Speaker 1: Appoche production.
Speaker 2: Or she realizes that she's got to do it now
Speaker 2: or ever, and she stabs him.
Speaker 1: Brittany Dwyer is currently serving a life sentence with a
Speaker 1: minimum twenty years jail for stabbing her granddad to death,
Speaker 1: who co accused Bernadette Burns is also in jail for
Speaker 1: life with a minimum of thirteen and a half years.
Speaker 1: In episode three, you heard Brittany who traveled down to
Speaker 1: her granddad's house in Adelaide from Brisbane. Her accomplice in, Bernadette,
Speaker 1: is in the car egging her on, telling her to
Speaker 1: harden up. When she has second thoughts after having breakfast
Speaker 1: with her papa and then going through old photos and
Speaker 1: reliving memories, she says she needs to leave, and as
Speaker 1: her eighty one year old granddad walks her down to
Speaker 1: the front door, she pulls a knife from her sleeve
Speaker 1: and stabs him in the neck.
Speaker 2: A couple of times.
Speaker 1: From what I understand, it was like a butcher's no,
Speaker 1: this is a night she's had up her sleeve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for the whole.
Speaker 1: Duration of the breakfast and they're reminiscing about family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what happens next because of not just what
Speaker 1: was told in court, but equally your letters between you
Speaker 1: and Brittany over the time that she's been in jail.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what happened. She felt a bit remorseful. He sort
Speaker 2: of stumbled back and asked her why she'd done it,
Speaker 2: and I think in the state of shock, he sort
Speaker 2: of stumbling around a little bit. She then takes him
Speaker 2: into the kitchen where the dining table is at and
Speaker 2: pulls up a chair and sits him down, And she
Speaker 2: went and got a band aid for him to cover
Speaker 2: one of the cuts.
Speaker 1: A band aid.
Speaker 2: A band aid which isn't going to do very much.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing the knife wound is very deep, and so
Speaker 1: she gets him a band aid.
Speaker 2: She gets some a band aid, and I think that's
Speaker 2: where there was a bit of a reflection of I
Speaker 2: think remorse. But you know, it had already been done.
Speaker 1: Her granddad didn't die instantly. No, what did he say
Speaker 1: to Brittany, She's told you this in a letter, since
Speaker 1: I believe.
Speaker 2: That, you know, she didn't need to do this, you
Speaker 2: know that, you know he struggled to understand, you know,
Speaker 2: why why she would even do this. But she couldn't,
Speaker 2: She couldn't sort of banter watch. So she turned around
Speaker 2: and why he was bleeding out. She did the dishes.
Speaker 1: Did she text Bernadette?
Speaker 2: She did as soon as he had passed away.
Speaker 1: So she waited until he died.
Speaker 2: The whole time. Yeah, she stood in the kitchen and waited,
Speaker 2: and then she sent a text message today it's done.
Speaker 2: Once that had happened, Bernadette had come in and they
Speaker 2: essentially ransacked, well I use that loosely, but they went
Speaker 2: through the house and again, being the photographer that my
Speaker 2: grandfather was, he had a lot of cameras and she
Speaker 2: had taken some of those cameras and she couldn't find
Speaker 2: the money anywhere, and so he had one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: in his wallet. She took that and I think a
Speaker 2: couple of other bits and pieces, but then then left.
Speaker 2: Then they leave because it was winter. The heater was
Speaker 2: on and they left that running, and so he was
Speaker 2: there on that chair when they left, and he sat
Speaker 2: there for quite some time.
Speaker 1: Ryan's memory of where his granddad was stabbed and how
Speaker 1: many times is different to what the autopsy showed. Britney
Speaker 1: stabbed her grandad four times, mostly in the neck and
Speaker 1: once in the chest. That was the fatal wound. It
Speaker 1: would cause him to bleed out in the kitchen chair
Speaker 1: that Britney placed him on. Robert sat dead in that
Speaker 1: chair for three days. It was only his neighbors that
Speaker 1: raised the alarm when they thought something was strange over
Speaker 1: at his house. Someone realized something was up.
