Last Seen Katoomba 03 | The Best Friend

This is an ABC podcast.

Just a warning, there's some strong language in this episode and discussion of domestic violence.

I met her at the gear and at the pub.

I really liked her happily, bubbly, outgoing personality.

Like, she was always happy and fun and really lack fun, energy to be around.

Heidi Wales was in her 20s when she met Belinda Peasley.

Heidi was a young mum like Belinda and they had kids about the same age.

So our relationship was more based around like a big sister, little sister kind of relationship.

Like I really looked out for her

and I would like to think and believe that she looked up to me and she was able to tell me so many things.

I think she did trust me a lot.

There were other similarities between them.

They both kind of had their lives on fast forward and maybe on a track they hadn't necessarily planned.

Heidi says they became friends and she even moved into Belinda's house for a while.

I mean I didn't know her for that long but in the time that I did get to know her you know she shared some really deep and meaningful things with me and I did with her and

you know I lived in her home and helped raise her child and I'll never forget that.

But Heidi wasn't the only one who came and stayed at Belinda's house.

I can remember warning her that those type of people who use heroin are different types of people than people who use speed or smoke marijuana.

It's a different kind of drug.

You know, people get sick.

They'll do anything to get money for it.

I'm Gina McEwen and this is Unravel.

Episode by episode, we're looking at the six people named at the inquest as persons of interest in Belinda Peasley's case.

Belinda was last seen in Katoomba on the night of September 26, 1998.

In this episode, you'll hear from someone who was one of Belinda's closest friends, Heidi Wales.

I find Heidi one of the most interesting people in Belinda's case because she says she was Belinda's best friend, but she's also named as a person of interest.

All I'm asking is you tell the truth.

That's what I'm trying to do.

Well, then, do so.

I can't do it when you're constantly goddamn well turning things around.

But you said this at this time, and you said this on this time.

I am here trying to tell the truth.

Heidi Heidi was in her late 30s when she took the stand at Belinda's inquest in 2012.

She's got pale blue eyes that peer out from below a furrowed brow and an eyebrow piercing.

She looks worn down, but has this sort of hyper-alert intensity about her as she sits in the witness box.

But she softens and becomes almost still as she talks about the early days of her friendship with Belinda.

You know, she used to confide in me in lots of things.

She had this fear that she didn't know how to love someone properly.

And so she, you know, was reaching out to me to try and teach her how to love Cody properly and be a better mother and be a better person.

And she was really, you know, really trying with that.

When they met, Belinda was more into weed and speed.

But over time, Belinda started using more heroin.

There wasn't a lot of females, like in the because I'm sorry to say, but we were using drugs in that time, but um there wasn't a lot of females back then who I really connected with but I just really connected with Belinda.

Belinda's house was a place where Heidi could try and escape from her boyfriend Jeremy.

Most of the time I just wanted somebody to talk to.

I wanted to get away from Jeremy but I never ever could get away from him because he'd always find me.

Jeremy and Heidi share a history and a daughter.

When they were together, he was violent, controlling and abusive.

At one point Heidi says Jeremy Jeremy came and lived at Belinda's for a short stint.

Jeremy told police he never stayed at Belinda's, and he remembers going there half a dozen times at the most.

But it was that sort of a house where people used to crash for weeks at a time and basically would just come and go as they please.

And Belinda didn't like it.

She would get depressed and she would just wish that people would just leave her alone so she could just get her life

together and

just be have a happy life and be a good mum.

Which people did she want to leave her alone?

She wanted Jeremy to leave her alone.

What's the gust of what she said to you?

She was fearful and she didn't feel safe in her house, but she was scared of him.

I did start to veer away from her house at the end because I felt very responsible and because Jeremy was annoying her.

So I

left

her house.

So Heidi left in order to get Jeremy out, but then he went to jail and she moved back in with Belinda.

Heidi says without him there, when it was just her and Belinda, it was peaceful.

Well, you could just relax and just

not wonder when Neil's going to come around and stuff.

So did it appear to you at that time that the main trouble in Belinda's life involved Jeremy?

In terms of her own feeling of safety, I mean?

I know for myself.

Yes.

It was.

But I can't answer for Belinda, I'm not sure.

