Crime Junkie - INFAMOUS: The Bowraville Murders

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

When three Aboriginal children go missing in a span of several weeks in the small town of Bowraville, New South Wales, Australia, a community is divided, and a long battle for justice begins.If you know anything about the murders in Bowraville, NSW, Australia, in the 1990s, please contact the New South Wales Crime Stoppers at nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. This episode references the spoken names and images of deceased Aboriginal people. We acknowledge the cultural sensitivities involved in discussing and referencing deceased individuals from Indigenous communities. Our intention is to shed light on these cases with great care and respect, and to advocate for these victims and their families in the hopes that long-awaited answers and justice can finally be served. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-the-bowraville-murders Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit crimejunkie.app/library/ to view the current membership options and policies. Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllc Crime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And today, we're going down under to a small rural town in New South Wales where three children's lives were lost. And for more than 30 years, questions have remained unanswered. This is the story of the Bowerville murders. It's around 10 a.m. September 16, 1990, when Muriel Craig pulls her station wagon full of kids up to a footy tournament in Maxville, which is located in New South Wales, Australia. And if you're not hip on the Aussie lingo, footy is in Maxville, which is located in New South Wales, Australia. And if you're not hip on the Aussie lingo,

footy is just another name for Australian rules, football. Anyways, Muriel's 16-year-old daughter, Colleen, is supposed to meet them there. And she actually hasn't seen Colleen in a couple of days because she'd spent the last few nights at her Aunt Marjorie's house in the nearby town of Bowerville. But everything takes a turn when they run into Marjorie,

and there's no Colleen. And when Muriel asks her where Colleen is, Marjorie seems kind of pissed, because she tells her that they were at this birthday party together a couple of nights ago, and then Colleen just took off on her, and she hasn't seen her since. And she's just now telling Muriel?

Well, yeah, and Muriel's like, what the hell? Yeah. But I don't know if she thought Colleen would keep her mom in the loop or what, so Marjorie basically says that Colleen mentioned, like, thinking of taking a train to somewhere else at some point, so she just had kind of figured that's what she did. And according to Dan Box's book, Bowerville, which we relied on heavily for this episode, Muriel feels immediately uneasy because she knows that if Colleen would have changed her plans like that, she would have called and told her mom.

So without the convenience of cell phones in 1990, there was one option. Kids, get in the car, we're going straight to Bowerville. And luckily, this is a town that she's very familiar with because she grew up there. And when she arrives, she starts asking around about Colleen. She even runs into a few people that she knows, but they all tell her the same thing. The last time they saw Colleen

was at that Thursday night party that Marjorie had told her about. So without wasting too much more time, she heads over to the police station, but the police station is closed. Which actually isn't that shocking to her. Because according to the documentary, The Bowerville Murders, Bowerville is in the middle of nowhere. I mean, more than five hours away from a big city like Sydney.

So their whole police department is basically a small, like, three-person operation. So again, surprising? no, frustrating, yes, because this means there's literally nothing else she can do except come back the next day, which she does. This time, the police station is open, and Muriel tries to report Colleen missing, says it's been a few days since she's last been seen, but things get derailed immediately.

Oh, no. No, I know what you're thinking, but before they even get to the part where police are like, oh no, I bet she's just going to show up, blah, blah, blah. When she shows the officer a picture of her daughter Colleen, he questions whether it's even her daughter. What? Yeah. Why?

Easy answer. Racism. I mean, it is a huge problem in Bowerville. I mean, this is a town divided in Bowerville. I mean, this is a town divided in particular because you had white Australians and then the local Aboriginal Australian community, which Muriel was a part of. And Colleen had a lighter skin tone than her mother. I mean, that's really what it boils down to. So this guy just assumed that they couldn't be related.

Right. Oh my God. And I wish I could say it gets better, but it doesn't. He doesn't even take a statement from Muriel. And he tells her, this is when we get to the part that we know so well, that Colleen will just turn up eventually. He even suggests that maybe she could have deliberately left.

On her own and decided to do this by herself, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, even though there's nothing to back that up. Like, he doesn't know her, but her mom does, and she knows that's not what happened. So Muriel leaves the police station realizing that they have zero interest in taking her seriously. So if Colleen is going to be found,

she's gonna be the one that has to find her. So this is what she does. She goes home to this other town where she lives, packs up her kids, and straight up moves to Bowerville to search for her daughter. Now the population in this town is only like a thousand people. And according to a Marie Claire article by Ali Pasco, the Aboriginal Australian community all resided in an area known as the Mission, which is like this single street of brick houses. From what I can gather within this community, people knew each other, and a lot of them

were actually family. So Muriel drives up and down the Mission for days, asking about her daughter. And when she starts asking questions, they're all down to talk to her and to tell her what they remember. But the problem is, due to alcohol and whatever else was consumed at that party Thursday night where Colleen was seen, what they remember is a bit fuzzy. She's able to piece together that on that Thursday night, September 13th,

Colleen was at a party thrown at her cousin's house. People were like mingling inside, mingling outside. And from what people said, it sounds like Colleen was drinking herself. But that is pretty much where the consistencies end. Some people say they saw her inside, others saw her outside. At least one person saw her sitting in a white vehicle,

parked out front. However, later it's determined that this was another girl, not Colleen at all. But most importantly, no one seemed to know exactly when Colleen left this party. Muriel discovers that the last time she might have been seen was around midnight, outside a house next door to the party.

