Please note that some names in this episode have been changed. Additionally, some audio clips are voiced by actors reading from statements or transcripts. Jack Nickleison, the Man in the Hearse, was supposed to drop 18-year-old Niam May in Butler on Easter Saturday. She planned to catch up with friends Joel and Soul that night, then catch the bus with a prepaid ticket to Sydney on Easter Sunday morning to stay with her sister. Her friend Joel looked around Butler that Saturday night, trying without success to find Niam. The next morning, he went to the bus stop to say goodbye, but she didn't turn up there either. When questioned by police, Jack gave an unlikely story. He said he had driven her through Batlo and dropped her off on the Go Cup road so she could hitchhike. A A couple of witnesses came forward to say they had seen a hitchhiker on Go Cup Road that could be Niam. Did the witnesses really see Niam on Go Cup Road, or were they just misremembering after seeing her picture on the news. In a lot of missing persons cases that get media coverage, there will be reported sightings all over the place.
People see the case on the news and remember a girl who looked like the one who's missing, then report it to the police. Detectives have to sort through the reports and consider ones that are more likely or less likely.
There was a couple, an elderly couple, who says that they saw a person hitchhiking on the Go Cup road with a backpack around the time that Niam went missing. They were the only ones that ever said that. There was nobody else to corroborate it, but they said it, and they say they saw her, and she fitted the description of Niam, a young girl with a blue backpack. That had added a bit of spice to the Go Cup Road theory, but it still created doubts because at that time, the Go Cup Road was being, particularly at the intersection of the Go Cup Road and the Snowy Mountains Highway, along the Go Cup Road from that point, it was under repair, extensive repair. I think a new bridge went in, if I remember right. So there was a lot of, even though it may have been the Easter weekend, there were still water carts and traffic control and all that thing.
Jack's story that he dropped a knee him off on Go Cup Road to hitchhike was aird on national mainstream news coverage.
It was here on Go Cup Road, where the 18-year road was dropped off by a male friend around midday on Easter Saturday.
The 18-year-old was last seen on this stretch of road near Tumet after being dropped off by a friend. She was supposed to catch a bus to Kudamundra or Gunder guy, then a train to Sydney. Inexplicably, she decided to hitchhike and was last seen trying to thumb a lift outside Tumet. She just finished picking fruit in Batlo, and on Easter Saturday, drove to Tumet with a friend in an old black hearse. A very distinctive vehicle. It's a late '60s, early '70s model, black Holden station wagon, and it's described as a recondition hearse. Jack's story of Niam hitchhiking along Go Cup Road became the mainstream narrative. A lot of the media coverage from the time appealed for witnesses who saw Niem hitchhiking on Go Cup Road. The best way to examine the Go Cup Road theory is to look at it chronologically. With the benefit of hindsight, we can do what the investigators at the time couldn't. Early in the investigation, leads were coming in from everywhere. People had to be tracked down, and for police, there was a lot of information to process and dissect. If the possibility existed that Jack had left Niam to hitchhike, then anyone in the area with a history of violence or sex offending became a potential suspect and needed to be looked into.
One troubled young man who lived in the area had disclosed he wanted to be a serial killer. There was also a murder of a young woman in Cambra, not too far from Batlo, in the weeks before Niam went missing. On a sightseeing trip to Cambra with another picker during her time in Batlo, Niam actually witnessed police divers searching for evidence in relation to this murder. Possible connections had to be ruled out. There were also theories and sightings all around the country being phoned in. All of these had to be investigated and ruled out. But we have the benefit of hindsight, and a clearer picture does emerge. It all starts on Sunday May, April 7, eight days after Niam was last seen. The New South Wales Police Media Unit issued their first press release. Remember, the week's delay was because the Batlo Police Station was not staffed 24/7, setting the investigation back, and the local police didn't know Niam was missing until Kieran showed up. So it wasn't until April 7, just over a week after Niam was last seen, that the first press release was issued. These were the key details. Tumet police are appealing for help to find an 18-year-old female who hasn't contacted family and friends for nearly two weeks.
