Casefile True Crime - Case 186: The Bowraville Murders

Episode Date: August 28, 2021

When 16-year-old Colleen Walker suddenly vanished from the New South Wales town of Bowraville in September 1990, her family and friends knew something was terribly wrong. But local police dismissed their concerns, suggesting that the Indigenous teenager had simply “gone walkabout”... --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-186-the-bowraville-murders

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This episode involves a crime against children. It may not be suitable for all listeners. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this episode contains the names of people who have passed away. Nestled in the hinterland of mid-north New South Wales is the town of Bowerville, which sits about 20 kilometres inland from the coast.

The fertile lands in the surrounding area led to a booming agricultural industry over the years, with farmers raising cattle and growing produce such as bananas, macadamia nuts, and avocados. Bowerville itself was constructed around the timber industry, but the area's natural beauty is equally notable, characterised by rugged bushland. Life around Bowerville has often been described as sleepy,

with locals more or less keeping to themselves, but eventually city dwellers started moving to the area in search of a tree change. It was easy to see what drew them there. Driving through Bowerville's town centre, it looks like something out of a picture book. Quaint heritage buildings lined the main street, ranging from an art deco-era movie theatre

to Victorian-era pubs. In 1990, the town's population numbered around 1,500, but there were really two Bowervilles. The town was home to about 150 indigenous residents, who all too often experienced racism. Most of them lived around an area known as The Mish. Sprawling along a street then called Cemetery Road, now renamed Gumbagya Road,

The Mish was a row of houses on the outskirts of town, away from the gentile-looking buildings that were so attractive to tourists. Its name came from the unofficial Aboriginal mission that had been there between the 1880s and the 1950s. During Australia's civil rights movement in the 1960s, activist Charles Perkins led a freedom bus ride through Bowerville to protest discrimination against Australia's First Nations peoples.

Back then, Bowerville's indigenous residents were barred from the cinema, the RSL, the local school, and even the hospital. By 1990, the segregation wasn't this extreme, yet there was still one pub for white people and another for indigenous people. Those who lived in the community at the time have described the racism as palpable.

But long before Bowerville was ever known as Bowerville, the area was home to the Gumbagya people. They are the traditional custodians of lands sprawling across more than 6,000 square kilometres and have their own distinct language, traditions, and stories. One of their stories has been passed down from elders to children as a cautionary tale. It involves a goomba, an evil spirit that prowls along the banks of a river

looking for children to steal. The goomba is a shapeshifter so he can disguise himself amongst others. This way, he doesn't look suspicious and can prey on his victims when they least expect it, or he'll sit up in a tree looking down and plotting his attack. It's said that he most often waits until night time to strike, leading parents to warn their children that they must always be quiet after dark.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Muriel Craig heard a gentle knocking at the window as she bustled around her kitchen, cleaning the mess left over from that evening's meal. It was around nine o'clock and completely dark out. Muriel looked up. It sounded like someone was wrapping up and he heard a gentle knocking at the window

as she bustled around her kitchen, It sounded like someone was wrapping on the window from outside, but she couldn't see anybody standing there. The experience was almost unsettling until Muriel realized the source of the noise. Crouching out of sight outside was her ten-year-old daughter, Colleen. The little girl was tapping against the glass, trying to scare her mother into thinking there was a ghost outside.

The mischievous Colleen had a reputation for being a practical joker. She particularly liked playing tricks on her mum, much to Muriel's amusement. As she got older, Colleen kept her sense of humour while also growing up into a responsible young woman. She helped look after her younger siblings, in particular her brother, who was in a wheelchair and had special needs. Colleen hoped to become a preschool teacher one day,

a profession that her friends and family thought would perfectly suit her caring and playful nature. More than six years after Colleen first played a prank on her mother by tapping on a window, Muriel was once again in the kitchen when she suddenly heard a familiar sound. Tap, tap, tap. This time, the noise upset her.

Muriel entered the lounge where her children had gathered and told them off for the practical joke, explaining that they mustn't tap on the window because it was something that Colleen used to do. Muriel's other children insisted that none of them had been outside. They had all been in the lounge the entire time. Their faces were serious and Muriel believed them. Yet, it couldn't have been Colleen either.

Colleen, who was now 16 years old, had recently disappeared. Her distraught family had searched tirelessly for her to no avail. As it was clear no one else was responsible for the tapping, Muriel felt certain of one thing. It was her daughter's spirit reaching out, letting her know she was there. Colleen Craig had been excited as she packed her bags in preparation for a holiday.

The teenager was eager to start exploring the world and embrace life as a young adult. She lived with her mother and siblings in the New South Wales town of Sortel, but recently she'd taken a couple of trips to visit family in Bowerville, almost 58km away. Now she was going one step further by travelling with friends. Colleen and three other girls planned to leave Bowerville

on the night of September 13, 1990 to catch a 3am train to Sydney. They were headed for the town of Goduga near the Queensland border. It was a long journey with a late start. After she finished packing, Colleen headed over to a party at the Mish, where most of Bowerville's indigenous residents lived. Across the road was a small park where a campfire had been set up for the party. Attendees mingled around the fire and over the road, in the home of a local resident named Marjorie Jarrett.

They also spilled out into a laneway that sat alongside Marjorie's house. Colleen was spotted numerous times throughout the afternoon and evening. Sometimes she sat inside the lounge room and chatted with friends. Other times she was seen with a group gathered beneath a large gum tree in the park opposite. They were drinking beer and Colleen appeared somewhat intoxicated. At around midnight, Colleen was spotted walking down the alleyway alongside Marjorie's house. Hours later, Colleen's three travel companions were preparing to leave for the train station. Marjorie Jarrett had offered to drive the group and searched for Colleen in and around the party with no success.

