Transcript of 8: Episode 8: Tracing Jack’s movements

Please note that some names in this episode have been changed. Additionally, some audio clips are voiced by actors reading from statements or transcripts. With the disappearance of 18-year-old Niam May, the search focused on Go Cup Road. Jack Nickleison, a 31-year-old itinerant laborer who drove an old Holden hearse, had taken Niam from a campground in Gingalik on Easter Saturday, promising to drop her off in Batlo so she could catch a bus the following day. He'd returned to Gingalik hours overdue, saying he'd driven past Batlo and dropped her off on Go Cup Road so she could hitchhike instead of using her prepaid bus ticket. His story never made sense, but it gained traction when a couple of locals claimed they saw a woman hitchhiking on Go Cup Road over Easter. An extensive land and air search of the 30 km stretch found nothing to indicate Niim had ever been there. Garth and Jack weren't in Batlo long, but to this day, the locals still remember the hearse. When you talk to people in town today who were around in 2002, the recognition is instant. The time the hearse came to town is something they've never forgotten, especially not Michelle.

Michelle is a Butler local and was 16 years old in March 2002.

I was just doing what 16-year-olds do, hanging around town, having fun, It was the end of summer, so everyone was still out and about before winter hit and everyone had hibernate.

In the lead up to Easter 2002, Michelle remembers seeing the Black Hearse driving around Batlo.

Yeah, Yeah. You'd see it driving around all the time. Batlo's literally got… Back then, it had one main street because no one used the other top side of the street much. You'd always see it hanging around because it was a hearse. It was quite obvious in such a small town.

When Michelle finished school one day, she crossed paths with the black hearse.

There was one afternoon, my best friend and I had got out of school. Usually, when you finish school back then, you'd walk up to the local café, which was 200 meters away. Then you'd usually just hang around the streets or the bike jumps or somewhere for the afternoon. We'd been at the cafe and we were standing out on the footpath, and this guy pulls up and literally stops right in front of us, puts his window down and says, Do you girls want a lift? And we're like, No, mate. It's ballot. You can walk everywhere in town. Come on, just get in the car. And we're like, No, we're good. And he's like, Come on, just let me give you a lift. And I said, You drive a hearse. That's warning signs. We're not going to get in the car with you. And he's like, Oh, well, there's this really cool party at the caravan park. You should come down. And we're like, No. And That's all it was left at. He had a bit of attitude about it. He sounded a little bit pissed off and just drove off. That was it.

Jack was 31 years old when he asked 16-year-old Michelle and her friend to get into his car. The two teenage girls were wearing the white T-shirt and the black pants that made up the school uniform. Both were carrying school bags.

Come across rough pickers over the years, but he just had this creepy vibe. As I've said, I've met so many pickers before, and I'm still friends with some of them now. You could tell the rough ones and the nice ones and whatever. But he just had this creep vibe. He was up to no good. He didn't smile or anything. He just looked empty and just to get in the car. And we were like, no. We knew that we were all right. There was people in the cafe and there was always people around then. But it was just aggressively, get in the car.

So it was more a demand than a request? Yeah.

So the first time he asked, he's like, Oh, I can give you a lift. But it wasn't nice. It was him just saying to get in the car. Then it just got more aggressive as he went on, I think.

The description Michelle gave matched Jack, not Garth. There was no confusing the two.

He had a lot of confidence to pull up to two 16-year-old girls and ask them to get in the car by himself. That's what I couldn't believe. Usually, you'd see groups of boys doing that or at least two, but it was always in a joking manner or they were just trying to be funny or something, but he was more like a creeper.

Michelle told her friends about the incident, and everyone was aware about the creep in the hearse who tried to get the schoolgirls in the car. In early April, when news broke about Niam's disappearance and pictures of Jack's hearse were on the front page of the paper, along with a picture of Niam, the encounter suddenly felt sinister. Michelle thought she had better let the police know It wasn't officially reported, but I remember seeing the local policeman at the time, and I just remember saying, Oh.

It was after the disappearance that I remember saying to the police, Oh, well, this is what happened when I saw him, and he's asked me and my best friend to get in his car, and it was just brushed off like it was irrelevant. So that was it.

A schoolgirl's report of predatory behavior from a man who was the last one to see a missing teenager should have been a red flag. But a statement was never taken, and the information doesn't appear anywhere in the police brief that was compiled for the coroner. Sure, Sure, Michelle's story wasn't going to help find a name, but it did paint a picture of how Jack behaved towards teenage girls. Jack and Garth left Gingelik on Easter Sunday and traveled back to Batlo to collect the rest of their gear. They told the Caravan Park Operator, Penny, that they were headed to Queensland. But of course, they weren't. Jack and Garth actually drove in the complete opposite direction of Queensland. They headed south West to Cobram in Victoria, just over a three-hour drive from Batlo. They camped Sunday night on the Murray River at a spot known as Twin Nobs. It was busy with holiday makers on the Easter long weekend. On Easter Sunday night, Jack had a 36-minute conversation on the phone with his ex-girlfriend, Belinda. They had recently broken up, and Jack was trying to patch things up. Monday night, April 1, they spent the night at one of their friends in Cobrim, Lena.

Lena had known both Jack and Garth from the fruit picking scene for years. They'd picked the same seasons together and hang out in the same circle of friends during the picking season in Cobrim. She knew Garth better than Jack, but was familiar with both of them. Lena remembers thinking how strange it was that Jack was selling the Hearse because she knew how happy he'd been he bought it only a month earlier. Records show that Jack had purchased the Hearse from a car dealership in Cobrim on February 15, 2002, only one month prior to arriving in Batlo. The purchase price was $1,800. A lot of people had noticed how obsessed he was with his car, yet now he was selling it. Jack also made a strange comment to Lena that she considered unusual for him. She would later tell police.

You wanted to sell the car, the hearse. You wanted to sell it, you wanted to go away and never come back. That's what he said to me.

