Case 186: The Bowraville Murders

DESCRIPTION
When 16-year-old Colleen Walker suddenly vanished from the New South Wales town of Bowraville in September 1990, her family and friends knew something was terribly wrong. But local police dismissed their concerns, suggesting that the Indigenous teenager had simply “gone walkabout”...
CREDITS
Narration - Anonymous Host
Research & writing - Erin Munro
Creative direction - Milly Raso
Production and music - Mike Migas
Music - Andrew D.B. Joslyn
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RESOURCES
For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-186-...

[@gabe-po9yi]

Just trying to imagine my child going missing and the police don’t even care enough to take a report.

[@Lopyswine]

Just trying to imagine a group of people that won't talk to the police even when a child is missing.

[@Itoshimi]

@@LopyswineWith reason. You think if they trusted the police to do their jobs they wouldn’t tell the police? Dont blame the victims for not trusting the police, they don’t trust them for no reason. Imagine stealing land not yours and then being racist to the original inhabitants.

[@Lopyswine]

@@Itoshimi stealing? They were conquered. No one has a right to hold land that they can't defend.

[@robyn7287]

Itoshmi, let’s see how you feel when your country is invaded, will you be , oh well we lost so now its yours 😮

[@Anna4ali]

Omg !! This made my blood boil from the beginning.. hope the original police officers never have a good night sleep. Shame ! It’s so unbelievable awful, my jaw dropped every time they acquitted him . Indigenous people have to fight to just be humans !! Awful part of Australia that as always being swept under the carpet. And this was 1990 remember that ! Not that long ago ! Heart ❤ hurts for all families… hope the whole world hear this .

[@blueyoshi8231]

I'm an Aussie 🇦🇺 and I haven't heard this one! Kept quiet no doubt🙄 bloody shameful 😢

[@perpetualplatypussy69]

What? That is incredibly shameful. We know why you've never heard of it 😡 I only knew about it because I grew up in Grafton and lived in Coffs and surrounding areas at the time. Still... You ever hear mainstream media bring this case up? F**king atrocious.

[@foxycat8751]

I’m Aussie and it was reported, however, it was well known that racism during the cases were the reason why the cases never made traction.

[@texastea5686]

I like how your channel gives such a beautiful and honorable description of each victims' personality ❤

[@theresawhitty8124]

How can people treat each other like some lives are not worth caring about? Especially a 4 year old child? It's a heartbreaking disgrace.

[@jerrymarshall2095]

Leftist b.s.,people care just not leftist,they project their bull on everybody else.tgink about it.This tale is written without the cops side of the story.

[@johayes7529]

That’s what racism and white entitlement does in small country towns. This was the 90’s not 1920. Those same white people now are terrified if indigenous people are recognised in our constitution they will become second class citizens in what they believe is their country!

[@CritterHeadquarters]

I know, it's outrageous.

[@CritterHeadquarters]

This is heartbreaking, My deepest sympathy to the families and loved ones affected

[@janeking118]

Great coverage of the case.Absolutely,one of the most disturbing and,led by racism cases🤦‍♀️😢 A wee help with cultural words,it's "yarndy", not "yarney Thanks for your channel,I love it👍❤️🇦🇺

[@rkh7904]

The rest of the world should know how deep the injustice is towards the first nation people in this country. I am gobsmacked and disgusted about the total lack of care and professionalism of the local police and the many times the justice system failed these families. Its about time the justice system and many police stations around this country learned how to be respectful and understood cultural sensitivity. It needs to be a priority that the old attitude of colonial prejudices be thoroughly rooted out.

[@Natalie-qu2ue]

These poor families, this is heartbreaking.