A number of inquiries by police in the Gundergaia, Tumet, Butler, and Kudamundra areas have failed to locate the 18-year-old, and they now hold grave concerns for her safety. Niam is described as being of white European seen appearance, 18 years old, 170 to 175 centimeters tall, of slim build, with shoulder-length brown hair, blue-gray eyes, and a freckled face. She was last seen carrying a backpack, tent, sleeping bag, and a meter long stick. The meter long stick was Naim's fire twirling stick. On that same day, Sunday, April seventh, police spoke to the council worker who was operating the water cart on Go Cup Road over the Easter long weekend. While there were extensive roadworks on Go Cup Road at the time, the roadworkers had taken a break over Easter. However, there was one council worker on that road over the weekend. He was operating a water cart to dampen the road to minimize dust. And there was a water tanker and stuff. The police did talk to them. They didn't see anyone. And they said, Oh, they should have remembered, too, because it was Easter Saturday, long weekend. The water cart operator worked all day Easter Saturday and did not see Jack or a girl hitchhiking or a hearse.
Crucially, the spot where Jack mentioned dropping Niam off on Go Cup Road, 1-2 kilometers from the Snowy Mountain Highway intersection, is the very spot where the roadworks were happening. The council worker was on a break from 12:45 PM until 1:15 PM. Jack said he dropped Niam off between 1:00 and 2:00 PM, leaving a 15-minute window where they could have missed each other. Crucially, Jack never mentioned anything about seeing roadworks when he allegedly dropped to knee him off at that spot. Yet, most of the witnesses who phoned police and provided statements mentioned the roadworks. It was a key detail in their sightings. Not in Jacks. The next day, Monday, April eighth, a witness named Robin contacted Tumet Police. Robin and her husband rented a shed on Smart's Lane, which runs off Go Cup Road. They were traveling along Go Cup Road in the afternoon heading to their shed. Just before the roadworks commenced on Go Cup Road, Robin and her husband saw a girl walking on the side of the road with a backpack and carrying a stick. Robin described for us what she saw.
My husband and I were going to the shed to pick up some stuff from Mix, which it was. It was a mixed place. We had our stuff stored out there. And on the way, we did see this girl walking on the side of the road. And my husband said she shouldn't be walking on the side of the road. And we kept going. When we come back, she was not there. She seemed to be a bit off the road. She was only walking slow. She was average height, I suppose. I'm not good on heights, but she had a pair of socks on, white-colored sneakers. She had car key, three-quarter pants. She had a jacket on, a hat. She had a stick in her hand. She had a backpack on her back with a roll a bedroll, and her hair was loose, and she was just strolling. She wasn't in a hurry. That's all I can remember about it, but I still remember to this day what she looked, not actually looked like, but what she was dressed in.
Robin's description she gave when we spoke to her for this podcast matches the description she gave in her police statement 20 years ago. A backpack, a stick. Those are some key descriptors that fit the police media release. But what is important about Robin's statement is she mentions Go Cup Road and Hitchhiking before there is any mention of them in the press. The first official New South Wales police press release that we just quoted makes no mention of Go Cup Road or hitchhiking, and offers only Niam's description along with some bare details. Robin said she saw the hitchhiker near the spot where Jack says he dropped Niam off. The problem is Robin saw this hitchhiker on Thursday, March 28th, two days before Jack said he dropped Niam off there. We know Niam was actually with Jack on the Thursday, exploring Adalong Falls and Blouring Dam, and later visiting the Butler Caravan Park together to catch up with friends. So it wasn't Niam who Robin saw that Thursday, even though the description is similar. Robin contacted police just over a week after the sighting and signed a statement saying it was the Thursday.
Yes. Well, if I told him it was Thursday, it would have been. Peter It's going out to mix to get something to take to Queensland. So obviously, it must have been Thursday. If I had to talk to the police and said it was Thursday, it would have been.
Robin also recall seeing multiple road workers working at the time, and we know there no road workers working from Good Friday through to Easter Monday. There was only the one council worker operating the water cart working over the long weekend. So if she saw a hitchhiker on the Thursday, the road workers would have been there. We will come back to Robin's sighting later in the episode. On Tuesday, April ninth, the day after Robin contacted police, the New South Wales Police Media Unit issued a second press release. It contained the same information as the first and the same description of Niam, but also included the following. It has been almost two weeks since Niam contacted her mother, and that is out of character for her. Our inquiry is still being treated as a missing person's investigation, and we have released an image of a vehicle that Niam may have been traveling in. The car is a black Holden HT station wagon, which is described as bearing Victorian number plates. I urge anyone with information about Niam or the vehicle of interest to contact police immediately. So this time, the distinctive Hearst gets a mention and a picture of Jack Hearse was included with this media release, but still no mention of Go Cup Road or Hitchhiking.
