by David Murray
Next stop was Brookfield. At the home of Allison and Gerard Baden-Clay, Guymer stared into the garden. There, swaying in the gentle breeze, was the same array of plants he had identified in his lab. He could see a Chinese elm and a small-leaved lilly pilly. Crepe myrtle trees were growing along the edge of the concrete apron at the front of the house, along the edge of the carport and along the paving edge at the back of the house. Fishbone ferns were growing under the crepe myrtles at the back of the house. And cat’s claw creeper was climbing vigorously over the crepe myrtles and carport.
That afternoon, Guymer conducted a more detailed examination of the home, with detectives watching on. In the rear patio area, he confirmed there were four crepe myrtle trees, which were bare after dumping their multi-coloured leaves in a thick layer through the back yard. Police collected about 100 leaves from the patio and bagged, sealed and labelled them. Separately, the botanist supervised the collection of five fallen fern pinnae from among the fallen leaves on the patio. Clumps of fishbone fern ran for 8 metres under the crepe myrtles, and several small cat’s claw creepers were entangled in the crepe myrtles. A Chinese elm was growing near the back patio.
In the carport area, Guymer identified five more leafless crepe myrtle trees and collected fallen leaves from the ground. Cat’s claw creepers grew along the carport floor and scaled support posts to the roof.
Back at the laboratory, Guymer confirmed the bagged material contained crepe myrtle leaves, two small fishbone fern pinnae, a cat’s claw creeper leaflet, a tipuana leaflet and three eucalypt leaves.
The following week, on Wednesday 18 July 2012, Guymer joined some of the core investigating team – Mark Ainsworth, Cameron McLeod, Mal Gundry, Gavin Pascoe and Ewen Taylor – at Indooroopilly station to brief them on his findings. The detectives digested the information and its ramifications. Allison’s hair had been washed and coloured at the hairdresser’s the night before she vanished. Somehow, her clean locks had become matted with leaves – seemingly from her own garden – around the time of her death.
Taylor picked Guymer up from the Herbarium again the next day and they drove to Gerard and Allison’s home. This time, Guymer oversaw the collection of cuttings from crepe myrtle trees around the back patio area and adjacent to the carport. The cuttings would be planted in the Herbarium’s greenhouse. Regardless of what happened to the trees at Brookfield Road, police would have access to the crepe myrtle cuttings at the Herbarium for future analysis.
Guymer, Taylor and detectives McLeod and Gundry returned to Kholo Creek Bridge for a more detailed search of the area. Walking along the eastern side of the creek bank, using binoculars to see across to the other side, the Herbarium boss identified and listed 37 separate plant species. In addition to the species he had located in his initial visit, he jotted down plants including dill, wild radish, stinging nettle, slender celery and hedge mustard. Critically, there was no crepe myrtle, cat’s claw creeper, fishbone fern or lilly pilly. Nor could he locate any of these four plants in a new and rigorous search of nearby Little Ugly Creek at Wirrabara Road. Guymer and Taylor went back to Brookfield. Driving along Brookfield Road towards Kenmore, the first crepe myrtle tree he spotted was 600 metres from Gerard and Allison’s home and there were others at two more properties further away – but none of the five other key plant species were found with them. It was a unique combination – the botanical fingerprint of the Brookfield Road residence.
In the weeks and months ahead, Guymer set about proving beyond doubt that Allison and Gerard’s home was the only location in the vicinity where all six species could be found growing together. Thanks to his thoroughness, police had powerful new evidence indicating Allison had been assaulted or killed on her own property, and her body dragged through the leaf litter.
Forensic coordinator Ewen Taylor was in awe of Guymer’s efforts and attention to detail. While some people simply did their jobs, others, like Guymer, went above and beyond what was asked of them. Police colleagues thought the same of Taylor, who had found a kindred spirit in Guymer.
Suicide theory
For more than a decade, Allison and her brother, Ashley Dickie, had owned a cute beach shack at Paradise Point on the Gold Coast. The investment property was right next door to their parents’ home. The siblings had bought it jointly with their respective spouses for $165,000 in 2001. They had been renting it out for $340 a week. It was registered, however, only in the name of Gerard and Allison’s company, World of Top Step Pty Ltd. Manoeuvring from behind bars at Arthur Gorrie, Gerard wrote to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission informing them his wife had died and he had become sole director and secretary of the company. He then put the Gold Coast property on the market. ‘Renovate, detonate or land bank for the future,’ read the marketing slogan. An auction was planned for 16 September 2012.
Allison’s family discovered the plan and was horrified. They wanted any money in their daughter’s estate to go to her children, not be swallowed up funding Gerard’s defence. They had to move fast if they wanted to stop Gerard spending the money. Lawyers for Geoff Dickie appeared in the Supreme Court on 5 September to argue his daughter’s assets should not be sold or the proceeds divided before Gerard’s trial. Dickie filed an affidavit saying he was ‘concerned that the advertising of the property for sale by auction indicates Gerard is taking steps to dispose of an asset in which Allison’s estate may have an interest’.
Justice Glenn Martin – with the consent of all the parties – gave Geoff Dickie interim control of Allison’s estate until a verdict was reached in Gerard’s trial. It was too late to prevent the sale of the Gold Coast property. A pre-auction offer of $440,000 had already been accepted. Most of the money would go to the bank – there was a $335,000 loan against the property. Justice Martin ordered any money left over from the sale be put in a trust account.
Gerard’s legal bills were mounting, and were about to rise again with another attempt at bail. His second and final bid for bail was held in the new $570 million Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law building on 14 December 2012. He would either be home for Christmas, or face at least another 18 months behind bars awaiting trial. In documents filed ahead of the hearing, he had promised to have no contact with Crown witnesses, but a note at the bottom of the paperwork specified that would not encompass his three daughters. He wanted to be back with the girls.
Once again, Gerard awaited the result from Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre. His sister and some of Allison’s family took seats in the packed public gallery ahead of the 2.30 pm hearing. Allison’s uncle Don Moore and cousin Jodie Dann had committed to attending every court hearing to relay information to her family. Justice Peter Applegarth would bring a new set of eyes to Gerard’s bid for bail.
Gerard’s defence team had been provided with the police brief of evidence, and his barrister Peter Davis SC came out with all guns blazing. He told the court there was a compelling alternative theory Allison was not murdered at all.
‘An examination of the Crown brief showed there is as good, if not better, case for suicide of Ms Baden-Clay as there is for murder,’ he said.
Davis said toxicology results showed there was a ‘real possibility that she died of an overdose’ of Zoloft. Notes in Allison’s journal fitted with the suicide theory, he added.
‘She’s speaking about not wanting to be alone, and being afraid of being alone,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Gerard’s affair – cited as a motive for murder – was equally consistent with a motive for Allison taking her own life. He added an empty Zoloft packet had been found in the couple’s Holden Captiva. Davis said the police had held evidence back from the previous bail hearing of a witness seeing a woman walking on Boscombe Road at Brookfield at 5.30 am on the day Allison went missing. Local resident Trent Cowie told police in a statement dated 22 April that the woman was wearing a purple or pink T-shirt and bike pants with dark-coloured shorts over the top. Cowie thought she might have been in some difficulty. Allison was found in
a purple singlet, sports shoes and sports pants. Since the previous bail hearing, Gerard had also provided an innocent explanation for looking up ‘taking the fifth’ and ‘self-incrimination’ on his iPhone, Davis said. Police had also admitted there was no FaceTime call between Gerard and his father Nigel on the night Allison went missing. Delving into Gerard’s finances, Davis said police had submitted at the previous bail hearing that he had debts in excess of $1 million. But they had not canvassed assets. A financial analysis by police showed that taking into account assets – including the value of the rent roll, the investment property on the Gold Coast, and shares – Gerard was only in a slight negative financial position of less than $60,000. Davis submitted that the Crown case had weakened, reducing the flight risk.
Prosecutor Danny Boyle argued Gerard had never indicated to police that Allison was suicidal, and the autopsy report did not support Davis’s claim she died from an overdose. Boyle also had the significant new botanical evidence from the Queensland Herbarium’s Dr Gordon Guymer, which he told the court was consistent with Allison’s death at the house and her body being moved to Kholo Creek. In more detailed written submissions, Boyle also outlined four forensics experts had found the marks on Gerard’s face were typical of fingernail scratches. And investigations by civil engineer Martin Giles had found water levels in Kholo Creek would not have moved Allison’s body to where it was found, suggesting she had been on the creek bank all along.
Justice Applegarth adjourned to consider his decision and the public gallery spilled out of court, abuzz with the new ‘suicide theory’. Applegarth returned to court in the late afternoon. His findings were that Allison had not made any threats to take her own life, and there was nothing in her journal to indicate she was contemplating suicide. While the autopsy had not established a cause of death, there was little evidence to support the suicide theory – the defence could put it no higher than a possibility. Applegarth placed little weight on the sighting of a woman walking at Brookfield. He added that Gerard believed he was in a desperate financial state.
Applegarth concluded the Crown case had not significantly changed. It was ‘reasonably strong’ and was ‘certainly not a weak one’. He refused to grant Gerard bail, slamming shut the prison gates until trial.
Committal
March 2013
Gerard quietly slipped into the dock and took a seat out of line of sight from the gallery, in the far back corner. It was day one of his committal hearing, but almost no one saw him enter. Only when solicitor Darren Mahony approached for instructions did Gerard pop his head forward. Wearing a dark suit and dark-rimmed glasses, observers noted that he was clean shaven – no longer sporting the beard he had grown after Allison vanished. The only other difference in his appearance was a bad prison barbershop haircut.
The six-day committal hearing before Chief Magistrate Brendan Butler SC was an opportunity for the defence to cross-examine witnesses and test the Crown case. At the end of the hearing, Butler would decide if there was enough evidence for Gerard to face trial.
Prosecutor Danny Boyle was back for the committal and told the court there would be 330 statements tendered and 42 witnesses called, starting with Allison’s best friend, Kerry-Anne Walker.
Signalling the suicide theory was still high on the defence agenda, Peter Davis SC was soon firing questions about Allison’s depression at Walker. Afterwards, Walker would dwell on the things she wished she had said to stop the defence inflating her friend’s mental battles. Allison had depression, yes, but had successfully sought treatment and was a capable, busy and devoted mother and wife. Walker resolved to be firmer when the case went to trial.
A defining moment emerged early in the committal. Queensland Health forensics expert Dr Leslie Griffiths was giving evidence about Gerard’s facial injuries, which he believed were from fingernails. As he spoke, a close-up colour photograph of Gerard’s wounded cheek appeared on screens in the court for the first time. A collective gasp from the packed public gallery reflected the impact of seeing the red marks trailing down his face.
Court 17 was the biggest in the Brisbane Magistrates Courts building in George Street. The 90 seats in the public gallery were full or close to full each day as a succession of headline-grabbing witnesses took their turn in the witness box. Dr Bruce Flegg told the court Gerard’s requests for large sums of money were ‘highly unusual’. Gerard’s former business partners told of their falling out. Phill Broom told how it was impossible to keep up with Gerard’s messy love life. Jocelyn Frost said she was ‘very naive and trusting’ and had been left out of pocket when she left the business.
One of Allison’s friends, Helen Wilson, noticed that during the breaks, Olivia Walton would step up to the glass screen of the dock, and brother and sister would have intense whispered conversations. As a witness, Walton wasn’t allowed in the court during evidence and would disappear before proceedings started. The serious, hushed chats seemed to be more about tactics than support, and Wilson felt her blood boiling. It seemed off, to her. Geoff and Priscilla had stayed away from the hearing because they were witnesses. The next time Walton approached the dock, Wilson went and stood next to her.
‘Can’t I just have a minute to tell my brother I love him?’ Walton said.
‘I don’t love you, Gerard, I hate you,’ blurted Wilson, surprising even herself with the outburst.
Olivia’s eyes opened wide, and a member of the defence team yelled to no one in particular, ‘Get that woman out of here.’ Right then, Magistrate Brendan Butler entered and Wilson shot back to her seat.
The confrontation had the desired effect, however. Security stopped Walton from approaching the dock after that.
The most anticipated witness was Toni McHugh. Protecting her from the media pack, police drove McHugh into an underground car park and escorted her up to court in a private lift. Looking nervous as she entered the witness box, she brushed her long, dark hair back from her face and took a deep breath. Dressed in a conservative black suit, McHugh detailed her three-year relationship with Gerard – the broken promises and stolen moments. She began crying when asked about her angry conversation with Gerard the day before Allison was reported missing. McHugh was shocked, she said, when Gerard had told her both she and Allison would be attending the same real estate conference the next day.
‘[I said] “I feel sick. How can you put us in this situation? I think you should tell Allison.”’
She told the court she had last seen Gerard a week before his arrest when the pair met to discuss his other extramarital affairs. The former lovers had not seen each other for nearly a year leading up to this court appearance, and McHugh couldn’t help shooting nervous glances at Gerard throughout her testimony.
Allison’s cousin Jodie Dann, watching in the public gallery, got the impression that McHugh was still in love with Gerard.
At the end of her evidence, police led McHugh out of court through the magistrate’s side door, allowing her to avoid the waiting photographers. The front page of the next day’s paper would have to make do with a sketch of Gerard’s ‘other woman’.
Police scientific officers gave evidence about the blood in the Captiva, and Queensland Health forensic scientist Amanda Reeves said it matched Allison’s DNA.
Gerard’s barrister, Peter Davis SC, is renowned as one of the legal community’s gentlemen outside court, but few people would want to face him from the witness box. Police investigative accountant Kelly Beckett was one witness who felt Davis’s selective wrath. He said bitingly, ‘You have spent, I suggest, a huge amount of time studying these accounts. And the only thing you can point to by way of default is his credit card is overdue.’
Some handled the defence barrister’s interrogation better than others. School teacher Christine Skrzeczynski had come forward to say she was the woman spotted walking on Boscombe Road at Brookfield on the morning Allison disappeared. A blonde, she would have closely resembled Allison in the dark. Davis sought to crack her story on da
y five of the committal, but Skrzeczynski was steadfast, saying she walked that route at that time on every work day, and provided evidence she went to work on 20 April. Davis could have been an errant young student. She left little doubt she was the mystery walker that morning.
Professor Myron Zalucki, an entomologist and insect ecologist, arrived at court looking suitably eccentric – wearing a broad-brimmed bush hat and twirling an umbrella. Zalucki had gone to the Brookfield State School oval with police to search for caterpillars – after Gerard claimed the injuries on his chest had been caused by a caterpillar during the school’s cross-country. Zalucki said he did not find any caterpillar nests in the acacia trees at the school oval, and could not find any evidence of stinging caterpillars in the Brookfield area. Davis asked if he thought Gerard could have been bitten.
‘Can we not use the term bite?’ replied Zalucki, who said there could be painful envenomation from some caterpillars if they deposited their hairs under a person’s skin – it was nothing to do with being bitten. Zalucki was non-committal on the subject of whether Gerard’s injuries could have been caused by a caterpillar, saying it was hard to judge.
Toxicologist Professor Olaf Drummer dealt a blow to the defence’s suicide theory on the sixth and final day of the committal hearing. Drummer told Davis the level of medication in Allison’s blood was relatively normal and was not enough to kill her.