by Belinda Neil
Later that day Keith Bond presented himself at Flemington police station. It was decided that Russell would interview Colin Bond with a detective from Flemington and Detective Sergeant Glen Jenkins, the newly appointed officer in charge of the investigation, would interview Keith Bond with me. I felt for Glen, who was trying to catch up on the wealth of information that was flowing in at that time. He asked me to conduct the interview as he felt that he was ‘behind the eight ball’.
I activated the video and tapes and started the two-hour interview with Keith. He said that at the time of the murder he had been with his current girlfriend, Debbie, whom he had met shortly after breaking up with Donna.
‘Can you tell me why you broke up?’ I asked.
‘It was just the arguments that we were having and that, ’cause I went up, I ended up going on assault charge on her and we just broke up …’
On the afternoon of Tuesday 2 November, Melbourne Cup Day, Keith said he and Debbie had been at the Regents Park Bowling Club. About 7pm or just after, Keith left and went to the Regents Park Hotel leaving Debbie to play bingo. Donna and Colin had been at the hotel when he arrived. They left and Colin returned, and Donna came back just before nine. (This was later found to be consistent with telephone calls to Donna’s phone but inconsistent with Colin’s story.) Keith then left and went back to the bowling club to meet Debbie. They stayed there together until about ten, then a friend gave them a lift to Keith’s home in Amy Street, where they went to bed.
‘Did you see Colin again that night?’
‘No I didn’t, I heard him come in later on that night.’
‘Can you tell me what time that was?’
‘Not offhand, no. But I heard the front door go. Then I was awakened about twenty past twelve with the washing machine going.’
‘Who was doing the washing?’
‘I think it was Colin.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, Pete was in bed, I walked past his door and he was in bed.’
‘How long had the washing machine been going?’
‘Probably only a few minutes, ’cause I looked at the clock and it woke Debbie as well.’ He added that he got up and turned the machine off, and he and his brother argued about it.
In a second interview some days later Keith said he had looked inside the washing machine and seen clothes as well as Colin’s sandshoes.
Colin Bond admitted he had been with Donna that evening. They took some Chinese takeaway to her house with two bottles of Toohey’s beer for him and a can of vodka and orange for her. They ate most of the meal but about 8.30pm Donna received a phone call and said she was going to Ashfield.
This timing was important. We were trying to ascertain whether Colin had been the last person to see Donna alive. We would need to confirm whether or not Donna had been telephoned, if so, at what time, and who the caller was. Colin said Donna dropped him home and that was the last time he saw her. He also said Keith and his girlfriend were at home in bed as he had heard them talking, confirming Keith’s alibi. Later that night for no apparent reason Colin had decided to wash his clothes. He told police he had felt sorry for Donna because of the way Keith had treated her during and after their relationship. He even said he had ‘belted’ Keith one night because of that.
During the interview Russell examined Colin’s hands, noting a cut on the knuckle of his right-hand fourth finger. He asked how it happened. Colin replied, ‘It happened when I was doing the gardening yesterday, I hit a steel spike, the garden hose reel thing.’
Police obtained a search warrant for the house and both Colin and Keith agreed to be present. The search took almost four hours and various exhibits were removed, including blood samples from the floor. At one stage Russell noticed that Colin was wearing a watch with a leather band, and asked to look at it. There was some discoloration on the band and small stains on the edge of the glass face and back. The scientific officer took the watch to swab it for any potential blood, and thought the stains were likely to be blood. This was good news, for if we got the watch tested at the laboratory and the blood came back as Donna’s we would have enough evidence for a charge of murder. Unfortunately we knew that getting results could take weeks.
A wallet belonging to Donna was found under the bed in Keith’s bedroom; Keith said we would find it there because she left it at his place five or six weeks earlier and he had hidden it under the bed out of spite. In respect to the blood samples on the floor, both brothers said they had cut their fingers – Colin the previous day, and Keith a week before.
