Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael White says two people have been charged over the disappearance of 36-year-old Darwin man Tony Rowe

Transcript

Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael White says two people have been charged over the disappearance of 36-year-old Darwin man Tony Rowe · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now the Northern Territory Police Major Crime Squad have arrested
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  Speaker 1: a man and a woman in relation to the disappearance
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  Speaker 1: of Tony Row after they were both extradited back to
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory earlier this month. Now the operation has
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  Speaker 1: been led by the Major Crime Squad, as I said,
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  Speaker 1: and was stood up to investigate the circumstances behind the
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  Speaker 1: suspicious disappearance of Darwin man Tony Row in May of
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  Speaker 1: last year. Joining me in the studio to tell us
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more about the situation is the Acting
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  Speaker 1: Deputy Commissioner Michael White.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Now, can you give us a bit of a reminder
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  Speaker 1: of the circumstances firstly surrounding Tony Rowe's disappearance.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, certainly, twenty eighth of May last year, mister Rowe
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  Speaker 3: was last seen at a hotel or licensed premisest in
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Suburbs and that was the last time he
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  Speaker 3: had seen. His mother reported him missing in the next
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  Speaker 3: twenty four hours forty eight hours later, so we conducted
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  Speaker 3: commenced our investigation which saw obviously no leads in that point,
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  Speaker 3: so we became concerned about that, so we commenced the
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  Speaker 3: investigation in terms of a homicide because we had significant
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  Speaker 3: concerns then that something untowarded happened to him. Due to
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  Speaker 3: the public information calls, Certainly it provided police with some
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  Speaker 3: avenues of inquiry which led to obviously now identification and
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  Speaker 3: the apprehension of two offenders in relation to his disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: Now, my understanding is said, obviously the twenty one year
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  Speaker 1: old and twenty nine year old have there now before
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  Speaker 1: the courts, so there's got to be some limitations in
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  Speaker 1: what you can and can't tell us. But how were
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  Speaker 1: they identified?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look a number of ways, and I can't really
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  Speaker 3: go into that because of the court case. But certainly
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  Speaker 3: you know that the information provided by the public from
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  Speaker 3: calls of calls for information, and also so you know
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  Speaker 3: the hard work and just the dedicated police work that
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  Speaker 3: was required to identify that. We had a number of
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  Speaker 3: people come forward using crime stoppers and other means to
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  Speaker 3: report to us information. And also you know the work
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  Speaker 3: we've done within interstate colleagues around tracking and identifying these
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  Speaker 3: people where they are.
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  Speaker 1: Is there much that you can tell us at this
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  Speaker 1: point as to their alleged involvement.
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  Speaker 3: All I can say is what they've been charged with.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously, the twenty eight nine year old male has
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  Speaker 3: been charged with a dangerous or a violent act causing
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  Speaker 3: death and he's now remanded in custody and to appear
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  Speaker 3: again on the twelfth of July. And the female twenty
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  Speaker 3: one year old has been charged with interfering with evidence
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  Speaker 3: and some other offenses in relation to that.
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  Speaker 1: And so it sounds as though the police have done
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  Speaker 1: plenty of work in terms of trying to gain that
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  Speaker 1: better understanding of the circumstances surrounding Tiny's disappearance. But he's like,
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  Speaker 1: he still remains outstanding, doesn't he.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. Look, and we're continuing to call for
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  Speaker 3: information from members of the public they feel they have
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  Speaker 3: any small snippet of information that they may think that's
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  Speaker 3: not really relevant, We say that that's quite maybe not true,
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  Speaker 3: and that you should report it to us, because any
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  Speaker 3: little thread of information can link other things that we
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  Speaker 3: have already or lead other avenues and inquiry that we
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  Speaker 3: can follow to hopefully locate and recover Tony.
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  Speaker 1: I know there was a bit of confusion or some
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  Speaker 1: wondering why yesterday you know, they were they had appeared
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  Speaker 1: before the court, is my understanding prior to the police
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  Speaker 1: sort of coming out and saying that they'd been extradited
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  Speaker 1: from those other states and there was that suppression auder
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  Speaker 1: made for those two people.
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  Speaker 2: Why was that?
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  Speaker 3: Basically again, it's a very challenging and sensitive investigation and
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  Speaker 3: utilizing you know, with jurisdictions from across Australia to assist.
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  Speaker 3: It's about getting all the ducts in a row in
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  Speaker 3: a sense, about getting all the information before the court
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  Speaker 3: and all gathered so we can we could act now.
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  Speaker 1: In another incident, police have stopped a couple from fleeing
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  Speaker 1: the country instead of well instead they were actually charged
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  Speaker 1: with a raft of fraudulent offenses. So a twenty four
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  Speaker 1: year old man and a twenty two year old woman
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  Speaker 1: who arrived in Darwen last Saturday on a private plane.
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  Speaker 1: They're accused of committing fraudulent activity across the country.