[@christyzeeaquarianated2600]

I lived out the back of Bowraville in 97'-98'. The mistrust was still there, even then, and so was the racism - the division between black and white was something that settled over you like a shroud, you could cut the tension with a knife. It was a quiet, dusty little place, just another small Australian town - except it wasn't. There was an eeriness in that place that was so palpable, so present, I always had to battle with myself just to get out of the car whenever I was in town (there were times that I refused to leave the car at all.) It was like the air itself became fear soup; it felt oppressive and difficult to breathe...I'm not eloquent enough to adequately describe it. It's a beautiful place, but it's haunted by the ghosts of those poor kids, haunted by their fear, along with their families fear, grief and (understandable) frustration.

[@emmadilemma8179]

You described it perfectly!

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

Hmm maybe it's like different races shouldn't live together

[@perpetualplatypussy69]

Oh no honey, you were perfectly eloquent.

[@miami-mishie]

@@PoetofHateSpeech your cave awaits

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

@@miami-mishie Your BBC awaits

[@tammyhamilton2025]

Charge him already. He's not innocent. Guilty, guilty, guilty.

[@stuartd9741]

No witnesses actually seeing him commit the crime.. Not DNA evidence to link him.. Although a strong likelihood it was Jay difficult to prove without clear evidence...

[@sandcat66]

Australia's shame. I'm so sad for all the families 😢

[@idrisgrey]

Imagine caring so little for children on the basis of their ethnic background. This is shameful, yo.

[@chadczternastek]

Wow what research and attention to detail. Great channel and thank you for this gem.

[@PaulRudd1941]

Very sad that institutional racism made sure that this case would be blundered. Lots of similarities between the conduct of the NSW Police and the RCMP here in Canada.

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

🤣🤣🤣🤣 Can you dress yourself in the morning?

[@user-mt4ku7jw1y]

Can you tie your own shoelaces lol 😅

[@PaulRudd1941]

Look at these sad clowns 🤡

[@VladRadu-tq1pg]

@@PoetofHateSpeech such an edgelord....stupid people trying to sound inteligent or sarcastic is a pitifull sight

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

@@VladRadu-tq1pg You know what's even more pitiful? When someone already looks like a fool as you do, then said fool opens their mouths and removes all doubt..

[@eileencollins2536]

Thank you for the respectful way you have told this.... unimaginable horrible tale. Australia has a lot to answer for. We treated our First Australian people as being less than human.. in some cases, we still do.

[@user-mt4ku7jw1y]

It's shocking Australians are vile for that, shameful

[@melmazing3993]

My Saturday night sorted. Cheers buddy 🇦🇺👍

[@allannahk]

My god you’re good at this! Your research and script writing is excellent. Thank you.

[@bibi.isanazi]

the police should have searched, digged, the marihuana patch where the suspect grew marihuana and where the suspect threatened people to burry them there after killing them or he even claimed he already had done so. the field is nearby the river where the clothes of the victim were found, just the body has not been found yet. i believe the body is in the marihuana patch.

[@travisgray8376]

It's good U doing this one it never gets much media attention

[@fortefiles6168]

I love how these drop exactly when I need em 😂

[@clairewilson3278]

Hha I'm same yey 🙌🙌🙌

[@Frenchblue8]

You must need them every Saturday morning pretty much, LOL

[@nancychisholm5399]

The Game of Thrones maraton comes to a screeching halt thanks to a notification from Casefile.....

[@nancychisholm5399]

Sorry marathon...

[@valerieschreijer6490]

Hahaha ~ so true

[@inuchan74]

I can't even begin to express how shocked I am at how this one turned out! I thought it was a slam dunk... unbelievable

[@klientproby]

Judges in general are given too much power. Half the time they get it wrong. J. Hart is, imo, guilty. What a maddening case!!

[@JR-xw5nv]

Those police officers should be charged with accessory to murder. They helped the murderer stay at large.

[@persephone2268]

Then the parents should be charged for being drunk and not looking after their children.

[@JR-xw5nv]

​@@persephone2268So in other words, you're racist and believe that cops can just choose not to look for indigenous children, but any parent who has a drink is neglectful. Got it, whitey.

