Speaker 1: Welcome to Not Another Crime Podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm Georgia Love, I'm Tammy Peterson, and the I'm a journalist,
Speaker 2: I am not, and you are.
Speaker 3: Scott Williams, the official out of Visual, third host.
Speaker 4: Of the podcast, host of the podcast Wheel.
Speaker 2: Everyone's Favorite is back.
Speaker 1: We can't get enough of you.
Speaker 2: You can't get enough of writing stories, and our listeners
Speaker 2: cannot get enough of you.
Speaker 3: Good lord, it's so true. A little bit about writing stories.
Speaker 4: The chlorine.
Speaker 3: That's the return of the judgmental reading glasses, the return
Speaker 3: of the clipboard clipboard.
Speaker 4: So good. Did you buy this clipboard specifically for the podcast?
Speaker 3: I didn't, but I think I'm going to get some
Speaker 3: stickers from the lady that sent you stickers.
Speaker 4: Yes, we love Claude so much.
Speaker 5: She gave us some beautiful stickers of And that's Digs
Speaker 5: in the background.
Speaker 4: They're having a little drink.
Speaker 3: If you can hear that, yeah, if you can.
Speaker 5: G The other day was like when we're recording or
Speaker 5: recording the other day and it was really hot out
Speaker 5: and I had the water ball inside for the time
Speaker 5: in a very long time, and was like, it's just
Speaker 5: nice to have the water ball inside.
Speaker 4: And then.
Speaker 5: Then and then he started drinking during the podcast. Oh
Speaker 5: that's why we don't inside. That's the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really good. Actually, we've been moving house. We've had
Speaker 3: a lot of been a very exciting time just about
Speaker 3: to go on Christmas.
Speaker 4: Break from moving is an exciting time.
Speaker 3: That can be. It's hard work, right yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 3: we all putched in and we got it done and
Speaker 3: we'll get settled in the new house and it's gonna
Speaker 3: be great.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be great. It's gonna be fantastic. But it's
Speaker 5: it's so exhausting moving as well. And then when you
Speaker 5: get everything in there, you're like, oh now I have
Speaker 5: to unpack everything. That's the other people where you're like,
Speaker 5: but you know what, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 4: And I don't know why I'm talking it down so much.
Speaker 3: In a month's time, none of it will matter.
Speaker 4: None of it's gonna matter. Careful right there, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, actually for anyone it's a very straight look at
Speaker 1: my arm.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: Imagine if I message you when I was moving and
Speaker 5: just going just come around for a podcast. Everything boxes, Well,
Speaker 5: you don't like a few boxes when you're all on deck?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh no, I hate moving. Well, I unpacking. I
Speaker 1: don't mind, because I like kind of.
Speaker 4: Setting up a new place.
Speaker 1: But you've got a pack to then be.
Speaker 4: Able to unpack.
Speaker 3: That's Julia. I get like the fact that I've been
Speaker 3: in the house for three days and I'm not completely
Speaker 3: unpacked stresses Oh yeah, I'm a person that can't leave
Speaker 3: work at the end of the day with emails unread.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, look it's too much for you.
Speaker 3: I look at some of my friends emailing boxes at
Speaker 3: work and I'm like, you've got nineteen hundred unread emails.
Speaker 4: I can't when I look at someone's phone.
Speaker 5: That stresses me out so much when they have like
Speaker 5: eighty unread messages and unread emails as well, I just
Speaker 5: want to go and help them with it.
Speaker 4: Let me clear, clear it out, reply to people.
Speaker 2: Maybe there could be like an air tasker service, clear
Speaker 2: out my inbox just me.
Speaker 5: I'd just come around. Just let me know if you're
Speaker 5: going to come. Yeah, give me a glass of wine.
Speaker 4: I'll be there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't need to pay through the app jam give.
Speaker 3: Me three glasses of one. I'll start replying.
Speaker 5: Trunk and replies to people we'd never ever met.
Speaker 1: Quit for you, I'll abuse your boss whatever you want.
Speaker 3: So I believe. I believe, because I believe through listener
Speaker 3: that you guys are working through the holidays.
Speaker 4: We are.
Speaker 3: So I brought your story today, but I thought, just
Speaker 3: for fun, i'd give you some Christmas facts before.
Speaker 4: Oh great, Chris.
Speaker 3: The story doesn't have anything to do with Christmas, but
Speaker 3: I thought some fun Christmas facts.
Speaker 1: It is with the Christmas facts, all right.
Speaker 3: Here's the first one. Did you know that the reindeer
Speaker 3: in the song off the Red Nose Reindeer are all
Speaker 3: pairs that compliment each other in some way?
Speaker 4: No, so don't explain that, I can.
Speaker 3: Donna and Blitzen can you expand? Please?
Speaker 4: You're working, Please explain.
