by Megan Norris
Paterson tried the keys in the lock but the door would not open. It appeared to be deadlocked from the inside, so someone must have been there. Neil Paterson made several calls to Caroline Robertson’s telephone number. But on each occasion the answering machine cut in. He left a message asking her to come to the door.
‘At this stage I had concerns for the welfare of the occupant of the flat,’ said Neil Paterson in a later witness statement. ‘I could see that a window was slightly open and subsequently the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade were called to assist in gaining entry.’
A fire officer put an extension ladder up to the window and was able to open it. He told the waiting officers he could see a female lying face down on the floor of the bedroom. He entered the flat via the window and let Neil Paterson inside. Paterson found Caroline Robertson lying at the foot of her bed. He detected a strong pulse in her neck and shouted to the other officers to ring for an ambulance.
A fire officer began to administer assistance to Robertson, who appeared to be drowsy. Police then noticed a packet of Tegretol, a drug commonly used to treat epilepsy, near the semiconscious woman. They believed at the time that Robertson might possibly have overdosed. As the police waited for the ambulance, they began to check the flat for signs of the missing teenager. They thought that perhaps the two girls were in cahoots, and half expected to find evidence of Rachel’s presence in the untidy apartment. Paterson looked around, opened the door to the built-in wardrobe in Robertson’s bedroom. But there was no sign of Rachel anywhere.
He telephoned Caroline’s father, David Reid, asking him to come to the flat. The other officers continued the search. It was clear that a number of things had been carefully packed away. It appeared that Robertson was moving – packing up to leave, or just arriving. The video and lots of other things were in boxes.
Detective Sergeant Thatcher noticed two packed bags in the lounge room, and what appeared to be a container of hair dye lying on the floor. Caroline’s hair showed signs of green rinse. They found a number of notebooks, some apparently blank, lying around, and a bag of size 8 clothes – obviously not clothing belonging to Caroline, who appeared to be quite overweight.
Perhaps the clothing belonged to Rachel? Had she been there then? The clothes were collected to show to the Barbers for identification. Shortly afterwards David Reid arrived. Ambulance officers were giving his daughter medical assistance. He told police it was possible that Caroline had had an epileptic fit.
At 6.55 p.m. Paterson accompanied Caroline in the back of the ambulance to the nearby Alfred Hospital’s Emergency Department.
But police were already beginning to wonder what was going on. They had noticed Rachel’s name on a number of handwritten documents found lying around the flat. Was it Rachel’s handwriting or Caroline’s? They saw a reference to what appeared to be a planned train trip to Sydney. So maybe Caroline was about to leave Melbourne – or perhaps both girls might have been planning to leave … together. Perhaps Rachel was staying somewhere else, and had already left with her train ticket? Perhaps Caroline was covering for her and planning to join her later? But there was no evidence of that, either. There was really no hard evidence of anything at all. And what were all these notes about? There were so many of them … and lists. Caroline Reed Robertson was obviously a prolific listmaker.
The detectives gathered up the two packed bags and another bag of size 8 clothes. Later that evening, the Barbers received a call from police asking them to come in and identify a few items, including the clothing which did not appear to belong to Robertson.
The detectives also seized some rubber gloves, a few bank receipts and other items – including the handwritten notes. They took a couple of notepads, some partially filled, others with pages missing. It was hoped that these documents might hold clues to Rachel’s whereabouts. But the notes appeared to be of a far more personal nature. Baffling really. They were scribblings about Rachel Barber.
20
‘ALL THINGS COME TO PASS’
Detective Sergeant Thatcher had the giant rubbish bins at the front of the flats searched, as well as the laundries on each floor. But there was no indication anywhere that Rachel had ever been at Trinian Street. Steve Waddell decided to arrange for an unmarked police car to monitor the region, just in case she was near by. He wondered if she might even be in the vicinity now, perhaps watching activities and waiting for a safe moment to return.
After finding the handwritten document referring to a Sydney trip, Steve Waddell instructed someone to direct police in the Victorian country town of Benalla to halt the Sydney-bound train later that evening before it crossed the border into New South Wales. Just after 8 p.m. local police officers stopped the train. No sign of Rachel.
The flat was secured and remained under police surveillance throughout the coming weekend. Thatcher and Rae remained behind until back-up could be sent from Prahran police station.
The remaining detectives from the Missing Persons Unit returned to the office, taking some of the material they’d found – a couple of notebooks, a diary, and some scribblings on loose sheets of paper. They hoped that these might lead them to Rachel. But all along, dePyle could not help feeling that there was something more to this case than he’d originally envisaged.
The detectives examined the notes more carefully. Among the documents were some partly legible notes referring to Rachel, but they could not be properly deciphered. One appeared to be a carefully charted character profile of the missing teenager, containing personal information such as her date of birth and the name of the hospital where she’d been born.
Then there were other notes about Rachel’s family. They struck a particularly uneasy chord among the police. Listed neatly down the page, in impeccable handwriting, someone had noted the full names and birthdays of Rachel Barber’s younger sisters and personal background information on her parents, Michael and Elizabeth. The author of the notes appeared to know this family very well indeed. The notes revealed that Rachel’s mother Elizabeth was the daughter of prominent Australian children’s writer Ivan Southall. She was described in the profile as a religious woman and a ‘disciplinarian’.