Speaker 2: They again, with him being so meticulous in a routine
Speaker 2: all the time, they started noticing that the Saturday newspaper
Speaker 2: hadn't been picked up, and that the electric shutters, which
Speaker 2: particularly on his bedroom, he would raise half a meter
Speaker 2: every single day, but then in the evening they would drop,
Speaker 2: and then again in the morning they'd go up. And
Speaker 2: they had noticed that they'd been in the same place
Speaker 2: in that half state. But normally it wouldn't be exact,
Speaker 2: you know, it wouldn't be like it. It was a
Speaker 2: set button. He had to stop it in order for
Speaker 2: it to sort of stop halfway. And so they noticed
Speaker 2: that it had been in the exact same spot for
Speaker 2: Saturday and Sunday, and it wasn't until Monday came that
Speaker 2: the newspaper from Saturday was still there, and there was
Speaker 2: another newspaper there now on Monday, and he got up
Speaker 2: quite early and would normally go and get it. Binins
Speaker 2: were out and he used to bring the bins in
Speaker 2: for like the whole end of the culder sack to
Speaker 2: take them all in for the neighbors, and they were
Speaker 2: still out. And so the neighbor that noticed that is
Speaker 2: actually an ambulance driver, went to the next door neighbors
Speaker 2: and said, I think there's something wrong with Bob and
Speaker 2: we need to go over and have a look. And
Speaker 2: so they went over that that same morning on the Monday.
Speaker 2: They went to the front door and the door was
Speaker 2: opened locked, not a jar. The screen door had closed,
Speaker 2: but the main wooden door was open and just open fully,
Speaker 2: and there was a pull of blood at the door
Speaker 2: at the entrance, and so they went in and they
Speaker 2: were calling out for him and no answer. And as
Speaker 2: they sort of went towards the end of the hallway,
Speaker 2: they saw him on the chair in the kitchen in
Speaker 2: a state of what would happen with the heater being
Speaker 2: left on and what that does to a body. You know,
Speaker 2: as a family, I think we're really really thankful that,
Speaker 2: you know, they were so willing to do that and
Speaker 2: look out for my grandfather and to see blood at
Speaker 2: the front door. Most people would probably stop and to
Speaker 2: sort of go in and see him like that. You know,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to wish that upon anybody, my worst enemies.
Speaker 2: That would be an image that would just be stuck
Speaker 2: to you. And I think about if I was in
Speaker 2: their shoes, having to see my grandfather like that. I
Speaker 2: honestly don't think I would be able to comprehend and
Speaker 2: ever sort of move past it. So for them to,
Speaker 2: I guess, do that for us. So I think, you know,
Speaker 2: I would be forever like forever in their dead, forever grateful.
Speaker 2: But yet then they obviously alerted the police when they
Speaker 2: found it.
Speaker 1: Ryan's mum and him are back in Brisbane on that
Speaker 1: Monday morning. They have no idea on what's about to
Speaker 1: happen and how it will tear a family apart. They
Speaker 1: think that Brittany's at home in Brisbane, but she's not.
Speaker 1: After stabbing Robert to death, she and her co accused
Speaker 1: get back in the car and start the drive for
Speaker 1: twenty four hours back to Brisbane.
Speaker 2: I was getting ready for work. I had woken up
Speaker 2: at seven to a text message from my mother, who's
Speaker 2: sent it probably about an hour earlier, going when you
Speaker 2: wake up, can you call me? I never get text
Speaker 2: messages like that so I knew immediately something was wrong.
Speaker 2: So I called her and her voice was very shaky,
Speaker 2: and she said, Papa has died. And I sort of
Speaker 2: thought to myself in that time, Okay, he years older.
Speaker 2: He just not long ago had his eightieth birthday, and
Speaker 2: so I'm like, okay, all right, I'm sad, but I'm
Speaker 2: not devastated at this point. Then she said the police
Speaker 2: have called me and he's been found with stab wounds.
Speaker 2: And I just remember like this wave of anger coming
Speaker 2: over me at that point, and I remember saying to
Speaker 2: my mom, like, what the actual who would stab an
Speaker 2: old man? And Mum said to me, you know, and
Speaker 2: I then I burst into tears. And I remember my
Speaker 2: partner at the time coming in, going like what has happened?