Speaker 3: Donna and Blitzen are Old English names for lightning and thunder.
Speaker 3: Dancer and prans are both words that refer to dancing
Speaker 3: with joy or abandoned.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: One igat dasher is an Old English name for comets
Speaker 3: and comment. Oh, and Cupid and vic represent the naughty
Speaker 3: and nice sides of love.
Speaker 5: Oh really, when you started, I thought you were talking
Speaker 5: about the fruit pear. Oh, they will relate to a
Speaker 5: type of pair, some sort of apple with some sort
Speaker 5: of pair. I've the that's great, and also can I
Speaker 5: do share a fact?
Speaker 4: It's always on the twenty fifth of December? What is Christmas?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 4: Is it where the moon is?
Speaker 5: Yep?
Speaker 3: No matter where the moon.
Speaker 4: No matter where the moon is.
Speaker 3: Matter.
Speaker 1: I'm learning a lot.
Speaker 4: Can happen the name of your autobiography no matter with
Speaker 4: George Love somewhere between the New Moon y.
Speaker 5: I Love a really vague title and it never comes back.
Speaker 4: To Georgia Love.
Speaker 1: We discovered the other day. I say we discovered.
Speaker 2: I discovered it and then sent you many picture screenshots
Speaker 2: of the article because I loved it so much. There
Speaker 2: was a feature piece on Rhonda birch More. Her memoir
Speaker 2: is called Legs eleven.
Speaker 4: That's exact.
Speaker 5: It's amazing, isn't a beautiful but Roonder birch More amazing
Speaker 5: like in Australia, like the person in every musical, every
Speaker 5: Carol's in the domain every She's just such a She's
Speaker 5: been around for ages, but I would not She's always
Speaker 5: kind of looked the same.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she always looks.
Speaker 3: The term that we're use in my family that would
Speaker 3: be her, Which is she's world famous.
Speaker 5: In Australia, Yes, the world famous Rob Milton mills, rob.
Speaker 3: One John or John. So do you know that if
Speaker 3: you add up at the gifts in the twelve Days
Speaker 3: of Christmas, it's three hundred and sixty four gifts, one
Speaker 3: for each day of the year, that are all presented
Speaker 3: on Christmas Day.
Speaker 4: Really, my God, when he gets to the pears.
Speaker 3: Get and then finally, did you know that, in fact,
Speaker 3: all the gifts in the twelve Days of Christmas are birds?
Speaker 3: All of it? Would you like me to show my
Speaker 3: working out? Three workings partridge in a pear tree, two
Speaker 3: turtle dubs, three French hens, four calling birds. By now
Speaker 3: you're the girl getting the president, so you're thinking, that's
Speaker 3: a lot.
Speaker 4: Of a lot of birds here.
Speaker 3: Five gold rings refers to ring necked pheasants.
Speaker 2: Of course that was the only good president of all
Speaker 2: of them. I thought you got five gold rings.
Speaker 3: So six geese laying seven to one swimming eight maids.
Speaker 3: Milking refers to egrets, specifically cattle egrets, which are called what.
Speaker 4: They what they what?
Speaker 3: What I'm telling you cattle egrets which are called that
Speaker 3: by locals because they follow the cattle around and sit
Speaker 3: on their backs and they all steal milk from their artists.
Speaker 3: Milking ye. Nine ladies dancing refers to a bird called lapwings.
Speaker 3: There's all English a bird called lap wings, which are
Speaker 3: common called dancing lap wings or dancing ladies because of
Speaker 3: the elaborate aerial displays they used to communicate lap dancing.
Speaker 3: Nine ladies dancing known as lap dancing. It's probably not
Speaker 3: where nap dancing comes from. I wouldn't more obvious the
Speaker 3: lady dances on your lap would be. I think you
Speaker 3: might be wrong there, Sorry, sorry, mate, I apologize. Ten
Speaker 3: lords are leaping. It refers to cuckoos. Cuckoos at the
Speaker 3: time were called leaping birds, and leaping was a form
Speaker 3: of deception. Cuckoos are well known to lay their eggs
Speaker 3: in other birds nests and leave them for the other
Speaker 3: birds to hatch and raise.
Speaker 1: Oh come on.
Speaker 3: Ten lords are leaping. Eleven pipers piping plovers.
Speaker 4: Lovers a beautiful gift forever.
Speaker 3: Due to the call that they say out they make,
Speaker 3: which sounds like a pipe, which.
Speaker 1: Now it doesn't. It sounds like a lady screaming.
Speaker 3: Well anywhere from Philip wouldn't know it. I don't know
Speaker 3: if there's anyone here today. And twelve drummers.
Speaker 2: Twelve drummers sorry, I'm thinking the plovers don't sound like
Speaker 2: peoples are lady screaming?