In the end, Colleen's friends left for their holiday without her. The 3am train to Sydney departed without Colleen on board. As soon as word reached Muriel Craig that her daughter hadn't gone on her trip as planned and hadn't been seen since the party, she knew that something was terribly wrong. Muriel travelled from her home in Sautel to Barreville so she could report Colleen missing. All of the officers at Barreville police station were white. The two who Muriel reported to were dubious when she showed them a picture of Colleen. Noting that the teenage girl had lighter skin than her mother, the officers remarked,

she don't look aboriginal to us and asked if she was really Muriel's daughter. Then they suggested that perhaps Colleen had simply, quote, gone walkabout. In Australia's indigenous cultures, walkabout is a rite of passage in which adolescent males live alone in the wilderness for a period of time. The term has become twisted and misused by non-indigenous people who see aboriginal people as living transient nomadic lifestyles. Some used the word walkabout in a derogatory sense to imply an indigenous person has just taken off on a whim without warning. Muriel was devastated by the policemen's comments and retorted. I wouldn't be silly enough to come in here and report her missing. I am not that stupid. But the officers remained disinterested and unwilling to take a report, remarking that Colleen would probably turn up soon enough.

Muriel handed over her photograph of Colleen for their reference, then left the station. With no help from law enforcement, Colleen's family took on the responsibility of finding her. Muriel moved her other children down to Barreville so she could keep searching for Colleen while keeping everyone together. With the help of some relatives, Muriel searched the surrounding areas and spoke to everyone they could find who had been at the party. The police never made any attempt to contact her. Exactly three weeks after Colleen vanished, another party was in full swing at the Mish. This time, the get-together was at Patricia Stadham's house, three doors down from where the previous party had been held. Patricia's daughter Rebecca, who was in her early 20s and lived there too, took her young children over to her ex-partner's house so he could mind them while she was at the party.

Rebecca and Billy Greenup had a four-year-old daughter named Evelyn, as well as two younger boys Aidan and Aaron. Rebecca was dismayed to discover that Billy was too drunk to look after their young children, so she took them back to her mother's house. After socializing with the party guests, Rebecca decided to go to bed. She slept in the same room as her three children, with four-year-old Evelyn nestled beside her. Rebecca fell asleep fully dressed and didn't wake at all during the night, which was unusual. As soon as she opened her eyes the following morning, Rebecca felt extremely sick in an unfamiliar way. She sat up. Her two sons, Aidan and Aaron, were awake and quietly playing together, but there was no sign of Evelyn. Evelyn and Aaron were very close and rarely left each other's sides, so her absence struck Rebecca as particularly strange.

She asked her boys if they knew where their sister was, but they just looked back at her, wide-eyed and silent. Wondering if Evelyn had wandered off to visit her father, who lived just a few doors down the street, Rebecca first checked at Billy Greenup's house. Evelyn wasn't there, nor was she at any other house in the Mish. Rebecca expanded her search to the centre of Barreville. No one she spoke to had seen Evelyn since the previous night, before the little girl had gone to bed alongside her mother and siblings. Rebecca's panic grew. By mid-morning she was back at home, scouring the surroundings for any sign of her daughter. Suddenly she found something. Lying in the front yard was a single pink sand shoe. It belonged to Evelyn. As word spread about the missing child, an incident that had occurred the previous night took on a sinister new tone. Rebecca's mother Patricia recalled that she'd been woken at around 3am by the sound of Evelyn crying.

She got up to check on her, walking down the hall to the room where Evelyn, Rebecca and the two boys were sleeping. The door was closed so Patricia went to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Then she heard a thud, almost like a window being shut, and Evelyn stopped crying. Assuming the little girl had gone back to sleep, Patricia returned to her own room. By evening, Rebecca and her sister Michelle had arrived at the Barreville police station to report Evelyn missing. There was just one officer on duty. Michelle explained the situation and handed the officer a photo. It showed Evelyn with her blue eyes and mop of light brown ringlets, which many people had compared to the hair of famous child actress Shirley Temple. The officer replied,

What do you want me to do? I'm the only one here and I'm just about to go home. Stunned, Michelle repeated that she wanted to report Evelyn missing, explaining that she was just four years old. But the officer wouldn't budge, and it took several more days before Evelyn's family successfully filed a missing persons report. Just as they'd done when Colleen went missing, the police suggested that Evelyn might have, quote, gone walkabout. Yet, they also questioned her indigenous heritage by pointing out her fair skin and blue eyes. Despite taking statements, the police didn't send anybody out to look for Evelyn, and initially her family were left to search for her alone. They called everyone they knew, plastered the town with flyers, and searched high and low through bushland. As so many people had been drinking and partying on the night Evelyn disappeared, it was difficult to piece together what exactly had gone on that night.

Nevertheless, they knew that she hadn't simply wandered off somewhere. Evelyn was a shy child, who stayed close to her family and was scared of strangers. Three days after Evelyn vanished, the police finally began searching for her, along with volunteers from the local state emergency services. They looked in the nearby Nambucco River and the scrubby bushland that surrounded Bowerville. There was no sign of her. When investigators finally started interviewing people in relation to the case, it was clear that their suspicions fell exclusively on those closest to Evelyn. Her grandmother, Patricia, was interrogated about money that had been transferred into her bank account, with police implying that she and Rebecca had sold Evelyn. In reality, the payments Patricia had received were from her War Widow's pension.

It was also evident that the police had no understanding of indigenous family dynamics, which are more community focused. Because Rebecca had been drinking on the night Evelyn vanished, they assumed her children weren't being looked after. In reality, a wider circle of aunts would always help young parents care for their children. Some news outlets began to pick up the story of the missing four-year-old. When speaking to journalists, the Bowerville police sergeant was adamant. There was absolutely no connection between Evelyn Greenup and the recent disappearance of 16-year-old Colleen Craig. By December of 1990, summer had arrived and brought with it a new resident. Clinton's speedy duro was a 16-year-old boy who had moved from Queensland to Bowerville to live with his father, Thomas Duro.

A sharp dresser who loved footy and had a kind, happy-go-lucky personality, it didn't take long for Clinton to make friends. In particular, he became close to Kelly Jarrett, a teenage girl who had been good friends with Colleen Craig. Clinton and Kelly soon became an item and were rarely seen out of each other's company. On the night of January 31, 1991, the young couple attended a party that was being held around the corner from the Mish, in a public housing flat situated on Herbourne Drive. Rather than go to their respective homes when they were ready to leave, Clinton and Kelly decided to sleep in the yellow Viscount Caravan of a friend. Clinton took off his shoes and the couple watched music videos for a little while, before falling asleep on the same double bed sometime after 3am. Kelly slept soundly. When she woke up, it was 8.40 in the morning.