Speaker 2: And he obviously heard me say who would stab an
Speaker 2: old man? And then she goes, look, they don't know
Speaker 2: what it could be. They said it could be self harm,
Speaker 2: or it could be a robbery that's gone wrong. The
Speaker 2: detectives at the time, we didn't realize. I look back
Speaker 2: now and it sort of makes sense, but they really,
Speaker 2: you know, I used the analogy, treated us like mushrooms,
Speaker 2: kept us in the dark, and fed our ship like,
Speaker 2: just really didn't want to tell us a lot. And
Speaker 2: I get that now, but at the time it's infuriating.
Speaker 2: And every time we found out information it was because
Speaker 2: of the media. We were never told first, which I
Speaker 2: think is incredibly wrong.
Speaker 3: An elderly man has been stabbed to anyone who witnessed
Speaker 3: this assault, police amation that could assist police.
Speaker 2: So we get told that these costabe wounds. And immediately
Speaker 2: I said, there's just no way that he would have
Speaker 2: done it himself, because again he was so tidy and
Speaker 2: so meticulous. He would have just taken pills and laid down,
Speaker 2: you know. And I said, how was the house? And
Speaker 2: then my mum said about the blood. I said, so
Speaker 2: there was no pilot, paperwork, letter will And she's like no,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, he didn't do this, There's no way.
Speaker 1: Did you have any thoughts at that time who would
Speaker 1: have done it? Or do you think it's a random robbery?
Speaker 2: Yes? I had immediately jumped to a conclusion, and I
Speaker 2: thought I knew.
Speaker 1: Who it was, but that wasn't your sister.
Speaker 2: You were thinking, no, it was not my sister.
Speaker 1: Did you ever think it would have been your sister?
Speaker 2: No? Never, no way, No, there's just no way.
Speaker 1: What about your mom?
Speaker 2: No, no, no way.
Speaker 1: Just not even in the realms of possibility.
Speaker 2: Nope, that thought didn't even cross my mind, not at all.
Speaker 1: Who called your sister to tell her about your poh?
Speaker 2: My mom? So she had already called her before I
Speaker 2: spoke to my mom, and she said, your grandfather has died.
Speaker 2: And before my mother could even say anymore, my sister
Speaker 2: burst into hysterics on the phone, absolutely broke down, and
Speaker 2: my mom sort of changed pace and sort of went,
Speaker 2: I need you to come with me to Adlaide. I
Speaker 2: need yours and Ryan's support. And she said yes, Mom,
Speaker 2: like I'll do anything you need. I'm a few hours away,
Speaker 2: but I can be at your house. And she said, well,
Speaker 2: we're gonna We're going to fly out from Brisbane to
Speaker 2: the airport.
Speaker 1: She's driving back to Brisbane in a Silver Captiva, which
Speaker 1: is not her car or Bernadette's car. It belonged to
Speaker 1: someone at the sharehouse who will become a crucial witness.
Speaker 1: That phone call was super important in the police investigation,
Speaker 1: which you only found out later, which was they were
Speaker 1: able to ping her phone and track pretty much where
Speaker 1: her phone had been on both that journey and the
Speaker 1: prior journey was yeah, mis Shelby.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it started to piece together when my mum actually
Speaker 2: made the call and she answered. They were able to
Speaker 2: track through multiple cell stations that while they're on the phone,
Speaker 2: they were moving up the highway.
Speaker 1: So police are obviously investigating this as it's happening. In
Speaker 1: police a line of investigation like this, from our previous experience,
Speaker 1: we know that everyone's a suspect until nobody's a suspect
Speaker 1: until they find who did it. So you're a suspect,
Speaker 1: your mum's a suspect. Anyone that's in the family is
Speaker 1: a suspect. Equally next door neighbors, you know, anyone that
Speaker 1: has affiliation with your granddad, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: also anyone that doesn't. The car that drove past a
Speaker 1: couple of times, that's interesting for a police and then
Speaker 1: they obviously start to hone down their investigations. Brittany arrives
Speaker 1: at Ryan's house in the Silver Captiva. She gets out
Speaker 1: of the car and Bernadette drives away. Ryan, Brittany, and Tanya,
Speaker 1: their mum heads to the airport and board the next
Speaker 1: available flight to Adelaide. They're in distress. Their granddad is
Speaker 1: dead and worse still seems that he's been stabbed to death.
