Case 353: Jaidyn Leskie

*** Content warnings: Crimes against children *** In July 1997, residents of Moe, Victoria were left reeling after their town was put on the map for all the wrong reasons. A 14-month-old boy named Jaidyn Leskie had gone missing under the most bizarre of circumstances, prompting a media circus. The boyfriend of Jaidyn’s mother, 28-year-old Greg Domaszewicz, immediately came under police suspicion as he had been looking after Jaidyn on the night he disappeared. But as the case progressed and more details emerged, not everyone was convinced. --- Narration – Anonymous Host https://www.instagram.com/caseys.snaps/ Research & writing – Elsha McGill 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-353-jaidyn-leskie 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 centre. 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. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all listeners.

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  It was just after 5 o'clock on the morning of Sunday, June 15, 1997, when the door swung open at the Moi Police Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Once a thriving blue-collar hub, in recent years, the town had been devastated by the rapid privatization and dismantling of the state's electricity supply industry, and was in the grips of a severe socio-economic crisis. The sudden lack of industrial jobs left a massive portion of Moi's population unemployed or relying on low-paying jobs, and over half of the households lived on incomes below the state average.

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  Despite the poor job prospects, single parents and low-income earners were drawn to the area due to its cheaper government housing. Drug use, alcohol abuse and crime rates were high, and many households struggled with domestic violence.

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  Senior Constable Farnham Molsworth looked up from his position at the front counter to see a familiar face standing before him. It was 28-year-old Greg Domasevich, an unemployed mechanic who lived in town. With him was his girlfriend, 21-year-old Belinda Murphy, who also lived nearby. Belinda was in tears and appeared intoxicated. "We have a kidnapping", Greg said.

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  Senior Constable Molsworth was incredulous. He had crossed paths with Greg just a couple of hours earlier while out patrolling the streets, and had pulled him over for driving too fast. Molsworth had checked to Greg's licence and given him a breath test, which returned a zero blood alcohol reading. Nothing about him had been out of the ordinary, and he hadn't mentioned anything about an abduction. "Who has been kidnapped?", he asked. Greg replied, "Belinda's baby."

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  The couple explained that Belinda had gone out for the night with her sister and left her son, 14-month-old Jayden Lasky, in Greg's care. When Greg had gone to pick Belinda up at around 2 AM, he admitted to the constable that he'd left Jayden asleep on the couch while he made the roughly 45-minute round trip, not wanting to wake him up and put him into his car seat, which had gotten wet earlier in the day after it was accidentally left out in the rain. Greg lived alone in a small weatherboard home on Narican Drive, a prominent roadway directly west of Moi's town centre that spanned a mix of residential properties and

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  large parcels of land. By the time the couple returned there, it was around 3 AM, and Jayden was no longer on the couch where Greg claimed to have left him. He told Senior Constable Molsworth, "When I got home, someone had smashed all my windows, and there is a pig's head outside the window."

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  Senior Constable Molsworth wasn't sure what to make of the story that Greg Domasevich and Belinda Murphy were telling him. He notified his supervisor, who immediately separated the couple into two different interview rooms to hear their individual takes. The Moi Police Station was only small, so the officers closed the door to each room and switched on the exhaust fan to prevent the couple from overhearing each other. Belinda was visibly distraught. She told the officer that Greg had stopped by her place late on Saturday morning to ask if he could look after Jayden for the day. Although Greg and Belinda had only been romantically involved for a little over six months, Greg had taken a real shine

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  to Jayden, and the two had formed a bond of sorts. Greg liked having Jayden around so that he could teach him about what he viewed as some of the more masculine things in life: cars, fishing and action movies. While Belinda had been a little unsure about leaving Jayden alone with Greg to begin with, over the past couple of months, Greg had looked after the toddler 10 or so times and proven himself to be a reliable caregiver. She therefore agreed that Greg could take Jayden for a few hours, as long as he dropped him off at her sister, Katie's, house later that evening. Belinda and Katie had been invited to a friend's birthday party in

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  the neighbouring town of Trowogan, and they'd organised a babysitter to watch all four of their children at Katie's house, which was just over a kilometre away from Belinda's.

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  Greg happily agreed. At around 1:30 PM, he drove over to Belinda's place and dropped her and her other child, a two-year-old daughter, at Katie's. Greg then took Jayden to his house on Narican Drive for the afternoon, like he'd done several times before, with the plan being for Jayden to play with Greg's three dogs in the backyard and watch Greg as he worked on his car in the garage.

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  At around 4 PM, it started to rain, so Belinda called Greg from Katie's house to see if Jayden needed any more clothes. Greg told her not to worry. He said he was about to shower and would drop Jayden off at Katie's soon. He also told her that a friend of his had just called to say that Katie had been making up rumours about him, which sparked an argument between the two sisters, and Belinda decided she no longer wanted to go out. She walked home with her daughter, calling Greg's house to tell him to drop Jayden at her place instead of her sister's, but there was no answer. She called him

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  numerous times over the next couple of hours, but still, there was no response.

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  Belinda wasn't too worried. She knew that Greg couldn't hear his phone ringing when he was out working on the car, and that he often lost track of time. In the meantime, she made up with Katie and decided to go out after all. By the time Katie and her boyfriend picked Belinda up, it was around 8 PM, and she still hadn't managed to get in touch with Greg. Certain that he'd either drop Jayden off at Katie's house as planned or keep him for the evening, she focused on enjoying the night. The group went for drinks at a friend's place in Trowogan before moving on to the nearby pub. At around 11

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  PM, Belinda called Greg from a payphone. Finally, he answered. "Shit's happened", he said.

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  Greg told Belinda that Jayden had burned his bare bottom on the heater, and that he had taken him to Moi Casualty for treatment. Dissatisfied with the level of care the staff had provided, Greg said he’d then taken Jayden to Maryvale Hospital instead. He told Belinda not to worry, she should stay and have a good time, and then ring him later and he’d come pick her up.

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  Belinda was thrown by the call and wanted to go home, but Katie told her not to. Greg was known to be a practical joker, and she was convinced it was some kind of twisted prank. Katie called Greg herself, and he admitted he was just kidding, saying that Jayden was really asleep on the couch, safe and sound. Reassured by this, Belinda carried on with her night, and was eventually cut off at the bar for being too intoxicated.

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  At around 2am, she called Greg and asked him to come pick her up. He arrived about twenty minutes later, with a stubby of bourbon and coke for her to drink on the drive home. Belinda looked into the backseat. “Where’s Jayden?” she asked.

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  Greg admitted he hadn’t been joking on the phone after all. Jayden really was in Maryvale Hospital getting treatment for his burn. What Belinda didn’t realise was that Maryvale Hospital was under construction, and wasn’t even open at the time. She insisted that they go to see him, but Greg refused. He said Belinda was too drunk, and he didn’t want the staff to think she was an unfit parent. Belinda reluctantly told herself that at least Jayden was in good hands, and she agreed to go back to Greg’s house. But, as they pulled into his driveway at around 3am, they noticed that all of his front windows had been smashed in.

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  They checked inside, but nothing appeared to have been touched. Belinda told Greg to call the police, but he said he wasn’t a rat. Besides, he was pretty sure he knew who was responsible: his ex-girlfriend, Yvonne Penfold. They decided to go back to Belinda’s house for the night, and Greg would deal with the damage in the morning. But, as they were leaving, they noticed something on the ground in front of the smashed living room window. It was the severed head of a black-and-white pig.

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  For Greg, this was further confirmation that the person behind the vandalism was Yvonne Penfold. He and Yvonne had been in a toxic on-and-off relationship, and things hadn’t ended well. Since breaking up, they’d both accused one another of ongoing harassment in the form of escalating pranks, which had involved maliciously damaging one another’s property.

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  One of Yvonne’s so-called pranks had allegedly involved her taking Greg’s beloved pet pig Stimpy to be slaughtered, and then returning him to Greg as pork chops. As far as Greg was concerned, this second incident involving a pig had Yvonne’s name all over it.

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  Greg called Yvonne and asked if this was one of her sick games. He and Belinda then drove back to Belinda’s house, stopping past Yvonne’s house on the way. Yvonne’s car was in the driveway, and the lights were on, but they didn’t stop. By the time they got to Belinda’s house, it was around 3:20am. Greg said he was going out to find out who damaged his house, while Belinda called the babysitter at Katie’s to check that everything was okay there. She then fell straight to sleep in front of the lounge room heater. Belinda told the police that about an hour and a half later, she awoke to Greg shaking her in a clear state of distress.

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  “Jayden’s not in the hospital,” he said. “I lied to you. We have to go to the police. He’s been abducted.” Belinda almost started to laugh, thinking it was another one of Greg’s twisted jokes. But when Greg started crying and apologising, she realised he wasn’t kidding.

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  Greg said that Jayden really had been asleep on the couch, and he’d only made up the story about him being in hospital because he didn’t want Belinda to know that he’d left him home alone while he picked her up from Trowgen. He thought everything would be okay once they got back to his place, and Belinda saw that Jayden was safe and sound. But that all changed once he realised that his house had been vandalised, and Jayden was no longer on the couch. Greg said he’d tried to find Jayden before telling Belinda the truth, but failing to find any sign of him, it was time to go to the police.

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  After speaking with Belinda Murphy at the Moi Police Station, the officers went to the interview room next door to speak to Greg Domasevich. They found the door opened a crack, and the exhaust fan switched off, giving them the impression that Greg had been trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. Asked for his side of the story, Greg said the afternoon had gone relatively smoothly. He’d mostly just worked on his car while Jayden potted around, wandering between the garage and the backyard to play with Greg’s dogs. They went inside at around 6pm, and Greg gave Jayden a wash, dressed him in fresh clothes, and then had a shower himself.

