Transcript of 4: Episode 4: The missing person’s report

Please note that some names in this episode have been changed. Additionally, some audio clips are voiced by actors reading from statements or transcripts. Eighteen-year-old Niam May was left alone at the Ardross & Orchard after her friend Brodie headed down to Melbourne with some people she'd met on the fruit picking scene at Batlo. Niam had made her own plans to meet her sister, Fannula and brother Kieran in Sydney on Easter Thursday, then travel with them for an Easter family catch-up in her hometown of Armadale. Despite booking a bus ticket, Niam did not get into town in time to pay for it, and the ticket was on sold to someone else. Niam instead booked a ticket to Sydney on Easter Sunday, and with all her friends gone, she worried about how to fill the few days before she could leave town. She spent some time with Jack Nickleison and Garth Gammel, two of the few people she knew with a car. Jack and his friend Garth had arrived in town the week before driving an old hearse. Opinions on Jack and Garth were divided. Some found them creepy and avoided their company. But Niam clearly didn't get the same vibe from the men in the hearse because she began spending time with them.

Lisa was the last one of Niam's friends to leave Batlo. She headed off in the early hours of Thursday, the 28th of March. A sudden and frightening sense of foreboding had come over Lisa and her boyfriend, Jessie.

And then Probably one of the biggest regrets I have is that, and this is weird, I can't explain this, but the following morning, Jessie and I woke up at the same time in a fright. We sat up in the tent and it was like... And we just felt really scared. And we turned to each other and we said, We have to get the hell out of here right now. I can't explain that, but it was just this weird thing that happened. We both just packed through everything in the back of the car. Nothing was packed properly. It was like we were in a fright. We started driving. As I was driving, we were just driving out. We were about 10 ks out of Batlo. I was like, We should go and get Naim. I never said anything. I always regret that.

But even if she had have gone back for Naim, Lisa knew that her friend had booked her own ticket out. And so because Naim had her own plans, Lisa doubted whether her friend would let them take her away.

I remembered thinking about her being alone, and I remembered going, We should go and get her. But then I was thinking, She's just going to turn around and tell me to fuck off and tell me that I'm coming tomorrow and I'll do it my own way, because that's what she was like. And so I didn't say anything. We just packed up and left.

So instead of heading north to reunite with her family as she had initially planned, Niam ended up spending Good Friday in Ginjillik, about an hour's drive south from Batlo. She got a lift there from Jack and Garth and spent the night camping on the banks of the Murray River with both of them, as well as many other people enjoying their Easter break. Jack had promised to take Niam back to Batlo in time to catch her bus to Sydney on Easter Sunday. Even So she was worried about getting back to the bus on time. She had said as much to her family when she called them. Meanwhile, Fannula and Kieran drove from Sydney to their Armadale family home as planned, where They spent the Easter weekend with their parents, Anne and Brian, and sisters, Tamsyn and Susan. The members of the May family who had been able to travel home had a nice Easter together. By Easter Sunday evening, though, small seeds of concern began to grow among the May family. It began as just a small feeling of worry that something wasn't quite right. Even though she'd missed the family catch-up, Niam had plans to make her way to Fennula's place in Sydney.

Her mom, Anne, expected her to call once she got there.

All the other family came home here and was the usual chaotic weekend in with everybody coming and going. And on Sunday night, or Sunday, anyway, late Sunday, I thought it a little bit strange that she hadn't rung because I thought, Well, normally, you'd expect that she'd ring the minute she got home because she wanted to be part of the mob here. It was a bit odd. And alarm bells started to ring, and I didn't say anything because I didn't want to worry the rest of the family. When Naim didn't ring home, Fanaula tried to ring her.

I was in Armadale, and I rang my house in Sydney on Easter Sunday night to check that she'd arrived. I'd left a key out for her, and I'd warned one of my flatmates who was home that she was coming, and he answered and said she's not there. I rang again later. She still wasn't there.

Perhaps with her parents' intuition, when they couldn't get on to Naim, her dad, Brian, feared something had happened to her.

Although she used to ring us reasonably frequently on pay phones in those days, the mobile phones were very new item, and she didn't have one, and we didn't either. She'd ring us here at the house on that landline and keep us up to date with what she was doing and what was happening in her life and so what her intentions were and so forth. That's why we were alarmed when she didn't arrive in Sydney to Furnula's place as planned. We She knew straight away that it wouldn't be a deliberate choice on her part that something must have happened to her.

