Case 323: The GPO Girl

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, child abuse, child sexual abuse *** On Thursday, October 10 2013, passersby noticed a distraught-looking teenage girl, crying and shivering outside of Dublin’s General Post Office building. When police officers approached the girl, she either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, talk. The mystery teenager – soon dubbed the GPO girl – was taken into care, and experts suspected that she was a victim of sex trafficking. When attempts to identify the GPO girl failed, Irish investigators went public with the case, not realising they were just dealing with just the tip of the iceberg in a crime spree that spanned continents. --- Narration – Anonymous Host https://www.instagram.com/caseys.snaps/ Research & writing – Erin Munro Creative direction – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas http://mikemigas.com/ Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/casefile-true-crime/id998568017?ign-itscg=30200S&ign-itsct=casefile_podcastsSpotify Premium https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/9gSwcv7USsbPatreon https://www.patreon.com/casefileFor all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-323-the-gpo-girl https://casefilepodcast.com/case-323-the-gpo-girl/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Please note that the names of several witnesses in this episode have been changed.

• 2:27Speaker 00

  The main thoroughfare of O'Connell Street in the heart of Dublin was bustling with foot traffic on the afternoon of Thursday, October 10, 2013. Even though it was a cold day, tourists were ambling along the wide footpaths, taking in the city's sights and sounds while office workers hurried by them. Everything about the scene was entirely typical for the setting, with one exception: A young girl who was all alone appeared to be in a distressed state. She looked to be a teenager and was dressed in dark jeans, a purple hoodie with a grey woolen jumper over the top, and flat black shoes.

• 3:10Speaker 00

  She stood at about five foot six and had a slim build and long blonde hair, as well as braces on her teeth. Most notably, she was obviously shivering and seemed to be crying. As she gazed around with fearful, timid eyes, her skin had a washed-out pallor. The girl wandered along O'Connell Street, coming to a stop outside of the Central Post Office, an imposing Greek Revival-style building that is the principal post office of Dublin. Built in 1814, it features six fluted Ionic columns along the front, and three ornamental statues on top of its roof.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  Its striking appearance has made the GPO building a landmark for Dubliners and tourists alike. The teenage girl stood between the building's columns, looking distraught. Passersby were beginning to notice her, including two uniformed officers of the Garda Shirekana Island's National Police, who were patrolling the area. The officers approached the young girl and asked her what was wrong. The girl either couldn't or wouldn't reply. The officers asked if she needed help. Again, she said nothing.

• 4:34Speaker 00

  Using hand gestures, she indicated that she was experiencing pain in her abdomen. She also held up her fingers to explain that she was 14 years old.

• 4:47Speaker 00

  The officers wondered if perhaps the girl was from overseas and couldn't speak English. She didn't have any luggage on her, nor any identification. The officers decided that the best thing to do was to take her into custody for her own safety, as she was clearly vulnerable and distraught.

• 5:08Speaker 00

  The girl was taken to the nearby children's hospital on Temple Street, just a short distance from the GPO building. She was ushered into a cubicle in the emergency department, with a curtain pulled around for privacy. Physicians examined her while a detective arrived to speak to the girl as well. She appeared to be in good health, aside from being somewhat emaciated. What was more concerning was her behaviour. Although she was polite, she was clearly uncomfortable. She hid her face behind the long strands of her blonde hair and averted her gaze whenever anyone tried to make eye contact.

• 5:51Speaker 00

  The girl also remained entirely non-verbal, no matter who spoke to her. She was questioned for hours, but never said a word.

• 6:02Speaker 00

  Nurses who spoke languages other than English were brought in to try talking with her, to no avail.

• 6:10Speaker 00

  Eventually, she found a way to communicate. The girl began drawing pictures on a piece of paper. They were rudimentary illustrations with stick figures representing people. First, she drew herself on an aeroplane, suggesting she had flown to Ireland. She also sketched an image of a gun and another of a crucifix. When she drew a bed with a girl on top of it, surrounded by men standing all around her, one of the nurses began to cry.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  Over the next few days, the GPO girl, as she came to be known, was moved from her cubicle to a private room elsewhere in the hospital. Whenever anyone attempted to touch her, she would physically recoil from the contact. Doctors and the police alike suspected that she had been sexually abused, perhaps even exploited. Certainly, her drawings seemed to suggest she had been trafficked to Ireland for sexual exploitation purposes.

• 7:39Speaker 00

  Her clothing was forensically examined for signs of sexual assault, and although these tests returned negative, this did little to allay concerns.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  While physicians did their best not to exacerbate the girl’s trauma, the story of the mystery girl found in central Dublin made headlines, and the subject of human trafficking became a national talking point.

• 8:05Speaker 00

  The GPO girl’s identity was a total mystery. She still wasn’t speaking, but she did appear to at least understand some English. It was speculated that she may have been flown from Eastern Europe to Ireland by an organised crime gang, or at least one criminal who held her under total control. A police guard was maintained outside of her hospital room at all times, and a female liaison officer was appointed to handle the delicate nature of the GPO girl’s case. The girl was also given a guardian named Orla Ryan, who shared that she was extremely concerned about the welfare circumstances of this young person.

• 8:51Speaker 00

  The Garda launched Operation Shepherd, their name for the investigation into the case. Missing person reports were examined, but none matched the GPO girl. People who had been in the vicinity of the GPO building on Thursday, October 10, 2013, were tracked down and interviewed, while CCTV footage from nearby cameras was reviewed.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  Homelessness services, child protection agencies and juvenile liaison officers all over Ireland were checked to see if they had any record of the girl, as were hotels and hostels, along with lockers at public transit stations and lost luggage facilities. Detectives reviewed plane manifests from countless flights to see if any passengers matched the description of the GPO girl, and spoke extensively with airport police. But none of these inquiries led anywhere.

• 9:51Speaker 00

  In an attempt to find some record of the girl's family, Garda officers meticulously searched through recent death notices in case her parents had recently passed, leaving her all alone. Noticing that the girl had had orthodontic work, they also reached out to dentists to check their records. Despite their efforts, no clues emerged that would help them identify the girl.

• 10:21Speaker 00

  As the days turned into weeks and almost a month went by, the GPO girl remained in her hospital room. She passed the time watching television or sometimes painting her nails, still staying silent at all times.

• 10:38Speaker 00

  Although she was pleasant towards hospital staff and members of the Garda, she was also unmistakably cagey. When officers requested to take her fingerprints in the hopes of identifying her, she refused, nor would she let them take her photo.

• 10:56Speaker 00

  Detectives began to resort to clandestine methods to obtain the information they needed. First, they recovered her fingerprints after clearing a used plate from her room. However, the prints matched nothing in their systems. Next, a scheme was concocted to allow them to take a photo of the girl.

• 11:19Speaker 00

  She was told she would be moved to a new room, and as she was escorted from one room to another, a nearby officer managed to surreptitiously snap her picture.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  The photo was grainy in quality and only captured the girl in profile. Her long hair was scraped into a messy bun on top of her head as she looked straight ahead with eyes that appeared tired with heavy bags. Her right hand was raised to her mouth, and she was sucking on her index finger in a childlike way, as though self-soothing.

• 11:56Speaker 00

  It wasn't a perfect photograph, but it captured enough of the girl's appearance that someone who knew her might be able to recognize her.

• 12:06Speaker 00

  Detectives sent the picture to Interpol, an international organization that facilitates police cooperation in the hopes they might be able to identify the girl. But they couldn't.

• 12:20Speaker 00

  Irish detectives were growing desperate. Four weeks had now passed since the girl was found, and all of their leads had dried up. They began to wonder whether going public was the key to solving the mystery. They weren't permitted to do this due to the girl's status as a minor and likely victim of crime, but perhaps the courts would grant them an exception due to the extraordinary circumstances.

