Speaker 1: Approache production.
Speaker 2: There is no evidence linking any other person.
Speaker 3: To her death.
Speaker 2: That's bulls it. Where there's heaps of evidence linking other
Speaker 2: people to Eden's death, you people don't want to have
Speaker 2: an inquest because we actually will have evidence.
Speaker 4: Stop the games.
Speaker 2: Let's find out what happened to Eden on that night,
Speaker 2: and let's documents the truth.
Speaker 5: That's Jason Westbrook, and as you can tell, both him
Speaker 5: and his wife Amanda are angry and annoyed. I'll get
Speaker 5: to why later in this episode, but I thought we
Speaker 5: might start this episode with some good news, and given
Speaker 5: that lots of people have been listening to the show
Speaker 5: for a long time, it's a bit of a reflection
Speaker 5: on the last twelve months, as this is most likely
Speaker 5: the last episode for this year. In the last episode,
Speaker 5: you heard Jackie Lamby's in passion plea in the Senate.
Speaker 5: Few days after that, it was raised by another member
Speaker 5: in the Tasmanian Parliament. We'll get to that speech by
Speaker 5: Andrew Jenna shortly. First, I want to say thanks to
Speaker 5: anyone that's been with the show from the start, or
Speaker 5: maybe you've just joined us. I know that it might
Speaker 5: feel that we're no closer than we were when we
Speaker 5: started almost forty episodes ago. Your support of the podcast
Speaker 5: and of course Jason and Amanda's story has helped drive
Speaker 5: them to want more answers and also show them that
Speaker 5: they have the support of the people. It doesn't seem
Speaker 5: like they've got the support of some Tasmanian institutions. On
Speaker 5: a side note, Our Little Edie has been voted by
Speaker 5: Apple Podcast in Australia and New Zealand as one of
Speaker 5: the best series podcasts for twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Congratulations mate, that's why you brought it to the world
Speaker 2: and you deserve that. Well done. Thank you, thanks so much.
Speaker 5: I think it's us so I think it's your story
Speaker 5: that you've allowed us to tell.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, we did come out here
Speaker 3: and we said we're just going to put our parts
Speaker 3: on the table. Was going to be transparent as.
Speaker 2: But you've brought this this touchy subject to mant and
Speaker 2: center of the country in the sense you know the reponse.
Speaker 3: I don't know if anyone else to send the response from.
Speaker 2: People on a weekly weekly people right to it.
Speaker 3: A wide demographic too. It's not just one genre of
Speaker 3: persons it's coming from or yes, and the things that
Speaker 3: they're doing is just like super cue.
Speaker 5: The one that I that I'm thinking about right now
Speaker 5: is the one you sent a couple of weeks back,
Speaker 5: which was the young couple that were heading to Tazzy
Speaker 5: on a weekend away.
Speaker 6: I've never met them, didn't get to meet them, but
Speaker 6: they went to the park and paid their respect through
Speaker 6: Eden and in so put a little segment on their
Speaker 6: own YouTube channel and spoke of the how we actually.
Speaker 7: Know this town quite well due to a podcast that
Speaker 7: we used to watch. I'll listened to was about a
Speaker 7: young girl that that died here, fifteen year old girl. Yeah,
Speaker 7: if you get the opportunity to listen to that podcast,
Speaker 7: because there's a bit of stuff that went went on
Speaker 7: there that's not quite right. And it's a beautiful little town,
Speaker 7: isn't it.
Speaker 1: I just googled it.
Speaker 7: It happened in February twenty fifteen, so next year'll be
Speaker 7: ten years since she passed away.
Speaker 5: Wow. In the main street.
Speaker 7: Yeah, the school bus was going past the next day
Speaker 7: and she's there in the main street.
Speaker 3: And you can see by when they arrived and they're
Speaker 3: talking about the podcast and our little eating. It's a
Speaker 3: sort of a just a general conversation. It feels like, however,
Speaker 3: when they actually are at the park, there's a somber
Speaker 3: in their motion, in their language, in their bodies, because
Speaker 3: it's a little bit hard to believe when you're at
Speaker 3: the location.
Speaker 5: It's a weird feeling to be here. So obviously there
Speaker 5: was a big tree here where her body was and
Speaker 5: they've knocked it down now memorial.
Speaker 2: But it's right as you say, as they say in
Speaker 2: the podcast, it's right.
