WEBVTT - I Know Who Killed My Father | 1 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.680 When I first arrived in Cardwell in nineteen ninety it 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:12.600 was a wonderful place. The fishing was fantastic, the people 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.720 were wonderful. It was one of the best places on earth. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.279 In the early nineties, Cardwell, in far North Queensland was 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.680 a sleepy tropical paradise, a small village on the edge 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.560 of the Great Barrier Reef, surrounded by mountains of lush 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.760 rainforest and waterfalls. Not much happened there, which suited in 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:31.920 the nests just fine. 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:34.960 I bought myself a boat and I could go out 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.000 on the reef for a whole day and no one 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:38.839 believe it though I wasn't in town. It was a 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:39.600 lovely tim. 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:42.720 He was officer in charge of the local police station, 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.080 quite possibly one of the most relaxed policing jobs in 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:46.640 the country. 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.239 The crime rate was very low. I think in the 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.520 first year I had three reported crimes and we solved 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:53.080 a lot of them. 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.640 But there's one crime I never solved. More than thirty 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.920 years later, it remains a cold case. It all started 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.959 one Friday night in May nineteen ninety three. Ian picked 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.280 up a call at the local police station from an 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.000 eighteen year old woman called Lachelle. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:13.600 I said, can you check on my father. He's an 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:15.800 elderly man. He may have had a fall. I was 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:17.840 thinking something caved in at his house or something and 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:20.280 he's fallen. Can you go and check on him please? 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:21.600 I just want to make sure he's okay. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.440 She told me that he had recently bought a property 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:30.160 in Cardwell and he was always regularly in contact affair 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.240 and she hadn't heard from him for some time. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.400 Ian agreed to go to Les's new house and check 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.759 in on him. Cops do that sort of thing all 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.520 the time. It's called a welfare check. It's garden variety policing. 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.800 So when Ian pulled up at Less's home in Cardwell, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.559 he had every reason to believe this would be another 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.360 routine job. It was possible Les would open the door 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.640 and explain it was all a big misunderstanding. But when 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.920 Ian knocked on the door, a woman answered. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.360 He was running the property. She was aware that it 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.559 had been sold to mister Ball, but had not heard 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:07.280 from him at all. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.360 The tenant heard that the sale hadn't gone through, which 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.560 was strange because a stream of mail addressed to Lez 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:14.600 had started arriving. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:20.200 There were bank statements social Security, veterans affairs letters and 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.320 things like that. I started opening some of the mail 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.280 up just to see if there's anything that would assist 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:26.040 me in finding him. 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.440 Nothing in the letters offered any clues about where Les 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.440 might be. So Ian spent the next couple of days 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:33.680 making some inquiries. 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.200 At that point, you know, it was still just a 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.919 welfare thing. I was looking for this fellow. I spoke 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.400 to solicitors, I spoke to the real estate I spoke 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.800 to the people at the house that he was buying. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.520 Forty eight hours after he took Lechelle's call, Ian called 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.480 her back and told her Les never moved into his 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.240 new home. On the day he was supposed to collect 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:58.959 the keys. He never showed up. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.760 It's a worse feeling in the life. Like I just 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.760 was sick in the stomach because my dad wanted to 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.480 move into that house. He was not not moving into 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:09.960 that house. So I was like, well, where is my dad. 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:11.119 Something's happened to him. 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:12.520 So I was just like hysterical. 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:16.800 That's something Ian didn't tell the shell. 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:19.880 I thought he was dead. 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:29.080 Someone's down this bloken and that was my feeling feeling. 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.560 It's now been more than thirty years since Lachelle Ball 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:37.120 made that phone call, and no one has seen or 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:38.360 heard from les Ball. 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.240 The police don't have the answers. 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:46.320 Two coronial inquests have failed to find any answers. But 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.240 we've spent more than two years digging into this cold case. 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.760 We've uncovered clues that cops and coroners have missed, we 0:03:55.880 --> 0:04:00.839 found fabricated evidence and uncovered fraud. And our investigation has 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.520 taken us from the suburbs of Townsville right down to 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.680 the Melbourne underworld. And not only do we believe les 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.280 Ball was murdered, we think we can prove who did it. 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:14.960 I'm Joe Townsend and. 