• 12:49Speaker 00

  When detectives told the GPO girl of their plan, she became visibly distraught, shaking her head “no” at the prospect of her photo being shared. But Ireland’s High Court gave permission for the picture to be published, and on Tuesday, November 5, the police held a press conference at GADA headquarters. As the GPO girl’s photograph was held up, a GADA spokesperson beseeched the public: “Do you recognise this girl? Did you pass her in a distressed state in the city centre? Any information is vital to this investigation.”

• 13:31Speaker 00

  A special phone line was set up for the public to call with tip-offs. After the press conference wrapped, the calls started coming in. People rang from all over Ireland, sharing their theories and possible leads. With the press conference making international news, calls were also made from locations as far away as Cyprus and Canada. Yet, none of these were helpful in identifying the GPO girl either.

• 14:04Speaker 00

  It was the middle of the night in Australia when the GADA held their press conference, but within a few hours of its broadcast, Australians were waking up to start another day.

• 14:17Speaker 00

  One police officer in the Western Australian capital of Perth saw the report about the GPO girl in Ireland, along with the photo of her that the GADA had shared. He thought it sounded remarkably similar to another case from two years earlier, and much closer to home.

• 14:39Speaker 00

  Two years prior, in 2011, a 15-year-old girl named Hope moved from New Zealand to Perth with her parents and three brothers. The international move was a big adjustment for Hope, who had grown up in a small town and now found herself living in a capital city. Moreover, she found out that her home-school credits from New Zealand were not recognised by the Australian authorities, so she would have to find a way to complete her education.

• 15:11Speaker 00

  Hope enrolled at a TAFE, a kind of vocational education and training provider in Australia. Unlike universities which focus on academic study, TAFE suffer courses that focus on more practical, job-specific skills. It is also possible to complete senior secondary studies at TAFE instead of enrolling in a high school.

• 15:35Speaker 00

  Hope found it difficult to make friends in this new environment as she was shy and somewhat sheltered. Everything changed, however, when she met Emily Skibares in July 2011. Emily was completing the same course as Hope and was warm and friendly. She also had a remarkable background.

• 15:59Speaker 00

  Emily was only fifteen, like Hope, but she was already a champion gymnast who ranked number one in the world for her age group. She shared her online Facebook page for her gymnastics with Hope, who saw that more than 3,500 people were following it. There were lots of photos of Emily performing in competitions, many of which had numerous likes and comments.

• 16:26Speaker 00

  Despite Emily's incredible achievements, she was down-to-earth and easy to talk to. She told Hope about her family, who were of Russian heritage and didn't live in Perth.

• 16:39Speaker 00

  Emily's parents had separated, and her mother had moved to France to be close to her own parents, who lived there. Emily's twin sister Chloe had gone with her. Meanwhile, Emily's father was in Sydney, where he worked as an Interpol agent. One day, Hope invited Emily to visit her home, where she met Hope's family. After that, Emily began visiting frequently and sometimes stayed the night. Hope's parents were happy to have her there, feeling sorry for the young teenager whose own relatives were far away. Emily became like another member of the family and felt like the sister Hope had always wanted.

• 17:25Speaker 00

  In December 2011, Emily told Hope that she was going to France for Christmas. Her parents had decided they should all spend the holidays together despite their separation.

• 17:39Speaker 00

  On Friday, December 16, Emily flew to Paris.

• 17:45Speaker 00

  A couple of weeks later, Hope was scrolling through Facebook when she noticed a troubling post someone had shared on Emily's page. It was a link to a news article about Emily's family. According to the article, Emily's father had killed his ex-wife and daughter Chloe before taking his own life. Emily had been spared from the murder-suicide but had been the one who discovered the grisly crime scene.

• 18:16Speaker 00

  Hope and her family were horrified by this news. They wanted to help Emily but didn't know how. Hope's mother, Belinda, sent Emily a message to check in with her. Emily explained that she was staying with a family friend who was a judge in Florida until the police wrapped up their investigation and she figured out what to do next. Stunned and all alone, she didn't know what her next steps should be.

• 18:49Speaker 00

  Belinda invited Emily to come stay with their family. She and her husband were even open to adopting the orphaned teenager if that was what she wanted. Emily gratefully accepted the offer. As it happened, the judge she was staying with was an expert in adoption cases, so he helped organize the papers and sent over Emily's official documents. Then Emily flew back to Perth.

• 19:18Speaker 00

  She was no longer taking her TAFE course and it was decided she should go back to school. So, in February 2012, just as the school year was beginning, Belinda took Emily's birth certificate to Giroween Senior High School and enrolled Emily.

• 19:37Speaker 00

  Later on, however, the family received a call from the school with a concerning update. They said that the birth certificate looked forged.

• 19:48Speaker 00

  Belinda's husband decided to call the judge in Florida, whom they had only previously had email contact with. He spoke to the judge's receptionist, who said that the judge had not dealt with any Australian adoption cases or had contact with anyone in Australia for several years.

• 20:09Speaker 00

  At around the same time, Emily told Hope that her father who had died wasn't her biological father. She had actually been conceived via sperm donation and the donor was a lawyer based right there in Perth. Emily planned to contact him. Hope found this story very strange and now the bizarre circumstances were piling up.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  The revelation finally came when Hope's family received a phone call from a private investigator who had been hired by the lawyer Emily said was her real father.

• 20:48Speaker 00

  Concerned by this false claim, the lawyer had asked the investigator to find out whatever he could about Emily Skobares.

• 20:58Speaker 00

  As it turned out, Emily wasn't her real name. She wasn't a Russian gymnast and nor was she even a teenager.

• 21:08Speaker 00

  Her real name was Samantha Azapati and she was a 23-year-old woman from Sydney with a history of fraud.

• 21:18Speaker 00

  Samantha had first come to police attention four years earlier, in November 2007, when she was nineteen years old.

• 21:27Speaker 00

  She had been in the central Queensland city of Rockhampton at the time, posing as an individual named Lindsay Lana Jombeine Coghlan. Authorities found she had done so with intent to defraud.

• 21:42Speaker 00

  Three years later, she came to attention for a similar scheme 633 kilometres south in the Queensland capital of Brisbane. There, she had tried to enrol at two schools using the name Dakota Johnson, the same name as a Hollywood movie star. Samantha faced a string of charges related to using a false identity to claim welfare benefits, receiving a $500 fine and a suspended sentence in September 2010.

• 22:14Speaker 00

  After that, Samantha Azapati had returned to her home state of New South Wales for a time, briefly joining a small Christian community in the Blue Mountains and convincing their pastor to take her in. Somehow, she'd ended up in Perth by mid-2011, fatefully crossing paths with Hope and her family.

• 22:37Speaker 00

  By March 2012, her story finally unraveled, and she was arrested and charged with defrauding social security by Western Australia Police's Major Fraud Squad. Samantha was also admitted to Greylands Hospital, the state's largest mental health inpatient facility, and was kept there for six weeks.

• 23:03Speaker 00

  Almost two years later, in November 2013, a police officer in Perth who was familiar with the case saw the story about an unidentified sex trafficking victim discovered in Dublin. Although Ireland was halfway across the world from Perth, the girl in question looked remarkably similar to Samantha Azapati, even in profile. The police officer contacted his counterparts in Dublin and alerted them to the girl's possible identity.

• 23:36Speaker 00

  At around the same time, the garda shiokana received another call from someone closer to home who had recognised the GPO girl as well.

• 23:47Speaker 00

  It turned out that Samantha Azapati had some family members in Ireland.

• 23:53Speaker 00

  After her parents split up when she was young, Samantha’s mother began a relationship with a man named Joe who became a stepfather to Samantha. The couple had two sons together, Samantha’s half-brothers. After the relationship broke down, Joe moved back to his native island but maintained a relationship with Samantha. She had flown over more than a month earlier to visit him and her half-brothers in the town of Clonmel, about a two-hour drive south-west of Dublin. Samantha had stayed with her extended family for some time before abruptly leaving.

• 24:34Speaker 00

  Joe hadn’t worried when she did so. Samantha could sometimes be a bit erratic and an abrupt departure wasn’t necessarily unusual for her. Strangely though, she’d left her belongings and identification behind. She had travelled to Ireland using a fraudulently obtained Australian passport issued in the name of Georgia McAuliffe.