The May family went to bed on Easter Sunday night, trying not to worry, but it was a wrestling night for them all. For her mom, Anne, Monday brought the real concern.

On Monday, she still hadn't rung. There was just no trace of her. So we were quite concerned. And by then, When Fannula and the other families had got back to Sydney, and they were worried, too, because she hadn't turned up. Fannula had left stuff in her flat in Sydney. She hadn't arrived. So we thought, Woo. We knew things were wrong then. And my feeling immediately was that she wasn't playing games. She hadn't run away. She hadn't done anything strange. It was bad news from the beginning.

Fannula called her house first thing Monday morning. Niiam hadn't arrived. When Fannula returned home later that day, Niiam still wasn't there. Fannula and Ciaran soon realized she hadn't been there at all.

Easter Monday was a long weekend. So we got back to Sydney, and I dropped Nuli off in Chatswood, outside her share house. I remember you realizing that I think the key and the money that you'd left for Niam I was still in the garage. I don't know if you came back over to the car and told me or not. I can't remember. But I think that's a bit weird. And then obviously that night, you called Mom and said, Look, she hasn't shown up. She's not at my house. Then the next I was aware of what was going on was on the Wednesday. Tuesday went by, and I guess Mom tried to make a few inquiries with some of her friends to find out.

I went to work on Tuesday. I kept ringing Mom. I sent her an email saying, Where the fuck are you? And she'd sent a group email, and so I replied all to that saying, Hey, guys, This is what's happened. If anyone's heard from them, can you let us know? Just a bit worried about her. Mom hadn't slept, basically, since Sunday. Mom knew immediately something was wrong. I mean, we all knew something was up. But to start with, I was a bit like, Oh, Well, maybe she's met some other travelers and just decided to get a lift and she's taking longer than expected, or maybe she got drunk and slept in and missed the bus.

On Wednesday, the third of April, certain that they would have heard from Niam by now if there was nothing wrong, Brian and Anne filed a missing person's report at Armadale Police Station.

I started to put together a photograph and description and all the information information that I thought the police would need. And I went down on Wednesday morning, reported it to the police, and they said, Usually, they turn up within a certain time. And I said, Yeah, but I don't think this is normal. Anyway, we handed in all that. The police here faxed it to Butler, which was where she had been. So we contacted the bus company and told them to contact the police. With the information to see whether she'd traveled. So the bus company, Ferns in Wauga, said, Yeah, she'd traveled.

The missing person's report given by Niam's parents in Armadale was faxed to the Butler Police Station with the expectation that the local police would begin investigations in the area where Niam was last known to have been. Kieran began his own investigations as soon as his mom told him she'd reported Niam missing. At this point in time, Kieran was of the belief that Niam had traveled to Sydney entirely by bus. He was unaware of the connecting train at this early stage. Anne had contacted the bus company, and they said Niam had used her ticket. Central Train Station also has a regional bus service, and that's where Kieran's investigation began.

Mom called me Wednesday night, and by now, she'd already been the police and lodged a missing person's report because she was obviously clearly concerned. None of her friends who'd been with her in Batlo were with her or knew who she might be with. They'd all made suggestions. Mum's a pretty calm, very calm person. But I could tell just from the tone of her voice that something wasn't right. And she was saying, look, she's supposed to have traveled on this country link ticket. We've lodged a report. Here's the event number. Can you see if you can find out anything further? And when I got off the phone, I was dazed. I knew I couldn't drive. My flatmates were out. So I called a friend who lived down the road and just said, Look, can you come and pick me up? I need you to drive me to Central Station. She's like, Why? And I said, Look, I'll tell you later. I can't talk about it now. I just couldn't put into words what I was feeling. So she dropped me off outside Eddie Avenue, and there was a shop front, police shop front in the downstairs section next to the Coach Lockers.

