Transcript of 11: Episode 11: Searching for the truth

Please note that some names in this episode have been changed. Additionally, some audio clips are voiced by actors reading from statements or transcripts. When a coronial inquest in 2012 found on the balance of probabilities that Naim had died on or around the day she vanished, it brought her family no closer to the truth. A police statement read onto the record at the inquest by an investigator had thrown them a curveball by introducing a bikey-related theory that none of them had ever heard before. Jack Nickleison's name was not mentioned in the inquest at all. While the coroner promised that the police would still follow up all leads, he said, We don't exactly know, and it may well be that we never exactly know. That must be a dreadful thing for members of the family, not to know what's happened to someone whom you love. And he's right. It is dreadful. When we first started working on this series in 2020, it was our hope that we would be able to track down Garth. We had located some records about Garth from 2019, and with each bit of information, we got a little closer to finding him.

But first, we needed to investigate and reveal as much of the story as we could before making any approach. We wanted to have the best understanding of what had happened in Butler to Gingelik. When we achieved that, it was time to reach out to Garth. But before I could make an approach, we heard the devastating news. I first spoke to Fennula in January 2020. She had decided she wanted to shake the tree and make a podcast to see if there was anyone out there with information. Unfortunately, it was only weeks later that Garth passed away, well before we were in a position to talk to him. We didn't find out the news of his passing until months later when we were planning our approach. Through some memorial posts on Facebook, we learned that Garth had been in a punk band when he was younger before his time fruit picking in Batlo. He was a guitar player, and his three former bandmates had all gotten memorial tattoos after his death. We reached out and were able to speak to a number of Garth's friends. They all described Garth in the same ways to those we'd already heard.

They described him as a super cool, laid-back, friendly guy. He could plant and grow anything and was a natural bushman. He was an awesome guitar player, but on feel and heart rather than music theory and technical knowledge. Garth was also a good artist. He sometimes liked to have a smoke, go to the art gallery to get inspired, then go home and paint. He was the type of person who didn't need much, lived a minimalist, frugal lifestyle. He could happily live in a tent beside a river if he needed to. They all remembered the hearse that he bought from Jack after Naim's disappearance. As one friend put it, Yeah, I remember that hearse. He came up to Brisbane with it, where I was living at the time in share accommodation. He picked me up in it and drove me to a tool concert, and I remember it because we went to this Tool concert and I was laying down in the back of the hearse. I thought that was pretty cool to see Tool like that. But not everyone was aware about how the hearse came to be in Garth's possession. The first few friends we spoke to were surprised when we told them about what we were doing.

They had never heard of Niam or Jack or about Garth's time picking in Batlow in Easter 2002. Garth often spoke about his fruit picking lifestyle and bragged about breaking a fruit picking record one day at one of the picking locations. Garth was outgoing, always coming up with ideas for trips and adventures. One friend remembers Garth saying, Let's go up north, get some kayaks, and go on a kayaking trip. Garth enthused that they could sleep on islands. The friend remembers thinking, Yeah, that sounds awesome, Garth, but I've got to work. But he said Garth was always coming up with cool, random, adventurous ideas like that. Another said Garth had an awesome heart. He had a heart for the world, loved being out in nature and the environment. Unfortunately, Garth could also be a magnet for drugs and alcohol, and sometimes these got the better of him. But he was able to get through those periods and clean himself up. In the end, though, it appeared that drugs may have taken their toll on him again in the lead up to his death. Garth's friends were only too happy to put us in touch with other friends, and we eventually were able to speak to people who were aware of Niam and Jack.

