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If Not Milat, Then Who? · Real Crime with Adam Shand

0:05
Speaker 1: Appoche Production.
0:14
Speaker 2: Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand. I'm your host,
0:16
Speaker 2: Adam Shand. I've got about half a dozen stories over
0:19
Speaker 2: my forty year career as a crime journalist that I'll
0:22
Speaker 2: never give up on. The loved ones of the deceased
0:25
Speaker 2: or the missing person's become friends and you just don't
0:28
Speaker 2: want to let them down. You remain optimistic and try
0:31
Speaker 2: to find new angles to get the police to look again,
0:34
Speaker 2: or even to get a coronial inquest on the basis
0:36
Speaker 2: of fresh and compelling new evidence. One such case is
0:41
Speaker 2: the disappearance of eighteen year old Anita Cunningham in July
0:44
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two. Anita went hitchhiking with her friend Robin
0:48
Speaker 2: Hoyneville Bartram to North Queensland and they never reached their
0:51
Speaker 2: destination in Bowen. Months later, Robin's remains were discovered in
0:56
Speaker 2: Sensible Creek under a bridge on the Flinders Highway. The
1:00
Speaker 2: fate of Anita remains unknown.
1:02
Speaker 3: To this day.
1:03
Speaker 2: I spoke to her brother Dave for the first episode
1:05
Speaker 2: of this podcast series, and back then backpack of killer
1:09
Speaker 2: Ivan Mulatt was a leading suspect. However, new information has
1:13
Speaker 2: come to light that probably excludes the evil Mulatt. I
1:18
Speaker 2: was never convinced that Malat was right for this. I
1:20
Speaker 2: leaned towards the whiskey a go go John Andrews Stewart,
1:24
Speaker 2: who I can put on the ground at the relevant time.
1:27
Speaker 2: I caught up with Dave again recently to discuss this
1:29
Speaker 2: and other developments in the case. Enjoy David Cunningham, Welcome
1:36
Speaker 2: back to Real Prime with Adam Shannon.
1:37
Speaker 3: Pleasure to talk to you again, mate, Yeah.
1:39
Speaker 1: Thanks, that'd be good to see your face and good
1:41
Speaker 1: to hear from you.
1:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:43
Speaker 2: Your episode was the first that we launched on this podcast,
1:48
Speaker 2: and it's still got the most views, most downloads, which
1:52
Speaker 2: tells me there's an enduring interest in this story and
1:57
Speaker 2: we're going to keep on it until we get somewhere
2:00
Speaker 2: to eliminate all this fantastic or we find what actually
2:04
Speaker 2: really happened. And you've been indefatigable in your pursuit of
2:09
Speaker 2: justice for your sister Anita, but it's been setback after
2:12
Speaker 2: setback in recent times.
2:14
Speaker 3: What have you been up to?
2:15
Speaker 1: Well, well, I appreciate that you've stuck with us too,
2:19
Speaker 1: Adam and the really nephatic in one of who is MC?
2:24
Speaker 1: You know the ninety three year old tire. So your
2:27
Speaker 1: detective who cracked the case. What I've got to been
2:30
Speaker 1: up to. We've just we've been in communication with government,
2:36
Speaker 1: and the government actually is really giving us some encouraging
2:40
Speaker 1: science a moment. We're communicating with the Attorney General. There
2:45
Speaker 1: have been a couple of people coming forward with interesting clues.
2:50
Speaker 1: We're still wanting for that one clue that will sort
2:55
Speaker 1: of be like a domino and just top of a
2:57
Speaker 1: whole lot of unanswered questions. You know, you only takes
3:01
Speaker 1: one little clue to open up a whole you gamal inquiry.
3:07
Speaker 3: Well, I think so.
3:08
Speaker 2: And I think one of the issues that you've had
3:11
Speaker 2: is that Queensland Police have been less than forthcoming with
3:15
Speaker 2: sharing information with you and others about this case on
3:19
Speaker 2: the pretext that this is an ongoing investigation. If it
3:22
Speaker 2: is ongoing, I'm not sure where it's going to be
3:24
Speaker 2: perfectly honest. And so you've had to deal with a
3:27
Speaker 2: lot of factoids in this case, what I call factoids,
3:30
Speaker 2: things that people think are true that may not be true.
3:34
Speaker 3: And the number one thing that I've been looking at.