But even this is confusing when one of Colleen's cousins tells Muriel that he had seen Colleen two days after the party talking about that footy tournament that she was gonna meet her mom at. Did anyone else see her directly after the party? It doesn't sound like it. So there is a chance that this cousin just maybe had the date wrong or what.

So as the days turn into weeks, Muriel becomes desperate for answers. I mean, she is going door to door with photos of Colleen. Her other children, some of them as young as eight, help her in the search too, going out to the bushlands, checking back roads. But nothing they do leads them to Colleen. Muriel even starts to get suspicious of those who attended the party. I mean, initially, I think she thought everyone was down to help her because they were willing to talk, but without any sign of her daughter, she becomes suspicious of everyone and begins wondering if the partygoers themselves were hiding something.

I mean, she had to have felt so alone, like it was her versus this tiny town. Even the police weren't on her side. But she was about to get someone else on her team, only in the worst way possible. On the morning of October 4th, in a house just about 100 meters away from where Colleen was last seen, a young mom in her 20s named Rebecca Stathams wakes up in bed still half asleep. She looks around and realizes that something is very wrong with this picture. According to an ABC news piece from 2011, quote, her jeans and underpants had been pulled down

around her thighs. And also, her four-year-old daughter Evelyn, who had been sleeping in the same room, is just gone. Now Evelyn's two brothers, who were also sleeping in the room, are still there. They're just like sitting there playing. So the fact that Evelyn's two brothers, who were also sleeping in the room, are still there. They're just like sitting there playing. So the fact that Evelyn isn't sitting there doing the same thing is concerning. So Rebecca hops out of bed, and I don't think she's like fully even processing her situation, like why she woke up in the state that she did. No, she's like got one mode, find my baby.

Right, but she can't, anywhere. And the thing about Evelyn is, Rebecca knows that she wouldn't have just wandered off. I mean, she was very attached to her mom. Danbox even uses the word clingy. She says that's the word that people always use to describe her. So as she's looking around, on the front lawn,

Rebecca finds one of Evelyn's little pink shoes, and her panic just continues to build. So she runs down to her estranged husband Billy's house, hoping Evelyn could maybe be with him for some unknown reason, but Evelyn's not there either. So she's checking with neighbors, she's checking in town, and she finds nothing. Now there are some rumblings that Evelyn might have been seen playing with some other kids, which I think keeps her searching on her own. Like she has to be here, right? You don't want to think the worst.

But she searches all damn day and she doesn't find a single trace of her daughter. So at around 8 p.m., Rebecca's sister Michelle marches her up to the police station with a picture of Evelyn and together they report her missing. And even though Evelyn is just four years old, it sounds like they initially get a similar response to Muriel's when she reported Colleen missing. The officer's basically like, well, what do you want me to do about it?

Uh, I'm sorry, how about you do your f-ing job? He would, Brit, but he indicates that it's the end of his shift, so... Oh, you're out of time for me to help you, sorry. To help find your four-year-old, right, who maybe just wondered off she'll be back. And to add insult to injury, according to the Sydney Morning Herald,

Evelyn and Colleen are cousins. So this family now has two children missing. Now, the last time Rebecca saw Evelyn was around midnight when she went to bed. And I think it's important to point out that there was a party at the house that Rebecca shares with her mother, Patricia, that night. So that's two parties pretty close together

in time and distance, and two girls go missing after each. I mean... Girls who are related, mind you. Right. But the thing is, I don't know if anyone is putting this together yet. But even though they're not necessarily like saying they're connected or whatever, it does seem that at some point, when Evelyn doesn't just show up, police do organize some searches for her. And I say her, meaning just Evelyn,

because again, not connecting the two. According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Jane Southward, Rachel Luce, and Robin Willis, several police officers and 50 locals searched 200 homes in Bowerville. They also dragged the local river twice, but nothing is found. And complicating matters is the number of rumors with people claiming to have seen Evelyn

that morning. And some of these rumors were printed at the time as fact, but they were mostly people confusing Evelyn with other children. So things are getting a little messy. They end up bringing in four homicide detectives from Newcastle to help out and kind of run this stuff down. But they bring them in for a week. What the fuck is a week gonna do? I don't know what the point was. Like, I don't know if they literally just had so many tips that they're just like, go look at this stuff and then go home.

I mean, are they at least looking at both of the cases while they're there? No, I know that they're not doing that. Because while they did at least acknowledge Colleen's disappearance publicly at the time, they didn't feel that there was a connection to Evelyn's. And part of the reason was that other people keep claiming to see Colleen after she disappeared. Like, one witness tells police that they saw her on a bus

going to Queensland, and police even publicly say that they thought she could have moved to Sydney. Now who these witnesses were or where these tips were coming from is unclear, but I think it shows what police were clearly thinking that Colleen might have run away or left town on her own. But Dan Box points out in his book that it's absurd that the police weren't connecting these cases. I mean you have two children, like you said, go missing three weeks apart from each other. And as I said earlier,

the two homes were like a hundred meters apart. It was a little over 300 feet for those of us in the States. So the idea that you don't even consider a connection is baffling. It's bad police work, especially when you haven't found anything to contradict that information. You know, like, we say it all the time, like, you got to turn over every rock, cross every

T, dot every I, and they're not doing that here. Yeah, and strangely enough, even though those homicide detectives were brought in for that whole week, it's unclear what they were even there to do. I mean, it's possible they were just, you know, more warm bodies to help in a search, because I say it's strange that homicide detectives are brought in because it seems like they were really focused on Evelyn's disappearance as a missing persons case. And actually, Evelyn's own aunt had repeated the idea that she was seen with other children following that day, because that's what she had heard. She's hearing the rumors too. So police at least initially had no reason

to think otherwise. But not assuming the worst would have grave consequences because almost four months later, on the morning of February 1st, 1991, in the very home where Colleen was staying with her aunt, another teen goes missing. This new nightmare started for a man named Thomas DeRoe who lived with Colleen's aunt.

