WEBVTT - What We Know About Stephanie Scott’s Death 10 Years Later 0:00:11.542 --> 0:00:14.302 You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. 0:00:14.982 --> 0:00:18.462 Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waterers. 0:00:18.662 --> 0:00:20.462 This podcast was recorded on. 0:00:24.022 --> 0:00:28.702 In twenty fifteen. Leeton's school teacher Stephanie Scott was preparing 0:00:28.782 --> 0:00:31.982 to become a bride for the very first time. She 0:00:32.142 --> 0:00:35.302 was excited to walk down the aisle to marry Aaron 0:00:35.382 --> 0:00:39.422 Leeson Wooley, her partner of five years, and by Easter Sunday, 0:00:39.502 --> 0:00:43.182 April five, most of the plans were already finalized for 0:00:43.222 --> 0:00:46.862 the ceremony that would be happening just six days later 0:00:47.142 --> 0:00:50.742 in the central West town of yu Gowra. She only 0:00:50.822 --> 0:00:53.302 had a few more things to check off her list, 0:00:53.782 --> 0:00:56.502 making sure the bus company had her reservation for her 0:00:56.542 --> 0:01:00.062 wedding guests confirmed, and to finish off the lesson plans 0:01:00.102 --> 0:01:03.102 that she was putting in place for the substitute teacher 0:01:03.342 --> 0:01:05.742 who would step into her classroom while she was on 0:01:05.782 --> 0:01:10.782 her honeymoon in Tahiti. Stephanie was known for her kindness 0:01:11.022 --> 0:01:14.302 and dedication, so when she wished the cleaner at the 0:01:14.302 --> 0:01:16.902 school where she worked, where she'd gone to tick some 0:01:16.982 --> 0:01:19.502 of those final things off her to do list a 0:01:19.582 --> 0:01:23.982 happy Easter, she meant it, but She didn't know that 0:01:24.062 --> 0:01:27.222 the man she'd just spoken to had been watching her, 0:01:27.702 --> 0:01:31.582 and the predator inside him was fixated on a dark 0:01:31.782 --> 0:01:41.062 urge to kill. I'm Claire Murphy standing in for Jemma 0:01:41.142 --> 0:01:44.622 Bath and this is True Crime Conversations a Mumma mea 0:01:44.702 --> 0:01:49.342 podcast exploring the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to 0:01:49.382 --> 0:01:52.422 the people who know the most about them. The death 0:01:52.542 --> 0:01:55.942 of twenty six year old Stephanie Scott rocked the small 0:01:55.982 --> 0:01:59.302 New South Wales community where she lived and worked, but 0:01:59.422 --> 0:02:02.502 the brutal way in which she died, and the fact 0:02:02.542 --> 0:02:04.462 that she was less than a week away from her 0:02:04.542 --> 0:02:09.062 wedding day made her story all the more tragic. Even 0:02:09.102 --> 0:02:12.582 more devastating was that she wasn't supposed to be there 0:02:12.622 --> 0:02:17.102 that day, and scarily wasn't even her killer's intended victim. 0:02:18.022 --> 0:02:20.662 By the time her family gathered to say goodbye to 0:02:20.702 --> 0:02:23.382 her in the very same place she was due to 0:02:23.422 --> 0:02:28.302 be married, two brothers located in two different states were 0:02:28.302 --> 0:02:32.342 behind bars, and the story as to how Stephanie became 0:02:32.382 --> 0:02:37.862 their target shocked the entire nation. Sarah Crawford is a 0:02:37.942 --> 0:02:41.102 journalist who's been following this story since that day in 0:02:41.182 --> 0:02:45.102 twenty fifteen and as we mark ten years since Stephanie's 0:02:45.182 --> 0:02:48.582 senseless death, Sarah sat down with us to help us 0:02:48.582 --> 0:02:52.342 better understand the crime and who Stephanie Scott was. A 0:02:52.382 --> 0:02:58.662 decade on, Sarah, I'm really interested to find out about 0:02:58.742 --> 0:03:03.422 when you first started hearing about the case involving Stephanie Scott. 