Speaker 1: They're wondering who did it? Was it for money? Was
Speaker 1: it self harm? Was it a home break in? There
Speaker 1: was one person on the plane that knew how Robert
Speaker 1: had died. She knew because she killed him. And now
Speaker 1: she's sitting between Ryan and his mum on the way
Speaker 1: back to Adelaide. What's the conversation down on the plane.
Speaker 2: I guess we were playing detectives a little bit and
Speaker 2: sort of thinking who could have done it more more
Speaker 2: or less talking about who we thought had done it
Speaker 2: and why.
Speaker 1: And your sister's joining in on this conversation.
Speaker 2: Absolutely she was talking about I think she was, you know, hindsight,
Speaker 2: it's an amazing thing. But I look back and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: I can see why now. But she was immediately jumping
Speaker 2: on board with our speculations, you know, of who it
Speaker 2: could be in. But the conversation quickly turned on the
Speaker 2: way down about about the money, which at the time
Speaker 2: I didn't think was odd because.
Speaker 1: Who turned the conversation to the money?
Speaker 2: Brittany, Yep, she talked about the money that was in
Speaker 2: the shed and said, Ryan can distract the police and
Speaker 2: I'll quickly run in and I'll go get it. But
Speaker 2: it was all very much framed around this other family
Speaker 2: member who could potentially come and get it or searched
Speaker 2: the house. It's all just sort of fed back into
Speaker 2: the same theory that we all had to the point that.
Speaker 1: And Brittany's reinforcing this narrative. Absolutely, of course, this is cover,
Speaker 1: this is yeah. She was very much saying, yep, we'll
Speaker 1: go in, I'll get the money, you know. And it
Speaker 1: was very much like for my mom, right, I'll go
Speaker 1: get the money, I'll give it to you. You know,
Speaker 1: we just need to get there before he does, you
Speaker 1: know that sort of thing. We were like, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a crime scene, and it all seemed very like
Speaker 1: childish in a way. And I said, not only that,
Speaker 1: but the money's long gone. If the police are already there,
Speaker 1: which they certainly were. The whole house was a crime scene.
Speaker 2: It was all cord and off like that money had
Speaker 2: already been found by the police and you know, seized.
Speaker 2: And so we drove and he lived on this very
Speaker 2: quiet street and he sort of turned you turn into it,
Speaker 2: and as soon as you turn into it, there was
Speaker 2: just lines of undercover cop cars everywhere where. There was
Speaker 2: blue and white tape all around, and I remember turning
Speaker 2: to my mum's and said, yeah, he definitely didn't do
Speaker 2: this himself. I knew from that moment that whatever the
Speaker 2: police said, and they steal for a long time, they
Speaker 2: were still saying potential suicide, I knew right there, I'm
Speaker 2: not a chance.
Speaker 1: In a crime scene like this, the first job of
Speaker 1: police is to secure the scene. It's one of the
Speaker 1: first protocols police do. It means no family can enter
Speaker 1: the house. The next steps are about securing evidence, both
Speaker 1: physical and other evidence. This process can take days or
Speaker 1: weeks before they hand the house back to the family.
Speaker 1: But in a case like this, with blood everywhere, there
Speaker 1: was one question police asked the family which they hadn't expected.
Speaker 2: They did ask us if we wanted them to clean
Speaker 2: the house or leave it as is, which like, no,
Speaker 2: clean the house and we don't want that. We did
Speaker 2: not want to see the blood and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: which I thought was a bit odd, but I guess,
Speaker 2: you know, people have their preferences. Because my mom and
Speaker 2: I were the executives of the will, but more importantly,
Speaker 2: my mom was the enduring power of attorney for both
Speaker 2: my grandfather and my nanna. They gave the keys back
Speaker 2: to us. Yeah, after the house has been cleaned, and
Speaker 2: after it was I was about a week later.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not a crime scene anymore. So what are you
Speaker 1: and your family thinking at this stage? Like, what's your
Speaker 1: mom thinking?