Speaker 7: In the middle of down town. Yeah, so a school
Speaker 7: bus was going to school.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was super nice, really nice that people are stopping
Speaker 2: and looking at Leedens Park or the Fishermen's Memorial Park
Speaker 2: and they're paying respects to Eden and obviously they're reading
Speaker 2: the names on the rocks of the fishermen.
Speaker 8: And you see this day when we drive past, there's
Speaker 8: people always at that park paying respects to not only
Speaker 8: Even but to the Fisherman, Which that gives us a
Speaker 8: little bit of a good feeling, doesn't it.
Speaker 5: We see lots of emails and well wishes from people
Speaker 5: right across the world lending support to Jason and Amanda
Speaker 5: and their family. Most of heartfelt. It's emails that want
Speaker 5: to say, don't give up, keep fighting. We're behind you, Jason.
Speaker 5: Amanda also told me about some stickers that someone has
Speaker 5: produced to help them search for the truth, and.
Speaker 3: A little badge too. They just super cute and a
Speaker 3: couple from Swansea and they don't want any who are
Speaker 3: about it. They just you know, sort of be a
Speaker 3: fun way to get things out there. They know a
Speaker 3: graphic designer. They've come together.
Speaker 2: We've ended up with about one hundred and fifty stickers
Speaker 2: sent to us by this lovely couple from Swansea, and
Speaker 2: so we've obviously put three on our vehicle. We put
Speaker 2: a post up that if anybody would like to support
Speaker 2: of the True three D, feel free and we'll get
Speaker 2: them to you. So we were inundated that day with
Speaker 2: people wanting them, and because they are in a state
Speaker 2: or they are out of state, some across the world,
Speaker 2: we said, oh, look, we're happy to put them in
Speaker 2: a post and send them to you. So I go
Speaker 2: down to the post office and I have to buy
Speaker 2: envelopes and then I'm seeing the stamps and I'm thinking
Speaker 2: how many hours I've to about fifty envelopes I had
Speaker 2: to send out. And as I'm looking at the stamps,
Speaker 2: I saw the Christmas stamps for sixty five stamps, and
Speaker 2: I thought, oh, that's great. I'll just buy a sheet
Speaker 2: of Christmas stamps. Then it's Christmas and I'll stick the
Speaker 2: sticker in. And the lady's saying to me, what are
Speaker 2: you doing with that, because I was asking by a
Speaker 2: packet of one hundred envelopes and I said, I'm actually
Speaker 2: going to send these stickers in the envelopes to people
Speaker 2: that are wanting them. And she says, well, they're only
Speaker 2: sixty five cents if they're a Christmas card and I said, ah,
Speaker 2: but i'll put them in a Christmas card. She said, well,
Speaker 2: it doesn't feel like a Christmas card, so it will
Speaker 2: be a dollar fifty per enveld. I said, look, actually,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to send them from here. I'll buy
Speaker 2: the envelopes, but I'm going to go and buy Christmas
Speaker 2: cards and i'll do it myself and I'll make sure
Speaker 2: I don't send it from here. And the lady sort
Speaker 2: of said, yeah, okay, see you later. So I bought
Speaker 2: the twenty or forty sixty five cent stamps, went and
Speaker 2: bought ten cards packs, a couple of ten color four
Speaker 2: ten card backs, put the fifty five stamps on, put
Speaker 2: the sticker in the card and wrote a little note
Speaker 2: to each and everyone that wanted one cent. And last
Speaker 2: week we sent them out to people that we don't
Speaker 2: even know day and we wrote a little thing thanks
Speaker 2: for your kind words, your thoughts and your support or
Speaker 2: whatever was written on the card. I love them best,
Speaker 2: which is the word family twenty twenty four. And we're
Speaker 2: they're now being received. So we're getting these messages back
Speaker 2: from the people that have requested them, and they've got
Speaker 2: them in their mailbox. They've not only got the stickers,
Speaker 2: they've got a Christmas card from us, which is something
Speaker 2: we normally can't doj No. It's been really a nice
Speaker 2: energy around the stickers, and we're getting people sending pictures
Speaker 2: of them putting them on their car.
Speaker 5: These calls that I do with Jason and Amanda are
Speaker 5: for the podcast, but they're also a bit of a
Speaker 5: catch up to see what's been happening. And on this
Speaker 5: particular call, though, we're about to get to the audio
Speaker 5: you heard earlier when Jason was annoyed. Let's first get
Speaker 5: some more good news from the Westbrook family.
Speaker 2: We've got to prove to build a house last week days.
Speaker 2: I am counting every dollar.
Speaker 5: Mate, That's awesome. So when do you start building?