0:03:03.542 --> 0:03:05.982 How did that sort of initially make you feel when 0:03:06.022 --> 0:03:08.262 you first heard about the crime that had been committed 0:03:08.262 --> 0:03:10.902 against her, How did you respond to it? 0:03:10.982 --> 0:03:14.422 Well, at the time, I was the court reporter in 0:03:14.462 --> 0:03:16.822 Sydney at the newspaper that I worked at. I wasn't 0:03:16.822 --> 0:03:20.502 the police reporter, so I wasn't there on the ground 0:03:20.862 --> 0:03:25.342 when her body was found. But as usual, it comes 0:03:25.342 --> 0:03:29.102 through as a police press release and then there's a 0:03:29.582 --> 0:03:33.862 they usually really scant details, and then there has to 0:03:33.862 --> 0:03:36.862 be a decision made on Okay, so it's at Eton. 0:03:37.142 --> 0:03:39.302 You know, we've got to fly out there. You know, 0:03:39.502 --> 0:03:42.462 is this person has this person just gone missing, have 0:03:42.582 --> 0:03:48.622 they decided to run away? Or is this a potential crime? 0:03:49.062 --> 0:03:50.902 So those decisions need to be made, and they need 0:03:50.942 --> 0:03:54.302 to be made pretty fast. And because of the nature 0:03:54.342 --> 0:03:57.022 of this case, there was a lot of interest in 0:03:58.142 --> 0:04:01.262 who she was and what could possibly have happened to 0:04:01.342 --> 0:04:07.102 a woman who vanishes six days before her wedding. It 0:04:07.182 --> 0:04:13.182 was you know, I mean, of course, your attention, and 0:04:13.262 --> 0:04:16.222 so it was they made decision pretty fast to send 0:04:16.262 --> 0:04:17.702 reporters down there, and that was the case for a 0:04:17.742 --> 0:04:19.422 lot of the news outlets in Sydney at the time. 0:04:20.422 --> 0:04:22.662 So you were covering court proceedings at the time. Is 0:04:22.702 --> 0:04:26.062 that when you really started to hear the details of 0:04:26.062 --> 0:04:28.262 what was happening with this case when it went to court. 0:04:28.662 --> 0:04:33.022 So with this case, Vincent Stanford was arrested quite quickly 0:04:33.062 --> 0:04:39.542 afterwards and made a confession to police. So therefore details 0:04:39.582 --> 0:04:42.262 about the case really shut down. The investigation was over, 0:04:42.702 --> 0:04:47.782 they had the accused and so the information stopped. All 0:04:47.822 --> 0:04:50.902 we knew is that she was murdered and her remains 0:04:50.902 --> 0:04:55.062 were found in Cocpara National Park. But beyond that we 0:04:55.102 --> 0:04:57.942 didn't know the details. We didn't know the motive behind 0:04:57.982 --> 0:05:02.502 the crime, and that remained that way for a year 0:05:03.502 --> 0:05:09.302 until his brother was sentenced. His brother was sentenced for 0:05:09.462 --> 0:05:13.342 being an excess after the fact to murder because he 0:05:14.582 --> 0:05:18.182 sold two rings that Vincent Stamford took off her body, 0:05:18.622 --> 0:05:21.182 So he was sentenced before his brother. So it was 0:05:21.222 --> 0:05:25.822 at his sentencing that the details of the case finally 0:05:25.862 --> 0:05:29.742 came out and they were really really disturbing. 0:05:30.502 --> 0:05:34.782 Let's go back in time and first talk about Stephanie herself, because, 0:05:34.822 --> 0:05:37.022 as you said, people were really quite taken by this 0:05:37.062 --> 0:05:38.782 story right from the get go. And this is something 0:05:38.822 --> 0:05:41.742 we do see happen quite regularly in Australia, is that 0:05:42.382 --> 0:05:44.182 if she is a young woman, especially if she's a 0:05:44.222 --> 0:05:47.422 young white woman who's an attractive young white woman, and 0:05:47.462 --> 0:05:50.022 that added detail of it being within a week of 0:05:50.062 --> 0:05:53.662 her wedding, Why do you think the country was so 0:05:53.742 --> 0:05:57.302 taken with Stephanie's story when so many women disappear across 0:05:57.302 --> 0:05:58.302 Australia every year. 0:05:58.542 --> 0:06:03.302 Yeah, I wonder this every time with certain crime cases, 0:06:03.542 --> 0:06:08.902 why they really spark the public sympathy over others. I mean, 0:06:08.942 --> 0:06:13.942 it's Sydney, especially Sydney has a real interesting crime Growing 0:06:14.022 --> 0:06:16.742 up in Sydney, there's always been big crime cases that 0:06:16.782 --> 0:06:21.782 have really