Missing Niamh - Episode 1

With Casefile on a short break, we thought this would be a great time to shine a light on some of the shows that may have flown under the radar for many of you. These are shows we've put our hearts into and are really proud of. First up is Missing Niamh—a story that’s very close to me personally. I spent years researching the case and working directly with Niamh’s family to shape the series, which I also narrated. If you’d like to hear the rest of Missing Niamh, just search for it wherever you get your podcasts. It’s a Casefile Presents production—created by the same team behind Casefile, with the same high standards you expect from us. I hope you enjoy the series. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• 1:37Speaker 00

  Hello, it's Casey here. I just wanted to take a moment to explain why you're hearing something a little different on the Case File feed. Over the past year, I've had the chance to meet Case File listeners at our live shows, and something kept coming up in conversations that surprised me. A lot of people don't know what Case File Presents is, or that we produce other shows. If someone is a big enough supporter of Case File to come to a live event but hasn't heard of Case File Presents, it occurred to me that we need to work on our messaging. For those who don't know, Case File Presents is our production platform. The main show we produce is, of course, Case File. But we've also produced a number of other podcasts.

• 2:23Speaker 00

  Our level of involvement varies from show to show, but we've had a direct hand in all of them, whether it be in financing, research, production, editing, or music. I even narrate a few of them myself. With Case File and a Short Break, we thought this would be a great time to shine a light on some of the shows that may have flown under the radar for many of you. These are shows we've put our hearts into and are really proud of. First up is Missing Niamh, a story that's very close to me personally. I spent years researching the case and working directly with members of Niamh's family to shape the series, which I also narrated.

• 3:06Speaker 00

  And yes, I know the traditional pronunciation of Niamh is Neve. The reason why her loved ones called her Niamh is explained early in episode one. The series went to number one in Australia and remained there for quite a while. It also charted highly around the world, racking up millions of downloads. Regardless of its success, it's an important story and I think it deserves more ears. Because of that, we are releasing the first episode here on the Case File feed. If you like it, you can find the rest of the series by searching Missing Niamh wherever you get your podcasts. Now, here is episode one.

• 3:53Speaker 00

  When 18-year-old Niamh May went missing back in 2002, her family did everything they could to help police try and find her. But, like so many missing persons cases, there comes a time when the leads dry up and there's nowhere left to look. Back then, there were no podcasts and social media was still a couple of years away. But times change, and in recent years, Niamh's sister Fanula began listening to true crime podcasts and realised their potential to make a huge difference, especially in unsolved cases like theirs. She realised that a podcast about Niamh might bring about the answers the family were looking for.

• 4:40Speaker 00

  When Fenula contacted us, we agreed to help her reinvigorate the investigation into what happened to Niamh. So, for the last few years, I've been working with Fenula to take a much closer look at Niamh's case. Even as I worked on other case file projects, I carried Niamh's story with me at all times. Maybe it was because we were the same age, or we finished high school the same year. Maybe it was the fact that we both wanted a gap year after leaving school, or that we liked similar music. Or maybe it was the fact that Niamh was a young 18-year-old testing the waters of life,

• 5:21Speaker 00

  and something pulled her under, and that could have happened to any of us. Maybe we just got lucky and survived our teenage years. But Niamh didn't. She didn't get to realise her potential. When I first started looking into this case in 2020, it was originally intended to be a case file episode. But the more I looked, a series of revelations unfolded that literally and figuratively took me to places that I could never have anticipated.

• 5:58Speaker 00

  Niamh grew up in a large Catholic family in Armidale in northern New South Wales. After finishing her final year at school, she took a working holiday and went fruit picking down south in Batlow. Niamh phoned home regularly, and as Easter 2002 approached, she made plans to travel back home to Armidale to spend Easter with her family.

• 6:24Speaker 00

  But Niamh never made it home, and her family has never stopped looking for her.

• 6:31Speaker 00

  Niamh's sister, Fanula.