And I went in there and there was a young constable behind the desk with his arm in plaster and gave him the event number and said, look, here's the event number. My sister's been reported missing. I need your help. We think that she's traveled to Sydney. Is there any way that we can confirm that? And I guess he was probationary. He was learning. So typing with one finger. And when things didn't quite pan out with the event number, he'd disappear behind a partition and ask for advice and come back. And this went back and forth for five or 10 minutes. And they were busy at the time, meaning they didn't have staff to physically come out and do anything. But I asked about security cameras where the busses arrived all along Eddie Avenue and under the archways, and there were none. So there was no video footage from that area. I then approached the security guards at Central, and I had a picture of my sister, and she'd traveled three days prior. I asked them if they'd seen her, and of course, they said no, they're all concerned. They said, You need to talk to the station master's office.

We've got cameras for the Concourse and the train platforms. They might be able to help you. And then when I approach them, it was obviously late at night. There weren't many staff around. And privacy Privacy laws had recently been enacted in New South Wales. So the first response you get from anyone when you ask questions, Can I see video footage? Or I've got a concern about my sister or anything else is, Look, privacy laws, we can't talk to you about it. You need to make a formal request or it needs to go to the police first. So that night, I guess I left a little bit frustrated because there was no way I could get access to anything. I'd called Mom and said, Look, you need to get the police in Armadale to call the police at Central Station to have them go and physically talk to the station manager and request to view the footage. I can't view it, but the police can.

Kieran then found out from Anne that Niam was supposed to have arrived in Sydney by train, not bus. Niam was booked on a country link bus that departed from Batlo on Easter Sunday. The bus would then drop her at Kudamundra Train Station to catch the train back to Sydney. They needed to find out for certain whether Niam had used her ticket. When Anne first contacted CountryLink over the phone, they told her Niam had used the ticket. If she used her Country Link ticket, it would narrow down the places to start looking for her. The next day, Thursday, April fourth, Kieran went back to Central Station to continue the search. Vanuula describes his frustrations at trying to get a straight answer.

They obviously contacted the bus company. I think Kieran went to Central Station and to CountryLink and said, This is what's happened. We need to know where my sister is. Can you tell us if her ticket was used? Somebody looked on the system, her name is attached to a ticket, and they're like, Yep. Through some goings and back and forth between the security people and CountryLink, they then worked out. They finally looked into it properly, and Country Link then confirmed, and also spoke to the driver, the bus driver, that she did not get on the bus. I think he got a bit frustrated and may have not been as polite as possible because in the end, he felt bad and got flowers for the person. I remember he went and bought flowers and said sorry to them. But that was how we established that she had not actually traveled.

Sometimes the squey wheel gets the oil.

I think she took pity on me and took me to the side because I was pretty emotional. I went back and got flowers and said, Look, I'm really, really sorry. But yeah, so that mom had received that information over the phone from either CountryLink or the people in Cuda or whoever who'd said, Yeah, she's traveled. She's traveled on that ticket thing. And that's why we went there, because this girl had arrived in Sydney and hadn't been seen since obviously arriving at Central. And we were freaking out, fearing the worst, going, Oh, my God, where the hell is she? Obviously, she's got money, shelter, everything else, and she never made it. She be anywhere in Sydney. Something could have happened to her. So that's why I went there straight away. That was the presumption was that she'd made it. And it wasn't until the Thursday in the ticket office that the lady actually looked up in the system and said that ticket wasn't used. If she If she'd come to Sydney, it wasn't on that ticket. So the train ticket was never used. The bus ticket from Batlo to Cuda Munja was never used. If she'd traveled to Sydney, it wasn't on that ticket.

So there was a chance that she Never come to Sydney.

But learning that she hadn't used the ticket just led to more questions. To check that Niam definitely hadn't caught the train into Sydney, the CCTV was checked anyway.

They did actually follow up and check that footage, and they couldn't find any sign of her.

Because Niam hadn't been captured on CCTV at Central Station and her ticket home hadn't been used, Kieran considered the possibility that his sister had never left to Batlo. He needed to get down there straight away to see if he could find her.

I got a call from dad late, probably 11:00 that night, and dad had said, I'm going to fly down to Sydney. The first flight is tomorrow afternoon, and then we'll go to Wagga. I'll fly to Wagga or we can drive together. I want to come down with you to Batlo and find out what's going on. And I discouraged him. I thought that It'd be better if a young person went down there and ask questions. And they were already doing so much legwork from Armadale that it would be easier with phone connections. If they stayed up there and followed stuff up, and I would follow stuff on the ground. And I basically said, look, I'm leaving first thing in the morning. I need to get there soon. I don't want to wait till the afternoon or the night. So I basically got up in the morning, grabbed the bag, grabbed a Doona, and jumped in the car and Kieran arrived in Butler around 1:00 PM on Friday, the fifth of April, one week after Good Friday, when Niam had gone with the Jack and Garth to Ginjalik.

