Speaker 1: Lawrence, tell me what you know.
Speaker 2: We do this every two weeks we speak to a
Speaker 2: member of the Victorian Police who do an extraordinary job.
Speaker 2: Now we've spoken to people from all different departments this year, guys,
Speaker 2: and this next policeman that we're about to speak to
Speaker 2: has a very important role. He's acting detector Detective Inspector
Speaker 2: Tony Combridge from the Missing Person Squad.
Speaker 3: Good morning, morning, Jace, Morning, Lauren, Morning Clint.
Speaker 2: Now the Missing Person Squad. I feel like this is
Speaker 2: something we see on in like movies, but this is
Speaker 2: something that is happening around Australia. Each year in Victoria,
Speaker 2: twenty thousand people are reported missing, ninety nine percent of
Speaker 2: them a found.
Speaker 4: There was only there was two recent cases where children
Speaker 4: were almost abducted here in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4: If the kids weren't missing, it would be your unit
Speaker 4: that would investigate that.
Speaker 3: It would probably the crime Squad to take that. Initially
Speaker 3: we'd have some input to it with some subject matter expertise,
Speaker 3: but be crime would do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So how long once someone is missing, because people
Speaker 2: might report someone missing, how long does it take for
Speaker 2: the Missing Person Squad to get involved?
Speaker 3: Well, Lauren It's a bit of a nuanced question because
Speaker 3: we're really involved once we establish that the likely cause
Speaker 3: of someone going missing is because they've been murdered.
Speaker 4: Right, okay, right, so as soon as if our player
Speaker 4: is detected, then you guys get involved.
Speaker 3: That's correct, Yes, yeah, right.
Speaker 1: You might not be able to answer this question.
Speaker 4: I was talking to the guys about I had a
Speaker 4: friend of mine who lived in Seattle over in the
Speaker 4: States for a while. She was running me through the
Speaker 4: whole Amber alert system over there, where if someone goes missing,
Speaker 4: say missing child, an Amber alert will be blasted out
Speaker 4: to everyone's phone and there'll be a photo on description.
Speaker 1: Clink. You mentioned you've got a couple.
Speaker 5: Before in New South Wales. Actually right, New South Wales Police,
Speaker 5: is it quite effectively?
Speaker 1: Do we have a system like that here?
Speaker 3: There are Amber? New South Wales have a really good system, Clint.
Speaker 3: They have GEO targeted se missing. So what they'll do
Speaker 3: if they've got somebody, say who's gone missing in a
Speaker 3: in South Melbourne, They've can send a text to everyone
Speaker 3: in the postcard to South Melbourne and so keep a
Speaker 3: lookout for this person. We haven't got that technology here
Speaker 3: as yet.
Speaker 2: Isn't that insane like they're just right across the border.
Speaker 2: If there is an incredible service that one state has,
Speaker 2: we should have it everywhere, right.
Speaker 3: I absolutely agree, it's a it's a really good tool. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: it does come down the cost.
Speaker 5: And this was by way of example, I was at
Speaker 5: the Airport's in the airport and missing child. There was
Speaker 5: an active missing child's case in Mascot, so that's close
Speaker 5: the airport. I had a question about when a missing
Speaker 5: person becomes a cold case, do you have to sort
Speaker 5: of hand that over? How long do you sort of
Speaker 5: actively investigate a missing person before you have to make
Speaker 5: the harrowing decision to obviously cease the investigation.
Speaker 3: Well, as far as missing person's investigations can Clint, they
Speaker 3: all stay with us. Anything anything that comes to us
Speaker 3: as in relation to a missing person where homicide is suspected,
Speaker 3: they stay with us. And they're all open. They might
Speaker 3: not all be actively worthd on at any one time,
Speaker 3: but they'll all be open and as soon as new
Speaker 3: information comes to us, we will recommence that investigation.