There was no sign of Clinton. Perhaps he'd woken up earlier and already gone home. But then Kelly saw something on the floor of the van, Clinton's Reebok sneakers. Clinton always took pride in his outfits and paid particular attention to his shoes. He never went anywhere barefoot. His father had given him the Reeboks as a Christmas present and Clinton loved them. In his family, it was a source of amusement that he wore them at all times. If Clinton had left already, it made no sense that he'd leave his Reeboks behind. Kelly picked up her boyfriend's shoes and exited the caravan, heading for Clinton's father's house.

Thomas Duro was surprised when he opened his front door to see his son's girlfriend holding Clinton's Reeboks out in front of her. Clinton wasn't at home and the sight of the shoes he was never seen without was immediately alarming. Thomas phoned the police to see if they could do anything to help find Clinton, but they said they couldn't get involved until he'd been missing for at least 24 hours. So, Thomas set out by himself to search for his son. As he did an owner car, he instead walked all over town. First he went to the flats where the party was held the night before, then he visited the caravan where Clinton had spent the night. There was no sign of him anywhere. Thomas checked the town's pubs and other social areas, but nobody he spoke to had seen Clinton since the party.

As the teenager had only just moved to Bowerville, he didn't know many of its residents and there was nowhere obvious he would have visited. Eventually, Thomas decided that all he could do was go home in the hope that Clinton would turn up. He waited and waited, but Clinton never arrived. When the 24 hour time limit had passed, Thomas tried calling the police again to report his son missing. They were in no hurry to respond, waiting another full day before they paid Thomas a visit at home. As Clinton was 16 years old and strongly built, they suspected he'd simply taken off by himself. His family tried to explain to them the significance of Clinton's shoes being left behind, but the officers couldn't understand how this indicated foul play. All they said was, we'll keep an eye out for him.

Clinton's aunt began making calls, phoning both the local police and law enforcement in the nearby larger city of Coffs Harbour, begging for assistance. Most of her messages went unanswered, but eventually a liaison officer was sent down from Coffs Harbour to help Clinton's family search the town's streets and surrounding areas. Nothing turned up. Just like Colleen Craig and Evelyn Greenup, Clinton's speedy duro had seemingly vanished from Bowerville. Fear spread through the local Indigenous community. Although the police didn't seem to think the three disappearances were linked, the children's friends and family were certain they were. It was a common thread tying the cases together. Over the course of just five months, all of the children had vanished after attending or being in the vicinity of a party at the Mish.

They were sure that Colleen, Evelyn and Clinton had been attacked and weren't merely missing persons. When the documentary Innocence Betrayed, Colleen's aunt Elaine Walker told filmmaker Larissa Burrant that residents around the mission changed their behaviour in response to the disappearances. Many mothers started sleeping in the same room as all of their children, so they could keep an eye on them throughout the night. Where residents had once felt safe, they started locking their doors and windows at all times. When children wanted to go into town, their parents would go with them and they'd walk close together in a tight group. A week after Clinton's disappearance, the community's grief and frustration led to a group of Indigenous residents and several white townsfolk marching on Bowerville's police station in protest. They demanded that action be taken and their children's cases be taken seriously. Behind the scenes, Bowerville police had called in colleagues from the child mistreatment unit in Coffs Harbour.

Though they'd initially suggested that the missing trio had just quote, gone walkabout, they were starting to suspect that the families themselves and the Indigenous community more broadly were involved. On February 18, almost three weeks since Clinton's speedy duro had disappeared, two men were hiking through some rugged bushland just outside Bowerville. They were looking for firewood in a rough and tangled area that ran alongside Congarene Road, a dirt road that headed south out of town. As they searched for logs amongst the leafletters scattered across the ground, the two men saw something. It was the badly decomposed remains of Clinton's speedy duro. Clinton was barefoot but still dressed in the clothing he'd been wearing on the night he vanished. He had been dragged through the bushland and the animals had scavenged his body. Lying nearby was a blanket which it seemed he had previously been wrapped in.

The area where he had been dumped was also close to a crop of cannabis. An autopsy revealed that Clinton had died from a severe blow to the head. His jaw had been broken and he'd also been stabbed multiple times. Now investigators had to accept that the young man had met with foul play. Two months later on April 17, a man was fishing in the Nambucca River by the southern end of Congarene Road and just down a slight slope from where Clinton had been found. When something snagged his fishing line, he reeled it in. On the end was a pair of jeans and a belt, heavy and soaking wet as they hung off the line. These items were identified as belonging to Colleen Craig.

She had been wearing them on the last night anyone had seen her. Police divers subsequently searched the river. By April 20, they had found four plastic bags that had been weighed down in the river. These contained more of Colleen's clothing, including a cable knit jumper she was last seen in. But there was no sign of Colleen herself. A week later on April 27, the police received a phone call from some concerned locals. They had noticed an unpleasant odour in the bushland alongside Congarene Road and were worried given the recent discoveries in the area. The location was three kilometres away from where Clinton's speedy duro was found.

When searches went out there, they discovered the skeletal remains of a small child. It was Evelyn Greenup. A pink sand shoe was recovered near her body, a match to the other shoe her mother had found in the front yard of her home after Evelyn disappeared. Markson Evelyn's skull confirmed that she too had been killed by a heavy blow to the head. The discovery of Clinton and Evelyn's bodies and the clothing belonging to Colleen left Bowerville reeling. The indigenous community in particular was certain that all three of them had fallen prey to a serial killer. There were too many similarities to ignore from the circumstances of their disappearances right down to where their remains and belongings were found. And both Evelyn and Clinton had been killed by fatal blows to the head.