Both Keith and Colin agreed to give blood samples so we took them to Auburn Hospital. While we were there I asked the doctor to examine Colin’s hands. His right hand was noticeably more swollen than the left and the doctor also pointed out a cut above the knuckle of the fourth finger which, in his opinion, was a couple of days old.
I asked Colin, ‘Are you left- or right-handed?’
He said, ‘Right.’
On a finger of that same hand Colin had a plain rectangular ring which we took for DNA testing.
It was 11.30pm when I got home after an operational briefing and paperwork. I had just finished a twenty-four-hour shift on about an hour’s sleep. I was shattered. I think I just fell into bed that night, knowing I had to start again at eight the next morning.
The next day Friday 5 November was busy. We had numerous avenues of inquiry, including finding witnesses to corroborate the movements of Donna Wheeler and Keith and Colin Bond. Dr Alan Cala, who I had met in connection with the De Gruchy murders, performed a postmortem on Donna’s body. He found that she had gross fracturing of facial bones with complete disarticulation and gross fragmentation of the cheekbone, two fractures of the lower jaw and a fracture of the hyoid bone. He believed that great or extreme force would have been necessary to inflict these injuries, and the attacker could have used his fists, feet or knees. He also found three stab wounds in the left chest, one of which had passed into the lung and two had penetrated ribs. There was a stab wound in the abdomen, but an absence of abdominal bleeding suggested that Donna had already been dead, or almost dead, when that wound was inflicted. Petechial haemorrhages (marks where small blood vessels had burst) on Donna’s eyelids suggested that her attacker had used his hands, fingers or elbow on her neck. Dr Cala found the cause of Donna’s death to be a combination of the severe head trauma and the stab wounds penetrating the left lung. There was no evidence of sexual intercourse, even though Donna had been found naked from the waist down.
A few days later Russell and I went to the morgue to see Dr Cala and view Donna’s body. I was shocked to see her face had taken on a purplish colour from the injuries and bruising. This was an image I later had no trouble remembering. Her face and how the damage had occurred would later come back to affect my life significantly. I recall Dr Cala saying there was a possibility that Donna could have died from her facial injuries alone. I had difficulty comprehending that a life could be taken so easily without a weapon but simply a fist to the face. And Colin had already done this to another person.
While I was looking at her body, I noticed two small parallel cuts on her left cheek. They were a very similar size and shape as to the ring Colin had been wearing that day. Unfortunately, they were not sufficiently similar to be used in evidence but it did highlight to us that Colin was looking more like the main suspect.
The alibis given by Colin and Keith Bond needed to be tested, and the information had to be precise. On the evening of Tuesday 2 November Donna and Colin had been at the Regents Park Bowling Club intending to have a meal. James, Donna’s former partner and the father of her son, told us he had telephoned Donna that evening and arranged to meet her at Ashfield at 8.30pm. Donna had then driven Colin to the Regents Park Hotel before going on to Ashfield. While she was with James, she had arranged to pick up her son the following afternoon.
After their meeting Donna drove back to the hotel and met Colin again, around 9pm. They bought a takeaway Chinese me
al at the hotel and drove to Donna’s house. No witness except Colin saw Donna alive after she left the hotel with the food. Her phone records showed that she had been telephoned at 8.33pm and 8.39pm, but calls after that had gone unanswered.
We could prove that Colin had lied in the initial interview with police, and that he was also the last person to see her alive. We knew that he had been washing his clothes very late at night on the evening of 2 November, and that he had an injury to his right hand consistent with punching someone. We also saw that there were no signs of any forced entry to Donna’s home. But still we did not have enough evidence to charge Colin with murder.
At last some positive results started coming in. A bloody fingerprint on the plastic bag next to Donna’s head belonged to Colin Bond, and the blood was Donna’s. Blood on a towel in the lounge room matched that of both Donna and Colin; this was consistent with him wiping his hands on the towel after hitting her. Donna’s blood was also found on the face of the watch that Colin had been wearing that night.
Colin was reinterviewed on 15 November. When he was asked about his movements from 9.30pm to 10.30pm he said, ‘Dunno, I have to, to get me, get me barrister in.’ He refused to answer any further questions and was then charged with the murder of Donna Wheeler.
In June 2001 Colin Bond was tried at the NSW Supreme Court. Keith Bond was subpoenaed to give evidence but refused to attend and could not be found. He obviously didn’t want to give evidence against his brother, and this gave the defence a loophole. Which brother had murdered Donna Wheeler? The defence counsel tried to get the jury to believe Keith might be responsible. Evidence about Colin’s previous conviction for manslaughter in very similar circumstances was not allowed to be admitted.
On 29 June Colin Bond was found guilty. The Crown prosecutor Barry Newport requested that the jury remain to hear Colin’s criminal history. It was interesting to watch the faces of the jury as they heard, in some detail, exactly what Colin had done to his previous victim in 1987.
Colin Bond was sentenced to thirty years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of twenty-five years. He died of a heart attack at Lithgow Correctional Centre a few years after his imprisonment.
After the investigation into the murder of Donna Wheeler, I noticed a marked difference in the way I perceived the world. I lost perspective about the huge significance of one human being taking the life of another, and started to view murder almost as a petty crime, like shoplifting. While I knew this was wrong and felt odd, my reaction was beyond my control. I found myself becoming more and more distanced from my emotions. I didn’t feel able to trust my peers with this fundamental change. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening to me and so just continued to work harder.
On my days off I tried to spend as much quality time with Jake as possible. I found that the more I experienced that love and closeness and the joy of just being with him, the more I would be possessed with negative thoughts: What if he were kidnapped? What if something awful happened to him? I couldn’t turn off images of Jake in the clutches of faceless kidnappers; Jake alone and crying, and me wanting to tell the kidnappers what to do for him, even what nappies to buy, so he would stop crying and wouldn’t annoy them. I kept having flashbacks of Andy’s body, bruised at the hands of his kidnappers (see Chapter 9). These turned to images of Jake being hit and screamed at. These were thoughts I would never tell anyone at work as I didn’t want to appear weak and was afraid they would think I was losing the plot. Maybe I was.
To try and stop thinking like this I started planning what I would do in case any of these things happened. I decided whom I would call, who would be in the police team I wanted to investigate my son’s kidnapping. At least while I lay in bed crying my eyes out at the prospect of all this I wasn’t seeing awful images in my head.
CHAPTER
16
New challenges
At last I was able to take up my new job, promoted out of Homicide to be the investigations manager in charge of detectives at Kogarah Local Area Command. The Kogarah Local Area Command (LAC) in the southern suburbs of Sydney runs from the international airport to the southern border of the Georges River. The eastern border is the Botany Bay foreshore, the western limit is the suburb of Kingsgrove. This LAC services the Rockdale and Kogarah councils and more than 144,000 people living in this area.
I was responsible for the overall management of all the LAC’s criminal investigations and for the supervision of all investigators. The staff consisted of eighteen officers with varying degrees of experience, including designated detectives and trainee investigators. We covered everything from fraud, drugs, sexual assault and robbery to murder. The job included being a senior advisor in all aspects of investigations, major and minor, and future resources planning. I was also required to take charge of any major criminal investigations. I retained my negotiator role but this promotion would involve less overtime, and my travel to and from work was considerably lessened as I was closer to home. It was also highly unlikely that I would have to travel interstate.
I also had fully sanctioned secondary employment as a consultant, approved by the NSW Police, to deliver training lectures to the staff of various companies and councils including child care, council rangers, call-centre workers and insurance company staff on various aspects of negotiation, including conflict resolution, dealing with difficult people and handling aggressive behaviour, negotiation and crisis management. This work was sporadic but I enjoyed it because I found it rewarding to see people gaining confidence in their ability to communicate. I also found delivering these lectures a kind of lifeline, reinforcing correct behaviour for me. For a time at least they helped me to cope with what I was going through.
