Park Predators - The Body

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

When a family man is found alone, shot and beheaded in Australia's Royal National Park in 1975, no one could fathom the brutality of the crime. For decades, the truth about what happened to Nigel McAree has eluded authorities and his family has carried on with unbearable grief.Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit parkpredators.com Park Predators is an audiochuck production. Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra, and today I'm taking you all the way to Royal National Park in New South Wales, Australia. A lot of you who listen to this show are in North America, but I wanted to give a special shout-out to all of you listening in Australia. I get story submissions from you all the time, and today's case is one I received a few months back that I knew I had to dig further into. According to the New South Wales National Park's website, Royal National Park is the second oldest national park in the world. It was established in the 1870s, but don't let its age fool you.

This park is still one of the most biodiverse parks in nature. One minute you could be hiking in rainforests, and the next you could be on a bushwalk. And then to finish off your day, you're pulling over into one of the many lookouts that offer breathtaking coastal views. And when I say these views are lookers, I mean it. They're complete with white sand beaches and picnic areas

that are as picturesque as they come. One of the most popular pull-offs to take in these sights is Governor Game Lookout, and it's located on the southeast edge of the park. For decades and decades, locals and visitors have driven up there to relax, sightsee, whale watch in migratory season, or just take in the view. On a September afternoon in 1975, that's exactly what one man was doing. He pulled in and parked his car while on break

from his busy job as a salesman and was never seen again, or at least not in one piece. This is Park Predators. Shortly after 3 o'clock on Wednesday, September 17, 1975, a couple named James and Karen Millay drove to Governor Game Lookout in Royal National Park. They were tourists looking forward to checking out the beautiful vista of Gary Beach,

which sat several kilometers below the lookout. As they parked their car on the side of the road and got out, they noticed a 1974 bronze-colored Ford Fairlane sedan parked in the area, but nobody was inside of it. Some of the source material says the vacant car was a Ford Falcon sedan, and there is a difference between a Fairlane and a Falcon. The Falcon is much sportier than the Fairlane, and I honestly don't know which model it was,

but regardless, James and Karen felt like the vacant sedan seemed odd. However, in the moment, they weren't too concerned. They figured whoever drove it was probably walking around nearby somewhere, or maybe the driver had parked it and been picked up by a friend to venture further into the park. Who knew? But pretty quickly after spotting it, the couple's innocent apathy disappeared. When James walked closer to the car, he noticed a large pool of blood on the ground next to some bushes right beside it.

I don't think you have to be a Gold Star Park Predators listener to know that a big pool of blood near a vacant car at a fairly remote lookout is a clear red flag that something bad had gone down. So James and Karen decided to drive over to the closest ranger station and report what they'd found. For all they knew, whoever had been in the car could have been injured from a fall or in need of some serious medical care. And that's putting a nice spin on it. If it were me, my mind immediately would jump to murder, but that's probably because I've been researching this show for too many years now. But God bless James and Karen for thinking more optimistically

and assuming that there was a chance whoever the blood belonged to was nearly injured. According to the book Unsolved Australia by Justine Ford, the park ranger who took the couple's report came out to investigate right away, and it wasn't long before he found something awful. Lying in some bushes about five meters below the lookout's edge, the ranger spotted a man's body, fully clothed in dress shoes, dress pants, and a suit coat. The body was face down, and it only took a glance for the ranger to realize that whoever the man at the bottom of the ledge was, was dead. There was no question the victim was deceased, and that's

because the area where his head should have been was just a giant pool of blood. Even from several feet away, it was obvious to the park ranger that the man in the dress suit had been decapitated. After processing the horrific sight, the ranger called for backup and requested homicide investigators from the New South Wales Police Force in the nearby town of Sutherland to come to the scene. Once those units arrived, authorities shut down the roadway to and from the lookout so passing visitors wouldn't be exposed to such a terrible scene. After that, rangers and police officers began scouring the area for clues, and most importantly, left no stone unturned to try and find the victim's head.