They all told a very similar story that Garth rarely spoke about that time, but if it ever came up, he just said he couldn't be sure. He wondered if Jack did it, but just didn't know. He never expressed a solid opinion either way, just that he wouldn't be surprised if Jack did it, but he couldn't know for sure because there was no evidence. So he just chalked it up to, I don't know. He said he didn't know anything more than he had already told the police. One friend I spoke to, Shane, knew about Niam and Jack. Shane is the friend who Jack and Garth visited in Melbourne in the days after leaving Batlo. When I called Shane, he said to me, I knew it was going to be about that. I was only talking to my girlfriend about it a month ago, and she said, I bet someone's done a podcast about that, and now you've reached out. Funny how the universe works sometimes. Shane had known Garth since school and had also worked the fruit picking circuit around Australia. He did some seasons with Garth, and Jack was one of the many people they met along the way.

Here's how Shane remembers Jack.

I thought he was a pretty honorable character. I never saw him have any He troubles with anybody. He was a fairly hard a character, but I never have a bad word to say about him. He never did me any harm. It was fairly brief. I mean, he was possibly a fairly reserved a character at times, I suppose. I didn't spend extensive amounts of time, but there was times when he was around a bit in the similar area and similar circles of friends. I mean, like all the people that I traveled with, pretty much everyone was transient. No one had a address. And there were some people there that were running away from ex-relationships or just responsibility in general or just the mainstream lifestyle that I feel like a lot of us had in common that we were enjoying traveling and just having that freedom, and it was a good life. Yeah, I miss it.

When Jack visited Shane with Garth in the days after Naiam disappeared, Shane didn't notice anything different.

All seemed pretty normal. He was scantily reserved, and sometimes he wasn't someone who was overly expressive or emotional, or not an emotional person around us. But in saying that, it wasn't anything unusual or he didn't seem any different than all the other times I'd seen him.

Shane recalls a conversation with Garth about Jack's behavior Easter Saturday when he returned to Gingellic Pub.

Garth said that there was no reason to think there was anything out of the normal going on or has that had happened. He was fairly much himself and similar to how he was always.

He also remembers asking Garth about Jack's reaction when they got the call from the police, asking them to go to Denelequine Police Station to talk about Niam's disappearance.

I thought, Well, what was his reaction to that? And he goes, No, it was cool as they basically went straight to He was in a police station. Garth didn't have any hesitation, and he seemed to think that Jack had no hesitation with it either. And then when they got there, Garth, I remember Garth saying, Well, I got nothing to do with any of this, and it's all news to him. He was freaking out because it had become a fairly serious matter, obviously, pretty quickly once they got there. If he'd done something unsavory to name that he hadn't mentioned anything to Garth, and Garth and I were very close and were right up until Garth passed away this year. I'll probably considered myself Garth's best mate throughout that whole time. He was very concerned, and he was confused as to what the truth of it all was.

Did Garth ever mention anything about Naim herself? Meeting her?

I know that he did express that Jack did like her. From what I remember, she wasn't been on to showing anything with him.

Ultimately, Shane believes Garth didn't know anything that could help find Naim.

I think Garth would have come forward or spoken up because I know that he would have had nothing to hide and that he would have gone out of his way if there was something that he could help the family find out and put at rest because as I said, he was a strong character and had strong beliefs, and he certainly wasn't shy and speak enough if he needed to say something.

What did become clear to us was that Garth and Jack weren't overly close. Not as close as I first assumed. Yes, They knew each other through the fruit picking circuit. Yes, they traveled together in 2002, but ultimately, Garth was more keen on Jack's hearse than on Jack, meaning he was hanging around because he wanted to buy the hearse from Jack. Garth loved to Old Holden's, and here was a rare Old Holden hearse within his grasp. That's why Garth didn't hesitate to buy it from Jack when Jack offered. The night Nahum was last seen. Garth told the police as much in his interview.

I was interested in that car he bought. He bought it in a car yard in Cobram, the hearse, and I'm interested in an old Holden's, and I wanted it. Did you eventually get it?

Yeah.

And you bought it off Jack, I believe? Yeah.

Okay. I was given some advice from a friend.

Just don't go too far away from him. He'll fuck up and he'll have to sell his Hearse.

But you're there when it's for sale.

Okay. You took that advice pretty well?