As Niam was supposed to have caught the country link bus from Butler on Easter Sunday for the first leg of her trip to Sydney, it seemed like the best place to start searching for her.

Just past Yass on the way, just past Gundergey on the way down to Batlo, I got a message from Mom and Dad. They mentioned everybody had talked about some guy in a hearse, but nobody really knew his name or who he was. But he'd been out at Ardrossen, which is where she'd last been staying and fruit picking. And they mentioned a couple of other leads.

The information from his parents gave Kieran several places to start looking for Naim.

So I had a little bit of information, and I think they mentioned that the guy in the hearse might have been working at Vanzela's Orchards. So as I was driving into Batlo, on the right-hand side, I see this big packing shed with Vanzela's on it, literally five minutes from the center of town. And when I pulled into town, the first thing I did was basically started in the main street. There's pretty much only one street other than the highway. So you've got a pub on the corner, the post office opposite, server station, ExServies Club, which is a tiny little building. And a little bit further down on the left is the library. And again, if you wanted Internet access, you would have to go to the library and check in and pay because there's no other WiFi signals or anything else.

Mobile phone coverage wasn't much better.

And if you wanted phone coverage, it didn't work even in the center of town. You had to drive to the look out, overseeing the town and pick up reception that way. So So I started at the post office and asked the ladies in there, This is my sister. Here's the photo. And all the ladies in there said, Hadn't seen her, didn't recognize her.

Word got around quickly that Naam's brother was in town looking for her, and he was soon approached by people, eager to help him out. Kieran compiled a list of contacts to give to police to help with their search. He knew that Niam was an incredibly adventurous and outgoing person, but he didn't think she was one to take risks. After seeing the casual spirit of the fruit-picking culture, he grew worried that maybe she took risks she wouldn't normally have taken. Kieran traveled around Butler stopping everyone he met to show them a photo of Naim in case anyone recognized her. Nobody at the post office had seen her, nor had anyone in the shops along the main street. When Kieran got to the local mechanics, Pioneer Automotive, he thought he had his first lead in tracking Niam down.

Got to the mechanics and asked about her, and he said, Look, he hadn't seen her, but there were some guys in a Commodore doing burnouts and Yahooing, tearing off up the road, saying their goodbyes, and there was some blonde or fair-haired girl in the back of the car.

Kieran took down the details to follow up, then continued his search. It turned out the girl in the car wasn't Naan.

So then I went to the library, and the library was lovely, and she remembered my sister. And she actually had a record of when she was last in there, and she could describe exactly pretty much everything about her. It wasn't a vague. Yeah, I think I remember her. She knew her and she was familiar with her. But she said she hadn't been in in two weeks, which would have been the 22nd of March, which was when she last sent a group email, as far as I'm aware, to family. So then on my rounds, I wanted to follow up the country link ticket. And this is because Mom had called me to say, One strange aspect is the Purchase of a ticket and then not traveling on it. Could you contact your helpful lady at Central to see if she can find out if she cashed the ticket in for a refund? That was when I was going to Central. When I spoke to CountryLink, they said, No, we never give refunds. She would never have been able to get money back. She definitely She wouldn't save any money if she skipped one leg and decided to cash the ticket in.

The other drama was that Easter, obviously, all the banks are closed and there's no way to access money. And Mom said she bought the ticket through the agent in Batlo, which is the IGA supermarket. So I went to the IGA and spoke to three girls there and showed the photo. And they said, yeah, she bought and paid for her country league ticket here on Thursday, the 28th. They They'd seen her arrive in the Black Herse, and they stated, Neeve hadn't tried to get a refund or exchange on her ticket in Batlo. The thing that was a little bit heartbreaking was, speaking to one of the clerks there, she realized that they'd double charged or stuffed up processing the ticket. And Neeve's account was overdrawn. So she would have discovered after she'd left on Thursday afternoon and potentially gone to the bank to withdraw money. She had no money in her account, and she wouldn't have known why. I remember asking one of the girls about it and saying, Look, my sister's now missing. She was last seen with that guy, and she started crying. I wasn't being mean, but I think she just realized the gravity of that one small error in processing that ticket.