But climbing down and walking along the lookout wasn't easy. The lookout had a steep drop-off as well as areas with lots of loose rocks and there weren't many places you could lean over or easily walk down. But despite those challenges, searchers eventually found the man's missing head about 15 feet away from where his body had been dumped. 15 feet away from where his body had been dumped. According to reporting by Andrew Kouperithis for news.com.au, police secured all the man's remains and inspected his head. It appeared he'd been shot in the back of his head before being decapitated, which struck investigators as unusual. I mean, if the intent had been to murder the victim, why did his killer also cut off his head after shooting him execution style? The answer to that question wasn't going to be easy to come by, but based on several more blood pools investigators found in the bushes near the lookout's railing, plus the position the victim was found in,

Law enforcement's prevailing theory was that whoever the killer or killers were, they likely shot the victim in the back of the head while he was facing outward, leaning on the railing, then dragged his body to the bushes and decapitated him. After that, police believed the suspect or suspects then tossed the victim's head down the slope and pushed his body directly over the lookout's edge. It then landed on a ledge several meters below. When detectives examined the abandoned sedan, they found it was unlocked and a suit jacket that had the same matching striped pattern as the dead man's pants was folded on a seat inside. Nothing seemed disturbed or tossed around as if someone had been ransacking the car, which only seemed to deepen the mystery. Investigators determined that the only things that were missing were the victim's car keys and his wallet, though some source material reported his wallet was later found somewhere at the scene. However, the whereabouts of his car keys remain unknown. car keys remain unknown. As far as motive went, the crime seemed too brutal to just be a random robbery, which meant the next obvious motive police had to consider was that the killing was personal.

But to find out who would want to hurt this guy so badly, police had to identify him. Thankfully, that didn't take long because one of the responding officers recognized the victim. that didn't take long because one of the responding officers recognized the victim. He said the man in the dress suit was 42-year-old Nigel Ernest Macery, a father and well-respected member of the Warrinora River community in Sutherland. Nigel had been in the newspaper many times because he was a bagpipe bandleader for the Police Boys Club in Sutherland. This club allowed civilians to volunteer to lead group activities and offered an open gym or more structured programs for kids. Because Nigel came from deep Scottish roots, he took pride in being the club's pipe band director

and hoped that boys who joined would want to develop constructive skills like learning music. Nigel and his own son Stuart spent a lot of time at the club. Sources vary on whether Stuart was 10 or 11 years old at the time of his father's death, but what is agreed upon is that by all accounts, Nigel was a pillar in the small Warrinora River community that his family lived in. By nightfall on Wednesday, authorities removed Nigel's body from the park and sent it off for an official autopsy. The results were expected to come in the following day. By Thursday morning, police had confirmed Nigel's identification with his wife, Kathleen.

The source material isn't clear as to how police did this. Like, I don't know if they had Kathleen come to the morgue or if they showed her pictures, but what I do know is they explained to her at some point on Wednesday that her husband had been decapitated, which, as you can imagine, was horrific for Kathleen to hear. According to the book Unsolved Australia,

her reaction was so severe, her doctor felt it was medically necessary to inject her with sedatives to keep her calm. Their son, Stuart, was equally devastated, but friends and family noted that unlike his mother, Stuart's reaction was an almost catatonic response. He didn't cry. He didn't talk. He didn't get angry. He was just empty. At such a young age, this was the worst news he'd ever received, and I'm sure he was beyond heartbroken and didn't even have the capacity to process so much trauma, especially since the gruesome nature of his dad's murder was publicized

throughout New South Wales. Even though the news coverage was potentially hurtful to the family, the police used the voracious appetite of the press to their advantage. A few days after the crime, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Nigel's autopsy revealed he'd been shot with a.22 caliber bullet, likely fired from a rifle. Police told reporters they wanted anyone who lived near the park to check and see if their firearms had been stolen or used recently. Investigators also shared that they believed whoever had killed Nigel shot him from at least three meters away, then used a large knife like a machete or an axe or possibly a sword to decapitate him. Police also announced that detectives from Sutherland were investigating whether a transient man who was known to live in the park could be involved at all. But they admitted they didn't feel super confident that lead would go anywhere.