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  He decided he might as well keep Jayden with him until it was time to pick Belinda up, rather than drop him at Katie’s house with the babysitter. They watched TV for a few hours, and Jayden eventually fell asleep on the couch. When Belinda called at around 2am wanting to be picked up from the pub in Trowgen, Greg said he’d been playing the Nintendo, and had left the TV and heater on, the dogs outside, and the doors locked. After returning home to find his house vandalised and Jayden missing, he dropped Belinda home without saying a word about the boy’s abduction. Given that she believed Jayden was safe in the hospital, he thought he had time to try to find him

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  before Belinda discovered what really happened.

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  After Belinda fell asleep, Greg claimed that he went home for about ten to twenty minutes to look for Jayden, before driving past the home of his ex-girlfriend, Yvonne Penfold, for a second time. The lights were on inside, and her car was in the driveway, but when Greg got out and peered under the curtains, he said he couldn’t see anyone or anything inside. He continued looking for Jayden for about an hour and a half, before waking Belinda up and telling her the truth.

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  Greg told the police that he was home all evening, was completely sober, and didn’t have any visitors. He repeatedly insisted that he had nothing to do with Jayden’s disappearance, and that he had no idea where the toddler could be. But, they weren’t convinced.

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  Senior Constable Farnham Molsworth and his partner had pulled Greg over at 3:35am as he headed down Lloyd Street in the direction away from Moi. Although he had only left Belinda’s house moments before this interaction, he didn’t mention anything about the missing toddler, or his house having been vandalised. In the eyes of the senior constable, who had several interactions with Greg in the past, Greg hadn’t quite been his usual self. He typically found Greg to be very cocky, but on this occasion, he seemed more reserved and cautious. Asked where he’d been, Greg had simply replied: “Nowhere.”

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  Immediately suspicious of this story, the Moi Police notified the homicide squad, and a detective came to formally interview Greg Domasevich while a crime scene investigator was sent to check out his house on Narican Drive. Outside was just as Greg and Belinda had described it: all of the front windows were smashed, and a severed pig’s head sat ominously in the front garden bed. Inside, Greg’s house was dank, messy, and sparsely furnished, with posters of musicians, animals, and aliens on the walls. In the lounge room, the Nintendo was still on, and there was smashed glass all over the floor, along with several rocks from the nearby train line.

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  The glass didn’t appear to have been stepped on, indicating that no one had climbed in through the broken windows. The rest of the windows were secured shut with pieces of wood, all of the doors were locked, and there were no signs of forced entry. In Greg’s bedroom, stacks of dirty laundry sat near his unmade bed, and when the crime scene examiner lifted up his mattress, he found $600 in scrunched-up cash. He unraveled the notes and discovered they were wet. In the lounge room, there were several small particles of skin tissue and hair fibres on the space heater, to suggest it was possible that Greg had been telling the truth

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  when he said Jayden had burned himself the previous evening. A wheelie bin at the front of the house also contained several blood-stained tissues.

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  Belinda told the police that when she’d handed Jayden over to Greg for the afternoon, he’d been dressed in grey tracksuit pants, a green long-sleeved top, a blue jumper, and red jacket. She had pinned a dummy to his clothes and put a few supplies into a blue plastic bag, including a change of clothes, four disposable nappies, a bottle, an apple, a muesli bar, and a lollipop.

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  None of these items were found at Greg’s house.

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  The house was cordoned off as a crime scene, while the examiner made the five-minute drive to Belinda’s house. In stark contrast to Greg’s place, Belinda’s was neat, tidy, and well-organised. Photos of her two children were displayed proudly throughout, their bedrooms filled with toys, and the kitchen stocked with fresh fruit. Nothing at the address suggested anything other than a loving and supporting environment for the young family, and there was nothing to indicate where Jayden might be. The police put Belinda’s house under surveillance while the search for Jayden commenced.

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  Police spoke to Greg’s ex, Yvonne Penfold, who admitted to being involved with the vandalism. She said she’d been at a party on Saturday night with her brother Kenny Penfold and their friend Darren Wilson, and that they had all been drinking and smoking cannabis. Kenny had an extensive criminal record that included everything from burglary and assault to amphetamine charges.

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  As the group drove home after midnight, they started discussing Greg Domasevich’s recent treatment of Yvonne, which, according to Yvonne, involved ongoing abusive phone calls, her car being graffitied, and even a homemade bomb being left on her doorstep. Kenny was protective of his younger sister and wanted to give Greg a big enough scare that he’d leave Yvonne alone. The previous day Kenny and a couple of his mates had slaughtered a pig, and Kenny still had it hanging up in his shower. He suggested they get the pig’s head and throw it through Greg’s window as a warning.

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  The group picked up another friend, a man named Dean Ross, and then swung past Kenny’s house to get the pig’s head. They then made their way to Narican Drive, where Yvonne dropped Kenny and Darren on a dirt road that ran parallel to the railway line opposite Greg’s house. Yvonne and Dean took off, arranging to meet up with Kenny and Darren in about 10 minutes’ time, once the deed was done.

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  Kenny Penfold told the police that he and Darren Wilson had hid in the bushes near the train line, armed with the pig’s head, several rocks, and an axe handle. They watched Greg’s house, waiting for the right moment to strike.

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  The lights were on inside, and Greg’s car had been reversed up the driveway, which struck Kenny as odd, as he’d never seen him do this before. Eventually, the front door opened and Greg came outside, put something into the wheelie bin at the front of his house, and went back in.

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  A couple of minutes later, Greg came back out, got into his car, and drove off. As soon as Greg’s car disappeared down the road, Kenny and Darren made their move. Kenny said he threw the pig’s head at one of the front windows, but it bounced off twice before finally smashing the glass. They threw rocks at the rest of the windows, ditched the axe handle in a nearby bush, and made a run for it, meeting the others near the Narican Creek Bridge. Kenny said Greg’s dogs had started barking, but they hadn’t heard a child crying at any point. They never entered Greg’s home, and they certainly hadn’t taken Jayden Leskie.

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  The police spoke to each of the individuals involved in the pig’s head plan, and their stories more or less aligned. While the timings they gave varied, each of them said they had stopped into the BP petrol station on Narican Drive minutes before going to Greg’s house. A customer buying cigarettes had seen them there, and verified the time as being 2:25 AM, which confirmed that the vandalism took place while Greg was out picking Belinda up from Tralagon.

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  Belinda told the police that when she had called Greg from Katie’s house at around 4:00 PM to see if Jayden needed extra clothes, she had heard Jayden in the background. He had gotten on the phone and said the word “dog”, one of the three words he knew how to say, the others being mum and dad. This confirmed that the toddler had still been alive at around 4:00 PM. Belinda estimated that she had then unsuccessfully tried calling Greg’s house about 15 to 20 times between 5:30 PM and 7:45 PM. When Greg was asked about this period of non-contact, he had no explanation for why he hadn’t answered the calls.

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  One of Greg’s neighbours, a woman called Mary Anne, told the police that after being out all afternoon, she had tried calling Greg a couple of times at around 8:00 PM. He hadn’t answered, but had then called her back at around 10:00 PM, asking if she had any spare nappies, because he had run out of clean ones. Mary Anne didn’t have any, but she advised Greg he could use a towel, or alternatively, that they sold nappies at the petrol station down the road. She thought she heard a small child laughing in the background.

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  Belinda finally got a hold of Greg at around 11:00 PM, which is when he first told her that Jayden had burned himself and was in hospital. Police started to suspect that something must have happened to Jayden in this period of non-contact between 5:30 and 11:00 PM. Perhaps there had been an accident while Jayden was unsupervised, or Greg had lost his temper and struck Jayden harder than he intended, before panicking and disposing of the toddler’s body.

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  While the police continued to interview Greg about the events of that evening, searches were conducted of the paddocks surrounding his home on Narican Drive. The crime scene examiner also searched Greg’s car, a Green Falcon XC sedan. The boot was filled to the brim with random items, such as fishing gear, tools, and old car parts. In the front seat, a wet wallet sat underneath the accelerator pedal. The ink on an appointment card inside the wallet had run, giving the crime scene examiner the impression that the wallet had been fully immersed in water. The surrounding carpet was also wet, but not wet enough to explain how wet the wallet had become.

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  A wet jacket also sat on the back seat.

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  After hours of intense questioning, Greg was free to go. The police put him under surveillance, hoping that he might lead them to Jayden, but instead, he went straight to Belinda’s house to provide her with comfort and assure her he had nothing to do with her son’s disappearance.

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  Jayden’s father, Brett Leskie, had recently moved to Western Australia, and as soon as he was informed that his son was missing, he boarded the next plane home. Up until late 1996, Brett had been living in Moi with Belinda Murphy and their two young children, where he’d run a car repairs business with Greg Domasevich. Brett and Belinda were engaged at the time, and Belinda felt that Brett could earn better money to support their family if he got a job working in the mines in Western Australia. Brett did just that, but he hadn’t been gone long before Belinda told him she wanted a separation. She had been spending a lot of time with Greg, and they had developed a relationship of their own.

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  Belinda’s new relationship added another layer to her and Brett’s already complicated history. Brett had initially been married to Belinda’s older sister Katie, with whom he had a child. That was until Brett broke up with Katie to be with Belinda instead. With this second relationship falling apart, Brett stayed in Western Australia, agreeing that the children were better off with their mother. Now told that Jayden was missing, his mind immediately started to race, but he reassured himself that no one could possibly kill his beautiful little boy.

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  By the time Brett made it to Moi on Tuesday, June 17, the town was already crawling with reporters. News of a potential child abduction involving a severed pig’s head had immediately caught the interest of journalists from Melbourne. Reporters from the major media outlets quickly made the journey 136 kilometres east of the city, attracted by the bizarre circumstances of the crime and the unconventional relationships of the individuals involved. The police appealed to the public to come forward with any information that could help the investigation, while the search for Jayden intensified. The media were particularly interested in the pig’s head angle

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  and started circulating stories that Jayden could have fallen victim to a satanic cult. But those involved with the vandalism continued to deny any involvement in Jayden’s disappearance, and the police believed them. If the group had been responsible for the kidnapping, it made sense that they would have tried to lay low, but their actions were quite the opposite. The police had found witnesses who had seen Kenny Penfold and Darren Wilson walking in the direction away from Greg Domasevich’s house in the early morning hours, and they did not have a baby with them. Kenny told the police that after he and Darren fled the scene of the vandalism, they had thrown rocks at a couple of passing teenagers,

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  and jumped out at another youth and screamed “boo”. All three of these individuals verified Kenny’s story, saying they had seen Kenny and Darren walking in the direction away from Greg’s house without Jayden.