captured the attention of people. Stephanie Scott's murder 0:06:21.902 --> 0:06:25.902 is definitely in there with a lot of other cases 0:06:25.982 --> 0:06:27.862 like the murder of Keisha Abraham's a little girl that 0:06:27.902 --> 0:06:31.742 was murdered by her parents, or even the murder of 0:06:31.822 --> 0:06:34.262 Anita Cobby back in the eighties, which is a huge 0:06:34.262 --> 0:06:36.822 case in Sydney. It falls into that category, and I 0:06:36.822 --> 0:06:41.262 think it's because, unfortunately, some people are considered to be 0:06:41.342 --> 0:06:44.102 perfect victims. And I don't really like that phrase. I 0:06:44.142 --> 0:06:46.902 don't think that one victim of crime is more deserving 0:06:46.942 --> 0:06:51.622 of our sympathy than others. But she was a woman 0:06:51.942 --> 0:06:54.902 who was in a place where she should have been safe, 0:06:55.942 --> 0:07:02.222 in the school, in her workplace, and she was randomly 0:07:02.222 --> 0:07:06.942 attacked by a stranger. And those crimes are incredibly rare, 0:07:07.382 --> 0:07:10.782 and when they do happen, they capture our attention. Thinking 0:07:10.822 --> 0:07:14.502 about the young woman Jill mar who was murdered in 0:07:14.862 --> 0:07:18.702 Melbourne a few years earlier by someone randomly who attacked 0:07:18.702 --> 0:07:21.622 her on the street, it's a very rare case and 0:07:21.662 --> 0:07:25.462 I think that's why these cases capture our attention. It 0:07:25.542 --> 0:07:31.262 also you have someone who was about to celebrate what 0:07:31.302 --> 0:07:35.222 should have been the happiest day of her life and 0:07:35.262 --> 0:07:38.422 then that was taken away from her. So I think 0:07:38.462 --> 0:07:43.102 a lot of women can relate to her because I 0:07:43.142 --> 0:07:48.382 think a lot of us we naturally there's always in 0:07:48.382 --> 0:07:50.182 the back of our minds when we're in public spaces, 0:07:50.222 --> 0:07:54.702 we naturally feel unsafe and what is for a lot 0:07:54.782 --> 0:07:58.622 of women, you know, their sort of their secret fear 0:07:59.462 --> 0:08:03.222 for her actually happened where she was attacked by a stranger. 0:08:03.502 --> 0:08:07.302 Let's talk about that day. It's Easter Sunday twenty fifteen. 0:08:08.942 --> 0:08:12.982 Stephanie's Scott goes into the school where she works in Leyton. 0:08:13.102 --> 0:08:15.982 But why she gone in on a Sunday on essentially 0:08:16.022 --> 0:08:18.342 a long weekend when nobody else is. 0:08:18.302 --> 0:08:22.062 There because she's a teacher and every time you go 0:08:22.102 --> 0:08:24.702 on holidays you have to fill in and do all 0:08:24.702 --> 0:08:27.022 the extra work while you're away. That's what I thought 0:08:27.062 --> 0:08:28.662 as soon as I saw it. She was going in 0:08:28.942 --> 0:08:30.702 because she was going to go on our honeymoon, and 0:08:30.742 --> 0:08:33.302 so she was doing some extra work to help the 0:08:33.342 --> 0:08:35.822 relief teacher out that was going to take over her 0:08:35.862 --> 0:08:38.342 space for while she was on a holiday. That's why 0:08:38.382 --> 0:08:41.142 she was in there. She went to a colleagues's house, 0:08:41.222 --> 0:08:44.862 she got the keys from her, She went into the 0:08:44.902 --> 0:08:49.822 school space, she disarmed the alarm, and she went into 0:08:50.102 --> 0:08:54.062 the staff room and sat down at a computer to 0:08:55.022 --> 0:08:58.742 do the lessons for the relief teacher and also to 0:08:58.862 --> 0:09:02.142 make sure some last minute payments for bookings for her 0:09:02.142 --> 0:09:06.782 wedding were completed, Vincent Stanford was there and saw her. 0:09:07.462 --> 0:09:10.982 He had actually been there since seven thirty am in 0:09:11.022 --> 0:09:14.342 the morning for no reason. He later told police he 0:09:14.422 --> 0:09:19.022 was bored and so he went to the school and 0:09:19.222 --> 0:09:24.982 was just randomly cleaning out certain areas of the school, 0:09:25.262 --> 0:09:28.142 even though he had no