Speaker 1: Welcome to Not Another Crime Podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm Georgia Love, I'm Temmy Peterson, and the I'm a journalist,
Speaker 2: I am not and you are.
Speaker 3: Scott Williams, the official of Visual third host.
Speaker 4: Of the podcast, host of the.
Speaker 1: Everyone's Favorite is Back. 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 3: That's the return of the judgmental reading glasses, the return
Speaker 3: of the 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 5: We love Claude so much. She gave us some beautiful stickers.
Speaker 5: And that's Digs in the background. They're having a little drink.
Speaker 4: 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 and it was really hot out and
Speaker 5: I had the water ball inside for the first time
Speaker 5: in a very long time and was like, it's just
Speaker 5: nice to have the water ball inside. And then.
Speaker 4: And then he started drinking. During the podcasts, the loudest
Speaker 4: thing in the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really good. Actually, we've been moving house. We've had
Speaker 3: a lot of it been a very exciting time. Just
Speaker 3: about to go on Christmas.
Speaker 4: Break from moving is an exciting time.
Speaker 3: But that can be it's hard work, right, yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 3: But we all pitched in and we got it done
Speaker 3: and we'll get settled in the new house and that's
Speaker 3: gonna 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.
Speaker 4: That's the other people where you're like, but you know,
Speaker 4: one of them is gonna be great. And I don't know.
Speaker 4: 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. Very careful, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, actually for anyone, it was a very strange.
Speaker 3: Look at my arm.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: Imagine how I message you when I was moving and
Speaker 5: just go just come around for a podcast.
Speaker 4: Everything boxes a few boxes when you're all out on deck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, Oh no, I hate moving.
Speaker 2: Although I unpacking, I don't mind because I like kind
Speaker 2: of setting up a new.
Speaker 1: Place, but you've got a pack to then be able
Speaker 1: 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 me out. Oh yeah, I'm a person that
Speaker 3: can't leave work at the end of the day with
Speaker 3: emails reading.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I look 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. Yeah, and unread emails as well. I
Speaker 5: just want to go and help them with it.
Speaker 4: Let me clear it out, clear it out service.
Speaker 1: Maybe that could be like a air tasker service. Come
Speaker 1: clear out my box.
Speaker 4: Just me.
Speaker 5: I'd just come around. Yeah, just let me know if
Speaker 5: you want to come. Yeah, give me a glass of wine.
Speaker 4: I'll be there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to pay through the app with jam Give.
Speaker 3: Me three glasses of one. I'll start replying.
Speaker 5: Truck and replies to people we'd never even met.
Speaker 1: Quit for you, I'll abuse your boss whatever you want.
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it so I believe. I
Speaker 3: believe because I believe through listener that you guys are
Speaker 3: working through the holidays. We are, so I brought your
Speaker 3: story today, but I thought, just for fun, i'd give
Speaker 3: you some Christmas facts before. Chris, the story doesn't have
Speaker 3: anything to do with Christmas, but I thought it's some
Speaker 3: fun Christmas facts before it is.
Speaker 1: With the Christmas facts.
Speaker 3: All right, here's the first one. Did you know that
Speaker 3: the reindeer in the song off the Red Nose Reindeer
Speaker 3: are all pairs that compliment each other in some way?
Speaker 3: So don't explain that I can. Donna and Blitzen can
Speaker 3: you expand? Please exp working, Please explain. Donna and Blitzen
Speaker 3: are Old English names for lightning and thunder. Dancer and
Speaker 3: prance are both words that refer to dancing with joy
Speaker 3: or abandoned.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one I can.
Speaker 3: Dasher is an Old English name for comet. It's really
Speaker 3: and comment. Oh, and Cupid and Vixen represent the naughty
Speaker 3: and nice sides of love.
Speaker 5: Oh, Mark, really, when you started, I thought you were
Speaker 5: talking about the fruit pear.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 5: They relate to a type of some sort of apple
Speaker 5: with some sort of pair.
Speaker 3: I've got there.
Speaker 4: And also, can I do share a fact. It's always
Speaker 4: on the twenty fifth of December. What is Christmas?
Speaker 1: Yes, it is. No matter where the moon is, no
Speaker 1: matter where the moon No, Wow, I am learning a
Speaker 1: lot happen.
Speaker 5: The name of your autobography no matter with George Love
Speaker 5: somewhere between the Moon.