Yeah. Jack was aware that Garth was mainly hanging around for the Hearst, too, not for the pleasure of his company. This is from Jack's interview.

How did you come to be in the company of Garth three weeks ago?

Well, he's got a bit of a fascination with my car because he's a bit of a holding buff. I thought, well, I found out he's just hanging around till I ran out of my money so he could buy the car off me. It's certainly very possible Garth knew nothing. But at the same time, he didn't share everything either. He denied Jack had a sexual interest in Naim when there is evidence from others that Jack's interest was sexual and that Garth knew it. In his first interview, he didn't make a big deal of the fact that Jack was gone for so long when he dropped Niam off. It was only in the second interview, after Jack died, that he discussed the long period of time Jack was gone Easter Saturday and the fact he was wondering what took him so long. We will never know if sharing that crucial information in the first interview would have made a difference. But we suspect if police had known sooner, the trip to drop Niam off took hours longer than it should have and that Jack behaved ugly afterwards and changed his hair color, that could have altered the course of the investigation.

Garth may have had reasons for not sharing this information with the police, shock or refusing to believe he could be in the company of a murderer. It makes sense. Garth kept repeating, There's no way it's Jack. Jack couldn't have done this. I know Jack. Ultimately, Garth is remembered by those who knew him as a great guy, loved a party, full of adventure, outgoing, gave everything a shot, loved the guitar, loved the outdoors. But tragically, according to one, he went out like a firework. While putting this podcast together, we made a number of trips down to Batlo and Tumet. Sometimes, we went there with Finaula and Kieran and other members of Naim's family. What never ceased To amaze us was the friendliness and willingness of the locals to help in any way they could. They all remembered the case. They all remembered the hearse. They were willing to open their doors, give up their time, talk to us, help us track down people, pass on messages to people, pass on phone numbers. They have been absolutely amazing. But also, being in Batlo really makes you appreciate the vastness of the area. The The hills, the trees, the vast bushland.

It's so very beautiful, but at the same time, the town's history is now interwoven with the disappearance of Nahum. There is a sadness about the place for those who knew went to love to Nahum.

It's really hard to not just feel really hopeless, which I guess over the last 18 years, it's The majority of it has been hopeless. And then, I guess, you learn to deal with the hopelessness and choose to celebrate Nahum's life instead. But being here in Batlo and going over it all again in detail and just thinking how it just shouldn't have happened. And the people in the town are all so sweet and everybody's wanting to help and letting us know they're keeping an eye out still and everything. That's just really nice. They're all so lovely. It's just a really horrible thing to happen. It's just so unfair that it happened to Niam. She had everything going for her. And just driving down the road between Batlo and Tumbrumba and looking out, the last times that I visited here, you look at that view and you see the rolling hills of orchids and beyond the orchids, just rolling hills of forest. And that was always really like you look at that and think it's hopeless. Where do you even start to look? And now you look at it all and you think, well, it's all been burned or ripped up by forestry people.

Like, what's going to... What could possibly remain if she's even there? Then my mind goes back to the fact that Jack did a disappearing act even after the police had spoken to him. What did he do During that time, where did he go? I've always imagined this area, the whole area, I guess, as her final resting place, I suppose, for lack of an actual one. But then are we even just in the completely wrong area here? It's just such a big, huge question mark.

Evidence of the 2020 Batlo Bushfires was visible everywhere.

Well, the whole hill has just been stripped. It's like little black matchsticks. The other thing as well, I think, is I hate to think. It breaks my heart that 18 years is a long time. It doesn't feel like it is to me, but realistically it is. People that were little kids then, it's I hate it, that it's a bit of a town legend. But the thing is, it's not just a story. She's a real person. Had a lot of people who really loved her and miss her.