authority to be there at all. 0:09:28.622 --> 0:09:32.982 And then as she was leaving, she walked down the hall, 0:09:33.742 --> 0:09:37.462 saw him and said Happy Easter, and then went to 0:09:37.462 --> 0:09:39.822 get her keys, and that's when he attacked up. 0:09:40.422 --> 0:09:46.782 So before he attacked Stephanie, Stanford went home and came 0:09:46.862 --> 0:09:50.342 back to the school. Do we know why he did that, No. 0:09:50.422 --> 0:09:54.382 We don't know why he did that, but we can 0:09:54.422 --> 0:09:57.662 assume why he did that because the later police investigation 0:09:58.502 --> 0:10:04.262 found that he had essentially a rape kit in his bedroom. 0:10:04.502 --> 0:10:11.902 He had a forty centimeter knife, yellow duct tape, handcuffed condoms, 0:10:11.902 --> 0:10:16.462 and lubricants, and following her murder and her body being 0:10:16.502 --> 0:10:20.342 found during the police search of his property, they did 0:10:20.342 --> 0:10:24.702 find that he had googled search terms leading up to 0:10:24.742 --> 0:10:31.022 the event such as bride rape and really violent sexual offenses, 0:10:31.862 --> 0:10:35.542 So we can assume that he went home to get 0:10:35.582 --> 0:10:39.182 those things once he found that she was at the school. 0:10:39.542 --> 0:10:42.382 So we're assuming he's gone home to retrieve that what 0:10:42.422 --> 0:10:46.022 they're referring to as a rape kid and in there 0:10:46.102 --> 0:10:49.942 is a knife. Is that what he used to murder Stephanie? 0:10:50.462 --> 0:10:56.142 No, So the autopsy report found that he grabbed her 0:10:56.622 --> 0:11:00.582 as she was leaving and dragged her into a small 0:11:00.862 --> 0:11:02.942 room that had once been used as a dark room. 0:11:03.382 --> 0:11:07.102 And on the way, she's dropped things out of her bag, 0:11:07.422 --> 0:11:11.662 He's thrown her into the room, She's attempted to gape, 0:11:11.742 --> 0:11:14.862 he has pushed her back down onto the ground, and 0:11:14.902 --> 0:11:19.262 then he hid her thirty to forty times in the face, 0:11:19.302 --> 0:11:24.102 causing severe head injuries. Then she was sexually assaulted and 0:11:24.142 --> 0:11:28.102 then he stabbed her with the forty centimeter knife. So 0:11:28.142 --> 0:11:31.622 the autopsy found that she died of blunt force trauma. 0:11:31.942 --> 0:11:35.182 What did he then initially do with Stephanie's body? Obviously 0:11:35.262 --> 0:11:37.062 there's not going to be anybody there for the rest 0:11:37.102 --> 0:11:39.342 of Easter Sunday or even the day after because it's 0:11:39.342 --> 0:11:40.942 a public holiday. So what does he do in the 0:11:40.982 --> 0:11:43.262 immediate aftermath of the murder? 0:11:43.662 --> 0:11:47.382 Well, this is where it gets really disturbing. He then 0:11:48.062 --> 0:11:50.902 went home to where he lived with his mother and 0:11:50.942 --> 0:11:55.062 his older brother, and he had a cheese sandwich and 0:11:55.142 --> 0:11:59.382 a cup of coffee and then came back and then 0:11:59.422 --> 0:12:03.662 spent several hours with a high pressure pose cleaning up 0:12:04.182 --> 0:12:08.982 that dark room. He also removed her body and put 0:12:09.022 --> 0:12:11.302 it in the boot of her car on top of 0:12:11.582 --> 0:12:15.822 some tart material, and he got the yellow duct tape 0:12:15.862 --> 0:12:20.622 and tried to seal her neck wound as well. So 0:12:20.662 --> 0:12:23.902 we did this over several hours, and then he drove 0:12:24.022 --> 0:12:28.342 his vehicle back to the home that he shared with 0:12:28.822 --> 0:12:30.742 his mother and his elder brother. 0:12:31.622 --> 0:12:35.742 We found out some really disturbing things about Vincent Stanford 0:12:35.942 --> 0:12:38.422 in the aftermath of Stephanie's death, and that he did 0:12:38.462 --> 0:12:40.982 actually have a history of violent thoughts and violent behavior 0:12:41.142 --> 0:12:43.422 dating back to when he was a child growing up 0:12:43.422 --> 0:12:47.062 in the Netherlands, and he even targeted a teacher once before. 