• 6:34Speaker 03

  It wasn't until I started talking to mum and dad more about it and looking into it more that I realised how much they took on. So dad retired the year that Niamh finished school. Mum had retired a few years earlier. They had seven kids. They'd just got them all off their hands. And less than three months later, their youngest daughter goes missing, presumably murdered. And they've spent the next 18 years searching for her. They light a candle for her every morning. And in the early years, I think dad said they went down there 30 times. And it's a 10-hour, yeah, about 10 to 12-hour drive from Armidale down there and back again.

• 7:16Speaker 03

  And they were so methodical about it and they had a huge map on the study wall at home and they'd marked off all the areas that they'd searched and they, you know, have got crazy people contacting them with potential sightings, some of whom, you know, claim to be psychic. But they also just spent time in the local towns, talking to the local volunteers and obviously working with the police tirelessly. I knew that it was consuming for them, but I don't think I realised how much they really took on because they shielded it from us.

• 7:49Speaker 03

  At no point have we just got on with our lives, if you know what I mean. Like, I heard something recently that really resonated. It was a woman from America who said that you never get over grief, you learn to move forward with it. And I was like, that's, yeah, that's the best anyone's ever described it.

• 8:08Speaker 00

  Niamh May was born on the 21st of June, 1983. She grew up on a small hobby farm in Armidale, New South Wales, which is almost 500 kilometres north of Sydney, the state capital. The May family, mum and dad, Anne and Brian, and children Catherine, Susan, Kieran, Justine, Tamzin, Fanula and Niamh, were raised Catholic.

• 8:35Speaker 00

  Niamh was the youngest of the bunch, with her sister Fanula only two years older.

• 8:41Speaker 00

  All the children were close-knit. Growing up out of town, Niamh and her brother and sisters had the kind of childhood you might daydream about. Imagine the Australian countryside, blue skies with cotton ball clouds, kids making their own fun, running wild in open fields as free as the wind. They were safe, as long as they avoided the snakes in the grass and the redback spiders in the retaining wall.

• 9:11Speaker 00

  Before we get too far into Niamh's story, we should clarify her name. Niamh is an Irish name, spelt N-I-A-M-H, and traditionally pronounced Neve. Her sister Fanula explains how her parents adjusted their daughter's name for the Australian palate.

• 9:31Speaker 03

  She was named Neve, the Irish name Neve, but mum and dad decided that was going to be too hard for people in the 80s in Australia, in country New South Wales, to work out that MH was a V sound, so they said, "Oh, we'll just drop the H and everyone could call her Niamh, like Liam." So we all grew up calling her Niamh.

• 9:50Speaker 00

  So while we will call her Niamh, you might hear others call her Neve.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  When Niamh's mum and dad, Anne and Brian, first met, they were both primary school teachers. Before Fanula and Niamh were born, Brian did his PhD and became a lecturer at the University of New England in Armidale, where he worked for many years. Anne continued to teach primary school while having her children, and also studied her masters in education. While pregnant with Niamh, Anne sat her final exam and won the university medal. Anne describes what life was like when Niamh was born.

• 10:33Speaker 04

  Well, she was born very easily, number seven, fitted in very easily, and had six bigger siblings, who, if she stepped out of line, could bring her back into line. It didn't fall on me, which was very handy. But on the whole, she just, just fitted in. She used to love using her little hand puppets and playing games with them and making up stories.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  Even though Fanula was only a small child herself, she still remembers Niamh as a baby.

• 11:10Speaker 03

  We grew up together, she was my little pal. So her and the sister above me, Tamzin, we were known as the three little kids, the little kids. So we all shared a bedroom, it was the little kids' room. And even, I think, as adults, to remember one Christmas, not even that long ago, someone said, "Oh, get one of the little kids to do it." I'm like, I'm like 30-something. So we've kept our family positions regardless of our age. Yeah, so Niamh's chubby cheeks, little cutie with absolutely adorable little chubby cheeks. And she was, you know, spoilt being the youngest.

• 11:44Speaker 03

  Everyone called her Chuppa Bubba. And she could chuck a tantrum. She'd throw her head back and she had these huge veins that would pop out of her neck and we'd tease her about them when she'd chuck tantrums.