One of the people we spoke to on our trips to Butler was a retired orchardist, Jen Vanzela. In 2002, he was running an orchard in Butler and remembered seeing the hearse on his property. We were interested to speak to anyone who remembered seeing the hearse around town. This information might prove to be the missing piece of the puzzle. Jen told us about a dam on his orchard. It was popular with pickers who used to swim in it after a hard day picking. And even though it was on private property, it wasn't just pickers who worked for Jen who used it. He said he'd have lots of people turn up to the dam for a swim.

And there wasn't just two or four. There was about three or four, five, six cars sometimes. And they used to jump off here and swim in there. Even though some days it was a bit cold, if they went down too far, it gets very cold. But that's my theory. And they had no trouble coming in here. This was the old railway line, and there was no gates on it or anything. So they had access to it.

Jen, Jen didn't mind Pickers going for a swim in his dam after a hard day's work.

We're pretty sympathetic to people to going in there as long as they don't drown themselves or something.

So the two boys that were driving the hearse or traveling in the hearse, they did some work at your brother's orchard?

Their brother's place, yeah.

Jen's brothers are Adrian and Tony Vanzela, who ran a separate orchard to Jen elsewhere in town. Jack and Garth worked for Adrian for just one day and left town before collecting their paychecks, and then arranged for two picking acquaintances to collect their pay on their behalf.

He must have contacted Adrian through another source, and he said, We swam up in your dam here.

That's the guy driving the hearse? Yeah.

Jen confirmed that he saw the hearse parked at the dam.

Did you see the hearse around town?

Yeah, quite a few times. I I saw it up here one day. They used to park along the road there. Then there's a bit of it where you could turn around. So they'd park up there, not that far. Six cars would fit in there, probably. A hearse is something you take notice of.

Anywhere where the hearse was sided around the Batlo is of interest because Jack didn't know the area well. So if he is responsible for Niam's disappearance, we need to know all the places he was familiar with in case he chose one of them to leave her body or her belongings. It's very possible he could have chosen somewhere he was already somewhat familiar with, where he knew he could drive his hearse. Jan Vanzela's dam was on private property, and it was well hidden from any main roads. And being the Easter long weekend, the orchid wasn't in operation the day Niam went missing. It may have been possible to get in and out unseen, especially via a back dirt road that existed at the time. We were especially interested when Jen told us about a hand trolley he found in the dam a few years after Niam went missing. Also known as a dolly, these are the trolleys that help people move heavy loads like a stack of boxes.

Where did you find it?

Well, it was in this point here.

Jen was looking at an overhead aerial shot of his orchard when talking to us and pointed to the same dam that Pickers used to swim, the same dam where he saw the Hearst parked one afternoon. During a time of heavy irrigation, the water level in the dam dropped by a third, and suddenly, the trolley was visible.

What I did is I thought, Gee, that's odd. How did that get there? Anyway, we had trucks in the rope, so I grabbed the rope and made a bit of a hook It took us about 20 years hooking it up, but we finally got it. And it had the address of the Tumberumba Service Station. And I thought, someone's just pinched it and did whatever.

We will be back after a short break. We don't know if the trolley could be related to Niam's disappearance, but it's worth considering. There was a sighting of the hearse in Tumbarumba the day Niam went missing. The hearse was spotted by Jan at his dam in the week prior to Niam's disappearance. We added the dam to our list of locations to check out. We tried to get to the dam using our best guess after looking at the overhead aerial shot, but we ended up taking a wrong turn and driving to the wrong orchard. It wasn't as easy to get to as it appeared, at least not the way we were going. Our getting lost confirmed that to get there surreptitiously, you would need to be familiar with the tracks. We developed a list of all the places we wanted to check out for our next visit to Batlo, the dam being one. But before our next visit, Fannula received an email. The email was from a Batlo local, Anthony, who had just been chatting to a vegetation management employee, James. James was not a Batlo local but had done some work in the area sporadically over the years, including around the time Niam went missing.