Speaker 1: That's curlews, curls.
Speaker 3: And twelve drummers. Drumming refers to grouse who are named
Speaker 3: ground drummers because of the noise that is their mating call. Wow.
Speaker 3: So back to the last fact, it's three hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty four birds that the lady gets given.
Speaker 1: There's too many birds.
Speaker 3: That's a lot of birds to give someone if you
Speaker 3: love them.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of to give someone if you hate it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but if you hate them, it's more fun fun.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, four birds I don't like.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that. I didn't know they were all
Speaker 4: birds in that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So is Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds a Christmas movie
Speaker 2: could be?
Speaker 5: Yes, it's one of those Christmas movie right with Gremlins.
Speaker 4: What's your go to Christmas movie?
Speaker 3: By the way, I love National Lampoons.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, lovely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have reindeer eggnonglasses.
Speaker 5: Oh oh great, because Jesus you got two that you
Speaker 5: watch every year.
Speaker 2: Well, my, they're in my favorite movies of all time,
Speaker 2: let alone Christmas movies, and they obviously love actually and elf.
Speaker 3: Okay, excellent, two of my top movies. So last time
Speaker 3: I was here, I ruined disney Land. Yes, I'm not
Speaker 3: going to make any comments. I'm not going to make
Speaker 3: any comments. I'm actually I am not going to make it.
Speaker 1: Yeah comments and I throw them out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, fair enough to She's with its rom com.
Speaker 1: It's movie, it's fiction.
Speaker 3: It's fine, it's fine. Grow up, just grow up.
Speaker 4: People.
Speaker 3: Speaking of stories and documentaries, let me tell you a story.
Speaker 3: So if this story was a Netflix documentary, it would
Speaker 3: start with the sweeping shot of the Great Alpine National Park,
Speaker 3: starting at the base of Australia's Great Dividing Range, just
Speaker 3: outside of Bensdale, all the way up to Mount Ksiosko.
Speaker 3: The Alpine National Park protects over one point six million
Speaker 3: acres of Australian high country. Then the camera would sweep
Speaker 3: in and start to focus on one section of the park,
Speaker 3: the One and Gata Valley, the southern It's not the
Speaker 3: story you think is. The southern end borders towns like Mansfield,
Speaker 3: the skifields of Mount Buller and the majesty of Mount Stirling.
Speaker 3: Campsites dot the landscape with places with names that we
Speaker 3: know like wild Dog Bend and one and Gatda. But
Speaker 3: as beautiful as the willness is, it is equally unforgiving.
Speaker 3: Every year hikers and day trippers find themselves in trouble
Speaker 3: needing to be rescued. People go missing, either because they
Speaker 3: want to like the alleged killer Desie Freeman, or through
Speaker 3: accident or misadventure. Occasionally people are even murdered. Campus report
Speaker 3: strange encounters, huge wild dogs, and even panthers. Panthers and
Speaker 3: one rumor is shared in huss whispers around campfires more
Speaker 3: than all the others. Today, we're going to look at
Speaker 3: four mysterious cases from the Victorian High Country, specifically in
Speaker 3: the area in and around one and Gather, and we're
Speaker 3: going to delve into the true story of the button Man, The.
Speaker 2: Button Man, The Buttonman, The button Man.
Speaker 5: Now you did I didn't look into this because you
Speaker 5: did message me to say do you know about the
Speaker 5: button man? Absolutely doesn't sound threatening, but it doesn't sound threatening.
Speaker 4: Wow, button Man. Now do you want to say what
Speaker 4: you were thinking of when.
Speaker 1: When you said one again?
Speaker 3: Are you thinking? Girl? And Carol Clay Let's we'll get
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 2: And that's why gasp, because I was like, we have
Speaker 2: to be careful because it's now been his conviction has
Speaker 2: been quashed.
Speaker 3: We're going to mention it, okay, because it happened in
Speaker 3: one in Gata Valley. Yes, okay. So in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 3: a wildlife photographer spent several days in the high Country.
Speaker 3: The area is really well known for amazing fauna like
Speaker 3: wedge tailed eagles, wombats, a kidners and many different types
Speaker 3: of Australian parrots.
Speaker 1: You're a little bit obsessed with birds today.
Speaker 3: A little bit of birds bead for gift. The photographer
Speaker 3: had a successful trip, enjoyed spending his time alone in
Speaker 3: the bush, and on his return home he started downloading
Speaker 3: images from his camera. Good for him. In the middle
Speaker 3: of a download was an image which made his blood
Speaker 3: run hold.
Speaker 4: A photo of digs running in the bush.
Speaker 3: It was a photo of the inside of his tent,
Speaker 3: captured with the glare of the camera flash. The picture
Speaker 3: showed him sleeping peacefully. What sucked into his sleeping and
Speaker 3: completely unaware of the presence of another person.
