Speaker 1: Trigger warning. Some listeners may find this podcast distressing. This
Speaker 1: is a real story about a real person that is
Speaker 1: still unfolding in real time, and any leads or information
Speaker 1: from anybody out there may help the family either find
Speaker 1: the answers or the closure they're desperately searching for. Katie Walker,
Speaker 1: forty six, was last heard from over the phone on Friday,
Speaker 1: the twenty second of May twenty twenty six, although it
Speaker 1: was nine days later on June second, when her loved
Speaker 1: ones realized that was the last contact anyone would have
Speaker 1: with her. You see, Sydney hasn't been Katie's home for
Speaker 1: a while now, nor has Australia. Katie, who was born
Speaker 1: in Britain, found a passion in making jewelry and sustainability
Speaker 1: and the environment early on, and then spent years traveling
Speaker 1: while dividing her time between Australia and Asia, all while
Speaker 1: falling in love with an Australian man, who, around the
Speaker 1: time of her thirtieth birthday, she welcomed a daughter with,
Speaker 1: then two years later they had a son. It's been
Speaker 1: years now since Katie split from the Australian man, and
Speaker 1: although he later settled back in Sydney, which is where
Speaker 1: he's been raising their two now teenage children. Katie, who
Speaker 1: is described as a free spirit by her friends, continued
Speaker 1: traveling and settled in America for a while, where she
Speaker 1: remarried an American man with the dream Sadly, though, that
Speaker 1: marriage in America eventually ended, and earlier this year in February,
Speaker 1: Katie returned to Sydney to try and slowly reconnect with
Speaker 1: the family she'd gradually become quite distant from and have
Speaker 1: a fresh start, telling her close friend Justine, who was
Speaker 1: back in America, that she was remaining positive amongst all
Speaker 1: of this change. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think for Katie she was definitely had a big
Speaker 2: transition in her life. And with that, you know, it
Speaker 2: could be an ungroundedness or an uncertainty. We often, you know,
Speaker 2: all experience those seasons. I feel like, you know, she
Speaker 2: relocated to Sydney because she wanted to be closer to
Speaker 2: her children. You know, she was experiencing just kind of
Speaker 2: I would say, the usual like some stressors. She had
Speaker 2: been in Sydney not very long. She had lived in
Speaker 2: another country prior to that, so there was a lot
Speaker 2: of relocation stress. But in general she was a very optimistic.
Speaker 1: Person, although Katie may have lived in a different country
Speaker 1: to her children in recent years, she still spoke about
Speaker 1: them as a proudest achievements to friends, and they were
Speaker 1: also the driving force behind the ethical jewelry brand Believer
Speaker 1: that Katie started in twenty thirteen, with proceeds from that
Speaker 1: brand going to charity's War Child and World Land Trust.
Speaker 3: We are War Child. Our mission is to protect, educate
Speaker 3: and support children affected by conflict as many as possible,
Speaker 3: as early as possible. Our story started thirty years ago
Speaker 3: when children in conflict zones had no access to professional
Speaker 3: psychological support. A visit to the former Yugoslavia in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety three by filmmakers David Wilson and b Leeson and
Speaker 3: social entrepreneur willielm and Verlop would sow the seeds have
Speaker 3: change to come. Our founders saw first stand how the
Speaker 3: war was impacting innocent children.
Speaker 1: In an interview with British Vogue back then, Katie said,
Speaker 1: after reading the book Half the Sky by Nicholas D.
Speaker 1: Christoff and visiting my sponsor child in Cambodia, I was
Speaker 1: inspired to do more towards helping women and children in
Speaker 1: developing countries. I have always loved nature and wildlife, and
Speaker 1: it deeply saddens me to see what has and is
Speaker 1: happening to our planet. When you have children, it forces
Speaker 1: you to think about the future of the Earth and
Speaker 1: what the next generation will inherit. I just want my
Speaker 1: children to know I did my best. Those quotes from
Speaker 1: Katie there maybe thirteen years old now, but.
Speaker 4: That's still the woman her friends know her as.
Speaker 2: She was now joyous in a lot of ways. I mean,
Speaker 2: we all have our experiences that bring us down, but
Speaker 2: she after times was she was a spiritual person. She
Speaker 2: could kind of look beyond hardship in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: She had a lot of positive qualities to.
Speaker 1: Her despite being such a free spirit. Often the following
Speaker 1: opportunity from country to country, Katie was consistently looking to
Speaker 1: the future and thinking what's next, which is something another
Speaker 1: close friend, Elizabeth, who's also back in America, more than
Speaker 1: knows about.
