Going West: True Crime - The Phillip Island Mystery // Patreon Bonus Clip // Real Crime

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

*BONUS EPISODE CLIP! In the summer of 1986, a young Australian woman working for a prominent family on a small island was found murdered in her home. Between a complicated crime scene, potential cover ups, and dozens of unanswered questions, this case proves to be incredibly baffling and will be sure to make you question every detail... right down to the letter A carved into the victims body. This is the murder of Beth Barnard, the disappearance of Vivianne Cameron, and the story of The Phillip Island Mystery.* *Listen to the rest at:* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on going West patrons, I'm your host Tee and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Real Crime. Howdy our wonderful patrons thank you so much for joining us for another bonus episode and thanks for sticking around as they come out. It means a whole lot to us that you guys are here and that you help support the show and I will say that every time because I always mean it and we just love you guys. Yeah, we're gonna say it every time. Heath found this case, wait did you find on your own or did someone tell it to you?

I found this case on my own, I thought it looked really, really interesting and it's set up kind of like a murder mystery, so get ready because there's a lot of details, a lot of twists and turns, there's some very strange stuff going on. I thought you guys would really enjoy this episode, so I'm really excited to tell it. And for all of our Aussie patrons out there, this one takes place in Australia in a really, really beautiful setting. So make sure that you check out our Patreon or our social media for photos of this island, because it is freaking amazing, like, gorgeous. Yeah, so let's not waste any more time.

This is episode number 23 of Real Crime. So let's get into it. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music Summer of 1986, a young Australian woman working for a prominent family on a small island was found murdered in her home. Between a complicated crime scene, potential cover-ups, and dozens of unanswered questions, this case proves to be incredibly baffling, and will be sure to make you ponder every detail, right down to the letter A being carved into the victim's body. This is the murder of Beth Barnard, the disappearance of Vivian Cameron, and the story of the Philip Island mystery. Elizabeth Catherine Barnard, who everyone called Beth, was born on December 25, 1962, so Christmas baby, to parents John and Margaret in Melbourne, Australia.

Beth was described as being a very fun and outgoing person who, from a young age, absolutely had a love for the outdoors and animals. And at some point, her family moved to the small community of Philip Island, Australia, which is located about two hours south of Melbourne. The island is 16 miles or 26 kilometers long and 5 miles wide or 9 kilometers wide and it's home to a few thousand residents making it a very very tight-knit community. And it's home to some of the most stunning views and renowned beaches in all of Australia. And again you guys should really go look at photos if you haven't been or haven't seen it before.

Yeah, I really want to visit because it looks just amazing. Let's go, for real. It's beautiful. And Beth eventually attended college during the early to mid-1980s in Melbourne and received a degree in agriculture before moving back to Phillip Island to work. In 1986, Beth was living at her parents' home who weren't living there at the time they were actually living in Melbourne, on the eastern part of the island, and she was working for the world famous Penguin Parade. Phillip Island is home to the largest colony of penguins I think there was 32,000 penguins that live there. And every night these penguins would return home to their burrows on the beach, which

became a huge attraction for tourists in the area. This might sound really stupid, but I didn't even know that there were penguins in Australia at all. I think we always associate penguins with being in a really cold place. So, but after you showed me photos, it was, it's really cool. Yeah, it is really cool. So basically, they set this whole place up where it's kind of an arena and people can go and like they pay money to watch these penguins march back to their burrows and they do it in like the thousands. So it's really cool to see.

And Beth absolutely loved working with the animals. When she wasn't working, she was writing horses with her childhood friend Wendy Orchard, and the pair would take the horses to the beach for a picnic at sunset, which sounds incredible. That's so ideal. She's a very ideal life, it seems. Yes, she definitely does. So Beth was now 23 and she was full of life. She would host parties at her house and she was getting to know the professional residents who lived on the island, and that's when she met a coworker who volunteered at the Penguin Parade, 36-year-old Fergus Cameron.

Fergus Cameron had come from a prominent family on the island, and if you owned land on the island or were a politician, you were most likely wealthy, and the Cameron family had both. Fergus was a college graduate turned real estate agent who ended up working for his family's farm which generated a large income and his brother Donald was a Philip Island counselor. In December of 1976, Fergus married a woman named Vivian Candy and the two were seemingly very much in love. Vivian worked part-time at the Philip Island Community House, which held local events, as well as on the Cameron Family Farm, with

her husband Fergus, and she was known to be very caring and loyal. Fergus and Vivian had two sons, DuGold, who was born in 1978, and Hugh, who was born in 1981. Friends of the couple said that they appeared to be happy, but things were starting to change by 1985. It kind of seemed as if Fergus was losing interest in the relationship with Vivian and had his eyes focused on someone else. Fergus Cameron had met 23-year-old Beth Barnard while volunteering at the Penguin Parade, and he had an interest in her right away. She was young, beautiful, and smart.