• 25:01Speaker 00

  After more than 2,000 police hours and a cost of around a quarter of a million euros, the GPO girl had finally been identified. The public was outraged.

• 25:15Speaker 00

  There had been genuine concern and an outpouring of support for Samantha Azapati when she was believed to have been an underage human trafficking victim. Now it turned out that she was a 25-year-old con artist who had inexplicably pretended to be in a vulnerable situation, the sympathy was instantly revoked. Samantha’s state-appointed guardian, Orla Ryan, requested to be withdrawn from the case. Orla explained that while she remained concerned about Samantha’s welfare, she was a child protection specialist, and Samantha was clearly not a child.

• 25:56Speaker 00

  There was debate as to whether the Irish authorities should charge Samantha with a crime. Some members of the public were in favour of this, due to the waste of police time and resources. But she couldn't be charged with making a false report, as she had never made any report at all. She had stayed silent the whole time.

• 26:21Speaker 00

  People speculated as to whether her ruse had been a spontaneous action on Thursday, October 10, or whether she had planned it in advance. When the Garda searched the mobile phone she had left at her family's house, it revealed she had researched children's hospitals in Ireland and the UK. This appeared to hint at a plan. But what her end goal had been was a mystery. Samantha hadn't made any financial gain or obtained any benefits due to her actions. Instead, she'd just spent four weeks in a hospital bed.

• 27:02Speaker 00

  As Operation Shepherds' lead detective Dave Gallagher remarked in the documentary series Kong Girl, for some people, a month in hospital would be a kind of hell.

• 27:15Speaker 00

  Ultimately, the Irish police decided not to charge Samantha as a party with anything, determining that it wasn't a criminal matter. They also had sympathy for the fact that the young woman clearly had some mental health issues, even though a psychiatric report decreed that she had no condition that would allow authorities to detain her. When detectives asked Samantha if she would be willing to return home to Australia, she nodded without saying a word. She still hadn't spoken since being identified.

• 27:52Speaker 00

  Two Garda officers escorted Samantha home on her flight to Sydney, which was being paid by Irish taxpayers. She didn't speak once during the almost 24-hour journey.

• 28:07Speaker 00

  But Samantha didn't stay in Australia for long. Years later, it would emerge that she somehow travelled back to Wieland just six months after being returned to Australia in April 2014.

• 28:23Speaker 00

  Going by the name Indio Shea, she moved to County Luton and took a job as a no-pair. She claimed to be the unacknowledged illegitimate daughter of Princess Madeleine of Sweden. The family she worked for didn't recognise her as the GPO girl and had no idea anything was amiss until Samantha abruptly abandoned the job, leaving behind a large amount of cash in her wardrobe, along with multiple papers that had the name Samantha as a party on them. She had stayed only a few months, departing in the summer to whereabouts unknown.

• 29:10Speaker 00

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  In mid 2014, California native Emily Bamberger was having the adventure of a lifetime. Emily had been just seventeen when she graduated high school and started college with ambitions of one day becoming a writer. When one of Emily's professors heard about her dream, they encouraged her to go out and see the world so she would gain experiences she could later write about. Emily had taken this advice to heart, travelling across the Pacific Ocean and halfway around the world to go backpacking in Australia.

• 32:51Speaker 00

  So far, the trip was proving to be worth it and Emily was having a blast. While staying at a hostel in Sydney, she befriended some of the other guests there. One day, a group of them went out to visit the renowned Sydney Opera House, a striking architectural landmark nestled against a scenic backdrop at the city's harbour. Afterwards, the group planned to go have dinner together, but Emily declined. She was a vegetarian and wasn't going to be able to eat at their chosen restaurant. Another girl in the group offered to leave with Emily, explaining that she was a vegetarian too.

• 33:34Speaker 00

  Emily agreed. That was how she met Annika Dekker.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  Annika was a tourist from Sweden who was polite but quiet and reserved. Other people in the group had thought she seemed strange, but Emily hit it off with her right away. The two became close in the days and weeks that followed. Annika began to share details about her life with her new American friend, explaining that she was the heiress to a European airline.

• 34:10Speaker 00

  Later, she reneged on this story and admitted that the truth was even more amazing. She was actually Swedish royalty and had been briefly kidnapped when she was a child.

• 34:23Speaker 00

  Although she'd been rescued from her kidnappers, Annika remained in serious danger from people who wished her harm, and her family had taken extreme measures to protect her safety. She was regularly moved around the world to keep her whereabouts unknown, and there were two Interpol agents, who she described as her keepers, dedicated to her protection.

• 34:48Speaker 00

  Emily found all of this a bit hard to swallow, but never voiced her scepticism to Annika. Her mind changed abruptly one day when she received an email from a man identifying himself as one of Annika's keepers. His email address was linked to the domain interpol.com. This indicator of legitimacy finally had Emily convinced. She believed that her new friend was who she said she was.

• 35:22Speaker 00

  The content of the email itself, however, was concerning. Annika's keeper informed Emily that she and Annika were both in danger and would have to leave Sydney immediately. This was consistent with an email sent to Annika that she showed to Emily. The email indicated that the nefarious individuals who'd been stalking Annika since childhood were now aware of Emily's existence and knew everything about her too.

• 35:54Speaker 00

  The email included page after page of private details about Emily and her family, including addresses where they lived. It even mentioned a secret phrase Emily and her mother had come up with in case they ever needed a code word: "blue bananas".

• 36:13Speaker 00

  Emily had never shared any of this information with Annika.

• 36:19Speaker 00

  The two young women fled to Brisbane and Annika provided the terrified Emily with a crash course in living on the run. She taught Emily how to look for exits wherever they went and to be aware of her surroundings at all times. Once, they caught a bus together and when they disembarked, Annika asked Emily how many people had been on the bus. Emily said she didn't know. Annika told her there had been twenty-eight people, including thirteen Caucasians. She warned that Emily needed to start paying closer attention. She also advised Emily on how to lie if she needed to.

• 37:03Speaker 00

  The trick was to always sprinkle some truth in with the lies. Annika also told Emily that they both needed new identities. Her keepers had mailed them the relevant documents and the two went to a local licensing authority together. Emily felt uneasy about the process, but had been convinced that if she didn't obtain a new identity, then she and everyone she loved was in danger. The scheme worked and Emily walked away with new identification naming her as Amy Fisher. Emily had always been under the impression that Annika was around her age, eighteen

• 37:48Speaker 00

  years old. That changed when Annika received an email with some medical information attached that indicated she was actually fourteen. Annika was shocked by the news, prompting Emily to ask if she thought she was fourteen. All Annika said in response was that she couldn't remember the last time she'd had a birthday. One night, while the two were in Brisbane, Annika woke in the middle of the night complaining about terrible head pain. Emily called for an ambulance and when the paramedics arrived, Annika told them that she was fourteen and Emily was her older sister.

• 38:32Speaker 00

  Not knowing what to say, Emily just went along with this story.

• 38:38Speaker 00

  The young women were taken to a local hospital where a doctor treated Annika. He appeared suspicious of Emily and soon two police officers arrived to question her. They questioned Emily for hours, eventually accusing her of kidnapping Annika, who they said was an unknown minor, and of giving her drugs.

• 39:02Speaker 00

  Emily repeatedly denied this, but was detained in jail for two days. When she was searched, police recovered the fake ID she had in her possession.

• 39:15Speaker 00

  Emily was ultimately charged with fraud and released after paying a hefty fine.

• 39:23Speaker 00

  When she left jail, scared and confused in a foreign country, somehow Annika managed to find her. She'd fled the hospital and still had an IV drip in her arm. Annika told Emily that because they'd been discovered, they'd have to go back to Sydney. She knew a safe house where they could lie low for a while. It was located about forty-five minutes outside of the CBD and was a converted shipping container behind a house in a suburban backyard.