Speaker 5: Yes, my name is Elizabeth Silk, and I'm here in Sedona,
Speaker 5: and I met beautiful Katie a few years ago and
Speaker 5: we started hanging out and went to LA and she's
Speaker 5: a lot of fun funny, funny, funny, talented, so talented,
Speaker 5: and she has written a book. So she's an author
Speaker 5: and makes jewelry, and so we were actually talking about
Speaker 5: doing a podcast ourselves and traveling around because together, I guess,
Speaker 5: both of us being from England, we just crack each
Speaker 5: other up, you know, and we're pretty funny. And so
Speaker 5: she brings the kid out of me. And she used
Speaker 5: to always tell me that I always make her laugh,
Speaker 5: and she's do you always make me feel good?
Speaker 4: Elizabeth in Sydney.
Speaker 1: Despite one's calling this place home years ago, Katie's life
Speaker 1: now she was back, was relatively small, which is why
Speaker 1: it took nine days for people to realize she had disappeared.
Speaker 1: Her beloved father Bissam, who is now funding the private
Speaker 1: investigation into her disappearance, is based in the UK, and
Speaker 1: her two closest friends who you've just heard from, Justine
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth, they're back in Arizona. Who when Sydney did
Speaker 1: start to feel a little lonely, Katie would tell how
Speaker 1: much she missed them, but how she sadly couldn't return
Speaker 1: there due to visa issues following her divorce in America,
Speaker 1: but she.
Speaker 5: Just didn't want to be there anyway. She wanted to
Speaker 5: come back to America really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then that's where you and Justine were like
Speaker 1: her support in America.
Speaker 5: Then, yeah, I know that, and I said, you know,
Speaker 5: well you could still come, you know, you can come
Speaker 5: on just a regular visa, you know, and get your
Speaker 5: you know, stay at my place until you can get
Speaker 5: your stuff together or whatever. And I even recommended that,
Speaker 5: you know, she go stay with her dad in England
Speaker 5: until she got herself together, you know, because she was
Speaker 5: just you know, flitting from place to place and didn't
Speaker 5: really have anybody, even though you know, our family are there.
Speaker 1: As far as I'm aware. At this point, it was
Speaker 1: a phone call between Katie's father back in the UK
Speaker 1: and Katie's ex partner in Australia, the father of her children,
Speaker 1: when the alarm was first raised, as they both realized
Speaker 1: that neither of them had hid from Katie in nine days.
Speaker 1: This is when the police were called on June second,
Speaker 1: and then two days later, June fourth, the police issued
Speaker 1: a missing person's appeal where they wrote following inquiries, police
Speaker 1: believe Katie's last no movements were at Bondai Beach around
Speaker 1: seven forty pm on Saturday twenty third of May twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. Katie is described as being of Caucasian appearance,
Speaker 1: about one hundred and sixty centimeters tall, of finn build,
Speaker 1: with brown eyes and brown long hair. She has a
Speaker 1: small black butterfly tattoo on her right hand. The issue
Speaker 1: with that initial appeal, though, is not only is a
Speaker 1: last known movement incorrect, which we'll get to, but the
Speaker 1: physical description is inaccurate too, which was first pointed out
Speaker 1: by Katie's cousin Kyla, who'd been responding to the few
Speaker 1: accounts on social media appealing for information by commenting, We're
Speaker 1: worried sick. Not only is the appeal out late, but
Speaker 1: the information is inaccurate. Katie is about one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy two centimeters tall. To start with, physical descriptions are crucial.
Speaker 1: That initial appeal also contained just one low quality picture
Speaker 1: which is cropped in tight around her face, which those
Speaker 1: that know Katie say doesn't even really look like her,
Speaker 1: And if you had seen her around, you mayn't even
Speaker 1: recognize her from that picture.
Speaker 2: You know, Katie was like a very striking, beautiful woman.
Speaker 2: She's not that somebody would walk past and not acknowledge
Speaker 2: like she Surely people have seen her.
Speaker 1: One day after that initial police appeal, where they put
Speaker 1: Katie's picture and name on social media. A media outlet
Speaker 1: who spotted it then searched Katie's name on LinkedIn, and
Speaker 1: they confused her with Kate Walker, who had briefly worked
Speaker 1: and married at First Site as a producer on the
Speaker 1: show's twelfth season in twenty twenty four. This then led
Speaker 1: to several articles across Australia, America and the UK all
Speaker 1: about how a married at First Site producer has vanished
Speaker 1: from Bondai Beach, each report then describing the wrong woman,
Speaker 1: while then weaving in things about recent drama connected to
Speaker 1: the reality show, much to the confusion of Katie's loved ones.