Speaker 4: That I love A really vague title. It never comes
Speaker 4: back George.
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.
Speaker 1: There was a feature piece on Ronda Birch Moore. Her
Speaker 1: memoir is called Legs eleven.
Speaker 3: That's amazing, beautiful.
Speaker 5: Nd Birch more amazing, like in Australia, like the person
Speaker 5: in every musical, every carols, in the domain every She's
Speaker 5: just such a She's been around for ages.
Speaker 4: But I would not She's always kind of looked the same.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, always. Look, there's a term that we're use
Speaker 3: in my family that would be her, which is she's
Speaker 3: world famous in Australia.
Speaker 4: Yes, Rob Mills, John Farnham.
Speaker 3: So do you know that if you add up at
Speaker 3: the gifts in the twelve Days of Christmas, it's three
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty four gifts, one for each day of
Speaker 3: the year, that are all presented on Christmas Day.
Speaker 4: Really, my God for the pears we're getting.
Speaker 3: And then finally, did you know that, in fact, all
Speaker 3: the gifts in the twelve days of Christmas are birds,
Speaker 3: all of them. Would you like me to show my
Speaker 3: working out play partridge in a pear tree? Two turtle doves,
Speaker 3: three French hens, four calling birds. By now you're the
Speaker 3: girl getting the president, so you're thinking that's a.
Speaker 4: Lot of a lot of.
Speaker 3: Five gold rings refers to ring necked pheasants.
Speaker 2: That was the only good president of all of them.
Speaker 2: 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
Speaker 3: what they what they what? I'm telling you cattle egrets
Speaker 3: which are called that by locals because they follow the
Speaker 3: cattle around and sit on their backs and they all
Speaker 3: steal milk from their ards. It's milking, ye, nine ladies.
Speaker 3: Dancing refers to a bird called lapwings. There's are all
Speaker 3: ings a bird called lapwings, which are common called dancing
Speaker 3: lap wings or dancing ladies because of the elaborate aerial
Speaker 3: displays they used to communicate lap dancing. Nine ladies dancing
Speaker 3: is lap dancing? It's probably not where dancing comes from.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't the more obvious the lady dances on your
Speaker 3: lap would be sorry, sorry, mate, I apologize working. 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. Come on, ten lords are leaping.
Speaker 3: Eleven pipers piping plovers a beautiful gift for everyone due
Speaker 3: to the call that they so out they make, which
Speaker 3: sounds like a pipe.
Speaker 1: Which now doesn't it sounds like a lady screaming?
Speaker 3: Well, anyone from Philip wouldn't know that it sounds like
Speaker 3: a pipe. I don't know if there's anyone here today.
Speaker 3: And twelve drummers twelve doms.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm thinking the plovers don't sound like people's are
Speaker 2: lady screaming?
Speaker 1: That's curlews. Curlews sound like la.
Speaker 3: And twelve drummers. Drumming refers to use who are named
Speaker 3: ground drummers because of the noise that is their mate
Speaker 3: in call Wow. So we go back to the last fact.
Speaker 3: It's three hundred and sixty four birds that the lady
Speaker 3: 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 them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but if you hate them, it's more fun. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, that 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 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So is Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds a Christmas movie?
Speaker 3: Could be?
Speaker 4: Yes, it's one of those.
Speaker 3: Kremlins.
Speaker 1: Fascinated.
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 eggnog glasses.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, brain, because Jesus, you've got two that
Speaker 5: you 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.
Speaker 3: And Else Okay, excellent, two of my top movies. So
Speaker 3: last time I was here, I ruined Disneyland. I'm not
Speaker 3: going to make any I'm not going to make any comments.
Speaker 1: Actually I've comments, and I throw them out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, fair enough to She's it's.
Speaker 1: A rom com, it's movie, it's fiction.
Speaker 3: It's fine, it's fine. Grow up, just grow up. 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 Kosiosko.
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 it is. The southern end borders towns
Speaker 3: like Mansfield, the skifields of Mount Buller and the majesty
Speaker 3: of Mount Stirling. Campsites dot the landscape with places with
Speaker 3: names that we know, like wild Dog Bend and One
Speaker 3: and Gatda. But as beautiful as the willness is, it
Speaker 3: is equally unforgiving. Every year hikers and day trippers find
Speaker 3: themselves in trouble, needing to be rescued. People go missing
Speaker 3: either because they want to like the alleged killer Desi Freeman,
Speaker 3: or through accident or misadventure. Occasionally people are even murdered.