• 11:55Speaker 00

  But sibling teasing is quickly forgotten when there are fields to explore and forts to build.

• 12:02Speaker 03

  Growing up, we pretty much just ran wild. Not ran wild, but like we, you know, had the run of our neighbours' properties as well. We were only 15 acres because it was just a hobby farm where mum and dad worked in town. But yeah, mum and dad built their own house in the 70s. This long, split-level house with four bedrooms. And we had 15 acres around it to run around. And yeah, and we used to just wander around and make up games. We built a fort out of stones in our neighbours', what do you call it? Um, row of trees, windbreak, under all these pine trees. We just built this little rock fort. We used to go and hang out there and make up all sorts of games. Played a lot of Uno, a lot of cards. We used to go camping. She liked to make stupid faces. She was just really cheeky, really, in a good way, though.

• 12:47Speaker 00

  The May kids were all quite independent. Here is Niamh's mum, Anne, explaining what the first day of school was like for Niamh.

• 12:56Speaker 04

  And when she first went to school, her first day at school, we used to get up and I always get up early and have breakfast. And I'd be up early marking kids' books and things for school. And then I'd go up and milk the cow. And others would get up and get ready for school and get their own breakfast and their own school lunches. The stuff was all there. And then they'd head off for the school bus down at the corner. And Neem's first day at school, I came in and I'd always taken the others to school, driven them in for the first day. And I looked around after I'd milked and separated and come inside and lo and behold, couldn't find her. She hadn't even said goodbye.

• 13:41Speaker 04

  I was really quite upset. She hadn't said goodbye, she just went and got on the bus because that's what she did. Years later, her kindergarten teacher said, yes, I'd always wondered why she turned up by herself. That first day was no problem. She just turned up and then went and joined the other kids to get on the bus after school and came home and that was that. So she was independent pretty well from the very beginning.

• 14:09Speaker 00

  By the time Neem hit secondary school, the small girl with the chubby cheeks was gone. In her place was a young woman, independent, intelligent, creative and not afraid to stand out from the crowd. The older May children, Catherine, Susan, Kieran, Justine and Tamzin, had all gone to the same high school that their mother, Anne, taught at. However, for Fanula and Neem, Anne decided that it might be a good idea to send them to a different school. So the two younger girls went to Duval High School in Armadale. There, Neem's creative side absolutely shone through.

• 14:53Speaker 00

  Anne remembers Neem's dogged determination as a student.

• 14:58Speaker 04

  So as well as being creative, she was also well organised. You know, you have an image of creative people often being that they're utterly chaotic and she wasn't. She was highly organised, you know, she was almost obsessive about things being precise.

• 15:15Speaker 00

  Neem had a keen aptitude for writing and loved English. It was in these classes that her talent really stood out.

• 15:23Speaker 04

  When she was in high school, she decided that she liked writing, or she wrote when she was in primary school too, they all did. She then produced a short story that her teachers liked. So she's actually had it published in an anthology of a whole lot of schoolkids. That was, you know, excellent. And then when she got to high school in particular, she did extension English as she got up into the higher levels of high school. And then she wanted to do photography. And Neve had been very canny about doing that because she was interested in creative

• 16:07Speaker 04

  things and productive things and merging that with her English extension. So she taught herself in the final years of high school and used it then as part of her English with photos and filming. And she then made a film, wrote it. He didn't have any money. So she went and begged volunteers, a couple of young chaps from University of Macquarie. At Macquarie, I think, had some camera gear so that they could borrow. And then she'd advertised for an actress and she only had one, one person in it.

• 16:52Speaker 04

  And so this girl came forward and volunteered and they sort of cobbled together a film, which she submitted as part of her H S C.

• 17:03Speaker 00

  By this time, all the older siblings had moved out of home to study or work. The bustling May house became quieter and Neem and Fanula, by themselves for the first time, became very close. They went to parties together and even worked together at the local pizza shop. This used to annoy Fanula because Neem was the better worker and always won employee of the month. Everyone at the pizza shop loved her. She was funky and a bit alternative.

• 17:37Speaker 00

  Niamh also had a cool taste in music. She loved The Stone Roses, Radiohead, Beck, Counting Crows, and System of a Down, to name a few. She also went through a teen goth stage, which raised some eyebrows in their country town. Niamh dyed her hair blue and wore thick blue eyeshadow to go with her goth clothing. Fanola remembers Niamh always trying to be different and stand out from the crowd.

• 18:07Speaker 03

  She liked to be a little bit different, a bit unique. Mum had a sari that she bought when... So mum travelled around in the 60s all over the world and bought a sari when she was... Must have been from India, I assume. So Niamh wore it for her year 10 formal. She just, I think, wanted to be a little bit unique.

• 18:23Speaker 00

  Each time she did something out of the ordinary, none of the Mayes were surprised, nor did they care. "Well, that's Niamh for you," they said. Niamh's dad, Brian, saw in Niamh a determination to succeed in life and to try as many new things as she could.

• 18:42Speaker 05

  She actually was a qualified open-water scuba diver. And she also, I think it would be fair to say, used to read a lot. And she was a very good writer. And did some impressive writing and through into senior high school. I think she enjoyed her challenge. She used to set herself a challenge and work towards it, whether it came to be physically and sporting-wise or whether it was academic or intellectual activity.

• 19:11Speaker 00

  Niamh's dad could also see his daughter looking beyond their little town of Armidale and out into the world. "She'll be a traveller," he thought.

• 19:21Speaker 05

  She had an interest in people who were different. And she did have a trip to France at one stage at the end of year 10. She travelled and had a school holiday, Christmas holiday trip in Paris.

• 19:32Speaker 00

  Fanoula remembers this trip to Paris as well. Niamh was fluent in French and managed to outshine her brother, who'd been there for longer than she had.

• 19:42Speaker 03

  She went to France on exchange. That's the other thing, she spoke fluent French. So in addition to being smart with everything else, she also spoke fluent French. So she went on exchange to France at the end of year 11, so over the winter there. Our brother Kieran was living in Paris for work. And he said he just remembered being really embarrassed because he'd been living there for months. And I can't remember, he went somewhere with her and was trying to order something or whatever. And they didn't understand him. And she was just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, just rattled it off. And they're like, oh, almost like she was a native French speaker, like, here you go, have whatever it is you want. And he just stood there going, smart arse.

• 20:19Speaker 00

  Not only was she smart, Niamh developed empathy for others. She used her developing voice to stand up for others who couldn't speak out for themselves.

• 20:29Speaker 05

  She was a great stickler for social justice. She, people, you know, she didn't think people were behaving fairly, she would say so. She had a sense of fairness and she had a sense of doing the right thing.

• 20:48Speaker 00

  Niamh's sister Fanoula saw her growing passion for social justice. It takes courage to speak up against unfairness, especially when you take the side of the underdog.

• 21:00Speaker 03

  She was very, like a real passionate social advocate. Quite outspoken and, you know, stood up for people, hated injustice. And I think that's sort of in all of us. So I think she was maybe 15 when she wrote a letter to the local paper. Because there were a few articles about local residents opposing a brothel in the town. Or it was, I think it was close to a residential area and they were opposing it. And saying it should be in a commercial area or it shouldn't be there at all. And she just wrote a really well-written, eloquent letter, basically saying, it's the oldest profession in the world and they need somewhere safe to work like everybody else. And I think a lot of people were a bit shocked by her age and her outspokenness on the matter. Whereas I just didn't think anything of it.

• 21:45Speaker 00

  And sometimes the fight got closer to home.

• 21:49Speaker 03

  She may have also been politely requested to leave a job that she had at a local club after very firmly telling some old patrons that were sitting at the end of the bar who were speaking quite loudly, really, like basically just being really racist. And she was just like, no, we don't stand for that here. And then the boss was like, oh, they've been coming here for years and they're really old, leave them alone. And she's like, okay, whatever, I don't want to work with you.

• 22:15Speaker 00

  We will be back after a short break.

