The Murder of Allison Baden-Clay

by David Murray

  ‘How would you describe your general relationship at the moment?’

  ‘It’s been very good,’ he said, but conceded that Allison had become suspicious of other women as a consequence of the affair.

  Jackson reassured Gerard that the questions were routine: ‘When someone goes missing, we’ve just got to check that everything is kosher. That’s all.’

  Curtis added, ‘The reason why we’re obviously questioning you in this depth, [is that] there doesn’t seem to be a reason why she would have done this, this morning.’

  ‘No. And that’s what is bothering me. And that’s why I called you,’ said Gerard.

  Keen to justify why he contacted the police so early, he said his wife was usually gone no longer than 20 to 40 minutes. ‘But this morning is concerning me. And why I called you was because she had this seminar she was going to today with Kate and she’s been excited about it … I knew she’d wanted to leave here at about seven.’

  The couple had discussed their plans the previous night, he continued. His sister, Olivia, was down from Townsville with her three children and everyone was due to come over to the Brookfield Road home on Friday night for a sleepover.

  ‘It’s completely out of character, although there have been occasions when she’s pissed off with me, where she hasn’t responded to a text message or a phone call.’ Gerard had sent two text messages to Allison and tried to call her, he explained.

  Next, Curtis tried phoning Allison’s number and left a voice message asking her to call Indooroopilly station.

  There was something else, Gerard added. As a result of his infidelity and his wife’s subsequent mistrust, the couple had put the Find My Friends tracking application on their iPhones. ‘I didn’t mention this to you before but, ah yeah, we, we have an, ah, ah, application on our phones, which really she sort of insisted upon, where you can look up and see where the other person is, based on GPS. So she can check up on me.’

  Both officers instantly asked to use the application.

  Gerard said he already tried but Allison’s location had not come up. Location services on the phone would need to be turned on for the application to work: ‘If you turn that off or, or whatever, you can hide from people who are following you or whatever.’

  Senior Sergeant Curtis wanted to know more about how Allison learnt of Gerard’s affair.

  Gerard said he believed she found out from a friend at school after his former business partners blabbed. ‘Allison wasn’t working in the business at all. But she is now.’

  ‘Okay. All right. That’s where the trust issue is? So she’s now decided to work in the business?’ asked Curtis.

  Gerard said there was a financial incentive for Allison to work in the business too: ‘Things are pretty tight.’

  ‘So there are personal issues and financial issues for you?’

  Perhaps sensing where things were heading, Gerard tried to play down his marriage problems: ‘We have a, generally, a pretty positive outlook on these sort of things.’

  Curtis gave him another chance to come clean about any argument they might have had: ‘Sometimes pressures make people act in different ways. Now, I’m only speaking, you know, from fairly extensive experience in this job. And people do act out of character. Now, you didn’t get into a fight last night with her?’

  ‘We’ve had some challenges, as I say.’

  ‘So you’ve had some, some blues over this?’

  ‘Yes. And, you know, there’s this counsellor – One of the strategies that she recommended for us to work through things, and help with the building of trust and reconciliation and stuff was that we have a 15-minute session every day, each evening. That it be limited to 15 so it didn’t drag on and, and that sort of thing. We had one you know, last night. There were some difficult things we talked about but, but it wasn’t – we then finished. And then we, you know, talked about what was planned, what were the plans for today, you know, the kids’ sleepover and that stuff.’

  So, according to Gerard, there was a difficult discussion of 15 minutes the previous night as a result of his affair, then they had returned to more mundane, practical topics and he’d gone to bed.

  Noticing a red mark on the inside of Gerard’s hand, Jackson asked what had caused the injury.

  ‘Um, helping my friend renovate his house.’

  His school friend Robert Cheesman’s house was due to be launched on to the property market that day. Gerard had repainted and recarpeted and was using a ratchet screwdriver to replace a bathroom light fitting the day before, on Thursday, when he cut himself, he said. His colleague, Jody, was with him when the accident happened but he hadn’t mentioned anything to her at the time because they were rushing to finish the job so he could get back to a 3.45 pm parent–teacher interview at school.