Speaker 2: That's not even her, she wasn't a producer. Even this
Speaker 2: is all just like I think, like detracting from the
Speaker 2: real thing. Like we've known each other for five years,
Speaker 2: five years to this month, and in five years of
Speaker 2: close friendship, she never once said I was a producer.
Speaker 2: I am a producer. It's just like it's completely distracting.
Speaker 1: Several days later, now Juni eleventh, New South Wales Police
Speaker 1: issued a reappeal with updated information and now after investigating
Speaker 1: and tracking CCTV, they described the outfit Kasey was wearing
Speaker 1: During that last known sighting on May twenty third, Katie
Speaker 1: was wearing a black jacket, jeans, high heels, and a
Speaker 1: small red handbag. It read that small red handbag to
Speaker 1: me at least, is potentially the key to people remembering
Speaker 1: Katie and coming forward with any information, because it wasn't
Speaker 1: just any old random handbag. It was a Fasace MEDUSA
Speaker 1: ninety five top handle handbag in red leather, which is
Speaker 1: worth around four thousand dollars and to those with an
Speaker 1: eye for fashion, which, let's be honest, is most women
Speaker 1: in Sydney's Eastern suburbs, it represents a distinct era of
Speaker 1: the Sachi design and is quite a unique piece. So
Speaker 1: although people around the East may never have quite registered
Speaker 1: Katie's face, I would take a guess that a lot
Speaker 1: of women out there would have at least subconsciously made
Speaker 1: a note of that design of red bag that Katie
Speaker 1: was rarely without.
Speaker 2: She was magnetic, Like every time we went to places,
Speaker 2: people would stop and say, you're so beautiful. I mean,
Speaker 2: she was like extraordinarily beautiful. So I think that just
Speaker 2: surely people have seen her, noticed her, saw something that
Speaker 2: could be potentially helpful.
Speaker 1: The police's reappeal also updated Katie's last known sighting to
Speaker 1: the beachside suburb of Tamarama, with CCTV capturing her at
Speaker 1: one twelve pm on Alexander Street. This is six hours
Speaker 1: and twenty eight minutes earlier than what they initially put
Speaker 1: us a last known movement in Bondai Beach at seven
Speaker 1: forty pm in their first appeal. In that grainy image
Speaker 1: from the CCTV on Alexander Street, Katie is seen with
Speaker 1: her beloved red Fasachi bag on her arm and wearing
Speaker 1: a pair of skinny jeans and sky high stiletto boots,
Speaker 1: walking south down Alexander Street. If you're unfamiliar with this area, please,
Speaker 1: while listening now open Google Maps on your phone or
Speaker 1: computer and type in Alexander Street, Tamarama so you can
Speaker 1: really envision what I'm now going to describe. Alexander Street
Speaker 1: is a block away from Max Park, and Katie was
Speaker 1: walking south down Alexander Street onto Gaelock Avenue and towards
Speaker 1: McKenzie's Bay, two local hotspots which are both on the
Speaker 1: world famous Bondai to Kudji Coastal Walk and both just
Speaker 1: around the corner from Tamarama Beach. Not that Katie was
Speaker 1: dressed to be heading to either of those tourist traps
Speaker 1: which are always so full of people, even on an overcast,
Speaker 1: drizzly day like that Saturday, May twenty third, at one
Speaker 1: twelve pm, which is just after lunchtime. It's the middle
Speaker 1: of the day on the busiest day of the week
Speaker 1: for anybody in the area doing that coastal walk. As
Speaker 1: I said, though Katie wasn't dressed to be doing anything
Speaker 1: like that. She was dressed to impress. She was looking
Speaker 1: like she may be off to a boozy brunch, perhaps
Speaker 1: at local hot spot Totties or Icebergs, who are somewhere
Speaker 1: just as glamorous. But Katie never made it to wherever
Speaker 1: she was going. And despite the suburb of Tamarama having
Speaker 1: a fair amount of CCTV scattered across it, there are
Speaker 1: so many blind spots. And after that camera captured her
Speaker 1: at one twelve on Alexander Street walking onto Gayelock Avenue,
Speaker 1: Katie was never seen again. This is now where the
Speaker 1: story becomes quite dark, I'm afraid, but everything you're about
Speaker 1: to hear is crucial information.