And that morning, he found a pair of his 16-year-old son Clinton's shoes just sitting out on the front porch of his house, which probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but Clinton always had these shoes with him. According to Dan Box's book, he never took them off except to shower and to sleep. I mean, these shoes were like his pride and joy.

Now Thomas ends up finding out that Clinton's girlfriend, Kelly, who side note also happens to be good friends with Colleen, like I'm not kidding, everyone here is connected somehow. But Kelly was the one who dropped the shoes off earlier that day because she thought Clinton was there at the house. But why'd she have them in the first place? Well, Kelly tells Thomas that her and Clinton were at a party the night before.

And sometime after midnight, the two of them were hanging outside with this 24-year-old guy that Dan Box calls James in his book. And listen, I did my research, y'all. I know his name is out there all over the place, but it says in Dan's book that the court has ordered that media outlets not use his name. So like, I'm over here trying to stay out of trouble so I can keep making a podcast, okay? So I'm gonna call him James.

Yeah. Anyways, basically the three of them all decided to go to James' caravan, like this trailer thing that's parked in his mother's yard. There was some more drinking there, they watched some music videos, and James told them that they could have the double bed and that he would sleep on the other side of the room. But when Kelly woke up the following morning, and it sounds like James was the one to wake her up, like he had gone to work and then come back and then left again, it's a little confusing, but nonetheless, like she's woken up from what she describes as this really deep sleep, and she noticed that Clinton wasn't

there anymore, but his shoes were. More alarming, according to an article in The Monthly by Malcolm Knox, she also noticed that she wasn't wearing her shorts or her underwear anymore. And she was positive that she had both on the night before. So she finds her clothes, she says she grabbed Clinton's shoes and then just got the F out of there. And when Thomas hears this, he heads straight off, looking for Clinton. Which like, that's his son, obviously, but I think I'd be looking for James.

Well, I mean, yeah, when he can't find his son or even anyone who's seen his son, obviously, but I think I'd be looking for James. Well, I mean, yeah, when he can't find his son or even anyone who's seen his son, that's exactly where he goes next. But no one answers the door to the caravan when Thomas knocks. So he like peeks inside and he actually sees James. He's in there sleeping. So Thomas calls out, I'm sure like banging on the windows and whatnot, I would be, but dude seems like he is out cold.

He is not responding. So that's when Thomas goes to the police to report Clinton missing. But guess what? They tell him it hadn't been long enough yet. It hasn't even been 24 hours. So when he goes back the next day, police aren't much more helpful.

They handle Clinton's disappearance much like they did Colleen's, and they just suggest that he deliberately left. Does they even interview James at least? I know they do. So around February 2nd, two uniformed officers do go see James. So they're at least doing that much. And he tells them that Clinton left early in the morning, and that was the last time he saw him.

So he's got pretty much the same story as Kelly, but he is saying that he actually saw him leave the trailer. And they actually do search that caravan or trailer, whatever you wanna call it, and they notice something interesting. So all of the sheets, all the blankets, the pillowcases are off the bed. And then the only thing like, suspicious, my air quotes, that they find are some cannabis

seed, which like, they can't prove connects to Clinton at all, but it is enough to arrest him. Now, I don't think Bowerville has detectives. So they bring in a detective from a nearby town to interview James, but he gives kind of a similar account. And there's not much that this detective can do with that because no crime has been committed in their eyes. So he lets James go, but does arrange to talk to him again on the fourth in a couple of days.

So when the fourth rolls around, James is interviewed again, and he claims that the morning he last saw Clinton, his alarm went off for work. He hits the snooze button, and that's about when he heard Clinton leave. He tells the detective there's no fight with Clinton that morning, Clinton never mentioned where he was going, and he has no idea where he could be now. Like, he's like, we were just hanging out, and then this dude leaves. I have no idea.

So once again, he's allowed to leave. Did they ask about Kelly at all? It doesn't sound like it, but I don't know how much they knew at that moment about the way she woke up. Like, it's unclear if she had gone to police or if Thomas told them about her particular part of the story at that point or what. But if we jump to the next day, that's when police search James' caravan again, and this time they bring a dog with them.

And this one sounds like more of a formal search than whatever the uniform officers did before, but even this time with the dog, with the more formal search, they don't find anything incriminating. Now, what you're hearing me say is the same thing that the community was hearing police say. Sorry, no proof of a crime, nothing we can do. I know a lot is happening in a short amount of time here in this small town, but it is not connected. But the Aboriginal Australian people of Bowerville are calling bulls**t.