On Tuesday, April second, Jack and Garth left Lena's house in Cobram and drove to Shepperton, a 50-minute drive south. Jack had arranged to catch up with his ex-girlfriend Belinda. Belinda and Jack booked into Room 21 of the Settler's Hotel. Garth booked into a different hotel to give Jack a chance to patch things up with Belinda. When Belinda later spoke to police about Jack, she said he would pressure her into sex when she didn't want to and wanted sex constantly throughout their relationship. She described being with someone whose sexual appetite seemed insatiable and how he responded when she said no.

He used to get quite upset with me sometimes and try and force me. Well, not so much force me, but verbally force me into saying, Yeah, I know you want it. I'd tell him to piss off, I didn't want it. Yeah, he never physically forced me into doing it. He'd just get quiet. Yeah, he'd sulk. He'd sulk if I wouldn't do anything with him.

Given their past history, when Belinda met Jack at the hotel, there was something very different about his behavior.

I spent the night with him in Shepperton, which we did have a sexual relationship that night, and he was very standoffish. It was like he was not himself. It's like he didn't really want to touch me or anything like that. I thought it was quite strange. Yeah, He wasn't himself. I know that much because I thought he was being rather cold. He wasn't talking to me a lot. He was walking backwards and forwards around the room, and he wasn't settled.

That wasn't the only thing odd about Jack's behavior.

When we arrived at the motel, he backed the hearse up to the motel room, and he brought everything in and went through all his clothes. Said he had to wash a whole heap of clothes, went through, cleaned all of his CDs with methylated spirits. He'd had a shower, chupped all his clothes in a pile and said he had to do a whole heap of washing. Went through and cleaned every single CD.

In the two years you've known Jack, how often did you see him clean all these CDs with methylated spirits?

Never.

How How often did you see Jack wash all his clothes in one go?

Well, just like living with him, we used to do the laundry as you would, every week, thing, probably twice a week. But I just naturally thought, here he was, traveling on the road. Him and Garth had been here, there, and everywhere. I just thought, Well, he's got all this dirty washing. He needs to do his laundry.

On Wednesday, April third, Belinda left Shepperdon to go to her next picking job, and Jack and Garth were back on the road in the hearse. They called in to visit a friend, Shane, in Melbourne, to show him the hearse. Shane said there was nothing unusual about Jack or Garth's behavior that night. After that, they made their way to Port Ferry, about three and a half hours drive southwest of Melbourne, to see more picking friends, Holly and Marcus. Holly was heavily pregnant at the time.

I thought Jack was quiet, Jack was calm. Jack was always up for like, he was a bit less of a rowdy, drunk and dickhead than all the other guys were in that scene. I'd sit down and talk to him about furniture restoration and traveling and things because I was pregnant or whatever and wasn't drinking and everyone else was really drunk, and he was there just... He was He was always drinking.

I think he was always drinking, but he just never seemed as drunk, and he was always just really good to chat to.

He was interesting. Listening to Holly talk about Jack, it's easy to see how Nahum was interested in talking to him. Someone really good to chat to. Interesting. This was not a one-off description. Others who knew Jack in the picking circles had told us much the same. Do you remember the night when him and Garth came to your house?

Yeah, I remember the night him and Garth came to my house. Only vaguely, though, now.

He was probably pretty quiet, but I wouldn't have known him well enough to really evaluate his mental state. And also I was so young.

At 25, I was so young. My ability to be able to evaluate things and people's behavior was so much less developed than it is now.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

And plus, I was about to have baby, like any moment.

Holly and Marcus spoke to the police during the course of the investigation when the visit was much fresher in their mind, and they both had a similar account. There was nothing unusual about the visit. Everything was normal. They had known Jack for about three years at the time, and he had always been nice, a gentleman. Holly had been alone with the Jack numerous times, and there had never been any issues. Jack and Garth spent the night at Holly and Marcus's house in Port Ferry. The next morning, April fourth, Jack and Garth hit the road again. They had made a decision to drive across to the other side of the country to Western Australia, to check out the citrus fruit season. They stayed that night in Gaula, South Australia, around a seven-hour drive West from Port Ferry, and it's at this point Jack decides he doesn't want to go to Western Australia. He suggests to Garth that they head up to Queensland instead. Garth agrees. On Friday, April 5, they drive over seven hours back east and stay the night in Bendigo, Victoria. It's on this day that Kieran first calls Garth's mobile phone. Kieran, by this stage, was in battle making inquiries about his missing sister and got Garth's phone number from a fellow picker.

There was no answer, and Kieran left a voicemail for Garth. At 6:46 PM, Garth called Kieran back. Again, they missed each other due to the spotty reception issues. Garth left Kieran the following voicemail message.

Hey, Kieran. Yeah, it's Garth here. I'm just returning your call. Jack dropped Naam off at Schumet. She was supposed to be catching the bus down to Sydney to stay with her sister. Yeah, give us a call back, and 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.

At 10:10 the next morning, Saturday, April sixth, Garth sent Kieran a text message, Call Jack's phone with the number. This was when Kieran went to Tumet Police Station and a local police officer, Stan Wall, got in touch with Jack. Jack and Garth had just left Bendigo to begin their journey to Queensland, which is about a 20-hour drive north. They were racking up serious kilometers in that hearse, but that wasn't unusual. It's what they did. Traveled a lot and picked fruit. On the phone, Jack told Stan Wall they were close enough to Danilo Denelequine Police Station and could call in there to assist with inquiries. Importantly, Denelequin is back over the border in New South Wales, the jurisdiction responsible for Naim's case, and where Jack happened to have four four outstanding arrest warrants. Jack and Garth arrived at Denelequine Police Station in the early afternoon. Denelequine is a New South Wales town close to the border of Victoria, a four-hour drive west of Batlo. After visiting the Denelequine Police Station, Jack is arrested and taken into police custody on the outstanding warrants, three for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and one for failing to appear at court.