A homicide investigation was launched with Detective Sergeant Alan Williams at the helm. The detective had no prior homicide experience but was to be assisted by local investigators and other detectives from the North Region Major Crime Squad. Some of the town's white residents queried the amount of resources the investigation was being given with one person remarking to a journalist from the age newspaper. I wonder whether three missing white children would get the same attention. Although Detective Williams had no experience investigating murders, Clinton's remains contained a pivotal clue. A pillowcase that had been pushed down into his shorts. 25-year-old J. Thomas Hart worked at a tanning factory and was reasonably tall at six feet with a stocky but strong 105 kilogram build. Hart wasn't indigenous but he was known to hang out at the Mish and supplied alcohol and cannabis known to locals as Yanni to the young people who lived there.

Some members of the indigenous community viewed him with suspicion. It seemed to them that Hart showed too much interest in young women and girls. On the night that Clinton's speedy duro had disappeared, he and his girlfriend Kelly had gone to a local party. J. Hart had also been in attendance and made two trips into town to buy beer for the other party-goers. Sometime after midnight, Hart began trying to convince Kelly to come back to the caravan where he lived, which was parked at his mother's home close by. Kelly refused to leave the party without Clinton, so Hart suggested they both join him. The teenagers agreed and left the party with Hart at around 3am. They watched music videos for a little while before going to sleep.

Hart said they could share his double bed and that he would sleep on a fold-out dining table. There was something about Hart that made Kelly uncomfortable and she asked Clinton not to leave her alone with him. She slept deeply that night and woke up alone in the double bed. To Kelly's confusion, she was no longer wearing her shorts or underwear, though she was certain she'd been wearing them when she went to bed. Kelly found her discarded garments on the floor and pulled them back on. Then she picked up Clinton's re-box, which were also on the floor, and went to his father's house to explain that she couldn't find him. When Thomas Duro went out looking for his son that day, he bumped into J. Hart in town. When Thomas asked if he knew where Clinton was, Hart replied that he had gone back home.

But Clinton was never seen alive again. Hart had been identified as a person of interest within days of Clinton's disappearance and police had interviewed him on February 4. A little while after that, officers informed Hart that they would be seizing his caravan to search for forensic evidence, but also out of fear that the town's indigenous residents might, quote, trash it. They agreed that he could remove some personal belongings before they took possession of the vehicle and to ask what he wanted. Hart replied, just me waits. The officers let Hart retrieve the barbells and take them away. Forensic detective Rob Wellings wouldn't learn that the suspect had been allowed to remove some of his possessions until sometime afterwards.

The small caravan was dirty and in disarray, with Detective Wellings later telling journalists to den box of the Australian that it was more like a squat than a proper home. Though it was searched at the time, a proper forensic examination wasn't completed. A few days later, Clinton's remains were found. Detective Wellings was called out to the scene and as he examined Clinton's body, he noticed a piece of fabric shoved down the front of his shorts. Detective Wellings carefully removed the fabric and on closer inspection, he saw that it looked very familiar. It looked like an exact match to a set of pillowcases he'd seen in Jay Hart's caravan when he'd examined it a few days earlier. Detective Wellings immediately notified his colleagues of the disturbing discovery and investigators interviewed Hart again. He adamantly denied having anything to do with Clinton's murder.

Hart acknowledged that he'd invited Clinton and Kelly back to his caravan and had a few drinks with Kelly while Clinton lay on the double bed. Then, Hart set his alarm for between 5.15 and 5.30 so he could get up in time for his six o'clock shift at the tanning factory before falling asleep drunk. When the alarm went off, Hart was so hungover that he automatically hit the snooze button and dozed off again. But he slept so lightly that he could still hear someone else in the caravan get up and leave. At around 5.45, Hart woke and prepared for work. Although he had already organised for a colleague to give him a lift that day, Hart thought he'd missed him due to oversleeping, so he went into his mother's house and asked to borrow the keys to her orange-red galant. Then, he headed off to work by himself.

Hart's colleague confirmed that he had arrived to pick up Hart just before 6am. When he peaked inside the van, he saw Kelly's feet sticking out of the bed but no sign of Hart or Clinton. The colleague decided to go to work without Hart. As he prepared to leave, he spotted Hart pull up to the property in his mother's car. According to Hart, he'd seen his colleague arrive when he glanced in his rearview mirror. He'd told his colleague to go to work without him, as he'd decided he needed a cup of tea to treat his hangover before starting his shift. About 20 minutes later, Hart turned up at work. He stayed there for a couple of hours before going back home to return his mother's car.

While he was back at the property, his voice woke Kelly, who was still sleeping in the caravan. Investigators weren't buying Hart's story. It was refuted by other witnesses. As well as the colleague who had seen him heading towards the property instead of away from it, multiple people had seen indicators that Hart was up when he said he was asleep. His mother's boyfriend had noticed a light on in Hart's caravan at around 4.30am, just before leaving for his own job. A neighbour saw Hart's mother's car drive away from the property about 20 minutes later, an hour before Hart said he'd borrowed it. His mother Marlene had previously told the police she kept her keys in a handbag at the end of her bed, leading them to theorise that Hart had crept into her room and taken them while she was sleeping.

Marlene had also said that Hart used blankets similar to the one found near Clinton's body. This time, Jay Hart wasn't allowed to leave his police interview as a free man. He was charged with murder. When Colleen's clothing and Evelyn's remains were found in the same area as Clinton's body in the weeks that followed, some began wondering whether Jay Hart would be charged with their murders as well. For months, residents on the Mish had been murmuring his name in relation to the two missing girls. Years earlier, Jay Hart had been in a relationship with Colleen's aunt, Alison. The couple had a son together, but Hart was verbally and physically abusive towards Alison, so she left for Queensland, taking their son with her.

