Speaker 1: Approche production.
Speaker 2: Across the last year and a half, we've tried in
Speaker 2: this podcast to uncover and understand which parts of all
Speaker 2: the information we've gathered irrelevant to Eden's case. Of course,
Speaker 2: there's been a lot of information put forward. Some of
Speaker 2: it relates directly to Eden's death, some of it relates
Speaker 2: to suspicions around what might have happened, and some of
Speaker 2: it delves into the themes that have come up in
Speaker 2: the investigation. This episode is about that final point we've
Speaker 2: heard in the Eden Westbrook case that numerous experts and
Speaker 2: witnesses have said that there are problems and inconsistencies on
Speaker 2: how police handled the case from the artset. There are
Speaker 2: questions about why some key witnesses took more than nine
Speaker 2: years to be interviewed, and even then it wasn't a
Speaker 2: formal interview, it was a conversation that really went nowhere.
Speaker 2: And at the heart of this there's a family who
Speaker 2: nearly ten years ago lost a daughter, a sister, and
Speaker 2: a friend just one answers. Earlier this month, one of
Speaker 2: Tasmania's coroners released an inquest into the findings of a
Speaker 2: lady called Helen Bird. Helen was forty three and lived
Speaker 2: in the south of Hobart.
Speaker 3: In twenty ten, Helen Bird was found dead in her
Speaker 3: shed in Hobart. A police investigation ruled it a suicide.
Speaker 3: Thirteen years later, the case was re examined by a coroner.
Speaker 3: He's now found her husband was responsible.
Speaker 2: You might right now think that what's this got to
Speaker 2: do with the in Westbrook case. Well, that team have
Speaker 2: poured over the coronial findings of both cases and want
Speaker 2: to address some of the striking similarities. The first is
Speaker 2: that Helen didn't seem to have any reasons to want
Speaker 2: to take her own life, much like Eden. At the
Speaker 2: time of their deaths, they were planning for the future.
Speaker 2: Eden had a camping trip planned with Jason, and.
Speaker 4: Then she said, look, I'm gonnam, I got to get
Speaker 4: some stuff for camp. We're going camping this weekend. I'm
Speaker 4: going to get dad to take us to town and
Speaker 4: get some supplies. I said, no worries, I love you,
Speaker 4: and off she went and got Hunter and Jason and
Speaker 4: they headed down to Saint Helen's which is only a
Speaker 4: couple of kilometers away.
Speaker 2: Jason, I'm just going to ask you, do you remember
Speaker 2: that drive to go and get supplies for Thanks? Talk
Speaker 2: to me about the drive.
Speaker 5: We just girls needed stuff camp and that weekend Dad
Speaker 5: take me down the store and need this need that
Speaker 5: jumped in the car went down. I stayed in the car.
Speaker 5: I don't get out. They go and do their stuff,
Speaker 5: they come back. It was all just simple as that.
Speaker 2: The coroner of both cases was the same coroner. Each
Speaker 2: case was deemed a suicide without an inquest. On the
Speaker 2: thirty first of March twenty eleven. The original coroner found
Speaker 2: that Helen died of asphyxia and that no other person
Speaker 2: contributed to her death. In particular, she named Helen's husband,
Speaker 2: who the coroner found.
Speaker 6: Had no involvement in her death.
Speaker 2: He's an extract from Eden's findings without inquest from the
Speaker 2: same coroner. These are their words, but not their voice.
Speaker 6: I am satisfied that there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding
Speaker 6: Eden's death or that any other person was involved. I
Speaker 6: am further satisfied that Eden acted with the express intention
Speaker 6: of ending her life.
Speaker 3: Back to the Helen Bird case, the couple were married
Speaker 3: for more than two decades and had three children together.
Speaker 3: She was a palliative care nurse and the bread winner.
Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, six years after Helen was found, a
Speaker 2: female detective got concerned. It was due to new information.
Speaker 2: There was a fire that destroyed a house where Helen's
Speaker 2: husband was living. Suspicions were raised when detectives discovered that
Speaker 2: Mark Bird had fraudulently lodged two previous insurance claims worth
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of dollars concerning his two previous homes.
Speaker 2: He was sent to jail for four years.
Speaker 3: The court heard he suffered from PTSD, struggled with alcohol
Speaker 3: and drug abuse, and was convicted for setting fire to
Speaker 3: property and then making false insurance claims.
Speaker 2: Then the real work began. A detective started to investigate further.
Speaker 2: She spoke to witnesses that said Helen wouldn't have wanted
Speaker 2: to leave her kids. The female detective found out mister
Speaker 2: Byrd was having an affair the time of his wife's death,
Speaker 2: which he hadn't disclosed to police. The detective then prepared
Speaker 2: a detailed report in November twenty twenty one, and the
Speaker 2: Chief magistrate later reopened the investigation based on new evidence.