Speaker 3: Campus reports, strange encounters, huge wild dogs, and even panthers.
Speaker 3: Panthers and one rumor is shared in huss whispers around
Speaker 3: campfires more than all the others. Today, we're going to
Speaker 3: look at four mysterious cases from the Victorian High Country,
Speaker 3: specifically in the area in and around One and Gata,
Speaker 3: and we're going to delve into the true story of
Speaker 3: the button Man.
Speaker 4: The button Man, The button Man, the button Man. Now
Speaker 4: you did that. I didn't look into this because you
Speaker 4: did message me to say do you know about the
Speaker 4: button Man?
Speaker 3: It doesn't sound threatening, but wow, the button man.
Speaker 4: Do you want to say what you were thinking of
Speaker 4: when well, when you said one again.
Speaker 3: Are you thinking? Girl? And Carol clay Les, we'll get
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 2: And that's why I gasped, because I was like, we
Speaker 2: have to be careful because it's now been his conviction
Speaker 2: has 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, ere kidners and many different types
Speaker 3: of Australian parrots.
Speaker 1: You're a little bit obsessed with birds today.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to put that out birds than forgift.
Speaker 3: The photographer had a successful trip, enjoyed spending his time
Speaker 3: alone in the bush, and on his return home he
Speaker 3: started downloading images from his camera.
Speaker 4: Good for him.
Speaker 3: In the middle of a download was an image which
Speaker 3: made his blood wrung.
Speaker 4: Hold the 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 pick
Speaker 3: showed him sleeping peacefully, what pucked into his sleeping bag
Speaker 3: and completely unaware of the presence of another person.
Speaker 4: Oh 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.
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Whoever took the photo had silently entered the tin, 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 could help solve this mystery.
Speaker 4: And you know what, Reddit are always fun, the best
Speaker 4: 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 yowii
Speaker 4: that took the photo.
Speaker 3: That is helpful, That is super helpful. It might have
Speaker 3: been a panther.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, someone had to have constructed the yowi first. Ye,
Speaker 4: beautiful photo.
Speaker 3: So there was one reply with really struck out. You
Speaker 3: met the button man. Consider self lucky he was in
Speaker 3: playful mood.
Speaker 5: What 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 I 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 4: I'm scared the button Man's just lurking in the background
Speaker 4: while you're talking about all this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't like the button We each live on our.
Speaker 3: Own and a long way from here, the one and
Speaker 3: Gate of Valley is a long way.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 1: The button Man travel to ask a lot of birds.
Speaker 5: In this.
Speaker 3: Warren Meyer disappeared on Easter Sunday two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3: He was a fifty seven year old experienced hunter and bushman.
Speaker 3: He set off from dom Dom Saddle intending to go
Speaker 3: on a four hour bushwalk.
Speaker 1: Dom Dom Saddle's a great place.
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. Niece
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: Meier's body has never been found. Wow In twenty eleven,
Speaker 3: David Prudeaux missing on June the fifth. David was the
Speaker 3: governor of bow And Prison, a high security prison in
Speaker 3: Lara and 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 write a letter.
Speaker 3: Exactly, dear dear, you're dying. Oh no, oh, dear dear.
Speaker 3: In fact, I've proably got no idea where this guy is.
Speaker 3: David's out into the high country had taken him through
Speaker 3: an area the locals called the Crossroads several major bush
Speaker 3: racks bush tracks meet at the cross roads. It's a
Speaker 3: high point in the wan and Gata Valley and there's
Speaker 3: a phone tower which many camp has taken advantage of
Speaker 3: to checking. The crossroads are also well known to be
Speaker 3: close to the area of the Button Man's camp and
Speaker 3: the area that he claims is his territory. 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 feelings now about the button Man.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think he's treating people with respect. He's
Speaker 1: taking photo of 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. He's made of buttons,
Speaker 3: rolls on in, He'll sit down at the fire on
Speaker 3: it and questioned the hunt has never really really revealing
Speaker 3: anything about himself, then, he will stand and silently disappeared
Speaker 3: back into them.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, terrifying.
Speaker 5: I hate this story now about that that image of
Speaker 5: Homer's him.
Speaker 3: But back to David 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 thought 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. Wow. Other
Speaker 3: theories were that David had surprised a pack of wild
Speaker 3: dogs and a bit attacked, or that he'd been killed
Speaker 3: by the high country panther.