We will be back after a Short break. Different people have different versions of what happened with the ticket sale. Kieran remembers being told that the people selling the ticket had overcharged Niam, but others would later blame the delay in Niam's pay arriving in her account for the reason she was low on funds. Either way, her account was empty. Millie, the IGA employee who sold Niam her ticket, remembers Niam paying 39.60 cents cash for her student rate ticket. Yet, there was also a charge on her bank card for $81.20 at the IGA the same day. This indicates Niam could have been charged both cash for a student ticket and by card for a full fare ticket by mistake. And that added up to an overdrawn account.

She would have had no money. Good Friday, Saturday, Sunday, no access to money and banks. There's no way to transfer money like you do these days. And most of her friends were out of town, so I guess she figured she could go camping with these guys and hang out with them until she came back to get the bus on the Sunday. She had the ticket.

It was then, Kieran went to the Batlo Police Station and made a devastating discovery.

I should have mentioned, when I first got into town, I went to Batlo police station up on the hill because Mom had said, Yeah, the officers here have sent faxes with all the details or the information that we've got or given them to Batlo, and they hadn't heard anything from Batlo. And when I got to Batlo, I realized it's an unmanned police station. It's just an empty building. And there's one of those call buttons that you see on train platforms for assistance. I press that and it goes through to the police radio dispatcher. And And I said, Look, I'm in Batlo. It's regarding a missing person's case. Here's the case number. All this information was sent by fax. And she said, look, the police only come out there on Friday and Saturday nights during peak season. So there's no one there. If you really want to talk to someone, we can dispatch, let's say, highway patrol from Gunder guy, but I don't know how much help they're going to be.

When the police in Armadale faxed the missing person's report through to the Batlo police station, on Wednesday, April third, it arrived. But what the Armadale police didn't realize at the time was that Butler wasn't used 24/7. An officer would be there on occasions, but other than that, it was empty. Niam's missing person's report had been sitting in the fax tray unread the whole time Niam's family were searching for her in Sydney. It was a turn of events that put the investigation behind from in the get-go. All the way back in Armadale, Niam's parents, Anne and Brian, were assuming that Batlo Police had got the information and would be looking for their daughter.

We did not know that Batlo was an unmanned police station. So that week, the police were not on duty at all. Nothing had gone through from Armadale to Batlo or to Tumet.

After Kieran found no joy at the police station, he went to the Butlow Hotel. He knew Niam had been at the hotel or pub during her time in Batlo and hoped someone might know something.

I walked in and I went up to the bar maid, and when I asked questions about my sister and showed her the photo, she recognized her immediately. And I said, How do you know? And she said, Well, she was actually sitting here last week, last Thursday. She was sitting right at that table and she pointed. And I said, Well, who was she with? She said, She was with two guys, the blonde One guy was Garth, and he was described as a tall, surfy dude, dreadies. And she said this other guy in a black or gray overcoat. And she said, I think his name. We joked about his name being a famous actor, Jack Nicklaus or Jack Nicholson. I said, okay. And I said, what were they doing? She said, they were just having some quiet drinks and chatting. She said, Garth was really friendly. He was a funny guy. I said, What about the other guy? And she said, Look, he was really quiet, kept to himself, didn't talk, which I thought was a pretty interesting observation, as it turns out.

After talking to staff at the hotel, Kieran then found John Major from the caravan park, and finally was able to talk to someone who knew his sister well.

Behind me playing pool in the pub was a Kiwi called Johnny, another quite unassuming guy and a singlet, shorts, playing a bit of pool on a Friday afternoon. And I went and introduced myself. He was shocked when I told him that I was looking for my sister, and we hadn't heard from her over Easter. He just assumed Obviously, that she'd made a way to Sydney and everything was sweet. So then he helped me. I asked him about the Hearse and Jack and Garth, and he knew them, but he didn't know them that well. He'd also said that he was a bit worried about her when she'd moved out to our Drossen because I think her and Brody were the only girls staying out there, and he thought the guys out there weren't that charming. And that's when it all pretty much kicked off.