The assault charges were related to an incident that occurred on New Year's Eve, 1994. When Jack failed to attend court a few weeks later to answer to those charges, the arrest warrants were issued and had been in place in the State of New South Wales for over seven years. Jack's interview was recorded by local Dineliquent detectives. He provided his version of the events around Niam's disappearance including a timeline, the one with a few hours unaccounted for. The recorded interview commenced at 2:43 PM, April sixth. When asked how he came to learn Niam was missing and how he ended up at Denelequin Police Station, Jack said.

What happened was yesterday, I believe it was Niam's brother, he rang up my friend Garth in regards to Niam being missing, and I just heard a little rumor like he How could you put it? He's very upset and I don't blame him. I'd be pretty stressed, too, if my sister was missing. And he's rang Garth yesterday and said, What happened? And Garth told him I dropped her in tumor. And I don't know, he suggested that we were semi-responsible or something. So I thought I'd call him and tell him exactly what happened. So he'd know. So he passed the phone number onto the detective, I'd say. And it's pretty concerning that somebody would I don't think that it had anything to do with either of us.

When asked about his connection to Garth, Jack explained that he met Garth fruit picking years earlier in the country New South Wales town of Orange, the same town where Jack's warrants were issued after he was charged with assault there and then failed to attend court. Jack said he didn't really like Garth when they first met, but their friendship had strengthened in more recent times when they connected through mutual friends. That's how they had come to be traveling together for the 2002 fruit picking season.

Niam, how do you know her?

We met her on the Friday after we got to Batlo. It was just a conversation at the end of the night, and that was it. Probably wouldn't have seen her until I'd say it would have been maybe Tuesday, the 26th of March or Wednesday, the 27th at the hotel, Batlo Hotel. She told me she got kicked out of the caravan park and she actually wanted to leave Batlo on Wednesday or something like that.

Right.

I don't know. What went wrong? Her tickets just didn't come through or she didn't have money or something.

She was intending to travel somewhere.

To see her sister, yeah, in Sydney. She was going to live with her sister in Sydney.

She was intending to travel from that area, Batlo, to Sydney. How?

Via a bus, I think, to Kudamundra, because that's where the train arrives.

What seems is ominous is that during his interview, Jack referred to Niam in the past tense a number of times.

She wanted to work in a production film. She knew a lot about some pretty good movies, old actors and all that thing. I enjoyed her company all the time. She was a nice person.

Jack goes on to describe how he, Niam, and Garth arrived in Gingalic. They had liked the vibe of the place and decided to camp the night. But because of their last minute decision, they needed to drive back to Batlo to get their camping gear. Niam collected her tent, backpack, and all of her gear from the Ardross & Orchard where she was staying. Garth grabbed his swag from the Batlo Caravan Park where he and Jack were still staying. Jack planned to sleep in the hearse. They returned to Gingelic, then went to the pub. Jack was asked about March 30th, Easter Saturday, the day Niam was last seen.

When did you leave Gingelic?

After 10:ish. In the morning? Yeah.

Who did you leave with?

Niam.

Right. So Where were you going with Niam?

Taking her back.

To where?

To Batlo.

It is interesting that Jack says he was taking Niam back to Batlo before correcting himself in the very next question.

You did that? Took her to Batlo?

No, I dropped her in tumor.

Jack said Niam had discussed hitchhiking with him.

The night before, she had some traumas trying to get money out, and I offered her like 20 bucks just to get through and shit, and she refused it, basically, and suggested that she might try and cash her ticket in. She was going to try and hitch to Cudamundra to save money so she could get that back. I said, Oh, you go well on the weekend hitching. There's heaps of cars, and you should be right and everything. If she wasn't to get a lift, then she'd still have that ticket she had. She was pretty keen, really keen to go up to Armadale.

When did Ms. May discuss with you her thoughts about cashing in a ticket?

When she found out she was broke, she wanted to try and get to Kooja Mandra so she could get refunded for the bus money because there was a bus from Batlo to Kooja Mandra, I think, the country link.

Where did you drop Ms. May off at?

On the road from Tumet to Gunder guy.

The road from Tumet to Gunder guy is Go Cup Road.

Yes. Did you have to go through Batlo to the point where you dropped her off?

Yeah, there was no other way around, I don't think.

Why didn't you drop her off at Batlo?

Well, she didn't want to. She had enough of it.

When did she decide not to stop at Batlo?

Probably on Saturday, I guess, or maybe Friday. She made her mind up, but she was having a pretty good time Friday, so How did you know to take her past Batlo and to the point where you dropped her off at? Because they already been to Tumet a few days before.

Yes, but I'm not asking you, How did you know how to get there? I'm asking you, How did you know that she wanted to get to the point where you dropped her off. When did she tell you that?

Whilst we were driving.

Jack said he dropped Niam off a couple of kilometers out of town.

I see. How far from Tumet was the point where you dropped Ms. May off at?

A click and a half, two, maybe.

This would have put them right at the roadworks. But in his interview, Jack never mentioned seeing any roadworks.

What time of day did you drop her off?

One, two in the afternoon. I didn't get back to gingelic till a little bit after four or something like that. So it would have had to be two o'clock, 1:30-ish. That's the only way I can estimate it because the only watch I've got timepiece is in my phone and there's no mobile reception.

She was heading towards where did you say?

Gunder guy.

Gunder guy. How far from where you dropped her off is Gunder guy?

Jeez, 50 odd kilometers, I reckon, something like that. It's not very far at all.

Jack's story changed here. He was now saying Niam was headed to Gunderga, not Kudamundra.

Why didn't you take her to Gundegei?

Because I had to I'd already gone out of my way enough.

It's something we are left to wonder about. If Jack was worried about mileage and had already gone out of his way enough, why didn't he just drop Niam in Batlo?

So how far did you travel from Gingelic to Tumet. How far is that?

It'd be 80 odd to Batlo.