Speaker 4: Diggs would never do that, You would never do that.
Speaker 3: For years, people have believed and sometimes provided alleged proof
Speaker 3: of a panther population in Vitoria's high country. The story
Speaker 3: goes that during World War Two, US soldiers kept big
Speaker 3: cats as mascots on ships and encampments around the world
Speaker 3: as mascots. That fact is actually true, there's many photographs
Speaker 3: of US soldiers with large cats as their mascots in
Speaker 3: the encampments. But the story continues that at the end
Speaker 3: of their deployment, rather than take the animals back to
Speaker 3: the US or have the mutinized, the soldiers release them
Speaker 3: into the Australian bush. Then over time they've bred with
Speaker 3: feral cats and produced a viable population. WHOA. The story
Speaker 3: is widely unlikely, and even if it was true, the
Speaker 3: melanistic gene which turns leopards and jaguar's black is regressive
Speaker 3: and non hereditary.
Speaker 1: Oh so they would have been bred out by now anyway.
Speaker 3: So if there were panthers or leopards in the bush,
Speaker 3: they would more likely be normally colored.
Speaker 4: I love I love the idea, though I want to
Speaker 4: say normally colored.
Speaker 3: What I wanted to say was they'd be notly spotted.
Speaker 3: But we're talking about animals that aren't easy to spot.
Speaker 1: I've even spotted is in like leopards.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to go for the joke spottish I
Speaker 3: spotted a leapard.
Speaker 5: No, but like the idea of someone seeing a panther
Speaker 5: or something, because there's still a lot of sightings, especially
Speaker 5: like South Gippsland air and everything I saw a photo.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I was 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 h.
Speaker 4: I would simply do that.
Speaker 3: If I was walking through the bush and I saw
Speaker 3: a panther, the first thing I would think is what
Speaker 3: is the opposite of yah? Yeah? Yeah, opposite to that.
Speaker 3: So as recently as two thousand and five there was
Speaker 3: a video posted to Instagram alleging to show a large
Speaker 3: black panther just outside of me. But anyway, back to
Speaker 3: our mysteries. In October twenty nineteen, Niles Becker, and experienced bushwalker,
Speaker 3: disappeared in the One and Gata Valley. He'd planned a
Speaker 3: five days solo track and was well prepared. He'd given
Speaker 3: his best friend maps of his exact route, and he'd
Speaker 3: agreed a start and return date. On October twenty sixth,
Speaker 3: Niles messaged his friend that he had completed the trip
Speaker 3: and he was heading back to his car and the
Speaker 3: hike back would take about six hours. Investigators know that
Speaker 3: the signal for this message bounced off the phone tower
Speaker 3: at the crossroads when Niles did not return. The alarm
Speaker 3: was raised very early. Search search teams included helicopters with
Speaker 3: thermal char cameras, kadaba dogs, and over seventy people on foot.
Speaker 3: The search stretched around eight hundred square miles, but police
Speaker 3: found no sign of Niles wow Unknown to the public
Speaker 3: at the time, the disappearance of Niles Becker was the
Speaker 3: first time police made contact with the Button manh 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 supplies or
Speaker 3: quietly sit 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 waden Ga Allley.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 1: Like Tarzan.
Speaker 4: It's exactly like Tarzan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's not a serial killer.
Speaker 4: No, No, that's the thing about the jungle 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. Then
Speaker 3: in March twenty twenty, I know this. Russell Hill and
Speaker 3: Carroll Clay disappeared. The couple, both in their seventies, were
Speaker 3: having a secret affair and they would slip away together
Speaker 3: on camping trips. Russell would often camp in the Waning
Speaker 3: Gada Valley and he knew the area very well. He
Speaker 3: was also part of a radio community and he would
Speaker 3: check in with them most evenings when he was away.
Speaker 3: He called and spoke with his friends around six pm
Speaker 3: on March the twentieth. The next day, camp has entered
Speaker 3: the site and found Russell and Carroll's campsite deliberately burned down,
Speaker 3: the couple nowhere to be found. In May twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: police made the decision to hike into the valley again,
Speaker 3: making their way through the crossroads and into the Buttonman's camp. Ah,
Speaker 3: the investigation was going nowhere. The media had heard whispers
Speaker 3: about the mysterious man who lived in the mountains, and
Speaker 3: police needed to know what he knew. Police knew it
Speaker 3: was likely that the Button Man had seen Russell and
Speaker 3: Carroll enter his territory. They knew a media storm was
Speaker 3: brewing around the case, and they knew this was exactly
Speaker 3: the kind of thing the Button Man had retreated from
Speaker 3: the world to avoid. Police wanted to speak with the hermit,
Speaker 3: find out what he knew, and warn him of the
Speaker 3: reporters who might seek him out.