Colleen Craig, who was nine years younger than Hart, was familiar with him due to his relationship with Alison. When Colleen visited Bowerville in July 1990, Hart stopped by the Mish and spent some time talking to her and her friend Patricia. He invited the two girls to his caravan to watch music videos and stay over. He also invited another male friend. Colleen and Patricia agreed when Hart said they could share his double bed and he would sleep alone. But when the girls woke the next morning, Hart was in bed with them, sleeping soundly. Colleen told Patricia that she'd been woken during the night by Hart climbing into the bed and trying to have sex with her. She added,

He mauled me all night. He touched down below and up the top as well. This morning, I had to pull my pants up when I woke. He'd got them down during the night. Though Colleen had been exhausted, she'd managed to fight Hart off. Patricia had slept more heavily than Colleen, but she recalled that earlier in the night, she had overheard Hart ask their male friend, Do you want to have sex with the girls? Their friend had replied, No, leave them alone. After this incident, Colleen was wary of the older man. She went back home to Sortel, then returned to Baraville a few months later in September.

On the night of September 13, she attended a party at the Mish, hours before she was planning to board a 3am train to Sydney. Jay Hart was at the party as well. Colleen's friends noticed how much attention he was paying her, constantly asking her to stay another night in his caravan. Colleen complained about Hart's behaviour, telling others he was harassing and pestering her. She was last seen walking down the alleyway that boarded the house where the party was taking place. Hart was also spotted at the same time, following her along the other side of the house. Some of the circumstances around the disappearance of 4-year-old Evelyn Greenup were chillingly familiar. Like Colleen, Evelyn's mother Rebecca had found herself receiving a lot of attention from Jay Hart.

He had attended the party at their family home on the night Evelyn vanished. After the party was over and Rebecca had gone to bed with her three children, Hart stayed on, loitering in the house. Rebecca's mother Patricia had asked Hart to leave, then went to change into her pyjamas. When she left her room, she saw no sign of Hart and assumed he'd gone home. Several hours later, Patricia was woken by a sharp cry from Evelyn. She got up to check on her granddaughter, but couldn't get into the room where she was sleeping. Patricia heard a heavy thud, then all went silent. At the time, she didn't suspect anything untoward had happened.

The next morning, Rebecca woke from an uncharacteristically heavy sleep. Glancing down, she saw that the jeans she was wearing were unbuttoned and down around her knees. Her underwear was also pulled to one side. Rebecca had no recollection of undressing herself. Clinton's girlfriend Kelly Jarrett had reported a similar experience on the night her boyfriend disappeared while staying at Hart's caravan. And Colleen had told a friend that Hart pulled her pants off while she was sleeping. There was another crucial detail. Another woman had stayed at Patricia's house after the party and was preparing a bottle for her baby just after Patricia went to check on Evelyn.

Moments after Patricia went back to bed, the woman saw Jay Hart leave the room where Rebecca and her children were sleeping. He hurried down the hallway towards the front door. Wondering why he was leaving in such a rush, the woman followed him. But by the time she reached the front door and looked outside, he was nowhere to be seen. A forensic examination of Hart's caravan had revealed a tiny speck of human blood on his bed. But experts weren't able to determine any more information than that. The sample was so small that it was destroyed during the forensic process. Although investigators had an abundance of circumstantial evidence linking Hart to all three disappearances, there was little in the way of physical evidence.

And when it came to Colleen Craig's case, the fact that they hadn't found her body would make securing a conviction difficult. Almost six months after Evelyn Greenup's remains were found, Hart was charged with her murder on October 16, 1991. The director of public prosecutions was hopeful that Clinton and Evelyn's cases could be prosecuted in a single trial, allowing evidence from each case to be presented side by side. But Jay Hart's legal team sought to have the two separated, arguing that their client would be unfairly prejudiced by a joint trial. Ultimately, the judge ruled in the defense's favor, ordering that Hart be trialed separately for each count. Moreover, prosecutors wouldn't be allowed to present evidence from the other cases at trial. Clinton's case had the strongest evidence and would run first.

Prosecutors were barred from mentioning the murder of Evelyn or the disappearance and suspected murder of Colleen. In early 1994, the trial for Clinton's speedy duro's murder began. Although the prosecution was somewhat limited in what they could present, Clinton's family were confident that Hart would be convicted. The prosecution was arguing that Hart had spiked Kelly's drink and attempted to rape her. He killed Clinton after the teenager woke, saw the attack, and tried to stop him. Then, he stole his mother's car keys from her handbag at around 4.45am after her boyfriend left for work and placed Clinton's body in the vehicle. He drove to Congarene Road to dump Clinton's body in the bush. A neighbor had seen Marlene Hart's car leave the property at around this time and Hart's colleague saw it return more than an hour later.

Kelly Jarrett was able to give first-hand testimony that her boyfriend had gone to sleep in Hart's caravan but had vanished without his shoes by the time she woke to find her clothing removed. But the defense undermined Kelly's evidence by focusing on the fact that she had been drinking on the night in question. Other Indigenous witnesses who were called to share their recollections of Hart being at the party were similarly scrutinised. The defense also called two people who claimed to have seen Clinton alive and well the morning after it was alleged he'd been killed. Jay Hart testified in his own defense, telling the court how he had heard Clinton leave the caravan when he was half asleep. A little while later, at around 5.45am, he'd borrowed his mother's car keys and left for work. Although Hart's mother originally told police she kept her keys in a handbag at the end of her bed, she told the court that she slept with them under her pillow. Early that morning, she was woken by her son coming into her room and asking if he could borrow her car.

Marlene said when she glanced at the clock, she saw it was 5.50am. She also denied ever saying that Hart used blankets like the one found near Clinton's body and claimed the police had incorrectly inserted that into their records. The trial concluded on February 18, three years to the day after Clinton's body was found. Clinton's family and friends sat in silence as they waited for the jury's verdict to be read aloud. The jury, who had no idea that others had been murdered, let alone that Jay Hart was suspected of killing them, found Hart not guilty. Shock washed over Clinton's family and friends as they realised that Hart had been acquitted. Clinton's grandmother fainted. As they left the courtroom in a daze, members of the media descended with cameras and microphones, clamouring for a response to the verdict.