0:12:47.542 --> 0:12:49.342 Can you just explain to us what we found out 0:12:49.382 --> 0:12:50.822 about Vincent's childhood. 0:12:52.702 --> 0:12:56.502 Yes, So we only found out who this person was 0:12:56.542 --> 0:13:00.102 that had committed this shocking crime at his sentence hearing, 0:13:00.662 --> 0:13:04.102 which was more than a year after her death. So 0:13:04.142 --> 0:13:06.542 he was interviewed when he was in custody by a 0:13:06.942 --> 0:13:11.542 forensic psychologist and a forensic psychiatrist, and their reports we 0:13:11.582 --> 0:13:16.102 found out that he was born in Australia. He moved 0:13:16.102 --> 0:13:20.222 to the Netherlands when he was three with his mother, father, 0:13:20.422 --> 0:13:26.862 twin brother, an older brother, and he told psychiatrists that 0:13:27.222 --> 0:13:30.422 he started developing violent thoughts when he was about seven 0:13:30.502 --> 0:13:34.102 or eight, feeling a need to kill someone. It was 0:13:34.182 --> 0:13:37.302 only when he was twelve that it appeared that he 0:13:37.542 --> 0:13:41.902 acted on these violent thoughts when he attempted to choke 0:13:42.222 --> 0:13:45.262 a teacher at a school in the Netherlands. And after 0:13:45.302 --> 0:13:48.422 that he was put into a mental health ward and 0:13:48.462 --> 0:13:51.822 then he left school at sixteen. The family returned to 0:13:51.862 --> 0:13:57.102 Australia about a year before Stephanie Scott's murder and they 0:13:57.182 --> 0:14:00.182 rented a house in Letton and he worked as a cleaner, 0:14:00.222 --> 0:14:04.342 a casual cleaner. But there's no prior convictions for violence 0:14:04.462 --> 0:14:07.022 with Vincent Stanford. This was his first offense. 0:14:08.102 --> 0:14:11.702 We did actually find out what that child's psychologist had 0:14:11.782 --> 0:14:15.182 diagnosed Stanford with, though back then what did they say 0:14:15.582 --> 0:14:16.902 was the state of his mental health. 0:14:17.382 --> 0:14:22.622 They said that he had structural faults in his personality, 0:14:22.742 --> 0:14:27.902 he had a personality disorder, and she said that he 0:14:27.982 --> 0:14:31.342 found it really hard to interact with people. He found 0:14:31.382 --> 0:14:35.742 spending any time with people incredibly stressful, and that he 0:14:36.142 --> 0:14:40.342 felt frustrated by his own inadequacies and frustrated by those 0:14:40.382 --> 0:14:44.302 around him, and that those frustrations would build into a 0:14:44.342 --> 0:14:47.822 sense of violence until he told her that he had 0:14:47.862 --> 0:14:50.902 an urge to kill and it was a continuous thought. 0:14:51.782 --> 0:14:54.462 And one of the things that he said, which is 0:14:54.942 --> 0:15:00.062 really striking, is that he was amazed that with this 0:15:00.622 --> 0:15:04.222 anger and violence inside him, that he survived for twenty 0:15:04.222 --> 0:15:05.822 five years in society. 0:15:06.662 --> 0:15:08.742 Without killing anybody up to this point. Is that what 0:15:08.782 --> 0:15:11.702 he meant right. 0:15:11.742 --> 0:15:16.102 It makes it seem like it was an inevitable outcome 0:15:16.582 --> 0:15:16.982 for him. 0:15:17.702 --> 0:15:20.422 Now you mentioned there he got a job cleaning at 0:15:20.462 --> 0:15:25.862 the school. He's got a history of violence as a child. 0:15:26.662 --> 0:15:28.502 We know in the Netherlands before they did move back 0:15:28.502 --> 0:15:31.982 to Australia that he had trouble finding a job there. 0:15:31.982 --> 0:15:35.062 He had enrolled to study it in a college and 0:15:35.462 --> 0:15:37.142 wasn't accepted, And then he tried to get into the 0:15:37.222 --> 0:15:39.582 army and they told him his social skills weren't good enough. 