It's been five months and three of their own are just gone. And it feels like nothing is happening to find out what happened to them. And maybe police didn't have a suspect or anything in the first two cases, but they're thinking like now in Clinton's case, it seems so clear to them that James holds the answers and they like want the police to like put his feet to the fire. And the thing is, they know this James guy.

It sounds like he had connections to many of the people living in the mission. He often provided the alcohol at the parties in the mission and would supply drugs, including to those who were underage. And James, of all people, really sticks out. For one thing, he's a white dude. For another, according to that ABC News piece, he was a pretty large white dude. I mean, just under six feet and strong from working in a hide factory and carrying around animal carcasses

all day. And the stuff they're hearing about him is concerning. So a woman named Allison, who is actually one of Colleen's aunts, talks about a time when she was on the other end of that strength. Because when she was pregnant with their child, she says that he hit her so hard that she had to get stitches. Which is horrible and awful,

but also means he has a direct connection to Colleen, who's also related to Evelyn. I mean, that's significant, right? Yes, significant, but not surprising. Again, I'm telling you, everyone here is connected in some way. Yes. So on February 7th, dozens of people from the mission

marched to the Bowerville police station, and they are just straight up chanting James's name. And as we already briefly touched on earlier, this was a town divided by race between the white Australian people and the Aboriginal Australian people. And here was this Aboriginal community pointing the finger at one of the white residents. So an already fractured town with a terrible history of racism is now becoming even more fractured.

James' family didn't think he had anything to do with this, but the rumors and stories regarding him are now flying, like anything people knew about James is now coming out. And we already heard about him hitting Allison while she was pregnant, but there is so much more. One woman claimed to have woken up and found him standing at the foot of her bed while she was sleeping. Another caught him lurking in her hallway early one morning. And there was the story of him smashing down someone's door

with a golf club after an argument or chasing a girl across a golf course opposite the mission. And there's also rumors of him spiking women's drinks. And by the way, guess who was seen at the same party as Colleen the night she disappeared? At least one witness says that James was hitting on Colleen that night that she was at the party, and she was upset about it. And, I mean, put aside the fact that this guy is 24 and she is only 16. There could be some backstory to this because a friend of Colleen's had a story

that the two of them stayed in James' caravan one night, which sounds similar to the Clinton-Kelley situation. And during the night, while they were sleeping, James was like groping and touching, sexually assaulting Colleen. And as they were talking to more and more people, like, and his name was coming out and these rumors started flying,

they're starting to realize that maybe James' pursuit of Colleen that night at the party didn't end with him just hitting on her. Patricia, who you might remember is Rebecca's mother, Evelyn's grandmother, well, Patricia would later claim that she saw Colleen outside of the party and she was walking toward the back of the house, like between two houses, and James was there.

Like, he was following her? Mm-hmm. That's not all. Guess where else she remembers James being? At the party, at her house, that night or early morning, that Evelyn disappeared. She said that James was still hanging around after everyone went to sleep and she was cleaning up and she told him to take a hike, but according to that ABC News piece, she never actually saw him leave. Because maybe he didn't. Maybe. Now police know that if James had something to do with any of these disappearances, they

were going to need evidence, not rumors. So they bring in a forensic detective named Rob Wellings to let him take a shot at James and his caravan. And James, now his third time meeting with police, allows them to search the caravan again. I mean, he is being cooperative. And it sounds like this time, all the sheets are back on the bed.

But other than that, Detective Wellings doesn't find anything. And again, sheets being on the bed isn't even finding anything. He might have made his bed by this point. So Wellings just like takes some pictures and leaves. And not wanting to put all of their eggs in their James basket, another detective is brought in from the child mistreatment unit. His name is Alan Williams, and it sounds like his job is to start looking at the families to see if any of them could have had a hand in the disappearances. Which is like, fine, check the boxes, we know you

have to. Uh, yeah, but I feel like, I mean, that should have been done by now, right? 1000%. And also, like, all three parents, sets of parents, whatever, just snapped at the same time within a four-month period. Yeah. I'm sorry. No. And listen, within days of this detective looking into the families, I think it should become clear that that's not where the focus should be, because on February 18, a little over four miles outside of Bowerville, off a stretch of dirt road known as Congarini, two men collecting firewood come across remains. Now, they obviously don't know who they've found, but when Detective Wellings gets there and sees the victim is wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and no shoes.

He knows that it's Clinton. At the scene, Wellings also finds a blanket nearby that the body was possibly wrapped in. But the problem was, it was already getting dark by the time he got there, so the scene is locked up for the night, and Detective Wellings sleeps in his car on the road. And early the following morning, a forensic pathologist arrives from Sydney. So that person and Wellings go back to the scene.

And on the way back there, in the light of day, they take notice of a couple of harvested cannabis plants in the area. Maybe they have something to do with this, maybe not. But know what feels real relevant, though? The pillowcase that Detective Wellings finds stuffed down the front of Clinton's shorts. One with a pink and brown design pattern on it that kinda looks like butterflies. And that's when it freakin' hits him.

He's seen this pattern before. It's like a moment out of a movie where a piece of evidence suddenly falls into place. According to Dan Box's book, Detective Wellings rushes out of the crime scene, hops in his car and speeds to James' place, and he convinces James' mother to let him into the caravan. And inside, on James' bed, right there, are sheets matching the pillowcase that they found in Clinton's shorts. So this is when police search the caravan yet again.