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  Kenny also had a less conventional way to prove his story. He told the police that when they’d been casing Greg’s house, he’d gotten so nervous that he needed to go to the toilet. He’d run onto the nearby railway tracks and emptied his bowels, but because he didn’t have any toilet paper, he’d ripped the pocket of the jacket he was wearing and used that to wipe himself. Kenny took the police to the location in question, gleefully holding up the piece of fabric and waving it for a photograph. He was all too happy to regale the media throngs with this latest development, telling reporters: “I did a shit on the railway lines and tore off me shirt pocket to wipe me bum.

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  The coppers have just had me out there to find it, and you know what? They’ve taken the pile into custody as evidence. Made me do the scooping up, though.”

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  By Thursday, June 19, Jayden Leskie had been missing for five days. Grid searches had been conducted of the area surrounding Nariken Drive, as well as Lake Nariken and Mundera Dam, but not a single piece of evidence had emerged to suggest where the little boy could be. With police holding grave concerns for Jayden's safety, Greg Domasevich was summoned to the station for his second formal interview with detectives from the homicide squad. Over seven hours, Greg was asked over 1,200 questions, to which he gave a series of rambling, stilted, and sometimes near inarticulate answers.

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  He repeated his story that he and Jayden had a relatively uneventful day together on Saturday, June 14, with Jayden mostly playing with the dogs and in the dirt while Greg worked on his car. When they went inside for the night, Greg said that Jayden had gotten too close to the heater and his skin had gotten a bit red, but not burnt, which is what gave him the idea to tell Belinda he was in hospital. Greg admitted he had a habit of making bad jokes of this nature, telling the detectives, “I’m just an idiot with things like that.”

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  Greg said his decision to leave Jayden asleep on the couch while he went to pick Belinda up was a first, insisting he had never left the toddler alone while looking after him before. Given that the boy was sound asleep and the house was locked, he said he didn’t think it would be an issue. After discovering Jayden was missing, Greg said he looked behind the couch and in a cupboard, trying to be discreet so that Belinda wouldn’t suspect anything. He had called Yvonne Penfold, but didn’t mention Jayden specifically because Belinda was with him and he didn’t want her to panic.

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  Greg reasoned that he didn’t say anything to the police when they pulled him over at 3:35 a.m. because they often treated him poorly and he didn’t have much faith in law enforcement. He had also heard rumours that Yvonne was romantically involved with a Moi police sergeant and this made him even more hesitant to say anything.

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  Greg said he was convinced that Yvonne had taken Jayden and that he had intended to figure it out himself, telling the police about a horrible prank she’d once played on Belinda. One night, Yvonne had apparently called Belinda and told her to go and check on her children. When Belinda looked in on them, she found that they’d been switched in their beds without her having heard a thing. The police asked Greg what he now believed had happened to Jayden. “Somebody’s groped him out of the house,” I’d say. “I don’t know. It’s just a big mess to me.”

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  Up until this point, Greg had made no mention of the bloody tissues found in his front wheelie bin or of Jayden having hurt himself. Testing had since confirmed the blood was Jayden’s. When the police asked Greg about the tissues directly, he said, “Jayden fell over and done something. I just wiped his nose or lip or something. That was it, yeah. Didn’t touch him. Maybe his nose or chin or something. It was his lip. His tooth, I think, went into his lip. I don’t know. But it was just something, like it was minor.”

• 36:04Speaker 00

  Greg maintained that he hadn’t left the house at any point except when going to pick up Belinda from Trarogan at around 2 a.m., at which point Jayden was alive and well. As for his wet wallet, Greg thought he might have left it on the roof of his car earlier that day while it was raining. Either that, or it had dislodged from his pocket as he moved in and out from under the car while he was working on it. Greg had recently sold his boat and he said that the cash from the sale was still in his wallet. When he realised the money was wet, he said he went inside and hid the money under his mattress. This was at odds with what the crime scene examiner had observed.

• 36:49Speaker 00

  He believed the level of wetness indicated the wallet had been in someone’s pocket while they were completely immersed in water, not just while they were out in the rain. There were other unexplained inconsistencies too. Belinda said she had packed a plastic bag full of Jayden’s things, including four disposable nappies. Greg told his neighbour, Mary Anne, he had run out of nappies at around 10 p.m., yet not a single used nappy had been found during a search of his property. He also told the police that Jayden hadn’t had much to eat, which Belinda said would be unusual as Jayden had a large appetite and cried when he was hungry.

• 37:35Speaker 00

  Greg denied that anything had happened to make him lose his temper towards the boy, saying Jayden was his friend and calling him good. The detectives put multiple scenarios to him. Had something happened while Greg was in the shower? Had there been a medical issue? Was it possible that an accident had occurred that resulted in Jayden’s death and Greg had covered it up in a state of panic?

• 38:01Speaker 00

  Greg denied each one. The detectives told him they had grave concerns for Jayden’s whereabouts, saying, “This is your chance to tell us. Tell us everything you know.” Greg responded, “I’ve told yous and told yous and told yous, yeah? That’s all I know. That’s it.” The detectives were getting fed up. One of them asked Greg directly, “What have you done to Jayden?” Greg replied, “I haven’t done anything to Jayden.”

• 38:48Speaker 00

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• 42:18Speaker 00

  With Greg Domasevich’s second police interview failing to generate any new leads or answers, the search for Jayden Leskey continued. Local waterways, including Lake Narican and the swamp in Edward Hunter Reserve, were drained, while 140 police and SES volunteers searched 54 hectares of surrounding bushland. On June 25, 10 days into Jayden’s disappearance, search parties began combing the local rubbish tip, wearing masks to shield themselves from the rancid odours that permeated around them. Police helicopters equipped with thermal imaging equipment circled overhead and spotted a

• 42:59Speaker 00

  garbage bag the size of a small body floating in Lake Narican. What looked like a breakthrough turned out to be a cruel hoax when it was found that the bag was filled with raw chicken carcasses. Days later, someone also left a cardboard cutout of a baby on the shores of the lake. After eight stomach-turning days, the fruitless search of the dump was called off. When no sign of Jayden had surfaced by July 5, the police conceded there was very little hope of finding him alive, and that it was time to accept that the toddler had likely been murdered.

• 43:41Speaker 00

  Brett Leskie refused to accept this, telling reporters he would never lose hope of finding his son alive. By this point, $1 million had already been spent trying to find the little boy, making it the biggest search in Australia since the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967. After 20 days, the search for Jayden was officially called off. From his front door, Greg Domasevich spoke to reporters for the first time. Asked how he felt, Greg said: “How do you think I feel? The little boy is still missing and all the focus is on me.

• 44:23Speaker 00

  The pressure on me has just been enormous. It’s been one of the worst things I’ve ever had to go through, and he’s still missing, that’s the thing. I’ve got my family here now to support me, and I wouldn’t mind being left alone with them. Thanks.” Meanwhile, tongues had been wagging about the nature of Greg and Jayden’s relationship, with many questioning why a grown man would want to spend so much time alone with a baby who wasn’t his own. Even Jayden’s paternal grandmother said she had always found this strange about Greg. But those who knew Greg didn’t think there was anything nefarious about it, noting that

• 45:08Speaker 00

  Greg seemed to find Jayden entertaining more than anything. For the most part, those who had spent time at Greg’s house when he’d been caring for Jayden on previous occasions said the two got along well, and that Greg seemed to cope fine and take good care of Jayden. However, one friend noted that Greg sometimes got annoyed with Jayden, and in those moments, gave him a gentle smack. Jayden was also prone to crying for prolonged periods, especially if he was hungry, and one of Greg’s friends described Jayden as a sook. When Jayden wouldn’t stop crying, Greg apparently handled it by turning up the stereo to drown out the sound of his cries.

• 45:53Speaker 00

  If he continued to cry, Greg would put him out in the backyard with the dogs. At one point, he left him out there, crying alone, for around 10 minutes. A friend recalled an incident when he and Greg had taken Jayden on a fishing trip to Blue Rock Dam, which was one of Greg’s favourite fishing spots. Greg had apparently dropped Jayden while lifting him over a fence, leaving him with some scratches and bruising to his face. When Belinda later asked what happened, Greg apparently said that Jayden had hurt himself while playing with the dogs and some sticks.

• 46:34Speaker 00

  While she accepted this explanation, an incident that occurred about a month before Jayden went missing left her wary. Jayden had spent the night at Greg’s house, and when he was dropped home, Belinda noticed he had a bruise on his face which looked like an adult’s hand. Greg allegedly told her that Jayden had hit his head on the car door and wouldn’t stop crying. Greg had taken him inside, but Jayden wouldn’t calm down, so Greg lost it. He offered to tell the authorities about what had happened in case they tried to take Jayden away from Belinda, and although she declined out of this shared fear, she became

• 47:16Speaker 00

  nervous about leaving Jayden alone with Greg after this. But although Belinda’s movements on the night Jayden went missing had been verified by numerous others, suspicion still lingered on Belinda too. Investigators had looked into her medical history and discovered that about seven weeks before Jayden went missing, she had visited a general practitioner because Jayden was crying constantly and she was having difficulty coping. The GP referred Belinda to a paediatrician who found that Jayden was in good health and there was nothing wrong to explain the crying. With the media frenzy swinging into overdrive once the case was officially declared a murder

• 48:01Speaker 00

  investigation, members of the public were quick to cast a judgement on what they saw as Belinda’s questionable parenting decisions. Not only her decision to leave Jayden in Greg’s care, but also her choice to go out and drink heavily with two young children at home. Some reporters focused on Belinda’s unconventional relationship with Brett Leskie, as well as Greg Domasevich’s volatile relationship with Von Penfold. They continued to exploit the Pigshead story and the characters involved, casting Moi as a rural wasteland full of unemployed antisocial adults who lived amorally and behaved more like teenagers.