Just like the lead about the transient man, authorities clarified that they'd found a spent.22 shell casing 40 meters from the crime scene, but they weren't sure if that shell casing was even related to Nigel's murder. So to help figure out what was what, police pleaded with the public to come forward with information. They wanted to interview everyone who'd driven past or gone to Governor Game Lookout on the afternoon of September 17th. The source material isn't super clear, but I have to imagine part of their plea may have also been to people who recreationally shot in the park. To help further the investigation the only way they could, detectives also wanted to learn as much as they could about Nigel's movements in the hours leading up to the afternoon he was killed. And to do that, they turned to his family and employer to get more information. And to do that, they turned to his family and employer to get more information.

According to Justine Ford's book, Kathleen told police that on Wednesday morning, she'd brought Nigel breakfast in bed like she usually did. Then he'd gotten up to take Stuart to school. After that, he dropped her off at her job in Sutherland and promised to pick her up later that afternoon. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that around 8 a.m., Nigel had called his boss at Formica Plastics Company in the town of Thornleigh, which was about a 45-minute drive north of Sutherland. Nigel told his boss that he was going to take a sales call in Wollongong,

a city about 45 minutes south of Sutherland. If you look at a map of this part of Australia, you'll see that the only thing that separates Sutherland from Wollongong is Royal National Park, Darawal National Park, and Hethcote National Park, plus a few small coastal towns. So Governor Game Lookout would have been directly on the route that Nigel told his employer he would be traveling to get to his appointment. His family and friends all confirmed that Nigel would often stop at Governor Game Lookout to break up his drives to and from sales calls. By 3 p.m. on the 17th, he never showed up to get his wife though. Kathleen told police she'd waited until about 4.30, but Nigel never came to get her,

which she admitted was unlike him. She said she didn't go into a panic right away because sometimes his sales calls did run over, so she kind of just shrugged it off and figured her own way home from her job. By evening time, though, while preparing dinner, she was growing more and more concerned that she still hadn't heard from her husband. She told investigators that when Nigel missed dinner without so much as a phone call to explain where he was, that's when she knew something was definitely wrong. It wasn't too much long after that that New South Wales investigators showed up at her house to break the bad news. that New South Wales investigators showed up at her house to break the bad news. So with all of this information in mind, authorities theorized that when Nigel was on his way either to or from his meeting in Wollongong,

he decided to stop at Governor Game Lookout to take a break from being in the car. And based on the results from his autopsy, police determined that had to have happened sometime between 1 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Figuring out his last movements from after he had called his boss to when ultimately that window of time happened when he was killed was the tough part. All police knew is that he had crossed paths with someone who ultimately ended up murdering him. The day after the autopsy, police officers and detectives returned to Royal National Park and began interviewing visitors and members of the public who'd come forward to offer information.

According to news reports, police spoke with more than 60 people who'd been near Governor Game Lookout on the day of the crime. And several of these witnesses reported seeing a man carrying a cookery knife walking in the direction of the lookout on the day Nigel was killed. Now, I had to look up what exactly a cookery knife is, and after doing some Googling, I read that it basically looks like a machete with a curved blade. And coincidentally, that closely matched the weapon police believed

the killer used to decapitate Nigel. During a press conference later that afternoon, police released a description of this knife-toting man and confirmed that Nigel's wallet had likely contained $10 cash before it disappeared or was tossed in the bushes, suggesting robbery may have been the motive. The person of interest was described as being a male, between 30 and 40 years old, around 5 foot 9 inches tall, with black hair and appeared scruffy, unwashed, and sunburned. Some witnesses reported that along with the curved knife, this man had been carrying a bag with green and red printing on it,

and he wore a few rings on his left hand that had gemstones in them. He also wore a gray flannel with blue and black checks on it, cuffed pants, and a red parka with a silk-lined hood. All of that stuff was dirty and torn, which made police suspect even more

that this guy was a transient who lived in the park. But other than those details and a vague suspicion that he could be involved, authorities didn't have any witnesses who specifically said they saw this mystery man with Nigel at the lookout or threatening anyone else in the park. So while the authorities tried to track that guy down to learn more, people from Nigel's hometown prepared his funeral arrangements. On Monday, September 22nd,