Speaker 4: And again I'll.
Speaker 1: Say trigger warning here because this podcast will now discuss
Speaker 1: theories of suicide, which some listeners may find distressing, and
Speaker 1: even me personally, I do find this distressing and even
Speaker 1: quite insensitive to have to speculate and something as serious
Speaker 1: as what you're about to hear. But when I tell
Speaker 1: this story, Katie's story, this is a huge part of it,
Speaker 1: and these are the reasons her friends and family are
Speaker 1: just refusing to accept what some may say feels obvious
Speaker 1: following their initial lines of inquiry, and according to Katie's
Speaker 1: loved ones, the police have the working theory that after
Speaker 1: stepping past that camera on Alexander Street, Katie then continued
Speaker 1: fifty meters down the road onto Gayelock Avenue, and I
Speaker 1: believe Katie then crossed Gayelock Avenue and walked down a
Speaker 1: set of stone steps which led onto the bonde as
Speaker 1: a Cudgie coastal walk. They believe Katie then stepped over
Speaker 1: that paved track, climbed down onto the rocks that led
Speaker 1: into Mackenzie Bay, still in her high heels and clutching
Speaker 1: that red Fasachi bag, and they believe she potentially then
Speaker 1: walked into the ocean, which Katie's friends and family they
Speaker 1: can just not comprehend. Has Katie ever openly like discussed
Speaker 1: depression then or mental health were anything like this.
Speaker 2: No, And to be honest with you, in my time
Speaker 2: that I've been close friends with her for her, it
Speaker 2: had never once crossed my mind that she would be
Speaker 2: somebody that would choose to in her own life just
Speaker 2: based off of her character, her just her personality. It
Speaker 2: not once crossed my mind, even in the last several months.
Speaker 1: And it isn't just because the Katie they know and
Speaker 1: love they don't think would ever admit defeat like that,
Speaker 1: but also because of just a brutal reality of going
Speaker 1: out that way. Yeah. One thing that stood out to me,
Speaker 1: which maybe is an odd detail, but in the in
Speaker 1: the CCTV, you know that last image, she is dressed impeccably,
Speaker 1: like you know, the the very high heels, the designer
Speaker 1: bag ye, and then like where the police believe she
Speaker 1: then went down towards the water.
Speaker 6: You've got to.
Speaker 1: Scale over quite a lot of rocks and wooden puffs
Speaker 1: and stone like that.
Speaker 6: It just, yeah, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: You know. My thinking around that too is unless one
Speaker 2: is impaired, you know, survival instincts like walking out into
Speaker 2: the ocean as a means to endure life seems like
Speaker 2: a very impractical way of doing so, purely from like
Speaker 2: a survival perspective. Survival instinct perspective too, so to me,
Speaker 2: that just seems like something that is even for she
Speaker 2: wasn't like adrenaline junkie she you know she was, and
Speaker 2: like as somebody that would be like maybe more apt
Speaker 2: to withstand that from a physiologic standpoint, it just seems
Speaker 2: not in alignment with her.
Speaker 1: To the police, this theory does seem plausible, as the
Speaker 1: stretch of Pacific Ocean coastline that lines Sydney's eastern suburbs
Speaker 1: can be deadly and it has claimed so many lives before.
Speaker 1: And if Katie didn't vanish into the unknown of the ocean,
Speaker 1: will where did she disappear to? But again, Katie's loved
Speaker 1: ones are just struggling to accept this, not just because
Speaker 1: they don't want to believe that the woman they loved
Speaker 1: would end up feeling so lost and alone that this
Speaker 1: was her only option, but also because of the lack
Speaker 1: of proof to this theory, and also the long list
Speaker 1: of other things that suggest there may be something more
Speaker 1: sinister to this story, which we will get to.
Speaker 2: That I definitely intuitively feel like there's a big part
Speaker 2: of the story that's missing and there needs to be
Speaker 2: advocate for her because there's something that's not adding up. Also,
Speaker 2: in my limited perspective, you know, if somebody did choose
Speaker 2: to end their life, and I'm imagining Sindny's a well
Speaker 2: monitored city with lots of CCTV, why isn't there more
Speaker 2: information about her last sighting?
Speaker 1: For now though, and to give some more context to
Speaker 1: anyone listening who is unfamiliar with Mackenzie's Bay or the
Speaker 1: bond Ei to Kulji Coastal Walk. This is Australia's most
Speaker 1: famous track and it has roughly eight thousand visitors daily,
Speaker 1: even on a gray, drizzly Saturday like May twenty third.