Jack is correct. Google Maps confirms that the trip is 79.8 kilometers from Gingelic to Batlo, and Tumet is 33.3 kilometers further on.

And another, I don't know, how many to tune at? 40 odd?

All right. So about 120 all up?

120, 130, something like that.

So another 50 ks was just a bit It's a bit excessive?

Yeah, it put me out. I'm not overly rich in that. And I had to actually pick Garth's passport up because he didn't like... We'd already made the decision to stay there at Janjelic, and he's left his passport in the tent at Batlo, and he wanted me to pick it up because he didn't think it'd be safe there. It was bad enough leaving it there one day, let alone another. It'd be 140 bucks to replace it.

Despite the urgency about Garth's passport, Jack did not pick it up because he did not stop in Batlo.

So once you dropped her off, Ms. May, what have you done?

I pretty much drove straight back to Gingellic and completely forgot all the other stuff because I'd just been having conversations with my girlfriend, like Yes, all right.

So you dropped her off?

Yeah.

You've turned back?

Yeah.

Did you travel straight back to Gingellic?

Yeah, pretty much.

Pretty much, yes?

Yeah, I didn't even refuel or anything.

What happened when you got to Gingellic?

The guys were there, beers and whatnot, and we just had a few more beers and got on it. And the bar maid, she's asked me, If I'm going to keep serving you, you've got to tell me your name. I told her. And I think the reason why is she wanted a friend of hers to introduce a friend of hers to me. And that lady's name was Jesus. Simone. That's it. I went home with Simone that night.

Did you talk to anyone about Ms. May when you returned to Gingellic on that afternoon?

Yeah, yeah.

Who did you talk to?

Garth. Garth said, Oh, yeah. Did you leave her in battle? And I said, No, I took her up to Chumet. She wanted to hitch out.

I see.

The next line of questioning and Jack's answers are also interesting. He denies a sexual interest in Naim.

What was the nature of your relationship with Ms. May?

Completely friendly. She, I don't know. Like I said before, I enjoyed having a conversation more with her than what I did with some of these other people.

Was your relationship with Ms. May sexual?

No, God, no.

So you never had sex with Ms. May? No. Not at all?

No.

Did you want to have sex with Ms. May?

No, she's too young.

We will be back after a short break. Whether he had a sexual interest or not is one thing, but he certainly made a sexualized comment about Niam, one for which another friend had to step in. This is what Naim's friend Jess said earlier in the series. All I know is that I remember I remember Joel once saying that he was at the pub with Niam, and one of those guys from the Blackhurst saying to him, making a sexual remark about Niam and Joel getting really upset and saying, Why the hell are you saying that? That's my friend.

Fuck off.

Here is another witness, Carly. The same Carly you heard about earlier in the series, who, along with her friend Laura, were picking up a Jack and a Garth's pay that they had left behind at the Vanzela's Orchard. There is no official statement from Carly. However, a police officer did speak to her over the phone and typed up the following summary of their conversation. Carly stated she briefly met and knew Jack prior to Easter 2002, stated that a day or so before Jack and Garth left Batlo to travel to Gingellic, Carly looked at Jack, who was seated in his at about 6:30 AM one morning. When she looked at him, Jack mouthed the word fuck and looked angrily at Carly. When Carly questioned Garth as to why Jack would do that, he replied, Probably because I am here with you and he can't get that Niam girl. Carly stated that Garth gave a few indications to her that Jack was interested in Neum May. Unfortunately, this was yet another piece of information that Garth didn't share with the police. When Garth was interviewed at Denelequin Station later that same day, this is what he said.

What was Jack's reaction to Niam when they first met?

Just friends, yeah.

Did he show any interest in her?

No, not really. Friendship interest.

Friendship?

Not in a sexual way or anything.

Didn't show any sexual interest at all? No. Did he show any sexual interest towards any person whilst in the Batlo area? No.

In his interview, Jack denied any knowledge of what happened to Niam.

What happened to Ms. May?

I have no idea. That's why I'm here, to help.

Have you harmed Ms. May in any way?

No, I haven't. I wouldn't. You can ask anyone that knows me. I'm not into any form of violence or retaliation or weird shit. I'm just a fucking straight person. Sonny.

What do you mean by weird shit?

Well, whatever. Mistreat women, you know.

At the end of the interview, Jack was informed that his hearse would be seized for forensic examination.

Is that going to take long?

Because I'm not sure how long it will take. I'm not sure. It'll probably be a day or so.

It's my house.

Yes, I understand that. But you understand that's what we're going to do. We're going to take your car.

Fair enough.

He is also informed that police will be taking a DNA sample from him. He doesn't object. Jack is then held at Denelequine Police Station overnight on the outstanding warrants for the assault that he committed on New Year's Eve back in 1994. Garth booked a motel room in Denelequine to sleep the night. The next morning, Sunday, April seventh, Jack fronts Denelequine bail court. And despite the seven-year outstanding warrant, having no fixed address and his history of failing to show up for court, he is granted bail. Jack's bail conditions required him to report to the Denelequine police station between the hours of 08:00 AM and 08:00 PM every day. He also had to pay a $500 bail surety himself and have one acceptable person also lodge a $500 bail surety. Jack listed his address for the purpose of bail as Room 16 at the Center Point Motel in Denelequine, but he had no intention of staying there. The acceptable person for Jack's bail who agreed to pay the surety was Garth. After being bailed, Jack and Garth returned to the Denelequine police station to check on the status of the hearse. They were told the hearse was going to be towed to Warbury for examination.

Garth was allowed to retrieve his Ventolin inhaler from it. Realizing it would be a few days at least until the hearse was released back to them, they were left without transport. Jack and Garth called their friend Lena from Cobrim, the woman they'd stayed with in the days after leaving Batlo. Lena agreed to drive to Denelequine to pick them up and take them back to Cobram. Denelequin is just over an hour's drive from Cobrim. She must have picked them up the following day, Monday, April eighth, because Jack reported to Denelequine Police Station at 08:00 AM to sign his bail card that morning, as per his bail conditions. It was the first and last time he did that. Here is what Lena recalls of that car trip with the Jack and Garth on the way to her house in Cobram.