[@ladada-we6ct]

Yay Thanks for the upload of awesome content!!😍

[@helgaheyl5302]

You should look into the farm murders taking place in South Africa, as well as other notorious cases such as the Modimolle monster, the van Breda en Don Steenkamp family murders, muti murders and the case of Oscar Pistorius.

[@amorkorollennu3813]

Awesome content,you are real pro.

[@AMYV3]

Thank you :). We always know we are going to a great video every time you post. Just amazing content ♥️♥️🇨🇦

[@billie6814]

I'm Aussie and I used to live in Canada. I miss it so much and am depressed I can't return due to Covid 😔 I hope you're safe and well, sending love from Australia ❤️

[@user-gt8uf3nd9i]

The police treatment of the families was disgraceful. anyone who doesn't become alarmed by a four-year-old disappearance is a monster 😢 imagine being the families of the missing children.

[@brandyjean7015]

The strike force really tried. But they couldn't overcome the biased, lackluster, racist, self-serving local police & prosecutors. Even the High Court, sadly wasn't up to seeing justice served; content to maintain their status quo.

[@Jimmytheman1]

I know what I’m doing for the next hour and a half…

[@gwcoyne1147]

Did anyone think to do searches at the tanning factory entire property? Barrels and containers, parking and surrounding bush areas?

[@user-mt4ku7jw1y]

So suspect isn't it

[@PsychoKupcake]

Best channel to listen to when going to bed. Either the podcast or on YT, doesn't matter. Always a soothing voice.

[@AABB-bm9kk]

I’m surprised the Aborigines don’t get that guy like that entire town did with the town SOB in that rural USA case where nobody (as in everybody) “saw anything “. 🤔✌️

[@perpetualplatypussy69]

I want to hear more on that case

[@AABB-bm9kk]

@Rhonda Bothelio You got it !👍That’s the exact one I was referring to ✌️

[@crimeteetee]

Interesting stuff

[@starlight3455]

police attitude never fails to disgust me

[@NIN1]

God I love you Casefile

[@KrystalLioness]

same here

[@tulipmoore4378]

As a Mother, I am not sure how you would not continue to check on your child, I always check on my children if I get up in the night, even to just go to the washroom, and that is without all the of the following happening: 1) The child is crying 2) The door will not open 3)A loud thump 4) Sounds like a window closing 5)Child stops crying SO many red flags and you just go back to bed? My first thought would have been my child was hurt, there is no way I would have not found my way into check on my child. I just don't get it.

[@seebeyoundu]

Or letting a 16yr old girl travel around the country side with friends unsupervised and underage drinking. Even the story about the 16yr old boy was sus too.

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

But but but it must be racism

[@perpetualplatypussy69]

@@PoetofHateSpeech don't be a dickhead all your life.

[@belladonna5904]

The mom was drugged remember

[@Natlatify]

That wasn't her mother, that was her grandmother. Her mother was sleeping directly beside her. She was obviously drugged - hence why she didn't wake when Evelyn was taken, and she also awoke to her trousers pulled down and her underwear to the side. She had obviously been raped by the perpetrator (lets be honest, obviously Jay as he was seen leaving the room later) and in the process he also harmed, killed or defiled Evelyn, threw her body out the window, left the house to grab it and promptly dumped it. He was seen leaving the room empty handed and rushing for the door, so I guess he had dumped her body out the window and left the house to quickly go and retrieve it. Evelyn's mother awoke the next morning noting she felt nauseous and had not woken once in the night which was rare - so it's safe to assume she had been drugged by someone at some point. Same thing happened to Kelly.

[@peasparsleyandprayers2817]

Love these shows but the half the show commercial right in the middle of it kinda suck.

[@Levon2464]

You listen to free stop complaining and enjoy the stories.