Speaker 1: So if this did happen and Katie did do this
Speaker 1: in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon at this spot,
Speaker 1: how did nobody see anything. I've been to Alexander Street
Speaker 1: multiple times while investigating this, and I've stood where that
Speaker 1: last sighting was and then attempted to retrace Katie's steps.
Speaker 1: But this theory, it just doesn't make sense. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I'm back on Alexander Street, stood outside the house with
Speaker 1: the camera that captured Katie for the very last time.
Speaker 1: It's two twenty six on a random Wednesday. It's overcast,
Speaker 1: very similar to the weather the day she disappeared. But
Speaker 1: there's still people around there, still endless cars going past
Speaker 1: me right now. These trade is on a house around
Speaker 1: the corner. There's a hostel around the corner.
Speaker 6: Like this isn't the middle of nowhere? Someone would have
Speaker 6: seen her.
Speaker 1: I'm now going to retrace the steps that the police
Speaker 1: think Katie did. So it's two twenty seven now I
Speaker 1: am walking past.
Speaker 6: That house down on to get a.
Speaker 1: Lot avenue, so this is all residential again, a lot
Speaker 1: of cars going past me. The police believe she stayed
Speaker 1: on the right side of the road because if she
Speaker 1: crossed and went on the left, there was one camera
Speaker 1: in a house that would have picked her up.
Speaker 6: So I'm on the right side of the road again.
Speaker 1: You can hear all the cars and blessly just middle
Speaker 1: a ban on a Wednesday, not a Saturday. The weather
Speaker 1: right now, actually there's a wind picking up, and it's
Speaker 1: very similar to what it was on May twenty third,
Speaker 1: like overcast.
Speaker 6: Gray, rain on and off. But still people are out
Speaker 6: to my right.
Speaker 1: There is now two construction sites where you can hear
Speaker 1: that a house she's being built. So trades do work
Speaker 1: on Saturdays, so one twelve that would have been busy.
Speaker 1: It's taken me just less than a minute now to
Speaker 1: get to the steps. The police believed she then went down.
Speaker 1: I'm now just turning onto the steps and I can
Speaker 1: see just from the top hair down on the coastal track.
Speaker 1: That's one two, three, four, five, six, ten, eleven.
Speaker 6: To fourteen people, fourteen people.
Speaker 1: There right now. It's starting to rain. It's middle of
Speaker 1: the day in the week, so you are there's a
Speaker 1: fifteenthive runners just compassed these four people behind me the trade,
Speaker 1: so imagine on a Saturday, just how many people and
Speaker 1: then the steps to go down. That's one two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
Speaker 1: eighteen steps now nineteen twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three,
Speaker 1: twenty four, twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight. Okay,
Speaker 1: now I'm on the coastal track and that is a
Speaker 1: lot of stairs, these concrete ones, and like in that
Speaker 1: last image, we've spoken about what Katie is wearing. She's
Speaker 1: wearing the highest of heels, like I mean, I've never
Speaker 1: wore heels. Any women listening to this, I'm sure you
Speaker 1: can say that would be difficult.
Speaker 6: And there's no rail or anything.
Speaker 1: And now I'm on the track and I can see
Speaker 1: again this full stretch of Mackenzie's Bay.
Speaker 6: That's one, two, four vers six.
Speaker 1: Then I can see twenty seven people just in twenty
Speaker 1: seven in the rain on a Wednesday.
Speaker 6: So again, imagine this on a Saturday.
Speaker 1: There's just no way if she could have done what
Speaker 1: the police kind of have a theory of. From those
Speaker 1: stone steps, it's then seven steps over the paved Bonnights
Speaker 1: Country Coastal track, and then to get down the rocks,
Speaker 1: it's I've just stepped down a big one. Here, I'm
Speaker 1: going down a live drop which gradually goes down. This
Speaker 1: is very uneven, it's slippery. Now I kind of have
Speaker 1: to climb one sech.
Speaker 6: A slight bit.
Speaker 1: You can hear the ocean now, but I still have
Speaker 1: to climb down another two sections.
Speaker 6: And this is in full view of the coastal track.
Speaker 6: Like all those people have.
Speaker 1: Said walking that there, a lot of them are now
Speaker 1: looking at me thinking why is this person going down here?
Speaker 6: So let alone again on a Saturday.