0:15:40.782 --> 0:15:43.902 How did he manage to not only secure a job 0:15:43.902 --> 0:15:46.302 with this cleaning company but also past the working with 0:15:46.422 --> 0:15:49.822 children check? Do we know? I'm presuming he did pass 0:15:49.862 --> 0:15:50.462 that check at. 0:15:50.342 --> 0:15:54.102 Some stage, I don't know that never came out. That 0:15:54.142 --> 0:15:57.342 never came out. And the other really big question that's 0:15:57.422 --> 0:16:00.942 raised with this case is that he was told that 0:16:01.062 --> 0:16:04.022 he was only meant to be in that school before 0:16:04.062 --> 0:16:08.102 and after school those designated hours to do his cleaning. 0:16:08.142 --> 0:16:09.982 He wasn't meant to be there when there were kids around, 0:16:10.502 --> 0:16:13.422 and he certainly wasn't meant to have access to the 0:16:13.462 --> 0:16:18.782 alarm access codes. Yet he managed to get the alarm 0:16:18.862 --> 0:16:21.662 access codes within a week of starting there as a 0:16:21.702 --> 0:16:25.382 casual cleaner. And he was there all the time, even 0:16:25.382 --> 0:16:28.902 on the weekends, and he was even seen in the 0:16:28.982 --> 0:16:33.142 girl's toilets while the girls were in there. Why nothing 0:16:33.262 --> 0:16:36.062 was done about it? It raises a lot of questions. 0:16:37.582 --> 0:16:40.062 We've gotten to the point in Stephanie's story where we 0:16:40.142 --> 0:16:41.662 know that he's put her in the trunk of the 0:16:41.662 --> 0:16:45.222 car and taken her back to his family home. What 0:16:45.342 --> 0:16:47.182 do we know happens to Stephanie after that? 0:16:48.942 --> 0:16:51.622 So, in the early hours of the morning, he goes 0:16:51.662 --> 0:16:54.502 to a petrol station, he fills up a twenty liter 0:16:54.582 --> 0:16:58.622 Jerry Can fuel. It takes a car out to Cocapara 0:16:58.702 --> 0:17:02.942 National Park, where he burns burns the body and like 0:17:02.982 --> 0:17:06.302 a sun visor from the car as well. Before he 0:17:06.942 --> 0:17:09.902 burnt her body, he turned on his phone, which he 0:17:09.942 --> 0:17:15.702 had turned off hours earlier, and took some photographs of her. 0:17:16.062 --> 0:17:20.702 And then after that he drove the car to a 0:17:20.782 --> 0:17:23.342 canal outside of Leeton and then he got out and 0:17:23.382 --> 0:17:26.422 walked home, and then he had a couple of hours 0:17:26.422 --> 0:17:31.902 sleep and went to the supermarket to meet his mum 0:17:31.942 --> 0:17:32.902 to go grocery shopping. 0:17:37.102 --> 0:17:40.422 You're listening to true crime Conversations with me, Claire Murphy. 0:17:40.862 --> 0:17:43.942 I'm speaking with journalist Sarah Crawford about the case of 0:17:43.942 --> 0:17:49.142 Stephanie Scott. Up next, I asked Sarah how the police 0:17:49.222 --> 0:17:58.262 connected Vincent to Stephanie's disappearance. How did police connect him 0:17:58.262 --> 0:17:59.502 to Stephanie's disappearance. 0:18:00.222 --> 0:18:04.622 As Vincent Stanford was shopping for groceries with his mum, 0:18:04.902 --> 0:18:10.382 Stephanie Scott's fiance was waking up in their house worried 0:18:10.982 --> 0:18:14.782 because she hadn't been there the night before. He made 0:18:14.782 --> 0:18:16.902 a few phone calls and then he went to police 0:18:17.342 --> 0:18:22.382 reported her disappearance and police checked her phone, her social media, 0:18:22.622 --> 0:18:27.062 her bank account. There'd been no activity since Sunday morning, 0:18:27.942 --> 0:18:31.622 so then they started making inquiries and it was the 0:18:31.702 --> 0:18:36.662 fact that Vincent Stanford's car was seen around the school 0:18:36.742 --> 0:18:39.662 parked outside the school for long periods of time over 0:18:39.702 --> 0:18:42.542 that Easter long weekend that they went to his house. 0:18:43.302 --> 0:18:50.742 They went to his house on the Tuesday afternoon, so 0:18:50.822 --> 0:18:55.022 two days after Stephanie was murdered, and they just asked 0:18:55.102 --> 0:18:57.862 him were you at the school? Did you see anything? 0:18:58.302 --> 0:19:00.422 He said no, and he said good luck with your investigation. 0:19:00.902 --> 0:19:04.422 And then there was the following day that things started 0:19:04.462 --> 0:19:07.102 to really unravel for him very rapidly. 