Any conversation take place on the way back? Well, I talked with Garth later because I don't trust Jack. I talked with Garth all by himself. Okay, but I'm talking on the way down Lena, in the car. In the car? You and Garth and Jack, all in the car on your way down from Dinelequin, back here to Cobrim. It's a pretty quiet trip, really. Was it? Yeah. Do you ask why the police have got his car and this girl's gone missing? Did you ask that question? Well, they just told me everything. They said that they'd take it. No, they'd confiscated everything for forensic testing, and that's why they had no shoes and jackets and whatnot. They didn't know when the car was getting released or whatever. The girl had gone missing, last seen the hearse. They were in gingelic with her, and Jack took her to tumor to drop her off or go home or something by bus or hitchhike or something or other. Okay. Garth told you that? Yeah. Was that in Jack's presence? Was Jack there when he said that? Yeah. Was there much... Is there any more conversation in relation to that? No.

Jack just looked out the window. Garth was beside me, and Jack was in the back. Every now and again, I'd look in the mirror, and he'd just be looking out the window, not saying anything.

Jack remained quiet when they arrived back at Lena's place at Cobram.

Okay. Once you got back here, what happened then? Did Jack make any comment at all? No. He was very quiet. Very quiet. Didn't They didn't let on about much at all. So later on, I was with Garth by himself, and I said, Well, how long was Jack gone by himself with her? And he said, Maybe four hours. And I said, Well, that's a long time, isn't it? Because it made me wonder. What did Garth say to that? The fact it was a long time? Yeah, he agreed.

Garth didn't share his concerns in his police interview.

Lena, why didn't you ring the police at that point when you had suspicion? I don't know. I didn't know what to make of it all. I really didn't.

Lena could tell that Jack was down, depressed, and stressed, so she decided to pull out her Oracle cards to try and cheer him up.

You gave him a deck of Oracle cards or a bunch of Oracle cards. Is that right? Yeah. And he selected the card himself? They're love cards. They're supposed to make you feel better. And he's pulled out the only two bad cards in the deck. Which were? Fear and retreat. What was his reaction to both the cards? He looked down at the floor, didn't say a word, didn't say anything.

After the Oracle cards, discussions turned to dinner. Garth, Jack, and Lena were in the kitchen when they decided to order pizzas. Lena and Garth walked to the lounge room to make the call to the pizza place.

When you came out of the lounge room, what did you notice?

Jack gone. Yeah, and what did you make of that? Didn't really take any notice of it at the time, but when the pizzas came, I thought he might have gone for a walk around the orchard. I was out the door yelling for him, and he couldn't... Well, he couldn't hear me. He wasn't anywhere around.

Assuming Jack had just ducked out for a quick walk, Lena and Garth didn't give it much thought initially. But when the pizzas arrived and after they had long gone cold and there was still no sign of Jack, they began to wonder. Jack didn't reappear that evening. The following day, Lena bumped into a mutual acquaintance in town called Troy. Lena asked him if he'd seen Jack anywhere. Troy said he had just driven Jack to Shepperton, a one hour drive south of Cobram. With the passing of time prior to her eventual police interview, Lena couldn't recall if Troy had dropped Jack to Shepperton the night before when he took off from her house or that morning. When Troy dropped Jack to Shepperton, it was right when police officially formed Strike Forceola to investigate Naim's disappearance. It's also the time that Witness Robin contacted police with the sighting of the woman on Go Cup Road on Easter Thursday. Forensic testing had commenced on the Hearse, too, at Aubrey Police Station. Tests were conducted on its interior and exterior, and on a number of items and articles of clothing found inside. The tests found no indications of blood and no items of Naim's missing belongings.

Three rolls of film were located with the hearse. These were developed and sent to detectives in Tumet. There were photos of Niam on the film, sitting in the hearse and driving the hearse. As Niam's mom, Anne, points out, just because forensics found nothing, doesn't mean there was nothing there.

Then when they got the hearse, the forensics had gone over it. The comment about that, just one comment, it was clean, too clean.

To Detective Steve Rose, did it look like the car had been actually detailed or just cleaned thoroughly?

Not detailed. He made a concerted effort to clean his car.

He spent most of the day cleaning his car, including cleaning his compact disk.

So he did go through a fairly concerted effort to clean his car, and that was before it was forensically examined. So that's another piece that puts him into the fact that he did that.

It's easy to imagine Niam, a keen music lover, going through Jack's CD collection and leaving her prints over the shiny surface of the disk. Yeah, Can imagine if you're in a car and the girl sitting beside you going through your compact disk.

But as it turned out, even if we found her fingerprints in the car, yeah, that's bad as if her in the car.

It's an interesting point. It was no secret Niam had been in Jack's car. Jack had admitted as much himself. Why go to the effort of wiping clean his CDs? While the forensic examination was occurring and the strike force was being formed and media releases were going out, once Jack took off from his friends without warning, he was essentially on the run. Garth tried to contact Jack on his phone without success. Call calls went unanswered, text messages went unreturned. Days passed with no word from Jack. In the meantime, police had finished their forensic examination of the hearse and had advised the Garth that the hearse had been fully processed and was now ready for collection. But Garth couldn't collect it. Jack had agreed to sell the hearse to Garth, and money had actually changed hands between them by now. However, no paperwork had been completed for the sale, so the hearse was still in Jack's name. This made Jack's sudden disappearance even more concerning for Garth. Garth needed Jack to collect the hearse, and Jack Jack was nowhere to be found. Garth contacted all their mutual friends to see if anyone had been in contact with him.

One of those friends was a fruit picker named Clint. Here is Garth's account of Jack's sudden disappearance in a second police interview he participated in a couple of months after his first.