When we read the email and saw the words fresh ground that had been dug up approximately six feet in length that James believed may have been a freshly dug grave, cited not long after Niam went missing. He had our interest. The location James described where this fresh ground had been dug up was in a paddock right next to the Vanzela Dam. We needed to get down there and talk to James. He was working around Batlo, clearing vegetation and scrub from beneath power lines. This area where James had seen the disturbed Earth was on Anthony's property. He was kind enough to let us look at the spot and meet James there so he could point out to us exactly what he saw. This is what James remembers.

We were vegetation workers, so we looked after clearing vegetation on the power lines and that stuff for the local electricity company. We were working up here clearing the wattels underneath underneath the power lines and just cutting the trees down using chainsaws. And yeah, we were just clearing some area. Anyway, I had to go to the toilet, so I thought I would go into the side a little bit and walked into the water so I could see a bit of a clearing and went in there. I found this what to me looked like a grave, but wasn't 100% sure. So I got the guy I was working with to go and have a look, and he shrugged it off and didn't say too much about it, but it was between five, maybe six foot long. Earth was mounted up. It'd obviously been recent because there was no weeds or anything growing through it.

James started working for the company in November December, 2001, but he said he only ever came to the Butler area at a certain time of year.

We only ever came up here April, May, June. It was always just the start of winter. We'd come up here because we were doing other areas before that.

So does James remember when he saw the freshly dug ground that could have been a grave?

It would have been the first time I was up here working. So it was definitely the first year was up. So it would have been 2002, I think.

James didn't give the sighting much more thought, especially because his colleague had brushed it off. But a few years later, in 2005, James saw the TV segment on Niam's case that appeared on the New South Wales Police Missing Persons Unit TV show. After seeing the TV show and learning about Niam's case, James immediately thought back to what he had seen in the bush in Batlo that He thought he had better reported.

I went to the local police station and had a chat to them, and they shrugged off and said that they'd searched this area and they weren't really interested. So they said I wasn't to worry about it.

James had the feeling he'd been brushed off a little too easily at his local police station. So when he was in tumor a few months later, he tried to report it again.

It would have been a few months later, maybe six months later. I was in Tumet, and I decided I was going to go in and see the police there and went in. And I spoke to WPC there, I think it was, and There was a detective at the time, supposedly looking after the case. He came out and I told him what I told the police in Waga. And he said that they'd searched it and that I shouldn't worry about it. And then, yeah, And then, we're here now.

After being told by police twice that what he had seen was of no interest to them, James let it go. It wasn't until many years later, in 2021, when he happened to find himself back at the same property in Batlo, that the memories came flooding back. He got talking to the property owner, Anthony, and asked him if he was familiar with Naim's case. Being a Batlo local, Anthony was, and when he heard what James had seen on his property, he immediately contacted Crime Stoppers. When he didn't hear anything back, Anthony contacted Fannula directly, who then told us. We were very keen to take a look at the area for ourselves. Do you remember where you parked or ?

I'm pretty sure we just parked on the edge of the road and just walked in. We just basically walked in with the chainsaws going all the way down. We would have only done directly under the power lines because the wider ones don't get that big. They get big enough to interfere with the power lines, but we would have done directly under the power line only.

The area in question slopes down to a gully, so the distance up to the power lines increases down the slope. For that reason, James and his coworker only had to go in just enough off until the black waddles were no longer in danger of hitting the power lines.

Just stopped work to tell me that I was going to take a toilet break and walked off to the side. It's a usual banter between your co Yeah, make sure you go well in there. So I'll get right out of the way. And so went off to the side and could see this bit of an opening and went in there. And sure enough, there was this bit of freshly dug up ground. It would have been five, maybe six foot long. It was mounted up, obviously fairly fresh. There was no weeds on it, so nothing had regrown back on top of it. And you could see where there's a couple of little waddle trees had been cut down so that you could get in there. But it was a bit freaky. I went and seen the other fellow and said, Come and see this. And he was like, Yeah, right. I'm not coming in there. I said, No, you got to come and see this. And he came in and had a look and he shrugbed his shoulders and didn't say too much about it. And he said, You see lots of different stuff doing this job, mate.