3:37
Speaker 2: In recent times and hearing more and more about is
3:39
Speaker 2: Ivan Malatt and obviously we had old Merle White, who's late,
3:43
Speaker 2: and she was convinced that Ivan Malatt turned up at
3:48
Speaker 2: the Pentland Hotel when the girls were there and was
3:52
Speaker 2: the one that took them away, called himself Cowboy, went
3:56
Speaker 2: by the name of Richard, which, of course I think
3:58
Speaker 2: Ivan had a brother, Richard, I think.
4:00
Speaker 3: But I've never been convinced by that.
4:03
Speaker 2: And I think of the problem with my Lap now
4:06
Speaker 2: is that whenever any unsolved murders come up, people say
4:10
Speaker 2: it must be Oven my.
4:11
Speaker 1: Lap, and it's anathy to depended on somebody who's now
4:16
Speaker 1: out of the picture going can't speak for themselves. We've
4:20
Speaker 1: since found out a fair bit more about my Lad
4:24
Speaker 1: and about Well's testimony in regards to my Lap. First
4:28
Speaker 1: of all, she said that there was a guy that
4:33
Speaker 1: was being called Cowboy, and quite a few years after
4:39
Speaker 1: the events took place, she saw my Lat on the
4:44
Speaker 1: television and said that he looked like the guy that
4:48
Speaker 1: was being called Cowboy. But you know, a lot of
4:52
Speaker 1: years have passed and the memories can get a bit fuzzy.
4:56
Speaker 1: Now it turns out that Cowboy was never one of
4:59
Speaker 1: my Lat's nicknames. Richard, yes, one another one of his
5:04
Speaker 1: brothers and so on, but apparently he was never known
5:08
Speaker 1: by the name of Cowboy. Also the story of somehow
5:12
Speaker 1: I've got about that the girls left the pub with
5:17
Speaker 1: my Lats and even in the recent television broadcast they
5:21
Speaker 1: said that Merle had said had claimed that the girls
5:27
Speaker 1: left in my Lat's car with my Lat, and that
5:29
Speaker 1: my Lat was seen hunched over and Steero were later
5:32
Speaker 1: a sensible creek. She never said that at all. She
5:35
Speaker 1: said the girls left in the band member's car with
5:39
Speaker 1: the band members who she named, who.
5:41
Speaker 3: Were playing at the Pentland Hotel that night.
5:43
Speaker 1: That's right, and one of the band members who owned
5:45
Speaker 1: the car was swapped over the suitwheel. Mylat didn't even
5:48
Speaker 1: come into the picture. But what she did say was
5:51
Speaker 1: that when the girls arrived at the Punkland Hotel cattle
5:55
Speaker 1: truck that they'd been traveling with this guy, Cowboy. Now
6:01
Speaker 1: you know it's things now that it can't have been
6:04
Speaker 1: my Lap. It musta been somebody looked like him, because
6:08
Speaker 1: we now know we've got letters that have been written
6:11
Speaker 1: from New Zealand from Malat to his mother and his
6:15
Speaker 1: sister during that old time that the girls. Between when
6:19
Speaker 1: the girls went missing and when Robins body was dicovered,
6:23
Speaker 1: so he can't have been up there at all. He
6:26
Speaker 1: must have been in New Zealand. So he's out of
6:28
Speaker 1: the picture as far as I'm concerned, unless we find
6:31
Speaker 1: out so right.
6:32
Speaker 3: That's very important.
6:33
Speaker 2: We can't ask Malat because he's dead, not that he
6:35
Speaker 2: help anyway, because he wasn't that sort of type of
6:37
Speaker 2: person to even help him. Then he took his secrets
6:40
Speaker 2: to the grave. And the other thing that people have
6:41
Speaker 2: pointed to is that Malatt was a trophy keeper. When
6:46
Speaker 2: he killed somebody, he would keep items of their possessions.
6:50
Speaker 2: He took them back to his home in New South
6:52
Speaker 2: Wales and they found all those and they basically managed
6:56
Speaker 2: to connect whatever was there to a particular victim, including
7:02
Speaker 2: the seven backpackers for whom he was found guilty of
7:05
Speaker 2: their murders. So, I mean, there was that story that
7:09
Speaker 2: Malatt was working out on the roads, and I think
7:11
Speaker 2: Mick Gern, your indefatigable investigator, he seemed to put together
7:16
Speaker 2: a scenario where you could have put my lap at
7:19
Speaker 2: Mount Isa, which.
7:20
Speaker 1: Is and we did. We did, but further investigation turned
7:27
Speaker 1: out negative.
7:28
Speaker 2: You know, right, we can give Malatt some some grace
7:31
Speaker 2: on that one. If nothing else, Yeah, it.
7:33
Speaker 1: Was at the moment.
7:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think you can limit anybody, but I
7:37
Speaker 2: think that's obviously a powerful piece of evidence because one
7:41
Speaker 2: thing I've always struggled with is the timeline of when
7:46
Speaker 2: the girls get to Queen's Land, and obviously when Robin
7:51
Speaker 2: was murdered, and we hear that back in the day,
7:55
Speaker 2: there was a theory or a belief that Robin had
7:58
Speaker 2: been murdered in September or October or August even, and
8:03
Speaker 2: there was different differing accounts on that. Unfortunately, again the
8:07
Speaker 2: willingness of Cleansland Police to give up its records to
8:10
Speaker 2: help establish that timeline makes all these assumptions very difficult.
8:15
Speaker 4: And yeah, yes, well, what would be helpful is if
8:22
Speaker 4: I could be granted access to the coroner's inquest report.
8:29
Speaker 1: Apparently, you know, like we were told that there'd been
8:32
Speaker 1: no inquest, but it took us a couple of years
8:35
Speaker 1: or we found out that the actually handy Mick turned
8:38
Speaker 1: it up. I found it in the government records sonout
8:42
Speaker 1: and it was an inquest that was held in nineteen
8:45
Speaker 1: seventy five. I will lead into Robin's death, Robin's murder,
8:50
Speaker 1: but the reports, the records of that in quest are
8:55
Speaker 1: sealed for eighty five years.
8:57
Speaker 2: Why the actual why would they be sealed for god
9:00
Speaker 2: goodness sake?
9:02
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe it's something to do with JFK.
9:04
Speaker 1: Who know. You know, it's ridiculous anyway, So I've been
9:10
Speaker 1: refused access to it. But I do know that the
9:17
Speaker 1: report of the inquest would give us an idea of
9:21
Speaker 1: the state of decomposition that Robin's remains were founded, and
9:27
Speaker 1: if we had access to that information, we would be
9:31
Speaker 1: able to make up our own mind about how long
9:36
Speaker 1: previously she's likely to have been murdered, how long her
9:40
Speaker 1: remains have been disintegrating. There's a bit of disagreement between
9:46
Speaker 1: different forensic experts on how long she'd actually been disteased
9:51
Speaker 1: before she was discovered.
9:53
Speaker 2: Well, absolutely, I think that's a key point. And I've
9:56
Speaker 2: never really been convinced by what I've read, which has
10:01
Speaker 2: tended to be cribbed from earlier reports and things that
10:05
Speaker 2: where Robin was found under the bridge at Sensible Creek
10:09
Speaker 2: near Pentland, whether that was a shallow grave or simply
10:14
Speaker 2: a wash away where her body has.
10:18
Speaker 3: Ended up in the floods.
10:19
Speaker 2: Was we worked out that year there was big rains
10:22
Speaker 2: and the creek ran pretty strongly, and when we were
10:25
Speaker 2: there making our show for The Hunters, we saw how
10:27
Speaker 2: fast things can change in that creek, where there was
10:30
Speaker 2: a heavy downboard, suddenly there was water running through.
10:34
Speaker 3: And I've never been convinced that that was the murder scene.
10:38
Speaker 2: And that's where we can sort of draw conclusions about
10:42
Speaker 2: I've always felt and something that I was outvoted on
10:45
Speaker 2: when we made our show on The Hunters. I might
10:48
Speaker 2: say that the murder scene could have been further upstream,
10:53
Speaker 2: and Robin's body could have ended up there, and Anita's could.
10:58
Speaker 3: Therefore be somewhere upstream.
11:01
Speaker 2: But I don't think there's been any significant excavation beyond
11:06
Speaker 2: the immediate site.
11:07
Speaker 3: And with all.
11:09
Speaker 2: Due respect to doctor Luis Steedding, who did our excavation
11:12
Speaker 2: and work for our show, we's there right in on
11:14
Speaker 2: the exact spot where Robin was found under the breads,
11:19
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm not an expert, but I felt
11:21
Speaker 2: we could have gone further afield using the Floodplaine diagrams
11:26
Speaker 2: to work out what the creek did, and so we
11:29
Speaker 2: didn't do that and we didn't find anything, so that
11:32
Speaker 2: was disappointing.
11:33
Speaker 1: Well, I think you're right. You know that there is
11:36
Speaker 1: no no evidence saying that that's where the murder took place,
11:42
Speaker 1: or that's where she was actually buried, or whether she
11:45
Speaker 1: was washed down from from somewhere else. You know, being
11:49
Speaker 1: washed down into that position is highly likely, but we
11:53
Speaker 1: can't It's just something we can't know. And I agree
11:56
Speaker 1: we could have explored further afield. But in Louise's defense,
12:01
Speaker 1: she subsequently came back and she brought with her Cadava dogs.
12:08
Speaker 1: Who are you trained to smell bodies that have been
12:12
Speaker 1: buried for you know, the hundred years or whatever. They're
12:16
Speaker 1: very very clever, very sensitive. Nobody knows how they do it,
12:19
Speaker 1: but they do it. So those dogs explored up stream
12:22
Speaker 1: and downstream, not as far as old was lot, but
12:26
Speaker 1: they were giving their services for free, so you know,
12:29
Speaker 1: I was just very grateful they did what they did.
12:32
Speaker 1: They found some evidence other side of the railway bridge
12:37
Speaker 1: that there were human remains, but we couldn't dig. We
12:41
Speaker 1: dog a little. But since that railway bridge is a
12:46
Speaker 1: new railway bridge. Since Robert died, the old railway bridge
12:51
Speaker 1: was pulled down. They built a new railway bridge beside
12:54
Speaker 1: it and the side to where the dogs in the code.
13:00
Speaker 1: They believed there were human bones, but the dirt was
13:03
Speaker 1: all mixed up with road ballast and stuff like that.
13:06
Speaker 1: You just couldn't dig. You need a machine to dig there.
13:10
Speaker 1: So we was hoping that the police will, you know,
13:15
Speaker 1: do something about it and come and do exploration, bringing
13:19
Speaker 1: their own cadaver dogs and their machinery and explore that song.
13:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not a strong believer in the cadaver dogs,
13:27
Speaker 2: I've got to tell you. Yeah, I've had discussions with
13:29
Speaker 2: state police forces about this and there. It's a bit
13:33
Speaker 2: hit and miss. Some of them are effective, some are not.
13:36
Speaker 2: So it's hard to ask you. It's hard to ask
13:38
Speaker 2: the dog and say, why do you get it wrong?
13:40
Speaker 1: You know? So Yeah, in their defense, two separate dogs,
13:46
Speaker 1: on separate occasions, without being able to witness each other,
13:51
Speaker 1: both struck this exactly the same spot.
13:54
Speaker 3: I see. Okay, that's good.
13:57
Speaker 2: But I guess the thing is if that we're in
13:59
Speaker 2: the realm of speculation, and this is what this case
14:02
Speaker 2: is all about, by the way, exactly, and you age
14:05
Speaker 2: would have included significant excavation yep, to build the pylons
14:09
Speaker 2: and so forth.
14:10
Speaker 3: So they didn't find anything. So I wonder I wonder,
14:14
Speaker 3: you know, I wonder.
14:15
Speaker 1: But this, Yeah, this is a little bit apart from
14:18
Speaker 1: the railway bridge, but still you would have expected. Yeah, anyway,
14:22
Speaker 1: we don't, like you said, speculation.
14:25
Speaker 3: It is.
14:25
Speaker 2: It is so we can put them a lap to
14:27
Speaker 2: one side. We don't discount in completely. But let's he's
14:29
Speaker 2: not in the frame front and center. As you recall,
14:33
Speaker 2: when we were there Pentland and Sensible Creek, I came
14:37
Speaker 2: to the view that John Andrews Stewart was a more
14:40
Speaker 2: likely suspect. We could actually put him on the ground,
14:43
Speaker 2: I think in October nineteen seventy two, and he was
14:48
Speaker 2: just the kind of narcissistic individual, a very cruel, manipulative,
14:52
Speaker 2: vicious person. He was later involved in the Whiskey Go
14:56
Speaker 2: Go farre in Brisbane, which took fifteen lives. I always
15:00
Speaker 2: felt he was a much stronger suspect, and I think
15:04
Speaker 2: now that you tell me my that is off the
15:06
Speaker 2: menu as it were, Yes, I would go back to Stuart.
15:09
Speaker 1: Yep, and Stuart, you know, he's not off the table.
15:12
Speaker 1: But anyways, he's still on the table. But the thing
15:16
Speaker 1: that mitigates against Stuart, or one of the things in
15:19
Speaker 1: my live view, is the fact that Robin's body was
15:25
Speaker 1: unbelieve from what I've been told, Naparently the body it
15:30
Speaker 1: was policed back a long time ago a police forensic guy.
15:34
Speaker 1: The body was significantly you know, disarticulated and what do
15:39
Speaker 1: you call it, rotten down, disintegrade it or whatever.
15:43
Speaker 5: Yes, and that there was only one forensic expert who
15:49
Speaker 5: believed that could have happened in that space of time
15:55
Speaker 5: to make Stuart a likely suspect.
15:58
Speaker 1: He believed that he was a fronty expert. He believed
16:01
Speaker 1: that because of the climate there that things down a
16:05
Speaker 1: lot quicker. Yeah, whereas the other two forensic people said, no,
16:11
Speaker 1: it couldn't have happened in such a quick time.
16:14
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well it is a pretty inexact science.
16:16
Speaker 1: Yeah.
16:17
Speaker 2: This, and also the state of the science was in
16:20
Speaker 2: its infancy as well. That it's not helped by the
16:22
Speaker 2: fact that poor old Robin was lost twice, first with
16:26
Speaker 2: an ether and then in the floods in nineteen seventy four.
16:29
Speaker 2: Her remains were washed away out of the police forensic
16:33
Speaker 2: center in Brisbane. So you can't even go back to
16:36
Speaker 2: those remains now and retest them for anything else that
16:40
Speaker 2: might be possible.
16:41
Speaker 1: So again, frustration day extremely frustrating. Yeah, frustrating is just
16:46
Speaker 1: the name of the game. Was this unfortunately, but we
16:49
Speaker 1: just keep plodding on. Little things keep turning up, and
16:54
Speaker 1: so you know, the whole hasn't completely died yet.
16:58
Speaker 3: Well will it ever? Dave, I don't think you're that
16:59
Speaker 3: kind of person.
17:00
Speaker 1: That tried exactly You're correct.
17:04
Speaker 2: Because what would happen the day after you'd given up hope?
17:06
Speaker 2: I mean, I understood. I can't imagine you doing that.
17:09
Speaker 1: That's there was no point, ye, yeah, so and that's
17:14
Speaker 1: your sick whether you got hope or whether you give
17:17
Speaker 1: up hope. She didn't still keep churning up, you know.
17:21
Speaker 2: Correct, you know, And I was somewhat amazed, somewhat heartened.
17:25
Speaker 2: But when we did our walk around through Pentland, the
17:27
Speaker 2: amount of people who seem to have more information that
17:31
Speaker 2: was potentially useful about other potential sightings of the girls
17:36
Speaker 2: at another pub more far flung, and also fascinatingly the
17:42
Speaker 2: mention of that very very corrupt ex police officer, Mervin
17:46
Speaker 2: Henry Stevenson. And I did a bit of work on
17:49
Speaker 2: him after that name came up and did a podcast
17:53
Speaker 2: which the listeners can find there, and he was thoroughly
17:57
Speaker 2: evil and he'd been involved in one or two very
18:00
Speaker 2: conspicuous events murders, police stations, getting set on.
18:05
Speaker 3: Fire, and I wonder what information he had.
18:08
Speaker 2: I still think that it's a little town with big secrets,
18:12
Speaker 2: Pentland and some of the old timers. There was a
18:16
Speaker 2: patient investigator who went around, knocked on doors, rechecked statements,
18:21
Speaker 2: got all the files, the archives out, because you'd imagine
18:24
Speaker 2: that back in the day, once Robin's body was found,
18:27
Speaker 2: they would have gone back to town, knocked on doors, got
18:32
Speaker 2: a lot of statements. What's happened to all that material?
18:36
Speaker 3: Have you ever seen a file?
18:38
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not allowed to access and need. This's file
18:44
Speaker 1: police file. I put it in Queensland. They call it
18:48
Speaker 1: right to information. Were called street with information. I put
18:52
Speaker 1: in an FOI request, But yeah, they've marked the file
18:59
Speaker 1: under investigation and they have no intention of releasing anything,
19:07
Speaker 1: so I can't can't get any information. I do have
19:12
Speaker 1: some information that I was told by the head of
19:15
Speaker 1: the cold case Sport many years ago. He told me
19:18
Speaker 1: a little bit about some of the things in my file. No, no,
19:22
Speaker 1: I've never seen any that information that's secretly Yeah. Yeah,
19:27
Speaker 1: when we were up there last and we found that
19:31
Speaker 1: probably got the positive feedback from the dogs. I contacted
19:35
Speaker 1: a member of the Charlestowners Police who has been investigating
19:39
Speaker 1: this matter and taking statements from witnesses recently. And you know,
19:48
Speaker 1: I was told, then get back to me, and you
19:50
Speaker 1: get back to me and get back to me, but
19:53
Speaker 1: never did. And Louise said he also I tried to
19:57
Speaker 1: contact him with that news, but he wouldn't talk to her.
20:01
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
20:01
Speaker 3: It's yeah, frustrated.
20:05
Speaker 2: The other fascinating piece of evidence which we uncovered, it's
20:10
Speaker 2: gone back a while now, was that strange letter that
20:13
Speaker 2: was written to Anita's friend in Melbourne, not even a
20:18
Speaker 2: close friend, but who would have been in her address book.
20:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, remember that one.
20:25
Speaker 1: That was a very cryptic, very strange letter that warranted
20:31
Speaker 1: immediate follower. It was so it contained clues and it
20:37
Speaker 1: was so bizarre that it really wanted but the police
20:41
Speaker 1: didn't follow it up for and I think it was
20:45
Speaker 1: January the following year, somebody went up to Chiligo, but
20:50
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. But there's nothing in the
20:52
Speaker 1: fire about anything that they just gavered or anything they investigated.
20:56
Speaker 1: I like this last time I went up there, I
21:00
Speaker 1: went to chew Ando to pull those drives from Charter's Turn.
21:05
Speaker 1: And it's just east of Cairnnes, that sort of just
21:09
Speaker 1: yst of Cairns and it's a beautiful little town. It
21:15
Speaker 1: would have changed a lot in the fifty years since
21:18
Speaker 1: you know the letter was written. There was nothing I
21:21
Speaker 1: can find up there. I just went up there to
21:23
Speaker 1: get a feel of the place. It's full of limestone caves. Yeah,
21:28
Speaker 1: and the letter mentioned that it's a dead hole. Dead hole, madam.
21:33
Speaker 1: You know.
21:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a fascinating one because I should remind
21:37
Speaker 2: people what that was, because this came from Chiligo, as you.
21:41
Speaker 3: Say, it's very far away from Pentland.
21:44
Speaker 2: And it was on the on a grocery receipt from
21:48
Speaker 2: the Jack and Mule store in Chiligo and addressed to
21:52
Speaker 2: ALTHEA Briars in Melbourne, who had no connection to that
21:56
Speaker 2: place up there whatsoever. And on the back was written,
22:00
Speaker 2: I do not recommend that you come here for long
22:02
Speaker 2: or unaccompanied. Tis verily a dead hole, madam and the
22:06
Speaker 2: station hands desperate, I mean, weird as bizarre, but seemingly
22:13
Speaker 2: connected somehow. And I do think that one's worth following
22:16
Speaker 2: up because you've got a sample of handwriting, which I
22:20
Speaker 2: don't think has ever been properly connected to anybody.
22:22
Speaker 3: Else or compared.
22:24
Speaker 2: And so that's another thing that can be followed up
22:27
Speaker 2: still somehow by an enterprising detective.
22:29
Speaker 3: And I just hope that maybe young detective.
22:32
Speaker 2: Up in Brisbane or out in the country somewhere might go,
22:35
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm taking up this cold case, get
22:38
Speaker 2: the inquest file out, look at some of these anomalies,
22:41
Speaker 2: some of these these speculative issues, and get some certainty again, like,
22:46
Speaker 2: for instance, is the bridge where Robin was actually killed?
22:52
Speaker 2: Or is this a wash away? What does the autopsy
22:54
Speaker 2: actually say where was Can we really finally eliminate my
22:59
Speaker 2: lap can John Andrews Stewart we put back in the frame.
23:03
Speaker 2: Arthur Stanley Brown another name that came up. I don't
23:05
Speaker 2: think that's a possibility, but no talk about him. But
23:10
Speaker 2: you know, for you now, I guess time will eventually
23:14
Speaker 2: run out. And it's been through your agitation, your willingness
23:19
Speaker 2: to connect with media, even if it's been tedious and
23:23
Speaker 2: long and unavailing, that's kept this in the spotlight. And
23:26
Speaker 2: I've got to give you credit, Dave, And I'm going
23:30
Speaker 2: to keep going on this, but I just hope that,
23:32
Speaker 2: as I say, an enterprising detective decides one more review,
23:36
Speaker 2: one more review, even the coroner could go let me
23:39
Speaker 2: review this this death one more time, and that could
23:43
Speaker 2: yield something new.
23:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I fully agree with you. And although I can't
23:49
Speaker 1: accept you your praise, your praise doesn't go to me
23:53
Speaker 1: for TANASI prose goes to Mick Gerner, retarded detective who
23:58
Speaker 1: is just like a bulldog. He will not let go
24:01
Speaker 1: and he just keeps working like he wouldn't believe. But
24:05
Speaker 1: but I do fully agree with you all that these
24:08
Speaker 1: is for a curious young detective that's currently in the force,
24:14
Speaker 1: or maybe a lawyer who decides to want to take
24:18
Speaker 1: on the case pro bono and pursue why the thing
24:23
Speaker 1: keeps getting blocked at official levels. You know, there are
24:28
Speaker 1: avenues for this thing to proceed to a commissioner inquiry
24:34
Speaker 1: or an inquiest or for the other inquests to agree
24:37
Speaker 1: open so that we can get people on the witness stand,
24:42
Speaker 1: get them to you know, probably a bit of pressure on them,
24:44
Speaker 1: and get them to tell us what they know.
24:48
Speaker 2: And just review the entire police investigation, which would be
24:51
Speaker 2: very proper area of inquiry for the coroner. So let's
24:55
Speaker 2: hope that that's going to happen, Dave at some stage.
24:57
Speaker 2: But keep punching, keep ringing me up, keep giving me
25:01
Speaker 2: incentive to look at this one again, because I'll always
25:03
Speaker 2: be there for you, mate.
25:05
Speaker 1: But I really appreciate your help with this. You know
25:08
Speaker 1: you've been rockshawal who can't thank you enough.
25:12
Speaker 3: That's my pleasure. That's my pleasure.
25:14
Speaker 2: I think your situation speaks to the plight of every
25:18
Speaker 2: family who's never got answers, and I know many of
25:21
Speaker 2: them over the years, and that it is a heartrending situation.
25:25
Speaker 2: So I wish you all the very best, mate, Thanks
25:28
Speaker 2: once again for your time. Mate, appreciate you coming on
25:30
Speaker 2: and let's keep in touch. That's Dave Cunningham, brother of
25:35
Speaker 2: Anita Cunningham. I think there's still a reward there for
25:38
Speaker 2: information people A quarter of a million dollars. Surely someone
25:41
Speaker 2: out there knows someone who knows something. Get in touch,
25:45
Speaker 2: let somebody know. I as I say, I don't think
25:48
Speaker 2: Malatt is the culprit. I think it's more likely to
25:51
Speaker 2: be John Andrew Stewart, but it doesn't have to be someone.
25:53
Speaker 2: Everyone knows that country was full of men with dark
25:57
Speaker 2: pass often Atheas' is moving around the countryside and no
26:00
Speaker 2: wonder there are so many unsolved murders from that area.
26:04
Speaker 2: RTH Queensland dubbed the Murder Highway and people did get
26:07
Speaker 2: away with a lot.
26:08
Speaker 3: Maybe you've got that piece of information.
26:11
Speaker 2: There will be inclosure to Dave Cunningham and his family
26:14
Speaker 2: or maybe some other crime. Get in touch with crime stoppers.
26:17
Speaker 2: The number is one, one hundred, triple three, triple zero.
26:19
Speaker 2: Maybe you don't trust the cops and after this story,
26:22
Speaker 2: maybe that's justified. So you can always email me as well,
26:25
Speaker 2: Adam Shanned writer at gmail dot com. I'll treat your
26:29
Speaker 2: inquiry as fully confidential, but I will take action.
26:33
Speaker 3: Be warned. This is with Adam Sham for Real Crime.
26:35
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening.
26:48
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26:52
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