• 39:59Speaker 00

  The two girls remained there for eight days.

• 40:04Speaker 00

  Emily was terrified. She believed that her life was in so much danger that she had no choice but to do exactly as Annika said and hide out. She was not permitted in the main house on the property and had no phone or access to the internet, meaning she had no way of contacting her family to let them know she was okay.

• 40:29Speaker 00

  Eventually, Emily and Annika left the safe house.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  By this time, Emily had spent about four months of her trip with Annika. She was visiting Australia on a tourist visa, which had almost expired, so she flew to the neighbouring country of New Zealand to apply for a new one. Customs officials in both countries questioned Emily extensively about her movements, clearly aware of her recent fraud charge. When she landed back in Australia, she was informed that she was being deported back to the United States and would never be permitted to return to Australia. The first available flight was to Hawaii, and she would have to board a connecting flight to California from there.

• 41:20Speaker 00

  Emily had no option but to do as she was told. All of her belongings were still with Annika in Sydney.

• 41:33Speaker 00

  Emily's dream holiday had ended abruptly after months of stress and uncertainty. During the long flight to Hawaii, she had no access to Wi-Fi, so she had to wait until she landed to check messages and make contact with loved ones. When Emily logged on to the internet, she saw that Annika had messaged her during the flight. She warned Emily that she was in grave danger. Somebody in the United States wanted to kill her, and Emily should do her best to return to Australia if she could. Emily had thought she was finally done with Annika and her associated dramas, but clearly not.

• 42:20Speaker 00

  She caught her next flight to San Francisco, only to discover another message from Annika when she arrived. This one warned that Interpol had issued an alert that an attack was going to take place in California. Emily's life was at risk.

• 42:40Speaker 00

  Annika had bought her a ticket to Vancouver, Canada, and would meet her there. Believing Annika was telling the truth, Emily did as she said.

• 42:52Speaker 00

  When she landed in Canada, she received an email from the Interpol agent who had been communicating with her for months now. It informed her that he had met with Annika and given her a package of items that would assist in keeping them safe. Annika would also have further instructions for the both of them.

• 43:13Speaker 00

  Sure enough, when Emily met with Annika, she had some things for her. One was an electronic card that Emily was to keep on her person at all times. The other was a pair of earrings equipped with tracking devices, so that Interpol could keep track of her.

• 43:34Speaker 00

  The two girls then checked into a hostel. Not long into their stay in Vancouver, they were approached by two other young women who were staying there. They were Swedish and had noticed from Annika's entry in the hostel guestbook that she was too. The young women spoke to Annika in Swedish, who said nothing in reply. Her expression was almost scared.

• 44:03Speaker 00

  After a long pause, she said in English: "It's been a long time since I've spoken Swedish."

• 44:13Speaker 00

  Emily was baffled. She'd asked Annika to speak Swedish on previous occasions, and Annika had always done so. Not knowing Swedish herself, Emily had always assumed that Annika was speaking the language. Now she realised that Annika had been pretending the entire time, and couldn't fake it when confronted by actual Swedish people. In an instant, the spell was broken. Emily knew that something was wrong, and she had to get away.

• 44:50Speaker 00

  Annika could clearly tell that Emily was no longer willing to go along with her, so she proposed a plan. They would hitchhike to another region of Canada, so no one would know where they were.

• 45:04Speaker 00

  Then Annika would pretend to be an abuse victim, so that social services would take her into the Canadian system, and Interpol could extract her from there. Meanwhile, Emily could fly back to the US. Exhausted and desperate to go home, Emily went along with the plan. After landing back in San Francisco, she told no one of the rollercoaster she had been through.

• 45:36Speaker 00

  At 4pm on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, a girl calling herself Aurora Hepburn walked into the Alexandra Community Health Centre in Calgary, a large city in Alberta, Canada, about a 10-hour drive east from Vancouver. Aurora said that she was 14 and a victim of sex trafficking. Covered in bruises, she said she'd escaped from a cult and had suffered a head injury resulting in nausea and vomiting. Concerned by this alarming report, authorities took Aurora into care and had her interviewed by specialists. It was important they uncover as much information as possible

• 46:21Speaker 00

  as there may have been other miners out there being victimised by the same individuals.

• 46:28Speaker 00

  Aurora explained that she was originally from Denmark and said she'd experienced a childhood of neglect and physical violence. She and her older sister Daisy had eventually run away from home and had been living on the streets. The mention of a sister named Daisy gave police their first clue. One week earlier, and 700 kilometres away in Fort McMurray, a missing persons report had been filed by a woman named Daisy Hepburn. She was reporting the disappearance of her sister Aurora.

• 47:09Speaker 00

  Aurora spent two weeks in the hospital while detectives looked into her case. As part of their investigation, they took Aurora's fingerprints and ran them through an international database to see if they could be matched to anyone. Meanwhile, healthcare workers tried to establish the extent of Aurora's abuse and provided her with services to aid in her recovery.

• 47:35Speaker 00

  Eventually, on Thursday, October 2, the police received a call from their counterparts in Ireland regarding the girl's prints. They informed the Canadian investigators that according to her fingerprints, Aurora Hepburn wasn't a 14-year-old victim of trafficking.

• 47:56Speaker 00

  She was actually 26-year-old Australian con artist Samantha Azapati, who had pulled a similar stunt in Dublin less than a year earlier.

• 48:07Speaker 00

  And just as they had in Ireland, Samantha's false claims had accrued a significant cost in Canada, estimated at around 150,000 US dollars.

• 48:20Speaker 00

  When confronted by officers from the Canadian Border Security Agency, Samantha Azapati refused to answer questions about how she had obtained the necessary travel documents to enter Canada. She was charged with public mischief, which could see her serve up to five years in prison. Samantha appeared in court wearing a purple prison tracksuit and looked to be smirking as an officer from Canada's Border Security detailed how she was known to have at least 40 different aliases. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to just two months.

• 49:00Speaker 00

  After completing her sentence, she was deported to Australia on Tuesday, December 9, escorted by a Canadian Border Security agent.

• 49:10Speaker 00

  Once back in Australia, Samantha Azapati was charged with fraudulently obtaining an Australian passport, another charge she pleaded guilty to. At her sentencing, prosecutors indicated they didn't hold high hopes for her rehabilitation. Nevertheless, the judge opted to place Samantha Azapati on a good behaviour bond, warning that if she broke the bond by assuming further false identities, she would face imprisonment.

• 49:44Speaker 00

  The Good Shepherd Waranara School in the west Sydney suburb of Marrickville is a special assistance school for students needing extra support. It is a small institution, only taking about sixty students through high school, and first opened its doors in 2015.

• 50:04Speaker 00

  Late in 2016, the second year that the school was open, a new student named Harper Hart was enrolled.

• 50:14Speaker 00

  Harper was a vulnerable thirteen-year-old living with a foster family who had particular difficulties with reading and writing. Her enrollment was somewhat rocky, as initially she'd failed to provide the necessary documents. When the school asked for identification, Harper explained that she didn't have any as she was in the United States Witness Protection Programme. She stopped attending the school for a little while, only to return with a doctor's certificate to explain her absence and a birth certificate issued in the US state of California. Strangely, the birth certificate named the foster family she was staying with as her biological parents.

• 51:01Speaker 00

  This wasn't the only odd thing about Harper. Some members of the school staff thought she looked at least several years older than she claimed to be.

• 51:13Speaker 00

  When they spoke to her foster parents, the couple informed them that Harper was indeed thirteen and was a victim of sex trafficking. She had also alleged that she'd been raped by a New South Wales police officer. Harper's foster parents believed their foster daughter wholeheartedly.

• 51:34Speaker 00

  They'd first met her randomly on the street, where she'd told them her story. Moved by all that she'd been through, the couple had invited her to live with them and offered her a safe haven. Because the foster placement hadn't gone through any official channels, there was no documentation available.