Speaker 2: When it started? The concreteors that arrive in next week,
Speaker 2: doing our profiles and form work, and we're doing that
Speaker 2: over a couple of weekends. We'll have the slab pulled
Speaker 2: by mid January. We're both registered homeowner builders the courses,
Speaker 2: We've got our permits, we've got our insurances, and we're
Speaker 2: super proud of where we sit right now today. And
Speaker 2: this is going to be our little retirement home that
Speaker 2: a man and I will live for the rest of
Speaker 2: our jolly lives together.
Speaker 5: You heard Jackie Lamby in the Senate in the last
Speaker 5: episode and her impassioned plea for the police and the
Speaker 5: coroner to release the autopsy photos and reopen an inquest
Speaker 5: into this case. A few days after that, in the
Speaker 5: Tasmanian Parliament, Andrew Jenner, who's the member for the Jackie
Speaker 5: Lamby Network in Lyone in Tasmania, tabled the petition that
Speaker 5: we've been running online. This is a transcript of mister
Speaker 5: Jenner in Parliament. These are his exact words, but not
Speaker 5: his voice.
Speaker 1: I rise today to speak on the tragic death of
Speaker 1: Eden Westbrook in Saint Helen's in twenty fifteen. I stand
Speaker 1: to call for an independent public inquiry under the circumstances
Speaker 1: of Eden's death and the way in which the investorsation
Speaker 1: was handled. Despite their persistent efforts, they have been repeatedly
Speaker 1: denied access to key information, specifically the autopsy photos needed
Speaker 1: for an independent forensic expert to complete this review of
Speaker 1: the case. There is nothing to prevent the coroner or
Speaker 1: Chief Magistrate from releasing the autopsy photos, yet, despite genuine
Speaker 1: reasons having been provided, the release of these photos has
Speaker 1: been refused. The family has raised serious legitimate concerns about
Speaker 1: the thoroughness of the investigation. The Westbrook family is asking
Speaker 1: for an independent inquest. This is not an unreasonable request.
Speaker 1: If the current legislation prevents the Attorney General from directing
Speaker 1: the Coroner in appropriate circumstances to direct an inquest to
Speaker 1: be held, then it is entirely appropriate to consider a
Speaker 1: change in the law. I call on the Attorney General
Speaker 1: to reform the current Coroners Act nineteen ninety five. It
Speaker 1: is antiquated and not fit for purpose. The Act must
Speaker 1: minimize unnecessary traumata family members by making the coronial process
Speaker 1: easier and less adversarial.
Speaker 5: Back at the start of November, Jason and Amanda had
Speaker 5: sent two letters to the Commissioner of Police in Tasmania,
Speaker 5: and as of Monday, the two of December, they had
Speaker 5: not yet heard back. They asked questions to the Commissioner
Speaker 5: about the rope and what and if it had been
Speaker 5: DNA tested. With no response in almost a month, they
Speaker 5: reached out to the Police Minister, and then the next
Speaker 5: day a letter arrives from the Assistant Commissioner of Police.
Speaker 5: It's this letter that frustrated Jason and Amanda, and.
Speaker 2: I hope I don't interrupt myself because it does pissed
Speaker 2: me up a little bit when I read this, but
Speaker 2: we'll go.
Speaker 3: Thank the best thing.
Speaker 2: Westbook. I'm writing in response to your emails to Commissioner
Speaker 2: Adams on the fifth and the nineteenth of November twenty
Speaker 2: four and on the fourth of December twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: The Missioner Adams referred your correspondence to me as I
Speaker 2: oversee the operational side of Tasmanian Police. I've considered your
Speaker 2: recent emails and past correspondence and recognized the toll Eden's
Speaker 2: death has had on your family and assure you inquiries
Speaker 2: have been made into all credible information that has been received.
Speaker 2: It is important to note is the dance. I note
Speaker 2: the corner. Olivia mctagget handed down her findings on the
Speaker 2: thirty to September twenty sixteen. Chief Magistrate Katherine Geesen joins
Speaker 2: the dance and considers this matter you raised on the
Speaker 2: fifth of August twenty twenty twenty and then on the
Speaker 2: first of April twenty twenty two, and gave reason you
Speaker 2: the reasons as to why the investigation would not be reopened.
Speaker 2: This was again reiterated by the currents Court on the
Speaker 2: seventeenth of September twenty twenty four, where again they sprailed
Speaker 2: it all over their website. I again confirmed that Tasmanian
Speaker 2: Police is not in possession of any evidence that suggested
Speaker 2: Seden's death is any other than a suicide, and there
Speaker 2: is no evidence linking any other person to death. Now quickly, Jar,
Speaker 2: I just want to say, they really need to stop
Speaker 2: patronizing and condescending me with correspondence of the same narrative.