When the family was ushered into another room so they could have some privacy, photographers and camera crews climbed up to the windows trying to get footage of them. Clinton's 16-year-old brother Troy was so traumatised by these events that he later had no recollection of them. Jay Hart's acquittal through the prosecution. Of the two counts that they had charged Hart with, they'd thought Clinton's was the strongest. Now that a jury had found in his favour, they didn't think they had a chance of successfully prosecuting him at another trial, especially since they couldn't introduce any evidence used at the previous one. Ultimately, the director of public prosecutions decided to drop the second charge. Jay Hart would not have to answer for his alleged involvement in the murder of Evelyn Greenup. The victims' families and their community were devastated.

The grief they had endured ever since the three children disappeared intensified as they grappled with the feeling that the legal system had failed them. When they first lost their children, no one had cared. Now, more than three years later, it seemed they were still all alone in their quest for justice. Unwilling to give up, they continued to fight for Colleen Evelyn and Clinton. Over the next few years, demonstrations were held regularly in Bowerville as a way for residents to express their anger and frustration. In response to their grievances, the Commissioner of New South Wales Police met with the community and eventually agreed to reinvestigate the three murders. In January 1997, a new strike force was established. Experienced investigators and analysts from Homicide, Major Crime and North Region Local Area Commands would take over the case, led by Detective Gary Jubalon.

A renowned homicide detective, Gary Jubalon was known for his dedication to solving crimes and the strong rapport he built with victims' families. When he began working on the Bowerville murders, Detective Jubalon couldn't believe that a case involving two teens and one child, who all lived on the same street and had gone missing from the same area within a five-month period, hadn't been treated more seriously. The fact that the prime suspect had been allowed to remove possible evidence from his caravan was also alarming. Hart had subsequently thrown away the barbells that he retrieved from the van, and they were never found. Forensic experts suspected that they could have been used to deal the fatal blow to Clinton's head. As well as reexamining evidence relating to the case and chasing down new and previous witnesses alike, Detective Jubalon and his team placed a strong emphasis on strengthening ties with the Indigenous community. Realising the family's trust in law enforcement was at an all-time low, the detectives undertook training in cultural sensitivity and awareness. Individual investigators worked diligently to connect with the town's folk.

Gradually, they were able to form more positive relationships with the victim's families and Bowerville's Indigenous residents. Investigators were soon making new discoveries about the case. One particularly interesting piece of information related to an incident that occurred after Colleen's disappearance, but prior to Evelyn's. There was a residence on the mission nicknamed the Women's House, as only women lived there. Not long after Colleen vanished from a party nearby, one of the home's occupants woke up one night with a start. It was about 2am and she sensed something was wrong. Looking up, the woman saw the figure of a man standing in her room. There was something about his stance that looked threatening.

Though she was initially frozen with fear, the woman sat up. Her sudden movement prompted the man to flee. She had never told the original case investigators about this unsettling incident. When members of the strike force asked her why not, she replied, I'm a black lady, what's the point of telling the white coppers? As far as Gary Jubiland was concerned, her story was consistent with the theory that investigators were leaning towards. Colleen, Evelyn and Clinton had disappeared as part of a string of sexually motivated attacks targeting indigenous women living on the mission. Evelyn's mother Rebecca and Clinton's girlfriend Kelly had both woken up from strangely deep sleeps to find their pants removed and their loved ones missing.

Colleen Craig had once complained of Jay Hart mauling her and pulling off her clothing during the night. Her friend Patricia, who had been with her that night, said they'd both felt groggy and she had slept deeply. Some people who attended parties on the mission said Jay Hart regularly supplied alcohol and was known for spiking people's drinks. He also seemed to show a predatory interest in indigenous women. In early 1998, the strike force passed along their submissions to the director of public prosecutions. They were recommending that new charges be brought against Jay Hart for the murder of Evelyn Greenup. It took 18 months for the DPP to respond. Ultimately, they decided against pressing charges, citing a lack of evidence.

Dissatisfied with this, the family's community and members of the strike force kept petitioning for action to be taken. It took six more years, but a coronial inquest was finally granted in February 2004. The inquest would focus on the disappearance of Colleen and the murder of Evelyn. Unlike the previous trial, the coroner would be able to examine all of the available evidence. Seven months later, the coroner handed down his findings. Despite the DPP's previous decision that there wasn't enough evidence to press charges, he stated that there was a reasonable prospect a jury could convict a known individual of Evelyn's murder. Even though Colleen Craig's body had never been discovered, the coroner found that she had died as a result of homicide.

The consistencies between the three cases led him to believe that they must be linked and were the act of a single individual. He added that there was a definite suspicion on the only person of interest. The coroner would be urging the director of public prosecutions to try Jay Hart again. The DPP did as requested, and a Jay Hart was once again charged with Evelyn Greenup's murder. The trial began on February 6, 2006. As Hart had already been acquitted of Clinton's murder, none of the evidence from that case was admissible. And once again, the trial judge ruled that some evidence from Colleen's case would have to be excluded, as it could prejudice the jury. But the prosecution would be allowed to mention how multiple women Hart showed an interest in had awoken to find their pants and underwear removed, including Evelyn's mother, Rebecca.

The prosecution's theory was that Hart had been in the process of assaulting a sleeping Rebecca when Evelyn woke and began to cry. Out of rage and a desire to silence the little girl, Hart had picked her up and thrown her at a wall, before carrying her limp body away and dumping her in bushland. New witnesses also testified that Hart had made disturbing comments to them during altercations. An indigenous couple from the Mish said that in April 1990, Hart had threatened to strangle them, then dump their bodies near the Yarny Plants on Congerini Road. Yarny was an indigenous word for cannabis, and there had been a cannabis crop near the areas where Clinton and Evelyn were found. Another man testified that Hart had told him he had bodies buried in some Yarny crops, and a prison inmate said that while Hart was awaiting trial, he had admitted to killing Evelyn by slamming her head against a wall. But, due to the restrictions placed on them, the prosecution wasn't able to detail much of the evidence uncovered by Gary Jubiland's strike force. The defense team undermined the prosecution's witnesses by claiming one was, quote, a drunk, and that the prisoner who testified was previously convicted of perjury.