  The officers had seen and heard enough. Jackson told Gerard he didn’t want to alarm him but he was probably going to have to call out the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB): ‘We probably just need to ramp it up; just to try and locate your wife as quickly as possible.’

  Gerard, confused, asked what the officer meant when he said he didn’t want to alarm him.

  Jackson reassured him he only meant that there would be more police coming out.

  Curtis added that the officers from the CIB would have a chat with him because the situation just wasn’t what they normally expected in a missing persons case.

  ‘At the end of the day,’ said Jackson, reassuring Gerard once more, ‘your wife might walk in in five minutes’ time, and we stand everyone down. But in the meantime, we’re better off dotting the Is, crossing the Ts, and getting the cars out there, having a look for her.’

  ‘That’s fine,’ Gerard said. ‘Like I said to the guys before, I’m happy to answer all the questions in the world, and that sort of thing, if it’s going to help. But I want to jump back in my car and, you know, drive the streets or something. I’m, feeling like, “What are we doing?”’

  Curtis went to the front porch and phoned the Indooroopilly CIB. Three detectives were soon on their way to the house. Outside, an officer noticed Gerard’s father Nigel putting a vacuum cleaner in his car and stopped him.

  Jackson spoke into his police radio: ‘I’m just currently at this missing persons job at Brookfield. Could you just organise for all available Indooroopilly units to proceed out to this direction? We need to start our search for this person.’

  Criminal Investigation Branch

  Friday 20 April 2012

  10 am

  Detective Senior Constable Cameron McLeod, Plain Clothes Constable Cameron Simmons and Plain Clothes Constable Kellie Thomson added to the growing crowd of police at the house in Brookfield Road. Fewer than three hours had passed since Gerard made his emergency call. The three officers from the Indooroopilly CIB arrived at the house together at the request of Senior Sergeant Curtis. Generally, this was not how a missing persons case played out. If detectives got involved in every case where someone went missing, they’d never do anything else.

  Sergeant Andrew Jackson walked the latest police arrivals up the front steps and introduced them to Gerard. Before leaving, Jackson passed his digital recorder to McLeod, a quietly spoken, diligent detective.

  Gerard invited the officers to sit down at the dining table, where credit cards and paperwork were spread around a vase containing some ageing carnations. By now, it was becoming obvious police weren’t simply going to take a standard missing persons report and clear out. Gerard was starting to struggle.

  ‘Um, she was still up watching The Footy Show. Um, I wasn’t feeling great so I, I just went to bed. Um, sorry I feel like I’m repeating everything for the third time. Um, oh my brain is just, ah I just, maybe you should just ask me questions.’

  Gerard repeated some of the events of the morning, but he could feel the detectives staring at the raw, red wounds on his face.

  ‘Um, I should clarify, yeah, I cut myself shaving this morning and everybody has said that looks suspic
ious.’

  ‘Mmm, it does,’ replied Constable Simmons, not mincing his words.

  ‘And that’s part of the reason I think that you’re here,’ continued Gerard.

  Gerard went through mostly the same questions, and gave mostly the same answers. He repeated that before he had gone to bed, he and Allison had a 15-minute talk, as recommended by a counsellor: ‘It’s never much fun for me, to be honest.’

  Gerard’s energy was dropping. ‘Sorry, I’m just exhausted now,’ he said.

  The detectives wanted to know what he’d discussed with Allison in their 15-minute debrief.

  Gerard said Allison had a list of questions, but he didn’t go into any detail.

  As they spoke, the detectives were coming and going.

  Constable Simmons interrupted to say there had been a breakthrough: ‘Allison’s phone’s been triangulated.’

  The phone was just out the back of the house somewhere, he said, and a search party was being formed.

  The odd thing was, Gerard barely reacted. If he believed that his wife was about to walk back through the door with her phone in hand, or be found out the back somewhere, he seemed neither elated nor concerned. Others in his shoes may have leapt from the chair and rushed out to look. Gerard simply said, ‘Okay’.