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• 24:24Speaker 00

  So, to her family, Neam was fearless, outspoken and very clever. What was she like to her peers? Neam's childhood friend, Jas, describes her as a humanitarian and a leader.

• 24:39Speaker 07

  Neam and I went to... we met in kindergarten and we went from kindergarten all the way up to year 12 together. And we were in the same friendship group, just like a little close bunch of friends. There was like seven of us that were very close and were all still close. And Neam was very academic and she was a leader. She was very influential, had a lot of humanitarian traits from a young age. Always stick up for the underdog and/or, you know, what she believed in.

• 25:21Speaker 00

  As a student on a school outing, Niamh spoke her mind to midnight oil frontman-turned-politician, Peter Garrett.

• 25:29Speaker 07

  We once went to the university to see Peter Garrett speak when he was the environmental minister and we were, I think we were in year 11 or year 12. And, you know, we all sunk back in our seats when she stood up and like gave him a big serving about her thoughts on his position and what he was doing.

• 25:50Speaker 00

  Niamh completed her high school certificate in 2001 and scored in the top 5% of the state. She applied to study at the University of Technology in Sydney and was accepted to study film.

• 26:05Speaker 00

  Niamh decided to take a gap year in 2002, save up a bit of money and go to university the year after. It was a decision that changed the lives of the May family forever.

• 26:20Speaker 00

  Neem heard through friends about fruit picking. It sounded like a perfect opportunity to save a bit of cash, see Australia and spend some time outdoors. For Neem, it also meant she could set off on adventures and test her independence.

• 26:37Speaker 00

  Her friend Jess had a similar idea.

• 26:40Speaker 07

  And she planned to go to UTS in Sydney to study film. And I was going to do music in Brisbane. We decided to go on some kind of road trip around Australia. So, you know, like take a year off and just leave home and go on an adventure. It wasn't well planned out at all, but I think it was just exciting. You know, the prospect of finishing school and having a year off before going into any kind of other studies. And three of our other friends had been fruit picking.

• 27:22Speaker 07

  And they had taken a trip previously to this particular area that we went.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  It's easy to see why this idea would have appealed to Neem. Taking a gap year between school and university gives teenagers a sense of freedom that's unlikely ever to be duplicated. A whole year, stretching ahead with no timetables, no particular places to be, not a care in the world. It feels like forever is lying just in front of you. And for the young and idealistic, it's a time to test yourself and find out who you really are.

• 28:02Speaker 00

  Perhaps it is natural that prospective fruit pickers head to Batlow, famed for its apples. It's a small character-filled town dotted with apple orchards that produce enough to supply 10% of Australia's apples.

• 28:18Speaker 00

  Niamh arrived in Batlow at the end of January 2002, fully intent on fruit picking and living the fruit picker's lifestyle. But it would prove a false start. She only got a couple of days of work before unseasonal summer rains cancelled most of the picking. In a few weeks, Niamh was back home with not much more to show for her travels than photos of her on-the-job war wounds, mainly bruises from fruit toads and ladders. Undaunted by the first trip, Niamh couldn't wait to return to Batlow when the weather settled.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  She had only been home for four days when she and her dad went shopping to buy some camping gear for her next trip. She talked over her plans with Brian.

• 29:08Speaker 05

  I can recall when she came home the first time, when she said she wanted to go apple picking in Batlow. I asked her why she would want to do that sort of work. I grew up myself on a banana and tomato farm, pineapples and other tropical fruits, so I knew what was involved in labouring in the fields. And I said, you know, it's a hard job. And she said, well, I'd just like to try and see how I go.

• 29:37Speaker 05

  And then we talked through some of the plans that she had for how she was going to support herself, how she was going to organise herself. And she would take a hiker's tent and camp. She had a tent that was big enough for her and her possessions. And I said to her, now, how are you going to afford this tent? And she told me which one it was, and it cost, I think, a hundred dollars or something. And her response was, well, I was hoping you might help me out.

• 30:09Speaker 05

  Whereupon I agreed and we went and had checked out the tent. Of course, we used to take the family camping quite a bit when they were all young. So she was familiar with camping, she was familiar with travelling.