Speaker 4: No, God, that is terrified.
Speaker 3: The man knew he had gone to sleep with his
Speaker 3: camera hanging right next to his pillow. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: it took The photo had silently entered the tent, picked
Speaker 3: up the camera, taken the shot, and then put the
Speaker 3: camera back without being noticed.
Speaker 4: That is awful, so terrifying.
Speaker 3: Yep. The photographer posted the photo to read it asking
Speaker 3: if anyone had could help solve this mystery.
Speaker 5: And you know what, Reddit are always a fun yeah,
Speaker 5: the best place to go.
Speaker 3: Amongst the comments and helpful suggestions like a panther or
Speaker 3: a yowie, there was one reply which really stuck out.
Speaker 4: The people that were saying it was probably a yowie
Speaker 4: that took the photo. That is helpful.
Speaker 3: That is super helpful. It might have been a panther.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, someone had to have constructed the yowi first
Speaker 5: and beautiful photo.
Speaker 3: So there was one reply which really struck out. You
Speaker 3: met the button man. Consider self lucky. He was in
Speaker 3: a playful moo, what my god? What?
Speaker 4: Who the hell is this button man?
Speaker 3: The button Man is not a legend, he's not folklore,
Speaker 3: but he's an actual man now in his seventies who's
Speaker 3: known to police. Police have confirmed that they have interviewed
Speaker 3: him on two occasions. He has never been a suspect
Speaker 3: in any High Country cases, and the police have been
Speaker 3: at pains to explain that he has no criminal record,
Speaker 3: but the rumors of his exploits persist.
Speaker 4: I don't like this button like this button Man.
Speaker 3: We're going to come back to the button Man soon,
Speaker 3: but first we're going to look at some of the
Speaker 3: mysteries of the Victorian high Country.
Speaker 5: I'm scared the button Man's just lurking in the background
Speaker 5: while you're talking about all this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't like but we each live on our own.
Speaker 3: Yes, he listened A long way from here. The one
Speaker 3: and gat of Valley is a long way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: The button Man travel a lot.
Speaker 3: Of birds in this Warren Meyer disappeared on Easter Sunday
Speaker 3: two thousand and eight. He was a fifty seven year
Speaker 3: old experienced hunter and bushman. He set off from dom
Speaker 3: Dom Saddle intending to go on a four hour bushwalk.
Speaker 1: Dom Dom Saddle's a great place, though.
Speaker 3: Yeah. He was carrying a phone, a GPS, additional food
Speaker 3: and water. He had set a time with his wife
Speaker 3: to meet her for a celebratory drink after the hike,
Speaker 3: but he never made it to the meeting place and
Speaker 3: he never came home.
Speaker 1: Oh God.
Speaker 3: Searchers started immediately. His car was found exactly where it
Speaker 3: should have been. During the police search, they stumbled upon
Speaker 3: a commercial marijuana crop hidden in the dense bush. N
Speaker 3: campers who were questioned consistently mentioned hearing something that sounded
Speaker 3: like automatic gunfire echoing through the bush, not a sound
Speaker 3: normally associated with camping or hunting. Police had suspicions that
Speaker 3: Warren may have also stumbled into the crop, and before
Speaker 3: he could leave or explain himself, he was shot. Warren
Speaker 3: Meyer's body has never been found. Wow In twenty eleven,
Speaker 3: David Prudeau went missing on June the fifth. David was
Speaker 3: the governor of bow And Prison, a high security prison
Speaker 3: in Lara needs Long. David was an experienced deer hunter
Speaker 3: and had set out into the high country along Blackspur
Speaker 3: Track at around seven am. He was dropped off by
Speaker 3: his brother in law, who would be hunting in a
Speaker 3: different area close by. Then there was nothing oh. David
Speaker 3: and his brother in law had agreed to regular radio checkings.
Speaker 3: When the first two did not come, David's brother in
Speaker 3: law assumed that he was on deer stalk and he
Speaker 3: would reply once the stalk was over, But he never responded.
Speaker 1: Dear stalk, like dear John, Like when you're at a letter.
Speaker 3: Dear dear, you're dying. Oh, dear dear, I've probably got
Speaker 3: no idea where this guy is. David Pud's out into
Speaker 3: the high country had taken him through an area of
Speaker 3: the locals called the Crossroads. Several major bush racks bush
Speaker 3: tracks meet at the crossroads. It's a high point in
Speaker 3: the One and Gata Valley and there's a phone tower,
Speaker 3: which mean he can has taken advantage of to checking.
Speaker 3: The crossroads are also well known to be close to
Speaker 3: the area of the Button Man's camp and the area
Speaker 3: that he claims is his territory. But Man rumours say
Speaker 3: that the hermit has established a camp in a cave nearby.