So far in this podcast, we've heard evidence from Belinda's inquest about what happened on the last night she was seen alive.

She'd had an argument with her boyfriend, who we're calling Jason.

and she was taken up to the hospital with cuts on her hand.

But what about earlier that day?

Well, Belinda had been with Heidi.

They were both at a friend's place just near the center of Katoomba because a few people were heading over there that day.

I think I was in the lounge room and Belinda knocked on the door and she was quite drunk and

she had a bottle of alcohol in her hand.

She had a pregnancy test.

When you say she had a pregnancy test, what did she do?

Like a little kit thing.

She had a kit, yes.

From the

supermarket.

Yep.

And she asked if she could use a toilet.

Heidi says Belinda made a beeline for the bathroom.

She peered on the test and waited.

Did she tell you it was positive or did she actually pass it?

She showed me and she showed me.

She showed you the test.

And what did you see on the test?

That it was positive.

How could you tell?

It was the colour of it.

Because I think it had two stripes.

Yes.

And she was excited.

She was really happy.

And I was really happy for her.

We now know that Belinda had visited the doctor the day before this and the pathology test would later show that she wasn't pregnant after all.

But on that day, Belinda disappeared.

Heidi says Belinda thought she was pregnant.

She was like dancing around and jumping up and down and stuff and like, oh, I'm going to have a baby.

Is this good news or not?

Like, I don't know.

She was just excited and

talking to me about it.

And

yeah.

And she's seen it as a positive thing.

And she was really happy and really excited the last time I seen her.

She was a little bit drunk, but she was...

And you were excited too for her, you say?

Yeah.

And did she tell you who her father was?

Yeah.

Who did she say?

According to Heidi, Belinda said it was her boyfriend, Jason.

She didn't know how he would feel about it, but she was happy about it.

I told her that it was a good thing, a positive thing, and she could, you know,

get her life back in order and stuff.

And I could see how happy she was with.

and hadn't seen that before so I was happy for her.

So Belinda was hanging out that day, people were sitting around and music was playing.

One of the people who lived at the house was Wanda Lloyns but people called her Storm.

Wanda said Belinda hadn't just been drinking that day.

She was hanging out that day, so I fed her alcohol and balanced.

In 2013 at the inquest, Wanda was 39.

In the witness box, she sat almost huddled over the microphone in a hoodie hoodie and beanie and had no problem returning the stare of lawyer Phil Strickland.

Wanda said there wasn't a lot she remembered but she did remember what happened between her and Belinda that day.

She kept on turning up the radio and

Katrina was yelling at me because

I was living there to keep the noise down.

So I said to Belinda, look, we've got to turn it down now.

And I went to turn it down and she went to spit on me, so I punched her.

Where did you punch her?

In the face.

How many times did you punch her?

Once.

What happened when you punched her?

She landed on the lounge.

I said, look, I'm going to get you out of here and we'll talk about it when we sober up.

Did you notice that she was injured?

Yes, she had a bleeding nose.

Anything else?

No.

Wanda said later she felt upset about what happened.

But because of this incident and a threat she apparently made about Belinda to someone else at the time, Wanda was named as one of the six persons of interest in Belinda's case.

Did you ever say that night, I'm going to fucking kill Belinda or smash her fucking head in?

I don't know, I could have.

Did you ever say on any other occasion, I'm going to fucking kill Belinda, smash her fucking head in?

I don't know how many times I said that about different people.

It was always carrying a threat.

Were you?

Yeah.

At Belinda's inquest, Coroner Paul McMahon noted in his findings that Wanda was a long-term user of illicit drugs and had apparently been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

She also admitted that she'd previously told untrue stories to get attention and it was noted her memory of events when giving evidence was generally poor.

Ultimately, the coroner said it was unlikely Wanda was involved in Belinda's disappearance.

We attempted to get in touch with Wanda, but we didn't receive a response in time for this episode.

After the fight with Wanda, Belinda left the house, and Heidi Heidi says she remembers saying goodbye to her.

Sometime after this, Belinda's boyfriend Jason told the inquest he came to meet up with Belinda, but was told that she'd left.

He found her sitting in a nearby car park.

She was upset and told him about the fight with Wanda.