• 30:23Speaker 00

  Niamh's mum, Anne, tried to make her daughter aware of the difficulties she might face on her fruit picking year. It might not be as rosy as she thought. But Niamh was not to be discouraged. Her friend Jas remembers how excited Niamh was to go back to fruit picking after her brief stint.

• 30:43Speaker 07

  And then she came back and she was really excited and she said, let's go fruit picking. You know, it was summertime, I'd just turned eighteen. And she said, you know, stuff this, like, you know, I think we both had like cafe jobs or something. And, you know, she was like, let's, you know, let's, let's go out into the bush, let's go and pick fruit. We can get fit, we can be healthy, you know, we can go on an adventure and we can make some money. We can buy a car and we can drive to Brisbane and we'll go on a, you know, we'll visit some friends. Who had already started uni and that's how the idea came. So her and I decided to go.

• 31:24Speaker 07

  We booked a train ticket from Armidale to Sydney. And we were going to stay with her sister Fanula for one night. And then we would carry on to this place called Battleo.

• 31:40Speaker 00

  Jas put her trust in Niamh's planning skills.

• 31:44Speaker 07

  Niamh had always been quite fastidious with details and organisational skills. Like for my whole life, she was the person that would, you know. She was known as a good organiser. So I kind of just booked this train ticket and thought that she knew what we were doing and where we were going. And how it was working, how it was going to work. And there was, yeah, you know, there was a lot of trust that we would just be taken care of, you know, we were going to. Somehow we would get to Battleo, train and bus. And then we would go to this camping ground and, you know, we just. Supposedly if we just went to the caravan park and pitched a tent.

• 32:28Speaker 07

  You know, the owners would put us in touch with some people that we could go and work for.

• 32:35Speaker 00

  Niamh's mum, Anne, remembers the level of planning for the second trip. The first failed mission had given Niamh insight into what she would need, and she set about organising what she would take with her.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  She knew she'd have to have shirts with long sleeves, so she hit Vinnies and the Salvos and places like that, and got long-sleeved shirts that she could wear for it picking. And she didn't take anything that was peripheral or extra. Took no jewellery, except for one ticky on a thong that she wore around her neck, which had been a gift from her godmother. And she had her camera gear with her. She also, when she'd gone down earlier in the year, she came home,

• 33:25Speaker 04

  indexed all her photos, labelled them, dated them. She had been saving and putting aside things for when she needed to be at uni.

• 33:35Speaker 00

  While Niamh was back home, she spoke to another friend, Lisa. She convinced her to go to Batlow as well.

• 33:42Speaker 01

  So when she finished school, I knew she had plans to go and study in Sydney and live with Vanoula. And she was planning to go to film school. She really, which actually initially surprised me because she excelled so much in so many other areas. But there was this creative streak to her that I think she wanted to tell stories. And yeah, and it was a passion that she had. At the end of year 12, see, I left school a little before the others, and I went and started working. And so I was a little bit disconnected from Niamh and probably my other friends for a little while.

• 34:26Speaker 01

  And then, funnily enough, when she was in, she'd been in Batlow, and she came home, and she called me, and I spoke to her. And she was like, "Oh yeah, I've been down there, we're making money." And it's, you know, she was telling me about things that were happening down there. And I said, "Oh, well, I'm kind of looking for work." And she was like, "Oh, you should come down, it's really easy, anyone can get work." So I was like, "Oh, okay, yeah, all right, I'm, I'll come down. I'll come and do a couple of weeks." And I saw her briefly.

• 34:53Speaker 00

  She said, yeah, I'm just picking up some stuff and heading back down. Lisa decided she would travel by car with her boyfriend and join Niamh in Batlow. And then there was a last minute addition to their fruit picking entourage. Niamh's friend Jess explains how Brody entered the picture. Brody was younger than the other girls, but she had also left school.