If it was Caroline Robertson who had written this information, it was clear to everyone she’d been doing her homework. She made mention of Michael Barber’s birthplace in England, and noted he was a toymaker and knew something of his work history. The detail suggested an unusual level of monitoring. It charted Rachel’s progress through her childhood in the country, describing her romantically as a ‘free spirit’ who’d run barefoot. It followed her progress closely from her youthful dating habits and dancing to her subsequent decision to leave school in Year 9 to pursue a professional dancing career. It was up-to-date on Rachel’s more recent activities too: Rachel’s modelling, her love of classical ballet, and her boyfriend.
Robertson wrote in almost glowing terms about her young subject, describing her as a ‘strikingly attractive’ teenager with a dancer’s body, clear pale skin and ‘hypnotic’ green eyes. Rachel had experimented only recently with hair colouring. The author of the document had noted that too.
There was also the Barbers’ home address and telephone number on the bottom. And in the top right-hand corner was another notation: ‘Corner Church. Dance Factory Richmond.’ Overleaf, there was another even more peculiar list itemising personality characteristics. The police assumed they were those of the missing girl. There was a growing sense that the subject of this romanticised prose held some weird fascination for the writer: she seemed to be almost in awe of her. Rachel Barber, according to the notes, was a ‘wild free spirit’ who lived life on the edge; a simple yet complicated girl of enormous talent and contradictions. She was a fiercely independent girl who was ‘passionate, determined, cheeky, loyal and honest,’ with a moody and mysterious personality. She was described as argumentative and difficult, ‘eclectic and kooky, crazy, funky and cool.’ This was a teenager who didn’t suffer fools gladly but had, claime
d the writer, a wonderful charisma. It was a list that brimmed with admiration.
But it was then that the police noticed something else. More ominously, in what appeared to be Caroline’s handwriting, they saw the words down the bottom of the page, ‘All things come to pass.’
‘It was fifty-fifty,’ recalls David dePyle. ‘At that stage we thought Rachel still might turn up at the flat after being out shopping or somewhere else, and maybe this older girl had just developed some unbelievable fascination with Rachel Barber. But then again …’
Nothing felt right about this case. The officers studied the notes again. But there were pages missing, and the indentations left behind were too faint to be legible.
Other scribblings listed dates of the month and figures. Scanty handwritten notes, a sheaf of documents. The police began to have a creeping idea that something untoward might have happened to Rachel.
Sitting in the back of the ambulance, on his way to hospital with Caroline, Neil Paterson knew nothing of the notes. He arrived at the Alfred Hospital around 7 p.m. and waited as she was admitted to Emergency. Caroline was conscious and answering questions from hospital staff. David Reid arrived about twenty-five minutes later and spoke to his daughter. After a brief conversation with Neil Paterson, Mr Reid left the hospital, returning a short time later. Caroline had a CT scan of her brain to rule out cerebral bleeding, a tumour, or build-up of fluid around the brain. She was given a lumbar puncture to check for an infection. She had also had an electrocardiograph and chest X-ray by the time her father returned. Neil Paterson then talked to him about Caroline and Rachel.
At 9.45 p.m. medical staff said that Caroline was responding well to questions and that it would be appropriate for Paterson to speak with her. He wanted to determine Rachel Barber’s whereabouts, of course. But he was not prepared for what transpired.
‘Caroline, can you hear me?’ asked the detective.
‘Yes,’ she replied.
‘Caroline, my name is Neil, I’m a policeman. Do you understand that?’
‘Yes.’
‘I want to talk to you about Rachel, is that okay?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you know where Rachel is?’
‘Yes.’
‘Where is she?’
‘She’s dead.’
‘How did that happen?’
‘It was an accident, I killed her.’
The officer, shocked, gave Caroline a formal caution and told her about her rights to communicate with a lawyer. He asked her if she understood her rights and wished to exercise them before he continued speaking with her. She replied, ‘No.’
‘Are you positive she’s dead or can we still help her?’ he continued.
‘No, she’s dead.’
He asked Robertson where Rachel’s body was. She said it was up at her father’s farm at Kilmore – buried near a clump of trees. She said she’d called a removal van to take it there.
‘Who helped you?’ asked the detective.
‘I can’t remember.’
‘How did she die?’
‘I can’t remember – I’m tired.’
‘I must again inform you that you are not obliged to say or do anything, but anything you say or do may be given in evidence. Do you still understand this?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you want to speak to your father or a solicitor?’ he asked.
‘I’m tired,’ said Caroline.
Paterson left the treatment room, informing David Reid that Rachel Barber was dead. Caroline had said it was an accident. Rachel’s body was somewhere at Kilmore. The policeman couldn’t imagine what must have been going through David Reid’s head, but he appeared shocked at the news, too. He said he knew the location of the clump of trees Caroline had referred to. It was not far from his house on the property – near a place where his children had once buried a dead koala. Mr Reid, no doubt believing the police were investigating an accidental death, went to contact a solicitor for his daughter.