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.760 I'm Callum Tanas. You're listening to Witness, the home of 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.800 investigative podcasts for News dot com dot Au. This is 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:51.040 our newer series, Perfect Alibi. Like Ian, I first met 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.799 Michelle over the phone. I'm a journalist and TV producer 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.159 and I mostly make true crime. Michelle wanted me to 0:04:58.200 --> 0:04:59.840 look into her dad's disappearance. 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.000 I wanted someone that would actually like look at it 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.800 and dolve deeper into it because obviously the justice system 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:07.680 had failed us. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.240 Three police investigations and two coronial inquests have failed to 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.640 find out what happened to Les or who's responsible. So 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:19.120 I wasn't sure how I could help. But Lachelle's faced 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.800 bigger obstacles than a skeptical journalist. Her whole life has 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.880 been consumed by seeking justice for Les. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.520 I'll solve it one day. I'm never going to give 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.520 up now not having it, I won't let it rest. 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.280 So on a stinking hot day, Lachelle rode a bike 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.760 to my house and dropped a thumb drive containing hundreds 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.359 of documents into my letterbox, and suddenly it seemed like 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.520 there might be more to this cold case than I 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.839 first thought. That's when I brought in my colleague Joe 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:54.080 Townshend to help me investigate, and since then we haven't stopped. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:54.440 You. 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:56.599 Well, no, you don't. 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.279 Need to be sorry in the slartest caw and I've 0:05:58.279 --> 0:05:59.120 been guess bagging. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.320 Me and Joe have got and to know Lachelle pretty 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.120 well in the two years who have been working on 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:03.640 this story. 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.599 I was excused, mess, just just shut your eyes. 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.160 If you've ever been to Bondai and observed the locals, 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.040 you'll have a pretty good sense of what Lachelle looks like. 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.560 She's tanned, clad, inactive where with a sleek black ponytail 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.560 and bright white smile. And she has a tattoo on 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.840 her left wrist the letters LB and curly writing. 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.120 I just wanted something of my dad and I thought, well, 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:30.560 I'll get his initials LB, les ball. It's my initials 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.760 as well, just something on my body to have memory. 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.400 Lachelle doesn't have much to remember Lesby, just an old wristwatch, 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:40.719 some photos and childhood memories. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.320 He was a fantastic dad, like he was always there 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:48.640 for me. He was yeah, great childhood father. Anything I wanted, 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.919 or taking me to like the football matches, taking me 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.560 to sports matches. He was just a good dad, you know, 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:55.919 a fun loving dad. 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.719 Le's was a World War Two veteran and like a 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.000 lot of men of that generation, he was frugal and handy, 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:05.960 the kind of guy who could build or fix anything. 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:08.880 Built a cricket pitch for me to play cricket with 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.720 at home, flying fox, anything I ever wanted. 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.400 Apart from Lachelle, Les's great love in life was golf. 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.200 If the game means anything to you, he played off 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.040 a handicap of two. And if you don't know what 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.240 that means, just consider the fact that Les single handedly 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.320 built himself a nine hole golf course on the family property. 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.320 He was golf crazy. He loved it. 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:31.720 He used to teach me how to play golf. 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:32.840 I wish he kept it up. 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.960 Les was a slight fella, but fit and active. 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.080 Also, he was very good looking, blue eyes, full head 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:45.600 of hair, quite muscly, athletic because he's always doing something, 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.720 always into his sport, very chann because he was always outdoors. 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.720 Les had Lachelle with his second wife, Ethel Eisen. Everyone 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.840 calls her Et. She lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:04.320 Early one morning I flew up to me her am 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.800 driving up the highway from Brisbane. I was excited to 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.120 meet et because I'd been reading her diaries from when 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.480 Les disappeared. I'm not a creep. L Shelle gave them 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.640 to me. From her forensic entries, I got the sense 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:21.000 that she was whip smart and fiercely protective of her daughter. 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:26.520 Where After a few wrong turns, I found her modest 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:34.280 unit in a retirement village where she now lives. 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:34.600 Good. 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:46.479 As a typical male, I did not listen to your instructions, No, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:51.000 not at all. Sitting in an armchair in her small 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.000 living room, the walls covered with family photos, musical instruments. 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.240 It's exactly the person i'd imagined. 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.520 I'm eighteen, now you know, I sort of I'm what 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.400 they call an old lady, now you know. I don't 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:06.680 like it, but that's what I am. Oh God, I 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:07.520 hate that tag. 