[@Lindsayx3]

Lol omg man. Laying here n never heard u have such long as breaks lol 😅 it's ok, not complaining, just noticed.

[@MzSoCal909]

Please do your research on the companies you are advertising for! I do not understand how so many creators keep promoting better help without looking into it.

[@ruthstevens8805]

Once again, i am ashamed of Australia and Australians . As a mother, my heart breaks listening to this.

[@user-mt4ku7jw1y]

Poor little innocent sweet Colleen rip angel 😇

[@jennklein1917]

Jennifer watched this 😮

[@brendajstevens3719]

👏👏👏

[@beverlyhitchon4901]

What an utter travesty! The law is a bloody ass! Let the relatives unleash their own justice that bastard is guilty! My heart just breaks for the families and victims, they have been denied justice just because of colour! Wrong on every level! ❤🙏🏻

[@amandadean3948]

Do one on the Ken and Barbie killers from Canada!

[@twilagerhauser2956]

They already have. It's terrifying.

[@amandadean3948]

@@twilagerhauser2956 ….oh, thanks! I will look for it and check it out , I’ve only started listening this summer and haven’t gone that far back.

[@chasityeverett3668]

@Amanda Dean…do you mean Karla Homolka and Paul Bernadardo? No, I don’t believe they’ve been covered on here yet.

[@twilagerhauser2956]

I'm sorry it's on Human Monsters

[@twilagerhauser2956]

If you listen to it be prepared. It's very very hard to listen to because it's probably the worsed thing I've ever heard.

[@DEATH-THE-GOAT]

Jay Hart has down voted this.

[@bibi.isanazi]

judges in australia are awful the same way as the police officers in the town that time {probably elswhere, too, and till these days}. the first judge did not allow to joint the cases reasoning that the evidence would be prejudicial against the suspect and the trial would be unfair to him. i consider this total rubbish and a sign of her racisim as it is legal and commonplace that similar cases are joint. and how could this make any trial unfair??? how can she tell in advance that a joint trial would be unfair??? and whay did she claim that the joint evidence would be prejudicial??? how can the evidence be prejudicial??? the evidence never can be prejudicial!!! this is total racist lie! a pretext to cover and protect the white serial murderer, sexual predator from being convicted and sentenced. {"Arrested and charged after the remains of two of the missing children were found, Jay Hart caught a break in 1993, when Justice Badgery-Parker of the NSW Supreme Court ruled that Hart could not be tried for the two murders together. Rules of ‘similar fact’ and ‘tendency’ evidence were more favourable to an accused person then than they are now.///In August 1993, Justice Badgery-Parker had ruled that the evidence against Hart over Evelyn’s and Clinton’s murders would be so prejudicial as to make it impossible for him to get a fair trial if they were run together. Leonie Duroux, the widow of Clinton’s uncle Marbuck-Duroux, says that in the grieving families’ view, “this decision meant that Hart had won his trial before it started.”}. so my opinion is that Justice Badgery-Parker was unable to distinguish between "prejudicial" and "compelling" as the evidence was in fact compelling , not prejudicial {evidence never can be prejudicial, just peoples views can be}, but she was prejudicial, racist, so she rather did not allow the prosecution/families/victims to join evidence because the joint evidence was so compelling that the suspect would have ended up in the jail lifetime. later, after years, when the prosecution applied for joint trial, the judges denied it reasoning that the evidence was not FRESH! my opinion is that all evidence was fresh as there was never ever any JOINT trial. the white judges always find various pretexes to protect white people if victims are black {or immigrants,ot citizens, minorities,etc}. if this judge claims that the trial would be unfair, she actually claims that the jurors and the future judge of that trial would be unprofesional because they would be UNFAIR. how then somebody may trust the justice system, when it is a judge from this system not trusting the fellow judges and jurors and rather splitting the cases??? lack of trust in jurors and judges cannot be solved by splitting the cases. splitting the cases was done at the expanse of the victims and did not help in building trust to judges and jurors.

