Finaula to take a much closer look at Niam's case. Even as I worked on other case file projects, I carried Niam's story with me at all times. Maybe it was because we were the same age or we finished high school the same year. Maybe it was the fact that we both wanted a gap year after leaving school or that we liked similar music.

Or maybe it was the fact that Niam was a young 18-year-old testing the waters of life and something pulled her under, and that could have happened to any of us. Maybe we just got lucky and survived our teenage years, but Nieum didn't. She didn't get to realize her her potential. When I first started looking into this case in 2020, it was originally intended to be a case file episode. But the more I looked, a series of revelations unfolded that literally and figuratively took me to places that I could never have anticipated. Niam grew up in a large Catholic family in Armadale in Northern New South Wales. After finishing her final year at school, she took a working holiday and went fruit picking down south in Batlo. Niam phoned home regularly, and as Easter 2002 approached, she made plans to travel back home to Armadale to spend Easter with her family. But Niam never made it home, and her family has never stopped looking for her. Niam's sister, Fennula.

It wasn't until I started talking to Mom and Dad more about it and looking into it more that I realized how much they took on. So Dad retired the year that Niam finished school. Mom had retired a few years earlier. They had seven kids. They just got them all their hands. And less than three months later, their youngest daughter goes missing, presumably murdered. And they've spent the next 18 years searching for her. They light a candle for her every morning. And in the early years, I think Dad They went down there 30 times. It's a 10-hour, yeah, about 10-12 hour drive from Armadale down there and back again. They were so methodical about it, and they had a huge map on the study wall at and they'd marked off all the areas that they'd searched. They've got crazy people contacting them with potential sightings, some of whom claim to be psychic. But they also just spent time in the local towns talking to the local volunteers and obviously working with the police tirelessly. I knew that it was consuming for them, but I don't think I realized how much they really took on because they shielded it from us.

At no point have we just got on with our lives, if you know what I mean. I heard something recently that really resonated. It was a woman from America who said that you never get over grief, you learn to move forward with it. I was like, Yeah, that's the best anyone's ever described it.

Niam May was born on the 21st of June, 1983. She grew up on a small hobby farm in Armadale, New South Wales, which is almost 500 kilometers north of Sydney, the state capital. At all. The May family, Mom and Dad, Anne and Brian, and children Catherine, Susan, Kieran, Justine, Tamzin, Fennula, and Niam, were raised Catholic. Niam was the youngest of the bunch, with her sister Fennula only two years older. All the children were close-knit. Growing up out of town, Naim and her brother and sisters had the childhood you might daydream about. Imagine the Australian countryside, blue skies with cotton ball clouds, kids making their own fun, running wild in open fields as free as the wind. They were safe as long as they avoided the snakes in the grass and the redback spiders in the retaining wall. Before we get too far into Niam's story, we should clarify her name. Niam is an Irish name spelt N-I-A-M-H and traditionally pronounced Nive. Her sister, Fannula, explains how her parents adjusted their daughter's name for the Australian palate.

She was named Nive, the Irish name Nive. But Mom and Dad decided that was going to be too hard for people in the '80s in Australia, in country New South Wales, to work out that MH was a V sound. So they said, Oh, we'll just drop the H, and everyone could call it Niam, like Liam. So we all grew up calling her Niam.

So while we She will call her Niam, you might hear others call her Neef. When Niam's mom and dad, Anne and Brian, first met, they were both primary school teachers. Before Fannula and Niam were born, Brian did his PhD and became a lecturer at the University of New England in Armadale, where he worked for many years. Anne continued to teach primary school while having her children and also studied her master's in education. While pregnant with Niam, Anne sat her final exam and won the university medal. Anne describes what life was like when Niam was born.

Well, she was born very easily. Number seven, fitted in very easily, and had six bigger siblings who, if she stepped out in line, could bring her back into line. It didn't fall on me, which was very handy. But on the whole, she just fitted in. She used to love using her little hand puppets and playing games with them and making up stories.

Even though Fannula was only a small child herself, she still remembers Niam as a baby.

We grew up together.

She was my little pal.