Did Johnny offer much information about Garth and Jack?

No, but he was really helpful in pointing out who everybody was, where they were staying, and he knew everybody by name. So we went across to the caravan park, and This blonde, surfy-looking girl came out of the toiletry block and he said, That's Nicole. You should ask Nicole about your sister because she knows everyone. She's just one of these super happy, super friendly, lovely people. And she was the main person. Her and Johnny were pretty much with me the whole time down there, taking me around to speak to people and introducing me to anybody they knew. Pickers. There were people who were living, they were renting farmhouses, so you wouldn't see them in town traditionally, but they were able to take me out to their place. They knew where our Drossam was. They knew the cabins. They knew the guys who lived out there, so they were able to introduce me to them. They could introduce me to the bosses. But the first thing Johnny told me about Garth and Jack was, again, I think they were picking for Vanzellas, and I remembered I'd driven past it.

There was something about the stories of the Hearse and about Jack and the Garth that made and decide to follow the trail towards them as a matter of urgency.

So I got in the car. After speaking to Johnny, I got in the car, I drove out to Vanzellas and said, I'm looking for my sister. She was last seen with these guys. I think they were picking for you. And I believe it was Tony Vanzella, the owner I was talking to. And he actually said, Look, I don't remember your sister at all, and I don't think she worked for us. But yeah, I remember these guys. Yeah, they picked for us, but they left last week. In fact, I've still got their pay stubs here. They never came and collected their pay. Now, everybody I've spoken to who's a fruit picker is pretty much living week to week. And to leave money behind was just bizarre. And he told me that, Oh, these two girls in the caravan park are going to collect their pay for them and meet up with them later on in Queensland.

Kieran knew that the key to finding out Niam's whereabouts would be to track down the two guys in the hearse. Kieran went looking around the Butler Caravan Park to see if he could find out where Jack and Garth had gone off to after picking at Vanzela's Orchard.

After I spoke to Tony Vanzela, I was looking for the two girls who collected their pay stubs, and they were also at the Caravan Park. So when I went across with Johnny and Nicole, and after checking in and talking to the owners, Penny and Trevor, we did a little bit of a walk around to see who was there. So Nicole, I asked her straight away, You were here. You knew my sister. Did she come? Yeah, I saw her. She came to say goodbye, and she thought that was on the Thursday, the 28th, that she came in to say goodbye. And she said that she was there on Easter Sunday when the Black Hearse with two guys inside left. And she said, They were definitely alone. Jack and Garth were in the Hearse. There was no one else.

Kieran was then able to speak to one of Nahum's close picking friends, Joel.

Joel came home from work after 5:00, and we had a chat to him. He's an older guy, had a bit of a beard. When I say older, I'm saying 30, as opposed to 18 to 20. Pretty obvious, he worked pretty hard. He had a bit of sun and everything else. He was a really calm, relaxed guy. He drove out to our Drossin Caravan Park on Easter Saturday to visit her, but they said, Look, she's already packed up and left. And he was back at the Batlo Caravan Park on the Sunday when Jack and Garth left. There was only the two guys inside So he was really bummed that he'd missed her.

Carly and Laura were the two women who had organized to pick up a Jack and Garth's payslips for them from Vanzela's orchard after both men had left town.

Everybody we in the caravan park were friendly, helpful, and when you say you're looking for a missing person, they're obviously concerned and want to do the best they can. I didn't really get that feeling from these two girls. They were standoffish, suspicious, just not friendly. And it frustrated me. I couldn't understand why they were behaving that way. So, yeah, they said they were friends with Jack and Garth. They said they had the pay stubs, and they were going to travel to Queensland and meet up with them there. They didn't really give any more details about when When, where, or how.

Kieran spoke with the park manager, Penny Nolan, who remembered Naim well. After all, she had been the one to tell Niam and Brodie to leave the caravan park.

But she couldn't remember the The last day she saw Niam. She thought it was Good Friday. She basically said that Naam would come and ask her for permission to come into the caravan park to say goodbye to her friends.

Kieran asked Penny about Jack and Garth. She confirmed that they'd left the caravan Caravan Park on Easter Sunday.