And this time, they take those bedsheets with them. They also take a knife that they find, because along with Clinton's jaw being broken, with enough force, by the way, that it snapped his head to one side, his fatal wound was likely a stab wound just below one of his eyes. So they are clearly, when they're taking this knife, looking for a murder weapon. Was there any theory about why this pillowcase was stuffed down his pants? I think there's two that Detective Wellings had.

One was that maybe Clinton had been drinking that night, so maybe he had some kind of accident and he stuffed it down there himself to like soak up a mess. The other is that if Clinton died, most humans when they die, like most of our bodies, lose control of normal bodily functions. So if Clinton died, maybe his killer could have noticed this happening, and then that

person stuffed the pillowcase down there to, again, like, soak up a mess. I mean, either way, it's James' pillowcase down a dead teen's pants. Yes. Although, James has never denied that Clinton was at his place. Do they ask him about the pillowcase specifically? Like, what's his story? Did he notice it was gone when he was making his bed? It doesn't sound like they do at this point.

So maybe they don't want him to know that they had that piece of evidence. I don't know. I just know that they bring him in for more questioning, but he's still just like telling the same stories as he gets up before six, goes to work, only Kelly's still there. Though they do get some more background information

on him at this time. Like they get him to admit to having several sexual relationships and one night stands with some of the Aboriginal Australian women in Bowerville, including Evelyn's mother, Rebecca. And it doesn't say in any of the source material if those were consensual or not, but like James is telling his side of the story

about them like quote unquote hooking up. And since he was never arrested for sexually assaulting any of these women, it appears at least he is indicating to police that it was, but I mean, we don't know 100% certainty. Either way, once again, after this questioning is over, he is released again, but they are by no means done with this guy. The circumstances are just too suspicious, so they decide to go out into the community to start really talking to people about this

guy. And I'd assume the stuff they hear only makes them more convinced that they're on the right track. Detectives find a neighbor who says that the day Clinton disappeared, they'd heard James' mother's car. I guess it had a very distinctive exhaust sound. They say it was leaving at around 5 a.m. and then it comes racing back at around 6.30 a.m. Now if you remember, James told police that he hadn't woken up until just before 6 a.m. and then left for work. And interestingly, they also find a coworker of James

who went to pick him up at 6 a.m., but James wasn't there when he first arrived. But he did see Kelly asleep inside the caravan. So it's not like he didn't look around, right? Right. Now eventually, James did arrive back at the caravan and this coworker's still there when he comes back and he tells this coworker, you know what, just go ahead without me.

I'll make my way to work. And then he drove himself to work later. So police have to be feeling confident that something happened in that caravan because according to Dan Box's book, on March 1st, the whole damn thing is seized. And they do find a speck of blood on the bed's headboard, and it's determined to be human blood, but it is too small an amount to determine which even blood group it is. I mean, forget DNA. And even doing this initial test on it completely destroys the entire sample, so it can never be tested again. Now they

also have the sheets tested, and they confirm that the sheets in James' caravan match the pillowcase found with Clinton's body. But I mean, I don't think that's a total surprise, just kind of more confirmation. So on April 8th, James is brought in for questioning yet again. And this is when they finally ask him, or at least the first time it's reported publicly, about finally asking him about Kelly and the fact that her shorts and underwear were not on her when she woke up. And he seems to kind of just dismiss it, calls it BS. So then they confront him with a picture of the pillowcase and he says it doesn't look familiar. Okay. Which I think is like,

I want to see pictures of this because I don't understand, I'm like, if this is your bed sheet that you were like, they all match? Like, how much did they actually match? I don't know. I don't know. Well, and it sounds like it's like a distinctive pattern. It's not like white sheets, gray sheets. It's like a colored pattern. It's like butterflies. Yeah. So they start like probing him. Like, clearly they've got a theory. They're asking him if Clinton woke up, caught him sexually assaulting Kelly, but he denies ever touching Kelly or

causing any physical harm to Clinton that night. But this is where things kind of like the tide changes because despite his denials, despite them not really having anything new, I mean they certainly don't have a smoking gun, police go ahead and charge James with Clinton's murder. gun, police go ahead and charge James with Clinton's murder. Now it's not exactly clear when the tides changed, but by this point, Detective Williams — now remember, we've got Wellings and Williams, but Detective Williams was the one who was brought in from the child mistreatment unit — he's leading the charge now. I guess he was the most senior detective. But it was an odd choice considering that he had never actually run

a homicide investigation. But experience or not, he had to address that thing staring him in the face, that maybe all three cases are connected. And if so, did James have anything to do with what happened to Colleen and Evelyn too? So they tried at least to ask him about Evelyn's in one of his questionings, but he wouldn't even allow that door to be opened. But there's something about this arrest

that opens the floodgates, like the gods of justice were trying to push this thing along. Because less than two weeks later, there's actually a break in Colleen's case. In roughly the same area where Clinton was found, a fisherman reeled in a pair of jeans. When police divers get called in,

they find a weighted plastic bag, or some sources say multiple bags, right around the same area containing the clothes that Colleen wore the night she disappeared. But here's the thing. There is no Colleen. I mean, they search high and low, but they don't find any sign of her.

But do you want to know who is found? Evelyn. Oh my god. On April 27, some locals pointed police to this horrible smell just off Congarini Road, which is the same road that Clinton's body was dumped near. And that's where she was found. And right next to her was the matching little pink shoe, just like the one her mom had found that morning that she discovered her to be missing.