[@Beardwhip]

Fairly sure the anonymous narrator is an AI

[@nicatnight1777]

Your excessive advertising has forced me to unsubscribe. I understand the need of sponsors, but damn!

[@iansstrungoutguitars]

Not capable of understanding restrictions of certain subjects & limits/ conditions on speculation but by all means lets get them to campaign for restrictions on our rights & freedoms , in no way will it bite them firmly on the arse again

[@kimturner5826]

INDISCRETIONS

[@christopherjameslee3341]

Aside from the odd officer, there seems to be an ingrained culture of general indifference within the Australian police force.

[@persephone2268]

No. Every other race in Australia no matter what job bend over backwards to help first nations. But they won't help themselves.

[@maiamaia351]

Acab

[@roadwarrior528]

I get there was racism, but they eventually got the right guy and tried to send him to jail twice. However, the jury let him off both times. Blame the jury more.

[@katrinacarter2019]

Blame the system too because evidence wasn't allowed to be heard

[@christinaperrigo]

They kept him around because he provided illegal substances... VERY MOST LIKELY PAYING FOR THEM. They began with trading their lives for death. ... God Bless You All In Truth and Repentance. - In Christ, Christina

[@448bubble]

You lost me at 'sponsorship'! Sponsorship is advertising...which I pay KZbin NOT to have to listen to! Disgusted at this practice!

[@sprogg11]

Having the whole case seemingly presented through a single warped lense with the assumption of racism implied to be a pivotal factor in almost every element of the case seems a big step backwards in terms of actually providing a balanced and impartial summary of the events.

[@pridhvicharan]

Racist, right here ☝

[@veganandlovingit]

@@pridhvicharan yes you are Pridvi

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

@@pridhvicharan Congratulations, you have won the brainlet award of the week

[@perpetualplatypussy69]

Having grown up in surrounding areas of Bowraville as a white kid and teenager at the time of these murders.... Racism or at the very least prejudice was rampant. Oh sure there were good times when they all played footy together or drank at one of the local pubs, but as soon as any crime was committed they didn't look at whitey first. Gary Jubelin that worked on the case for 18 years has even said that initially when he started, he didn't believe the cops previous failure to investigate properly was about racism. He does now.

[@Natlatify]

A four year old child goes missing and when reported to the police they don't file a report and simply question if the child has gone "walkabout" (a derogatory reference to a spiritual practice which is done by aboriginal teenage boys - not four years old girls) and you *dont* think there's an element of racism there? Even if it wasn't embroiled in racism (which it has some incredibly strong indicators of) - the fact of the matter is its woeful policing at best. A four year old child's disappearance should not be brushed off as "maybe she's just wandered off?" She was FOUR YEARS OLD. The first 24 hours of a child going missing are CRITICAL and them brushing off and not even filing a report until a few days later was disgraceful.

[@Fred_and_Brandy]

Isn't it ironic that segregation is making a comeback... Just the other way around... Its gross... All us normal Americans are praying for you guys down there... Y'all need to be liberated. God save ur country, And ours...

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

Jesus imagine thinking everything is racist.

[@perpetualplatypussy69]

Imagine being a complete dickhead all your life. One story of 3 aboriginal kids being murdered and the family still has no justice after 31 years and is always the last to know about any new information, and you have to get your fucking nipples twisted because you're white. Back then it was racist. They said a four year old went on walkabout.. the actually fuckery of which I can't comprehend. Perhaps it's not racist now and there's decent cops investigating, but it was evident back then. Please crawl into a hole somewhere and stop making it about you and your feelings.

[@PoetofHateSpeech]

@@perpetualplatypussy69 O did you get upsetti spaghetti you poor little thing? Are you assuming my race, you bigot? I know numerous people that live in small towns with a large number of aborigines. They take very little care for their kids and the kids often disappear for days. I can understand why you have that name brainlet