Speaker 3: He uses the high vantage point to watch the comings
Speaker 3: and goings of people in his bushland. The Button Man
Speaker 3: is said to pay particular attention to hunters, watching and
Speaker 3: sometimes tracking them while they track animals, making sure that
Speaker 3: they treat the native land and animals with respect.
Speaker 4: Several mixed feelings now about the Button Man.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think he's treating people with respect. He's
Speaker 2: taking photo them in their sleep.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's for animals.
Speaker 3: Several hunters of told tales of sitting around their campfires
Speaker 3: and the button man suddenly just being there approach, he's
Speaker 3: just suddenly standing at the camp.
Speaker 4: He's made of buttons.
Speaker 3: He'll sit down at the fire, uninvited and question the
Speaker 3: hunt has never really really revealing anything about himself. Then
Speaker 3: he will stand and silently disappear. Back into the book.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, terrifying.
Speaker 1: I hate this story.
Speaker 4: That image of Homer.
Speaker 3: But back to David P. Day, the missing governor of Bow.
Speaker 3: In prison search has covered many square kilometers around where
Speaker 3: David had been known to be hunting. They searched as
Speaker 3: winter was coming on several times through the snowfall, and
Speaker 3: again after spring forward the snow, but found no trace
Speaker 3: of David. There were several conspiracy theories about what might
Speaker 3: have happened to David. Less than a year earlier, Carl
Speaker 3: Williams was killed in Bowing on David's watch, and some
Speaker 3: people thought this could be a revenge killing.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: Other theories were that David had surprised a pack of
Speaker 3: wild dogs and a bit attacked, or that he'd been
Speaker 3: killed by the high country panther.
Speaker 4: Diggs would never do that, he would never do that.
Speaker 3: For years, people have believed and sometimes provided alleged proof
Speaker 3: of a panther population of Virtis country. The story goes
Speaker 3: that during World War Two, US soldiers kept big cats
Speaker 3: as mascots on ships and encampments around the world as mascots.
Speaker 3: That fact is actually true. There's many photographs of US
Speaker 3: soldiers with large cats as their mascots in the encampments,
Speaker 3: but the story continues that at the end of their deployment,
Speaker 3: rather than take the animals back to the US or
Speaker 3: have the mutinized, the soldiers release them into the Australian bush. Then,
Speaker 3: over time they've bred with feral cats and produced a
Speaker 3: viable population.
Speaker 1: Whoa.
Speaker 3: The story is widely unlikely, and even if it was true,
Speaker 3: the melanistic gene which turns leopards and jaguar's black is
Speaker 3: regressive and non hereditary.
Speaker 1: Ah they would have been bred out by now anyway,
Speaker 1: So if.
Speaker 3: There were panthers or leopards in the bush, they would
Speaker 3: more likely be normally colored.
Speaker 4: I love I'd love the idea, though want to say
Speaker 4: normally colored.
Speaker 3: Well, what I wanted to say was they'd be normally spotted,
Speaker 3: But we're talking about animals that aren't easy to spot.
Speaker 4: Ye been spotted is in.
Speaker 3: Like I didn't want to go for the joke I
Speaker 3: spotted a.
Speaker 5: Leaven No, but like the idea of someone seeing a
Speaker 5: panther or something, because there's still a lot of sightings,
Speaker 5: especially like South Gipsland area and everything.
Speaker 4: I saw a photo. Sorry, I sorry.
Speaker 5: It was like a meme the other day of someone saying,
Speaker 5: if I saw a panther, I would simply take a
Speaker 5: very good and high quality photo of Yeah.
Speaker 4: I would simply do that. Yeah bigfoot.
Speaker 3: Yeah. If I was walking through the bush and I
Speaker 3: saw a panther, the first thing I would think is
Speaker 3: what is the opposite of yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, opposite.
Speaker 3: I have to make to that. So as recently as
Speaker 3: two thousand and five, there was a video posted to
Speaker 3: Instagram alleging to show a large black panther just outside
Speaker 3: of me. Oh but anyway, back to our mysteries. In
Speaker 3: October twenty nineteen, Niles Becker, and experienced bushwalker, disappeared in
Speaker 3: the One and Gata Valley. He'd planned a five day
Speaker 3: solo trek and was well prepared. He'd given his best
Speaker 3: friend maps of his exact route, and he'd agreed a
Speaker 3: start and return date. On October twenty sixth Niles messaged
Speaker 3: his friend that he had completed the trip and he
Speaker 3: was heading back to his car, and the hike back
Speaker 3: would take about six hours. Investigators know that the signal
Speaker 3: for this message bounced off the phone tower at the crossroads.
Speaker 3: When Niles did not return, the alarm was raised very early.