So her and the sister above me, Tamzin, we were known as the three little kids, the little kids. So we all shared a bedroom. It was the little kids' room. And even, I think as adults, I remember one Christmas, not even that long ago, someone said, I'll get one of the little kids to do it. I'm like, I'm like 30 something. So we've kept our family positions regardless of our age. Yeah, so Niam's Chubby cheeks. Little cutie with absolutely adorable little chubby cheeks, and she was spoiled being the youngest. Everyone called her Chuppabubba. And she could chuck a tantrum. She'd throw her head back and she had these huge veins It would pop out of her neck and we'd tease her about them when she chucked tantrums.

But sibling teasing is quickly forgotten when there are fields to explore and efforts to build.

Growing up, we pretty much just ran wild. Not ran wild, but we had the run of our neighbors' properties as well. We were only on 15 acres because it was just a hobby farm where Mom and Dad worked in town. But Mom and Dad built their own house in the '70s, this long split-level house with four bedrooms, and we had 15 acres around it to run around. We used to just wander around and make up games. We built a fort out of stones in our neighbors. What do you call it? Row of trees, wind break under all these pine trees. We just built this little rock fort. We used to go and hang out there and make up all sorts of games. Played a lot of Uno, a lot of cards. I used to go camping. She liked to make stupid faces. She was just really cheeky, really, in a good way, though.

The May kids were all quite independent. Here is Niam mom, Anne, explaining what the first day of school was like for Niam.

When she first went to school, her first day at school, we used to get up, and I always get up early and have breakfast, and I'd be up early marking kids' books and things for school. Then I'd go up and milk the cow, and others would get up and get ready for school and get their own breakfast and their own school lunches. The stuff was all there. Then they'd head off for the school bus down at the corner, and Nipes first day at school, I came in and I'd always taken the others to school, driven them in for the first day. I looked around after I'd milked and separated and come inside, and lo and behold, couldn't find her. She hadn't even said goodbye. I was really quite upset. She hadn't said goodbye. She just went and got on the bus because that's what she did. Years later, her kindergarten teacher said, Yes, I'd I've always wondered why she turned up by herself that first day. It was no problem. She just turned up and then went and joined the other kids to get on the bus after school and came home, and that was that.

She was independent pretty well from the very beginning.

By the time Niam hit secondary school, the small girl with the chubby cheeks was gone. In her place was a young woman, independent, intelligent, creative, and not afraid to stand out from the crowd. The older May children, Katherine, Susan, Kieran, Justine, and Tamzin, had all gone to the same high school that their mother, Anne, taught at. However, for Fannula and with Niam, Anne decided that it might be a good idea to send them to a different school. So the two younger girls went to Duval High School in Armadale. There, Niam's creative side absolutely shone through. Anne remembers Niam's dogged determination as a student.

So as well as being creative, she was also well-organized. You have an image of creative people often being that they're utterly chaotic. She wasn't. She was highly organized. She was almost obsessive about things being precise.

Niam had a keen aptitude for writing and loved English. It was in these classes that her talent really stood out.

When she was in high school, she decided that she liked writing, or she'd wrote when she was in primary school, too. They all did. She then produced a short story that her teachers liked. She's actually had it published in an anthology of a whole lot of school kids that was excellent. Then when she got to high school, in particular, she did extension English as she got up into the higher levels of high school. And then she wanted to do photography. And Nive had been very canny about doing that because she was interested in creative things and productive things and merging that with her English extension. So she taught herself in the final years of high school and used it then as part of her English with photos and filming. And she then made a film, wrote it. It didn't have any money. So she went and begged volunteers, a couple of young chaps from University of Macquarie. At Macquarie, I think, had some camera gear so that they could borrow. And then she'd advertised for an actress, and she only had one person in it. So this girl came forward and volunteered, and they cobbled together a film which she submitted as part of her HSC.