0:19:07.502 --> 0:19:10.142 So what happened to really set police on the path. 0:19:10.222 --> 0:19:14.142 Did they discover something at the crime scene? Was there 0:19:14.222 --> 0:19:16.502 something that they said, Okay, we've spoken to this man. 0:19:16.542 --> 0:19:18.502 He said, good luck with your investigation. How do they 0:19:18.582 --> 0:19:21.662 then turn their light back on him? From that point? 0:19:21.822 --> 0:19:24.222 They told him to go into the police station for 0:19:24.262 --> 0:19:27.742 a recorded interview on the Wednesday afternoon, which he gave. 0:19:27.862 --> 0:19:30.182 He said he didn't see Stephanie, he was at the school. 0:19:30.582 --> 0:19:33.182 And he also said that he'd gone to the supermarket 0:19:33.542 --> 0:19:36.702 on the Sunday, which set alarm bells off the police. 0:19:36.902 --> 0:19:39.542 I mean they were already suspicious of him, but set 0:19:39.582 --> 0:19:42.262 alarm bells off further because he'd actively lied. Because the 0:19:42.302 --> 0:19:47.262 supermarket wasn't open, so police then went to his house 0:19:47.942 --> 0:19:52.502 that evening and searched it and that's where they found 0:19:52.702 --> 0:19:56.462 the evidence that linked him to the crime. So it 0:19:56.582 --> 0:20:01.142 was the tired tracks of a car that was smaller 0:20:01.142 --> 0:20:04.422 than his so clearly not his car, that were in 0:20:04.942 --> 0:20:08.542 the towards the end of the edge of the backyard. 0:20:09.102 --> 0:20:12.742 There was a use condom the duct tape. But the 0:20:13.462 --> 0:20:17.582 real key was that in his bedroom they found the 0:20:17.622 --> 0:20:21.222 school keys that her friend had given her on that 0:20:21.342 --> 0:20:24.262 Sunday morning, and that's when he was arrested. 0:20:25.102 --> 0:20:29.422 So how long between Stanford's arrest and the discovery of 0:20:29.422 --> 0:20:30.262 Stephanie's body. 0:20:30.902 --> 0:20:35.462 The body was discovered the following day, so he was 0:20:35.502 --> 0:20:38.702 taken back to the police station and he's charged with murder. 0:20:38.982 --> 0:20:42.742 They also then find Stephanie's car outside of Eton. The 0:20:42.822 --> 0:20:46.542 following day, a search begins with Cocopara National Park and 0:20:46.582 --> 0:20:49.182 the police are helped by his mother and older brother 0:20:49.582 --> 0:20:51.582 who know that he liked to go to that area. 0:20:52.062 --> 0:20:54.302 So there was a massive search and it was only 0:20:54.662 --> 0:20:58.782 I think police officers that were on bikes that stumbled 0:20:58.782 --> 0:20:59.782 across her remains. 0:21:00.302 --> 0:21:03.782 Stephanie's family would go back out to that site where 0:21:03.822 --> 0:21:08.662 she was found with metal detectors looking for those rings 0:21:08.702 --> 0:21:11.742 that we talked about earlier, her engagement ring and a 0:21:11.782 --> 0:21:13.982 ring that was given to her by her parents on 0:21:14.022 --> 0:21:17.542 her graduation, and they talked about seeing the scene there 0:21:17.582 --> 0:21:23.302 the charred leftovers of where their daughter had lain. But 0:21:23.342 --> 0:21:25.502 obviously they were never going to find those rings. But 0:21:25.542 --> 0:21:30.222 they didn't know that. Why did Stanford mail them to 0:21:30.302 --> 0:21:32.142 his twin brother because his twin wasn't living in New 0:21:32.142 --> 0:21:34.062 South Wales, he was living in South Australia. Why did 0:21:34.062 --> 0:21:36.822 he mail those along I believe with her driver's license 0:21:37.022 --> 0:21:37.462 to him? 0:21:38.982 --> 0:21:42.422 We won't know. He never answered that question, but he 0:21:42.502 --> 0:21:46.222 mailed them on the Wednesday after he went into do 0:21:46.262 --> 0:21:50.462 a police statement. His behavior, I mean, even after he 0:21:50.502 --> 0:21:52.582 went in to do the police statement on the Wednesday, 0:21:52.902 --> 0:21:54.782 just saying, you know, I was at the school, I 0:21:54.782 --> 0:21:57.462 didn't see her. I was at the supermarket. After