Also on this day, the local newspaper The Tumid and at a Long Times runs the first of many articles on Naim's case. It was a front-page article with the headline, Concerns over the Whereabouts of Teenager, and featured a photo of Niam and a photo of Jack's Hearse. There is no new information in the article that hadn't been mentioned in the two press releases.
We gave it fairly heavy media attention, and a lot of information came in. Some of it was good information, others was not so good. But anything that did come in and people said that they saw something or heard something or whatever it may have been, had to be interviewed. So it became fairly extensive from that point on. And still, even though we suspected Jason Nicholson has been involved in her disappearance, at least her death, it wasn't much meat to the whole suspicion, if you know what I mean. We had nothing really apart from our gut feeling. Obviously, bank records and medical records and all that stuff start coming in relation to New England, and there was no activity there. So we knew that as time went on, certainly become a little bit more suspicious.
On Friday, April 12, the bi weekly, Tumard and Adalong Times ran another article. Again, It was a front-page story. No last known definitive location is given in this article. It appears she traveled to Gingellic, a gathering point for many hundreds of campers at Easter time, where she He spent Easter Friday and part of Saturday before probably returning to Batlo and possibly to Tumet on the Saturday afternoon. Just take a moment to think about that wording. Probably returning to Batlo and possibly tumet. Probably. Possibly. The information in the article comes from the police who are quoted in it, and it doesn't sound like they are sold on Jack's story at this point. There is still no mention of hitchhiking or Go Cup Road, specifically, anywhere in the media at this time. Everything changes on Tuesday, April 16, and the police source quoted in the media was the Thumet crime manager, a Detective Inspector. This front-page article in the Tumet and Adalong Times has the headline, Niam may have hitchhiked from Tumet Easter Saturday. The The article says, The attention of a dozen police investigators probing the disappearance of an 18-year-old woman in the district 16 days ago is now being focused on Tumet.
It is believed the woman secured a lift from Gingellic to Tumet on Easter Saturday and may have been hitchhiking on the Go Cup Road about 1 kilometer from Tumet around 1:30 PM to 2:00 PM that day. According to the Tumet crime manager, the investigator Investigation team has established Niam traveled to Gingellic with friends on Good Friday, March 29. After the others decided to stay on at Gingalik, she apparently secured a lift to Tumet the following day, where she was probably dropped off on Go Cup Road. Niam is known to have booked a coach and rail ticket to Sydney. Her ticket has remained unused, and Strikeforce Yola investigators are at this stage holding to the theory that she intended catching the train to Sydney at Kutamundra. It was possible she may have decided to hitchhike and cash in the coach component of her ticket in order to save money. We are very keen to hear from anyone who may have seen an 18-year-old woman on the Go Cup Road on Easter Saturday. So here it is, publicly mentioned for the first time, Hitchhiking and the Go Cup Road. But why now? This wasn't new information What is published in this article is essentially Jack's version of events, and Jack was interviewed at Denelequin Police Station 10 days earlier on April sixth.
So police were aware of this information when press releases and previous articles were being written. It wasn't leaked to the press. A senior officer is quoted giving the information and appealing for witnesses to come forward. So that means a strategic decision was made by the police to release this information. They also mentioned the possibility of Niam cashing in the bus component of her ticket to save money, as Jack had alluded to. But as you have already heard, Niam would have only saved $5.50 But to get that $5.50, she was making things infinitely more difficult for herself by giving up a free night's accommodation in Batlo right near the bus stop. Why would she give that up to hitchhike Jack to try and save $5.50? Where did she plan to stay in Kutamundra that Saturday night if she made it there? Accommodation in Kutamundra would have been a lot more than $5.50. Also on Tuesday, April 16th, the day this article mentioning hitchhiking was published, investigators made contact with Jack over the phone. It's the first time they had spoken to him since he left the Denelequin police station, at least according to the information that we had access to.