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  Speaker 2: What happened with this situation.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, the Joctor for the Joint Organized Crime Task
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  Speaker 3: Force has provided information from our colleagues into state that
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  Speaker 3: this person may have been in Darwin. Investigations identified his
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  Speaker 3: activities and as a result of that he was arrested
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  Speaker 3: in charged with a number of offenses including fraudulent offending,
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  Speaker 3: false documents, possessing drugs and are processing a firearm. So
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  Speaker 3: and she was also charged with some offenses in relations
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  Speaker 3: to the fudulent documents because they are attempting to flee
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  Speaker 3: the country.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah right, and so was there some additional work again
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  Speaker 1: with the police from other states in order to sort
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  Speaker 1: of work out that they were here and what they're
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  Speaker 1: trying to do.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. Look, the organized crime space is certainly
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  Speaker 3: something where continue to focus on. It's a different environment
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  Speaker 3: in the sense, but we certainly as much as we
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  Speaker 3: can work with our colleagues because criminals don't have borders,
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  Speaker 3: they operate across the all jurisdictions in Australia and you know,
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  Speaker 3: in our environment, it probably doesn't necessarily get the attention
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  Speaker 3: that it should because of the day to day business
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  Speaker 3: that we do do. But it's clear with a number
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  Speaker 3: of offenses that we've arrested over the recent year year
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  Speaker 3: eighteen months that criminal activity in the Northern Territory in
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  Speaker 3: national level is there and we continue to focus on
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  Speaker 3: those higher end criminals.
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  Speaker 1: And Michael, it's been a pretty big week as well
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  Speaker 1: when you talk about you know, obviously that cold case
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  Speaker 1: that we first discussed, but also there was a situation
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  Speaker 1: earlier in the week. We're a missing person's well, a
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  Speaker 1: missing person mystery was solved as a result of some
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  Speaker 1: DNA that was able to actually be used from several
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  Speaker 1: years ago.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So mister Ryder was reported missing in
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  Speaker 3: central Australia in nineteen ninety nine and he extensive search
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  Speaker 3: back and then failed to find him. He was believed
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  Speaker 3: to be near an outstation ten kilometers from Hermansburg on Ontario.
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  Speaker 3: As a result of that search and not finding anything,
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  Speaker 3: we closed the case in the sense, but he was
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  Speaker 3: later a file was submitted to the coroner and he
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  Speaker 3: was declared de ceased in two thousand and four because
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  Speaker 3: there was clearly he there was no evidence that he
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  Speaker 3: was still alive, so the coroner has agreed and signed
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  Speaker 3: off that he had passed away. In two thousand and
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  Speaker 3: sevens skeletal remains were located near Wallace Rock Hole, which
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  Speaker 3: is in the same area but a fairway from where
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  Speaker 3: he was believed to have last been seen, and DNA
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  Speaker 3: technology at that time wasn't sufficient enough to extract the
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  Speaker 3: enough profile to examine with the ongoing expansion and technology
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  Speaker 3: changes in that space forensically and the work between US
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  Speaker 3: and the AFP as part of the National Missing Persons
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  Speaker 3: or Unidentified Human Remains Project DNA was identified and as
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  Speaker 3: it turns out, it was mister Ryder and we've now
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  Speaker 3: been able to give the family this closure after many years.
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  Speaker 1: It'd be so important for that family after such a
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  Speaker 1: long period of time to get that closure. But it
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  Speaker 1: also just shows you that, you know, even when something
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  Speaker 1: is a historic case that the police aren't forgetting about it,
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  Speaker 1: it is something that you know that you can go
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  Speaker 1: back and you're able to at some point give the
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  Speaker 1: family that closure.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, And you know, we're still working on
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  Speaker 3: that project. We've got still a number of human remains
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  Speaker 3: that are unidentified and we're continuing to work through that, right,
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  Speaker 3: And in the last two years we've identified four people
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  Speaker 3: now or this is probably the fifth one that have
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  Speaker 3: now been able to be returned to their loved ones.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And so there is further work then in
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  Speaker 1: terms of unidentified human remains.
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  Speaker 2: Here in the territory historically that he's still working on.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, and including technity of the craniofacial identification
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  Speaker 3: project as well. That's looking at continuing to develop in
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  Speaker 3: that space, and we may be able to release some
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  Speaker 3: photos of unidentified people that have been reconstructed from their skulls. Wow,
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  Speaker 3: which is fantastic in that sense. And obviously if that
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  Speaker 3: we get to that point, we're hopeful in the second
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  Speaker 3: half of this year to have that that'll help again
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  Speaker 3: another way of identifying people.
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  Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible when you think about that technology and
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  Speaker 1: the way that it's now able to be used, particularly
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  Speaker 1: for some of those families who had probably thought to
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  Speaker 1: themselves that they're never going to know the outcome.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. It is really pleasing to be able
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  Speaker 3: to tell family that it's one of those mysteries that
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  Speaker 3: they know it always for them must be upsetting every
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  Speaker 3: day that they wake up and not knowing where their
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  Speaker 3: loved one is.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael White, I really appreciate your
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  Speaker 1: time this morning. Thanks so much for coming in and
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  Speaker 1: having a chat with me.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, Thank you