Speaker 2: It must be a role that when you're working on
Speaker 2: a case, it must never stop because you, in the
Speaker 2: back of your mind must constantly be trying to think
Speaker 2: of different things and ways and ideas. Does it wear
Speaker 2: you down mentally doing a job like this.
Speaker 3: I'm lucky, Lauren, because I've got a really good team
Speaker 3: around me and I don't have to do all the thinking.
Speaker 3: I just get to make some of the harder decisions,
Speaker 3: which is a really good role to be in. But
Speaker 3: the Victorian public can rest assured they've got some of
Speaker 3: the finest detectives in Victoria Police working at the Missing
Speaker 3: Person Squad that are doing a lot of the work
Speaker 3: that in that space. For me, they just come up
Speaker 3: with new and improved ways to get through cases all
Speaker 3: the time. Yeah.
Speaker 4: You know, when Lauren was mentioning, the stats say ninety
Speaker 4: nine percent of the twenty thousand people each year that
Speaker 4: go missing in Melbourne are found alive. What normally is
Speaker 4: the way you find people? Is it mobile? Phone tracking?
Speaker 1: Would have to be.
Speaker 3: It's a really good question, Jakes, because there's so many
Speaker 3: different ways to go missing.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: You know, we look at one very specific part of it,
Speaker 3: and we average probably around about four or five cases
Speaker 3: a year that are homicide. So that's we're looking through
Speaker 3: twenty thousand cases to try and find four or five.
Speaker 3: So yeah, right, a little less like looking for a
Speaker 3: needle in a haystack and more like looking for a
Speaker 3: needle in a stack and needle. Yeah, But most people
Speaker 3: self recover. They basically either they go home with their
Speaker 3: own accord or they turn up at a police station
Speaker 3: and say here, I've been reported missing. When we're actively
Speaker 3: looking for somebody, if they've voluntarily gone missing and they're
Speaker 3: taking active steps to avoid detection, they are difficult to find.
Speaker 3: But we do have ways and means.
Speaker 4: Do you ever watch that TV show Hunted and think
Speaker 4: I'd find a minute a minute.
Speaker 3: I haven't got time aways work jokes.
Speaker 4: Aside, In twenty twenty four, it would be hard to
Speaker 4: go missing if you wanted to.
Speaker 1: Surely you'd think just with all the technology the cameras, every.
Speaker 2: Cameras, even like dash cams and doorbell cameras.
Speaker 4: The other day were like in the news because they're
Speaker 4: using facial identification cameras.
Speaker 3: Look, it is more difficult now, and when we look
Speaker 3: back at some of our older cases, you can see
Speaker 3: how what we would do today just can't be applied.
Speaker 3: So it's a very different investigation when you're looking at
Speaker 3: something so pre ninety ninety even, Yeah, which doesn't sound
Speaker 3: that long ago for someone in my age, but it
Speaker 3: is a fair one.
Speaker 4: I think just from walking for the car park here
Speaker 4: at night to the studio, fifty cameras we swipe in
Speaker 4: with a car like our digital footprint would be unbelievable.
Speaker 3: And that's we rely on that and part of what
Speaker 3: we look for around suspicious circumstances. You look at you
Speaker 3: look at people's normal digital footprint and if that's just stopped,
Speaker 3: that's usually pretty good indicator that something's happened.
Speaker 5: To I tell you where there wasn't really a digital footprint,
Speaker 5: and that was in Victoria's High Country.
Speaker 3: How know?
Speaker 5: You presided over the case of Russell Hill and Carol Clay,
Speaker 5: which was very very high profile. There has been a
Speaker 5: prosecution very recently, the appeals the appeals process at the moment,
Speaker 5: but they're the campers that went missing in the high Country.
Speaker 5: That must have been a harrowing case to work on
Speaker 5: because there was a fairly substantial spotlight on that case
Speaker 5: as well in terms of public interest.
Speaker 3: Pretty much every job we work on, Clint gets that spotlight.