Speaker 2: Mom still thinking that it had to do with the
Speaker 2: other family member. We are inside the house, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's funny. We went to the house a lot afterwards,
Speaker 2: but I don't know why we didn't stay there.
Speaker 1: Did your sister come with you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Every time?
Speaker 1: And how was she in the house?
Speaker 2: She was normal like us, I guess the first couple
Speaker 2: of times we went to the house, we sort of
Speaker 2: just sort of sat there and you know, remember to
Speaker 2: hear my guests and thought about that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: And we actually the moment we got the house, we
Speaker 2: changed the locks because we knew that my grandfather had
Speaker 2: a key that used to be in the electrical box
Speaker 2: so that you could get in, but the key was gone.
Speaker 2: Later we found out the police had taken the key,
Speaker 2: but we didn't know that at the time, so we
Speaker 2: had all the locks changed. What about the money, The
Speaker 2: money was all gone.
Speaker 1: Police found it.
Speaker 2: Every Yeah found that.
Speaker 1: Did you tell them where? Like your grandfather hadn't told
Speaker 1: anyone where that money was.
Speaker 2: They found it on their own court.
Speaker 1: So the police would have used their forensic powers to
Speaker 1: yeat amazing, Yeah, because it was heated. It was well heated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we found that. They also found one thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in numeric order from the serial numbers which my
Speaker 2: grandfather had collected, and they had found some more money
Speaker 2: sort of inside the house.
Speaker 1: It's about thirteen grand I believe.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah, so yeah, they had well and truly taken
Speaker 2: it before we had gotten there.
Speaker 1: While Ryan and his mum and his sister Brittany are
Speaker 1: heading back to Adelaide, there are two significant things that
Speaker 1: happened back in Brisbane. They won't seem significant right now,
Speaker 1: but later in court more is revealed about Brittany's other life.
Speaker 1: It all makes sense.
Speaker 2: So the day happened, and we then went and checked
Speaker 2: into a motel in Prospect and we get a call
Speaker 2: from Queensland Police. And because the car is registered in
Speaker 2: my mother's name, she gets a call and goes, is
Speaker 2: your silver Astra stolen? And my mum said, well, it's
Speaker 2: not my car, it's my daughter's but no, I don't
Speaker 2: believe so, dear, She's like, why, and they said, this
Speaker 2: guy has been pulled over driving the vehicle. He has
Speaker 2: the keys, nothing's broken on the car, but this guy
Speaker 2: is known to police and he is not a good person. Immediately,
Speaker 2: she turns to my sisters and goes, do you know
Speaker 2: anything about this? And my sister no, my husband stolen.
Speaker 2: Then the police pressed and said, just it doesn't seem
Speaker 2: like it's been stolen. It seems like it's been lent.
Speaker 2: And so we pressed her on it. Obviously our mind
Speaker 2: is somewhere else. We're not really thinking all that straight.
Speaker 2: And she goes, I did lend it to my housemate,
Speaker 2: not a guy and Brittany, so someone's obviously come into
Speaker 2: the house and steal in the stolen the keys, and
Speaker 2: stolen the car. And it turned out later that's not
Speaker 2: what happened. Brittany had lent it to one of her
Speaker 2: colleagues in the drug world to do errands with.
Speaker 1: Along with that car that was lent, not stolen by sister.
Speaker 1: Something else happens at your parents' place while you're traveling
Speaker 1: down to Adelaide.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we find out that prior to going to Adelaide.
Speaker 2: My parents' house had been broken into, laptop, stolen jewelry,
Speaker 2: stolen watches, all the sort of things that you can
Speaker 2: steal and sell essentially, and there was an investigation happening,
Speaker 2: and whilst we were away, the police called about that
Speaker 2: and they had found that some of the items, so
Speaker 2: I think my mum's wedding jewelry, had been stolen and
Speaker 2: they had turned up at a porn stock they were
Speaker 2: trying to be sold. So they figured out where that
Speaker 2: had happened, and obviously porn stores are probably be pretty
Speaker 2: used to that, and so it goes into a database
Speaker 2: and if it gets reported that's been stolen, when it
Speaker 2: actually turns up to be sold, they know what's going on.