Jason said they then jumped in a cab and went back to Belinda's place.

And he said this was when she went berserk and started smashing things in her house.

At the inquest, Heidi said the next morning she'd heard that Wanda had punched Belinda.

Even though she'd been at the house that day, Heidi says this is the first she'd heard about it.

So sometime before lunch, Heidi says she decided to go over to Belinda's house and see if she was okay.

I walked in the house, like and I seen all the smashed windows

and

I just

walked in the house

and I couldn't find her and then I went out the back and she had real long grass

and so I

looked in the grass

trying to find her

and I looked under the house

and I couldn't find her.

It's hard to imagine what was going through Heidi's head as she searched around in the long grass in the backyard.

Maybe she was worried Belinda had overdosed.

Maybe she thought Belinda was drunk and could have passed out there.

Heidi says she looked around for about half an hour and didn't find Belinda.

But she did find something important:

Belinda's bag.

I think that might have been when I found her bag.

Did you see, was she carrying the bag the previous evening at Park Street?

Yes,

I think she was.

It was the bag people say Belinda always had with her.

And where did you find this bag?

Down between the

back of the chair.

Okay.

Squashed, like

down.

Like it was purposely squashed.

Did you?

Down in between the chair.

Did you look inside the bag?

Yes, I did.

What was in the bag?

Her wallet was in the bag.

There was a syringe in the wallet that had been used.

And how could you tell it was used?

Because there are blood in it.

Yes.

And

I kept that syringe for a long time.

Yes, and what else was in the wallet?

Key cards and ID cards and.

So when you say key cards, do you mean cards from a bank?

I guess, yeah.

I never

done anything with the wallet.

I just kept it.

Yes, but more so I kept the syringe because I thought if they ever found her or anything, there's a little bit of blood in there that was hers.

It might be a bit crazy, but that's what I was thinking at the time.

So Heidi took the syringe with blood inside and the wallet and she left.

Now that makes two people who went to Belinda's house in the days after she'd vanished, said they looked for her and then decided to take something of hers.

Heidi on the Sunday and then on the Monday, Belinda's boyfriend Jason.

In the last episode, we heard how Jason went back to Belinda's, took her keycard, and then he withdrew her money.

So maybe Heidi took Belinda's wallet, but left the keycard and Medicare card at the house.

And that's what Jason says he found the next day.

Jason told the inquest he believed Belinda would return.

But Heidi said when she went back to Belinda's house, she was already fearing the worst.

You believed the finding of the Paisley bag

in the place you say you found it on the lounge meant that you believed

she had met with foul play, correct?

To me, yeah.

Yes.

Because she always had that bag with her.

Yes.

I know that Belinda didn't ever used to hide her bag like that.

And I just imagined that because the windows were smashed, that maybe she had been sitting on the...

I don't know.

These are just things that I made up in my own head.

That she may have been trying to squash her bag down.

It was very forced into the lounge chair.

And it was hidden somewhere, wasn't it?

What do you believe was hidden?

I felt like it was hidden, yeah.

The bag being shoved down the back of the couch felt like a bad sign to Heidi.

Like something had happened to Belinda in that house and Belinda was trying to hide it there from someone.

Heidi says she went to the cops, but there's no police report about this.

Did you ever give the wallet to the police?

I don't think so because every time I went to the police station to ask them or tell them that my friend was missing, They would just laugh at me or

just not want to listen.

So I didn't think that the police were any help.

So I couldn't see what any benefit giving her a wallet would be,

giving her wallet to the police when they didn't seem interested at all in even writing her name down.

Official records only show Heidi speaking to the police on one occasion.

On the 16th of December 1998, almost three months after Belinda disappeared.

On that occasion, you never told Detective Bailey that you had her wallet, did you?

No.

Surely that was the opportunity to say, but

I went there the following day and this is what I found.

Surely that would be the time to do that, wouldn't it?

Not if you've been through things I've been through and police.

I've not helped you at all.

I'm sorry, but no.

See, it appears to an independent person looking at this that when a police officer comes and asks you about Belinda Peaasley, where is she, what do you know of her,

you say, I don't know where she is, I don't know why she went missing,

but failing to tell the police about finding her bag, failing to tell the police about

finding her wallet, failing to give police the wallet that was in your possession,

that would suggest, wouldn't it, that you wanted to withhold that information from the police?