• 51:56Speaker 00

  The school still had concerns about Harper's allegations and the legitimacy of her birth certificate. After they started questioning Harper's story, they'd received an odd call from a doctor confirming that Harper was indeed 13 years old, as they had the medical records to prove it. Despite this, the school reported their concerns to the authorities, which ultimately led to New South Wales Police commencing an investigation. Inquiries with an FBI liaison at the US Consul General in Sydney confirmed that Harper's supposed Californian birth certificate was a forgery.

• 52:39Speaker 00

  The medical certificate she'd submitted was also fake, and the doctor named on it wasn't even an employee of the hospital listed.

• 52:49Speaker 00

  Investigators scrutinised the school's phone records in an attempt to pinpoint the number responsible for the doctor's call, supposedly confirming Harper's age. They honed in on one number in particular, which belonged to a 24-year-old French backpacker named Lucy. Lucy met with the detective and admitted she'd made the call posing as a doctor at the request of an acquaintance of hers named Leila Evans. Leila had said it was part of a prank. Lucy had met Leila in a Facebook group and had a photo of her, which she showed to the detective.

• 53:29Speaker 00

  The photo revealed that Leila Evans and Harper Hart were one and the same.

• 53:36Speaker 00

  Back at the station, the detective chatted to a colleague about the twist in the case, prompting his colleague to remark that it sounded similar to the GPO girl case in Dublin three years earlier. The pair googled that case together, just in case. There were some differences: Harper Hart wore her hair in braids and had noticeable freckles, but overall, she and the GPO girl looked remarkably similar.

• 54:07Speaker 00

  Now, they had a link to infamous con artist Samantha Azapati. They just needed to prove it.

• 54:15Speaker 00

  Detectives obtained some copies of Harper's homework from the Good Shepherd School. It was covered in Samantha Azapati's fingerprints. She had struck again.

• 54:30Speaker 00

  It was now May of 2017. Teachers and other staff at the Good Shepherd School were stunned to learn Harper's true identity. Although they had believed she was older than her claimed age of 13, the revelation that she was a 28-year-old woman was shocking. Samantha had deliberately dressed in childlike clothing and had used a makeup pencil to draw freckles across her nose in an attempt to look younger. She had also feigned difficulties with literacy for almost a year while teachers worked hard to improve her reading and writing skills.

• 55:10Speaker 00

  Her foster parents had had no idea of her true identity and had stood firmly behind her throughout the police investigation.

• 55:19Speaker 00

  They maintained their support even after Samantha was arrested for her latest scam.

• 55:27Speaker 00

  When detectives took Samantha Azapati down to the police station to be formally charged, she turned her back on the room's cameras, pulled her hoodie up over her head, and covered her face with her hands.

• 55:40Speaker 00

  Two months later, in July 2017, Samantha faced court, charged this time with four counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception for education, counselling, food, accommodation, and electronic devices she was given while pretending to be Harper Hart.

• 56:01Speaker 00

  A not-for-profit had gifted Harper with an iPad, a mobile phone, and an Opel Smart Card, used to travel on public transport throughout Sydney.

• 56:12Speaker 00

  The total cost of her fraud had amounted to $155,000, including counselling costs and staff wages.

• 56:22Speaker 00

  Samantha as a party once again pleaded guilty. This time, she was sentenced to a year in jail and would be eligible for parole in six months. During sentencing, the judge noted that Samantha suffered from significant mental health issues, adding: "One might wonder as to the likelihood of improvement down the track."

• 56:54Speaker 00

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• 58:57Speaker 00

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• 59:14Speaker 00

  One day, two years later, in mid 2019, 13-year-old Georgia Bevage received a private message on her Instagram account. When she read it, her excitement quickly grew. Georgia lived with her family in Sydney. An aspiring model, Georgia was signed with an agency and had already worked on a few modeling campaigns. But work from the agency was slow to trickle in, so Georgia also used social media to promote her modeling, sharing previous projects and noting in her Instagram bio that she was available for work. The message that Georgia received was from someone who'd seen these photos and

• 59:59Speaker 00

  was keen to hire her. 22-year-old Coco Palmer was a talent scout for Elite Model Management, a famed modeling agency with offices all over the world, including New York, Paris and London. Coco was based in Melbourne and had discovered Georgia's pictures online. She loved Georgia's style and thought she would be perfect for an anti-bullying campaign Coco was working on.

• 1:00:30Speaker 00

  Georgia was thrilled and shared the exciting news with her mother, Mel. Mel was pleased for her daughter, but cautious. She told Georgia to have Coco call her so she could vet her. Coco did so, and the conversation went well. Mel later Googled everything Coco had told her, and her story seemed to check out.

• 1:00:56Speaker 00

  The next step was to have an in-person interview. Coco travelled up to Sydney to meet Georgia and Mel. They met her in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, then walked across the road to a café where Coco ordered hot chocolates for everyone. Coco explained that she wanted to cast Georgia in a short film campaign, and they'd complete a photo shoot by the end of the week.

• 1:01:25Speaker 00

  Coco came across as warm and professional, putting Mel's mind at ease.

• 1:01:32Speaker 00

  After they finished chatting, Coco said she wanted to take Georgia shopping for a blazer to wear in the campaign. She and Georgia walked ahead to a department store, while Mel tried to follow but got stuck behind some construction work. Georgia and Coco returned after a short period, and Mel later asked Georgia how the shopping had gone. Georgia said it had been a little strange. While they were in a shop, Coco had told her she needed to practise her acting in anticipation of the upcoming film.

• 1:02:09Speaker 00

  She told Georgia to call Lifeline, a crisis support service for individuals experiencing mental health issues, and say her name was River. Posing as River, Georgia should tell Lifeline that she was a victim of abuse and to share a really sad life story.

• 1:02:31Speaker 00

  Georgia did as she was told. Soon, the Lifeline staff member who'd answered her call was pressing for more information, clearly concerned about the miner on the other end.

• 1:02:44Speaker 00

  Coco told Georgia to hang up, so she did.

• 1:02:49Speaker 00

  Mel thought this sounded like a very strange task, but wondered if perhaps it was considered normal in the acting world. It wasn't an industry she knew much about. Not wanting her daughter to miss out on a great opportunity, she decided they should keep moving ahead.

• 1:03:09Speaker 00

  The next step was for Georgia and her family to spend a week in Melbourne, where Coco was based and where Georgia would be working on her campaigns. Coco arranged flights for Georgia and Mel, as well as Georgia's older sister, Tiana, and her infant son. The family was excited, it was their first time on an aeroplane.

• 1:03:33Speaker 00

  When they arrived in Melbourne on Monday, July 1, 2019, they met up with Coco, who was putting them all up in a hotel in South Bank, a popular tourist destination in Melbourne's CBD.

• 1:03:48Speaker 00

  The group quickly bonded with Coco, who was kind and engaging. They also discovered that they shared similar sorrows when Coco revealed that she'd had leukaemia as a child.

• 1:04:02Speaker 00

  As it happened, Georgia's father was currently in remission from leukaemia.

• 1:04:08Speaker 00

  Coco admired how tight-knit the beverages were, and said she envied their family. She had grown up in a series of foster homes. Mel was touched by this, and invited Coco to spend Christmas with them.

• 1:04:25Speaker 00

  But Georgia wasn't always comfortable with the things Coco asked her to do as part of their work together. Sometimes Coco would apply makeup to make Georgia look beaten up, then instruct her to go into an office for child services and claim to have been abused.

• 1:04:45Speaker 00

  This made Georgia upset, and she feigned illness to get out of it. Coco's lack of familiarity with Melbourne also seemed strange, given she claimed to live there. She didn't seem to know her way around the city streets, or know which tram to catch to go somewhere. On one occasion, Georgia cried to her mother in the hotel bathroom, sharing that something felt wrong. Mel reassured Georgia that it was okay, and she just needed to adjust to being out of her comfort zone.