600 people gathered at the Police Boys Club in Sutherland to pay their respects to Nigel and his family. Stuart, his son, played in the pipe band and marched at his father's service. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, one person who attended said, quote,

You couldn't meet a man who was more highly respected. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, one person who attended said, quote, The family decided to cremate Nigel's remains shortly after the ceremony. One week into the investigation, the police were definitely feeling pressure and they had their work cut out for them. the police were definitely feeling pressure and they had their work cut out for them. They were full steam ahead in their case, but by the end of the day on the 22nd, any hope that this knife-toting mystery man might be a hot lead had vanished. The Australian Associated Press reported that detectives found that guy and they questioned him but subsequently ruled him out entirely, which meant law enforcement was back to square one. They told local newspapers that they still felt there were a handful of people who may have seen something important near the lookout around the time of the murder, but for

some reason those people had been reluctant to come forward, and the police thought maybe that's because they themselves had been in the park doing things they shouldn't have been. For example, the police said that these individuals might have been cruising with people who weren't their spouses, wink wink, and or doing drugs. To reassure these folks that it was okay to come forward, authorities said they would be willing to look past any indiscretions these witnesses committed to hopefully learn potentially valuable information about Nigel's murder. But as you might have guessed, nobody took the cops up on this offer. Despite a lack of help from the public, though, the police felt fairly confident that robbery was not the sole motive. They had brought it up before, but it just didn't make sense considering the fact

that the killer had only stolen about $10 from Nigel's recovered wallet, but left the most expensive item he owned, his fairly new sedan, behind. So police were forced to pivot and begin considering two other possible motives. One, Nigel was killed by someone who knew him and would have also known he was going to stop at Governor Game Lookout that fateful day. Or two, Nigel's death was a thrill kill committed by a ruthless predator who was still on the loose. The notion that someone had murdered Nigel in such a brutal way, just for the thrill of it, was an alarming thought for police to process.

The only person they felt could be capable of such a crime was someone who was not in a sane state of mind. Basically, authorities said it had to be someone who was under the influence of drugs or who had been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. According to reporting by the St. George Sutherland Shire Leader, at the time, Royal National Park was a common place for people struggling with homelessness or substance use disorders to set up camp and live off the grid. And while most of those people were viewed as being completely harmless, police knew that desperation may have prompted one of them to commit this crime. A detective heading up the investigation told the newspaper, quote,

it is extremely difficult to understand how any person in a normal state of mind could commit such a crime as this. The killer, if drugged, could have been still affected by the dose for several hours after the setting in of the withdrawal period. In this case, he would have been had noticeable changes in his behavior immediately following the crime. They said he would have been very withdrawn and sad. Investigators also said that it was possible, if he had community of any kind, he would have been missing or absent for at least a day or two after the murder. They doubled down on the idea that the killer also would have had bloodstained clothing following the crime.