Now while the coroner couldn't determine a cause of death, he did note an injury to her skull with a sharp object, specifically to the right temple. And it was noted that it could have been the same object that was used to kill Clinton. — Now they took that knife from James' caravan. Did they ever get anything off that? — There's never been anything reported, and there's been a lot of reporting on this case, so I'm assuming no. But even without a murder weapon, they think their case is strong. And I mean, by this point, I think everyone agrees that the cases are connected.

And if they have a strong case for Clinton's murder, they think that means that they have a strong case for Evelyn's. So in October, James is charged with her murder too. Except there's something about that that doesn't fly in New South Wales, Australia. I mean, he can be charged, but there was a law in the books regarding similar fact evidence cases. Basically, just because a case seems similar

doesn't automatically mean that the same person committed the crime, which is fair. Like you have to have very solid evidence that it was clearly the same person. So like, I don't know this for a fact, but I assume like if you found that person's DNA on both of them or whatever. But James's lawyers felt like the prosecution didn't have the evidence to say that both were committed by the same person. So they asked the judge to separate the cases and do two separate trials and the judge agreed.

But the catch of that is, is that all the evidence for each case has to remain separate and can only be used in that case. So Clinton's evidence could only be used in Clinton's, Evelyn's evidence can only be used in her case. Can they even bring up the other cases? No, everything has to stay separate. So the jury in Clinton's case will never hear anything

about Evelyn or Colleen. It's almost as if those other crimes or cases don't exist within that courtroom. The cases and the trials are happening in a vacuum. Mm-hmm. According to the monthly article by Malcolm Knox, James goes on trial for Clinton's murder in February 1994. But almost right away, the prosecution runs into a lot of problems.

For one thing, a lot of their witnesses had been drinking the night of Clinton's disappearance, including Kelly, making anything they say easily challenged. James' mother also corroborated what he said he did that morning, like what time she gave him the keys to her car so that he could go to work. And that matched up with what he had told police. And she also said that the blanket found near Clinton's body wasn't something that James would have, even though in early interviews with police,

she actually said the opposite. And then there's also a witness that claims to have seen Clinton hitchhiking the morning that he is thought to have been killed. But James did have his own evidence to contend with on top of what we've already discussed throughout this episode. It was revealed in court that a missing set of weights from James' caravan could have been used to strike Clinton. Could have, not conclusively. Plus, the prosecution had a plausible motive. Again, this is the theory that they put when they were questioning him, basically, that Clinton woke up, caught James sexually assaulting Kelly, but in the end, the defense sowed enough

reasonable doubt that the jury ended up acquitting James. And I assume the defense put all their witnesses on the stand who said, you know, they heard the car and that guy who said he tried to pick James up for work, but James was like, oh, no, go ahead without me. They did all of that? Yes. Yes and yes. But there was one bit of witness testimony that wasn't presented at James' trial

that I think might have made a difference. So it comes from this guy named Michael, who told police that in the early morning hours of February 1st, this is the day that Clinton was determined to be missing. He says he's driving in a delivery truck with another guy and they had to stop because there was this young Aboriginal Australian man who just so happened to not be wearing shoes lying in the middle of the road.

Now they thought whoever this was was unconscious or something. And here's where it gets even more interesting. So they say there's this big white dude there with him, like on the curb, and a car parked nearby with the trunk open. Where was this happening? Uh, he's seeing this like just outside of Bowerville, like one of the roads leading into it. And this delivery guy says he actually stopped because he thought that this white guy needed

help getting the other guy out of the road before he got hit by a car or something. Because like where this took place was around this sharp curve. So someone could have easily run over whoever was in the street. Oh, but maybe that was the whole point. Maybe. Yeah. But anyways, this white guy tells Michael like, no, no, no, it's all good. I've already called the police.

Just like, I don't need your help. And so Michael believes what he says and he goes on his way. But the description Michael gave of this big white dude matches James, and the car description matches James' mother's car that he was always driving. There's also reports that later Michael saw a picture of James and even ID'd him. All of this sounds like really good evidence. How was this not put up in court? Well, I think part of the reason is in Dan Box's book,

I guess there's some conflicting information. And I don't know if they thought it was gonna kind of get ripped apart, like on the stand, like the defense attorney would have a lot of places to poke holes, because I guess it sounds like no formal witness statement was ever taken from Michael. Like somehow this was never followed up on, it just got lost in the cracks. And then Detective Williams claims that the guy laying in the road was said to have been wearing jeans,

not shorts like Clinton was wearing. And he also said that this took place a week before Clinton disappeared. Even though Michael says it's on February 1st, he seems to stand by that original story, And he also said that this took place a week before Clinton disappeared. Even though Michael says it's on February 1st, he seems to stand by that original story, but I don't know if it like changed over time or... If it's just not solid enough to bring his evidence, yeah. I don't know what the prosecution knew of this story or thought of the story, if anything.