I just sat around and pulled my hair out. There's nothing else I could do. But I also started to think, Shit, what's going on? Jack's panicked and run thing, and I was on the phone to a couple of friends. Clint was the main one. Clint, what do you reckon? He's fucked off and this chic's missing. And Clint's going, Don't be stupid. This is Jack. He wouldn't do something like that. What are you talking about? That thing. It settled me down a bit, but it didn't settle me down a lot.

After the conversation with Garth, Clint made contact with the Jack's ex-girlfriend, Belinda. It was now Thursday, April 11, four days after Jack's sudden one unexplained departure from Lena's house. Here is Belinda.

I got the phone call from Clint saying, You have to ring Garth. He's in hysterics. I said to Clinton, Why are you ringing? He said, I really don't know what it's about, but Garth's really upset. I rang Garth, and that's when he started saying to me, Do you think he murdered her? I said, Well, I wouldn't know, to be honest with you. He used to threaten me all the time, but I thought that was him being over possessive and jealous.

Here is Garth's recollection of that phone call with Belinda.

Pretty much asked her straight. I said, Look, Belinda, do you think he could have had anything to do with it? And she said, Garth, with Jack, from what I've seen in the last twelve months or something like that, nothing would surprise me. And that didn't make me feel any better at all. And then it was like, I was leaving messages on his phone, so I was like, What the fuck are you doing? I want to get me stuff back. It's stuck in the police station. Where the hell are you? And what are you doing? Answer your fucking phone.

As it turned out, by pure coincidence, shortly after Belinda and Garth spoke, Jack phoned Belinda. Belinda told him that Garth was worried, and she suggested that he had better call him straight away. Jack said he would, but waited until the next day, Friday, April 12th, to call Garth back. Jack was apologetic to Garth, saying he had to leave suddenly due to something that had come up. But he told him not to worry. It had nothing to do with Naam. Here is Garth again.

And he said, Look, I'm real sorry I fucked up. And I'm like, What's going on, mate? What the fuck you done? Or something. He said something like, I know what you're thinking, but it's something separate. It's got nothing to do with that. I was pretty all right by then. I was like, What the fuck's going on? I want to get my car. He already knew that because that's what my text messages contained. And he was all apologetic. Look, I'm sorry. I fucked up. I freaked out. I said, Look, the car's ready to go, ready to pick up. I just can't pick it up because it's in your name. And he was surprised at that and he goes, Shit, I just spun out about something. And I said, Look, what's going on? He said something like, I know what you're thinking. It's nothing to do with that. It's something totally separate. I can't pick up the car yet. So he faxed a declaration to say he was releasing the car into my custody or whatever from wherever he was.

Jack sent the fax to Cobram Post Office for Garth to pick up. The fax gave Garth authorisation to collect the hearse from Denelequine Police Station. The fax was sent from Rundle Mall in Adelaide, which meant Jack was on the move. His last known stop was Cobram. Adelaide is a good eight-hour drive west. Little is known about Jack's movements during this time. Exactly where he was, who he was with, or what he was doing on the way to Adelaide and in Adelaide, no one knows. If Jack was responsible for harming Niam, could he have returned to the location where he left her during those missing days? Detective Steve Rose thinks it's possible.

That's a real possibility, and I've always believed that as being a real possible. That was always a mystery to the investigation. It was that day or two that he went missing from that household. Never gave anyone a reason why he was going.

In fact, I'm not even sure if he told anyone that he was going. I just realized that he'd gone.

So my suspicion was that he traveled back to an area and concealed evidence. I think, yeah, It's only a thought. No proof of that.

Was there an attempt to triangulate Jack's phone to track his location? I think we did that, but it didn't really take us anywhere, especially if you're talking about an area that's got no reception.

If I remember right, there wasn't a great deal of activity on his phone. He wasn't one of those blokes to be ringing people all the time.

Not only was he not one of those blokes to be ringing people all the time, he also didn't answer the phone much, as Garth discovered. But Jack did make one call during this time, one that was very much out of the blue for him. It was during the time when no one knew where Jack was that he did something unexpected. He phoned home. Jack had left his family home in Tasmania in his early 20s and never looked back. He had never returned and very rarely called home. Jack's brother Nigel had not seen Jack since he left Tasmania just after the Christmas of 1992. Nigel had only ever had two phone calls from Jack in the 10 years since. The first call was in 1996 when Jack phoned to let Nigel know he was living in Adelaide with a girl. The second call in April 2002 was inadvertent. Jack called his sister Melissa, and Nigel was staying with Melissa at the time, and he answered the phone. Jack said he wanted to come home for Melissa's birthday, which was the day after his. Jack told Nigel he was in Adelaide and in a bit of trouble, but didn't elaborate.

Nigel didn't ask, but because he had just seen a news story about the unrelated murder of a young woman called Caroline Studdle, who, like Niam, was on a gap year, he said flippantly, You didn't have anything to do with throwing that girl off a bridge in Bunderberg, did you? In trying to piece together Jack's movements during this time, we know the murder of Caroline Studdle was on the 10th of April, 2002, So we extrapolate Jack's call to his brother was either that day or the day after. We also know that during this time, that Jack was not reporting to Denelequine Police Station, so he was in breach of his bail conditions. Meanwhile, back in Denelequine, Garth took the facts from Jack to the police station on Friday, April 12th, and collected the hearse. Garth dropped Jack's clothing and possessions at a friend's house in Cobram and sent Jack a message telling him he could collect his things from there. Garth decided he would drive to Queensland to continue with the picking season, just as he and Jack had originally planned. The following day, Saturday, April 13th, Jack returned to Shepperdon. We don't know how he made the eight-hour drive from Adelaide or if he was with anyone.

In Shepperdon, Jack called Belinda, who agreed to pick him up and drive him to the friend's place in Cobram to collect his gear that Garth had dropped off there. It had now been six days since Jack left without warning, telling no one where he was or what he was up to. When Belinda saw Jack on Saturday, April 13th, he had changed his appearance.