  The detectives wanted to know if there would be any reason for Allison to be in any of the properties behind the house, and Gerard said no, it was residential. He added that a neighbour had previously complained when some free-range chickens the Baden-Clays had were eating her garden beds, and they weren’t close.

  Constable Simmons, looking at the scratches on Gerard’s cheek, pointedly asked if Allison was left- or right-handed.

  ‘Right-handed,’ Gerard replied.

  ‘I’m going to ask directly about the, the shaving. You’ve been to that many domestics. Ah, it doesn’t look like a shaving cut. And having cut my face myself …’

  Gerard said circumstances had been dire – presumably he was talking about his finances – and he hadn’t bought new razors for about six months.

  ‘Ordinarily in the morning I take a long time to shave, be as careful as I possibly can. And this morning I was rushing and I, um, you shave, you know, you shave. I shave down, I shave back, I’d go sideways as well, to try and make it as smooth as possible. I was rushing.’

  Constable Simmons asked if he’d have any objection to the marks being photographed: ‘Not that I’m, ah, alleging anything. But, um, if, you know, if that’s your story, we’d like to um photo graph them. Hopefully, Allison turns up, walks straight in the house, we can walk away.’

  Legal advice

  Friday 20 April 2012

  As Detective Acting Inspector Mal Gundry drove to Brookfield, the plain-speaking cop had time to wonder what sort of home he would arrive to. It would have been easy to envisage a long driveway leading to a glass-and-steel mansion on a hilltop somewhere, with a lap pool next to a grass tennis court in the backyard. If he had known the illustrious history of Gerard Baden-Clay, and his position as principal of his own real estate agency, expectations would have been all the higher.

  Gundry was officer in charge of the Indooroopilly CIB but was filling in as inspector for the Brisbane West police district, operating out of an administrative office on Station Road. When word filtered back of a situation developing with a missing woman at Brookfield, Gundry drove out to see for himself. With him was Detective Sergeant Chris Canniffe, who was relieving him as Indooroopilly CIB officer in charge.

  When they pulled into the driveway, any thoughts of getting a glimpse into the lives of the rich and famous quickly evaporated. Gerard and Allison’s home was as modest as they come, in Brookfield at least.

  As soon as Gundry saw Gerard’s face, he realised why everyone who arrived at the house that morning was concerned for Allison. The old-school detective couldn’t accept the injuries on Gerard’s cheek could have been from shaving.

  Police needed to get a formal, signed statement from Gerard about Allison’s disappearance. They also wanted to photograph and document his injuries. He was asked to go to Indooroopilly Police Station to do both, and agreed. Plain Clothes Constable Cameron Simmons drove him there.

  Gundry soon fielded a call from Simmons, who said Gerard had allowed Scenes of Crime officer Sergeant Julian Dash to photograph him but had spoken to a lawyer and would not provide the statement. Gerard’s unfettered cooperation with police was over.

  Gundry was waiting when Gerard returned to his Brookfield Road house after 1 pm and went straight to the passenger side door where Gerard was seated.

  ‘What are you doing?’ the senior detective demanded. Gerard was within his rights to decline to give a statement, but in doing so was hoisting a giant red flag as far as Gundry was concerned.

  Gerard said he was following the instructions of his lawyer, Gold Coast solicitor Darren Mahony.

  ‘I want to talk to him,’ said the detective.

  Soon, Gundry and Mahony were in a row on the phone.

  ‘Mate, what’s going on here?’ Gundry asked.

  Mahony said he had instructed his client not to provide a statement. The lawyer told Gundry he had represented hundreds of people.

  ‘And I’ve arrested hundreds of blokes,’ said Gundry. He thought it was poor advice and told Mahony so.

  Silence is generally the golden rule of defence lawyers, but it was up to Gerard whether he chose to follow any legal advice. By not doing whatever police asked of him, they would find it more difficult to rule him out as a suspect and move on.

  Mahony was born in Toowoomba, where Gerard grew up after his family emigrated from Rhodesia. Though the two men had gone to different schools, they were the same age and had mutual friends.