Being new, doing this work, I was just like, Okay. So I shrugged it off and then we just kept going and finished what we were doing for the day and that was it.

And what did it look like to you?

It looked like a grave. Wasn't my finest moment. I should have done. Probably should have said something else to somebody. We did talk I spoke about it at work. I spoke to the guy I was working for at the time, and they all had a bit of a, it doesn't sound good. But then, yeah, that was it.

In 2021, the area was very different to how James and Anthony described how it was in 2002. It is now a very well-cleared area with low-lying scrub and nothing tall enough to hit the power lines. But back in 2002, the The area was thick scrub land.

This was a jungle. It was really thick, really close together. We spent a full day in here, Claire, in this one section.

So it's like someone had made a clearing in the thick vegetation. So in that clearing with how thick it was, today, we can easily see the road. Would you have been able to see the road? God, no.

You couldn't have seen two meters.

Have you ever seen anything like that since? No.

I've seen some weird stuff, but not like that.

Do you think it could have been anything else?

Yeah, it definitely could have been something else. Could have been somebody just burying a pet, maybe. But it doesn't quite add up. Why would you go to that extreme to go into the bushes to do that? If it was just a pet or if you're just digging a hole, it still doesn't sit well with me.

The owner of the property, Anthony, can't think of a reason someone would have buried anything in the bushes.

There would be no reason for anybody to be in It was definitely overgrown, a lot of wattle. It had been let go for many years, and it was basically a bush block. It hadn't been fenced, so we had no reason to be in there. We had no stock in there. The top side of the block basically was known to the locals. It was a bit of a lovers lane, if you want to call it that, where a lot of the people used to go up there and park, and that since ceased, but it was very popular when we first took over the property.

Not only was the location near the dam where the hearse had been sided, but on the other side was a lovers lane where people used to gather. We have no evidence to say Jack knew about the lovers lane area But still, it was interesting. It was exactly the type of location that fit with our idea of Jack taking Naim. It was well-hidden, even more so in 2002 with the dense scrub lands, but it also had easy easy enough access for the Hearst to park out of sight of the main road. Detective Steve Rose always suspected Jack had chosen a concealed place to take Niam.

My suspicion, well, unless he did drug her at some point and she was unconscious, he could have gone anywhere he wanted to. Secondly, the other scenario would be that she was still alive and he wanted some sexual activity with her. Again, he had to You have to have a reasonable area of concealment. You just can't pull over on the side of the road and do that. We can, but not in the middle of the day, really, without expecting to get caught.

This area certainly fit the bill. It was well-concealed. It was easy to miss if you didn't know it was there, and we had information that Jack knew about the spot. The area also fits with the sightings of the hearse on the day Niam went missing. The Turnoff is on Batlo Road, the main road from Tumberumba. Jack's Hearse was spotted at Tumberumber Shops that day, and then later on Batlo Road heading towards Batlo. Even though it's one of thousands of potential spots in the area, this place, with the disturbed ground big enough to be a grave, was exactly the type of spot we were looking for, and the information from Anthony was too important a lead to ignore.

Back then, At the time, there was no fencing on the property, and people used to cut through here quite a bit. It was a bit of a shortcut to bypass battle, basically. I think people used to sneak around there if they had a few drinks and they wanted to avoid the breathalizer. Or they had unregistered They used to trail bikes, and they'd cut through the property into the bush. This was a shortcut. But since it's all been fenced, that's now stopped. Also, there's a larger dam further down the gully there where, apparently, they used to go swimming. The pickers and the backpackers used to go down there and swim as well.

The Vanzilla's Dam?

Yes.

To get to the Vanzillas Dam would be to cut down through that potential search area? Yes. You could be in there. You could spend some time in there and not be seen from the road.

Oh, for sure. It was very overgrown. As I've said to you guys a couple of times now, the Waddle was halfway up the power pulse. That's how high it was. They're rather large power poles, as you can see. It's out of sight, out of mind, so to speak. There's no reason for people to be in here.

