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Speaker 1: Good afternoon, two days and two twists in the case

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Speaker 1: of the disappearance of John Beckenridge and his step son

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Speaker 1: Mike Shoal Beckenridge. Now, what's been called and what has

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Speaker 1: been called a complete turnaround. A man who claimed that

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Speaker 1: his cousin told him that actually helped the beck and

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Speaker 1: Ridges escape has now retracted his allegation altogether. Analyst because

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Speaker 1: a senior crime reporter for the Heroine she's been at

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Speaker 1: the hearing, Anna, hello, Hello, what happened? How did he

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Speaker 1: retract it?

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Speaker 2: Well, we got to court this morning and apparently he

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Speaker 2: was shown his police statement which he was to read

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Speaker 2: in court before he was sort of questioned by the

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Speaker 2: different parties and he said, oh, no, I didn't say that.

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Speaker 2: That's wrong. So we had to come into court and

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Speaker 2: he read through his statement and then said, you know,

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Speaker 2: that's what the police have in this document, but I

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Speaker 2: didn't say it and I never said that, and he

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Speaker 2: didn't say.

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Speaker 1: This to me.

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Speaker 2: You know, I signed my police statement, I signed the

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Speaker 2: typed version, but it's an anomaly. I didn't say it.

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Speaker 2: I didn't realize so that the Crown described it as

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Speaker 2: complete turnaround, and yeah, he then retracted all the allegations

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Speaker 2: he'd made against his cousin, his cousin's wife and other

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Speaker 2: members of the community.

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Speaker 1: Is this plausible? I mean, was this the first Is

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Speaker 1: this the first time he's actually realized what his statement says, Well, it.

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Speaker 2: Might have been the first time he's read it in

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Speaker 2: a while. He would have obviously had to sign, and

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Speaker 2: he said in court he signed the handwritten statement that

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Speaker 2: police took from him at his home. He also signs

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Speaker 2: the typed version. So you know why he didn't notice

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Speaker 2: that these these things were in it that he apparently

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Speaker 2: didn't say. He said that the cops were at his

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Speaker 2: house for four or five hours. It became a social occasion.

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Speaker 2: They were talking about theories and what could have happened,

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Speaker 2: and he just the word he used was it was

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Speaker 2: an anomaly that he didn't notice. The police had recorded

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Speaker 2: him as saying that. So you know the flip side, obviously,

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Speaker 2: is the Crown put to him that he was He

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Speaker 2: was pretty disgruntled. His cousin had bought the family farm.

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Speaker 2: He thought he was entitled to some of it. He

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Speaker 2: wanted his his chunk of it. And this was you know,

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Speaker 2: him him bringing this to the police into court was

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Speaker 2: motivated by him wanting, you know, part of that family property.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So the cousin who he's implicated here, he also

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Speaker 1: spoke to the inquest today, did.

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Speaker 2: He Yeah, Look, he said that he has never met

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Speaker 2: Mike Beckenridge or sorry John and Mike Beckenridge. He's never

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Speaker 2: he'd never heard of them or seen photos of them.

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Speaker 2: Until it was in the media. He considered that he

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Speaker 2: probably did have a phone call with his cousin and

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Speaker 2: he very may well have said something to the effect

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Speaker 2: of ver Okay. Now, now that was discussed in court today,

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Speaker 2: and this this man is he's a pastor in a church,

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Speaker 2: and it was sort of, you know, all agreed that

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Speaker 2: maybe what he was meaning was that wherever they are,

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Speaker 2: off the cliff or otherwise, therew God either way, and

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Speaker 2: so everybody agreed that if anything was said, that might

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Speaker 2: have been sort of the flavor of it. But he,

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Speaker 2: you know, he said to his cousin, I forgive you.

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Speaker 2: I think you've been motivated because you want part of

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Speaker 2: the farm. You know, I forgive you, but I don't

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Speaker 2: want anything more to do with you. So it was

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Speaker 2: quite the quite the eventful morning in court.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, wild hey, Anna, thanks very much, appreciate it, analyask

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Speaker 1: the Herald Senior crime reporter For more from Heather Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive. Listen live to news talks said Be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio