Latest / Real Crime with Adam Shand / Where Is Rigby Fielding? | Stephenie Fielding

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Where Is Rigby Fielding? | Stephenie Fielding · Real Crime with Adam Shand

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Apodje Production.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand. I'm your host,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Adam Shand. In twenty sixteen, when I was hosting a
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: drive show on radio in Perth, I did a segment
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: about a missing person named Rigby Fielding.
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  Speaker 3: The fifty three year old retired chief was last seen
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  Speaker 3: on August fifteenth, twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 1: After visiting friends in North Perth.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: He called his mother to say he was catching the
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: train home to Rockingham.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: He never made it.
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  Speaker 2: It was on a regular chat I did with a
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  Speaker 2: police officer called Sergeant Slaughter, Yes that was his real name.
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  Speaker 4: He went through the basic details of the case.
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  Speaker 2: August fifteen, twenty fifteen, fifty three year old Rigby called
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: his mother to say he was on his way home
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  Speaker 2: from Perth to Rockingham.
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  Speaker 4: Then he vanished.
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  Speaker 3: Police are now treating the disappearance of Rigby Mark Fielding
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: as a potential homicide. His disappearance is described as out
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  Speaker 3: of character.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Rigby was a gay man with a history of drug use.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I remember thinking this didn't look good. I wondered how
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: his family would be feeling, and then I moved on
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: to other things, as you do in radio. The other
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: day I received the message from a friend to say
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Rigby's family was still looking for him.
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  Speaker 4: Ten years later.
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  Speaker 3: Ten years on, the Fielding family is still waiting for answers,
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  Speaker 3: and despite a decade of searching, police have made no breakthrough.
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  Speaker 2: I recognized the name instantly, and it made me feel
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: sad and a bit heartsick that I'd done one segment
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: and then just moved on, leaving this family and so
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: many others, by the way, cases I've covered over the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: years in the same place that I've left them. So
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I feel a bit compelled to take up the story again.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Rigby's sister, Stephanie Fielding, has been looking for her brother
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: all that time, and I want to have to explain why.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: Rigby has never been found.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Hi, Stephanie him thanks for streaking with me today.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely pleasure and accept my apologies for not being more diligent.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: And there's, like.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I said, so many stories I wish I'd done better
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: on in yours is one.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, thanks for saying that.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: So how are you feeling about everything? Ten years on?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I still heartbroken and frustrated.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, still trying to find out what happened to him
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: and why Rigby didn't come home that day.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: What do you know so far, look not too much.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: I know that his bag was found in bushland in Karana.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I know that the person that found his bag at
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: some point, you know, was a person of interest and
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: then very quickly wasn't. I know that on the day
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: he went missing, he was chatting with people on a
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: dating site. That's something I've always felt that should be
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: investigated more as to who he was talking to, whether
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: he actually met someone that day.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: From that.
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  Speaker 4: Well, that's right.
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  Speaker 2: This case, like so many of these missing persons cases
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  Speaker 2: that don't come to fruitions, seems to be a bunch
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: of missed opportunities, and you can take me through them now.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I suppose the missed opportunity for us was the
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: lack of meaningful support. And well, we didn't have any
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: support in the beginning from our local police station. It
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: took months and months returning back to talk to various
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: officers and get them to take me seriously. We were
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: just really unlucky in that officer after officer I thought
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: was taking a statement and then following up on the
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: checking his bank account, checking his phone, things like that,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: And unfortunately, each officer either.
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  Speaker 1: Retired or went on annual leave.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, it just took forever to get the
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: police to look for him.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to put this out there right now because
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  Speaker 2: it's front of my mind. After covering the BONDI hate
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  Speaker 2: crimes of the eighties and nineties where gay men did
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: not receive proper service from police and their families as well.
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  Speaker 2: Do you feel that was a factor that there wasn't
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  Speaker 2: the empathy there should have been because Rigby was gay.
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  Speaker 3: Not in the beginning, I didn't feel that that was
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  Speaker 3: something I needed to tell police what his sexuality was.
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  Speaker 3: That at the time, it was my brother's missing and
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  Speaker 3: he this is very unlike him, and I needed to,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I needed them to take me seriously. And
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  Speaker 3: each time I went, you know, to the police station,
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  Speaker 3: they assured me that they were taking me seriously.
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  Speaker 1: But they didn't.
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  Speaker 2: Because, as you say, there were leeds that could have
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: been followed. The dating site, for instance, what had Rigby
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: told you about his activities on dating sites?
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  Speaker 1: Look not a lot.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, Britta and I were very close, but we
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: didn't chat too much about who he was meeting with
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  Speaker 3: or what he did. I think at the time I
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: was on dating sites too, wasn't telling him what I
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: was up to but we always looked out for each other.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, there was a couple of times when
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: he called because he'd met someone that had robbed him,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: and that was happening a lot back then. I'd heard
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: it from other gay friends and yeah, there's quite a
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: few gay guys missing in Perth. It's something that really
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  Speaker 3: should be investigated.
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  Speaker 4: Oh there's more than Rigbysco. This is just the tip
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  Speaker 4: of the iceberg.
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  Speaker 3: Yourself, Well, I wouldn't say tip of an iceberg, but
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  Speaker 3: I know.
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  Speaker 1: That there's other missing people that also are gay.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the same thing that happened at Bondi,
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  Speaker 2: where each one wasn't taken very seriously. Leeds weren't followed,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: and there's a string of unsolved disappearances that have never
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: been resolved. And I feel that Reby's in the same position.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: And I think let's also deal with the evidence as
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: it came to you. His bag was discovered, how long
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: after and where so that was?
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  Speaker 3: He went missing in August and the police retrieved the
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  Speaker 3: bag from a person who lived in Kanana. The police,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I believe were catching up with him on a different
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: criminal matter, but at the time when they'd retrieved the bag,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: and his phone. They did call me and say, look,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: we think we found something here, and then a couple
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: of days later calling them back, they just said, look, nay,
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  Speaker 3: it's of no interest. But he actually took the police
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  Speaker 3: out to the bushland and said look, I found the
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  Speaker 3: bag here out and it just happened to be a
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  Speaker 3: pocket of bushland in the wetlands the Spectacles in Kanana.
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  Speaker 3: That is also a no in place where gay guys
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  Speaker 3: meet up.
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  Speaker 2: So it's possible that Rigby went to the Spectacles Wetlands
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  Speaker 2: about thirty k south of Perth to meet somebody.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's possible, yep, for sure.
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  Speaker 2: And this suspect tell me, did he offer the bag
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  Speaker 2: up or was it found he offered it up?
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  Speaker 3: No, No, I'm pretty sure. I mean I don't know
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  Speaker 3: the details around that. At these weren't really forthcoming with
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: anything to the script.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: But look, we knew he was on a train that day.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: We know he was.
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  Speaker 3: Issued at infringement, which was really strange because you know,
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  Speaker 3: he had a lot of money and he wasn't someone
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  Speaker 3: that would not pay his fare.
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  Speaker 1: He generally had a tap and go card and things
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  Speaker 1: like that.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, he was issued this infringement which also puts
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: him at a certain place at a certain time where
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  Speaker 3: was that That was it in the city at Perth train.
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  Speaker 4: Station, right, So you have a starting point yep.
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  Speaker 2: You have a destination that he never made it to,
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  Speaker 2: and now you have a potential other destination, the Spectacles Wetlands,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: and you have a potential line of inquiry with the
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  Speaker 2: dating app. I don't think that would take Sherlock Holmes
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  Speaker 2: to put it together to at least eliminate the dating
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  Speaker 2: app as a possible source of the person that he
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  Speaker 2: met exactly.
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  Speaker 3: The unfortunate thing is that there's not enough police officers
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  Speaker 3: working on cases. You know, the resources just start there.
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  Speaker 3: You know, currently there's only six officers working in the
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  Speaker 3: whole missing person's unit in the whole of Western Australia.
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  Speaker 3: So if you think, look, there's three hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 3: five missing long term missing persons at the moment, how
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  Speaker 3: does six people follow up on that when somebody's going
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  Speaker 3: missing every few minutes.
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  Speaker 1: I mean most people have found relatively quickly.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, it's in the instance that someone goes
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  Speaker 3: missing and in those short amount of time that you
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  Speaker 3: know the police have really got to get onto it
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  Speaker 3: and look for them for them to have any chance
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  Speaker 3: of being found.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, six officers, Did I hear that right?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's probably and I think there's eight in New
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  Speaker 3: South Wales. So you look at population and they just
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  Speaker 3: don't stand a chance.
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  Speaker 4: Well, that's wrong.
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  Speaker 2: I think Western Australia I think I'm right in saying
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  Speaker 2: is about two and a half million square kilometers.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's huge.
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  Speaker 2: It's an easy place to get lost, and with six officers,
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  Speaker 2: a very difficult place to be found, i'd suggest, particularly
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  Speaker 2: when they when they're not following up the leeds. I
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  Speaker 2: mean this guy who found the bag, I mean, did
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  Speaker 2: they explain why they eliminated him?
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  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
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  Speaker 3: We just didn't have that much connection with the place,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and when we said it was pretty short.
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  Speaker 3: Like I said, quite often we would plan to meet
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  Speaker 3: and they would have to cancel because there was a
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: more time dependent case that came up. That still happens
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  Speaker 3: till today. You know, you always just put on the
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  Speaker 3: back burner.
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  Speaker 2: Boy, that back burner must be crowded because in a
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  Speaker 2: lot of cases like this, and I would really urge
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  Speaker 2: other people in Western Australia who haven't had the proper
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  Speaker 2: service from police to get in touch with me Adam
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  Speaker 2: Shand writer at gmail dot com. Let's use this opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to ventilate more of these stories and possibly to assist Stephanie.
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  Speaker 2: So I think a starting point for police also would
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: be a simple question like telling me about Rigby as
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  Speaker 2: a person.
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  Speaker 4: What was he like? What were his habits?
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  Speaker 3: Rigby had been a hard work and chef, had worked
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  Speaker 3: his whole life running restaurants. He was very much work
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  Speaker 3: focused and threw himself into anything he started. After he retired,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: he also became quite family focused. Our parents were aging,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: We've got a younger sister who lives at down syndrome.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Rick came home to look after them and to give
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: me a break really after our father died. And these
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: are the things that make him what he was. It
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: wasn't the fact that he happened to be gay. It
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: wasn't the fact that towards the last part, you know,
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: last year's he was taking drugs. That doesn't encompass what
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: my brother was.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: My brother was.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: More than that, absolutely was more than that.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: But I think in the circumstances, the fact that he
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: might be scoring drugs somewhere is a line of inquiry too. Definitely,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: and that people often score around train stations. It's an
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: archery for the sort of a trade. Do you know,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry to ask these questions. To be perfectly honest,
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  Speaker 2: I think yeah, yeah. Do you know what sort of
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: drugs he was using?
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: I think mainly ice at the time.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Right, And I mean there's a well established network of
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: ice dealers in Perth. And I wonder do you know
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  Speaker 2: if the police had followed up on anything that might
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: have come up in his call records that calling a
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: particular number.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: No, no, I don't you know.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: We gave him lots of people to invest We had
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: a private investigator working on it in the early stages.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: We just couldn't afford to keep up the costs of that.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: But they spoke to a lot of people, and the
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: police did say at one point, you know, like if
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: you know of anyone that he was scoring of And
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: I didn't.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I didn't know.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: He wasn't your typical drug user. He spent a lot
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: of time at home and was a primary carer. It
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: just happened to also take drugs. Certainly wasn't out partying
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: and raving every weekend. But the police did say, look,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: we're not interested in whether he was taking drugs. If
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: we find some evidence on his phone that he was scoring,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: we're not going to book people and arrest them for that.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: That's not the line of inquiry that we're going down.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: And I mean, I would hope the police were saying
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: that to the people that they were investigating at the
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: time too, and not intimidating them so they could come forward.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: And I don't know, maybe, yeah, maybe if they had
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: any information.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: But you certainly had to cajole the police at the beginning.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, his bank accounts should have been one of
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the primary destination's early doors to find out whether we'd
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: drawn some money for a particular purpose or a particular place.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: What happened with that, Yeah, well.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: That didn't get looked into for about three months, and
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: then that evidence did come up and he did withdraw
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: one thousand dollars at a certain place. There was evidence
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: that from that place he caught a cab to another place.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: And that taxi phone call, yeah I heard, and I said, yeah,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: that's my brother, that's his voice. Does he sound under
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: the influence of drugs, No, he doesn't. That's how he talks.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Like whether he was on his way at that point
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: or who knows, Like, we don't know what happened.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: And was this before or after his call to your
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: mother that he was coming home to Rockingham?
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, I know, we only found all of those things
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: out of Indy of twenty fifteen.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: But in the timeline of that day though, where did
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: that call come? Was it before he got on the
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: train or yeah, right, yep, So it's quite possible. I'm
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: just this is a hypothetical reason he.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Changed his mind. Well, yeah, to come home.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: I mean the thing we've changed in his mind to
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: come home. If he wasn't going to be there that night,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: he would generally call me and say, look, Steph, I'm
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: going to stay in the city. Do you want to
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: call in and check on your mum and your sister?
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: And that was just something that he would do. For
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: him to say he was coming and never make it
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: was really out of character.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Right, But it's possible with the spectacles Wetlands is that
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: on that train line.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: Could he have got off the train there and then, yeah,
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: certainly could have.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: So it could have just been a little stop on
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: the way home to meet somebody.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: And as you say, there are several instances of people
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: being robbed and worse, disappearing in the gay scene in
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Perth in this period still to today. Yeah, you really
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: have to be your own investigator, haven't you.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Well I have. I actually haven't been a good one.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I haven't found him yet.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: I definitely just trying to do whatever I can do
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: to keep his story out there and to let people
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: know that there's a sister out there.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: It's not given up.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: And to anyone out there that may hear this or
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: it's listening that does know what's happened, like I'm going
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: to find out, I'm coming.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: For you, and I love your determination, and I'm going
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: to disagree with you on one point. I think you
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: are a good investigator because what you've done a bit
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: like Ricky Nash with his sister, Cheryl Grimmer, who actually
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: introduced us. Ricky has been relentless and unapologetic about keeping
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Cheryl's story in the press.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: And I could name a.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Dozen other little girls and boys who disappeared, and they
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: kind of die twice where they disappear, probably murdered, and
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: then they die a second time when everyone forgets them.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: And you've not forgotten about Rigby, the same way as
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Ricky will never forget about Sheryl. So I give you
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: massive ups for that. And if someone out there is
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: listening to this and you have.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: Any information, please please, I'm begging you make it known,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: maybe not just about this instance, but other issues in
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: the gay community, crimes, community against people.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: You may have that.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Little piece of the puzzle that could help everyone.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: And I think what we should.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Be talking about in this situation, like we had in
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: New South Wales with the judicial inquiry into the murders
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: of gay men, is some form of judicial review. Has
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: the coroner ever held an inquest into Rigby's disappearance?
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: No, they can't. Two years ago applied for one.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: With that, the police had to do report around the
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: investigation and that came back that they were sending back
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: to the police to fully investigate them. So that's where
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: we're sitting at the moment.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: Well, they should be doing a brief for the coroner.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Well they should, but they've also got to go back
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: and do the work that they were meant to do
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: in the beginning, and that that could well be following
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: up on these on the dating site and the chat
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: logs and investigating people maybe they haven't spoken to yet.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: Well that's kind of too bad.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: If I'm the coroner, I'm just saying, listen, give us
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: anything you've got right now, because part of the function
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: of the coron is not just to determine the fate,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: but also the process. Yeah, what happened, because the system
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: should be reviewing itself and learning so another family doesn't
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: go through what your family's been through.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Look, there is no system, Adam, Like, I don't feel
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: that police have enough training around missing people. We've got
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: a police minister that has stated he believes he's publicly
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: stated that he believes that support for families are well
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: supported with these family layers and officers. Now hearing a
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: minister state that when I've never met a family layers
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: and officer, and neither has most of the people that
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: I talk to who also have.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Missing people in their families.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Like, there's a real disconnect with our government and with
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: what's actually happening. You know, it's systemic. This isn't just
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: one case. This is happening everywhere and in every state.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: And this is why the coroner needs to look at this.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And I think as a possibility to connect Rigby's case
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: with other cases and to ask are there commonalities here
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: and I think what we've seen in I guess more
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: enlightened places is the missing person's team to be divided
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: into genuine missing people and those where there's a murder suspected.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: And in the case Rigby, it seems pretty clear that
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: there was foul play some form of it, because, as
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: you say, this is completely out of character. And I
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: guess if they'd begun the audit trail at the beginning,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: they would have gone to Perth Station, the last place
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Rigby was seen and grabbed the CCTV footage.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: What happened with that we're missing?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I can't find it?
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Went miss he went missy. You just throw your hands
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: up right.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: Oh look, it is actually unbelievable, Like I cannot believe
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: that they couldn't find it. People find things from CCTV
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: years and years later. How could they not find it
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: three months later? You know somewhere, surely it's somewhere there
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: in the ether like we're not, you know, back in
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: the eighties where you know you're putting in a cassette
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: to record on.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: This is only ten years ago, and it should have
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: been kept because, as you say, it's a it's a
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: vital piece of evidence for a whole of things, and
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: it's this is when the cron's got to get involved
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: in order the police please give us everything. Too bad
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: if you're not ready give us what you've got now,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: because you're going to be judged on that and this
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: family deserves an answer.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: I mean, what's been happening in your family the last
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: ten years.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Your father had already passed away, Your mum was waiting
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: for Rigby to come back, and she's passed away too,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I believe.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, so I've moved time to take care of
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: my own sister, and yeah, I'm just getting through each
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: day looking for my brother.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Who's looking after you?
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: Ah, I do have a very good network of friends
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: looking after me.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: That's good. That's good. It's time. You've got a couple
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: of breaks on this whole story.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: I reckon, and I think the most logical destination is
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: the coroner's court. I think you feel like you owe
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: it to him to keep going and to yourself to
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: keep young.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Oh definitely, yeah.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: I owe it to myself, to my family, but certainly
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: I to Rigby. If the roles were reversed, he'd still
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: be looking for me. Yeah, it's just I just have
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: to have to find him. I have to find out
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: what happened, why didn't he come home, where did he go?
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: And who else is involved? Because he didn't vanish into
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: fit air. Something happened that day and other people are involved,
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: and I will find out what happened.
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: Do you still keep in touch with his friends or associates, Yes,
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: for sure, yep I do.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Have they provided any help at all, lean information all
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're brilliant, but they live in the same disbelief
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: as what I do. You know, his friends were very
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: forthcoming in the beginning, and again we're also dismissed by
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: the police initially, and then when they were spoken to,
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: they were treated quite poorly. And you know that it's
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: just not okay that when you're looking for somebody and
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: you know that something bad has happened, is that you've
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: spoken to poorly and dread like crap. It's not okay.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: And this is why I come back to what I
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: was saying before about there really needs to be some
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: good training for police around missing people and around how
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: to investigate, though I don't believe there's enough police doing
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: it well. Have I met some great police officers that
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: did a great job for sure, like brilliant, but more
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: so I was met with officers without experience, and that
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: we're dismissive and quite rude at times and in sometimes homophobic,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: and that's just not okay.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it is such a patchy thing.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I'm covering another case in Perth where in two thousand
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: and two, middle aged woman disappears from a car park
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: in Forestfield.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: Her car's left there. They're searching for her that very night,
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: at very night.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: In Rigby's case, same sort of thing, out of character,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: someone vanishes. How long did it take before they began
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: to mobilize in his case three months? Three months. I
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: think it's homophobic, I really do. I mean they're used
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: to me this attitude about women. Oh she'll come back.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: He's a flighty girl. She's got off with a boyfriend somewhere,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: she'll turn up. And that happened for decade after decade
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: of decade. And I think the same attitude has been
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: applied to gay men over the years in recent years,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: even where it's like, well they go missing, they do
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: different things and they're not so connected to family structures
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: and a sort of stereotypical attitudes, and I think that
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: would be so aggravating, so enraging when someone is stereotyping
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: your brother as a certain kind of individual who would
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: just leave his family and not contact.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And that's exactly what they were saying.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: I mean in the initial stages where I was going
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: to the place, so I wasn't even mentioning that he
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: was gay. I was just saying, look, my brother is missing,
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: you know, please help find him. And the coppers them
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: were saying, well, he's fifty three, he's allowed to go missing.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: He's probably had.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Enough caring for your mum and your sister, like he's
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: probably on a break, leave her a couple of days
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: and come back to us.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: And you know what, I did.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: That And then when I went back during that time,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: over those days, I was the one calling the hospitals.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: I was the one calling all his friends and going
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: to appointments to see whether he was going to turn up.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: It was frustrating because I'd then tell my story again
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: to the police and they'd say, well, he's fifty three,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: he's allowed to go missing, and I'd be jumping up
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: and down in the end, so Nay, it's not allowed
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: to go missing, whether he's fifty three or not.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: My brother is not allowed to just go missing.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: And I don't believe that he's done this on purpose,
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: like he would have told me if he needed a break,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: something bad happened to him.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: And I kind of get what the officers saying there.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: He's allowed to go missing in the sense that going
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: missing is not a crime. And I've been involved in
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: where missing people had been found and they say, listen,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I don't want to be found.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: I break work with my family.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: But you've got to have a context around that to say, listen,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: this is the family situation. What was your family? And
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: so I think it was close knit. Yeah, and it
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: would be stressful. Looking after your young sister and mumma
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: would have been stressful at times. But as you say,
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: he's the kind of person that would have said, hey, Steph,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: give me a hand here for sure.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Look, I've been looking after my parents for years until
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: he came home. And I did find it stressful, had
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: on heart. It still is stressful. Rickby didn't find it stressful.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Rickby took it with ease, like I never saw him
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: get stressed out once anything he had to do in
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: his caring role. He loved being there. He loved my mum,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: he loved my sister, he loved caring for them, he
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: loved cooking for them. You know, he really did take
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: it in his stride. And this is what I was
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: saying to the place not getting it. Don't dismiss what
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: I'm saying. I know my brother. I know my brother
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: better than anyone, and who just wouldn't have left them?
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's out of character, and these things should
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: have been taken up, Like I said with that case
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and two where she's gone missing for
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: three hours, and boy, they'd called the whole cavalry out
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: because it was out of character. But in this case,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: they've just sort of bloss over the character aspect of
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Rigby's disappearance.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: And it's incredibly frustrated. I can't believe what you've had
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: to go through.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: And Mum went to a grave not knowing how was
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: she in her last years, wondering what happened to her son?
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Heartbroken? Heartbroken? How do you cope with that?
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: You know, she'd just lost her husband and then her
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: son days missing, who was dreadful for her.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: It is a sad story, Stephan. Thank you for sharing it.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: I know it's been painful and I'm going to forward
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: this podcast to my friends at the West Australia Police
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Media and so they've got their own podcast now by
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: the way, so they're interested in broadcasting aspects of cases
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: and cold cases. This is one that should be done,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: but it really should also go to the coroner. So
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: a coronial brief needs to be creative for this. The
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: coroner to work out has the service been appropriate, what
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: are the leads that exist, and what is the likely
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: outcome of the evidence that's been accumulated, and also what
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: evid it still exists we could be pursued. And I
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: know that was the same case in the Cheryl Grimmer
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: case for Ricky and their family. They didn't even know
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: that there was a confession nineteen seventy one, a year
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: after Cheryl disappeared. There's a confession of somebody who said
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: I took her and murdered it and it wasn't it
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: wasn't followed up. So this is where fresh eyes, whether
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: it's detectives or the coroner, is absolutely critical.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: Stephanie, thank you for sharing your story today.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks thanks having me.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: I'll try to be more diligent. I won't wait ten
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: years again.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: It's okay Illinois, could please.
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: Do please, We've got to be accountable as well, because
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: this is I mean, this is the great thing about
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: podcasting and new social media is that you know, trying
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: to get this story into the newspaper now or the
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: TV bullet and say, oh, what's the fresh angle.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: Well, a family has never had any service.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: I need a fresh angle, just correct doesn't need he's
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: still missing.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Someone to help me, please.
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: It's definitely We'll keep in touch. Thank you so much
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: for your time today.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Thanks, thanks very much.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Just an update on the Rigby Fielding case. As promised,
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: I've spoken to West Australian Police and they've given us
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: the following statements and also a reminder that there are
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: rewards for all of these long term missing persons cases
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: still in Western Australia.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: So here's what the West Antraian Police have to say.
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: Despite extensive investigations, the full circumstances surrounding Rigby Fielding's disappearance
• 29:04
  Speaker 7: remain unknown and he is still missing for his family.
• 29:08
  Speaker 7: The passage of time has not lessened the uncertainty or
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: the impact of his disappearance. These matters are never forgotten
• 29:15
  Speaker 7: and they remain a priority for police in December twenty
• 29:19
  Speaker 7: twenty four, the state government announced a reward of up
• 29:22
  Speaker 7: to five hundred thousand dollars for information that leads to
• 29:26
  Speaker 7: the resolution of long term missing person cases in Western Australia.
• 29:31
  Speaker 7: This is the first time such a reward has been
• 29:33
  Speaker 7: offered in this state. Long term missing persons are those
• 29:37
  Speaker 7: who have not been seen or heard from for more
• 29:40
  Speaker 7: than ninety days, where there is no indication of criminality.
• 29:45
  Speaker 7: These investigations are managed by the Missing Persons Team within
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: the Major Crime Division, alongside separate awards that remain in
• 29:53
  Speaker 7: place for historical homicides and suspicious disappearances. The WA Police
• 29:58
  Speaker 7: Force remains committed in its pursuit of answers for all
• 30:02
  Speaker 7: outstanding long term missing person case.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: That was Stephanie Fielding on the search for her brother Rigby,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: a tale of missed opportunities, potential bias and failure. Like
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: many loved ones are missing people, Stephanie has become her
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: own investigator. There could be no greater expression of love
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: than this, and the police and the coroner need to
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: support Stephanie. If you can bring Rigby home, or at
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: least help his family understand his fate, I implore you to
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: call Crime Stoppers and one one hundred, Triple three, Triple zero.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: If you don't trust the police or you fear prosecution,
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: you can always email me on Adam Shanner writer at
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: gmail dot com and I'll pass on the information to Stephanie.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: But either way, don't let this family suffer any longer.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: What I've discovered in this case is there may be
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: several cases that are connected gay men going missing. Inadequate
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: investigations have let murger Is go free.
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: This is not good enough. This has been Adam Shanfer
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: Real Crime. Thanks for listening.
• 31:20
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• 31:24
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• 31:27
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• 31:30
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• 31:34
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