Around 10 p.m. that Friday Neil Paterson rang his boss, Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Waddell, at the Missing Persons Unit, with the news. Waddell immediately contacted the Homicide Squad and arranged for a crime scene guard to be stationed at both the Trinian Street flat and David Reid’s farming property at Kilmore.
Caroline was placed in custody. No one except hospital staff was allowed to approach or speak to her without police permission. Hospital security was informed. Later that evening a lawyer went to the Alfred Hospital and spoke to Paterson. The lawyer, Jonathan Mott, had a short conversation with Caroline and left at around 11 p.m. At 11.35 Detective Senior Constable Hamilton relieved Neil Paterson at the hospital, and Paterson returned to the Missing Persons Unit to conduct further inquiries.
By midnight local police officers had been deployed to the Kilmore property, which became the site of extensive police surveillance. Paterson returned to the Alfred Hospital again, this time accompanied by his boss Steve Waddell. At around 1.30 on the Saturday morning, they escorted a dishevelled Caroline Robertson from the hospital’s Emergency Department and placed her in the back of an unmarked police vehicle. They drove her to the watchhouse at the Moorabbin police station, where she was placed in the cells at 2 a.m.
21
CHARGED
By the time Neil Paterson resumed duty at 11.45 a.m. on Saturday, 13 March, Detective Sergeant Paul Ross of the Homicide Squad had taken over what was now a murder investigation. Homicide detectives and officers from Missing Persons held a meeting at the Kilmore police station. Forensic experts were already being briefed, as were photographic specialists and officers from the Victoria Police Crime Scenes Department.
Back in Melbourne, Paul Ross took charge of the handwritten material housed in the Missing Persons property store. It had been hoped by everyone on the team that this information would have helped them find Rachel Barber alive and safe.
Neil Paterson joined Thatcher and Ross for an initial interview with Caroline, which was to be videotaped. Caroline had been collected from the cells at the Moorabbin watchhouse and brought to the Homicide Squad offices in St Kilda Road. Thatcher recalls providing her with numerous cups of water but also remembers her continually declining offers of food. She was noticeably quiet.
At around the time the Barbers were leaving their home to drive Rachel’s boyfriend Emmanuel to his dancing class in Richmond, Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Waddell had obtained written permission from David Reid to search his Kilmore property. David Reid had also drawn a map of the region to help police in their search.
The initial videotaped interview with Caroline lasted only a couple of minutes and was suspended to allow her to consult her solicitor, David O’Doherty. She was also allowed to speak to her father.
During the early hours of Saturday morning Homicide detectives had obtained a warrant to conduct a fresh search of the primary crime scene at Trinian Street. It was too dark to begin any kind of search at the Kilmore property until daybreak. The property had been sealed off and placed under guard as a secondary crime scene. But it was possible to examine the Prahran flat more closely. New clues might be found there to build a case against the suspect. So Detective Senior Sergeant Lucio Rovis and Detective Sergeant Ross visited the flat with officers from Police Video Operations and Photographics and began to comb it for evidence.
A number of documents and notebooks were photographed along with a bundle of women’s fashion magazines and other items, including an extraordinarily large print of Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream. Samples of hair were collected from the lounge and bedroom along with some from a shoe in the bedroom.
On Saturday afternoon at Kilmore, the team made its way from the tiny police station to David Reid’s holiday home, relieving the crime scene guard of his duties and driving up the long track to the brick house on top of the hill. Police cars were parked behind the house. To the north-east there was a gate leading to a dam. On the eastern side of the dam the officers could see a small c
lump of trees. They made their way to this grove and began an examination of the area.
Thatcher and Waddell saw two small crosses in the ground. One bore the name ‘Lucy’, which they guessed must have been the pet koala. The other bore the name ‘Little Mate’, presumably also a pet.
Both officers noticed a strong smell coming from a patch of ground showing signs of increased fly activity. Thatcher’s right foot sank into the ground, and as he stood back he saw that the earth had been disturbed and that there were signs of recent digging.
He alerted the other officers and the area was carefully photographed as it was excavated. It became evident to the team that they had found a shallow, crude grave. Shortly before 3.30 the detectives located what appeared to be a human body, lying in a foetal position and wrapped in blankets. The detectives were convinced that they had finally found Rachel Barber.
The entire region, including surrounding bushland, was searched. A shovel and hoe found in a nearby machinery shed were photographed, together with many other items. Two large rubbish bins were searched, as was a 44-gallon drum that had been used as an incinerator. And partially burnt paper with handwriting on it was photographed and collected as well.
As the gravesite was excavated and photographed in stages, it was revealed that the body had been buried with a ligature around its neck.
During the evening Dr Shelley Robertson, Senior Forensic Pathologist from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, visited the scene and conducted an official examination of the body. She pronounced life extinct and the body was taken away for an autopsy.
Detectives returned to the property again a few days later, when Search and Rescue divers scoured several dams on the property in the hope of finding fresh evidence. A large contingent of personnel from the State Emergency Service also assisted police in an extensive line search. Nothing relevant was discovered.