He was asked some follow-up questions and asked to confirm what Niam was wearing when he dropped her off on Go Cup Road. Was it just a coincidence this story was released the same day the follow-up was made with Jack? Was it some play? Look, Jack, we believe your story. Now talk to us some more. Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps the decision-makers decided Jack's story did actually hold some weight, and it was time to make a direct appeal for witnesses who may have seen Niam or the Hearse on Go Cup Road on Easter Saturday. Whatever the reason for the change in tactics with the media appeals, it worked. People came forward. In fact, that very day, a witness came forward to report seeing a woman with a backpack on Go Cup Road. But subsequent inquiries revealed this sighting was actually on Easter Sunday, so not Niam. Two days later, on Thursday, April 18th, a witness named Dorothy came forward and reported seeing a young woman walking along Go Cup Road on Easter Saturday morning between 10:30 and 11:30 AM. The time is too early for it to have been Niam, according to Jack's timeline. Dorothy remembers the young woman having a backpack and carrying a stick But little else about her.
The next day, Friday, April 19th, featured another appeal in the Tumet and at a Long Times for anyone who may have seen an 18-year-old woman on the Go Cup Road on Easter Saturday. This brought forward another witness. A man called Patrick told police he saw a girl walking along Go Cup Road on Easter Saturday around 3:45 PM. When giving his statement, Patrick was shown a photograph of Naim. He said, The girl I saw that day was of a similar mold to the girls in the photographs. However, the girl I saw didn't appear to be as tall as the one in the photograph. There's some similarities between the two girls, and I lean towards it, it's possibly the same girl. But being three weeks ago since I've seen her, and I've only seen her for a moment, I can't be definitely sure that they are one of the same. It was on Tuesday, April 23rd, that everything changed. A brief snippet on page 2 of the Tumet and Adalong Times said, The Special Police Strike Force established to find a missing 18-year-old girl who has been missing since Easter is to embark on a door knock of houses along the Go Cup Road in the coming days in an endeavor to establish if she was seen traveling on that road on Easter Saturday.
Later that day, Val and Cole, a couple who resided on Go Cup Road, each provided a statement to police. We managed to track down Val, who is now living interstate. Her husband, Cole, has since passed away. Although over 20 years have passed since the sighting, Val still remembers the day she and Cole saw the woman walking along Goekep Road.
When we saw the news in the paper, the local paper, I said to Cole, my husband, I said, I bet that's the girl that we passed. And we both said, We better get in and report it, which we did.
Val and Cole had been visiting their children and shopping in Tumet on Easter Saturday. And were driving back home along Go Cup Road between 12:30 and 1:00 PM. Val remembers the roadworks, and then soon after, seeing a hitchhiker in front of them walking in the same direction they were driving towards the Gunder guy, which meant the hitchhiker had her back turned.
Well, we'd been to town to do some shopping, and it was getting towards lunchtime, and we were on our way home from Tunic, and we were all Almost to the turn off of our lane. And there's a flight hill coming from town where Niam was walking. And we both passed and remarked, If you wanted to pick the person up, for me, you couldn't because of the danger of the traffic right on the crest of the hill. But anyhow, we drove past. My husband thought it was a male, and I looked back and I said, No.
This is corroborated in Cole's statement.
He said, When we were about 100 meters north of the intersection of Go Cup and Go Cup Farms Road, I saw a person walking on the left-hand side of the road heading towards Gunder guy. From the back, I couldn't determine if the person was a male or an email. As we drove past, my wife told me that the person was a girl. As we went past, she continued walking and put her thumb out for a lift. She didn't turn and face the car. She just kept walking at the same pace.
I can't recall her actually using the thumb or anything like that because she had a stick and a backpack on and walking with the stick, but I can't recall. I don't think she I was, although it's been a discussion between my husband and I since that he thought she was, but I was on the same side that she was on. I don't think she was actually hitchhiking because she didn't turn her head around to look back at the traffic where we were. She just kept walking. Yeah, and then that was it. We just went home, started to prepare lunch, and we had such good views in the dining kitchen room there, and overlooking the highway.
We will be back after a short break. Val and Cole believed the woman must have gotten a lift because they didn't see her walk past their house. Cole told the police.
I would estimate that it would have taken the girl about 10 minutes to walk up and past our house if she continued at the same pace she was sitting when we drove past. Whilst preparing and eating lunch, I was often glancing out the window at the view and the road. I was in the kitchen for about an hour. During this time, I didn't see the girl walk past. If she had done so, I would have certainly noticed her. I believe she must have got a lift between where I'd driven past her and our house.
Because of the beautiful views we had and a lot of glass in the front of our house, we could see a lot of things that went on and off the road, so we didn't actually see her walk past.