That's when he'd done his hair, and I got a fright also. I thought he might have been running from something then.

When you say he's done his hair, what had he done to it?

I think he'd put bleach in it or maybe blonde, a blonde color or something, but it had turned like a red from his natural black. Yeah, he'd actually done his eyebrows, too, which I laughed at. I thought it was stupid.

Did you question him about it?

Yeah, I said, What did you do that for? And he's like, Just something different. And I said, Yeah, all right. Are you running from something? I used to always say that to him because if he ever had a problem, he'd always run away from it. He could never face it, basically. He used to just run. And he's like, I'll deal with it another time. I used to always tell him that he was always running and he'd never get that far because he can't run away from everything all your life. So, yeah.

Have you known him to bleach his hair or color his hair at any other time during your relationship?

Never.

Jack's behavior at this time is certainly suspicious. Disappearing without word, jumping bail, changing his appearance. Jack stayed with Belinda that night and then asked her to drive him to Myrtleford to meet back up with Garth the following day, Sunday, April 14th. Belinda agreed.

He stayed the with me there. There was no sexual contact at all. He was quite standoffish still. He was actually going through his pot that he had. I don't know how much it was, but he was actually going through it. He started rolling a joint, smoked it, and then basically we fell asleep after talking for a bit about nothing, really. I thought he was rather cold to me. Then in the morning, we He got up pretty much, jumped straight in the car, and I drove him to Myrtleford.

Garth was full of questions when he met back up with the Jack in Myrtleford.

I'm like, Well, what are you doing here? What the fuck's been going on? And he's just saying, pretty much, I don't know, mate. I don't know. I'm spinning out. I don't know. And I think once again, I'm like, What's going on? This girl's missing. You're the last person to see her. Or what happened? And he's like, once again, it's not about that. It's about some other shit I've done or something like that.

What did you notice about Jack that day?

He died his hair. He breached his hair. It just looks stupid. He just looks like he's trying not to look the way he looks. And I think I commented on him about that. He's like, What? This? And he just laughed, I think.

You've known him for seven years. Have you ever known him to bleach his hair before?

No, he hasn't before. But at the time, it didn't surprise me because it did surprise me. Yeah, it did surprise me. I was definitely concerned that he disappeared for one thing and left all my stuff in the car. Yeah, I was worried. I was worried.

You were beginning to bring Niem's disappearance into the picture as well?

Yeah. By this time, I was definitely thinking that. Half of me was thinking, This is not sounding right. The other half was thinking, Don't be stupid. I guess I was suspicious, but at the time, I really didn't want to believe. I didn't want to think that. I had this thing in my head, but at the same time, I was thinking, No, don't think like that. He's supposed to be a friend. You know what I mean?

Naim's family later became aware about Jack's sudden change of appearance.

We do know that at one stage into the investigation, he had turned up back south of the Victorian border where some of them were camped and, I think, picking vegetables. He had changed his hair, he'd changed his clothes, and he looked as if he was disguising himself. Nothing illegal about that, but they were just a bit suspicious.

Jack and Garth headed to Gander in Queensland. A 16-hour drive meant a lot of time alone in the car together. Garth was asked if there was any conversation about Niam during their trip.

There would have been. But see, the reason, there was all this stuff like Jack had died his hair and he'd gone missing and everything. But at the start, all the way through, it was just so natural about talking to the police. He was like, Fuck, we better go talk to the police now. And I'm like, Shit, let's just tell him in Queensland, mate. Holy fuck. But he said, We haven't got anything to hide. Let's go tell them what we know. I want to help out. Kind of thing. And he was just perfectly natural to me about it. And when we're talking to the police about it, he seemed eager to help him out. So I've taken his story like, Shit, Jack's done something not too buddy good. And I thought it was something other than them. And he was spinning out about that. Forensics had gone over the They'd cleared it, they'd given it back. So I pretty much thought I was riding up in the car with Jack. Jack's gone and done something bad. I don't know what it is. I don't fucking want to know what it is. He can pay for half the petrol, go up to Gander.

In Gander, they stayed the night in the caravan park. The next day, after Garth had dropped Jack off at Mundabra Caravan Park, about 30 minutes drive from Gander, they went their separate ways. At the Mandabra Caravan Park, Jack ran into a familiar face from the Batlo Caravan Park. The fruit-picking community, although transient, is also just that, a community. In Mandabra, almost 1400 kilometers north of Batlo, Jack ran into fruit picker Johnny Major, the man whose caravan Niam, Brodie, and Jess stayed in, and the man who helped Kieran when he arrived in Batlo to search for his sister. John was blunt when they spoke.

I actually ran into Jack in Mandabra after the thing, didn't he? I bumped into him just in the earlier campground at the kitchen. He got quite cagey, and then he saw me. So I approached him and said, Oh, you're the last person to see me. From what I could get it. He'd talk to the police and that about it. He just caged up quite badly, swore black and blue that he had dropped her in tumor. Hadn't seen or heard from her since then, but he just got really cagey. Then I brought the subject up.

It is worth noting here that in the short conversation, there was no regret or, Gee, what a tragedy for Niam, just denials.

Well, he just planned up, and then he got quite assertively saying, I don't have anything to do with that. I know nothing. I dropped her in tumor, and that was the last I saw of her. And then I think he might have walked off. It wasn't a very pleasant chat, it wasn't a long chat. He just swore black and blue that he I didn't have anything to do with it, and then ended the conversation. And then I think he left town not long after that.