that, 0:21:58.422 --> 0:22:01.502 he then went back to the National Park to look 0:22:01.502 --> 0:22:03.742 at her body again and then went to check on 0:22:03.782 --> 0:22:07.502 the car. And then he mailed the two rings and 0:22:07.542 --> 0:22:10.862 the driver's license to his brother in in Southeast Australia 0:22:10.902 --> 0:22:12.622 and said, I need you to look after these things 0:22:12.622 --> 0:22:17.902 for me. I mean, maybe he was removing evidence, But 0:22:17.942 --> 0:22:21.982 then why would you why would you send them to 0:22:23.142 --> 0:22:28.822 a relative for keeping? It seemed like he wanted to 0:22:28.862 --> 0:22:32.222 take souvenirs from his crime. 0:22:33.422 --> 0:22:35.262 Was that what those photos were about to And how 0:22:35.262 --> 0:22:37.462 did he explain that away? Because I'm presuming police would 0:22:37.462 --> 0:22:39.742 have checked his phone after his arrest. How does he 0:22:39.782 --> 0:22:42.982 explain photos of Stephanie's burnt body there? 0:22:43.182 --> 0:22:45.782 He said that he had downloaded them from the internet 0:22:45.822 --> 0:22:49.342 because he thought they were funny. Yeah, so no, he 0:22:49.342 --> 0:22:52.022 didn't really have an explanation at all for that. I mean, 0:22:52.062 --> 0:22:54.342 he also took her red brother she was wearing and 0:22:54.342 --> 0:22:57.102 they found that in his in his wardrobe as well 0:22:57.102 --> 0:22:57.782 in his bedroom. 0:22:58.582 --> 0:23:02.422 So really collected quite a few treasures. I guess he 0:23:02.462 --> 0:23:05.182 would consider them as in the aftermath of this crime. 0:23:06.382 --> 0:23:08.902 So you mentioned that he spoke to a forensic psychologist 0:23:08.942 --> 0:23:13.182 and a forensic psychiatrist after his arrest. What else do 0:23:13.262 --> 0:23:18.102 we find out about Stanford? Because I understand he explained 0:23:18.182 --> 0:23:22.782 to them that he has almost no emotions and that 0:23:22.822 --> 0:23:26.702 one of the only emotions that he ever experiences is hatred. 0:23:26.742 --> 0:23:28.222 And I know that you said that he said it 0:23:28.262 --> 0:23:30.702 was inevitable that he would probably one day kill somebody 0:23:30.742 --> 0:23:33.422 but do we have any handle on sort of what 0:23:33.502 --> 0:23:36.622 type of personality Stanford is because it seems like he's 0:23:36.742 --> 0:23:38.302 very detached from reality. 0:23:38.662 --> 0:23:42.542 Yes, and I think that the assessment of him was 0:23:42.582 --> 0:23:47.262 also fairly limited because he wouldn't participate in it. What 0:23:47.302 --> 0:23:51.942 we do know is that he has structural faults in 0:23:52.022 --> 0:23:57.182 his personality. He has very little empathy for other people, 0:23:57.862 --> 0:24:02.742 and he said that he just had an urge to 0:24:02.822 --> 0:24:07.302 kill when he was interviewed by police. The recorded interview, 0:24:08.022 --> 0:24:12.062 he was incredibly emotionless. He was even very emotionless at 0:24:12.062 --> 0:24:15.782 his sentencing. He just kept his head down the whole time. 0:24:15.862 --> 0:24:18.662 And yes, he didn't look at the family. He didn't 0:24:18.982 --> 0:24:22.342 express any sort of interest in his surroundings at all. 0:24:23.262 --> 0:24:26.782 How did the family cope with the court case and 0:24:26.822 --> 0:24:30.622 then the sentencing? Did they give victim impact statements? Did 0:24:30.702 --> 0:24:33.302 they let the public know how this has affected them? 0:24:34.702 --> 0:24:40.182 The family had been fairly clearly obviously private from the 0:24:40.222 --> 0:24:43.142 time of her murder. They did a few interviews after 0:24:43.182 --> 0:24:46.262 his arrest, but we hadn't really heard from them until 0:24:46.262 --> 0:24:50.902 that sentencing hearing in in Griffith a year later. And 0:24:50.982 --> 0:24:55.102 part of sentencing hearings are it's the one opportunity that 0:24:55.222 --> 0:24:59.822 victims get to express their loss, and that was the 0:24:59.862 --> 0:25:03.742