Speaker 1: Imagine Katie, if she was doing this, Katie dressed how
Speaker 1: she was dressed, those tiny heels, There's no way she
Speaker 1: could have gone down to where I now. I'm in
Speaker 1: those heels, people who are even looking at me, and
Speaker 1: I'm kind of dressed inactive where like like I look
Speaker 1: like I'm out for this walk. In the last CCTV image,
Speaker 1: Katie's read for Satchi bag, it isn't strapped to her,
Speaker 1: It's draped over her forearm. And if she had walked
Speaker 1: into the water, that bag would either have been left
Speaker 1: behind on those rocks meet us from that busy track
Speaker 1: and visible to everyone, or it would have washed back
Speaker 1: to the rocks very quickly once she'd let go of it.
Speaker 7: Then I now have to climb down a lot for that.
Speaker 6: Again. This is very slippy.
Speaker 1: You can hear the waves now, and the waves are
Speaker 1: slamming against these rocks and looking at it here and
Speaker 1: the swell.
Speaker 7: If I now were to climb or.
Speaker 1: You can jump, it's like two meters and it's not
Speaker 1: like a deep plunge.
Speaker 6: It's still a lot more rocks and this water it would.
Speaker 1: Just slam me back against where I'm now stood.
Speaker 6: Stood here at the water's edge in Mackenzie's Bay as well.
Speaker 7: When I look to the right, I can see Bronze Beach.
Speaker 1: I can see so much of the coastal track as
Speaker 1: it loops around towards Couldie. If I look to the left,
Speaker 1: I can't see too far because then it turns around
Speaker 1: into Bundai.
Speaker 6: And then when I look behind, I.
Speaker 1: Can see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, night,
Speaker 1: nineteen eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty buildings, and a lot of them are apartment blocks
Speaker 1: where the people in there can see me now. So again,
Speaker 1: this isn't a little hidden.
Speaker 6: Spot to disappear. This is full visible. Everyone in the
Speaker 6: past can still see me.
Speaker 1: I just me personally, and like Katie's friends and family,
Speaker 1: I can't I just can't comprehend that she climbed down
Speaker 1: here and just went into the water here.
Speaker 6: It just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: The police have also theorized that if Katie walked down
Speaker 1: those stone steps from Gayelock Avenue and onto the Bondai
Speaker 1: to could your coaster walk instead of then climbing down
Speaker 1: the rocks of Mackenzie's Bay and into the water. They
Speaker 1: believe she could have potentially turned left and walked up
Speaker 1: the sharp incline of the track past the tiny outdoor
Speaker 1: gym and to the cliff top that leads round to
Speaker 1: Bondi Beach, and then while up there elevated, they believe
Speaker 1: she may have jumped, or the police of Warsaw feorized
Speaker 1: that she could have turned right when she stepped onto
Speaker 1: the coastal track and walked up the sharp incline in
Speaker 1: that direction to the cliff top that leads the track
Speaker 1: round to Tamarama Beach and jumped from there. Instead, anywhere
Speaker 1: beyond those two points, those two cliff tops and further
Speaker 1: along the track, cameras would have then captured Katie. Those
Speaker 1: points are where the blind spots end. So again the
Speaker 1: police theory is, if she didn't go down into the
Speaker 1: water Mackenzie's Bay, she went to one of those cliff
Speaker 1: tops I can see.
Speaker 6: And then potentially jumped, which.
Speaker 1: I mean horrible And it's weird standing here speculating trying
Speaker 1: to figure out could she have done that, because it
Speaker 1: just it's so insensitive. But I'm looking at both those
Speaker 1: little cliff tops and like below them.
Speaker 6: It's not water. It's not like a deep plunge and
Speaker 6: you're dragged away. It's it's just more rocks.
Speaker 1: I'd say there maybe ten meters high each, but below them.
Speaker 6: It's not the water.
Speaker 1: It's not like you'd plunge and be dragged away. It's
Speaker 1: just more rocks at the surface with like a slight
Speaker 1: lapping water on that is maybe it's not even ankle deep.
Speaker 6: It's like at the bottom of those rocks, if you.