In our endeavor to be as thorough as possible, we tested this. The new occupants of Val and Cole's house kindly allowed us to check the view of the road from the house. We were mindful that 20 years had passed and the shrubbery and landscape would have changed in that time. So while we found a good view of Go Cup Road, it was not uninterrupted. We recreated what Val and Cole said they saw by having someone walk along Go Cup Road while we watched them from the house. In our experiment, it took 15 minutes to walk from the Southern part of Go Cup Road, where you first see someone walking along the road from Val's Kitchen to the northern part where you would lose sight of them. So Cole's estimate of 10 minutes was close. But within that 15 minutes walking time, a person walking on the road was only visible for a total of five minutes intermittently, walking in and out of view due to trees, shrubs, and general landscape and slope of the terrain. So having checked ourselves, we saw that it would be possible for someone to walk past Cole and Vell's property and not be seen by them, particularly if they weren't watching the road nonstop.
We are not challenging the fact that they saw a young woman on the road, just the assumption that she would have had to have been picked up before she reached their property, otherwise they would have seen her. At the same time, though, would you have been actively looking for her? Is it possible she could have walked past and you not noticed her?
Yeah, but when you see something like that, you We looked to see, yes, they're still walking or no, they're not. We were both looking out. Well, I was looking out onto the roadway and couldn't see anyone walk past. Well, Cole was, too, because he was the one that mentioned that he had to see her go by.
Val did her best to recollect what she had seen that day, nearly 20 years ago. What she told us reflects the statement she made back then.
I thought she looked shortish. She had a cloth hat on. And please don't ask me colors these day. Now my memory's gone. But I thought she had on a check shirt over a T-shirt or something like that. And I am not sure at this stage, whether it be shorts or trousers.
And did she have any bags with her?
She had, I suppose you'd call it a backpack on her back, and that I can call, but she was carrying a stick or a meter and a half, two meters long.
Cole provided a similar description in his statement. Most importantly, at the end of Val's statement, she said, I saw the picture of the missing girl in the newspaper and TV, but I cannot confidently say that it was the same person I saw walking along Go Cup Road Easter Saturday. The police officer taking Val's statement then showed her a picture of Naim, to which Val said, I would say that the girl I saw hiking on the side of the road had that color type of hair. Upon looking at the photograph, I cannot say that it was definitely her I saw hiking, but the hair color is similar to the girls in the photograph. I have no doubt Val and Cole saw someone walking along Go Cup Road, but was it Naim? Keep in mind, it's now over 24 days after Naim was allegedly dropped off on Go Cup Road, and there had been heavy media reporting in the local area since. The description Cole and Vau gave is similar to the description Robin gave in her statement a few weeks earlier. But remember, Robin saw the hitchhiker on Thursday, March 28, not on Easter Saturday. Robin also came forward mentioning Hitchhiker and Go Cup Road before that information was in the media.
In his statement, Cole admits that he only saw the woman from behind. In fact, he initially thought the hitchhiker was male. It was Val who turned around as they drove past to get a better look and to then correct him that the hitchhiker was female. Cole was then shown two photographs of Naim when giving his statement. After seeing the photos, he said, Prior to attending the station, I wasn't completely sure as I was only going off the black and white photos in the paper.
But on seeing the color versions of the station, I am convinced that the girl I saw on the Go Cup road and the missing girl, Eve may are the same person.
It is Cole who is most certain that it was Niam he and Valsaur. In fact, he is the most certain out of all the witnesses so far. Even though He admits never seeing her face. He only saw her from behind. Cole wasn't sure at the start of his statement, but after being shown color photographs while giving his statement, he became certain. So while Val and Cole did their bit to help in Niam's investigation, seeing someone from behind like Cole or with a glance around like Val means we need to take this into consideration when we weigh everything up. Val and Cole were simply reporting what they'd seen, but given where the investigation headed from here, it raises the question, was too much weight placed on their identification when It contained some serious question marks. The next day, Wednesday, April 24th, two more witnesses came forward to report seeing a person with a backpack on Go Cup Road on Easter Saturday. Neither witness could determine if the person they saw was male or female, and other than the backpack, the descriptions were not similar to Niam. Despite none of the witnesses providing solid identification so far, on Friday, April 26th, the Tumet and Adalong Times ran a front-page story with the headline, Missing Teenager: Confirmed Hitchhiking on Go Cup Road.