Not surprisingly, Jack didn't stay in Mundabra for very long before heading further north to another small Queensland town. He got a lift to this new town with his friend Troy, the same friend who had driven him from Cobram to Shepperdon after he took off from Lena's house unexpectedly. By this time, Garth was making arrangements to travel overseas to Indonesia, a trip he had planned before Niam went missing. Jack got back to work fruit picking and hung out with old friends and acquaintances in the fruit picking scene. But those who knew Jack noticed a change. One friend who had known Jack for over five years said, He didn't appear as lively as he usually was and actually seemed a bit depressed and withdrawn. Jack never seemed to pick up and remained quieter and depressed. Another who had known Jack for the best part of a decade said, I noticed a drastic change in Jack's demeanor and appearance. Jack was moody, and his physical appearance changed with his drug abuse. Jack told me that he would use anything he could get his hands on: heroin, speed, cocaine, ecstasy, Anything. He was thin and his face was gaunt.

He was shabbily dressed, lazy, and was drinking more than he normally would. This was in contrast to the Jack that I knew, who was always dressed well, loved working and having money. Jack spent some time in the local caravan park in his new town, and then, after a few weeks, he was invited to move into a house with a woman and her partner. Jack had met the couple years earlier through the fruit picking scene, and they had lived together briefly in previous years in another state. They took pity on him when they saw the rough conditions of the campsite where Jack had been staying and decided to invite him into their home. They considered Jack a straight-up and genuine person. The couple, Michael and Mikaela, struck an agreement with the Jack. The deal was Jack would mow the lawns, do some gardening, and look after the house while Michael was away, as he often was with his work. Jack kept up his end of the deal. He kept the yard neat and tidy, never brought anyone home to the house, didn't cause any trouble at all. But as time went on, things changed. It was early to mid-October 2002 at this point, around six months after Naim's disappearance.

Mikaela noticed some strange behavior.

Jack started doing strange things. I would sleep on a photon in the lounge room. Jack would sit next to me, and the next thing, he would Put his hand up the doona and touch my legs.

He would say he was sorry and wouldn't do it again. Jack's behavior grew worse. When Michael was away for work, Jack walked into Mikaela's bedroom and positioned her for sex. I'd gone to bed. Jack was still living with us.

At some stage during the night, Jack came into our bedroom. He must have been there for a little while, and I felt a hand touched me.

I jumped up and screamed. I screamed and told him to get out. Jack told Mikaela he wanted her and didn't care if Michael found out. Mikaela screamed at him to pack his bags and get out of the house. Jack walked out the front of the house and started crying. He apologized, saying he didn't know what was going on in his head. Jack did pack his bags and went back to the caravan park in town. When Michael found out what happened, he immediately drove to the caravan park and confronted Jack.

I took him on over what happened and called him a cunt and a lot of other things.

I said, You're a prick. You come into my house and get looked after, and then you pull this shit. He just sat there with his head bags and wouldn't get up. I gave him a couple of light hits with my fist about the face, probably under the eyes. I verbally abused him for a while and then left. But that wasn't the last of it. When Michael woke up early the next morning for work, October 17, 2002, he discovered nearly $2,000 cash missing from around his house. From his wallet, Mikaela's bag, and from the wallet of another person staying with them. Michael immediately suspected Jack as the thief. The only question was, did he take the money before he left for the caravan park, or did he return in the middle of the night, perhaps as revenge for Michael punching him? Either way, Michael headed straight for the caravan park, but Jack had gone. He had packed up his campsite and was on the move. According to the other campers, Jack was on his way to Airley Beach. Again, Jack had got a lift from his friend Troy. The two headed towards Eilidh Beach, a coastal town in Queensland.

Jack wanted to make a stop along the way. He asked Troy to stop at a cemetery. Jack explained he wanted to have a smoke, but before long, he took a walk by himself. Without saying a word to Troy, Jack started walking through the cemetery, staring at the headstones. Troy assumed Jack was just having a look around, but what he didn't realize was that Jack was taking pictures of the headstones. The photos Jack took were a photo of tombstones with Troy's car in the background, a photo of the graveyard showing palm trees, a photo of the top of a headstone, which was a statue of an angel standing upright with wings at the back. A photo of a gravestone with a statue of an angel above and a photo of a young girl, and then a second photo of the same grave that shows the name of the young girl, Janice, a name that would reverberate in the days to come. Jack didn't make any comment to Troy when he returned to the car. Before long, they were back on the road headed for early Beach. Troy was later interviewed about this and said he thought Jack's behavior was, quote, definitely different.

Jack and Troy arrived in Airly Beach later that day. It was the 17th of October, and before long, local police responded to an altercation that was taking place in a parking area on the Esplanade. The altercation involved Jack. Michael had managed to track Jack down in Eilidh Beach and confronted him about the stolen money.

So he began to chase him down. I actually caught up with him at Eilidh Beach. I can't remember the exact circumstances, but he must have known what Jack was up to and where he was going. So caught up with him in Eilidh Beach, punched him in there a few times, got some of the money back, but not all of it, and went back to his place, and Jack continued his travels.

Jack was sitting in a car when Michael approached and demanded his money back. He punched him through the open window before Jack threw some money back at him. Jack apologized. Michael might have thrown more punches if he'd known Jack had also stolen a pair of underwear and two tops belonging to Mikaela, but that would come out later. When police from Airley Beach arrived after the event, Jack refused to identify Michael or make a complaint. Police were suspicious about the whole incident and searched Troy's car, but Jack was then free to go. Later that day, Jack walked into an early beach travel agency and booked himself a one-way plane ticket from Brisbane to Darwin that would leave the following night at 08:50 PM. This meant he had just over 24 hours to travel nearly 11 700 kilometers down to Brisbane to catch his flight. We don't know how he got to Brisbane. Jack would later say that he traveled by bus, but there was no record of his name on any bus services. He may have used an alias or hitchhiked. Nevertheless, Jack arrived in Brisbane the next morning at 06:00 AM on the 18th of October 2002, six months after Niam was last seen.

But Jack would never make his flight. Within just a few hours, he would be back in police custody. On the next episode of Missing Nahum.

You did follow her, and she lived in a block of units.

It was a very violent assault.

You then get the two detectives over to interview him, and the smartest guy in the room was Jack.