By this time, all the older siblings had moved out of home to study or work. The bustling May house became quieter, and Niam and Fennula, by themselves for the first time, became very close. They went to parties together and even worked together at the local pizza shop. This used to annoy Fennula because Niam was the better worker and always one employee of the month. Everyone at the pizza shop loved her. She was funky and a bit alternative. Niem also had a cool taste in music. She loved the Stone Roses, Radiohead, Beck, Counting Crows, and System of a Down, to name a few. She also went through a teen goth stage, which raised some eyebrows in their country town. Naim died her hair blue and wore thick blue eye shadow to go with her goth clothing. Finaula remembers Naim always trying to be different and stand out from the crowd.

She liked to be a little bit different, a bit unique. Mom had a sari that she bought when… Mom traveled around in the '60s all over the world and bought a sari when she was… Must have been from India, I assume. So Naim wore it for her year 10 formal. She just, I think, wanted to be a little bit unique.

Each time she did something out of the ordinary, none of the mays were surprised, nor did they care. Well, that's Niam for you, they said. Niam's dad, Brian, saw in Niam a determination to succeed in life and to try as many new things as she could.

She actually was a qualified open water scuba diver. She also, I think it would be fair to say, used to read a lot, and she was a very good writer who did some impressive writing and threw into senior high school. I think she enjoyed her challenge. She used to set herself a challenge and work towards it, whether it came to be physically and sporting-wise or whether it was academic or intellectual activity.

Niam's dad could also see his daughter looking beyond their little town of Armadale and out into the world. She'll be a traveler, he thought.

She She had an interest in people who were different, and she did have a trip to France at one stage at the end of year 10. She traveled and had a school holiday, Christmas holiday trip in Paris.

Fannula remembers this trip to Paris as well. William was fluent in French and managed to out shine her brother who'd been there for longer than she had.

She went to France on exchange. That's the other thing. She spoke fluent French. In addition to being smart with everything else, she also spoke fluent French. She went on exchange to France at the end of year 11, so over the winter there. Our brother Kieran was living in Paris for work. He said he just remembered being really embarrassed because he'd been living there for months. I can't remember. He went somewhere with her and was trying to order something or whatever, and they didn't understand him. She was just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, Naim developed empathy for others.

She used her developing voice to stand up for others who couldn't speak out for themselves.

She was a great stickler for social justice. She didn't think people were behaving fairly. She would say so. She had a sense of fairness, and she had a sense of doing the right thing.

Naim's sister, Fannula, saw her growing passion social justice. It takes courage to speak up against unfairness, especially when you take the side of the underdog.

She was a real passionate social advocate, quite outspoken and stood up for people, hated injustice. I think that's in all of us. I think she was maybe 15 when she wrote a letter to the local paper because there were a few articles about local residents opposing a brothel in the town, or I think it was close to a residential area, and they were opposing it and saying it should be in a commercial area or it shouldn't be there at all. She just wrote a really well-written, eloquent letter basically saying it's the oldest profession in the world, and they need somewhere safe to work like everybody else. I think a lot of people were a bit shocked by her age and her outspokenness on the matter, whereas I just didn't think anything of it.

Sometimes the fight got closer to home.

She may have also been politely requested to leave a job that she had at a local club after very firmly telling some old patrons that were sitting at the end of the bar who were speaking quite loudly, basically just being really racist. She was just like, No, we don't stand for that here. And then the boss was like, They've been coming here for years, and they're really old. Leave them alone. And she's like, Okay, whatever. I don't want to work with you.

We will be back after a short break. So to her family, Naam was fearless, outspoken, and very clever. What was she like to her peers? Niam's childhood friend, Jess, describes her as a humanitarian and a leader.

Niam and I went to... We met in kindergarten, and we went from kindergarten all the way up to year 12 together, and we were in the same friendship group, just a little close bunch of friends. There was seven Eleven of us that were very close, and we're all still close. And Niam was very academic, and she was a leader. She was very influential, had a lot of humanitarian traits from a young age, always stick up for the underdog and/or what she believed in.

As a student on a school outing, Niam spoke her mind to Midnight Oil frontman turned politician, Peter Garet.

We once went to the university to see Peter Garet speak when he was the Environmental Minister, and I think we were in year 11 or year 12. We all sunk back in our seats when she stood up and gave him a big serving about her thoughts on his position and what he was doing.