Speaker 1: Had jumped, you're gonna land in essential puddles where they're
Speaker 1: getting little splashes of water. While investigating this recently and
Speaker 1: visiting that spot several times across multiple days, different weather conditions,
Speaker 1: I've also spoken to a lot of locals who walk
Speaker 1: that track daily or run that track daily and whose
Speaker 1: homes overlook it, and they've also reminded me at this
Speaker 1: time of the year, alongside the walkers and the runners
Speaker 1: and the tourists and even the surfers who were just
Speaker 1: off the shore, those cliff tops where the police believe
Speaker 1: Katie could have jumped from a full every day, especially
Speaker 1: on a Saturday, with people flying drones and clutching benow
Speaker 1: as it's well watching season now in Sydney, where forty
Speaker 1: thousand humpbacks every year this time of year make their
Speaker 1: annual migration past Sydney as they traveled from Antarctica up
Speaker 1: to the Great Barrier Reef. And when I was there
Speaker 1: just days ago on a Saturday, at the same time
Speaker 1: Katie was last seen there on a Saturday, I physically
Speaker 1: could not count how many people I could see between
Speaker 1: those two cliff tops and.
Speaker 4: On the track. It was well over one hundred.
Speaker 6: Oh you just pa around.
Speaker 1: Look how many people on a Saturday are on this track?
Speaker 6: Look up there.
Speaker 7: I can't even count how many people are on this
Speaker 7: track every day.
Speaker 6: It's busy.
Speaker 1: These eight thousand visitors daily on average do this one
Speaker 1: day to could you walk Saturday, the busiest day Like now,
Speaker 1: it just seems impossible that someone could walk down those steps,
Speaker 1: cross these people on the track and then go into
Speaker 1: the water. What without anybody seeing anything?
Speaker 6: Like what?
Speaker 1: There was a gap big enough to happen, and then
Speaker 1: oli look into the water there this immediate area. Just
Speaker 1: look at the surfers even to the right as well,
Speaker 1: there's another bunch of surfers there like this is just
Speaker 1: not somewhere where you can disappear or easily disappear. Plus
Speaker 1: you also have to remember that, given the recent rise
Speaker 1: in shark attacks along these beaches, every day the local
Speaker 1: surf life saving clubs are out flying drones up and
Speaker 1: down this stretch of the coastline. So again at lunchtime
Speaker 1: on a Saturday, it just doesn't make any sense. One
Speaker 1: thing I will note here, though, is as soon as
Speaker 1: police were made aware of Katie's disappearance and they tracked
Speaker 1: her to that last known sighting, one of the first
Speaker 1: things they did was fly drones up and down this
Speaker 1: coastline looking for well anything, to no success. And the
Speaker 1: private investigator Katie's family have hired has since done the
Speaker 1: same again to no success. No bag, no cloone of
Speaker 1: no belongings, and nobody. It'd be easy to end this
Speaker 1: podcast here now, and the final takeaway is that the
Speaker 1: police are likely correct with their theory, which I suppose
Speaker 1: I did initially believe when I realized where that last
Speaker 1: sighting was and how close to the water it is.
Speaker 1: But that also doesn't explain how six hours and twenty
Speaker 1: eight minutes later after that final sighting on Alexander Street,
Speaker 1: over a kilometer away in Bondi Beat, Katie's phone was
Speaker 1: then briefly turned on and pinged from a cell tower
Speaker 1: on a residential street, and then the phone was turned
Speaker 1: off and as far as I'm aware at the time
Speaker 1: of recording this, it hasn't been switched on again since. Also,
Speaker 1: remember this is a phone that was presumably in Katie's
Speaker 1: read Thesachi handbag, which if the police's theory is true,
Speaker 1: and as it wasn't discovered on any of those rocks,
Speaker 1: it must have gone into the water with her. So
Speaker 1: the fact that that phone was then switched on our
Speaker 1: later it raises one huge question. If Katie didn't go
Speaker 1: into the water, as her loved ones believe she didn't,
Speaker 1: then where did she go after that final sighting at
Speaker 1: one twelve on Alexander Street. I'm now walking back up
Speaker 1: those stone steps onto Gaelock Avenue which leads to Alexander
Speaker 1: Street where the last sighting was, because I just think
Speaker 1: there's no proof she turned off the street to come
Speaker 1: down towards the water. Yeah, it's an easy assumption and theory,
Speaker 1: but just being here like, I just can't see how
Speaker 1: someone could vanish here.
Speaker 6: So now I'm thinking, well, what are the other options?
Speaker 1: Down those steps and onto the Bondai to CULDGI track,
Speaker 1: as I've said, is the easiest answer here, but it's
Speaker 1: not the only one which I started to look at
Speaker 1: when I was last there. And again, please open Google
Speaker 1: maps and type in Alexander Street Tamarama when you listen
Speaker 1: to this next section to really what I'm describing. As
Speaker 1: I've already said, there are a lot of CCTV cameras
Speaker 1: in this suburb, but there are so many blind spots,
Speaker 1: and the cameras are all on like the odd house there,
Speaker 1: not everywhere, which is you know, So then you think, well,
Speaker 1: if she didn't turn off and go down those steps,
Speaker 1: then I mean she could have got into an uber.