Speaker 3: Search search teams included helicopters with thermal cameras, kadava dogs,
Speaker 3: and over seventy people on foot. The search stretched around
Speaker 3: eight hundred square miles, but police found no sign of
Speaker 3: Niles wow Unknown to the public at the time, the
Speaker 3: disappearance of Niles Becker was the first time police made
Speaker 3: contact with the Button Man.
Speaker 4: My God.
Speaker 3: After exhausting their search, a local Mansfield police officer mentioned
Speaker 3: the old hermer who lived in the High Country. He
Speaker 3: explained the Button Man would venture into mary Jig, a
Speaker 3: small town just outside of Mansfield, to buy for supplies
Speaker 3: or quietly at the hotel and drink a beer. Who
Speaker 3: was well known to Mansfield police, and it was common
Speaker 3: knowledge that the Button Man kept a close watch on
Speaker 3: the Wading Gata Valley.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 3: Police made the decision to trek into the Button Man's camp,
Speaker 3: not to arrest him or challenge him, but to try
Speaker 3: and get his help. The button man accepted the intrusion
Speaker 3: of our world into his and, according to the police,
Speaker 3: answered all their questions.
Speaker 4: It's like Hannibal Lecturers. Now it is. He goes in
Speaker 4: to ask for help from.
Speaker 1: The person that he knows, like Tarzan.
Speaker 4: It's exactly like Tarzan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, who's not a serial killer?
Speaker 4: No? No, that's the thing about Tarzan is not Georgia Jungle.
Speaker 4: Not proven.
Speaker 3: So he confirmed that he'd seen Niles pass through the
Speaker 3: crossroads and watched him pull out his phone and send
Speaker 3: a message and then walk away. Despite this information confirming
Speaker 3: Niles's direction of travel and where the police should search,
Speaker 3: no trace of Niles Becker has ever been Wow And
Speaker 3: in March twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: I know this one.
Speaker 3: Russell Hill and Carroll Clay disappeared. The couple, both in
Speaker 3: their seventies, were having a secret affair and they would
Speaker 3: slip away together on camping trips. Russell would often camp
Speaker 3: in the wan and Gada Valley and he knew the
Speaker 3: area very well. He was also part of a radio
Speaker 3: community and he would check in with them most evenings
Speaker 3: when he was away. He called and spoke with his
Speaker 3: friends around six pm on March the twentieth. The next day,
Speaker 3: campus entered the site and found Russell and Carroll's campsite
Speaker 3: deliberately burned down, the couple nowhere to be found. In
Speaker 3: May twenty twenty, police made the decision to hike into
Speaker 3: the valley again, making their way through the crossroads and
Speaker 3: into the Buttonman's camp ah. The investigation was going nowhere.
Speaker 3: The media had heard whispers about the mysterious man who
Speaker 3: lived in the mountains, and police needed to know what
Speaker 3: he knew. Police knew it was likely that the Button
Speaker 3: Man had seen Russell and Carroll enter his territory. They
Speaker 3: knew a media storm was brewing around the case, and
Speaker 3: they knew this was exactly the kind of thing the
Speaker 3: Button Man had retreated from the world to avoid. Police
Speaker 3: wanted to speak with the hermit, find out what he knew,
Speaker 3: and warn him of the reporters who might seek him out.
Speaker 1: Not that there's anything wrong with reporters or.
Speaker 4: Hermits or hermits or buttons.
Speaker 3: Or buttons or buttons, the police would stay in a
Speaker 3: latter statement that it was an intriguing chat. They confirmed
Speaker 3: the button Man had seen Russell and Carroll drive into
Speaker 3: the valley and they were at pains to state that
Speaker 3: the Button Man was not being considered as a suspect.
Speaker 3: They also stated repeatedly when questioned that he had no
Speaker 3: criminal record.
Speaker 4: Do they call him the button Man when they talk
Speaker 4: about him? Yep? Oh wow, so interesting.
Speaker 3: But he had seen the campus arrive. So what else
Speaker 3: did he say? Yeah, if he was not a suspect,
Speaker 3: was he at least an observer?
Speaker 1: Certainly sounds like a voyeur if.
Speaker 3: You how many bushwalkers campus and hunted. Had the button
Speaker 3: Man observed and had he watched Russell and Carroll disappear
Speaker 3: just as he watched them arrive?
Speaker 1: Feel creepy?
Speaker 3: There were many There are many stories around encounters with
Speaker 3: the Button Man. Most people who encounter him describe his
Speaker 3: thousand meters stare an unblinking gaze from someone who has
Speaker 3: chosen to avoid social contact. Many campers describe his abiliately
Speaker 3: to silently disappear, or how quietly he moves.
Speaker 1: Through the bush back into the bush like Homer.
Speaker 2: Always the Actually, for our international listeners, this area we're
Speaker 2: talking about, the high countries exactly what we would.