If I was on the outside looking in, yes, I'd probably see it that way too.

Well, isn't that the truth?

No.

Turns out, Heidi hadn't been much of a friend to Belinda around the time she disappeared.

I wanted to ask you about a break-in to Belinda's house at Trar Avenue.

You knew about that, didn't you?

I did, yes.

Tell us what happened.

I remember being part of that.

I don't feel very good about it but um

you heard about this break and enter into Belinda's house in the last episode.

It happened just a few days before Belinda disappeared.

Belinda and her boyfriend quickly heard about who was involved.

It was Heidi, her boyfriend Jeremy and possibly one or two others.

Heidi says Belinda confronted her about it.

but Heidi denied being a part of it.

And she says she avoided Belinda after that because she felt guilty.

So whose idea was it to break into Belinda's house?

I think it was mine and Jeremy's idea.

I can't hear you.

I think it was mine and Jeremy's idea.

And why did you want to do that?

Because we needed money.

What for?

To buy heroin.

Go on, what happened then?

Then we went to cash converters and sold the television to cash converters.

And

I don't know, I think that I know, Belinda, of course she was very upset when she got home that the TV wasn't there.

I'm pretty sure I didn't own up to being the one who took it.

So what I don't understand is this.

And maybe you can assist.

You say you desperately needed money for drugs, heroin, correct?

Yeah.

But there were many houses you could have broken into, weren't there?

Yes.

But you chose your friends or someone

who regarded you as her big sister.

Why did you choose that house as distinct from anyone else's?

I don't know.

Because it was easy, I guess.

It was easy because you knew she wouldn't be there.

Is that what you mean?

Yes.

Is that right?

That's right.

In those last days before she disappeared, it's possible Belinda felt like her entire world was upside down.

In the house that was supposed to be her safe haven, she felt like she'd lost control.

Heidi, who Belinda counted as a friend, had stolen her stuff.

And Heidi had done this, robbed Belinda's, with Jeremy, the man Belinda said she was afraid of.

According to Belinda's dad, Mark, It was Jeremy Belinda wanted protection from when she called Mark desperately asking for help a few months before she disappeared.

Oh, well, she rang asking me to come up there that Jeremy Douglas was smashing the house up and he was going to kill her.

This same story was also told to the inquest and it wasn't just Mark she said this name to.

Belinda also told her boyfriend Heidi and even her social worker about Jeremy.

On the 18th of May 1998 Belinda spoke to docks workers about Jeremy and the fact that he was violent and destroyed things in her house.

And because because of this, Jeremy Douglas was also named at the inquest as one of the six persons of interest in this case.

Heidi's relationship with Jeremy is complicated.

She was in a relationship with him when Belinda disappeared.

But Heidi has also been subjected to horrific violence at the hands of Jeremy.

His assaults have landed her in hospital, and he's pulled a weapon on her.

I brought a gun to my head one night.

I think he stole some money and

I wanted it back and

yeah,

stupid stuff.

That's why he done it.

What kind of gun was it?

Double barrel shotgun.

That must have been a terrifying experience having a shotgun put in your face.

Yes, it was.

Did you go to the police about that particular incident?

Yes, I did.

And what happened?

Nothing.

What do you mean, nothing?

Nothing.

Heidi says the police didn't listen to her about this abuse at the hands of Jeremy.

We were unable to confirm whether the police had a record of Heidi reporting this alleged incident.

As Heidi sat in the witness box answering questions at the inquest, she would occasionally glance at someone in the back of the courtroom.

It was Jeremy Douglas.

He was now 35, tall and bony with spiky brown hair, arm tats, a gaunt face and black eye.

He was there every day, watching the whole inquest unfold and his eyes were squarely on Heidi as she gave evidence.

During Heidi's questioning on the stand, the courtroom was shown a grainy videotape.

The footage was from 2010, 12 years after Belinda disappeared.

I remember one day coming back from Panama in a car.

In the car?

In a car with him.

In the video, Heidi's walking through Belinda's house with police officers as they question her about Belinda's case.