Speaker 3: The missing person's cases that we do are classic who
Speaker 3: done it murder mysteries. I think I think it attracts
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of public attention. But also
Speaker 3: there are peoples and people and families involved here, So
Speaker 3: there's two sides to that. There's a lot of attention.
Speaker 3: Our people are trained and they know how to how
Speaker 3: to deal with that additional scrutiny, but it's more around
Speaker 3: trying to shield the families.
Speaker 4: It's just the way society is at the moment. Look
Speaker 4: at crime podcasts and all that's sort of well.
Speaker 2: The Victoria Police have a podcast now, Police Life the Experts,
Speaker 2: which is a podcast. People are fascinated by this stuff.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break. When we come back.
Speaker 4: I want to talk about a case that you guys
Speaker 4: are chatting about on Police Life the Experts podcast. In fact,
Speaker 4: you've actually bought in. I've heard this audio. This is
Speaker 4: incredible audio. We're about to play. It was from inside
Speaker 4: the interview process of the accused.
Speaker 1: We'll play it for you. We're going to chat about
Speaker 1: that case. Next. We are doing probe the Pope with
Speaker 1: the Missing Person's Unit.
Speaker 2: We're about to talk about a case from here in Victoria.
Speaker 2: So if you've got little ears in the card, just
Speaker 2: be mindful that this is a very heavy conversation we're
Speaker 2: about to have.
Speaker 6: Police are searching a rubbish chip in Melbourne's North for
Speaker 6: the body of a missing Epping mother. Her parents are
Speaker 6: refusing to believe the thirty three year old is dead,
Speaker 6: even though her boyfriend has already been charged with murder.
Speaker 4: Wow, she was a famous case. Tony Missing Person's Unit
Speaker 4: worked on it. He was found guilty, yes, and he's
Speaker 4: currently serving time for murdering the single mum.
Speaker 2: She Zang was her name. It's a terrible, terrible story.
Speaker 2: I think they were they were dating, she wanted to
Speaker 2: break up. I mean, we hear about this stuff way
Speaker 2: too often.
Speaker 5: By the way, here's the thing. These these are people
Speaker 5: with families, right, and your job is to not just
Speaker 5: locate the body in this case, but also.
Speaker 3: To prosecute absolutely. It's there's two aspects. And Clint, you
Speaker 3: hit it on the head that we have the whole
Speaker 3: people accountable for these crimes, but we hold a whole
Speaker 3: other responsibility to the community, and that's to try and
Speaker 3: provide these families with finances. Absolutely, and that's where we
Speaker 3: were fortunate in this case that we were able to
Speaker 3: do that. When I say fortunate for you that that
Speaker 3: fortune derived from the fact that our blokes worked really
Speaker 3: hard on this, and our lead investigator in particular worked
Speaker 3: incredibly hard on it.
Speaker 2: This poor woman was put in a rubbish bit yes,
Speaker 2: and the council came around picked up the bins. There
Speaker 2: weren't cameras on this particular truck.
Speaker 3: There was actually a camera on it, Lauren, but unfortunately
Speaker 3: the truck was incredibly busy, and by the time we
Speaker 3: got to the CCTV that truck had overwritten, there were
Speaker 3: six other trucks collecting in the area as well that
Speaker 3: did have footage, and we watched all the footage from
Speaker 3: those trucks and realized that she wasn't in the first
Speaker 3: six trucks, so she's going to be the boy process illumination.
Speaker 3: We said that she came in the.
Speaker 2: Seventh, so then that truck goes to the tip or
Speaker 2: the rubbish trucks go and your department have to do
Speaker 2: the ungodly job of trying to re possess that body.