Speaker 2: An inquest was held into Helen's death in late twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three and finalized in twenty twenty four, but let's
Speaker 2: quickly skip back to twenty ten when Helen passed away.
Speaker 2: Helen's husband was the one that found her body. He
Speaker 2: allegedly cut her down with a Stanley knife. When police
Speaker 2: found Helen's body, the constable from the forensic services didn't
Speaker 2: take measurements the scene. They didn't fingerprint the DNA or
Speaker 2: the knife, the rope, or an alleged suicide note. In
Speaker 2: a surprising coincidence, the same constable who failed to undertake
Speaker 2: basic examinations and measurements in Helen's case was the same
Speaker 2: one who attended Eden's crime scene. Helen's actual investigation on
Speaker 2: the day was left to a constable without it seems
Speaker 2: too much direction from more senior officers who attended the scene.
Speaker 2: A constable was also responsible for doing the investigation into
Speaker 2: Eden's death on behalf of the coroner. With a new
Speaker 2: investigation going on around Helen's death, the police detective went
Speaker 2: back to the rope to test how it would frey
Speaker 2: in different circumstances. The testing raised doubts and questioned her
Speaker 2: husband's version of events on the day of Helen's death.
Speaker 2: Further testing concerning a slipknot also raised an issue about
Speaker 2: the husband's version. Like the CCTV footage in Eden's case,
Speaker 2: the rope in Helen's case had not been kept. This
Speaker 2: meant the well meeting police needed to improvise based on
Speaker 2: forensic photos from the crime scene. This new coronial inquest
Speaker 2: the ones'd just taken place, was handed down fourteen years
Speaker 2: since Helen's death. The new coroner found that she was
Speaker 2: murdered and that her husband was involved.
Speaker 3: The coroner, Robert Webster, has found mister Bird likely forced
Speaker 3: his wife to breathe in toxic fumes, rendering her unconscious.
Speaker 3: The coroner found mister Bird then tied his wife up
Speaker 3: with a rope, and she died from asphyxiation. He'd also
Speaker 3: been having affairs. On the eighth of July twenty ten,
Speaker 3: mister Bird called police claiming he'd found his wife unconscious
Speaker 3: in the shed at Blackman's Bay. Police say the investigation
Speaker 3: is ongoing and they're urging anyone with information to come forward.
Speaker 2: The coroner believed that Helen was incapacitated shortly before her death.
Speaker 2: The coroner believes that the wrote was placed around her neck.
Speaker 2: Mister Bird then made the scene look like a suicide.
Speaker 2: He placed a phone at a photo of their kids
Speaker 2: and a letter on the workbench of the garage. Sadly,
Speaker 2: it seems that the letter was regarded as a suicide
Speaker 2: note by police when it wasn't really. It was a
Speaker 2: letter say how unhappy she was in her marriage. This
Speaker 2: new female detective who investigated further checked phone records, calls,
Speaker 2: and text messages of the victim. The coroner said a
Speaker 2: series of miscalls and text from mister Bird to his
Speaker 2: wife that morning.
Speaker 7: Were contrived by mister Bird in order to provide himself
Speaker 7: with an alibi.
Speaker 2: The context of these texts in the lead up to
Speaker 2: the death were also inconsistent with the previous communications. Helen's husband,
Speaker 2: mister Bird had given false versions of events to police
Speaker 2: and to friends and family, the coroner said. Following his
Speaker 2: wife's death, mister Byrd received three hundred and ninety thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in life insurance and death benefits. Initially, this didn't
Speaker 2: spark suspicions by the original investigating police. The coroner that
Speaker 2: handed down their findings last week was critical of the
Speaker 2: initial police investigations. These are his words, but not his voice.
Speaker 7: It was inadequate. Investigating police should not accept what they
Speaker 7: are told or what appears from the scene to be
Speaker 7: a death by hanging. Such a death should be treated
Speaker 7: as suspicious death until investigations conclusively establish otherwise.
Speaker 2: As you've listened to the last ten minutes of content,
Speaker 2: you can appreciate the similarities with the Westbrook case. The
Speaker 2: key difference here is that the matter was reopened by
Speaker 2: the direction of the Chief Magistrate and a coronial inquest
Speaker 2: was held. This was largely due to the persistent and
Speaker 2: determination of the female detective. A full autopsy was done
Speaker 2: by a highly experienced forensic pathologist in Hobart. Eden's was
Speaker 2: done at Lonceston General Hospital by a pathologist. The autopsy
Speaker 2: photos in Eden's case haven't been handed over to an
Speaker 2: independent expert authorized by the Westbrooks, despite concerning evidence from
Speaker 2: Eden's sister about the possibility of blunt for's trauma and
Speaker 2: comments made by Kim, the delivery driver who first found Eden.