Speaker 2: They've got to stop insulting our intelligence. We're not children, Jay,
Speaker 2: We're adults. Where I'm actually a grandfather, a father I'm
Speaker 2: fifty five. I'm not a child, and they need to
Speaker 2: stop treating me like I'm a dissatisfied, breathing parent. I'm
Speaker 2: not anymore. Mate. I'm obviously going to agree for the
Speaker 2: rest of my life. I'm actually a dad that's getting
Speaker 2: going to find the truth out what happened to his
Speaker 2: daughter on the night she went out, and I'm not
Speaker 2: going to stop. And the last thing by them putting
Speaker 2: all this up and going back in the seventeenth Decetember
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four where it was reiterated by the coroner
Speaker 2: and put up on their website. They're doing this because
Speaker 2: they're saying this will restore the fate in the Tasmanian people.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what day not restoring faith. It bactually
Speaker 2: chose poor Kate. Because what they're brawling and what they're
Speaker 2: putting is fault. Eden did not die on the seventeenth.
Speaker 2: We know that she died on the eighteenth. Can't You
Speaker 2: can't rather stamp that. You've got to open up about
Speaker 2: it alone. You can't say Kate isn't a person of interest.
Speaker 2: You can't say all the people that Nae Kate was
Speaker 2: with Eden on the night aren't credible. There's too many
Speaker 2: The police obviously don't know how many people we know
Speaker 2: were with Kate and have God given us statements on
Speaker 2: that Kate was with Eden after midnight, and we also
Speaker 2: got the screenshots of Kate stating she was with Eden
Speaker 2: until five am. She also at the vigil, she tells
Speaker 2: A man and I again that she was with Eden.
Speaker 2: She specifically tells me times and she was the first
Speaker 2: to see Eden. She went to the police house. She
Speaker 2: tells me things that whether it's true or false. She
Speaker 2: tells Eden's dad this, She approaches Bobby Lee, as you know,
Speaker 2: just days after. There's too much spotlight on Kate Mate.
Speaker 2: So for this rhetoric or this narrative to say there's
Speaker 2: no where is it again there is no evidence linking
Speaker 2: any other person to her death? That's bullshit because where
Speaker 2: there's heaps of evidence linking other people to Eden's death.
Speaker 2: And the only way we're going to get to the
Speaker 2: truth Pasmanian Police and the Tasmanian Currner's office is if
Speaker 2: we have an inquest. You people don't want to have
Speaker 2: an inquest because we actually will have evidence that will
Speaker 2: put someone to the death of Eden. So let's just
Speaker 2: stop the games and get a date, right, Let's get
Speaker 2: let's get Kate form of the interviewed, Let's find out
Speaker 2: what happened to Eden on that night, and let's document
Speaker 2: the truth because we're not going away.
Speaker 4: Jane, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: From a bit even a bit passionate, but it was
Speaker 2: frustrating to get another narrative copy and pasted letter from
Speaker 2: another Tasmanian police officer. I couldn't do this files in
Speaker 2: that position.
Speaker 4: If there's nothing to hide, Let's just stop the games, Jay,
Speaker 4: and give the forensic pathologist what he needs to finish
Speaker 4: his report so we can make our next steps to
Speaker 4: reopening this case or having an inquest into it.
Speaker 2: At least, what are they afraid of? It's bigger than
Speaker 2: eed it this Jay, I believe there's many families that
Speaker 2: would like to see the autopsy photos that have been told.
Speaker 5: Ny Amanda told me of a beautiful idea that she
Speaker 5: has and is trying to push through when it comes
Speaker 5: to children's deaths, especially when they're being investigated by either
Speaker 5: a coroner or police. The idea is to signify that
Speaker 5: these deaths should be treated with the utmost care and empathy.
Speaker 3: Eating file should have been wrapped around with a ribbon
Speaker 3: stating that this is a child's case, and that with
Speaker 3: the ribbon wrapped around it, it states that it's never
Speaker 3: big questioned because the ribbon signifies how thorough a job
Speaker 3: would be done at the death of a child. And
Speaker 3: all my girls were ribbons in their hair and they
Speaker 3: all still do. So. To put a ribbon around a
Speaker 3: child's file, whether it's virtual or a real life ribbon,
Speaker 3: when we go in to get the coroner's a change,
Speaker 3: and coroner.