I asked about the guys in the Black Hearse, and she said that they were staying at the caravan park, but they'd cleared out on Good Friday, the 29th of March, and then they came back in on Easter Sunday, the 31st. They paid her and said they were clearing out for good. They said they'd been camping down at Gingellic for the last couple of days.

Penny recalls Jack and Garth checking out of Butler Caravan Park after their Gingellic trip. She didn't recall seeing Niam with them.

I didn't realize they'd gone away. And as I said, I didn't have a lot to do with them anyway. You didn't take a lot of notice who was driving in and out at times. They came to the office and said to me, Sorry, we're running late getting the rent paid, but we've been away for a few days. And I said, Oh, I didn't even realize you were away. And they said, Oh, yeah, we've been down at Gingellic. They said, But we're packing up now and we're leaving, so we just want to fix up for what we owe you. Which I think I ended up knocking a day out too often because they'd been away anyway. So I wished them all the best. And I think I said, Where are you off to after here? And I it was Queensland. They said they were going to go. And I looked at the bloke in the hearse and I thought, Are you going to terrorize him up that way now? I hear something or other, referring to his hearse. Yeah, he laughed and said, Yeah, that'll be our next stop. But I believe they didn't go up there anyway.

But that was probably the most conversation I ever had with that particular bloke. His mate was the one that I knew a little bit, but I didn't get involved with them greatly because at the time, we could have had anything from 80 to 100 people down there. So you didn't really personally get to know all of them. As for the fellow that was driving the hearse, I really had nothing much to do with him. The other lad always found a pleasant fellow when he'd speak to you.

The one driving the hearse is Jack. The friendly one Garth. Kieran remembers that Penny didn't have any personal details for Jack and Garth. Kieran had also been told by different people that Jack and Garth were headed both to Queensland and to Victoria, two different states in the complete opposite direction.

She didn't know Jack or Garth's last names, had no phone numbers, no vehicle rego details. So I asked her if anybody else at the campsite knew the Hearst driver, and she said, I talked to this guy Lenny.

Luckily, when Kieran was visiting the caravan park, it was getting close to sunset. He found out that was when the pickers gathered for a beer around a fire. This gathering might prove a good way to gather information about his sister.

The sun's starting to set now. It's getting cold. Penny and Trevor at the caravan park would set a nice big fire up beside their office on a 44-gallon drum, if you like. People would stand around and have a quiet beer in a chat. And that's where I met Lenny. So he was an older Kiwi guy, standing around in Stubbies in a singlet in the cold, nursing a VB. I think he had dreadies or long dark hair. And he was a lovely, really nice, quietly-spoken guy, and he was really helpful. He was actually, I don't know how he met Garth, but he said he was good friends with Garth. He knew him well. And he actually said he'd been talking to Garth by mobile phone since he'd left on Easter Sunday.

And then Lenny gave Kieran what would be the biggest lead in finding Niam so far: Garth's mobile phone number. Because phone reception in Butler was so sketchy, Kieran had to drive up to the Butler Lookout where he could get enough reception to make an outgoing phone call. He then dialed the number.

And And, of course, it went through to voicemail. And I said, Look, I'm in Batlo. I'm Neeve's brother, and I just want to know if she's left Batlo with him and Jack, because at this stage, we didn't know where she was. I waited around for a while and didn't get a call back. And then, of course, I get back down to the campground and there's a, boom, you've got a message. Hey, Kieran.

Yeah, it's Garth here. I'm just returning your call.

Jack dropped Neeve off at Juma. She was supposed to be catching the down to Sydney to stay with her sister. Yeah, give us a call back. If you can't get through, I'm just on the road at the moment. So if you can't get through, just try again later.

Tumet is a town 30 minutes north of Batlo. It is a larger town with far more facilities than Batlo, but it made no sense that Niam would want to be dropped off there.

I thought that was weird that he said dropped her at Thumet because the ticket was from Batlo. I thought, Oh, maybe he's got the two confused. So I called Garth back and said, Look, give me a call. I want to catch up with you.

Next time on Missing Niam.

Somebody claims that he dropped her off and she was hitchhiking. The second that she said that, I guess the reaction was the same as she's died.

We've been investigating for the last four days. Here's everything we've done. I've just spoken to the last person to see her alive, and he's given me a bullshit story.