I just know that Michael wasn't brought to testify and now Clinton's case is over seemingly for good. And that loss must have made the prosecution gun shy because they then decided not to prosecute him in Evelyn's case. And no charges were coming against him in terms of Colleen without her body. But at least police took this as a challenge and not a assigned to just roll

over and give up. In December of 1996, a new task force was put together to reinvestigate the murders. One of the detectives on it was this guy named Gary Jublin, who eventually would become a voice for the Bowerville families. And according to the ABC News piece, he was one of the few police officers that they seemed to really trust. So he goes through all of the old evidence and he even re-interviews witnesses and somehow new details start to emerge. Patricia tells Detective Jublin

that on the night of the party at her house, she says she heard Evelyn screaming in the room where Rebecca was sleeping. Patricia says she'd gotten out of bed, even tried to get in the room where Rebecca was sleeping. Patricia says she'd gotten out of bed, even tried to get in the room, but she couldn't get the door open. And then at some point she hears this like thud noise, and then Evelyn just like stops crying.

And this is interesting because it sounds like she mentioned initially way back in the day something about hearing Evelyn crying. But it seems like she left out all the other details about the rest of the stuff, and it's possible she did that because she felt like they might blame her. And I also imagine she felt, I mean, guilty that she didn't do more.

I mean, the thud she heard could have been the moment that Evelyn was killed. I don't know. Now, it doesn't sound like she saw anyone come out of that room, but someone did eventually come out of that room. And there was a witness who saw them. You see, a woman named Fiona was staying in Rebecca's house that night, and she was preparing a bottle for her baby

when she says that she saw James come out of Rebecca's room and run out the front door. Did he have Evelyn? Well, that's the thing. It sounds like she didn't see him carrying anything. And like Evelyn's four. It's not like a baby. You can't just like toss a little kid under your coat.

Like you would see a four year old, right? I mean, yeah, but he could have put her out a window and then ran outside to get her. There was a window in the room, I know that. And Patricia even says later that the thud that she heard could have been a window closing. So it's possible. I mean, anything's possible at this point, right? Until we know exactly what really happened.

According to Danbox's book, there's another witness who tells Detective Jublin that one night he and James were drinking, and James told him that he had killed people and that their bodies were out on Congaree Road near his crops. And if you remember, Clinton was found near some pot plants. So, okay, but where was this guy years ago? Too scared to come forward, he said, or maybe it's not real, because other detectives on the task force didn't feel that this was a reliable source. So was there any old physical evidence that they could test or retest, like as time passed, technology gets better? Detective

Jublin thought of that too. What they had was mainly from Clinton's case, but even that wasn't a lot. Remember that blood that was on the headboard, like that was destroyed the first time around, so they can't use that. The blanket that they found probably would have been a treasure trove of DNA. I mean, they had noted earlier there was like fluid found on it, a clump of black hair found on it.

Nothing that would have been usable back in 1990, maybe now though, but come this time when he's re-investigating, he can't find the blanket. Like he's told it's possible that because of the acquittal that that stuff was just tossed. And I mean like Australia has double jeopardy laws like we do in the US so it's not like he could have been tried again. I kind of understand if they got rid of it why. Yeah but it's also kind of bullish because this case is potentially connected to two other unsolved cases, right? Like, yes, in that case right now, when it was tried, evidence couldn't be used for all three cases.

Yeah. But what if another court ruled it otherwise? Like, the thing that I get really frustrated about in this case and I see it in so many cases is it seems like there is this idea that when there is an acquittal, it's just like game over. There's never at any point or anyone who goes back and is like, oh, the jury found that we didn't prove it and we got it wrong. Should we see if we got it wrong? You know what I mean? They're just like, well, we had our guy, the jury messed up, we're gonna get rid of everything. Like Right, like there's an appeal process for convictions, but there's not an appeal process for acquittals.

We did see it in another international case recently, but not here, not in Australia. So they don't have a lot of the stuff. Again, Clinton's case would have offered the most, but they actually don't have a lot of that anymore. And so in May of 1998, the reinvestigation that they did do, I mean, they gather everything they have, what's left, what they found, the witness statements, they send everything over to the prosecution's office, hoping that James could maybe be prosecuted for Evelyn's and Colleen's murders. But after a year of waiting, the prosecution's office declined. They didn't feel that the evidence was strong enough.

But that didn't mean that Detective Jubalin was giving up. He was able to find several people who had been in prison with James, he says, while awaiting trial for Clinton's murder, who said that James admitted to the killings. Okay, so how reliable are these guys? Uh, yeah, you know, right, like jailhouse snitches, always, question mark.

I know in Dan Box's book, one of them was known to have perjured himself in court, so like cool. Definitely wouldn't hang your entire case on them or any case. And I think they know that because they try to get one of them to wear a wire and visit James, but James never says anything incriminating. Like they got nothing. So fast forward a couple of more years. In August, 2004, a coroner's inquest is held to determine the fate of Colleen and Evelyn's cases.

And this is just a way for all of the evidence and witness testimony to be presented. All the cards are laid out on a table and then the coroner can recommend where, if anywhere, these cases should go. In Colleen's case, ultimately, he felt like there wasn't enough evidence to take it to trial. Even though he said that there was enough to make him feel like she was a victim of a homicide, and that her case shared enough similarities with Evelyn's and Clinton's to suggest that they were

most likely committed by James, it wasn't enough to convict. And it's worth noting that in the records, they only call him a person of interest in Colleen's case. But more can be said for Evelyn's case, because in hers, it is decided that now there is enough evidence to get a possible conviction. So in February of 2006, James is put on trial again, this time for the murder of Evelyn.