Speaker 2: And so later we found out after Britney's arrest for murder,
Speaker 2: she had actually orchestrated the break in and the robbery.
Speaker 2: She got her friends that are in the drug world
Speaker 2: to break in, told them how to get in, told
Speaker 2: them when my parents wouldn't be there and where and
Speaker 2: what to steal exactly to sell on her behalf. Whether
Speaker 2: or not Britney gained any money from that, or it
Speaker 2: was to feed a debt, but it was all set
Speaker 2: up by her.
Speaker 1: Have you asked your sister about that? In the letters?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: What'd she say?
Speaker 2: The question that I actually raised her was she had
Speaker 2: keys to my house. Adam and I my ex partner,
Speaker 2: were never home. We had busy jobs. We were always working,
Speaker 2: We were always out doing stuff on the weekend. She
Speaker 2: knew the dog. We had a lot of artwork. And
Speaker 2: I said to her, why did you never break in
Speaker 2: and steal from me? That would have been the easiest way.
Speaker 2: Why drive all the way to Jim Boomber to steal product?
Speaker 2: And then when I live in the city. And her
Speaker 2: response was You're the one person I would never steal from,
Speaker 2: which I guess in a way is touching and also odd.
Speaker 2: And I said to her in the letters, why did
Speaker 2: you do that? And she said I needed the money
Speaker 2: and she didn't care about it being our parents.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the only time Brittany was stealing from someone
Speaker 1: that she loved. After she killed her granddad and they
Speaker 1: were in Adelaide sorting out his affairs while Ryan and
Speaker 1: his mum were out of the house, Britney was stealing
Speaker 1: from her dead granddad.
Speaker 2: We figured this out later, but again, my grandfather, being
Speaker 2: as organized as he is. We already knew what pieces
Speaker 2: of jewel he needed to go to who and my
Speaker 2: mum was to have the wedding jewelry of my nunner
Speaker 2: and of my grandfather. We later realized whilst were down
Speaker 2: there and cleaning up the house and looking for paperwork
Speaker 2: and that sort of thing, Brittany was off in the
Speaker 2: house stealing. She had gone into and obviously we had
Speaker 2: hours in the house and we weren't all together, We're
Speaker 2: all in different rooms doing what we needed to do,
Speaker 2: and she had, Yeah, she had taken hit the jewelry.
Speaker 2: My grandfather also had a coin collection that he had
Speaker 2: with his wife. Every single coin was documented. Every single
Speaker 2: day was a list of every single coin he had.
Speaker 2: And there was three particular coins that were worth tens
Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars and they were gone. And I
Speaker 2: know she was going through all the coins because she
Speaker 2: pretended to look for these coins that were worth a lot.
Speaker 2: And then by the time we'd come in and been like,
Speaker 2: did you find them, and she said, no, they're not here.
Speaker 1: Did she ever admit that to you.
Speaker 2: No, But the police did say to us that yes,
Speaker 2: they were stolen, and they were already discarded.
Speaker 1: Of so the police are deep into their investigation. The
Speaker 1: family are completely unaware of the police's suspicions about Brittany,
Speaker 1: so the family stay close and try to stay as
Speaker 1: normal as possible while in Adelaide. While they're there, Ryan
Speaker 1: celebrates his birthday and his mum and Brittany decide to
Speaker 1: try and keep things together by honoring their granddad with
Speaker 1: a special lunch.
Speaker 2: Went out to the Barossa, which was my grandfather's favorite
Speaker 2: spot and he absolutely loved Maggie Beer. There's actually photos
Speaker 2: of us on that day, So that day was about
Speaker 2: thinking about him, but also trying to be happy and
Speaker 2: obviously celebrate my birthday and think about all the good
Speaker 2: times that we've had with him as well. But yeah,
Speaker 2: she was with us that day.