• 48:43Speaker 00

  Some reporters were so eager to broadcast colourful comments from the Pigshead leader Kenny Penfold that a police officer in Queensland recognised him on TV, and Kenny was extradited interstate on an outstanding assault warrant. As The Daily Telegraph later stated: “The sequence of events and the complicated relationships of the people involved have clouded the circumstances surrounding the disappearance. As police have attempted to understand the interconnected relations of Jayden’s carers, the focus on the little boy has been almost shunted aside.” Brett Leskie and his family further called Belinda’s parenting into question when

• 49:27Speaker 00

  it was revealed that in January 1997, Belinda apparently told Brett that she had “lost the plot” and kicked Jayden, and had also shaken him on a previous occasion. Brett said he became concerned for the safety of his children and took them to stay with his parents. Belinda disputed this entirely, saying she had never shaken Jayden and had only shoved him with her foot. While the children had indeed spent about a week and a half with Brett’s parents, Belinda claimed this had nothing to do with her treatment of the kids, but because Brett was due to return to Western Australia and wanted to spend some quality time with them before he left.

• 50:11Speaker 00

  Many were astonished to find that Belinda continued to stand by Greg, despite him being the prime suspect in her son’s presumed murder. But she maintained that she thought Greg was innocent, and that she held hopes that Jayden would be returned alive. Belinda bought a teddy bear which she gave to her daughter, saying it was for her to give to Jayden when he finally came home. But there was something unusual that had been playing on her mind. When Belinda had returned home from the police station after reporting Jayden missing, she noticed that Jayden’s cot was not in the same neatly-made state that she had left it in before going out on Saturday night.

• 50:56Speaker 00

  Instead, the cot mattress was on the floor and the bedding was hanging over the edge. Belinda had no explanation for this, but when she told the police about it, it supported their developing theory of what they believed happened to Jayden.

• 51:16Speaker 00

  Investigators believed that something had happened to Jaden between Greg's first phone call with Belinda at 4pm and their subsequent call at 11pm when he first told her that Jaden had burned himself. This explained why Greg had never dropped Jaden off at Katie's to be babysat with the other children as planned. Although they didn't know whether Jaden's death had been intentional or accidental, the theory was that Greg planned to make it look like Belinda had actually been the one who killed him. Although Greg maintained that he hadn't left his house at any point while he was babysitting Jaden, except for when he went to pick Belinda up from Traugan, various witnesses called this into question.

• 52:00Speaker 00

  A friend of Greg's said he'd driven past Greg's house just after 7.30pm and his car hadn't been in the driveway. One of Belinda's neighbours told the police that at around 12.30am on Sunday, June 15, she had heard an engine revving. She looked outside and saw a green car, which resembled Greg's green sedan parked across the road from Belinda's house. This evidence, combined with the Jaden's cot sheets later being found in disarray, led investigators to suspect that after Jaidyn died, Greg had driven Jaden's body back to Belinda's house and placed him in his cot, in the hopes that Belinda would find

• 52:41Speaker 00

  him there the next morning and think she had killed him during a drunken blackout. Even if Belinda didn't believe she had done it, Greg could have reasoned that the cops likely would. When Greg picked Belinda up at around 2am, the police believed he took the stubby of bourbon and coke with him to ensure she was well and truly intoxicated beyond function. The lie about Jaden being in hospital was to buy him some time before Jaden's body was discovered. However, when they drove past Greg's house and saw that it had been vandalised, the police believed that Greg recognised an opportunity.

• 53:22Speaker 00

  Thinking the Pigshead crew would come across as more suspicious than Belinda, he waited until Belinda was asleep and then returned to Jaden's cot and retrieved his body, forgetting to make the bed again afterwards. He then dumped the body somewhere, likely in a body of water, which explained why his wallet, money and jacket were wet, before waking Belinda up and telling her that Jaden wasn't really in hospital, but had been taken. Greg hadn't been wet when the police pulled him over at 3.35am, mere minutes after he left Belinda's house. Going by the police theory, this meant that Jaden's body had to have been in Greg's

• 54:05Speaker 00

  car while he was talking to the police. The problem was, forensic testing of the car, including the messic boot, had not revealed any of Jaden's blood, hair, or any other sign that the toddler had ever been there. By the time Jaden had been missing for a month, the pressure was on for the police to make an arrest. Those associated with the Pigshead incident had been ruled out as having any involvement in the toddler's disappearance, and no other suspects had emerged. While there was still nothing but circumstantial evidence to implicate Greg Domasevich, police remained convinced he was responsible.

• 54:48Speaker 00

  On July 16, 1997, 31 days after Jaidyn went missing, they placed Greg under arrest for Jaden's murder. The media went into overdrive. Wanting to escape the attention, Belinda went interstate for a few weeks, leaving a set of house keys with the police, as well as a mutual friend of hers and Greg's. When she returned to Moi, she saw something on her wall unit that had not been there before she left. It was the dummy she thought she had pinned to Jaden's jumper on the day he went missing, as well as a toy phone she had packed with his belongings. She checked Jaden's cupboards and noticed that some of his clothing also appeared to

• 55:33Speaker 00

  be missing. Brett Leskie had been wanting to collect some of his belongings from Belinda's place, but had been unable to get in contact with her to make the suitable arrangements. By September, he decided to break in. As he gathered up some of his tools and clothing, Brett noticed a photograph of Jaden in which he looked visibly withdrawn and appeared to have a bruised chin and cheekbone. Brett took the photo with him, along with a notepad which he believed to be Belinda's. In it, there were several notes that started with the words “Dear Greg”. One of them continued:

• 56:16Speaker 00

  “Tell your mates to shut their mouths, because they’re telling their mates what you have done.” There was also a drawing of a child with a barrage of slurs written on it in handwriting that Brett didn’t recognise. He held the drawing up to the light and thought he could see Jaden’s name underneath. Brett handed these items over to the police, as well as to the social worker who had since been assigned to Brett and Belinda’s daughter. When Belinda was questioned about the photo of Jaden, she said it had been taken after he went on a fishing trip with Greg Domasevich. As for the picture containing derogatory insults, a friend of Greg’s told the police

• 57:00Speaker 00

  that Greg sometimes called Jaden by these names. Belinda continued to support Greg, sending letters back and forth, driving out to visit him every weekend, and tattooing his nickname in a love heart on her back. Greg wrote to Belinda about how alone and hopeless he felt as he was left wondering what happened to Jaden. He prayed that they would all be reunited as a family again, saying: “I lay here at night praying for something to happen that will end all of this. I just don’t understand. I just think, why didn’t I still put him in the car? Why did I leave him alone? Why did they come to my house?

• 57:44Speaker 00

  How did they know I was going? I should have just trusted the police to do something for me earlier. But, as they have treated me so unfairly in the past and have never done anything to help me, I just thought I could find him without asking for help from them, as they’ve never helped me ever before. Only if we could go back in time, like in the movies. I love you, my princess. Take care.” By January 1, 1998, the new year commenced with no answers for Jaden’s loved ones. That afternoon, a teenage boy was picnicking with his family on the banks of Blue Rock

• 58:28Speaker 00

  Dam, roughly 18km north-west of Moi, when he noticed something bobbling gently in the water. At first, it looked like a doll or a pillow, but as he watched it float in the dam roughly 12m from the water’s edge, it quickly became clear that it was the body of a young child. The police were immediately summoned, and officers from Gippsland Water Police entered the dam to retrieve the body. After six and a half agonising months, Jaden Leskie had been found. The small boy was dressed in a dark green tracksuit, a blue top, white socks and a disposable nappy.

• 59:11Speaker 00

  The cold waters of the dam had preserved his body relatively well. There was an injury to the base of his skull and his left arm appeared to be broken. It was wrapped in a crude elastic bandage from the elbow to the wrist, which had then been taped to a small piece of wood to create a makeshift splint. On the floor of the dam, divers also found a child’s sleeping bag with a 180cm crowbar attached to it with a rope. Nearby was a plastic bag containing many of the items Belinda Murphy had packed for Jaden’s day with Greg Domasevich, including clothing, a bottle and an apple.

• 59:54Speaker 00

  Given the lack of silt or mud on the plastic bag, the police believed that both Jaden’s body and the bag of his belongings had been wrapped in the sleeping bag and then thrown into the dam weighed down by the crowbar. Over time, the zip on the sleeping bag had eroded and a hole had appeared, allowing Jaden’s body and the bag to emerge. An autopsy confirmed that Jaden had a severe fracture to the base of his skull, which had most likely caused a brain injury that resulted in death. His left arm had also been significantly fractured in two places. Microscopic examination of the bones showed no evidence of callous formation, which indicated

• 1:00:39Speaker 00

  that the fractures had occurred around the same time that Jaden died. But what exactly caused these injuries couldn’t be determined. Given the site of the skull fracture, which was tucked beneath the back of Jaden’s head in an area protected by muscle, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy thought it was extremely unlikely that Jaden could have fallen onto a hard surface, or had accidentally come into contact with a blunt object. She thought it was much more likely that he had been hit in the skull with a direct blow from a fairly solid instrument, such as a crowbar. The lack of injury to the surrounding skin could be explained by a pillow or something

• 1:01:22Speaker 00

  similar being used as protection. The fractures to Jaden’s arm were equally difficult to pinpoint. While the pathologist thought it was possible that the fractures could be associated with a fall or a crush injury, they were much more commonly seen as a result of a direct blow from a blunt object. It couldn’t be determined exactly when Jaden had died. Based on the appearance of his body at the autopsy, the forensic pathologist believed he had likely been in the water for six months. While she considered it possible that he could have been there for less time, a senior forensic odontologist examined Jaden’s dental remains and concluded that the amount

• 1:02:05Speaker 00

  of teeth he had was consistent with the average 14-month-old. Given that Jaden was within the normal pattern of development for a child of his age, it therefore stood to reason that he had died at the same time he went missing.