Niam completed her high school certificate in 2001 and scored in the top 5% of the state. She applied to study at the University of Technology in Sydney and was accepted to study film. Niam decided to take a gap year in 2002, save up a bit of money, and go to university the year after. It was a decision that changed the lives of the May family forever. Naim heard through friends about fruit picking. It sounded like a perfect opportunity to save a bit of cash, see Australia, and spend some time outdoors. For Niam, it also meant she could set off on adventures and test her independence. Her friend Jess had a similar idea.

She planned to go to UTS in Sydney to study film, and I was going to do music in Brisbane. We decided to go on some road trip around Australia So take a year off and just leave home and go on an adventure. It wasn't well-planned out at all, but I think it was just exciting, the prospect of finishing school and having a year off before going into any other studies. And three of our other friends had been fruit picking, and they had taken a trip previously to this particular area that we went.

It's easy to see why this idea would have appealed to Niam. Taking a gap year between school and university gives teenagers a sense of freedom that's unlikely ever to be duplicated. A whole year stretching ahead with no timetables, no particular places to be, not a care in the world. It feels like forever is lying just in front of you. For the young idealistic, it's a time to test yourself and find out who you really are. Perhaps it is natural that prospective fruit pickers head to Batlo, famed for its apples. It's a small character little town dotted with apple orchids that produce enough to supply 10% of Australia's apples. Naim arrived in Batlo at the end of January 2002, fully intent on fruit picking and living the fruit picker's lifestyle. But it would prove a false start. She only got a couple of days of work before unseasonal summer rains canceled most of the picking. In a few weeks, Naim was back home with not much more to show for her travels than photos of her on-the-job war wounds, mainly bruises from fruit totes and ladders. Undaunted by the first trip, Naim couldn't wait to return to Butler when the weather settled.

She had only been home for four days when she and her dad went shopping to buy some camping gear for her next trip. She talked over her plans with Brian.

I can recall when she came home, the the first time, when she said she wanted to go apple picking in Bethel. I asked her why she would want to do that work. I grew up myself on a banana and tomato farm, pine and other tropical fruits. So I knew what was involved in laboring in the fields. And I said, It's a hard job. And she said, Well, I just like to try and see how I go. And then we talked through some of the plans that she had for how she was going to support herself, how she was going to organize herself. And she would take a hiker's tent and camp. She had a tent that was big enough for her and her possessions. And I said to her, now, how are you going to afford this tent? And she told me which one it was, and it cost, I think, $100 or something. And her response was, well, I was hoping you might help me out. Whereupon I agreed, and we went and had checked out the tent. Of course, we used to take the family camping quite a bit when they were all young.

So she was familiar with camping. She was familiar with traveling.

Niam's mom, Anne, tried to make her daughter aware of the difficulties she might face on her fruit picking year. It might not be as rosy as she thought, but Niam was not to be discouraged. Her friend Jess remembers how excited Niam was to go back to fruit picking after her brief stand.

Then she came back and she was really excited and she said, Let's go fruit picking. It was summertime. I just turned 18. And she said, Stuff this. I I think we both had cafe jobs or something. She was like, Let's go out into the bush. Let's go and pick fruit. We can get fit, we can be healthy, we can go on an adventure and we can make some money. We can buy a car We can drive to Brisbane, and we'll visit some friends. Who had already started uni? And that's how the idea came. So her and I decided to go. We booked A train ticket from Armadale to Sydney, and we were going to stay with her sister, Fannula, for one night, and then we would carry on to this place called Batlo.

Jess put her trust in Niam's planning skills.

Niam had always been quite fastidious with details and organizational skills. For my whole life, she was the person that would… She was known as a good organizer. So I just booked this train ticket and thought that she knew what we were doing and where we were going and how it was working, how it was going to work. There was a lot of trust that we would just be taken care of. Somehow we would get to Bathlow train and bus, and then we would go to this camping ground. Supposedly, if we just went to the caravan park and pitched a tent, the owners would put us in touch with some people that we could go and work for.

Naam's mom, Anne, remembers the level of planning for the second trip. The first failed mission had given Naim insight into what she would need, and she set about organizing what she would take with her.