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.439 She's still fiercely protective of her daughter. 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.720 I worry that Lachelle's never going to let it go, 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.240 and she's always going to hope for the best and 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.880 hope that something will come out. I pray about it 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:27.920 all the time. But yeah, she will never let it go. 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:31.080 Not in my day. She won't. 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.520 Edenles married in nineteen seventy five, when Lachelle was four 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.720 months old. Les was in his fifties and had four 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.200 kids from a previous marriage, but was devoted to Lachelle 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:43.560 as if she was his first. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:48.800 He was absolutely obsessed with that child from the moment 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.560 that she was born. When we were coming home from 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.280 the hospital with this tiny baby, he was so anxious 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.120 about looking at her, and he was so obsessed with 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.000 her that he almost re and well, he did run 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:02.680 off the road a little bit, and I had to 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.600 scream at him, watch the road. You know you can 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.480 watch her when you get home. Yeah, but he was 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:10.000 obsessed with that little girl. 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.199 Ed Les and Lachelle, along with ET's two other children 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:18.400 from a previous marriage, lived on the Sunshine Coast for. 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.000 A little while. He was sort of king of the 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:25.000 kids in the street because if they wanted anything fixed 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.440 or and they bring it down to Les and he'd 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:29.400 fix it. You No, no worries at all. 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.800 It still has plenty of affection for Les. But the 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.640 marriage wasn't great. Les was retired, which meant that ed 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.320 was the breadwinner, so he spent his time playing golf 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.520 and surprising his wife with half cooked schemes. 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:45.840 He went out for low for bread one day and 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.839 came home and Tommy, he'd bought a house. Oh god, 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.960 I nearly killed him. And he bought this big house 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:57.400 that was partly finished. And he actually finished that house 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.679 and it was magnificus, a beautiful big home with a 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:03.480 swimming pool. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.520 Once that scheme had come off, Les cooked up another, 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.400 a plan to breed race horses. Without telling his wife, 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.200 Les sold the family home kind. 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:17.240 Of I'm telling you. He swapped that house for opals, 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:21.080 and I had to trade out of them because he 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.120 wasn't going to do it. Where's the money to build 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.680 another house? Oh well, I don't know. He didn't think 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.360 of that. Oh he was a sucker for a good deal, 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.080 you know. And I remember being so furious with him 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:35.800 that it was unbelievable. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.960 In nineteen ninety one, after sixteen years together, the marriage ended. 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.800 I was feeding horses and I got jack of that better, 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.880 couldn't speak sense, jeweie. Yeah, golf and horses was all 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:51.080 he ever wanted to do. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:56.320 Let's was seventy, with two failed marriages behind him. He 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.680 was flushed with cash from the divorce and ready for 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.640 a change, so he decided to move up north to 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.880 Townsville to live with Leanne Phillips. She's one of his 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.720 daughters from his first marriage, and so she's Lachelle's half sister. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.480 Let's packed all of his things into a big, light 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.960 blue trailer, hand built by Les, of course, and set 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:20.360 off for Townsville. Lachelle was seventeen, and at that age 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.360 most teenagers would do anything to avoid spending time with 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.560 their parents, but she volunteered to join him and wrote 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.000 passenger on their trip north. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:29.719 And then we put up out in front of the 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.320 Phillips house. A week later, and we come in and 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:36.200 then well, Lianne wasn't too happy to see me with 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:37.600 dad because Dad hadn't told her. 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.680 I don't think Leanne lived with her husband, David, and 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.400 their four kids, Les and Lachelle. She had a room 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.800 in one of the kid's bedrooms. The half sisters had 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.560 never been close, but now they were under the same roof. 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.480 They were at each other's throats. 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.360 We were always arguing. We just never got on. I 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.679 suppose I was a teenager, wasn't I? And she was 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:58.040 in her thirties. 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:02.920 Lachelle didn't Likene's husband either. She found David, a former 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.000 cop from Victoria, intimidating. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.120 It was a man of not many words and like 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.160 you were a little bit scared of him, though sunk 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.840 about him. I didn't argue with him. I never really 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.120 spoke to him. To the truth, Yeah, he didn't really 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:16.920 speak to anyone. 