• 1:02:23Speaker 00

  Ultimately, without knowing the exact cause of his injuries, the pathologist could not say whether Jayden’s death was accidental or deliberate. But the implications became clear once toxicology testing revealed that the 14-month-old had traces of benz hexol in his system. Benz hexol, also commonly known as atane, is anti-trauma medication used to treat Parkinson’s disease, as well as the side effects of certain antipsychotic medications. It is not typically prescribed to children, if ever, and certainly not to Jayden Leskie.

• 1:03:02Speaker 00

  While the pathologist could not conclusively rule out benz hexol as causing Jayden’s death, expert toxicologists didn’t think that was the case. Very few fatalities had ever been linked to the drug, and those that had, related to adults and involved other factors, such as the presence of other drugs. This left the question of how Jayden came to have it in his system, and why.

• 1:03:32Speaker 00

  Belinda Murphy had been holding on to hope that her son had simply gone away somewhere and would make it back to her in time. The news that his body had been found in a cold dam of all places was difficult for her to accept. Shortly after Jayden had gone missing, one of Belinda’s first thoughts had been, “I don’t care where he is, as long as he’s warm.” She told The Age she planned on burying her son with heaps and heaps of blankets to keep him warm. Belinda’s sister, Katie, said they wanted to give Jayden the flashest funeral possible, remarking, “He didn’t have much in life, and he had a terrible death.

• 1:04:15Speaker 00

  He deserves the best we can do for him now.”

• 1:04:20Speaker 00

  Jayden’s father, Brad Leskie, was heartbroken. He struggled to forgive Belinda for Jayden going missing while under her care and couldn’t bring himself to talk to her to make the funeral arrangements. While Belinda hoped that the discovery of Jayden’s body would prove once and for all that she had nothing to do with his death, she too blamed herself. Asked by The Age what she would say to Jayden if she had the chance, Belinda said, “I would tell him I love him and I’m sorry for letting him go. Yeah, I blame myself, every night, all the time. I hope he would forgive me.”

• 1:05:03Speaker 00

  For the people of Moi, the discovery of Jayden’s body came as both a tragedy and brought a sense of relief. The case had put their town on the map for all the wrong reasons, turning them into the butt of nationwide jokes. A spokeswoman for the Moi Development Group told reporters that the case had triggered a resurgence in community pride and had sparked local growth. “We have picked up the pieces and gone forward,” she said. “But it has taken the death of a beautiful boy to do it.”

• 1:05:37Speaker 00

  When Greg Domasevich heard that Jayden’s body had been found, he collapsed. He later called Belinda from jail, but she didn’t want to speak to him, so Katie took the call instead.

• 1:05:50Speaker 00

  Greg was in tears, saying, “We’ve got to get the bastards who did this.”

• 1:05:59Speaker 00

  With Greg already behind bars, the discovery of Jayden’s body left the police feeling confident that they’d secure a conviction, or at the very least, proceed to trial. That he’d been found with explained injuries supported their initial belief that something had happened to the toddler while in Greg’s care. Perhaps something had happened involving the car Greg was working on, or perhaps Jayden had broken his arm, either by accident or at Greg’s doing, and Greg had panicked. Instead of seeking medical help and risking exposing himself to child abuse allegations, he had attempted to fix it himself by bandaging Jayden’s arm and giving him the benz hexol in a misguided attempt to pacify him.

• 1:06:44Speaker 00

  When this didn’t work and Jayden became inconsolable, perhaps Greg couldn’t contain his frustration and lashed out by hitting the toddler in the head.

• 1:06:55Speaker 00

  Whatever the truth, the case remained purely circumstantial. Belinda said that the clothes Jayden was wearing when his body was found were not the ones she had dressed him in when she handed him over to Greg for the day, but the ones, she later realised, were missing from Jayden’s cupboards. She also confirmed the sleeping bag Jayden’s body had been wrapped in belonged to her sister, and that she had once taken it to Greg’s place, but she couldn’t remember if she had left it there.

• 1:07:26Speaker 00

  She thought it was more likely to have been at her place. Investigators believed the most significant discovery linking Greg to the crime was the plastic bag filled with the things that Belinda had packed to Jayden for the day. In their view, if someone had broken in and taken Jayden during the vandalism, like Greg claimed, they wouldn’t have known what had been packed with him for the day, and therefore wouldn’t have known to remove these items from the house. Blue Rock Dam was also known to be one of Greg’s favourite fishing spots, and he knew the area well. Being a roughly 40-minute round trip from Belinda’s house, going by the police theory,

• 1:08:08Speaker 00

  it meant that Greg would have had just enough time to drop Belinda home, dispose of Jayden’s body, and then return home to tell Belinda that her son was missing. To strengthen their case against Greg, investigators conducted multiple tests to try and determine how Jayden’s body had gotten into the water. The water levels were more or less the same as they had been at the time Jayden went missing, and bundles of items of similar weight to Jayden’s body, belongings and the crowbar were thrown and pushed from the banks of the dam to see if they could reach the spot 12.7 metres in where they were found. None of them did. Investigators ultimately determined that for the items to end up at the distance they did,

• 1:08:53Speaker 00

  a person would have had to enter the water to at least waist height, fully submerging their bottom half. In their view, this could explain why Greg’s wallet had been soaked through and why he had put the wet money under his mattress to dry.

• 1:09:10Speaker 00

  When a photo of the crowbar used to weigh down Jayden’s body was published by the media, a friend of Greg’s named Paul Leachow recognised it as one that he had lent to Greg a few days before Jayden went missing. Paul had been doing some gardening work at Greg’s house and had left the crowbar there along with some tree loppers. When he asked for these items back a few days later, Greg apparently told him they had been in his car when the police confiscated it for forensic testing. He later changed his story, saying they were at his friend Darren’s place. Paul went to Darren’s house to look for it, but couldn’t find it anywhere. While all of this was damning,

• 1:09:53Speaker 00

  a big question mark loomed over the presence of benz hexol found in Jayden’s system. A check of Greg’s health records revealed that he’d never been prescribed this drug, nor had anyone involved with the vandalism, and a search of Greg’s property turned up no trace of it. While there had been some reports of the drug being used recreationally overseas, it wasn’t commonly known to be used illegally in Australia. Where it had come from remained a mystery.

• 1:10:27Speaker 00

  In March 1998, a committal hearing was held at the Moi Magistrates Court, during which the police presented all of the evidence they’d gathered against Greg Domasevich so far.

• 1:10:39Speaker 00

  Despite the largely circumstantial case, Greg was committed to stand trial. But as word started to get out about the prosecution’s case, many started to question whether the police had succumbed to tunnel vision. Given that they didn’t think anyone had entered Greg’s house after the pig’s head and rocks were thrown through his front windows, the inside of Greg’s house was never checked for fingerprints. A cigarette butt was also sitting in the ashtray in Greg’s living room, but this was never taken for testing, despite the fact that Greg didn’t smoke.

• 1:11:16Speaker 00

  Ultimately, not a single piece of forensic evidence had been found to link Greg to Jayden’s body. Searches of his house and car had failed to uncover any of the materials that had been used to bandage Jayden’s arm, and there was nothing that matched the cord that had been used to tie the crowbar to the sleeping bag. Some of the knots that had been used were fairly professional, but Greg had no knowledge of advanced knot tying.

• 1:11:44Speaker 00

  Furthermore, the police hadn’t established exactly what clothing Greg was wearing on the night that Jayden went missing, nor had they seized or tested any of his clothing after Jayden was first reported missing. This meant they couldn’t definitively match his clothing to the wet wallet or money.

• 1:12:03Speaker 00

  The clothing that they did test later on didn’t contain any of Jayden’s blood or DNA.

• 1:12:10Speaker 00

  Early on, Greg had also mentioned that one of the reasons he didn’t go straight to the police to report Jayden missing was because he’d heard rumours that his ex-girlfriend, Yvonne Penfold, was romantically involved with a Moi police sergeant. Some viewed this alleged relationship as the reason that the individuals associated with the vandalism were ruled out as suspects so quickly. Theories started to circulate that Jayden could have been accidentally injured by the vandals who were ignorant to his presence, and that they panicked and covered it up by taking him and disposing of his body. Alternatively, they could have decided to kidnap Jayden as part of their revenge plot against Greg, but panicked once the police and media got involved.

• 1:12:56Speaker 00

  After they or someone else held him captive for a period of time, they killed him and dumped him in the dam, knowing it was a favourite spot of Greg’s. In the eyes of some, it seemed absurd that Greg would conceal Jayden’s body in a location so closely linked to him. Others argued that if he was under severe stress and in a state of panic, he could have chosen the dam as it was a familiar and isolated spot.

• 1:13:26Speaker 00

  The possibility that Jayden had been held somewhere before his death gained momentum when it was revealed that the forensic pathologist who performed his autopsy had described Jayden as wearing pilchers over his nappy. Belinda said she hadn't packed any pilchers for Jayden when she handed him over to Greg that day. Furthermore, just two days before Jayden went missing, Greg had cut Jayden's hair in a crude attempt to replicate his own bald spot. It had left the toddler with hair that was short at the front and patchy at the back. When Belinda was shown the photographs of Jayden during his autopsy, she thought his hair was considerably longer than it was on the day he went missing.

• 1:14:12Speaker 00

  Then, a defence lawyer was reviewing the photos of Greg's house after it had been declared a crime scene and saw something leaning against the back fence that left him scratching his head. Although the image was a little unclear, it looked like a 1.8 metre long crowbar, the same crowbar belonging to Paul Litzow that investigators alleged Greg had used to weigh Jayden Leskie's body down before throwing him into Blue Rock Dam.