• 1:05:22Speaker 00

  On Thursday, July 4, towards the end of their week in Melbourne, the group had to relocate from the hotel where they'd been staying to a hostel, because Coco had only booked the hotel for a certain number of nights. While Coco and Georgia were out working, one of the hostel staff at reception asked Mel which member of their party would be providing identification to confirm their booking with the front desk. Mel replied that Coco would. The staff member appeared confused, and asked who Coco was. Mel said she was the woman they were staying with. "Oh, you mean Jas Jervis?" the staff member replied,

• 1:06:06Speaker 00

  then showed them a copy of a bank card emblazoned with the totally unfamiliar name.

• 1:06:16Speaker 00

  Mel and her elder daughter Tiana had no idea who Jas Jervis was, or why Coco Palmer would be using her bank card. They googled Jas Jervis's name and quickly found social media accounts for her. She wasn't Coco Palmer, she was a young mother living in Melbourne with her husband and daughter. Her husband, Tom Jervis, was a professional basketballer who'd played for the Perth Wildcats in Australia's National Basketball League.

• 1:06:48Speaker 00

  Tiana sent Jazz a message on Facebook and told her what had happened.

• 1:06:54Speaker 00

  Jazz saw the message quickly and knew exactly who Tiana was talking about. She sent back her own story.

• 1:07:04Speaker 00

  In June 2018, Jazz and Tom had been living in Brisbane and needed an au pair for their two-year-old daughter Clementine. Jazz turned to a popular au pair group on Facebook to find someone and was soon contacted by another host family with a recommendation. They had a seventeen-year-old au pair named Harper Hernandez, who was amazing, but they were moving overseas, so didn't need her services anymore.

• 1:07:35Speaker 00

  Harper needed a new job, and the host family recommended her wholeheartedly.

• 1:07:42Speaker 00

  Delighted to have received a referral, Jazz met with Harper and liked her right away. Clementine adored her, and it seemed like a perfect fit.

• 1:07:53Speaker 00

  Harper moved in with them and was as good as the host family had promised.

• 1:07:59Speaker 00

  She helped out around the house, was excellent with Clementine, and got along well with the Jervises' family and friends. When the Jervises relocated to Melbourne, Harper came with them. For about a year, all had gone well, but things eventually took a turn.

• 1:08:20Speaker 00

  Jazz and Tom noticed that Harper was very cagey about her background, and she had a tendency to lie about random things. When they Googled her name, nothing at all came up, which seemed strange.

• 1:08:36Speaker 00

  Eventually, they decided to let Harper go, telling her it was no longer the right fit.

• 1:08:43Speaker 00

  She told them she intended to travel west to Perth, and Tom gave her a lift to Melbourne Airport on Wednesday, June 19, 2019.

• 1:08:54Speaker 00

  It wasn't until after she'd left that they discovered she'd stolen Jazz's driver's licence and the family iPad. Harper had left some things behind as well, including several passports in different names.

• 1:09:10Speaker 00

  Just over two weeks later, Jazz received the message from Tiana Bevage informing her that a supposed talent scout they were working with had a bank card in her name.

• 1:09:23Speaker 00

  Tiana and Mel were horrified to learn Jazz's story, realising they had no idea who Coco Palmer really was. They called the police to report her, only to receive little assistance. Then they called Georgia on her mobile phone.

• 1:09:43Speaker 00

  As Georgia was currently out alone with Coco, they had to tread carefully. They told Georgia that Coco wasn't a safe person, that she should pretend to feel sick and say she had to leave.

• 1:09:59Speaker 00

  Georgia did as she was told, and when she and Coco returned to the hostel, Mel and Tiana confronted the supposed talent scout with what they knew. Tiana secretly recorded the confrontation on her phone, managing to capture some surreptitious footage of Coco. Cagey and nervous, Coco repeatedly refused to show the family her ID, but reassured them that she had tickets for them all to fly home. She wouldn't show them or send them the tickets then and there, and when Mel began shouting at her to share her real name, Coco suddenly fled.

• 1:10:42Speaker 00

  By the time police arrived, she was long gone.

• 1:10:48Speaker 00

  The family flew home the next day after paying almost $1,000 for tickets out of their own pocket. When they were safely at home, Mel shared a post about the ordeal to her Facebook page. She attached a photo she'd taken of Coco as well as a screenshot from their secretly recorded confrontation. “To say I’m shattered and disappointed in myself is an understatement. How could I be so blind to be had like that?” Mel wrote. “Please share this woman’s face. Police were no help, but I’m taking it further as she’s dangerous.”

• 1:11:31Speaker 00

  An acquaintance of Mel’s soon saw the post and sent her a message. “Mel, I know this woman. Google ‘GPO girl’ and you’ll know what I’m talking about.” Mel did so, and as soon as she saw the infamous photograph of Samantha as a party taken by Dublin police, she knew that she and Coco Palmer were one and the same. Jas Jervis also shared Mel’s post, and other revelations quickly came to light as the story spread. A total stranger reached out to the Jervis family to tell them Samantha, posing as Harper

• 1:12:13Speaker 00

  Hernandez, had once left their daughter Clementine in the stranger’s care for several hours. Another Melbourne family had also fallen victim to the same scheme as Mel and Georgia Bevage earlier that year, when Samantha posed as a talent scout named Marley. She wanted to hire their 12-year-old daughter Emma to do voiceover work in a cartoon. After charming the family, she began to meet with Emma every Tuesday and asked her to do strange things. She had to go into shops, a hospital, and the office of a statutory authority responsible

• 1:12:55Speaker 00

  for providing Australians with social security payments, claiming to be adopted and in need of help. Marley instructed Emma not to tell her parents about any of these tasks. On one occasion, she had to report that she was seeing ghosts.

• 1:13:15Speaker 00

  Things came to a terrifying head when Marley took Emma on a paid trip to Sydney, promising her an audition in the Australian version of the prank-focused television programme Punkt.

• 1:13:28Speaker 00

  They stayed together at a ranch. Emma noticed that the other people there called Marley Samantha, but when she asked her about that, Marley refused to answer. After two days, Marley sent Emma home on a train to Melbourne, an 11-hour journey that the 12-year-old had to make alone. When the family subsequently confronted Marley, she disappeared. They could find no trace of her online.

• 1:14:01Speaker 00

  As word got out on social media that infamous con artist Samantha Asapati was at it again, while she was supposed to still be on a good behaviour bond, traditional media picked up the story. Victoria Police commented that they were investigating reports of her alleged deception in the state. What was most concerning was that Samantha was no longer the centre of her own scams. While before she had posed as a child herself in repeated stories of abuse and suffering, now she appeared to be enlisting actual children to live out that same fantasy.

• 1:14:45Speaker 00

  Four months later, on Friday, November 1, 2019, a teenage girl wearing a blue school uniform with a blue felt hat walked into Headspace offices in the regional Victorian city of Bendigo, about a two-hour drive north from Melbourne.

• 1:15:03Speaker 00

  Headspace is a youth mental health foundation with centres all over Australia. The girl wasn't alone. Standing next to her was a four-year-old girl, and strapped to the teenager's chest was a 10-month-old baby.

• 1:15:20Speaker 00

  The girl told Headspace staff that she was fourteen years old and pregnant. The pregnancy was the result of her abusive uncle having raped her.

• 1:15:31Speaker 00

  But one staff member at the centre had seen the recent social media posts about Samantha Asapati's latest deceptions, and they recognised the person in front of them as the now thirty-one-year-old con artist. The staff member took a photo of Samantha and called the police.

• 1:15:52Speaker 00

  Although detectives were quickly dispatched, Samantha was still wanted by Victoria Police for her use of Jazz Jervis's stolen driver's licence. By the time they arrived, Samantha had fled with the children in tow. Undeterred, the detectives headed to Bendigo's main shopping district located on a busy thoroughfare called Pall Mall. They located Samantha Asapati and the two children wandering along the street, and she spotted them too. Samantha fled inside a department store and the detectives followed. She ducked and weaved around racks and counters as the police closed in.