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.240 On Lachelle's eighteenth birthday, the tension that had been building 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.280 up for a couple of weeks boiled over. 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:25.800 That was singing Happy Birthday, and I ended up throwing 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:27.480 the birthday cake in her face and running out and 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:28.160 ringing my mum. 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.720 It arranged for Lachelle to leave the Phillips and return 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.720 to the Sunshine Coast, and she left the house that night. 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.840 It was relieved. She'd been uneasy about Lachelle living in 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.520 David's house. Call it a mother's intuition. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.040 She'd got a bit frightened of David up there. It 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.439 was more of gut Feeley. She knew she needed. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:48.680 To get out. 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.480 Lachelle went back to live with Et and life became 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.000 quieter in the Phillips household. Les shifted from one of 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.520 the kid's bedrooms into the garage. He and LeeAnne had 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.160 a close relationship, and Les would often pick up the 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:06.000 four kids from school. In December nineteen ninety two, he 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.439 put a deposit on a block of land not far 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.160 from where the Phillips were renting. The plan was to 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.760 build a house for the family to live in. Les 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.560 was a builder, That's what he did. It's not clear 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.320 if it was a gift or alone, but just a 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.080 couple of months later, in February nineteen ninety three, things 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:27.560 began to sour. That's when Les's first ex wife, Margaret, 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.520 the one he was married to before Yt, came to 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.800 stay with the Phillips to help out around the house 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:34.160 while Leanne was in hospital. 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:36.960 Our dad couldn't stand and do want anything to do 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.200 with her. They'd have a lot of fights, like Margaret 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:41.760 was screaming at him what he'd be screaming. 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:47.560 This isn't just Lachelle's characterization. Everybody from every warring faction 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.320 of Less's family agrees that he and Margaret couldn't stand 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.240 each other. And so just a couple of weeks after 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.800 his ex came to stay, Les tried to hit the 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.960 eject button. He decided he'd move out of the Phillips 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.920 house and by a home of his own. He told 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.320 his real estate agent that he was sick of being 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:06.800 the Phillips family babysitter. 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.920 He obviously wasn't happy in his living arrangements. It appeared 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:14.760 that the situation wasn't harmonious in that household, and basically 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:16.720 this was one of the main reasons that he was 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.520 moving the card well to get away from that situation. 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.280 Les wasn't looking for long. He bought the second house 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:23.720 he saw. 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.920 It was an old Queenslander house, two levels, It was 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.520 behind a golf course and he had the beach around 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.160 the corner. He was very happy and you're excited to 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.160 be moving in there. It was absolutely perfect for him 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:37.880 his dream house. 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:44.560 Basically, So, Joe, how much do you reckon a two bedroom, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.120 freestanding home in tropical paradise cost les back in nineteen 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:48.680 ninety three. 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.560 Okay, so it's the early nineties. I'm going to go 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:53.000 with three hundred thousand dollars. 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:55.840 Well, you're only a few hundred grand. Half it actually 0:15:56.000 --> 0:16:00.120 cost seventy thousand dollars. I know, it actually hurts. So 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.240 it was a cash sale. He put down a seven 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.480 thousand dollar deposit and when the settlement date came around 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.400 and he picked up the keys, he'd pay the rest 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.600 of the balance, which was sixty three thousand dollars. 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.520 He must have been so keen to move if he 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.160 only looked at two houses and bought the second one. 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.240 Yeah, and he was really planning on moving too, because 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.880 he changed all his addresses over. He opened a new 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.200 bank account in Cardwell. He even volunteered to pay for 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:26.120 twelve months of home insurance upfront. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.480 Yeah, you're not going to pay twelve months of home 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.320 insurance upfront if you have no plans of living in 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.320 the house. And for me, the idea of changing your 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.720 address with really important things like veterans affairs. He was 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.040 a World War Two vet, and he really would have 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:44.560 wanted people to know where he lived. It just seems 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.320 so unlikely that he would have gotten cold feet on 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.720 this sale after doing all of that and paying all 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:51.080 that money exactly. 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.160 And he was also really eager to move because he 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.600 actually tried to bring the whole thing forward, but he 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.520 couldn't quite get the money together. So this settlement date 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.240 was set from Monday, the nineteenth of April, which is 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.359 just after Easter in nineteen ninety three. 