Speaker 2: Not that there's anything wrong with reporters or hermits or
Speaker 2: hermits or buttons or buttons or butler buttons.
Speaker 3: The police would stay in a latter statement that it
Speaker 3: was an intriguing chat. They confirmed the button Man had
Speaker 3: seen Russell and Carroll drive into the valley, and they
Speaker 3: were at pains to state that the Button Man was
Speaker 3: not being considered as a suspect. They also stated repeatedly
Speaker 3: when questioned, that he had no 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 you will.
Speaker 3: How many bushwalkers campus and hunted? Had the button Man observed?
Speaker 3: And had he watched Russell and Carroll disappear just as
Speaker 3: he watched them arrive?
Speaker 4: Oh?
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: they silently disappear, or how quietly he moves through.
Speaker 1: The bush back into the bush like Homer.
Speaker 4: Always.
Speaker 2: And that actually, for our international listeners, this area we're
Speaker 2: talking about, the high Country, is exactly.
Speaker 4: What we would call the woods against 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. Wears so
Speaker 3: he's got stretched ears like earings. He puts them through
Speaker 3: his ears like hoops.
Speaker 1: Oh I thought he meant like to blockout sounds better
Speaker 1: ways to do that.
Speaker 3: That's regular hunters will often leave the button Man small
Speaker 3: gifts at their campsite when they go to bed, a
Speaker 3: few beers, a fishing lure or similar things outside their
Speaker 3: tent to make sure that they're welcomed into his area
Speaker 3: and left alone. The button Man is known to police,
Speaker 3: but his name has never been released. Oh but the
Speaker 3: police know his name. What has been leaked is that
Speaker 3: this man, now in his seventies, did not always live
Speaker 3: in a cave in the wan and Gader Valley.
Speaker 4: Wasn't born there, not like Tarzan.
Speaker 3: No, he walked out of a home that he owns
Speaker 3: him Reservoir, when he was approximately forty years old. Reservoirs
Speaker 3: a suburb of Melbourne's West and he also owns a
Speaker 3: property which borders Mount Sterling. Despite leaving off the greed,
Speaker 3: he has means he has a bank account. Mansfield residents
Speaker 3: sometimes see him at the bank or the pub, but
Speaker 3: they carefully protect his identity. Long time Mansfield resident Charlie
Speaker 3: Lovick was infant interview during the hill Clay disappearance and
Speaker 3: he was quoted as saying, sure, we're no buttons. He's harmless.
Speaker 3: He chooses to live away from society and we respect that.
Speaker 3: Why 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.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 3: Shortly after their meeting with the button Man, the Hill
Speaker 3: Clay case broke in an unexpected direction. A number plate
Speaker 3: recognition camera and a mobile phone tower led police to
Speaker 3: a Nissan patrol heading away from the Wan and Gta
Speaker 3: Valley around the time of disappearance. Incredibly, police were able
Speaker 3: to check their notes of the conversation with the button
Speaker 3: Man and confirm that he had seen the Nissen patrol
Speaker 3: coming into and leaving the area. Ah The owner of
Speaker 3: the car, Gregory Lynn, was eventually charged and convicted of
Speaker 3: our crime, which is still in the That's all we're
Speaker 3: going to say about it. Yeah, yes, But the interesting
Speaker 3: thing is is the button Man actually assisted the police
Speaker 3: in identifying That's insane, That's right, And that's where we're
Speaker 3: going to leave the one and get abaldi. What if
Speaker 3: this we're a Netfox documentary, it would end with a
Speaker 3: slow pan out, focusing on ferns and thick underbrush, before
Speaker 3: panning past majestic mountain ash and eucalyptus. Morning fog would
Speaker 3: be twisting through the trunks. We would break free from
Speaker 3: the tree line, and the camera would pan across the wilderness,
Speaker 3: pausing for a moment at the crossroads, an open area
Speaker 3: of ground where several tracks meet, and perhaps standing there
Speaker 3: would be an old herman, his face aged by the sun,
Speaker 3: leaning on a homemade spear with carved deer horn buttons
Speaker 3: dangling from his ears. He would glance up and then
Speaker 3: turn disappear into the bush like many other people have
Speaker 3: without a trace.