Speaker 4: Call them, the woods, dense bushland, the woods.
Speaker 3: That's right. He builds rock pyramids around the area, and
Speaker 3: he carves buttons from deerhorn, which he wears in his
Speaker 3: ears or leaves as little gifts at campsites.
Speaker 5: Wears so he's got like ear stretched ears like earrings.
Speaker 3: He puts them through his ears like hoops.
Speaker 1: Oh, I thought he meant like to block out sounds.
Speaker 1: Better ways to do that.
Speaker 4: Could sell those local fate.
Speaker 3: Regular hunters will often leave the button Man small gifts
Speaker 3: at their campsite when they go to bed, a few beers,
Speaker 3: a fishing lure or similar things outside their tent to
Speaker 3: make sure that they're welcomed into his area and left alone.
Speaker 3: The button Man is known to police, but his name
Speaker 3: has never been released. Oh but the police know his name.
Speaker 3: What has been leaked is that this man, now in
Speaker 3: his seventies, did not always live in a cave in
Speaker 3: the Wandengata Valley.
Speaker 4: He wasn't born there, not like Tarzan. No.
Speaker 3: He walked out of a home that he owns him Reservoir,
Speaker 3: when he was approximately forty years old. Reservoirs a suburb
Speaker 3: of Melbourne's West and he also owns a property which
Speaker 3: borders Mount Sterling. Despite leaving off the greed, he has
Speaker 3: means he has a bank account Mansfield residents sometimes see
Speaker 3: him at the bank or the pub, but they carefully
Speaker 3: protect his identity. Long time Mansfield resident Charlie Louvick was
Speaker 3: interviewed during the hill Clay disappearance and he was quoted
Speaker 3: as saying, sure, we're no buttons. He's harmless. He chooses
Speaker 3: to live away from society and we respect that. Why
Speaker 3: would you why would we direct you into his world.
Speaker 3: At the press conference, the police said the button Man
Speaker 3: is an innocent person who has helped us in our investigation.
Speaker 3: He is not a person of interest. Being a loner
Speaker 3: and being observant are not crimes. Two shortly after their
Speaker 3: meeting with the button Man, the hill Clay case broke
Speaker 3: in an unexpected direction. A number plate recognition camera and
Speaker 3: a mobile phone tower led police to a Nissan patrol
Speaker 3: heading away from the wan and Gata Valley around the
Speaker 3: time of disappearance. Incredibly, police were able to check their
Speaker 3: notes of the conversation with the button Man and confirm
Speaker 3: that he had seen the Nissen patrol coming into and leaving.
Speaker 3: The owner of the car, Gregory Lynne, was eventually charged
Speaker 3: and convicted of our crime, which is still in the
Speaker 3: That's all we're going to say it. Yeah, yes, But
Speaker 3: the interesting thing is is the button man actually assisted
Speaker 3: the police in identifying that's insane. That's right, And that's
Speaker 3: where we're going to leave the one and get a valley.
Speaker 3: What if this we're a Next Box documentary. It would
Speaker 3: end with a slow pan out, focusing on ferns and
Speaker 3: thick underbrush, before panning past majestic mountain ash and eucalyptus.
Speaker 3: Morning fog would be twisting through the trunks. We would
Speaker 3: break free from the tree line, and the camera would
Speaker 3: pan across the wilderness, pausing for a moment at the crossroads,
Speaker 3: an open area of ground where several tracks meet, and
Speaker 3: perhaps standing there would be an old herman, his face
Speaker 3: aged by the sun, leaning on a homemade spear with
Speaker 3: carved deer horn buttons dangling from his ears. He would
Speaker 3: glance up and then turn disappear into the bush like
Speaker 3: many other people have without a trace.
Speaker 5: Wow, what goddamn what do you think of the button
Speaker 5: Man's got?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: What what do you think?
Speaker 5: Like? I mean, you know, he's he's out there somewhere.
Speaker 5: There's something I just want to know so much more
Speaker 5: about him.
Speaker 3: One of my friends has met man.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, got.
Speaker 3: To mate who goes camping up in the water and
Speaker 3: Gate of Valley and all that high country around the
Speaker 3: back of Bensdale and while Halla and all that quite often,
Speaker 3: and he's and the button Man's coming to their campsite,
Speaker 3: and he describes them almost exactly as what I said, Yeah,
Speaker 3: this crazy stare. He looks at you as if he's
Speaker 3: looking into your soul. But he's all like he's harmless.
Speaker 3: But he has this sense of not being harmless.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, don't be very careful.
Speaker 2: Into people's camps and just like sitting down with them
Speaker 2: and talking and then disappearing into the.
Speaker 3: Bush just so people know he's there. Nobody knows. And
Speaker 3: he's lived in the bush for thirty.