  On that first morning, Mahony asked Gundry what the next step would be for police. Gundry answered that it was none of his business.

  Gerard looked remarkably cool amid the dramatic events around him. Gundry thought the real estate agent must be a good poker player.

  Detective Sergeant Canniffe, a down-to-earth officer, smoothed things over with Gerard after the confrontation with Gundry. Later in the day, Gerard approached Canniffe and thanked him for his kind and calm manner.

  Having been around the block a few times, Canniffe knew people reacted differently when they were under pressure. Some would keep asking police to repeat questions, to buy time to process the answers before responding. Canniffe would vividly remember Gerard’s measured and deliberate speech. Gerard was thinking through his answers.

  The detective gently tried to coax Gerard into making a formal statement: ‘Mate, we’re just trying to find your wife. We really need that statement.’

  Gerard was apologetic. He was doing everything he could to help. But he wouldn’t be providing the statement: ‘Chris, I must take the advice I have been given.’

  As they talked, Gerard’s fingers kept shooting to his face to rub his injuries. Canniffe told Gerard the marks were one reason police were taking such an interest in the case, and asked why he kept touching them. Gerard said it was because the injuries were incredibly itchy.

  With police starting to swarm the suburb to search for Allison, Gerard was thinking through the practicalities of finding himself under arrest.

  ‘Chris, if I’m going to be arrested, I would like my sister, Olivia, to have custody of the children,’ he said.

  No one was talking about an arrest – police didn’t even know if a crime had been committed – but it was playing on Gerard’s mind.

  Operation Kilo Intrigue

  Friday 20 April 2012

  Police had a decision to make. They could seal up Gerard’s house as a crime scene and launch a major investigation or adopt more of a wait-and-see approach and give the missing mum time to turn up. There were competing factors. Allison’s disappearance was suspicious, but to what extent? Gerard had lawyered up and was refusing to provide a formal statement, yet had spoken to police several times that morning. His shaving story
didn’t ring true, but perhaps his wife had run off after an argument and he was embarrassed.

  Checking for any criminal history, detectives found Gerard was a cleanskin. No arrests. No complaints to police of domestic violence. The worst trouble Gerard had been in was for driving more than 30 kilometres an hour over the speed limit when he was a 17-year-old. He had a more recent traffic infringement for disobeying a ‘no left turn’ sign and a few others for speeding.

  Mal Gundry went up the chain of command to Detective Acting Superintendent Bob Hytch, who was relieving as the Regional Crime Coordinator while the officer usually in the role, Detective Superintendent Mark Ainsworth, was on leave for a couple of weeks. Hytch was hours away from going on leave himself; Ainsworth was due back on deck the next day. Gundry and Hytch agreed it was time to establish a Major Incident Room (MIR) and bring in the Homicide Investigation Unit.

  With that crucial decision made, Gundry took charge of the MIR, and set it up in the offices of the Indooroopilly CIB on the afternoon of Friday 20 April 2012. It would run separate to, but alongside, the search operation. The investigation into Allison’s disappearance was assigned a randomly generated but fitting name, Operation Kilo Intrigue. Brisbane’s leafy western suburbs weren’t exactly a hotbed of violence, and it had been eight years since Indooroopilly CIB had a murder to investigate: the victim was 83-year-old grandmother Joan Pitt, who was strangled in her St Lucia apartment. The crime remained unsolved.

  A formal process comes into effect as soon as an MIR is established. Officers are assigned roles; for instance, in charge of forensic evidence, intelligence, exhibits or door knocking. A ‘reader’ is responsible for carefully analysing every witness statement, in order to keep an overall picture of all the information coming in during the investigation. Detectives who obtain the bulk of the statements and run down leads, such as tips through Crime Stoppers, are known as ‘trackers’. Sometimes officers have specialist backgrounds or interests and take responsibility for areas such as medical records or finances. An arrest team is appointed early on to make the arrest and lay charges, should that eventuate. Senior officers handle the media.