Speaker 4: Whoa my, what goddam? What do you think of the
Speaker 4: button Man's got?
Speaker 2: 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. Oh wow, got
Speaker 3: a 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
Speaker 3: often he's and the button Man's coming to their campsite,
Speaker 3: and he describes them almost exactly as what I said,
Speaker 3: just like this crazy stare. He looks at you as
Speaker 3: if he's looking into your soul. But he's all like
Speaker 3: he's harmless, But he has this sense of not being harmless.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he is.
Speaker 2: Why is he coming into people's camps and just like
Speaker 2: sitting down with them and talking and then disappearing into
Speaker 2: the bush just so.
Speaker 3: People know he's there. Nobody knows and he's lived in
Speaker 3: the bush for thirty years.
Speaker 4: Fascinated what he did before, and he has means as
Speaker 4: well as he owns properties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so did he take the photo of the man?
Speaker 3: We believe so well, that's not it's that's going to
Speaker 3: be some kind of crime.
Speaker 4: That's not coo.
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, reservoir and he owns a property in Mount Sterling.
Speaker 1: No, my journal, spider senses.
Speaker 3: Are God, do you think?
Speaker 4: And what do you think?
Speaker 1: Why would you then just go off into the bush
Speaker 1: and never speak to anyone again and know about all these.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 4: I'm not personally, I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to do it myse out, but Georgia,
Speaker 5: absolutely I'm going to send you out there.
Speaker 1: Not a chance.
Speaker 2: I want to give you a go never go can
Speaker 2: Being in the high country after hearing any of these stories,
Speaker 2: let alone knowing there's a creepy button man out there
Speaker 2: taking photos legend creepy peering in my can.
Speaker 3: That is creepy. Some people think he's creepy and dangerous,
Speaker 3: and some people think he's creepy and harmless.
Speaker 2: I reckon he's done something, and that's why he's gone
Speaker 2: into the bush, and he's done other things while.
Speaker 1: In the bush.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure, yes, Yes, that's why I told you
Speaker 3: the story because there's a whole lot of interesting Honest, this.
Speaker 2: Is really, really really mean of you, because you know
Speaker 2: now I will never be able to stop thinking about
Speaker 2: the apologize.
Speaker 1: 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 will be a murder.
Speaker 4: It'll be a really promised.
Speaker 3: I promise, I promise, I promise it will be really gnarly,
Speaker 3: straight up murder.
Speaker 2: I do need to say for people who are listening
Speaker 2: and not watching, just gave me a very very very
Speaker 2: sincere look.
Speaker 4: Sorry yelling at you.
Speaker 3: If I ever get invited back.
Speaker 1: It isn't if oh I chat that there's more there.
Speaker 2: And I'm also interested in why those other disappearances pre
Speaker 2: March twenty twenty were not as high profile because I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously Russell Hill and Carrol Clay high profile now because
Speaker 2: someone was charged over it and that was.
Speaker 3: But even out these bodies, no, but there weren't. No, no, no,
Speaker 3: no no no.
Speaker 2: But it was high profile before that were found and
Speaker 2: they weren't found for nearly two years. So why was
Speaker 2: that one at the time when it was just just
Speaker 2: in inverted commas to missing persons. Why was that really
Speaker 2: high profile but the others weren't.
Speaker 3: David Pidau was pretty high Profoule were missing, the governor
Speaker 3: of Barwin, that was pretty high profile.
Speaker 2: And maybe this is more the Russell Hill and Carol
Speaker 2: Clay 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: of course that's unconfirmed. They would have to because he
Speaker 3: knows the bush so well and because he's such a
Speaker 3: 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 4: He's already said, so what can he do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, and sixty four birds 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 to say.
Speaker 4: But I do appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It's an expensive time of it.
Speaker 5: It is, Oh my god, thank you Scott to bring
Speaker 5: us the button man today. We're not going to sleep tonight.
Speaker 1: No, don't bring us The Button Man, the story of
Speaker 1: Oh my God.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to.
Speaker 1: Slave within into my house.
Speaker 3: He only goes into tense too, Well, my house.
Speaker 1: Is pretty intense.
Speaker 2: WHOA we did.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this song from Jillie John
Speaker 4: Thank you, Oh my God,