In March 2000 I went on an in-service course dealing with critical incident investigation management. A critical incident involves death or injury resulting from the discharge of a police firearm, a police operation, a person in custody or police pursuit. The NSW Police has a mandatory set of protocols for these situations, all of which are independently investigated and overseen by the Professional Standards Command. I was especially keen to do this course, having been involved in only one Critical Incident Investigation Team (CIIT), in 1996 while I was working at the Homicide Unit (see Chapter 9).
During the day there were a variety of lectures, then after lunch we were to be given a practical exercise to test what we had learned. Just prior to lunch I was told there had been a shooting at Carlton, where a police officer had shot at a suspect who drove his car at him. I was to be the senior investigator required to set up the CIIT.
‘No problem,’ I said. ‘Will this exercise begin straight after lunch?’ Then I was told this was no exercise, but a real critical incident investigation. My office had been advised and I would see them at the scene.
I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t even finished the CIIT course and here I was about to be thrown in the deep end. Incredible! This was going to be a very challenging afternoon. At least I had been given a copy of the guidelines and my Kogarah team of detectives were very professional.
A group of police from another area had tried to arrest a man who was wanted for numerous firearm and robbery offences. One officer had fired at him as he drove at the officer in a stolen car. The man had managed to escape but it was not known whether he was injured. The crime scene was secured and we interviewed all police and witnesses involved, then we had to focus on finding the offender.
He was definitely doing his best to evade police. His mother denied seeing him or knowing where he was, as I had expected she would. I asked her to pass on a message to contact me at Kogarah if she heard from him. Some days later, while he was still on the run, he rang me. The police bullet had not injured him but he declined to hand himself in. I pointed out the dangers of him potentially hitting someone but he seemed to think he was a Formula One driver and he had obviously watched too many movies like Fast and Furious. Some weeks later he was finally arrested and I interviewed and charged him for
trying to run down a police officer. The subsequent police investigation found that the police officer had used his weapon responsibly in the circumstances.
I never did receive a certificate for completing the course.
My second callout came three months later. On 4 June two police from the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) based at Sutherland arrested a violent criminal named Christopher Edwards. Initially being refused bail, Edwards was later granted conditional bail at court. The police were told that Edwards was standing over people and had a gun. On 7 June police saw him in a stolen car at Engadine and attempted to pull him over. Edwards stopped, started to reverse his vehicle at the police then accelerated forward and drove off. Police pursued him to Old Bush Road where he jumped out of the moving car and ran into bushland. When the car stopped police arrested a female passenger and found a bag containing a shortened .22 calibre air rifle and documents in Edwards’s name. A major manhunt ensued, involving the police dog squad and a police helicopter.
About three that afternoon Edwards robbed a shop owner of the keys to his Holden Calais behind the Heathcote public school. A witness quickly contacted police and members of the IRT quickly raced towards the car park.
One of these officers, Detective Smith, saw children in their school uniforms spilling out on the roadway just around the corner, then his attention was drawn to a woman in a Green Prado who was honking her horn, perhaps wanting to draw attention to Edwards’s dangerous driving. He then identified Edwards in a V8 Calais accelerating sharply towards him, wheels spinning. Dust and gravel were flying. The schoolchildren were in some danger now. Smith got out of his car and ran towards the rear of the Calais, yelling for Edwards to get out of the car.
Edwards looked into the eyes of Detective Smith and reversed straight towards him, leaving Smith in no doubt that Edwards intended to run him down. He dived out of the path of the car but a corner of the car hit him and he lost his balance. Fortunately it didn’t knock him over. Smith had to make a quick calculation. He was not only fearful for his own safety but for the safety of the schoolchildren nearby, and the woman in the green Prado, who might have had children in her own car.