Speaker 5: Years, fascinated what he did before. And he has means
Speaker 5: as well as he owns properties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so did he take the photo of the man?
Speaker 2: We believe so, well, that's not it's just that's got
Speaker 2: to be some kind of crime, yeh, that's yeah.
Speaker 3: But he doesn't have a criminal recorder. And apparently he was,
Speaker 3: you know, he was well enough off that he owns
Speaker 3: a house, a reservoir and he owns a property amount sterling.
Speaker 1: No my journal Spidery senses a.
Speaker 4: God, do you think and what do you think?
Speaker 2: Why would you then just go off into the bush
Speaker 2: and never speak to anyone again and know about.
Speaker 4: All Something very off about the button man.
Speaker 3: Something has happened to him. It's a fascinating story. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it really is, because it doesn't have any answers.
Speaker 5: No, but there needs to be a Netflix documentary about this,
Speaker 5: because I would be so fascinated to go and find
Speaker 5: the button man. I'm not personally, I'm not going to
Speaker 5: do it. I'm not going to do it myself. But Georgia, absolutely,
Speaker 5: I'm going to send.
Speaker 4: You out there.
Speaker 1: Not a chance.
Speaker 4: I'm going to give you a go pro can.
Speaker 2: Being in the high country after hearing any of these
Speaker 2: stories alone, knowing there's a creepy button man out there
Speaker 2: taking photos legend creepy peering in my can, that is creepy.
Speaker 3: Some people think he's creepy and dangerous, and some people
Speaker 3: think he's creepy and harmless.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I reckon he's done something and that's why he's
Speaker 2: gone into the bush, and he's done other things while
Speaker 2: in the bush.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, yes, yes, that's why I told you the story.
Speaker 3: Because there's a whole lot of interesting. Honest. Yes, it's really.
Speaker 2: Really really mean of you, because now I will be
Speaker 2: able to stop.
Speaker 1: Thinking about the apologized apologize.
Speaker 4: Please sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Disneyland, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: I've told you another story that's not a murder. I
Speaker 3: promise next time it will be a murder. It'll be
Speaker 3: a really promise, I promise, I promise, I promise it
Speaker 3: will be really gnarly, straight up murder.
Speaker 2: I do need to say, for people who are listening
Speaker 2: and not WATCHINGT just gave me a very very very
Speaker 2: sincere look quick.
Speaker 3: Yelling at you. If I ever get invited back.
Speaker 1: It is an if. Oh I judged, there's more there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm also interested in one. Those other disappearances
Speaker 2: pre March twenty twenty were not his high profile because
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously Russell Hill and Carol Clay high profile
Speaker 2: now because someone was charged over it and that was
Speaker 2: even and the bodies.
Speaker 1: No, but there weren't. There's no no, no, no no no.
Speaker 2: But it was high profile before they were found and
Speaker 2: they weren't found for nearly two years.
Speaker 1: So why was that one.
Speaker 2: At the time when it was just just in inverted
Speaker 2: commas to missing persons.
Speaker 1: Why was that really high profile that the others weren't.
Speaker 3: David Pidat was pretty high profile when he were missing.
Speaker 3: That the governor of Barwin, that was pretty high profile.
Speaker 2: And maybe this is more the Russell hilln Carol Clay
Speaker 2: is more remembered because there was some kind of outcome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. But what people don't know is about
Speaker 3: the police's reliance on that. So there was a rumor
Speaker 3: and I wasn't going to say anything officially about it
Speaker 3: in the story, but there is a rumor that they've
Speaker 3: been to see Buttons for a third time to ask
Speaker 3: him to assist in the disappearance of Desi Freeman. Surely
Speaker 3: that of course, but that's unconfirmed.
Speaker 4: But they would have to.
Speaker 3: Because he knows the bush so well and because he's
Speaker 3: such a good tracker.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm fascinated by Buttons. I think that there's got
Speaker 5: to be something more to him, and also to just
Speaker 5: be out there watching and having such a good idea
Speaker 5: of the bush.
Speaker 1: I hate it. Okay, I hate it so much.
Speaker 5: You've already said sorry, he's already said, so what can
Speaker 5: he do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I'm sixty four.
Speaker 4: Birds were going to say dollars.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, thank you, three sixty four dollars exactly,
Speaker 5: three to sixty four dollars just one day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I do appreciate it.
Speaker 1: It's an expensive time of it.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, thank you Scott for bringing us the
Speaker 5: button man today.
Speaker 4: We're not going to sleep tonight.
Speaker 2: No, don't bring us the button man. The story of
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm not going to sleep with him.
Speaker 4: Don't bring us the buttons.
Speaker 3: Not, it's not, it's not. He only goes into tense too.
Speaker 1: Well, my house is pretty intense.
Speaker 4: WHOA we did.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this song from Jilli Jol