Both times, James reported the grave-shaped, disturbed soil to the police. He was told the area had been searched and not to worry about it. But Anthony had a different story. The area had never actually been searched. This area was private property, Anthony's property. If it was searched, he would have known about it. And it wasn't. With this information, Fannula reached out to the current officer in charge of Niem's investigation, and after they checked the information and spoke to James, a search was organized. The original search date in July 2021 had to be pushed back a month because of New South Wales going into COVID lockdown. But the following month, in August, the search went ahead. It involved a team of police and a cadaver dog searching the area on foot. In the few hours they searched, they didn't locate anything. We were grateful the information was taken seriously and acted upon, but at the same time, all I could think about was the story of Matthew Leveson. In our Case file presents podcast, Maddie, we heard how the person who disposed of Matt's body drew a hand-drawn map of an area in Bushland, not dissimilar in size from the spot James had nominated.

It took multiple search teams and multiple excavations, a total of three weeks before they located Matt's remains. The Levesons described seeing a photograph of a cadaver dog standing over the spot where police would later find Matt's remains, but the dog was not indicating a find. With this fresh in my mind, it didn't fill me with confidence that Anthony's property could be ruled out. At At the same time, I also understood that the information of the disturbed soil from years earlier was not substantial enough to justify a more in-depth search with multiple teams and excavations. The police did the best search they could do with the time, money, and resources they were allowed to utilize on that day. However, I wondered if there was something we could do to be more sure. We weren't subject to the same red tape, budgets, and hierarchy that the police were. There's an old police saying, If you don't search, you don't find. I felt that if we didn't search this area as thoroughly as possible, all of us would be left forever to wonder if Ni'am might be there. And of course, the flip side was that once we searched, if we found nothing, at least we could eliminate the area and put our focus onto the next place to look.

That's when we started talking about the idea of a search with ground penetrating radar. We sent out a few query emails, and Patrick from a company called OZDETect answered and said he would be able to help. After explaining the story and the location, we booked a date to travel that low and use ground penetrating radar to search the area more thoroughly. It was Friday, September 30th, 2022, when we met Pad and Corey from OZDETect. Pad explained the GPR equipment to us.

Yeah, so the GPR basically emits electromagnetic signals into the ground, and then we collect data up into our tablets, and then from there, we can distinguish if there's been disturbed soil or other utilities and stuff in the ground. Basically, that's what we're here for. Have you ever done any jobs like this? In cemeteries, we have, but not in this capacity. No, not for looking for someone in particular. No. When this job came up, it was a It's a bit different, but we're happy to help out and see what we can come up with.

In the lead up to the search, the property owner, Anthony, had arranged for the area to be lightly cleared of existing scrub and leveled with a bulldozer. This was done by a Batlo local, Gordon, who volunteered his time and machinery and refused to accept payment. Another example of the kind-hearted Batlo locals doing anything they could to help.

Do you want to bring that red one down? Yeah. Start doing some cross-check through the center here, and then we'll work our way down. Yeah. Because you might have to distinguish the tree roots.

The GPR machines look not dissimilar from lawn mowers. They are pushed along the area as we wait anxiously for anything. It didn't take long for there to be some activity.

You definitely said it does.

The spotting question was one already pointed out by the property owner, Anthony and Gordon, who was doing the clearing. While they were clearing They noticed an area that was a lot softer than other spots. It looked to their eye that the ground there had been previously disturbed. They were intrigued enough to dig and came across some Bracken and branches. At that point, they stopped and waited for the GPR equipment. Now, the GPR machines were confirming there was a disturbance.

I don't know if that's because there.

Yeah. I When they had dig, how deep they dug here? I was going to spend their time here. I'll go ask him. Just to see. It's hard to say for them, it's been disturbed by them, but I just want to know how deep he's gone here, that's all.