Unfortunately, the rest of September 1975 and the whole month of October passed with no new updates in the case. In early November, government officials in New South Wales offered up a reward of $10,000, hoping that someone would come forward with new information. According to the Government Gazette and the Sydney Morning Herald, the governor even agreed to grant immunity to anyone who might be an accomplice to the murder. But even with this gracious offer on the table, no one called in to help. Months went by, then years,

and Nigel's case turned ice cold. There was little mention of it in newspapers except to announce that the outstanding reward money was still up for grabs to anyone who could provide credible information to police. Leeds pretty much ceased until 2005 when an anonymous caller rang into Crimestoppers and provided the names of three people

who they said were responsible for murdering Nigel. According to Justine Ford's book, Unsolved Australia, and Andrew Kouberithis' reporting for news.com.au, New South Wales police received three names of people who back in 1975 would have been teenagers living near Sutherland. These individuals also had criminal records. For some reason, which I can't wrap my head around, authorities waited three whole years before they even attempted to locate and question these people. None of the source material clearly states why police waited so long, so we're only

left to speculate. But what I do know is that when the cold case unit detectives did finally speak with them, it didn't take long before investigators cleared them of any involvement. Why they were cleared is not something that's ever been explained. Authorities did, however, urge the anonymous caller who'd first reported the trio in 2005 to call back so police could get more information. And you probably guessed it, that person never dialed up the cops again. But regardless of this elusive tipster and the police's delay in pursuing the information for three years, the cold case detectives who were working on the case in 2008 did at least put fresh eyes on Nigel's investigation, and they tried to pursue other

credible information. According to Unsolved Australia, the detectives did a lot more digging into Nigel's movements leading up to his death. And that's when they discovered some big revelations. They told Justine Ford for her book that they'd been able to establish several key facts about Nigel's whereabouts prior to the murder that had either never been known or never released to the public back in the 80s and 90s. For starters, the cold case detectives told Justine Ford that the sales appointment Nigel had told his boss he was going to on September 17, 1975, in Wollongong, wasn't actually in Wollongong at all. The detectives said that additional interviews they'd conducted with people over the years who

worked for Formica Plastics in 1975 revealed that the sales meetings Nigel was supposed to go to on September 17th were all scheduled to be at businesses in Sydney's North Shore, which is an hour in the opposite direction from Royal National Park. As a reminder, the distance from where Nigel lived in Sutherland to where he told his boss he was going to go in Wollongong is about 45 minutes, and it would have forced him to drive south through the park, making it only natural to assume he would have pit-stopped at Governor Game Lookout. But fast forward to 2008, and based on the new information detectives had learned about where Nigel was supposed to be on September 17th

and where he actually was, well, it just didn't make any sense that he would be in the park that day. On top of that, authorities in 2008 determined that Nigel never made any meetings in Sydney or Wollongong, which suggested he was in the park for a reason unrelated to his work travel. The cold case detectives kept digging into this, and they told Unsolved Australia author Justine Ford that they'd spoken with other witnesses who'd been inside the park in 1975, which included a park worker who said

they saw a bronze-colored sedan and a man fitting Nigel's description parked on the side of the road near the lookout shortly before 1 p.m. on September 17th. But these sightings said Nigel was with a woman. The park worker told detectives that when he'd seen Nigel, there was a young woman with him in his passenger seat. The worker said shortly after first spotting the pair, he saw them again walking outside the car near the lookout.

He described the woman as being around 25 years old, on the taller side, with shoulder-length hair. The cold case detectives said that when they'd re-examined the physical evidence in the case, they'd found a scrap of paper that had been taken from Nigel's car as evidence, and it had a phone number written on it along with the name Lisa. So, putting two and two together, the detectives began to consider if it was possible this Lisa woman might be the same young woman the park worker had seen with Nigel. woman might be the same young woman the park worker had seen with Nigel. They then had to ask the obvious question, was he possibly having an affair with this woman?