The accompanyinging article read, There has been a minor breakthrough in the investigation into the disappearance of Naim May with a confirmed sighting of her on Easter Saturday on the Go Cup Road, 4.5 kilometers north of to Tumet. The sighting, believed to have been made by a resident of Go Cup Road, appears to confirm earlier information told to police that after getting a lift from Gingellic to Tumet in a Black-X Hearse Holden station wagon, she had been let out of that vehicle and had intended hitchhiking. Information about the sighting was made known to police earlier this week. Going by the dates, it's Val and Cole sightings that are referenced in this article, specifically Cole, since he is the only person so far who is convinced it was Niam he saw on Go Cup Road despite not seeing her face. By her own admission, Val couldn't confidently say it was Niam even after seeing her face. Regardless of accuracy, this is when the media started reporting it as fact that Niam had hitchhiked along Go Cup Road. This isn't about criticizing the media. They are only reporting what was relayed to them. Niam's family are forever grateful for the coverage her case got.
However, once the news reports put Niam on Go Cup Road with a certainty that wasn't exactly warranted, the focus slipped away from the actual confirmed last sighting of Niam, getting into the hearse with Jack to drive to Batlo. With the wisdom of hindsight, it looks like a giant leap to run a headline saying, Missing Teenager Confirmed Hitchhiking on Go Cup Road. But again, this is not to criticize the media. This is information that would have been given to them by police. The witness statements to that point had been vague at best. Given the passage of time between seeing and reporting, is it possible that witnesses were remembering the same hitchhiker Robin saw on the Thursday? Jack's story was now being repeated. Police media releases and quotes changed from possibly and probably to confirmed hitchhiking. The mainstream narrative had been formed. People believed Naim had hitchhiked. It was now the official theory. In what seemed like a series of unfortunate coincidences that kept adding fuel to the fire, a farmer on Go Cup Road reported a bad smell emanating from his property, like something was decomposing. Four police officers visited the farmer's property on Saturday, April 27th.
They were unable to conduct an in-depth search because of the nature of the terrain. They made a note that a further, more in-depth search would have to be conducted at a later date. However, at 11:15 AM, they did locate a box that contained 11 rifle bullets. The bullets were seized and taken into evidence. There was now no doubt where the police investigation was heading, as that very same day, an email was sent by a police inspector officially requesting assistance to search the Gocup Road from Tumet to Gundergaai. The wording in the email makes it clear that police were funneling resources into the Gocup Road hitchhiking theory. The decomposing smell only cemented it further. The email said, The missing person was last seen on the Go Cup Road, approximately five kilometers from Tumet, and it is believed that she may have been attempting to Hitchhike to Kutamundra. It goes on to describe Go Cup Road and the high chance of a hitchhiker being hit by traffic. It refers to a previous incident involving a motorist running off the road around 10 years earlier who died, but he and the motor vehicle weren't located for about two weeks.
The email also mentioned the possibility of foul play. To eliminate the possibility of the missing person being deceased and her body lying somewhere along the Goekep Road, a thorough search of the bushland either side of the Gócab Road to Gundergaai is proposed. I believe that the search should end at Góndegai due to the last positive sighting of the missing person occurred at 2:00 PM, about 5 kilometers from Thumet, and the darkness not being until about 8:00 PM due to daylight saving, it is possible to walk that entire distance to Góndegai. However, at this time, there have been no further positive sightings after 2:00 PM. That is internal police correspondence referring to Val and Cole sighting as a positive sighting. The email proposes the search start May second. A request was made for both Tumet and Gundergaia SES to assist, as well as 10 Specialist Operational Support Group police, 2 Trailbikes and Riders, and Pole Air. The proposed plan of action The search is the result of consultation between the Tumut duty officer, the Task Force Yola Commander, and crime manager, Kutamandra Local Area Command. So there it is. Go Cup Road, hitchhiking. It was now the narrative.
The request for assistance for the search was granted, and on May second, a large-scale search of Go Cup Road was undertaken. It was covered by the media where the hitchhiking theory was again repeated. Police investigating the disappearance of an Armadale teenager at Tumet say they've lost hope that she's still alive.
Today, they stepped up their search for clues near where she was last seen.