• 35:18Speaker 07

  The day before we were going to leave, we were walking through the mall. We come from a small town, so we're just walking through town. And this younger girl that we knew by association, you know, friends of friends. She was hanging out and we approached her and asked her what she was doing. And we were pretty excited. We were like, you know, it's summertime, it's February. We don't have to go to school, you know, we're gonna go fruit picking and make some money, buy a car, go on a road trip. So Brody was younger than us, so I would have been eighteen. And I reckon Brody would have been fifteen, I'm not sure.

• 36:02Speaker 07

  And we were like, come fruit picking if you're not gonna go to school. And so Brody decided to come with us and she went and booked a train ticket.

• 36:15Speaker 00

  Brody and Niamh had hit it off right from the start, even though Brody was younger.

• 36:21Speaker 03

  I don't remember the first time we actually met. I just know that we kind of met through our group of friends, like I was a fire twirler and I was in a group. And me and Jess would go fire twirling with them a lot. And I think Jess and Niamh went to high school together. So I probably met Niamh through Jess. And um, yeah, we just would be at parties together. And I just remember we, there was one party in particular where we started hanging out. I already knew her, but we hung out a lot more.

• 36:53Speaker 00

  Brody's favourite story of Niamh reminds me of the saying, dance like no one is watching.

• 37:00Speaker 03

  Was into like System of a Down at the time. And yeah, the Toxicity album. And I just remember catching her one time, listening to it and she was like, just dancing really funny, really, it was really awkward, but it was really, really cute. And she was like, just having fun by herself. And I was like, oh, I love that album. And then she was like, oh, my God, shocked that I saw her. And I think that's probably my favourite kind of memory of her.

• 37:33Speaker 00

  When Neem and Jess suggested she come fruit picking with them, Brody cleared it with her mum and left the next day.

• 37:41Speaker 03

  I was at TAFE and I had took a lunch break and I walked uptown and I bumped into Jess. And she was like, oh, me and Neem are going to go fruit picking, like you should come. And I was like, okay, like I'll come. And I, yeah, ran back down to see my mum. Cause she was also doing TAFE with me at the same time. And yeah, I got some money off her and we pretty much left the very next day. So it was really spur of the moment.

• 38:06Speaker 00

  On Valentine's Day, Thursday, the fourteenth of February, two thousand and two, Neem, Jess and Brody left Armidale.

• 38:15Speaker 00

  They planned to stay with Fenora in Sydney for the night, where she was studying and working, before heading south to Batlow. Brian remembers saying goodbye to his youngest daughter.

• 38:27Speaker 05

  So off she went and the last thing she was hopping into the car out here, just out in front of the garage, about to go off to catch the train with her friends. And she, I was standing at the top of the steps and she dashed over and gave me a big hug and hopped in the car with her and off she went.

• 38:49Speaker 00

  Jess also remembers when it came time to say goodbye to their families as they took the train to Sydney.

• 38:57Speaker 00

  From the moment the three girls hopped on the train that morning, an uneasy feeling began to bury itself in the pit of her stomach. It would stay there and grow as time went on.

• 39:09Speaker 07

  And the next day, we went to the train station and we got on the train. And I sat on the left side and Neem and Brody sat together on the right side. And my mum stood outside on the platform and she like waved a white handkerchief. And I was like, oh my God, she's so embarrassing. You know, there were tears running down her eyes. And I remember Neem's mum standing there too, looking very stern and concerned, you know, just very serious. And I noticed that Brody and Neem were just getting along really well. And I had a really funny feeling and I didn't like it. And I didn't like how well they were getting along with each other.

• 39:53Speaker 07

  Kind of, it probably made me feel jealous because I was like, oh, you know, um, they're getting along a lot better than I am. This is weird. Maybe we shouldn't have Brody coming with us because she's only fifteen.

• 40:06Speaker 00

  Fanula remembers Neem and her friends arriving at her place in Sydney. They had a great time together.