To know for sure, they needed to track down whoever Lisa was. According to Ford's book, police traced the number from the piece of paper to an address in Paddington, which for reference is in Sydney, but not on the North Shore. However, every time authorities went to visit the spot, they said Lisa was never there. It got to the point where one of the detectives theorized that Lisa might have been an alias. Despite their best efforts, nothing more about Lisa materialized, and the lead pretty much died there. Authorities were left to speculate that perhaps Lisa worked as an adult escort or possibly a sex worker, which would explain why she was so evasive with law enforcement. That thought caused them to also wonder if it was possible a male figure in her life had learned of her involvement with Nigel and murdered him over

it. But all of that was speculation. They had no evidence to support any of it. Not to mention, no one in Nigel's life thought it was possible for him to have an affair on his wife. Even if he was, though, I have trouble thinking there were two people involved in such a brutal crime, and over the course of decades, neither of them came forward or opened their mouth. Especially when you consider the fact that the New South Wales governor at one point had announced immunity for an accomplice. Anyways, after this flurry of new information in the late 2000s, there wasn't anything new that pushed the case forward in terms of finding a suspect or suspects.

The case languished despite police upping the reward for information to $200,000. During all those years, Kathleen and Stewart's lives dragged on with no closure. Despite that little bit of progress in 2008, Kathleen told Justine Ford that in the 80s and 90s, she felt Nigel's case had been totally forgotten by police. Norell Spencer, Nigel's niece, described Kathleen after the crime as being in a constant haze and a shell of her former self. She told News.com that Stewart really lost both his parents that day in 1975. The effects of losing his dad were long-lasting and had an impact on every aspect of his life as a young adult. That same cousin said Stewart didn't talk about what

happened to his dad with anyone. Throughout grade school, he endured endless bullying that isolated him from having meaningful friendships. She told ABC News Australia, quote, he had absolutely no friends. No one ever came to play with him. For a young boy growing up, that's tragic. And to be teased and bullied because your father was murdered is really shocking, end quote.

Norell said that the murder shell-shocked everyone in the Macquarie family. As a little girl, she remembered being scared when she would stay over at Kathleen and Stuart's house because she was terrified whoever had murdered her uncle would come to the house and murder them too. At one point, when going without answers became too frustrating for Kathleen, she did what a lot of victims' families do when they feel helpless. She went to a psychic. According to the book Unsolved Australia, the psychic Kathleen consulted told her a lot of stuff

that had already been published in news reports over the years. Except for one interesting detail. According to the psychic, Nigel claimed from beyond the grave that a police officer had murdered him. Kathleen told Justine Ford that the psychic she'd consulted said, quote, Despite this information only coming solely from a psychic, Kathleen believed it, and based on some research I've done into the New South Wales Police Force in the 1970s, she kind of had a good reason to. According to a research report by the Committee on the Office of Ombudsman and the Police Integrity Commission, corruption in the New South Wales Police Department was rampant in the 1970s. And while this report doesn't explicitly state there was a connection between corrupt activities

and Nigel's murder, it does mention a similar death of a man named Donald McKay. Donald was a New South Wales politician and anti-drug campaigner who disappeared from a parking lot in the 1970s from a town a few hours away from where Nigel was from. Donald's body has never been found, despite authorities collecting multiple bullet casings and blood from the scene of his abduction.

He's believed to be dead, but his case is still technically unsolved. The police's investigation into Donald's disappearance was heavily criticized back in the day. Over the course of that investigation, two prime suspects were identified as men who were known associates of a drug lord named Robert Tromboli. And wouldn't you know it, according to that research report I cited earlier, Robert had some friends in the police department, which included the police commissioner. Now, I want to be clear, I am aware Donald and Nigel's cases are two separate cases, and the suggestion that a police corruption conspiracy could be tied to one does not mean it's for sure a thing in the other. But it is something that I had to mention, and I think it's worth thinking about, especially when you take into account the fact that Nigel was around police often as a volunteer at the police club in Sutherland.

