Last Seen Katoomba BONUS | Seeing Is Believing

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Hi, Gina McEwan here, reporter of Unravel Season 3, Last Seen Katoomba.

A quick note, if you're here for the first time, you should head back and start at episode 1.

If you've listened to the series though, you'll be interested in this.

We've got a bonus extra for you where we go behind the scenes of our look into the suspected homicide of Belinda Peasley.

I want to introduce you to the person who first came across Belinda Peasley's case at the coroner's court back in 2012, TV documentary maker Helen Barrow.

She recorded Belinda's inquest and has filmed around 15 or so inquests in her time for a television series.

And she made the one-hour TV documentary, Who Killed Belinda Peasley.

Belinda was last definitely seen at about 8.50 p.m.

on 26 September 1998.

She was 19 years old.

This year is the 20th anniversary of Belinda's disappearance.

It's really hard, especially just not knowing what happened.

She was sure that somebody was trying to kill her.

There were people that turned up at the doorstep at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.

I believe that there was foul play involved right from the start.

She was taken from us unfairly.

Rumours were going around Ketoomba that somebody was standing over her.

Why do you just charge me with murder?

Very initial police investigation was deficient.

We'll never know whether or not they're telling the truth.

It's made it one of the trickiest inquests I've ever done.

I am here trying to tell the truth.

Unfortunately, I think she's dead.

15 years and you've got nothing on me.

Nothing.

Did you kill Belinda Peasley?

Helen was there in the courtroom with her camera crew for all 15 days of Belinda's inquest.

So I spoke with her about the subtle things we might have missed by not actually being able to see what was going on.

And I also wanted to know what she'd learned about the coronial system from filming the docco.

The thing about an inquest you have to remember is that a lot of evidence is brought to the table and investigated to try to understand the machinations of what happened to the person that disappeared.

So there's a far broader brief than there would be in a trial.

So probably most of the witnesses that were called were possibly in the back of their minds thinking they were on trial.

There were witnesses yelling, standing up, storming out.

And as the inquest unfolded, it became very apparent to us that there were secrets that weren't being told.

My honest thoughts were that she'd overdosed

and they panicked.

A person could have a theory.

and that might begin a rumour.

Then you'd have to look at evidence and you'd have to test the theory.

What has been discussed between you and Heidi Wales about what happened to Belinda?

In the beginning she was saying to me she could pitch her

overdose somewhere against a tree or a tree stump or something like that in the bush.

Do you believe that she knew her limits in terms of taking drugs?

She was quite capable of making a decision if she could

use more or not.

Every witness in every set of proceedings, you have to look at them, determine whether or not they're credible.

Belinda Peasley's case was no different.

Some of the witnesses appeared to try and assist and had a degree of credibility, but might not have been right.

Others were clearly antagonistic towards the whole process

and you wouldn't be able to rely upon.

Did you kill Belinda Peasley?

No.

Did you have anything to do with her dissent?

No, wait till the question, if you wish to answer it.

You think I have proven.

Your Honour, given Mr False's attitude and that I simply cannot get my questions asked,

this is the 20th or 30th time, I don't intend to ask any more questions.

You don't do.

The counsel assisting in this inquest, Phil Strickland, he said there were wheels within wheels at this particular inquest.

Is that what you felt as well?

You know, that there were things going on that weren't said, that weren't expressed, and whatever else you think he might have meant by that expression.

Often, you use an inquest as a way to rat out people and information, particularly like they held the inquest in Katoomba.

So, that's the town where Belinda went missing.

Tight-knit group of people who have stayed together are the main witnesses and persons of interest.

And I think what they felt initially was if they put enough pressure on everyone at the inquest in the witness box that one of them would confess to what they knew which was sort of the aim of where they were sort of going and you do wonder whether or not they may have been played a bit.

This courtroom was volatile.

I think threatening of the counsel assisting and the coroner in their dialogue.

Threat is something that some of those men use constantly.

I've had conversations with some of them during the inquest, particularly in the first two weeks.

Tell me to back off and go away from them, otherwise I may get into trouble.

So you do have to ask that question of what is the failure of the system there.

So Heidi Wales, one of the persons of interest in Simple Linda's inquest, she appeared across three days.

She's a very important person in the case.

There was a feeling at which you can see in the documentary and you can hear it in the podcast where things get really tense in the courtroom.

What was it like being there filming that?

And was there anything happening that we couldn't see, that we can't hear, that you observed?

So it seemed to the counsel assisting and the police officers who were investigating the case some

six to eight years after she disappeared that Heidi was key to what was going on and their strategy was to keep her in the witness box as long as they could.

And on this one day she appeared in the box twice

and the second time everyone in the room felt she's got to do it and we were all on the edge of our seats.

Isn't it the case, Ms.

Wales, that you know where Belinda's body is?

I've told you I don't know where Belinda is, I don't know anything about it.

We didn't know whether she herself was concealing her own involvement in the disappearance.

Ms.

Wales, it's very Ms.

Wales is very important.

I know it's very important and maybe I could have been able to come here and talk properly if this man didn't just speak to me in that room saying he's going to charge me with this and charge me with that and charge me and charge me and charge me and charge me and charge me and he can give me a certificate for shit.

I'm having a cigarette.

I note that Tyler asked for this witness not to be excused for evidence.

I can feel like throwing my drip of water in that man's face right now.

I'm going to have a cigarette.

Come and stop me, I think.

And Heidi lost it, jumped up and said she was going to go out for a cigarette and that was it.

And they let her go.

And she was never brought back in and they still don't have the answers.

And I can remember this feeling of, ugh.

In the end, the coroner found that the evidence was inconclusive as to whether Heidi had any direct knowledge of and or involvement in Belinda's disappearance or death.

But he said that when it came to Heidi and two other persons of interest, The evidence did raise considerable suspicion as to the possibility of such knowledge and or involvement.

And as I said in the last episode of the podcast, I reached out to Heidi but haven't yet received a response.

Thanks to Helen Barrow, producer and director of our podcast's companion TV documentary, Who Killed Belinda Peasley.

If you're in Australia and you're keen to see it, download the ABC iView app or find it on your smart TV.

And while we're talking about other ways of watching and listening, If you have friends or family who'd like to own our Walkley Award-winning season one, Blood on the Tracks, it's now available as an audiobook.

You can get a copy from selected bookstores and online as a download.

And finally, if you want to get in touch with Unravel, send us an email.

The address is unraveledtrucrime at abc.net.au.

Thanks for listening.

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