She knew she'd have to have shirts with long sleeves, so she hit finis and the salvos and places like that, and got long-sleeved shirts that she could wear for picking, and she didn't take anything that was peripheral or extra. Took no jewelry except for one ticky on a thong that she wore around her neck, which had been a gift from her godmother. She had her camera gear with her. She also, when she'd gone down earlier in the year, she came home in She decked all her photos, labeled them, dated them. She had been saving and putting aside things for when she needed to be at Uni.

While Naam was back home, she spoke to another friend, Lisa. She convinced her to go to Batla as well.

When she finished school, I knew she had plans to go and study in Sydney and live with Fennula, and she was planning to go to film school. She really... And Which actually initially surprised me because she excelled so much in so many other areas. But there was this creative streak to her that I think she wanted to tell stories. It was a passion that she had. At the end of year 12, I left school a little before the others, and I went and started working. I was a little bit disconnected from Niam and probably my other friends for a a little while. Then, funnily enough, when she was in, she'd been in Batlo and she came home and she called me and I spoke to her and she was like, Oh, yeah, I've been down there. We're making money. She was telling me about things that were happening down there. I said, Oh, I'm looking for work. She's like, Oh, you should come down. It's really easy. Anyone can get work. I was like, Okay, yeah, all right. I'll come down. I'll come and do a couple of weeks. I saw her briefly. She said, Yeah, I'm just picking up some stuff heading back down.

Lisa decided she would travel by car with her boyfriend and join Niam in Batlo. Then there was a last minute addition to their fruit picking entourage. Naim's friend Jess explains how Brodie entered the picture. Brodie was younger than the other girls, but she had also left school.

The day before we were going to leave, we were walking through the mall. We come from a small town, so we were just walking through town. And this younger girl that we knew by association, friends of friends, she was hanging out We approached her and asked her what she was doing. We were pretty excited. We were like, It's summertime, it's February. We don't have to go to school. We're going to go fruit picking and make some money, buy a car, go on a road trip. Brody was younger than us, so I would have been 18. I reckon Brodie would have been 15. I'm not sure. We were like, Come fruit picking if you're not going to go to school. Brodie She decided to come with us, and she went and booked a train ticket.

Brody and Niam had hit it off right from the start, even though Brody was younger.

I don't remember the first time we actually met. I just know that we met through our group of friends. I was a fire twerler, and I was in a group, and me and Jess would go fire twerling with them a lot. I think Jess and Niam went to high school together, so I probably met Niam through Jess. We just would be at parties together. I just remember there was one party in particular where we started hanging out. I already knew her, but we hung out a lot more.

Brodie's favorite story of Naim reminds me of the saying, Dance like no one is watching.

She really was into system of down at the time, and the Toxicity album. I just remember catching her one time listening to it, and she was just dancing really funny. It was really awkward, but it was really cute. She was just having fun by herself. I was like, Oh, I love that album. Then she was like, Oh, my God. Shocked that I saw her. I think that's probably my favorite memory of her.

When Naam and Jess suggested she come fruit picking with them, Brody cleared it with her mom and left the next day.

I was at Tate, and I had took a lunch break, and I walked up town, and I bumped into Jess, and she was like, Oh, me and Niam are going to go fruit picking. You should come. I was like, Okay, I'll come. I ran back down to see my mom because she was also doing Tate with me at the same time. I got some money off her, and we pretty much left the very next day. So it was really spur of the moment.

On Valentine's Day, Thursday, the 14th of February, 2002, to, Niam, Jess, and Brodie left Armadale. They planned to stay with Fannula in Sydney for the night where she was studying and working before heading south to Batlo. Brian remembers saying goodbye to his youngest daughter.

So off she went. The last thing, she was hopping into the car out here, just out in front of the garage, about to go off to catch the train with her friends. I was standing at the top of the steps, and she dashed over and gave me a big hug and hopped in the car with Anne, and off she went.

Jess also remembers when it came time to say goodbye to their families as they took the train to Sydney. From the moment the three girls hopped on the train that morning, an uneasy feeling began to bury itself in the pit of her stomach. It would stay there and grow as time went on.