The words are hard to hear, but at one point, Heidi's standing in the backyard and she says something strange about Jeremy.

It's a story about something Jeremy once said to her.

And he said to me, oh, did you hear about that the police found

Belle's body in a shallow grave in Megalong Valley?

If you didn't catch that, She said Jeremy told her police found Belinda's body in a shallow grave in the Megalong Valley.

It's a huge green valley that lies west of Katoomba.

But police hadn't found anything there at all.

So, why would Jeremy say police had found Belinda's body there?

At inquest, when the video finished playing, Phil Strickland started questioning Heidi about what she said during that walkthrough.

He wanted to know why Heidi told the same story to police a few years later, but with one very crucial difference.

In this statement, you recount the same story you told to the police on two occasions in November 2010.

You say this, and I'll read it out.

On this occasion, when we were in the white car, Jeremy was laughing and said he'd killed Belinda and buried her in a shallow grave in the Megalong Valley.

At this time, he used words like, quote, I killed her.

and she's buried in a shallow grave in Megalong Valley.

He just laughed when he said this.

Is Is that the truth?

Yeah.

You then said, I just felt this massive betrayal by Jeremy.

I thought Jeremy was totally serious when he told me this.

Is that the truth?

Yes.

As Strickland pushes Heidi for answers, she gets more and more upset.

But Ms.

Wales, listen, I've played you the walkthrough video.

That's why I've played it to you.

And you could hear what you actually said.

Yeah.

And you never said in that walkthrough video, which is on tape, that Jeremy said I killed her, did you?

No.

So

why didn't you tell the police?

Because I've already told the police several years ago and they didn't care.

So what you thought that the police wouldn't care if you told it in there, is that right?

I don't know what I thought.

I'm sorry, but my life, my whole life...

for a lot of years, for a good 10, 15 years, has I, you know, I've had no help from the police so I don't really

you know

can I understand whatever can I understand one thing is it the case you said to his honour that it is the truth that Jeremy said I killed her and she's buried in a shallow grave in Megalong Valley correct that's the truth is that right that's the truth yes

and is it the case that you

when you told that version of the story in the walkthrough video that I've played to you, that you decided not to include...

I block things out of my memory.

I don't want to remember things.

Please don't interrupt.

Did you decide, when you told that incident to the police in that video, did you deliberately decide not to tell the police?

I don't know.

I do not know.

I don't know.

Is it the case that you are scared of Jeremy Douglas and that's why you didn't give that information that he said to you, I killed Belinda.

Maybe, I don't know.

Isn't it the case, Ms.

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

No, I don't.

No, I do not know where Belinda's body is.

Well, that's exactly.

Nor do I know who done anything with it.

After another minute of Strickland's questioning, Heidi decides she's had enough.

I'm having a cigarette.

I note the time I'd ask that this witness not to be excused from her evidence and that she'd be recalled tomorrow morning.

Ms.

Wales?

Yes.

I might

throw my drink of water in that man's face right now.

I'm going hard to see her at.

Carmen stopped now, that button here.

Heidi gets up from the witness box and walks out of the court.

That day of the inquest, Heidi didn't return to the witness box.

Before the inquest, even during, Heidi had spoken to and cooperated with police and even spoke to the media.

But since the inquest, Heidi's never spoken publicly again.

We reached out to Heidi to ask if she wanted to do an interview, but we received word that she'd declined to participate in this podcast.

After Belinda bought bought her house, she had a fair bit of money left over, just over $30,000.

But over the course of about six months or so, she'd spent it all.

She'd run out of money before she disappeared.

So if she needed drugs, maybe she got into debt.

And her lack of cash could have created problems for her.

There is one story that involves Heidi and Jeremy that could shed more light on what happened to Belinda.

Carla Priestley grew up in the mountains and she says being a local, you kind of get to know everyone.

She says she grew up with Heidi and was mates with Belinda's then boyfriend who we're calling Jason.

When she takes the stand at Belinda's inquest, she says she's afraid.

Especially because there's, you know, the two people I'm giving evidence against in the room.

I'm a little fearful

what the repercussions of this is going to be.

Have you received either directly or indirectly any any threats in relation to giving evidence today?

Yes.

Carla goes on to say that someone had posted a threat on Facebook.