Speaker 2: We will, we will.
Speaker 3: And we will be asking for that a virtual ribbon
Speaker 3: if it's on file on a virtual a computer, or
Speaker 3: a real life ribbon around the file of a child
Speaker 3: death affairs. You might say, and the coroner, I might
Speaker 3: remind them that they did say that we could have
Speaker 3: the autopsy photos, the slide, the scrapings for everything. They
Speaker 3: documented that. They wrote that to Channel nine firing colins,
Speaker 3: and they didn't put it in. So for them to
Speaker 3: write it and then leave it absence, why are we
Speaker 3: having this discussion that we need to obtain it when
Speaker 3: they already said that we could have it, just didn't
Speaker 3: add it in the paperwork. It's a bit of a
Speaker 3: contradiction in their behavior.
Speaker 2: And if they think they can, maybe they decide to
Speaker 2: give it to us for Christmas, and they might want
Speaker 2: to hurt us.
Speaker 4: It's not going to hurt us, Jake, because the man
Speaker 4: I are going to look at it.
Speaker 2: We're actually going to hand it over to the professionals
Speaker 2: and the experts and they will tell us what it reads.
Speaker 2: So you're not hurting Jason and Amanda by giving it
Speaker 2: to us for Christmas or holding it back. You're hurting
Speaker 2: the people that need to know what happened to Eden
Speaker 2: on that night. And that's not just Jason and Amanda.
Speaker 2: That's Eden's siblings, and that's Eden's friends, Eden's family, and
Speaker 2: Eden's friends and now Dan's family of friends on the podcast.
Speaker 2: All these people need to know what happened to Eden,
Speaker 2: and we all deserve to know. J and I assure
Speaker 2: you mate, we're not going away.
Speaker 3: And there was a time here when we polarized Saint
Speaker 3: Helen's and in fact Tasmania with this subject. However, ten
Speaker 3: years down the track, nobody believes this child killed themselves
Speaker 3: but the police and the coroner. So what does that
Speaker 3: say about the police and the coroner's ethics conduct investigative processes?
Speaker 3: You know when a commoner, when ordinary people logically say, now,
Speaker 3: this is really somebody that got murdered. And now I
Speaker 3: get people saying, well, we never thought that she'd killed herself, Amanda.
Speaker 3: We never thought one of them would one of yours
Speaker 3: to do that. This is different things that are getting said.
Speaker 3: And in the last few weeks, I've had police in
Speaker 3: uniforms publicly come to me and shake my hand and
Speaker 3: thank me very much because their workplace is currently toxic.
Speaker 5: As this is the last episode before Christmas, it doesn't
Speaker 5: feel like Jason and Amanda are getting anything before twenty
Speaker 5: twenty five. Christmas has become a time for reflection at
Speaker 5: a time with their now large, growing family with grandkids
Speaker 5: and partners. However, after almost ten years, there is still
Speaker 5: one chair not occupied this Christmas at the Westbrook house.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a blast, truly, nothing's going to
Speaker 2: ruin our Christmas. This year. We've got Jack and Hunter
Speaker 2: flying in on the nineteenth. Jack can't sleep already, he's
Speaker 2: that excited because this is his first Christmas he gets
Speaker 2: to spend with the Westbrook family, where fortunate enough, Bobby,
Speaker 2: Lee and Jared have a beautiful mansion at the moment
Speaker 2: with an inground swimming pool that they've got a three
Speaker 2: year lease on. So we've decided that's the appropriate place
Speaker 2: to have Christmas and we're going to have a Christmas
Speaker 2: full part with all the family. Sky Yeah, Skye and
Speaker 2: Donna already here and yeah, we're going to have a
Speaker 2: super super Christmas show.
Speaker 3: It's stills and are excited and we're seeming up big time.
Speaker 2: And we're just through Australians. Mate. But what we do,
Speaker 2: because we're a family, we all stop at the same supermarket,
Speaker 2: we use the same rewards points, and we put all
Speaker 2: that money together. So by Christmas it's actually up around
Speaker 2: the three to four hundred dollars and that pays for
Speaker 2: Christmas lunch for the family and everyone. Because we all
Speaker 2: shop at the same locations. That all adds up and
Speaker 2: we've all contributed to lunch and you can get quite
Speaker 2: the spread for three or four hundred dollars.
Speaker 5: Jack, That is awesome.
Speaker 2: Mery Christmas, guys, Yeah you too, mate, Merry Christmas.