He learned that Beth also had a degree in agriculture, and Fergus being a farmer himself was smitten by that. At some point he asked Beth if she would like to work for him at his farm, and Beth quickly agreed because she wanted to gain more experience in her career field, so this was kind of a nice way for her to do that. By April of 1985, Beth was working on the Cameron Family Farm, and by May, their working relationship became much more. One night in May, after a shift at the Penguin Parade, Beth invited her co-workers back

to her place for a party, including Fergus and Vivian. But Vivian wasn't interested in attending, so Fergus went without her. That night, he and Beth became sexually intimate for the very first time. This new relationship between Fergus and Beth developed into an ongoing romance that lasted through the summer. Life on the island was good for Fergus Cameron. His brother Don and Don's wife Pam, who was a physiotherapist, lived nearby as well as Fergus and Don's sister, Marny, who worked as a nurse at the local hospital.

The Cameron family was big and spent a lot of time together and they were all involved in the community in one way or another. Fergus also was a shareholder in the Grand Prix Race Track located on the island that hosted public racing events. Yeah, there was like a few different things on the island that really kind of were the biggest tourist attractions. One was the Grand Prix Race Track, and then the other one was the Penguin Parade.

This sounds like a really fun place to live. It sounds like there's a lot going on. But on the flip side of the Cameron family was Fergus's wife Vivian Cameron. Vivian came from divorce parents, which was something that, for some reason, she felt ashamed of, and this made her determine to make her marriage work.

But it was clear that things weren't going well. And to be clear, she does not know that there's an affair going on between Fergus and Beth. Right. things weren't going well. Right. Vivian felt like an outsider in the Cameron family, and this became more apparent when Fergus stopped making time for her, because he now now he's got, he's got Beth on his hands. Vivian began to notice that Fergus was spending a bit too much time with his new employee Beth, and she began to accuse him of cheating.

This of course put more strain on the couple's relationship and Fergus denied the accusations. Beth and Fergus had now been secretly seeing each other for about a year at this point, and Beth was due to take a trip to the Maldives with her girlfriends. Both Fergus and Beth knew that what they were doing was wrong, and they decided to end their relationship before Beth left for a trip. But while Beth was on vacation, she was sitting on the beach one day with her friends when a palm reader approached the girls. One by one, the girls got their palms red and giggled as they did so. But when the palm reader got to Beth, he had a concerned look on his face. He quickly told Beth that he couldn't read her

palm and he abruptly walked away. But Beth and her friends laughed off the experience and never really thought about it again. Although Beth wanted to cut ties with Fergus, she still had feelings for him, so when she returned from her trip, the two continued their love affair. In December of 1985, Beth and Fergus had been working in the sheep shearing shed when Vivian caught the two hugging. Vivian immediately pulled Fergus aside and asked him point blank if he was seeing Beth. Fergus's response was, no, she's just a really good friend of mine, which Vivian and her heart pretty much knew was a lie. Beth was kind of starting to feel like the whole situation was getting out of hand and

decided to start applying to jobs located off of Phillip Island. In February of 1986, Beth immediately quit her jobs at the Penguin Parade and at the Cameron Family Farm, and applied for a job 105 miles or 170 kilometers away from Fergus Cameron. She was ready to move on, but one night while working at the Penguin Parade, Fergus sat Beth down and explained to her that she shouldn't leave, kind of trying to convince her to stay on the island. Although Beth had already been hired on a new job, Fergus's plan worked and Beth actually decided to stay.

She told her boss at the Penguin Parade that she had changed her mind and she was then rehired. And friends of Beth warned her not to continue her relationship with Fergus, stating that getting involved with a married man was bad business, but despite their warnings, Beth and Fergus kept seeing each other. At this point, Vivian was busy tending to the needs of her two young boys, while Fergus was focused on his long work weeks between the farm and the penguin parade, and his relationship with Beth.

He and Beth continued to see each other for the next seven months, and Beth even continued to work on the Cameron family farm Which is so weird because at this point Vivian is Suspecting that they're seeing each other yet. It's time to break it off. Yeah, so by July of 1986 Vivian was becoming very depressed and she was feeling extremely alone She was even starting to lose weight in trying out new hairstyles and new outfits to try and get her husband to become interested in her again, but that really didn't work. Oh, that's sad.