It was a vaguely worded threat.

It said something about people who'd spoken to police being dogs and that they would cop their end of the bargain.

The threat didn't come from Jeremy.

It came from another person of interest, someone we're going to call Luke, who we'll talk about in upcoming episodes.

Despite her fear, Carla wants to tell her story.

She's not clear on exactly when these events happened, but says it was shortly after Belinda disappeared.

Carla says Heidi showed up to her flat and wasn't in a good way.

She appeared at the time to have a bit of a bruised eye.

She was kind of acting a little erratic, pacing the floor quite a lot, pretty much saying to everyone who was leaving, please don't tell Jeremy where I am.

It It was the first time she's ever come to my flat, so she kind of knew that he wouldn't really know that she would be there anyway.

And what was Heidi's state at that time?

She was pretty well,

you know, pretty well high.

She was pretty,

you could tell she had been beaten around.

How could you tell that?

She had bruising to the eye.

I'm pretty sure too, she also had a fat lip.

At the time, Carla was living with a guy called Bill, who was mates with Heidi.

Carla says the conversation between the three of them eventually turned to Belinda.

I think we were kind of talking about her going missing.

You know, you know, Bill was kind of saying, you know, it's a bit scary.

I hope she's okay.

Basically, she had

told us that they went to

they,

meaning Heidi, Jeremy, and

had gone to Belle's house

to, I think, stand over her.

This third person, whose name we've beeped, that's the guy we're calling Luke.

And he's the one that Carla says made threats to people on Facebook.

At the inquest, Luke denied standing over Belinda and he denied any role in the story you're about to hear.

They obviously were going there to get drugs.

She wouldn't have said they, so just what did she say?

And Heidi were there to get drugs.

I'm not too sure what happened there because I wasn't actually.

This is what Heidi had told me that they got Belinda in the car Heidi was in the front Belinda is in the back that's what she said yeah things started getting ugly in the car I'm not too sure what she may have meant by ugly is that what she told you yes she said that's what she told me she said things began to get ugly in the car yes Carla says she didn't ask Heidi what she meant by things got ugly Carla says she basically didn't want to know because she was horrified by what she was told whatever happened Carla says it was enough for Heidi to want to get out of the car fast They came to a stop sign.

Heidi jumped out of the car and ran.

What happened next remains unknown.

Did Heidi say she saw Belinda after that?

No, she didn't.

She didn't see her at all.

So did you, in your own mind, draw a link between what she told you and the fact that Belinda was missing?

Yes.

Did you yourself have a concern that Belinda had gone missing because of foul play?

Yes.

Bill and I were both a little shocked with what we heard.

We didn't know how to really take it really.

Did you ever discuss with

Bill after that conversation

what Heidi had told both of you?

I do remember Heidi going to the toilet and we both looking at each other shaking our heads saying this conversation never ever happened.

At Belinda's inquest, Heidi denied she said any of this to Carla and Bill.

Bill says he doesn't remember it happening, but he told police he, quote, 100% trusts what Carla says.

In the end, Heidi never went so far as to point the finger directly to anyone for Belinda's disappearance.

The coroner found Heidi to be, quote, an evasive and generally unreliable witness.

And he said he needed to be cautious in accepting any assertions of fact by her.

But he went on to say, quote, on the issue of Belinda's disappearance disappearance after the 26th of September 1998, her evidence is consistent with almost all other evidence available.

As to whether Heidi had any direct knowledge and/or involvement, the coroner said the evidence was inconclusive.

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 her involvement in Belinda's disappearance and/or subsequent death.

In the next episode of Unravel, Jeremy Douglas takes the stand.

I call Jeremy Douglas.

Please state your full name.

Jeremy Ward Douglas.

Now, you understand that you've been called to this inquest into the disappearance and suspected death of Belinda Peasley to give evidence relating to that matter.

Yes.

Get every episode of Unravel by downloading the ABC Listen app or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

If you know anything about this case, get in touch by emailing unraveled truecrime at abc.net.au.

And if this episode has raised any issues for you, please contact your family and domestic violence support services in Australia for confidential counselling and support.

You can contact the National Helpline for Family and Domestic Violence, 1-800-RESPECT, 1-800-737-732.

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