Speaker 3: We were really lucky that we came across the people
Speaker 3: who ran the tip out at WI Alert, the good
Speaker 3: people from Hanson and Grabner who helped us immensely. Now
Speaker 3: those guys find stuff out there all the time. He'd
Speaker 3: be surprised when it ends up in the tip that
Speaker 3: shouldn't yep. So they were amazing with their assistance that
Speaker 3: they provided us. But yeah, we had to put people
Speaker 3: on ground out there for We were planning for probably
Speaker 3: twelve weeks. It ended up being about four days.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: So once you got the body, you need to prosecute, right,
Speaker 5: And this is where the interview process kicks in.
Speaker 4: Jason, Now this features on Police Life The Experts. It's
Speaker 4: a Victorian police podcast which is out now. When it
Speaker 4: comes to prosecuting, this audio was played at court. This
Speaker 4: is from the interview process. Take a listen to.
Speaker 7: This, June. Your phone has been analyzed. When we download
Speaker 7: your phone, we can see everything that you have done
Speaker 7: on the phone, who you've called, who you've messaged, what
Speaker 7: you've been searching on the internet, what I socially on
Speaker 7: the internet? Yes, on Saturday afternoon, you triped this into
Speaker 7: a Google search. How many years you get for killing
Speaker 7: someone in Australia. Why would you search?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 7: On the same night, at nine pm, he tripes this
Speaker 7: into Google. How to deal with sinking rubbish in Australia.
Speaker 7: Why are you searching them.
Speaker 3: I have has no idea.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. I mean, well, he did a terrible
Speaker 2: job trying to cover his tracks. But when someone something
Speaker 2: like that happens, are you guys like this is I mean,
Speaker 2: we got him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're pretty confident we've got the right person around
Speaker 3: that time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when someone goes missing or you detect foul play,
Speaker 4: do you want me look at the partner first?
Speaker 3: Well, look, look look at the people close to the miss. Obviously,
Speaker 3: statistically they're the people that have got the most opportunity.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So and realistically we're probably going to the last person
Speaker 3: that sees them. Yeah, because they're a crucial witness. And
Speaker 3: in this case it was this man. He was the
Speaker 3: last person that had seen it.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: And being able to obviously you deal so closely with
Speaker 5: the families of these victims. Being able to sit down
Speaker 5: with the family post and tell them that the person
Speaker 5: that has murdered their daughter or their sister is now incarcerated,
Speaker 5: what's that like?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Oh, look at it. It's powerful, but it's never going
Speaker 3: to provide them with what they want. They want their
Speaker 3: daughter to come home, and that wasn't going to happen.
Speaker 3: And I have a vivid memory of myself and Detective
Speaker 3: Seem Russell having to get back into suits from the
Speaker 3: tip and drive out to see Jew's mum and dad
Speaker 3: who were who'd come in from China, and then eight
Speaker 3: year old son and tell them you know, we've located her,
Speaker 3: and you know, that's the best news they've had in
Speaker 3: one hundred and thirty seven days.
Speaker 5: And it is grim news, but it's the best news
Speaker 5: they've had. Jesus shocking.
Speaker 4: Can I say to you and your team, Tony, you
Speaker 4: guys do an absolutely remarkable.
Speaker 2: Job, unbelievable work. In Victoria, twenty thousand people are reported
Speaker 2: missing each year and ninety nine percent of them are found,
Speaker 2: almost all alive and well, but there is that terrible
Speaker 2: one percent, and you do do an amazing job. Tony.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 5: Can I end on a lighter note if I'm losing
Speaker 5: my keys all the time, do you lose stuff and
Speaker 5: are you able to track it down?
Speaker 3: Pretty pretty well? Yeah, you'd be surprised how much stuff
Speaker 3: we lose.
Speaker 1: You'll find you like all well, I see you at
Speaker 1: Westfield going police car.
Speaker 5: Should have taken a photo.
Speaker 1: Green zone entirely likely, Tony, Thanks so much for coming in.
Speaker 3: Thanks Guys. Lauren Wake Up Feeling Good on No.
Speaker 7: One hundred.
Speaker 2: Lauren on Socials