I know it's really sad. During the months between when Beth would have left the island for a different job all the way through July, Fergus assured Beth that he and Vivian were working out plans to separate and that he only had interest in Beth. It had been months since Ferguson Vivian had actually been sexually involved and when they were, Ferguson felt more guilty for having sex with his own wife than he did for having an affair with Beth. That's interesting. Which says a lot, yeah, basically he felt bad that whenever he would have sex with Vivian. It's but I mean that that just goes to show you he must have had a much deeper connection with Beth then at that point.

Yes. In mid-September of 1986, Vivian began to reach out for help. She didn't know what to do with her marriage and each time she confronted Fergus, he lied and denied his affair and she felt like there was no one to turn to. At one point, she even called Lifeline, which is a call service for suicide prevention, but friends say that she would never do anything like that because she couldn't leave her two boys who she deeply loved. So it sounds like she really just needed someone to kind of vent to and share her feelings

with. Yeah, and she did have a brother Keith who lived in Melbourne, and she did have a sister I don't know where the sister lived or what the sister's name was, but she really didn't talk to them or see them too much. Oh, I see. And at this same time, actually, even Beth began to feel like her relationship with Fergus wasn't going the way she thought it was going to, and she was beginning to think that Fergus was never going to break it off with Vivian.

So this guy is just making both women question things. On Monday, September 22nd, 1986, Beth was out of work on sick leave due to this lingering cold that she had. So Beth and her friend Marie decided to head to a local newspaper shop and grab some magazines because they loved to fill out the contests and questionnaires inside, so they brought them back to Marie's house. So while they were filling out these questionnaires and contests, Beth began to explain to her friend Marie the dynamic of her relationship with Fergus and how she really just wanted more

from him. She just really wanted him to choose her and leave his failing marriage and she actually planned to give Fergus an ultimatum, so just... mere Vivian, take your pick. Beth made plans with Fergus for him to come to her home and visit her on Monday night, the 22nd after he was finished at the Penguin Parade at around 8pm. When his work was done, Fergus made his way to Beth's house on McFee's Road, which is where she lived, which was only about a 10-15 minute drive and on the other side of the

island from the Penguin Parade. Fergus said that he arrived at Beth's house shortly after 8pm and that he noticed her back door was unlocked. And he mentioned this later on because he apparently told Beth on a few different occasions that she needed to be more safe and she needed to lock her doors. Fergus explains that he and Beth sat down in the living room next to the heater and talked for a little while. He said that they didn't make love but they just kind of hung out and they cuddled

and just talked with each other. He explained that Beth and his outlook on the relationship was a little more optimistic after they had talked, and that he felt his time with Vivian was definitely coming to an end. This of course made Beth very happy. After talking for a while, Fergus decided to leave Beth's house and head back to his own home at 9.05pm that evening, and Beth did mention before Fergus left that she was planning on staying in Melbourne

for a week with her parents, and that she would either be leaving that night or in the morning. When Fergus arrived home, he realized that his sister, Marney, was at his house and when he walked in, Vivian was sipping a glass of wine at the kitchen table. Marney looked irritated because she knew her brother was off work at 8 p.m., but it was a very short drive home, so why was he so late? Well Vivian and Marney had a pretty good guess, but before Fergus could address his wife and sister, the phone rang, and it was a business call that he needed to take. So

he left the kitchen and retreated into a bedroom while Marney and Vivian continued to talk. When he finished his phone call at 9.45pm, he came out from the room into the kitchen and spoke with Marney for a minute before she left the camera at home. This is when things got heated according to Fergus. He states that Vivian was incredibly upset and began to scream at him, asking where he had been, and that's when Fergus replied, I was talking a bath. This apparently sent Vivian into a rage, and she smashed her wine glass into Fergus's face and stabbed him in the back with the remaining glass. Thank you guys so much for checking out this little clip of our new bonus episode on the

Philip Island mystery. This case gets so much more intense, but I thought that was kind of a good place to cut it off before we get two into the details. So if you guys want to listen to this, plus 22 other bonus episodes for just $5 a month, if you sign up today, you will get all 23 bonus episodes for just $5. It really helps the show. We also have a second tier that's $10 a month, and that one has a total of 35 bonus episodes with more coming each month.

So with that, with the $10 you get two bonus episodes a month with the $5 you get one bonus episode a month. Either way, it really helps the show. So I hope you guys enjoyed this little clip and then it gave you a better idea of what our Patreon episodes are like. They're just like going west really. We just cover cases we wouldn't usually cover on going west. You know, usually international cases and things like that, but they're all full length and completely ad-free. So, if you're interested head on over to patreon.com, slash going west podcast, and we included a link in the description of this episode. So thanks again for checking out this little clip and listening to our show Going West. So so for everybody out there in the world, cheerio and don't be a stranger.

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