Speaker 2: In the case of Helen's death, the forensic pathologist highlighted.
Speaker 8: The difficulties in distinguishing are hanging by suicide, the possibility
Speaker 8: of a lack of restraint or defensive type injuries in
Speaker 8: the case of a suspected murder, and the possibility of
Speaker 8: a murder being staged as a suicide by hanging.
Speaker 2: From what we can see, it appears the pathologist undertaking
Speaker 2: Eden's autopsy didn't consider alternative scenarios, but we have not
Speaker 2: had the benefit of reading the autopsy report. The expert
Speaker 2: engaged number half of the Westbrooks has but has been
Speaker 2: stymied in finalizing the report due to the non provision
Speaker 2: of the autopsy photos.
Speaker 9: I have never faced this problem before, and I'm astounded
Speaker 9: that it has occurred, and it beggars belief that it
Speaker 9: has occurred, because I understand that the photographs are very
Speaker 9: sensitive and can be very disconcerting and upsetting to people
Speaker 9: who may view them either with or without permission, or
Speaker 9: in other words, whether they should be viewing them or not.
Speaker 9: But as far as I'm concerned as a consultant forensic
Speaker 9: pathologist who've been retained in this case or any other case,
Speaker 9: and it's the same for every case with the appropriate
Speaker 9: training or even more training than the individual who they
Speaker 9: have carried out the post mortem examination, then I fail
Speaker 9: to understand the reasoning behind any refusal, and it's not
Speaker 9: occurred in any request that I've made ever over my career.
Speaker 9: And as I said, before they form part of the
Speaker 9: post mortem examination. They're not just an addendum. They're there
Speaker 9: as the autopsy record, as are the histology slides and
Speaker 9: any other investigations such as toxicology, which are always made available. Now.
Speaker 9: Each state differs in their requirements as to what hurdles
Speaker 9: one has to jump in order to obtain materials, including photographs,
Speaker 9: but it is always the current has the authority to
Speaker 9: release or not release any particular item in relation to
Speaker 9: the investigation of the death. But I've never not been
Speaker 9: able to obtain the photographs, although sometimes it's been somewhat.
Speaker 10: Difficult both of these. When I read the decision in
Speaker 10: the Helen Bird case, both hanging cases involves a victim
Speaker 10: with no real motive to commit suicide. Both victims had
Speaker 10: a real love of their family.
Speaker 11: I was relieved.
Speaker 10: I was angry today.
Speaker 11: I was believed because I think that if we had
Speaker 11: walked away at times where we felt like it was
Speaker 11: all too much, we would have missed this opportunity to
Speaker 11: prove Eden did not take her own life, and that
Speaker 11: in fact, people are using suicide as a weapon to
Speaker 11: murder people made I.
Speaker 10: Was extremely concerned. I was concerned for the fact that
Speaker 10: it proves that an office can get things wrong, and
Speaker 10: it saddens me that it takes so many years for
Speaker 10: someone's troops to come out. We only got to the
Speaker 10: Helen Bird outcome due to a diligent police officer who
Speaker 10: on the side of the desk over years looked into
Speaker 10: this as she found it unusual death with Alan's case,
Speaker 10: and unfortunately, as you knowj we don't have anyone like
Speaker 10: that on the team working in the Tasmanian Police Force
Speaker 10: that's willing to put it on the side of the
Speaker 10: desk and look into this deeper.
Speaker 2: One of the things we're most interested in the case
Speaker 2: of Helen Bird is the investigations that was done around
Speaker 2: the rope. That rope was never tested for DNA. The
Speaker 2: rope in Eden's death was also the same and it
Speaker 2: offers a glimmer of hope for Jason and Amanda.
Speaker 10: Look, it gives us leverage this outcome with the Helen
Speaker 10: Bird case, Jay, without a doubt, we can use parallels
Speaker 10: in that case to Eden's and come up with solid
Speaker 10: I don't know what you'd call it, is a solid
Speaker 10: evidence that this needs to be reinvestigated.
Speaker 11: The police has said that, we said that the rope
Speaker 11: came from our house, from our craypots. Okay, So if
Speaker 11: that's the case, don't you think the police would have
Speaker 11: come and checked our craypots or taken them away or
Speaker 11: something like no one.
Speaker 1: Asked us, But they didn't.
Speaker 11: They didn't do anything like that because it was all
Speaker 11: a crop of crap and they just made it up.
Speaker 10: Because that's what's that's why a man's a get angry.
Speaker 1: It looks like that's what.