Speaker 1: She could have got into a random car. And then
Speaker 1: the construction sites have mentioned just a few meters from
Speaker 1: that final sighting. One of them is where a house
Speaker 1: is going to be built, so they've excavated into the
Speaker 1: rock and down, but there's there's nothing there other than
Speaker 1: there laying the foundation. Then the apartment blocked next to that,
Speaker 1: it's covered in scaffolding and tops. Like again, speculating just
Speaker 1: feels insensitive, But she could have like if she didn't
Speaker 1: get in a vehicle which wasn't captured on camera, she
Speaker 1: could have been dragged into some like that she could
Speaker 1: have gone into one of these many apartment blocks I'm
Speaker 1: looking at. Every apartment block has a garage at the front,
Speaker 1: kind of facing the ocean and the water. Like to me,
Speaker 1: that seems more likely that it sounds horrible to say again,
Speaker 1: but she could have been dragged into any of them,
Speaker 1: or you know, she could have gone into a vehicle
Speaker 1: of her own choice. That just seems more likely than
Speaker 1: she went down those steps and managed to disappear without.
Speaker 6: A single person.
Speaker 1: So you know, like it's the likelihood of that, especially
Speaker 1: now I'm here again, like in that mindset, thinking could
Speaker 1: I disappear right now?
Speaker 6: I couldn't. It just feels so impossible. Even now back
Speaker 6: on the street, how many people.
Speaker 1: Can see one, two, three, four, five, six. I can
Speaker 1: see nine people from here, so nine people can see me.
Speaker 1: Then I can see two people on a balcony on
Speaker 1: one of the apartments who can see me, and they
Speaker 1: can also see fully down into the water. I can
Speaker 1: see two boats on the horizon not too far out,
Speaker 1: a few kilometers, and they're the whale watching tours because
Speaker 1: it's whale season, and those boats essentially they go up
Speaker 1: and down this coastline every day just looking for the whales.
Speaker 7: And I did one of these tours recently with a friend.
Speaker 6: But when they find like a.
Speaker 7: Few whales, they all those boats closer together.
Speaker 6: Again.
Speaker 7: You can hear the amount of cars coming past me.
Speaker 1: This is not a place where someone can easily disappear.
Speaker 1: Every single time I've come here to this kind of
Speaker 1: sport Katie was last seeing.
Speaker 6: I kid you not, a rainbow has.
Speaker 1: Appeared, and one right now again has just appeared in
Speaker 1: the sky. And the first time I came the rainbow
Speaker 1: like I saw that, the end of the rainbow so
Speaker 1: clear into Mackenzie's Bay, which I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: believe in signs and all that stuff where it just feels.
Speaker 6: So crazy, so powerful in a weird way. Now, walk
Speaker 6: back up. It's a slight hill.
Speaker 1: From Gaelock Avenue to Alexander Street, the house with the
Speaker 1: camera that last picked Katie up. It feels like down
Speaker 1: onto Gelock is the only way she could have gone,
Speaker 1: because if she crossed Alexander Street onto Fletcher Avenue, which
Speaker 1: leads towards Max's Park. This is about thirty meters this
Speaker 1: little street. But I can already see there is a
Speaker 1: camera in one of the houses that would have picked
Speaker 1: her up like a few steps onto this little side road, so.
Speaker 7: She has to have gone down Gaelock.
Speaker 1: Towards yeah, the water, but also to all those blind spots.
Speaker 1: As I've continued thinking of all the possible ways Katie
Speaker 1: could have disappeared for Alexander Street, and how if it
Speaker 1: wasn't of her own choice, then why would someone have
Speaker 1: targeted her?
Speaker 4: And who may have targeted her?
Speaker 1: While speaking to her closest friends and family, the people
Speaker 1: she spoke to most prior to her disappearance, they have
Speaker 1: some theories of their own, and they shared some stories
Speaker 1: that are well disturbing to say the least.
Speaker 5: But the reason why I'm bringing this up is that
Speaker 5: he showed up in Sydney and it's like, what is
Speaker 5: the chances of that? And she said, Elizabeth, you know,
Speaker 5: I just feel unsafe. You know, I'm just I'm sleeping
Speaker 5: and these these guys come in