• 1:14:50Speaker 00

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• 1:16:44Speaker 00

  Despite the many unanswered questions surrounding Jayden Leskey's death, by the time Greg Domasevich's trial commenced in Melbourne's Supreme Court on October 12, 1998, many in the court of public opinion were already convinced of his guilt. With the jury told they could find Greg guilty of either murder or manslaughter, the prosecution stood by the theory that something had happened to Jayden Leskey during the roughly seven-hour window in which Greg didn't answer Belinda Murphy's phone calls. In their view, Greg lacked the skills needed to care for Jayden and had caused his death by lashing out in a moment of frustration or anger.

• 1:17:25Speaker 00

  When he returned home from picking up Belinda to find that his house had been vandalised, he seized the opportunity to blame the death on someone else.

• 1:17:35Speaker 00

  After Belinda was asleep, he got rid of any evidence and disposed of Jayden's body by wrapping him up in a sleeping bag weighed down by a crowbar and waiting out into Blue Rock Dam.

• 1:17:48Speaker 00

  But the defence came in strong, arguing that the case against Greg Domasevich was purely circumstantial and that the police had conducted a subpar investigation due to their immediate belief that Greg was guilty. Greg's lawyer, Colin Lovett, QC, was one of Australia's most experienced defence barristers, and he agreed to take on the case pro bono. As he explained to The Age, "The case against Domasevich was terribly weak, but I thought there was every chance he would be convicted because of the pre-trial publicity. Everyone seemed to think he was guilty as sin, but if you asked them why, they didn't have a clue."

• 1:18:31Speaker 00

  The crux of Lovett's case was that there wasn't a single piece of forensic evidence linking Greg Domasevich to Jayden's death, and that there were multiple other people who could have just as easily been responsible. He warned the jury, "We're dealing with unusual people, people who don't think and act in the same way we expect most people to think and act."

• 1:18:56Speaker 00

  Lovett stuck by the story that Greg had given to the police from the very beginning, maintaining that Greg had left Jayden asleep on the couch while he went to pick Belinda up, and that he was no longer there upon his return. Lovett acknowledged that Greg's story about Jayden being in hospital was in poor taste, calling his client a stupid practical joker who tends to say silly things. However, Lovett added, "I am defending him for murder, not for being an idiot."

• 1:19:29Speaker 00

  As far as Lovett was concerned, the suggestion that Greg's initial plan had been to put Jayden in his cot and lead Belinda to think that she killed him in a drunken stupor was ludicrous. The wet money found under Greg's mattress had been presented by the prosecution as damning evidence, but Lovett said nothing about this act indicated Greg was a murderer. He didn't think there was anything suspicious about the bloody tissues that were found in Greg's wheelie bin either. If there was, he argued, why didn't Greg just flush them down the toilet? Also, if he had killed Jayden during the window of time that the prosecution were suggesting,

• 1:20:09Speaker 00

  then why, when he spoke to his neighbour Mary Anne at around 10pm, did he say he had run out of nappies and asked where he could buy some more?

• 1:20:20Speaker 00

  Lovett also told the jury there was evidence to suggest that Jayden was alive for a considerable amount of time after he disappeared, including the fact that he'd been found wearing pilchers and that his hair was longer than when he went missing. Without a shred of evidence to tie Greg to the Benz exile found in Jayden's system, Lovett suggested this could have been administered to Jayden by someone else at a later time. He accused the police of failing to properly investigate the so-called Pigshead Team, when in his view, they were the obvious suspects. He theorised that they could have accidentally injured Jayden while vandalising Greg's house and taken him in a moment of panic.

• 1:21:03Speaker 00

  Unable to quieten him down, they killed him.

• 1:21:09Speaker 00

  Lovett, who said Greg had a great bond with Jayden, asked the jury, "Who is more likely to have gratuitously injured Jayden Leskie or panicked when they found that he had been accidentally injured? Who is more likely to find the child as being just an inconvenience, a nuisance, something that we have got to do something about?"

• 1:21:32Speaker 00

  At the end of the day, Lovett said the lack of forensic evidence tying Greg Domasevich to Jayden's body meant it would be unsafe to convict him for murder, and he labelled the police investigation "a complete disgrace".

• 1:21:49Speaker 00

  After the jury was driven out to Moi to see some of the key locations for themselves, Belinda Murphy was one of the first witnesses to take the stand. She testified that Greg had formed a close relationship with Jayden and had been loving and caring towards him, saying she would never have left Jayden in Greg's care otherwise. But as the questioning wore on, she admitted that hadn't always been the case, describing how Greg had once lost it when Jayden wouldn't stop crying and had hit him in the face. She started to cry as she explained how Greg had cut Jayden's hair without her consent in an attempt to replicate his own bald patches.

• 1:22:32Speaker 00

  Through tears, Belinda admitted how hurt she had been by rumours that she was involved in her son's death. She admitted that she'd been slack with her babysitting arrangements on the night Jayden went missing and that she should have confirmed where Jayden was before she went out drinking. Belinda explained to Lovett that the reason she didn't raise the alarm after they discovered Greg's house had been vandalised was because she thought a Von Penfold was behind it and that Jayden was safe in hospital. "I don't care if I look silly," Belinda stated, "I didn't know Jayden was missing."

• 1:23:10Speaker 00

  Multiple witnesses testified that Greg had acted aggressively towards Jayden in the past. The general consensus seemed to be that Greg viewed Jayden as a form of entertainment, and that he lacked the skills needed to deal with an upset and crying toddler. Greg’s ex-girlfriend, Avon Penfold, testified that Greg had been violent and possessive during their relationship, and had at one point threatened to set fire to her house. She rejected his allegation that she had once taken his beloved pet pig, Stimpy, to be slaughtered as a nasty prank, later telling the Herald’s Sun that the decision to have Stimpy killed was a decision they had reached mutually

• 1:23:52Speaker 00

  because Stimpy had gotten too big to be kept as a pet. Each member of the Pigshead team was questioned extensively on the stand as Colin Lovett attempted to put doubt into the jurors’ mind about whether or not Greg really was involved in the toddler’s death.

• 1:24:10Speaker 00

  He also implied that others outside of this group, including some friends of Greg’s, could have been responsible. In particular, he cast suspicion on Kenny Penfold’s housemate, a man named Raymond Tubby Hopkinson, who owns the pig whose head was used to vandalise Greg’s home. Tubby had an extensive criminal record and a reputation for drug abuse and violence. Lovett said that Tubby, who drove a motorcycle, wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on what he called “a bit of sport”, like the vandalism plan, and suggested that there could have been an arrangement for Tubby to meet the group that night.

• 1:24:50Speaker 00

  Tubby vehemently denied having anything to do with it, becoming enraged and hurling abuse at the lawyer, whom he called a dickhead.

• 1:24:59Speaker 00

  Tubby said he didn’t know Greg Domasevich and had never been to his house, spitting: “Never even spoken to the fucking dog maggot cunt. He’s a kid killer. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a fucking dog.” Lovett said that a witness had placed Kenny and Tubby walking with a baby on June 17, 1997, in the New South Wales town of Holbrook, where Kenny’s father lived. But Tubby said he’d never left Victoria, and Kenny told the lawyer: “I’m suggesting you’re tripping.” The prosecution disproved this sighting entirely, as both men could be indisputably placed in Moi at the time.

• 1:25:45Speaker 00

  Kenny Penfold came across poorly on the stand when he too became enraged and started swearing at Lovett. He denied that Tubby had anything to do with the Pigshead plot, which he described as his own harebrained scheme. Kenny became increasingly frustrated at the suggestion that he or his friends could have had anything to do with Jayden’s disappearance, stating: “I didn’t do it. It’s as simple as that. You’re not going to twist the story. If you don’t like hearing it too bad. I know I’ve been to jail and I haven’t been the best of boys, but I didn’t kill the kid, so get off my case.”

• 1:26:26Speaker 00

  The Moi police officer, Sergeant Russell Fraser, who Greg accused of being romantically involved with Avon Penfold, was also put on the stand. He denied that he’d ever had a sexual relationship with Avon, describing himself as a family friend. Lovett called this into question, putting it to Fraser that his fellow officers had failed to pursue Avon and the Pigshead team in a bid to protect Fraser from the truth coming out about his and Avon’s relationship. He suggested that Fraser could have been part of a cover-up by police to frame Greg for Jayden’s death, and asked if anyone from the Penfold family had ever asked him to help with the disposal of Jayden’s body.

• 1:27:09Speaker 00

  Sergeant Fraser was appalled by the suggestion, responding: “No, absolutely not, sir. That’s ridiculous. Good heavens.”

• 1:27:21Speaker 00

  At the advice of his lawyer, Greg chose not to testify in his own defence, but his police interviews were played to the court, during which he provided his version of events about the day Jayden went missing. The prosecution case was that Greg appeared highly agitated, erratic and defensive, and that he gave inconsistent and confusing answers that further served to implicate himself in the toddler’s death. The defence counted that Greg’s answers were the ramblings of a panicked, sleep-deprived man whose house had just been vandalised, and who was breaking down under heavy pressure from seasoned intellectually superior interrogators.

• 1:28:01Speaker 00

  Lovett also described Greg as a natural waffler, who had a tendency to talk around to the point and wander all over the place during normal conversations. While he acknowledged that Greg could be a frustrating person to speak to, he said that’s just the way he was, and that he wasn’t being intentionally evasive. There was another detail Lovett found significant about Greg’s police interviews. Whenever he spoke about Jayden, he used the present tense, as though he believed the toddler was still alive.

• 1:28:37Speaker 00

  The trial dragged on for weeks, with various experts and academic theorists called to provide their interpretations of the circumstantial and forensic evidence. Some of this testimony was considered to be so dull that reporters in the courtroom entertained themselves by joking about which member of the jury would fall asleep first. While the plastic pilchards Jayden had been wearing when his body was found was presented by the defences further proof that he’d been alive for longer than the prosecution presented, this turned out to be a red herring. It was revealed that what the forensic pathologist initially thought was a pilcher had actually just been the outer plastic lining from a disposable nappy.