Speaker 1: Although the family are trying to keep things as normal
Speaker 1: as possible, Brittany becomes more and more irritated and acts
Speaker 1: out in ways it seemed out of kilter with someone
Speaker 1: that was grieving. Are you imagining at that stage? Did
Speaker 1: she sister?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: The only thing that looked a little odd to me
Speaker 2: was that she wasn't sleeping that well. She would be
Speaker 2: up all night and then sleep all through the day.
Speaker 2: Very irate, very moody. Was she talking to Bernadette?
Speaker 1: Still?
Speaker 2: She was on the phone all the time, Okay, all
Speaker 2: the time, whether it was Bernadette, yes, other people. She
Speaker 2: would go outside make the phone calls. And she Chane
Speaker 2: smoked something wicked. I didn't even know she was a smoker.
Speaker 2: I knew from the amount and neither to my mom
Speaker 2: and the amount she was smoking. And it was really
Speaker 2: weird because we grew up in a pretty strict household
Speaker 2: that you wouldn't just even now, I don't swear in
Speaker 2: front of my parents. I wouldn't just be whipping out
Speaker 2: a cigarette, just Jane smoking in front of my parents.
Speaker 2: And she did not care. She smoked all the time.
Speaker 2: My mom's said, having been a pass smoker, that's not
Speaker 2: an overnight or I've just taken up smoking like you've
Speaker 2: obviously been smoking a very long time. And I look
Speaker 2: back now at the reason why she was chained smoking
Speaker 2: and it totally stress related.
Speaker 1: How long did you stay in Adelaide before you head
Speaker 1: back to Brisbane?
Speaker 2: A few weeks so we were obviously preparing for the
Speaker 2: funeral and my mum and I were doing those arrangements.
Speaker 2: We wanted to do it in Prospect because that's where
Speaker 2: our original family members from the UK all those years
Speaker 2: ago moved to and that's where my grandfather grew up.
Speaker 2: So it was really quite important that we did it there.
Speaker 2: So we were back and forth from the city to
Speaker 2: Prospect and we were setting all the funeral arrangements up,
Speaker 2: but we couldn't do anything yet because the body wasn't
Speaker 2: being released from by the coroner. Obviously, the investigation was
Speaker 2: still going and at that point it had already been
Speaker 2: I think about three weeks and I had to get
Speaker 2: back to work and it was becoming a cold case.
Speaker 2: The police were starting to tell us now that there's
Speaker 2: been no new leads. We've obviously had news reports, articles
Speaker 2: go out about this.
Speaker 1: This is big news, right, this is big.
Speaker 2: News, particularly in Adelaide. It's huge news. The news reports
Speaker 2: were all still framed around it died of natural causes.
Speaker 2: But if you have any information, it was a little
Speaker 2: sus and you.
Speaker 1: Think that was just deployed from police.
Speaker 2: Absolutely then looking at it, I had no clue. I
Speaker 2: just thought it was strange. It was in the newspaper
Speaker 2: that sort of thing. Not national news at this point,
Speaker 2: but just local news. And so we decided that Okay, well,
Speaker 2: it's still all going. I'm going to go home. And
Speaker 2: so my sister had flown out a couple of days earlier,
Speaker 2: and I had driven down from Wallaro where we were
Speaker 2: staying and flew out.
Speaker 1: While recording with Ryan, over a few days, spent some
Speaker 1: time out of the studio, and in one of our
Speaker 1: coffee catch ups, Ryan told me of something he had
Speaker 1: learned about his granddad's death and what might have happened
Speaker 1: inside that house on the day Britney stabbed him.
Speaker 2: Because they said to what the police did tell us
Speaker 2: that he would have had time to get to the
Speaker 2: phone and make a call, but he probably chose not to.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think to still protect her and away because
Speaker 2: it was still his granddaughter.
Speaker 1: I think. In that same coffee catch up, Ryan also
Speaker 1: told me of something that he remembered, something that's a
Speaker 1: little unnerving. It was after his granddad was killed, but
Speaker 1: before Brittany was arrested for his murder.