Though just going to trial was a big victory for those who believed James was guilty, they faced the same uphill battle that they did in Clinton's case. Once again, no evidence from the other two cases was allowed to be presented. And the defense comes out swinging. I told you there were random sightings of Evelyn that they had to run down back when she first went missing. Police obviously don't believe any of them were her based on their theory,

but a witness testified that she saw Evelyn the day after that party with a group of children in her store. So if that's true, that eliminates the prosecution's theory that James took her and killed her the night of the party. And then there was something else that just added an extra element into the mix. Some of the witnesses' responses seemed quote unquote evasive. And I say quote unquote because specifically, it was the responses from the Aboriginal Australian people, like the family members that were there to testify. Like they were there were long silences or like looking at the floor when responding to questions.

Sure, but considering their distrust towards police and probably the entire justice system at this point. Yes. I'm not surprised that they answered questions this way, that their demeanor looked like this. Like, come on. Exactly. But the people in the jury box don't know that. They just see what they see. And I mean, how many people are actively checking their biases or assumptions. So with no background information on what awful things this group of people had gone through, it can be easy to slip into like, well, that's not how I were to respond, or like, well, that was weird.

And it also probably didn't help that this case was being tried an hour south of Bowerville with what sounds like an all white jury. So again, a jury of James's peers, sure, but certainly not a jury of their peers. And by the way, it is pointed out in the monthly article by Malcolm Knox that the witnesses from Bowerville were just responding how people from their community normally would.

It was just different than how people in the jury box would have responded or expected them to respond. It's not a fair way to judge someone or the answers that they're providing. Right. Now, in March, the jury ends up returning a verdict of not guilty. To make things even worse, there are riot police that appear in the courtroom, all dressed in black, which made the family feel like they were being treated as criminals, like almost like they expected some kind of trouble from them when this verdict got read. But, I mean, all they got were tears and screams of pain as James walked out of the courtroom a free man again. I would say a free man again.

Again. In 2006, there were changes to the double jeopardy law in New South Wales. According to Dan Box's book, it now allowed someone acquitted to be retried if there was quote unquote, fresh and compelling new evidence found. In fact, the victim's families actually helped change this law. But over more than 10 years, and even after an inquiry in 2014 led to several landmark recommendations regarding

policies, procedures, and training when it comes to cases involving Aboriginal Australian people, multiple attorney generals or courts dismiss any applications for retrials, with the last application dismissed in September of 2018. But it's still a possibility. A possibility, yeah. And it's worth noting that James has never been charged

with anything related to Colleen. And it's important to remind everyone that at the end of the day, James has never been convicted of a crime in these cases. In fact, it's the opposite. He's been acquitted twice. So in the eyes of the law and James' family, he is an innocent man.

But the victims' families, and honestly, even the police, think otherwise. They do. I mean, especially the families. They feel that very strongly. And you can understand why. One of the things that they point to so much, and the thing we haven't really touched on here, is that everything stopped once James was arrested for Clinton's murder. Yeah, I was actually wondering about that.

This all happened within, what, four or five months? All three crimes, all these disappearances, homicides happened, but then there was nothing before and it seems like there was nothing after that either. Like why? Why was this happening here now in that time and why did it stop? I don't know.

I mean, again, you have to make a lot of assumptions. So we're saying if James was responsible, he's been acquitted in a lot of it. Like, why would he do it? The one thing I found is people would talk about him being this, like, you know, friendly guy who got along with everyone, but then when he would drink, there would be this darker side that would come out. There are those allegations of sexual misconduct. So it's possible, like, that's at the root of something, and then, you know, things were escalating,

and then once she was caught. But then there's the option that it's not him, right? Yeah, I mean, and if it's not him, is it still even one person? Is it three different people? It would be wild if it were different people. I mean, especially with them, like, all, again, Colleen hasn't been found, her stuff was found,

but it's all found in, like, the same general area. In a really rural area, yeah. Yeah, it just does not make sense for it not to be the same person, whoever that person is. But it's frustrating, because, like, are they connected? Aren't they connected? The police were adamant from the start that they weren't. I mean, have the police ever apologized or addressed how, you know, they reacted in those

early days? Yeah, they have. But one of the things that the family members point out in that Bowerville Murders documentary is that they're not interested in wreath ceremonies and these big gestures by police, which have happened in the past. But they're like, it means nothing to us. Yeah, those are just photo ops. Yeah.

And they've waited over 30 years for more than a photo op. What they want is some kind of justice. And how much longer do they have to wait for it? How much more do these families have to go through considering how much they've already been through? So much of it because of the color of their skin. The families of Bowerville victims need something to go their way, and unfortunately, they're at the mercy of a legal system

that up until now hadn't done much, if anything, for them. I don't think we're beyond answers or justice in these cases. I think of Father Patrick Ryan's murder, James Reios, who was wrongfully convicted. I mean, everyone believed that the evidence was lost. Nothing could be proven now. But I think about the crime junkies. One of you heard that story and was able to get the right people to go back and take another look.

And James Rios was exonerated once and for all. So maybe there is something still out there in this case that holds the answers. Maybe someone knows where Colleen is, the girl who started all of this. Maybe she'll be the one to finally bring closure. I think there is still hope. So especially if you are in Australia, share this story, talk about Colleen

and Evelyn and Clinton. And if you know anything, please contact the New South Wales Crime Stoppers our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. The Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?