• 1:29:22Speaker 00

  By the time closing arguments had been delivered and the jury was left to deliberate, the trial had been running for almost eight weeks, with testimony presented by 58 witnesses, and everyone involved was exhausted. After three long days, the jury announced it had reached its verdict.

• 1:29:43Speaker 00

  Not guilty on all possible charges. Greg Domasevich was free to go.

• 1:29:51Speaker 00

  Greg threw his arms around his lawyer and said “I love you”, as three cheers were called from his supporters. Greg walked from the court hugging his mother and telling reporters: “I just can’t express how happy I am.”

• 1:30:07Speaker 00

  Belinda Murphy was not in the court to hear the verdict. She released a statement via her lawyer, which said: “The past 18 months have destroyed my life. The pain, agony and suffering I have experienced, I would not wish on anybody else. I am a victim of my own mistakes, and continue to live with them for the rest of my life.”

• 1:30:32Speaker 00

  Brett Leskie's family told reporters that they had been expecting the not guilty verdict because the prosecution’s case hadn’t been strong enough, and the defence had done a good job at creating reasonable doubt.

• 1:30:45Speaker 00

  A spokesperson for the town of Moi said the community was looking forward to regaining a sense of normality, and that even though there would be differing opinions: “The mere fact that it is over will be a relief.”

• 1:31:01Speaker 00

  Victoria Police announced they would be closing the case, saying the homicide squad had conducted an exhaustive inquiry into Jayden’s disappearance, and that:

• 1:31:12Speaker 00

  “All available evidence was put before the court, and Victoria Police accepts the jury’s verdict.”

• 1:31:21Speaker 00

  But one person who refused to accept the verdict was Belinda Murphy. Shortly after Greg was acquitted, she revealed that she had believed he was guilty from the very start, and that she’d only maintained a relationship with him so that she could trick him into telling her the truth. When Belinda was later shown the videotape of Greg’s police interview for the first time, she became even more convinced of his guilt. She sought an intervention order against him, claiming that he’d shown up at her house and allegedly said: “Even if I had killed Jayden, I couldn’t be tried again due to double jeopardy”, and had then allegedly tried to strangle her.

• 1:32:04Speaker 00

  Although Greg denied doing any such thing, the alleged comments about double jeopardy were accurate. Under Victorian law, Greg couldn’t be tried for Jayden’s murder again, even if compelling evidence emerged. With the police closing the case, the mystery of who killed Jayden Leskie remained unsolved.

• 1:32:27Speaker 00

  Four years after Greg’s acquittal, there were hopes that some answers would emerge as part of an upcoming coronial inquest into the case. Lawyers working on behalf of Brett Lasky had been working on this request since 1998, with support from Greg, who hoped an inquest would clear his name once and for all. Since his release from jail, he claimed he hadn’t been able to hold down a job because prospective employers viewed him as a baby killer. He had no money and ongoing health issues. But in June 2002, the deputy state coroner announced his decision not to hold a public inquest into Jayden’s death, releasing a one-page report that simply stated that

• 1:33:12Speaker 00

  Jayden had died at an unknown location on or around June 14, 1997, from head injuries. Greg told The Age it was “a bullshit finding”, and said that he was pissed off. His disappointment was shared by Jayden’s loved ones, who hoped the inquest would have held someone responsible for the toddler’s death. Belinda had since remarried and moved out of Moe, hoping to put the past behind her, but the decision not to hold a public inquest left her outraged, even more so when she realised the deputy coroner hadn’t even gotten Jayden’s date of birth right. She told reporters:

• 1:33:55Speaker 00

  “I didn’t need a piece of paper to tell me my son’s cause of death was head injuries. I was well aware of that. But Jayden didn’t break and then bandage his own arm. Jayden didn’t bang his head and take his own life. Nor did he fill his body with the drug Benzhexol, tie himself to a crowbar, and throw himself into Blue Rock Dam. Someone else did, and it’s hard to sleep at night knowing that person walks in our community each and every day.” Belinda began campaigning for a public inquest, writing letters to the Attorney General and state coroner asking for the decision to be overturned.

• 1:34:35Speaker 00

  “Get us all back in the witness box, put us all on trial”, she wrote. “Please, live mine and my daughter’s life for just one day. I had a son, and she had a brother. Now we don’t, and we don’t know why. I think we deserve an explanation and a chance to ask questions. After I buried my little boy, I promised him justice. You are my last hope of not breaking that promise to my son. I hope and pray with everything I have left that you will help me. But if you won’t do it for me, at least do it for Jayden.”

• 1:35:18Speaker 00

  In July 2003, Belinda’s phone rang. It was the Attorney General. He wanted to let her know that the state coroner, Graham Johnston, would be holding a full inquest later that year. But what the public didn’t yet know was that preliminary investigations had already gotten underway, and they’d revealed something troubling. When Jayden’s body was recovered from Blue Rock Dam, his clothing had been sent to the Victoria Police Forensic Science Centre for testing, and DNA from an unknown female was found on his tracksuit pants and bib.

• 1:36:02Speaker 00

  When this DNA profile was run through the database at GAN in May 2003, it returned a match. The DNA belonged to a young intellectually disabled woman who had been raped in mid-June 1997 in the Melbourne suburb of Altona. Extensive investigations were conducted to see if this woman, who had been 17 at the time of her assault, could be linked to Jayden Lasky’s disappearance. But the woman had never been to the Latrobe Valley region and didn’t know anyone from that area, particularly any of the individuals named in the Jayden Lasky investigation. The police stance was that the link between the DNA profiles was what’s known as an

• 1:36:46Speaker 00

  “adventitious match”, meaning that the DNA could be linked back to more than one individual, the other of which had not yet been identified. This highly controversial issue added further complexity to the already convoluted inquest when it commenced in November 2003. While the main purpose of the inquest was to determine exactly how and when Jayden Lasky had died, a massive portion of the inquest was dedicated to untangling this forensic dilemma. The DNA link was heavily scrutinised, and it was conclusively determined that the rape case was entirely unrelated to Jayden’s disappearance.

• 1:37:28Speaker 00

  Various experts testified that it was more or less statistically impossible for the DNA to be an adventitious match. Jayden’s clothing had been examined in the same lab on the same day as the condom taken from the rape case, and although no conclusive evidence could be found to determine how exactly it had happened, it was agreed that the DNA match had come about due to accidental cross-contamination. Not only was this a bad look for the Victorian Police, it effectively ruined any chance of Jayden’s clothing providing clean, usable DNA that could help find alternative suspects, and ensured the physical evidence could not be fully trusted.

• 1:38:13Speaker 00

  The DNA blunder ultimately turned the Jayden Lasky case into a textbook example of the fallibility of forensic science, and continues to be referenced in law circles internationally. The inquest was derailed again when a witness came forward claiming that he’d been returning from a hunting trip on the weekend that Jayden Lasky went missing, and had seen a green sedan in the vicinity of Blue Rock Dam in the early morning hours. He later told his wife about it and took note of the start of the number plate, which started with the letters IRS. Suggestions were made that this car belonged to Greg Domasevich, who drove a Green Falcon

• 1:38:54Speaker 00

  XC sedan with the registration number IRS680. The witness said he later recognised the car when watching a news story about Jayden’s disappearance, but didn’t notify the police of his sighting because he didn’t think it would be helpful. Various inquiries and tests were done to see if this witness account held any weight, but nothing could be proven. With the witness only coming forward for the first time, six and a half years after the fact, very little weight was placed on this supposed sighting, but it did leave some wondering what other new evidence might emerge.

• 1:39:36Speaker 00

  In late 2004, Greg Domasevich used a legal technicality to try and put an end to the inquest. His request was granted by the Supreme Court, and the inquest was temporarily put on hold until the legal issue was resolved. A second inquest resumed in July 2005, and over 26 days, testimony was presented from more than 50 witnesses, many of whom had also testified at Greg’s trial. Testing was also done of Greg’s wallet to see if it contained any biological matter that could prove it had been immersed in the waters of Blue Rock Dam, but no relevant samples were obtained.

• 1:40:18Speaker 00

  The inquest examined in detail the persisting claims that Jayden’s body showed signs of being older than when he went missing, and therefore could have been abducted and kept alive for several weeks or even months after his disappearance. This included claims that he had more teeth, longer hair, and had grown in size since the day he went missing. Various experts provided medical and scientific evidence to prove that this was not the case, with each of those so-called suspicious factors explained by normal aspects of the decomposition process. In the years since Greg’s acquittal, it had also emerged that three inmates who had

• 1:41:00Speaker 00

  served time with Greg while awaiting trial had separately come forward with claims that Greg had confessed to them about killing Jayden. Their accounts differed, with one claiming that Greg had admitted to having broken Jayden’s arm after the toddler interrupted him playing Nintendo. These claims were examined at length during the inquest, but only one of the men gave evidence, with the others refusing to do so out of what one claimed was fears for their safety and the other said was memory loss. The one former prisoner who did testify said that Greg told him that the car he’d been working on fell off the jack and landed on Jayden’s arm.

• 1:41:42Speaker 00

  When Jayden started screaming, Greg panicked and tried to calm him down by giving him some drugs, but it didn’t work, so Greg allegedly put a pillow over his head and hit him with a crowbar. Colin Lovett QC, who was once again defending Greg at the inquest, fiercely disputed this claim. He highlighted the unreliability of jailhouse confessions and the prisoner’s proven criminal history, and pointed out that everything this prisoner claimed could be gleaned from following the widely-publicised news about the case. This information had also been available at Greg’s trial, but it had not been presented in court due to it being deemed unreliable.