A month since Niam may disappeared, and police were back at Tumet, this time, though, with grave concerns. It was here on Go Cup Road, where the 18-year-old was dropped off by a male friend around midday on Easter. To Saturday. Niam, who'd been fruit picking, planned to hitchhike 100 kilometers to Kutamundra to catch a train to Sydney to meet up with her family. It was a farmer who saw her last walking alongside the road, carrying a backpack and sleeping bag.
It's been some 30 days since she's disappeared. As a passage of time, the worse it is.
While police say she may have been hit by a car or truck, the matter is being treated as a murder investigation. As Pole Air searched bushland and nearby properties, dozens of police and rescue workers combed the roadside. Police are focusing their search within 20 kilometers of the last confirmed sighting of Niam May. If no evidence is found, investigators are Almost certain that she was picked up and taken out of the area.
The search proved unsuccessful, and the decomposing smell turned out to be a dead kangoo. But the story remained. Niam May hitchhiked from Go Cup Road. It was repeated in news reports and newspaper articles from this point. Some more witnesses came forward with vague sightings, but nothing concrete. It seems a a lot of weight was placed on Cole's sighting, and it seemed like Jack's story had been accepted by police. But not everyone on the investigative team was really convinced. Detective Steve Rose.
It was a really difficult investigation in the fact that we were probably searching places that Naim had never, ever been anyway. Just based on information, we were told. The first lot of information was the fact that she was dropped off on the Go Cup Road, which now, looking back on it, was most likely a lie, and we probably suspected that at the time.
Steve Rose was never convinced of the Go Cup Road sightings. He believed Jack was lying. But other police on the task force believed the Go Cup Road sightings had real weight, and Jack may have been telling the truth. We were interested to get a feel of what some of the local residents thought about all this. This is Millie. That's the first thing you think. I mean, there's nothing on Go Cup Road. I mean, there's really nothing there. There would be no point being dropped off at Go Cup Road. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. That sounds a bit crazy. Did Go Cup Road make sense to local woman, Michelle? No. It's nothing at Go Cup Road. It's just a road in between two towns. It's weird to hear that she was last seen there. I I didn't understand why. But low caravan park proprietor, Penny, didn't understand it either.
I think it was pretty bloody strange, actually. Why wouldn't she just get on the bus here?
But with the Jack's version gaining traction, it seemed he was in the clear. What did he and Garth get up to while all of this was going on? Just how closely could the police monitor him given his itinerant lifestyle? Trial. Detective Steve Rose explains the difficulties.
It was difficult. He was an itinerant type bloke who moved from town to town picking fruit and different types of fruit in it, in fact, even in the state. Yeah, so over time, we did keep an eye on his movements.
We know that Jack and Garth were in the vicinity of Denelequin on Saturday, the sixth of April, because that's when they were interviewed by the police. But something else happened when Jack and Garth stopped off at the Denelequin police station. When the police entered Jack's name into the system, it turned out that he had outstanding warrants. Seven years earlier, in January 1995, Jack had been charged in the country town of Orange in New South Wales with three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was given bail but didn't stay around to attend court, so arrest had been issued in New South Wales. When this came up on the police check, the Denelequent police arrested Jack. He had been wanted in New South Wales for over seven years. Jack was interviewed and the hearse was also seized for forensic examination. Jack gave his version of what happened on Easter Saturday when Naam was last seen. Jack wasn't charged with anything to do with Naam's case, But his outstanding warrants for the assault charges seven years earlier were processed. Jack was held in police custody overnight to front bail court in Denelequine the next day. He was granted bail on the condition he provided a $500 surety payment, a reasonable person also provided an additional $500 surety, and that he reported daily to Denelequin Police Station.
Jack agreed to these conditions. So despite Jack being wanted by New South Wales police for seven years and having no fixed address, essentially living out of his car from campground to campground following the fruit picking seasons, and after having a history of failing to attend court, bail was granted. The decision by the court to grant Jack Bale would have consequences beyond belief. Life. On the next episode of Missing Niam. He didn't smile or anything. He just looked empty and just... Like, get in the car. It was just aggressively like, get in the car.
You wanted to sell the car, the Hearth. You wanted to sell it, you wanted to go away and never come back.
Because Jack’s story of dropping Niamh at Gocup Road seems to be accepted, the search focused on that area rather than Jack. His version is reported in the media two weeks after Niamh went missing. Witnesses come forward.
https://missingniamh.com