• 1:16:38Speaker 00

  She'd made it to a cosmetics counter and was unbuckling the harness that kept the baby strapped to her chest when one of the detectives called out "Samantha", she stopped and stared back at him before asking, "Who?" "Me."

• 1:16:57Speaker 00

  Samantha Asapati was arrested and taken into custody along with the two small children. They appeared to speak little English, making it difficult for police to communicate with them and find out their names. Meanwhile, Samantha sat in a cell, turning to face a corner and hugging her knees to her chest. The detectives tried to question her, but she refused to be formally interviewed, speaking only in strange riddles. She began providing cryptic clues as to the children's identity, indicating she'd met their parents via a work-wanted ad.

• 1:17:38Speaker 00

  Eventually detectives were able to identify the children as two sisters, the daughters of French nationals who had recently moved to Melbourne. The couple had hired Samantha Azapati one month earlier in October, and she had been living with the family.

• 1:17:57Speaker 00

  They believed her name was Sakar, that she was 18, and a qualified childcare worker with the documents to prove it.

• 1:18:07Speaker 00

  Earlier that morning Samantha had told the couple she was taking the girls on a picnic in the Yu Yangs, a mountain range and regional park about an hour south-west of the family's home in Melbourne. Instead, she'd taken them to Bendigo in a completely different part of the state. The children were unharmed and reunited with their parents. Samantha Azapati was charged with two counts of child stealing and with stating a false name. She was also charged with handling stolen goods for the theft of Jas Jervis's driver's licence and obtaining property by deception for the wages she'd been paid by the Jervis family.

• 1:18:55Speaker 00

  When the Covid-19 pandemic hit Australia the following year, court cases faced delays due to restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the virus. Samantha Azapati spent a year and a half in jail before her case was finally heard in Melbourne Magistrates Court in May 2021.

• 1:19:16Speaker 00

  She appeared via video link wearing a blue face mask and her hair up in a bun. Once again Samantha Azapati pleaded guilty to all charges. She was sentenced to two years incarceration with a one-year non-parole period. Given the time she'd served on remand, she was free to go, though she would have to receive mandatory treatment and therapy.

• 1:19:45Speaker 00

  Despite the more serious charges and mandated therapy, Samantha Azapati continued to offend. In November 2021, she approached a youth worker at the not-for-profit organisation Youth Off The Streets in Sydney. She claimed to be 16 years old and a member of a cult whose parents had sent her to Sydney from Brisbane to live with a man who sexually assaulted her, took photographs of her, and held her captive.

• 1:20:16Speaker 00

  Samantha said she'd been sleeping in Sydney's Hyde Park to escape the abuse.

• 1:20:23Speaker 00

  The youth worker reported the case to the Child Protection Helpline, who referred it to police, and an investigation was launched. Samantha had an appointment to speak with officers, but avoided doing so at the last minute. When the police followed up at the address where she was living, they found no trace of the abusive man she'd described.

• 1:20:49Speaker 00

  Samantha went to a hospital one week later and reported a similar story, this time adding that she'd been injected with a fertility drug against her will. She ran away before hospital staff could examine her. The following month, she was finally arrested and charged after once again reaching out to a youth worker.

• 1:21:12Speaker 00

  When subsequently speaking to a psychiatrist about the incident, she claimed to have no memory of it, stating: "Holy crap, it's as if my day was wiped out when the police said I did something and that I could go to jail again. It's all very hard to believe."

• 1:21:33Speaker 00

  When she appeared in court on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, Samantha was emotional, shaking, and hyperventilating as a magistrate described her crimes as "serious" and "a drain on resources". She was ordered to serve a three-year community corrections order and undergo mental health treatment.

• 1:21:55Speaker 00

  Just seven months later, she was back in court after pretending to be a fourteen-year-old abuse survivor from France. She was initially sentenced to seventeen months' jail, but the sentence was reduced on appeal and she was released in December.

• 1:22:16Speaker 00

  Two months later, in February 2023, a young Danish woman called Sophie travelled to Australia on a working holiday visa and began living in regional New South Wales.

• 1:22:29Speaker 00

  Sophie soon met an eighteen-year-old Norwegian backpacker named Asta Hansen, who was also travelling through New South Wales. Asta Hansen, who in reality was thirty-five-year-old Samantha, said she had been hired by entertainment agency Village Roadshow to create video diaries of her travels.

• 1:22:51Speaker 00

  As part of the project, she would have to stay in low-budget accommodation. She invited Sophie to work alongside her and also posed as a Village Roadshow employee, sending Sophie a non-disclosure agreement to sign. The job paid well, at $2,800 per week.

• 1:23:14Speaker 00

  When the two women arrived at one of the low-budget hotels, Sophie discovered it was actually a women's refuge. She was told that she would have to pretend to be Samantha's sister as a condition of her employment. Sophie objected to staying at an accommodation for women fleeing violence, but was told she had to.

• 1:23:37Speaker 00

  Over the following weeks, Sophie and Samantha travelled north to Queensland, staying at refuges on the Gold Coast and Mackay, using fake names.

• 1:23:48Speaker 00

  Sophie was incredibly upset about this arrangement and tried to quit her job, but Samantha manipulated her by claiming the police were after her. She convinced Sophie to go to Melbourne with her and hired out, while she contacted her Danish grandfather, who was a lawyer for help.

• 1:24:08Speaker 00

  As Sophie's phone and passport had somehow gone missing during the course of their travels, she was even more dependent on Samantha.

• 1:24:18Speaker 00

  The two arrived in Melbourne in August 2023 and Samantha adopted a new identity. Now she was Ocean Jones.

• 1:24:29Speaker 00

  She set about trying to alter her physical appearance using a credit card in another woman's name to pay for freckles to be cosmetically tattooed onto her face at a salon. Then she contacted Family Violence Support Services and claimed that she and her sister were living rough after running away from their abusive stepfather. She spoke in broken English, pretended to be a Belgian teenager, and said she was a victim of sex trafficking. This led to the pair being housed in women's shelters and emergency accommodations designated for those fleeing family violence.

• 1:25:09Speaker 00

  Police soon cottoned on to the scam and contacted a support worker who had been handling Samantha's case to tell her they believed that one of the victims she was supporting was actually a con artist.

• 1:25:23Speaker 00

  Staff who had gone out of their way to assist Samantha were devastated by the revelation.

• 1:25:30Speaker 00

  A senior manager at one of the shelters told the Sydney Morning Herald that they were traumatised and riddled with self-doubt following the ruse. Moreover, the scam had undoubtedly deprived women who were genuinely in need of help. Quote, "Family violence is currently at epidemic levels. There's simply not enough funding or resources available to keep victim survivors safe, resulting in one woman being killed every four days." The critical impact of this abhorrent manipulation is in so many ways immeasurable for the victim survivors denied support during this period.

• 1:26:14Speaker 00

  Samantha Azapati's false claims led to her receiving more than $20,000 from funds designated to family violence victims. In October 2024, she pleaded guilty to six charges, including obtaining financial advantage by deception. Samantha was again sentenced to two years' jail.

• 1:26:39Speaker 00

  At the time of this episode's recording, she remains incarcerated at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne. However, she will be released at some point in the near future, and it appears inevitable that she will commit further offences once freed.

• 1:27:01Speaker 00

  Although Samantha Azapati has created elaborate backstories and histories for the more than 75 aliases she's used over the past two decades, not much about the real Samantha is known. She was born in August 1988 into a middle-class family who resided in Campbelltown, a suburb on the outskirts of Sydney. Her parents separated when Samantha was young, and both her and her brother remained with their mother.

• 1:27:34Speaker 00

  Samantha later attended high school, where she was a conscientious student and had a small group of friends. But she was known for seeking attention by sometimes walking out of class without explanation. She was also known for stretching the truth. She used to tell her friends that her real name was Lindsay Lohan, like the American actress. When the movie Freaky Friday was released starring the real Lindsay Lohan, Samantha dyed her hair red to match the film stars.

• 1:28:09Speaker 00

  After graduating from school, she found a job at a pancake restaurant in Campbelltown.