• 1:42:29Speaker 00

  In his final submission to the inquest, the counsel assisting the coroner said there was enough evidence to find that Greg Domasevich had killed Jayden Leskie. He excluded all other suspects and cast doubt on Greg’s account of the 12-hour period during which Jayden went missing, reiterating that there wasn’t a single witness who could corroborate his claims. He pointed out that Greg was the last one to have seen Jayden alive, that no one could attest to his whereabouts during that period, and that he gave a variety of different accounts to Belinda about Jayden’s wellbeing. It was his belief that Jayden had been bashed to death with a blunt object shortly after

• 1:43:13Speaker 00

  his arm was broken, and that Greg had then disposed of his body in Blue Rock Dam, either between 10pm and 2am, or during the later two-hour period after he dropped Belinda home. His wet wallet and wet money played a significant role in supporting this proposed scenario. All of this was fiercely disputed by Colin Lovett, who labelled the inquest a “witch hunt”, run by people wanting to implicate his client. Again, Lovett pointed to the sheer lack of forensic evidence to support any of these allegations, and accused the counsel assisting of simply summing up the evidence that had

• 1:43:54Speaker 00

  been presented at Greg’s 1998 trial, and inviting the coroner to come to a different conclusion from the jury. It was the job of State Coroner Graham Johnston to review all of the evidence presented at the inquest, alongside the existing evidence put forward in the coronial brief, which included the trial transcript, police statements, records of interview, and forensic findings. He was set to hand his findings down on July 31, 2006, but at the very last minute, Greg Domasevich launched a bid in the Supreme Court to put a permanent stay on the inquest. He eventually abandoned this bid, and the findings were handed down in a 101-page report

• 1:44:38Speaker 00

  on October 4, 2006. Coroner Johnston stated: “At the time of his death, Jayden Leskie was a vulnerable 14-month-old infant child who was totally reliant on his adult carers for protection, support, and sustenance. It must be remembered that he was a toddler, who could mention but three words, and had only just started to walk.” While Johnston said it was Belinda’s responsibility to make sure that Jayden was taken care of, and condemned her for leaving Jayden with someone who had been violent towards him in the past, it was during Greg Domasevich’s period of care that Jayden died.

• 1:45:23Speaker 00

  “The cause of death is most probably from head injuries,” Johnston found. “Precisely how he died remains a matter of contention and conjecture, whether the circumstances leading to the death occurred by accident, by omission, or otherwise. Precisely how he suffered the injuries to the arm also remains largely a matter of conjecture, other than the fact that it occurred shortly prior to death. However, as a helpless 14-month-old infant, requiring total support, care, and protection by an adult, ultimately, it was Mr. Domasevich who failed to provide that adequate and very

• 1:46:03Speaker 00

  necessary level of protective supervision, care, and support to look after the infant. Otherwise, he would not have received the injuries from which he died. Whatever happened to result in the injuries that were occasioned to Jayden, occurred on Mr. Domasevich’s temporary watch, thus, he has contributed to the death. No satisfactory alternative explanation of the circumstances has been given by Mr. Domasevich.” After Jayden’s death, Mr. Domasevich disposed of his body in nearby Blue Rock Dam. Clearly, he had the opportunity and time to do so.

• 1:46:46Speaker 00

  The fact that a decision has been made that Mr. Domasevich disposed of Jayden’s body does not enable any conclusion to be reached about precisely how the child died, whether by accident, or otherwise. Neither of Jayden’s parents made a public comment about the findings. The whole process had caused Belinda a great deal of stress. She’d previously accused the inquest of being a sham, saying it had focused on her parenting skills rather than getting justice for Jayden. After storming out of court one particularly emotional day, Belinda provided an apology and a statement that said:

• 1:47:28Speaker 00

  “My son is dead, and all I want is two answers: why, and who.” Outside court, Jayden’s paternal grandmother said she hoped the coroner’s finding would finalize the case for good. A lawyer for Greg disagreed, telling reporters: “It will never be over until they find the real killers.” As part of his findings, the coroner acknowledged how important it was for parents to select safe babysitters for their children, while also pointing out that very little information was available to show them how to do so. This decision relied on common sense, but coroner Johnston said that one person’s

• 1:48:12Speaker 00

  common sense differs from another, and depends on various factors like upbringing, education, and life experience. He recommended that a guide be created to help parents select appropriate caregivers for their children. On the 10th anniversary of Jayden’s death in 2007, this recommendation came to fruition in the form of a government-issued document known as the “Babysitters Kit”. It recommended that parents think about the maturity level of their chosen babysitters, and whether or not they have the experience and skills required to keep their children safe and well. The years continued to pass without any further answers, and in December 2011, changes were

• 1:48:57Speaker 00

  made to Victoria’s Double Jeopardy laws that allowed a person previously acquitted of a serious crime to be retried under specific exceptions, such as if that person makes a confession, or if fresh and compelling evidence emerges. These changes reignited some interest into Greg Domasevich’s possible involvement in Jayden Leskie's death, but the police made it clear that a second charge against Greg was highly unlikely, as no new compelling evidence had become available. In April 2014, to mark what would have been Jayden’s 18th birthday, Belinda wrote Greg a letter which was published in The Herald Sun. In it, she wrote:

• 1:49:42Speaker 00

  “Please, before you die, write down what happened and store it somewhere. Please, if anything, for Jayden, let the truth be known to all. Jayden deserves that much.” Greg had since had a son of his own. He told The Herald Sun that knowing Jayden would have been turning 18 had brought memories flooding back. Sticking with his story that Jayden went missing during his trip to pick Belinda up from the pub, Greg said: “It’s upsetting, still, because ultimately, there’s a kid that died because of my stupidity. Ultimately, it was my fault.

• 1:50:25Speaker 00

  I was the one who got in the car and went to pick her up. I wish I had never left him at home that night. How many lives have changed from that one decision not to stay home? Jayden would have been a man now.” Asked how he felt about the changes to the Double Jeopardy laws, Greg said he had nothing to fear. “There’s a lot more evidence going away from me than towards me,” he claimed. Since Greg’s acquittal in 1998, there have been no other arrests or charges in relation to Jayden Leskie's murder, and no other suspects have ever been identified by the police.

• 1:51:07Speaker 00

  Despite the coroner’s findings in 2006, Greg Domasevich continues to walk free. He maintains his innocence in Jayden’s death, and case file makes no suggestion otherwise. In March 2021, the case was re-examined by journalist Liz Hayes for her Channel 9 TV show “Under Investigation”, in which she was joined by a panel of experts, including one of the original homicide squad detectives who worked at Jayden’s case. Although this detective has been criticised for his work on the case over the years, he said he continued to stand by the initial police theory. Greg Domasevich was also interviewed for the show, marking his first television appearance

• 1:51:52Speaker 00

  in 20 years. The bottom of his face covered by a mask and wearing a beanie and glasses, Greg said the inquest findings that implicated him in Jayden’s death had all been part of what he called “the corroboration squad”. He stated: “All I can say is I promise that I did not kill Jayden.”

• 1:52:16Speaker 00

  In the early days of the investigation, a lot of criticism was placed on Belinda Murphy, with many blaming her for Jayden's death. Some media outlets were quick to criticize her lifestyle choices and decision to go out drinking when she had two young children at home. People shouted at her and spat at her on the streets, with The Age later describing how she was "cast as the trailer trash mum in a black soap opera."

• 1:52:45Speaker 00

  Over time, there has been a change in tone, with Belinda's plight being met with much more sympathy.

• 1:52:53Speaker 00

  Speaking to author Robyn Bowles for her book about the case after Greg's acquittal, Belinda described herself as a "good mum." She said: "I didn't have a job, which you can measure in pay, but being a mum is a full-time job, and I think it pays very well. How can you put a price on your kids' arms around your neck, or hearing them say, 'I love you, mummy'? I wasn't the unemployed, irresponsible slag people made me out to be, you know? I loved my kids. Still do."

• 1:53:29Speaker 00

  The case has been the subject of a wide range of academic research that extends far beyond forensics and true crime, and explores deeper themes relating to media representations of motherhood and class.

• 1:53:43Speaker 00

  Jayden's case had a huge impact on Moei, with some media framing those involved, as well as the townspeople in general, as uncivilized and uneducated bogans who didn't seem worthy of compassion. As one academic has noted, "The alliances and feuds between those involved were used as exotic exploitive entertainment, and the sensationalism of the story overshadowed the fact that the vast majority of Moei's residents were simply struggling families trying to survive an economic depression." As journalist Gary Tippett wrote in his article for The Age in 1998, titled "Little Boy Lost,"

• 1:54:24Speaker 00

  "From the start, Jayden was lost behind the bizarre circumstances of his disappearance, of pigsheads and puerile feuds fought out with them. The neat coincidence and appalling humor of his babysitter's prank that he had burned himself and was in hospital. He was hidden in the entanglements of his own almost-apellation family history, of two sisters, and the young man who wed one and fathered children by both.

• 1:54:53Speaker 00

  His life was allowed to become a metaphor for social dysfunction and the effects of industry downsizing in the Latrobe Valley, and particularly Moei. The players in his story painted as a type of trailer trash underclass of single mums and shiftless fathers. Too often, he was ignored by a media and public captivated by these characters and the salacious soap opera they were playing out. Perhaps this is cruel, but there have been times when he has seemed forgotten even by family members in the glow of their 15 minutes of fame."

• 1:55:31Speaker 00

  But Jayden hasn't been forgotten. A plaque in his honor sits at Blue Rock Dam, which says: "This plaque is to commemorate the life of a wonderful little boy, whose body was recovered from this site."

• 1:55:47Speaker 00

  Belinda's love for her son has been immortalized in a poem published by The West Australian.

• 1:55:54Speaker 00

  It reads: "I carried you in my body, I carried you in my arms. I'll keep on carrying you, Jayden, forever carrying you in my heart. It broke my heart to pieces and smashed my soul to bits. I'll never forget the last time I softly kissed your lips. My angel up in heaven, sleep peacefully tonight. Be really good for mummy, try real hard not to cry.

• 1:56:25Speaker 00

  I want to tell you something, so you'll never be in doubt. I love you and I miss you. You're so hard to live without."

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