The The next day, we went to the train station, and we got on the train, and I sat on the left side, and Liam and Brodie sat together on the right side, and my mom stood outside on the platform, and she waved a white handkerchief, and I was like, Oh, my God, she's so embarrassing. There were tears running down her eyes. I remember Niam's mom standing there, too, looking very stern and concerned, just very serious. I noticed that Brodie and Niam were just getting along really well. I had a really funny feeling, and I didn't like it. I didn't like how well they were getting along with each other. It probably made me feel jealous because I was like, They're getting along a lot better than I am. This is weird. Maybe we shouldn't have Brodie coming with us because she's only 15.

Finaula remembers Niam and her friends arriving at her place in Sydney They had a great time together.

Then 14th of February, she came back to Sydney with Jess and another girl, Brodie, from Armadale. They came to Sydney, she came into the city and met me. I just finished work, so we went out for a a couple of drinks with our brother, Kieran. And then headed home. I was living with two flatmates in Chatswood, in a musty old Manky share house. And they crashed on our lounge room floor and we just hung out. But then the next morning she headed off. And I just remember them heading off and waving and me being like, be careful, call me, all that stuff. And I remember for a fleeting second thinking, I should give her my phone because I had a mobile phone at that stage and she didn't. And I remember thinking I should give her my phone. And then I was like, oh, but they were already heading off, and it's a hassle to sort out the bills or replacements and all that stuff. So I didn't. I've got a lot of small regrets, and that's one of them. Realistically, there was no reception down there anyway, so I don't think it would have made much difference.

The train trip to Batlo perhaps set the scene for what was to follow. The plan was for the girls to catch the 7:15 AM train from Sydney to Kudamundra and from there, catch a country link bus to Batlo. They missed the train from Sydney and had to wait around for a later one. Jess explains.

And that was a really weird thing that we missed the train. Because we would never miss a train. And I remember it was like the world was trying to stop it from the very start. And I remember Niam being really stressed out and I'm getting so cross and angry that we'd miss the train, and I thought, This is so unlike it.

But when you miss a train, eventually another one follows, and the girls were able to hop on board. Unlike a US who felt a strange foreboding about the trip, their younger traveling companion, Brodie, did not.

The train trip from Sydney to Kudamundra, me and them were having lots of fun and chatting to strangers. We remember we turned our chair to talk to these people that were there, and we had a few drinks, and we were just having a good time. It was just an adventure. I didn't feel nervous, particularly. I always wanted to get away from Armadale. I was always leaving, running away Yeah. It was just another adventure, really.

But for Jess, the further from home they got, the more her uneasiness grew.

We got on this train from Sydney to Kutamandra. When we got on the train, it was nearing night time, and Niem and Brody were sitting together on the left-hand side seating front of me. And this group of men were sitting on the right-hand side, and they were all drinking, and it made me feel nervous. I pretended to go to sleep, and then I fell asleep because I knew that Brody and Liam were like, Yeah, let's drink with these guys. I don't know if they did drink with these guys. They were a rough group of old men. And then I fell asleep, and I woke up, and all of the small group of men that had been drinking were now asleep and snoring.

Because they had missed their original train, there was no country link bus to take them to Batlo they arrived at the remote Kutamandra train station in the dead of the night. As Jess sat on the train, she knew they would have to find their own way to Batlo, which was 120 kilometers away from Kutamandra. Jess kept a diary on the trip, and this was her entry about that train ride.

There were revolting men on the train who I felt really sorry for. Naam and Brodie, I thought, behaved. I don't know how they behaved, but I was saddened, and I'm not impressed with the rude, obnoxious, drunk attitudes of a group of people who were much older. Jesus Christ. This would be very funny to watch on a film. At the beginning of the film, everything is so optimistic and positive, but slowly after the train tracks, the mood changes and it becomes uncomfortably evil.

Coming up on Missing Niam.

People would just come up to the tents and be like, Hey, and what are you doing? There wasn't really a lot of privacy.

Then one day, the black hearse arrived. When the black hearse arrived, these two men got out. As soon as I saw them and I saw that black hearse, I thought, They're baddies. Stay away from them.