• 1:28:16Speaker 00

  When journalists later spoke to her former boss immediately following the GPO girl incident, she described her as a lovely girl who had issues.

• 1:28:27Speaker 00

  Samantha's mother has also spoken to the media, though has requested that she not be identified by name.

• 1:28:35Speaker 00

  She described Samantha as having been a sweet, adventurous and independent child, and said that the way her daughter's life had unfolded was heartbreaking.

• 1:28:47Speaker 00

  Samantha has said very little to anyone about her background, and court records have noted that what she has said cannot necessarily be believed due to her being an unreliable historian. She has claimed that when she was a child, her mother had her admitted to a psychiatric unit for a year due to being a pathological liar, but this has never been verified. At one point, Samantha also admitted herself to Campbelltown Hospital in the suburb where she grew up, due to self-harming behaviour, memory loss, confusion and suicide attempts.

• 1:29:28Speaker 00

  In 2023, a four-part documentary series about Samantha as a party was released under the title Kong Girl.

• 1:29:37Speaker 00

  In it, News Corp journalist Rowan Smith described how he was contacted by a member of Samantha's family while covering the case. They told Rowan that Samantha was sexually abused when she was growing up, and had subsequently spent some time living with another family member who was very religious.

• 1:29:58Speaker 00

  This family member had told Samantha that she needed to recreate herself following the abuse, and that she would go to hell unless she built a whole new life.

• 1:30:09Speaker 00

  Rowan Smith asked this individual for proof of their claims, including verification of their identity and how they were related to Samantha. He never heard from them again.

• 1:30:23Speaker 00

  A 2015 report by forensic psychologist Dr Susan Pullman noted that Samantha had been sexually abused by two separate males as a child.

• 1:30:35Speaker 00

  Numerous mental health experts who have looked into her case say that there are indicators she has been abused at some point. The motive for her crimes does not appear to be financial, despite occasionally receiving some financial benefit. Instead, Samantha appears to be motivated by receiving attention and affection.

• 1:30:58Speaker 00

  In all of her ruses, there is a pattern of identifying as a victim of sex trafficking and abuse. Initially, Samantha repeatedly posed as a young teenager aged around 14 years, and in all of these assumed identities, she described being abused, usually at the hands of a male relative such as an uncle. As Samantha aged and it became more difficult for her to pass as a minor, she began targeting young adolescent girls and had them lie about being abused to live the same story through them.

• 1:31:36Speaker 00

  Dr Richard Fryerson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of South Carolina, studied Samantha's crimes for the documentary series Kong Girl. He believes Samantha's targeting of adolescent girls was a form of factitious disorder imposed on another, previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This is a serious mental health condition where an individual, usually a parent, repeatedly lies about their child or a dependent being unwell in order to receive attention from others.

• 1:32:13Speaker 00

  Dr Fryerson suspected that Samantha Asapati did a similar thing using young girls who were in her care. The fact that all of her scenarios centred around early adolescence led him to believe that something highly traumatic likely happened to her at that age and that she has a need to relive that for some reason.

• 1:32:36Speaker 00

  Either she got a lot of sympathy back then and it was rewarding and she wants to feel that love and attention again, he said. Or if she were abused at age 14 and her report of abuse was ignored or minimized or non-validated, then she may have an inner need to get that validation and to get it repeatedly to sort of undo the trauma of not being believed previously.

• 1:33:04Speaker 00

  Samantha Azapati has also been assessed by numerous court-appointed psychiatrists in Australia, Ireland and Canada. In 2017, after Samantha posed as abused teenager Harper Hart, one psychiatrist diagnosed her as having borderline personality disorder, a mental health condition characterized by difficulties in regulating emotions and unstable interpersonal relationships. They reported that Samantha had a remarkably unstable sense of identity with a tendency to disassociate.

• 1:33:43Speaker 00

  In 2021, Australian forensic psychiatrist Jacqueline Rarkov also determined that Samantha had borderline personality disorder and added a diagnosis of pseudologia fantastica, a rarer condition characterized by compulsive lying. It is the same condition attributed to Alicia Estiverhead, who falsely claimed to be a survivor of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks, as featured in episode 286 of Case File. Dr. Rarkov found that Samantha had experienced a highly traumatic childhood where she was emotionally neglected and physically abused.

• 1:34:27Speaker 00

  Notes from a 2006 psychologist's session between Samantha and her mother revealed her mother had physically abused her.

• 1:34:37Speaker 00

  Like Dr. Fryerson, Dr. Rarkov believed Samantha's compulsive lies were motivated by a desire to relive a certain period in her life and recreate a happier version.

• 1:34:50Speaker 00

  Despite Samantha Azapati's mental health issues, assessments have also indicated that she is not mentally impaired and has at times had full awareness that what she was doing was wrong.

• 1:35:07Speaker 00

  While experts have been called upon to explain Samantha Asapati’s actions, they have also been asked how it was that she was able to dupe so many people with her seemingly outlandish stories. Countless people have been lied to and manipulated by Samantha Asapati, with her earliest scams dating back to 2007, and resulting in more than 100 criminal charges and 55 convictions.

• 1:35:36Speaker 00

  These crimes have had a significant impact on their victims. 13-year-old Georgia Bevage struggled for months after being manipulated by Samantha. She was so scared at night that she had to sleep with her mother and found it difficult to trust people. Georgia’s parents have grappled with terrible guilt and shame after trusting Samantha, as have other parents who left children in her care, like Tom and Jas Jervis. Others who have encountered Samantha, such as American Emily Bamberger, have had traumatic experiences as a result of befriending her. Emily shared her story with journalist Rowan Smith,

• 1:36:19Speaker 00

  admitting that she asks herself every day why she fell for Samantha’s lies. “The best way I can describe it is I was wide-eyed, terrified, and really thought I was helping another human being be safe.”

• 1:36:35Speaker 00

  Since meeting Samantha, Emily has lost trust in other people. She finds it hard to make new friends and believe the things people tell her.

• 1:36:47Speaker 00

  Support workers who helped Samantha in her various guises have also spoken of experiencing a loss of trust in others, which has had an effect on the work they do. Tiana Bevage, whose sister Georgia was targeted by Samantha, said in an interview for the docu-series Kong Girl: “Samantha is so believable because she just talks her way into it. She talks her way around things and makes you say yes without saying yes. She just gets into your mind and is just so convincing.”

• 1:37:25Speaker 00

  Experts in human behaviour have said that Samantha follows a distinct pattern in order to win people over.

• 1:37:33Speaker 00

  Dr Vera Tobin, an associate professor of cognitive science, spoke in the docu-series Congole about how Samantha reels people in with narratives the human mind is drawn to. Samantha begins by building a rapport with people, bonding over small things they have in common or a sympathetic story. As their connection grows, she starts to test them with what Dr Tobin calls her world-building, by sharing larger fabrications. If they're susceptible to these, then she introduces even bigger twists and turns.

• 1:38:13Speaker 00

  Dr Tobin likened Samantha to a human page-turner in the way she maintains a sense of action by introducing new developments all the time.

• 1:38:24Speaker 00

  In her book The Confidence Game, author Maria Konikova explained how Samantha as a party has an ability to tell compelling and heartbreaking stories that cast those listening in the role of saviour. This was partly how she was able to convince people.

• 1:38:45Speaker 00

  “Stories bring us together. We can talk about them and bond over them. Stories are so natural that we don’t notice how much they permeate our lives. That’s precisely why they can be such a powerful tool of deception. When we’re immersed in a story, we let down our guard. We focus in a way we wouldn’t if someone were just trying to catch us with a random phrase, or picture, or interaction. The more extreme the story, the more successful it becomes. Emotions on high, empathy engaged, we become primed to help.”

• 1:39:28Speaker 00

  As a party may have been lying, but that isn't all she was doing.

• 1:39:34Speaker 00

  She was also giving people the opportunity to shine in the humanitarian light that they always suspected lay within them.

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