Just as they had done during Clinton's trial, they described how numerous people said they had seen Evelyn the morning after she went missing. A Barreville shopkeeper said the little girl had come into her store at 7am that day. Witnesses from the victim's families were already confused by the restrictions placed on them in terms of what they could or couldn't say. The fact that 15 years had passed made it even easier for the defense to cast doubt upon their recollections. At times, Evelyn's relatives felt as though they were the ones on trial. Her mother Rebecca was grilled about her drinking habits and sexual partners. She couldn't fathom why there seemed to be more focus on her than the man charged with killing Evelyn. This time, Hart didn't take the stand.

On March 3, one month after the trial began, the jury delivered their verdict. Not guilty. Jay Hart had been acquitted once again. Evelyn's family were devastated, as was their broader community and the relatives of the other victims. Now that Jay Hart had twice been found not guilty, the victim's families felt they had little chance of ever receiving justice. Double jeopardy laws in New South Wales meant that an individual couldn't be prosecuted again for a crime they had already been acquitted of. But this changed in December 2006. Due in part to campaigning by the families, the New South Wales Parliament made an amendment to the State's Crimes Appeal and Review Act.

Now, someone who had been acquitted could be retrialed if fresh and compelling evidence was found. The strike force got back to work and began investigating again. They established that witness sightings of Clinton and Evelyn the morning after they went missing were not correct, and that people had either confused their dates, been mistaken, or were misremembering things. As part of their re-investigation, the strike force also uncovered a crucial piece of information that had been completely ignored until now. At around 5am on the morning of February 1, 1991, delivery drivers Greg Innes and Michael Scaffidi were driving towards Bowerville. They had a load of meat to drop off at the town butcher, and the road stretched out in front of them, dim in the pre-dawn hours. The bright headlights of their truck cast a strong light across their path, while their surroundings faded into darkness. Travelling at a speed of about 80km per hour, the men swung left as they came to a corner on that side, a stretch of road known locally as Norco Corner.

It was then that their truck's high beams illuminated something. A young indigenous man was lying on the road. He had the smooth and youthful face of a teenager, and had a shirt tied around his waist. There were no shoes on his feet. One hand was stretched above his head, which was turned to one side, and he was completely still. As Michael later told the Sydney Morning Herald, it looked like he was either asleep, drunk, or dead. Watch out, there's some guy on the road, he warned Greg. The two men pulled over and parked the truck, then peered out of the window at the person sprawled across the road.

They saw there was also a stocky white man at the scene, and he was standing over the boy as though to help him. Leaning across from the passenger seat, Michael asked, Mate, what's going on? We could have hit that guy, he's lying in the middle of the road. The white man reassured Michael and Greg that everything was fine. The indigenous boy was just asleep, and he'd called the police to pick him up. Michael checked whether the man wanted some help in carrying the teenager off the road, but the man waved him off, saying he could manage by himself. Believing the situation was under control, the two delivery men pulled back onto the road and continued on their way.

Up ahead, they noticed what looked like a mustard-coloured station wagon parked to one side. Its boot was open, and its lights were off. When Greg and Michael later heard that a 16-year-old named Clinton Speedy Juro had been found murdered in some nearby bushland, they realised the significance of what they had seen. The morning that they had seen a seemingly unconscious indigenous boy lying on the ground was the same day that Clinton was believed to have been attacked. Perhaps the boy's killer had been hoping that a vehicle would run over the body, making it look like an accident instead of murder.

The two men reported the incident to police. When Gary Jubiland's team were once again investigating the case in 2007, they found a running sheet from April 1991 that detailed the men's sighting. But the information had never been properly investigated or made available at the trial for Clinton's murder. The original detectives hadn't even obtained formal statements from Greg and Michael. In 2016, Michael Scaffidi shared another detail with the journalist at Dandbox. A couple of years after he'd observed the strange scene at Norco Corner, he had been at work when some colleagues began passing around photographs from a community event in Bowerville.

Michael was looking at the photos when one person in a picture caught his eye. He asked his coworkers if they knew who the person was, and they flipped the photo over to read some names that had been scribbled on the back. According to these annotations, the person Michael had noticed was Jay Hart. Michael was certain that Hart was the man he'd seen with the indigenous boy at Norco Corner years earlier. Detective Jubiland and his team believed that the Norco Corner sighting constituted fresh and compelling evidence. On behalf of the New South Wales police force, they made a submission that Hart be retried for the murders of Clinton and Evelyn

and indicted for the murder of Colleen Craig. But on June 4, 2007, the DPP advised that the new evidence wasn't sufficiently fresh or compelling. Their application was denied. Over the years, the lack of answers and resolution in the three Bowerville murders has attracted attention from the media. The case has been featured in a number of high-profile television programs and was the subject of a 2013 documentary by Indigenous writer, legal academic and filmmaker Larissa Burrant. She travelled to Bowerville to interview the victims' families, and her film titled Innocence Betrayed won and was shortlisted for several awards.

Three years later, the Australian newspaper released a podcast series about the case. Crime journalist Dan Box interviewed Colleen, Evelyn and Clinton's families as well as various witnesses. He also spoke with Jay Hart at length. In their conversation, Hart, who has changed his name and no longer lives in Bowerville, strenuously denied having anything to do with the murders. He even stated that he wouldn't be opposed to being trialled again, as he believed it would provide him with the opportunity to clear his name once and for all. The series shone a new spotlight on the case and led to a renewed push for action.

As it turned out, the laws on admissibility of evidence had recently been updated, meaning that details of Colleen and Evelyn's cases would now be admissible in a trial for Clinton's murder. In February 2017, police charged Hart with Clinton and Evelyn's murders yet again. The New South Wales Attorney General applied to the state's court of criminal appeal for a retrial on the grounds that these new laws effectively gave rise to fresh and compelling evidence. The following year, this application was rejected, with the court ruling that none of the evidence was fresh. The Attorney General applied to Australia's High Court for special leave to appeal this decision, but was denied. To this day, Jay Hart maintains he had nothing to do with the murders of Evelyn Greenup or Clinton's speedy duro,

or the disappearance of Colleen Craig. He asserts that the evidence against him is purely circumstantial, and he's the only suspect because police botched their investigation, neglecting to look at any other persons of interest. Hart recently spoke with Indigenous filmmaker Alan Clarke for a forthcoming documentary titled The Bowerville Murders and told Clarke, Police haven't got a single witness that's seen me do anything. They haven't got a single piece of forensic evidence to tie me to them. Not one piece.