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.720 I spoke to my dad at Easter time and I said, 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.119 where can I send your present? I had photos of 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.320 myself that I wanted to send him, and he goes, 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.120 send it to my new address because I won't be here. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:16.040 Just send everything to my new address, and gave me 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:16.640 his address. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.440 Lachelle posted Lester's present and photos to his new address 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.600 in card Well, but there was no reply. 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:28.240 After a week. I'm like, gee, where's Dad hasn't wrung 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.000 me or Anything's woody weird. 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.800 When Lachelle tried to call Les's new home, she discovered 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.240 the phone hadn't been connected. So Lachelle wrote him another 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.080 letter and she paid for priority post, so it would 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:41.600 be in his letterbox the next day. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:44.840 My second letter was like, Dad, I'm really worried about you. 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.199 You never got back to me. You haven't wrung me, 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:51.840 you haven't sent me anything back. Please, I'm really really worried. 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:53.199 Can you just get in contact with me. 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:58.959 No reply. Lachelle's now frantic. Les hadn't called her for weeks, 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.800 or replied to two of letters, or even connected the 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.360 home phone to his new house. And back then, connecting 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:07.359 the landline was the first thing you did when you 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:07.840 moved in. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.240 I rang the Phillips's house and David got on the 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.960 phone and I said, where's my father. He's not getting 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:15.879 back to me, and he goes, I don't know. He 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.760 visited Leanne in hospital about a week ago. I went, okay, 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:21.720 well he's not at using your address, and so then 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:22.920 hung up with him. 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.200 Lachelle's next call was to in the Nests in Cardwell. 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.080 Lachelle's mum Et jumped on the phone too. She called 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.760 everyone Les's family, police, even David and Leanne's family, to 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.320 try and locate her ex husband. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.840 Now, that was never any love match between Lesson and I, 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:46.359 but he was the father of my child and it 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.720 was my responsibility to help her find him because she 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.000 loved him. He loved her, and that was all I 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:55.720 needed to know. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.359 Lachelle meanwhile, kept on replaying in her head something Less 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:01.680 had said to her back at Easter. 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.160 He whispitched to me on the phone. I can't wait 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.160 to get out of here. It's haunted me for years 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.840 because like I didn't really think about it, Like I 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:15.639 just thought it was just they was sending him crazy. 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.760 And if I'd asked him, what was the real reason 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.320 or just I don't know. Yeah, now thinking about it's 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:24.680 very daunting, like that my dad might have felt threatened 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:25.720 or something. I don't know. 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.960 It was now six weeks since Lachelle had heard from Les, 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.919 and on the twenty second of May nineteen ninety three, 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:52.200 she filed an official missing person's report, and that meant 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:58.160 Townsville Detective Noel Powers took up the investigation. Noel's retired 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:00.680 now and spends his time driving a bus for people 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:01.520 with disabilities. 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.240 We're trying to sort of keep it nice and even 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.000 and everything and definitely no please speak, okay. 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.359 But old habits die hard. He still sounds like a 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:11.680 cop from Central Casting. 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:17.800 So Lachelle instigated, you know, instigator called a Cardwell police. 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.320 They made a couple of inquiries, one of them was 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.720 with the local real estate agent, and it turned out 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.359 that he hadn't turned up. The settlement hadn't been made. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.160 On Monday, the nineteenth of April, the settlement day, when 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:34.280 Les was supposed to pay the remaining sixty three thousand 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.439 dollars and collect the keys to his new home, he 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.720 never showed up. Being a no show meant losing his 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.480 seven thousand dollars deposit, and this wasn't at all like 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.840 frugal Les, especially since he'd already tried to bring the 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:51.679 settlement forward before Easter. 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:55.960 He poured a bit of money into the house in Cardwell. 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:58.880 It was quite obvious that he intended to settle down 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.800 there and make the he's forever home. And then all 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.400 of a sudden, it just it stopped, basically dropped off 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.640 the earth, and there was no sign of his account 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:09.280 being active. 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.680 Nol Powers needed to work out when and where Lez 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.000 had last been seen, so he started with the people. 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.200 Lez had been living with, his daughter Leanne and son 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:21.920 in law David Phillips. 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:24.439