He and his son Stuart were there all the time, which makes me ask the question, if Nigel saw something he wasn't supposed to see behind closed doors at the time, which makes me ask the question, if Nigel saw something he wasn't supposed to see behind closed doors at the club, what if he threatened to expose some kind of corruption within the department? I mean, he was beheaded. If that's not a crystal clear message that somebody wanted to silence him for good, I don't know what is. And something that loosely supports this kind of theory is the fact that Stewart told news.com.au that shortly before his father's murder, Nigel had discovered two rifles tucked away inside the police boys club where the pipe ban practiced. However, there is zero follow-up articles in the source material that go into detail about these guns, or where they came from, or if they were even suspicious,

but Stewart seemed convinced that they had something to do with why his father was killed. I don't know, maybe Nigel seeing something he shouldn't have and getting taken out because of it is a far stretch, but to me it seems like an avenue of investigation worth at least looking into. According to Justine Ford's book, Kathleen, Nigel's wife, was really attached to this theory for a long time

because one of the original investigators on her husband's case was a New South Wales police officer named Angus MacDonald. You see, years after Nigel's murder, Angus had risen in the police ranks and was later named in connection with a 1984 shooting of a New South Wales police detective named Michael Drury. The investigation report released by the Committee on the Office of the Ombudsman and Police Integrity Commission states that sometime in 1983, Detective Drury had been approached by another officer on the force and offered a bribe to drop charges against a local drug dealer. Drury refused several times, and by June of 1984, he wound up shot to death inside his home. The report stated that Angus MacDonald had played a

role in orchestrating the hit, while simultaneously heading up the official investigation looking into the matter. So clearly a conflict of interest there. But of course, all of this talk of cops killing other cops, allegations of bribery, and a loose rumor connecting members of the police force to Nigel's murder was all just speculation. According to Justine Ford's book, investigators haven't been able to pin Nigel's murder was all just speculation. According to Justine Ford's book, investigators

haven't been able to pin Nigel's murder or any other suspicious behavior in the park in 1975 on the men that were investigated in the 1980s. Today, theories about what happened to Nigel vary wildly. Some people cling to the idea that there was possible police involvement and a cover-up. Others speculate he was having an affair with a woman and was killed by someone associated with her. Some people believe he was murdered by a roaming serial killer

who came prepared, looking for a victim of opportunity. But none of those theories have evidence to definitively back them up. For me, the Lisa mysterious woman theory sounds promising, and I think there is way more effort police could have put into finding her. They said they went to her address several times, but she never answered the door. But what about the neighbors?

Did they ever canvas them to try and contact her? But what about the neighbors? Did they ever canvas them to try and contact her? Detectives could have obtained records to figure out who owned the home she was supposedly living in. It's a little frustrating, honestly, to me that we don't have more information on Lisa. But that is what it is. Nigel's family has publicly stated that they don't know what Nigel would have been doing with an unknown woman in the park, but at this point, they don't really care. His niece told reporter Andrew Kouberithis, quote, we would love her to just come forward. No one really cares what they were doing,

but if she can help fill in a timeline, we want her to come forward, end quote. This is one of those cases that you can truly get sucked down a rabbit hole with because there isn't just one convincing theory. There are several. And what's even more frustrating is the fact that so much time has passed. It's been almost 48 years since Nigel was brutally murdered in Royal National Park. These days, his son Stuart stays out of the media and doesn't really talk about the case. One of the rare times he did speak publicly was on the 40th anniversary in 2015. He told reporter Andrew Kouberithis, quote,

It just shattered me. My whole life as I knew it was gone. My whole life, I haven't known if I'm shaking hands with someone that killed my father. We just don't know. What can you say to someone that takes your best mate away and changes your whole world? Nothing can change what happened. End quote. The spot where Nigel died and was so brutally dismembered is haunted by all the unanswered questions that still linger. Whatever the circumstances were that brought him to the lookout on the afternoon of September 17th, 1975, he didn't deserve to be treated so barbarically.

The lookout was a spot that brought him and so many others peace. The lookout was a spot that brought him and so many others peace. It's a place that residents in New South Wales remember for its beauty and, unfortunately, brutality. This case remains unsolved. If you or perhaps a family member have even the smallest piece of information about the murder, please call New South Wales Crime Stoppers to leave a confidential tip at 1-800-333-000. Park Predators is an AudioChuck original show. So, what do you think, Chuck?

Do you approve?