Speaker 2: It's crazy. Do you know what's really crazy? I don't
Speaker 2: know if you believe in this sort of stuff. I
Speaker 2: sort of here and there that when we're in the house,
Speaker 2: my grandfather had this mantle peace clock, you know, the
Speaker 2: old school wound clocks, and it was his grap It
Speaker 2: was his mother's, my great grandmother, and he's had it
Speaker 2: for years and I always knew it to be broken,
Speaker 2: and I always just say to him, you know, if
Speaker 2: you have passed, I would have loved that, and he goes, Yep,
Speaker 2: it's all, it's yours. No problems anyway. The face of
Speaker 2: it was broken and the chimes inside had been broken,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, cool, no worries anywhere. He passed away,
Speaker 2: and I got it from up on the bookshelf and
Speaker 2: I took it into the formal lounge and I was
Speaker 2: bubble wrapping it and I got my sister to pick
Speaker 2: it up so that I could put the bubble wrap underneath.
Speaker 2: And as she picked it up, it chimed, and it
Speaker 2: was so loud, and it just kept chiming, even to
Speaker 2: the point my mum was on the other end of
Speaker 2: the house and she's like, what is that noise?
Speaker 4: Like what's going on?
Speaker 2: And she comes in.
Speaker 4: My sister's gone, why is a ghost? And I said
Speaker 4: this was broken, like it mustn't be. It's chiming right.
Speaker 4: It was caked and dust like this thing had not
Speaker 4: been picked up Anyway, I put it in a storage.
Speaker 4: About a year later, I get it out of storage
Speaker 4: and I take it to Tambourine Mountain clock shop and
Speaker 4: I said, can we fix this?
Speaker 2: And he goes, yeah, yeah, what's wrong with it? And
Speaker 2: I said, Oh, I need to get the face of
Speaker 2: it fixed and maybe just a tuna and he goes, oh,
Speaker 2: do all the cords and things to work. I'm like yeah,
Speaker 2: because it chimed. Anyway, he fixed it and he came
Speaker 2: back and said, oh, it's actually going to be more
Speaker 2: because there's no chimee in here. And I said, no,
Speaker 2: it chimes like really loudly, so yes, there is. He's like, no, literally,
Speaker 2: I had to put new ones in. There's no there's
Speaker 2: nothing that had been completely removed. They've broken off.
Speaker 1: When does your sister get arrested?
Speaker 2: What day do you remember? I think it was a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks. I can't remember exactly, but I think
Speaker 2: it was a Friday night from memory, because I had
Speaker 2: a couple of glasses of wine and it was late
Speaker 2: and I get a knock at the door, which was
Speaker 2: a bit strange. I think. Yeah. I think it was
Speaker 2: like nine or ten at night and it was the
Speaker 2: police and they said, we need to speak to you,
Speaker 2: and I said, okay, come on in. And at the
Speaker 2: time when they turned up, I just thought, okay, there's
Speaker 2: been a breakthrough with the case and they're here to
Speaker 2: update me. And I said okay. So they come in
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, can you sit down? I said okay.
Speaker 2: They said I can't. We can't tell you anything just yet,
Speaker 2: but we need to call your mum and your dad
Speaker 2: and we all need to get the call to like together.
Speaker 2: I said, okay, all right. My mom was in Wallarou
Speaker 2: staying with family, and my dad was at the Jimboomber House,
Speaker 2: and I was obviously a carried out. Yep. They get
Speaker 2: on the phone and they get everybody on the call.
Speaker 2: There's uniformed police officers at my dad's, there's police officers
Speaker 2: where my mom's staying. And then over the phone there
Speaker 2: was detectives with my mom and they said, your sister
Speaker 2: has been arrested for murder.
Speaker 5: It starts to thinking like what the police are saying
Speaker 5: is true, and because you're in denial at first, and
Speaker 5: then it's yeah. And I wanted to talk to Brittany
Speaker 5: when she was when she had already been arrested. She wouldn't.
Speaker 5: She wouldn't speak to me, so I've never spoken to
Speaker 5: her since this happened, which is really bad.
Speaker 1: H m hm