• 40:13Speaker 03

  And then fourteenth of February, she came back to Sydney with Jess and another girl, Brody, from Armidale. They came to Sydney, she came into the city and met me. And I was, I'd just finished work, so we went out for a couple of drinks with our brother Kieran. And then, um, headed home, I was living with two flatmates in Chatswood, in a musty old manky share house. And, um, yeah, they crashed on our laundry floor and we just hung out. But, um, yeah, then the next morning she headed off and I just remember them like heading off and waving and me being like, be careful, call me, all that sort of stuff. And I remember for a fleeting second thinking, oh, I should give her my phone. Cause I had a mobile phone at that stage and she didn't. And I remember thinking I should give her my phone.

• 40:54Speaker 03

  And then I was like, oh, but, you know, like they were already heading off and it's, you know, hassle to, um, sort out the bills or replacements and all that sort of stuff. So I didn't, um, I mean. I've got a lot of small regrets and that's one of them. Realistically, there was no reception down there anyway, so I don't think it would have made much difference.

• 41:14Speaker 00

  The train trip to Batlow perhaps set the scene for what was to follow. The plan was for the girls to catch the 7.15am train from Sydney to Kootamundra and from there, catch a country link bus to Batlow. They missed the train from Sydney and had to wait around for a later one. Jess explains.

• 41:36Speaker 07

  And that was a really weird thing that we missed the train. Because we would never miss a train and I remember it was like the world was trying to stop it from the very start and when, like I remember Neem being really stressed out and getting so cross and angry that we'd missed the train. And I thought, this is so unlike her.

• 42:02Speaker 00

  But when you miss a train, eventually another one follows and the girls were able to hop on board. Unlike Jess, who felt a strange foreboding about the trip, their younger travelling companion, Brody, did not.

• 42:17Speaker 03

  The train trip from Sydney to Kootamundra, me and Neem were having lots of fun and chatting to strangers. We turned our chair around to talk to these people that were there and we had a few drinks and we were just having a good time. It was just an adventure. I didn't feel nervous particularly. I always wanted to get away from Armidale, like I was always leaving, running away. Yeah. So it was just another adventure, really.

• 42:46Speaker 00

  But for Jess, the further from home they got, the more her uneasiness grew.

• 42:53Speaker 07

  We got on this train from Sydney to Kootamundra. And when we got on the train, it was nearing night time and Neem and Brody were sitting together on the left-hand side seat in front of me.

• 43:12Speaker 07

  And this group of men were sitting on the right-hand side and they were all drinking. And it made me feel nervous. And so I pretended to go to sleep and then I fell asleep. Because I knew that Brody and Niamh were like, yeah, you know, let's drink with these guys. And I don't know if they did drink with these guys, they were like a rough group of old men. And then I fell asleep and I woke up and all of the, like, the small group of men that had been drinking were now asleep and snoring.

• 43:49Speaker 00

  Because they had missed their original train, there was no country link bus to take them to Batlow when they arrived at the remote Kudumundra train station in the dead of the night. As Jess sat on the train, she knew they would have to find their own way to Batlow, which was 120 kilometres away from Kudumundra. Jess kept a diary on the trip, and this was her entry about that train ride.

• 44:17Speaker 07

  There were revolting men on the train who I felt really sorry for. Niamh and Brody, I thought, behaved, I don't know how they behaved, but I was saddened and I'm not impressed with the rude, obnoxious drunk attitudes of a group of people who were much older. Jesus Christ, this would be very funny to watch on a film. At the beginning of the film, everything is so optimistic and positive, but slowly after the train tracks, the mood changes and it becomes uncomfortably evil.

• 44:57Speaker 00

  Coming up on Missing Niamh.

• 45:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, people would just come up to the tents and be like, hey, and what are you doing? You know, just there wasn't really a lot of privacy.

• 45:09Speaker 07

  And then one day the Blackhearse arrived. And when the Blackhearse arrived, these two men got out. And as soon as I saw them and I saw that Blackhearse, I thought, they're baddies, stay away from them.

• 45:30Speaker 00

  Thanks for listening. If you'd like to hear the rest of Missing Niamh, just search for it wherever you get your podcasts. It's a Case File Presents production, created by the same team behind Case File, with the same high standards you expect from us. I hope you enjoy the series.

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