I think he said when they dug it, they could see something. They could see it was disturbed, then he did exactly what you did, like stepped on it.

It was soft, then he stepped next to it and it wasn't. That's when they- You can definitely see the fall in the land.

But I don't know if that's because they've dug right down yet.

I'll go ask. Yeah. There's no disturbances. Yeah, you can look at.

Anthony tells Pat that he and Gordon dug down about two foot out, but then didn't want to disturb it anymore once they saw the Bracken that didn't belong there. So it went down like two foot?

It went down about that far?

Yeah, so about 500.

That's where it is. Okay. It's right where that. Right here. Right in here. Right in here. Okay.

It was time to mark the area out.

I might go a bit wider here.

Then it was time to pick up a shovel and dig to find out what this disturbance was. It could have been something as innocent as tree roots. Unfortunately, Unfortunately, we didn't find anything. This happened several more times. A disturbance was located, an area marked out. We picked up the shovels and dug, only to be disappointed. When it became apparent that all the spots that were marked were going to take us a very long time to dig by hand, Gordon helped us out yet again. He made a few calls, secured an excavator from someone on a neighboring property and managed to track down an excavator operator who had to be called off a job site in the forest. The lengths Gordon, Anthony, and all of the Butler locals went to to help was extraordinary. And again, they refused to accept any payment. We were all there to try and find Niam, and it was the most amazing show of support and solidarity. The excavator was able to dig the locations more thoroughly, but Again, nothing was found. While this was going on, we also had a diver in the dam doing a search. The dam had never been searched at all, and it was another area we felt had to be eliminated.

It was a spot Jack had been seen at. It was right near the spot James believed he had seen a grave. The areas were easy enough to get to if you knew where they were, yet also concealed from the main road and the Batlo Township. The information from Jan and James was as good as any, and we thought it important they be definitively ruled in or out. As well When we were looking for human remains, we were also looking for Niam's property. Could her backpack have been thrown in here? Her camera? None of her property has ever been located. When you get out there, it's up to you, that depth, pretty thick mud. Yeah.

You all right?

Yeah, it's just deeper.

Dropped off here. Unfortunately, nothing was located in the dam either. As much as we told ourselves this was a long shot and it was highly likely we would find nothing, it didn't stop leaving us all with an overwhelmingly empty feeling. That drive home from Batlo and the subsequent days are difficult to put into words. The hollow, empty feeling. So I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for Naim's family. Two of her sisters, Fennula and Tamzin, were there, as was her brother, Ciaran, and her cousin, Claire. At the end of the day, it was worth a try, and we won't hesitate to do it again if another spot comes up as a location that needs searching. Not only has Niam never been found, but none of her belongings have been either. Her tent, backpack, camera, camera lens, wallet, driver's license, bank cards, Medicare card, watch, Discman, sunglasses, CDs, clothing, Nothing was ever found. There may be people in Batlo, Gingelik, Tumberrumba, Tumet, and any of the surrounding areas who didn't live there in 2002. Or maybe they were but were too young to remember and don't know Ni'am's story. If you are in the area, please keep a look out if you are out in the bush or the pine forest, driving, camping, fishing, hiking, or hunting.

Here is Batlo local, Michelle Well.

Every year that this story comes up, people will share their stories about the guy in the hearse or what they remember from that time. I don't know, I suppose people just knew. Everyone had their own little story about where they were, what they remember, or whatnot.

If you saw something or have your own little story from back at Easter time in 2002, even if you don't think it's important, even if you think the police would probably already know the information, don't assume. Some of the information in this podcast wasn't previously known, and many people we spoke to started with that very thought Oh, I don't know anything. But... And what they had to tell us was important. Please get in touch at missingnieam. Com. That's missingnieam. Com. Everyone was so carefree, and everyone remembers it.

Everyone remembers the devastation of what has happened and how could that happen? How could a girl go missing from such a small town where everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everything? It's lived with people forever. It's just devastating to hear, especially that that family has no closure whatsoever.