Case file acknowledges Jay Hart's right to the presumption of innocence. Colleen, Evelyn and Clinton's families are still fighting for a retrial. The victims' loved ones have no doubt that the case would have been treated very differently if they weren't Indigenous. From the start, police dismissed their concerns due to the prejudices about their community. Michelle Jarrett, the aunt of Evelyn Greenup, has said that if Colleen's disappearance was taken seriously, then Evelyn and Clinton might still be alive today. When two of the cases later went to trial, Indigenous witnesses found themselves up against a legal system that was foreign to them. The juries selected didn't include any Indigenous people and they weren't educated on Indigenous communication styles,

which possibly led to witnesses being misinterpreted as untrustworthy. For example, some Indigenous witnesses would say yes as a polite response to being asked a question before going on to give evidence that contradicted what jurors heard as their previous answer. In 2016, the New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione met with all three families to formally acknowledge that institutional racism had hindered the initial handling of the case. He stated, I want to publicly acknowledge that the New South Wales Police Force could have done more for your families when these crimes first occurred and how this added to your pain as a grieving community.

And for that, I am sorry. Colleen Craig's family have never stopped looking for her body. In 2011, they thought they might have found her when some bones were discovered not far from Bowerville, but these turned out to be animal remains. To this day, Colleen's siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces still search for her. The fact that she has never been found has contributed to their grief. As one of Colleen's cousins told a parliamentary committee, it is something that is missing within all of us.

Not actually knowing where she is and what has happened to her is something that we carry every single day. Those closest to Evelyn Greenup have battled guilt as well as sorrow. Her grandmother Patricia has suffered as she heard Evelyn cry out on the night in question but was unable to reach her. Evelyn's mother Rebecca has also been tormented by the fact that Evelyn went missing from the same room where she was sleeping. In the years after her daughter's death, Rebecca directed her pain inwards and struggled with alcoholism. In her own words, My heart was ripped apart and I felt numb as I knew Evelyn was never coming back to me. I would never be able to give her a hug or give her a kiss, tell her everything is alright,

and I would never see my daughter grow up into a beautiful woman. I was always treated like I had no right to Evelyn's information on updates of the investigation and I was always left out of everything because everyone blamed me. No one will ever know how I feel because I was Evelyn's mother and had that special bond with her. I carried her for nine months. I felt her move and grow in my womb and I gave birth to my first born child, Evelyn Clarice Greenup. Even though Clinton's speedy duo was the first victim found,

it later emerged that the police had not done a thorough job in bringing him back to his family. A year after Clinton's murder, two bones belonging to him were found in the bush. His family learnt of this oversight 12 years after they lost Clinton when his autopsy report was accidentally shared with them. This was an extremely painful discovery, especially as the burial of human remains is a very sensitive matter within indigenous culture. Clinton's family members still struggled to speak of the boy they lost, due in part to the sense of injustice they feel from the trial's outcome in 1994. His brother Troy has said he had difficulty even speaking to his wife about Clinton

and has never really learned how to deal with the pain and loss of trust in the justice system. The constant battle with the police, the legal system and the government over the past three decades has left all of Clinton's loved ones feeling despondent. The younger generation has picked up the fight from their parents, but the last thing they want is for future generations to have to do the same thing. In Clinton's father's words, Each time we think we are going to get justice, we are let down. We keep going, but it is hard.

Those who knew Colleen Craig described her as vibrant, kind and well-liked. She had a tender and loving nature, as demonstrated by her care for younger children. Her family said she had a strong character with a clear moral compass, while still being something of a prankster who liked to make jokes. At the time that she disappeared, Colleen had completed a certificate and some work experience in preparation for achieving her dream of becoming a preschool teacher. Before she left her hometown of Sortel to go to Barreville in the days before her death, she kissed her mother goodbye.

Colleen and her mum Muriel had a special bond, and everyone who knew them was sure Colleen would never go anywhere without telling Muriel of her plans. Despite never being reunited with her daughter, Muriel still feels her presence. Not long after Colleen disappeared, Muriel heard a familiar tapping at her kitchen window. Although Colleen wasn't out there, Muriel felt in her heart that the noise was her daughter's spirit reaching out. Evelyn Greenup was shy with the outsiders and scared of strangers. When her family went for walks together, four-year-old Evelyn would cling tightly to an adult's hand. But closer to home, her personality shone.

Evelyn loved visiting her aunties and playing with her cousins and two little brothers. Sweet and gentle, she always had a smile on her face and especially liked being outside in nature. Clinton's speedy duro was nicknamed Bubby by his family. Sometimes they jokingly called him pretty boy because he took so much pride in his clothes and appearance. His passions were art, music and dancing. When he hit the dance floor at parties, all lies were drawn to him. He was also a talented football player, helping his team to win the under-16s grand final by scoring two tries. Clinton had a reputation for being friendly and kind to younger children,

with one of his aunts remembering how kids would trail behind him wherever he went. A monument to Colleen Craig, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton's speedy duro was built at Barreville's Memorial Park. Six wooden benches form a circle around three poles, each of which features a plaque dedicated to one of the victims. The three poles are linked by a triangular rooftop, creating a small sheltered area where people can gather. Colleen, Evelyn and Clinton's families were all consulted for the memorial. It was envisioned as a place where they and the community can reflect on the loss of their three children and honour their memories. The victims' loved ones were overcome with anger after their most recent application for a retrial was rejected by Australia's High Court. To protest the ruling, they plastered the windows of Sydney's law courts building with white painted handprints.

In a voice thick with emotion, an aunt of Clinton's speedy duro told journalists, We are stuck in a 29 year rut of injustice. We are owed. You owe us this justice. How dare you all? You