Speaker 10: The conclusion of Eden committing suicide because on the morning
Speaker 10: when a man and I got there and they're saying,
Speaker 10: Amanda said, oh, that's one of our craypot ropes. Amanda
Speaker 10: does not.
Speaker 1: I did not say that as the twisting of my word,
Speaker 1: now them for saying that.
Speaker 10: So if that's the reason that Eden's committed susie, because
Speaker 10: she's taken a craypot rape from the Westbrook residence on
Speaker 10: her way downtown and some five or six hours later
Speaker 10: decided to hang herself, wouldn't you, as an investigative officer
Speaker 10: go to the Westbrook home, sees the craypot that may
Speaker 10: have had the rope removed, to see if it was
Speaker 10: cut or untied. Just those forensics that you would expect
Speaker 10: to be done at no stays, Jahre is at no stays.
Speaker 10: Did we see any police officers or investigating officers at
Speaker 10: our home asking about a rope that may have come
Speaker 10: from our crapepot. And I'll tell you why that didn't happen,
Speaker 10: because there was no crypts ropes taken from my home.
Speaker 10: Eden did not leave this property with a rope. As
Speaker 10: you know, we know the rape come from the wharf
Speaker 10: across the road on a boat that we've given them
Speaker 10: spacific name for. In the RT eyes we can see
Speaker 10: there's been no investigations into the source of the rope.
Speaker 2: On the weekend just passed. Jackie Lamby visited Jason and
Speaker 2: Amanda as they shed in Saint Helen's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really really lovely.
Speaker 10: Sod down to earth. It was like talking to my district,
Speaker 10: you know what I mean. It was just so real,
Speaker 10: real fair income Ausie mate. He told me about her
Speaker 10: career and defense, which I believe is in the book.
Speaker 10: I haven't read the book. Get Jackie sorry. And she
Speaker 10: was just around, yeah, right into our garden and the.
Speaker 1: Fees and our way of living.
Speaker 10: And she spoke about her mother's love for fees and
Speaker 10: gardening and one of the most fascinating she things found
Speaker 10: she found on that property was we've got fully grown
Speaker 10: macademia nut trees, which is something that you wouldn't expect
Speaker 10: in Tasmania, and we're getting a hundred kilograms of nuts
Speaker 10: a year and right now that's what's dropping. So we're
Speaker 10: able to test some Queensland macadamia nuts growing in Tasmania. Jakes.
Speaker 2: She also got the chance to join you down at
Speaker 2: the memorial for Eden.
Speaker 1: Yes, Jackie is really.
Speaker 10: Again.
Speaker 1: She took time out of her busy schedule to pursue
Speaker 1: here on other other things, and yeah, she was moved
Speaker 1: a little shocked at the situation where it is.
Speaker 10: To hear it, it's different to see it.
Speaker 9: Jay, When you're actually at the park, you feel it.
Speaker 10: You feel where Eden died. You feel how close to
Speaker 10: the road it was, how how close to the police station,
Speaker 10: the council chambers, across the roads, the dwarf and people
Speaker 10: don't when they when they hear the story, they have
Speaker 10: their own visuals of it. And I've met a few
Speaker 10: people that have listened to your podcasts that have come
Speaker 10: to Saint Helens and they've hooked up with us and
Speaker 10: they've all just been flown away with where Eden passed
Speaker 10: and how close it is to the police station, the
Speaker 10: council chambers and the wharf across the road obviously, and
Speaker 10: is the main highway like the main street of Saint Helens.
Speaker 11: And she was enthusiastic, and she has no intention of
Speaker 11: backing down.
Speaker 1: It's moving, it's nice.
Speaker 10: I just found it truly humbling, mate, you know. And yeah,
Speaker 10: she was when she wants to fight something, she's not
Speaker 10: going to back down and she's on the fight. And yeah,
Speaker 10: we're pretty happy with where Jackie is with it and
Speaker 10: where she's going. And as you know, Jason's still got
Speaker 10: a couple of hards the eyes out that we're waiting
Speaker 10: for responses to and we've put in more letters to
Speaker 10: the Commissioner of ASMA and Police.
Speaker 2: Jason and Amanda have already put some of these questions
Speaker 2: to the Attorney General Guy Barnatt. The Helen Bird case
Speaker 2: shows how the system can sometimes get it terribly wrong
Speaker 2: and the length of time it takes to rectify such mistakes.
Speaker 2: Fourteen years of unnecessary trauma and heightening grieving for family
Speaker 2: and friends in Helen Bird's case. On the eighteenth of
Speaker 2: February twenty twenty five, it will be ten years since
Speaker 2: Eden's death. Jason and Amanda Westbrook and their family deserve
Speaker 2: answers