Troubled Waters - 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. Today, we’re showcasing Troubled Waters – a powerful, deeply moving series that brings Louisa Ioannidis’s life and the unanswered questions surrounding her death into full focus. From an international kidnapping, a daring escape and a family’s desperate bid to stay together, it all unravels into a downward spiral exacerbated by a toxic relationship, all the while revealing flaws in a family violence support system that desperately needs fixing. I hope you enjoy the series. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From journalist Olivia LaVoix, the creator of the hidden investigative series The Bakersfield Three, comes the new Case File Presents series, Ada. In 2011, the body of a woman was discovered in a California vineyard. For more than a decade, she was known only as Jane Doe. Then detectives finally discovered her name. But identifying her was only the beginning. Listen to Ada wherever you get your podcasts.

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• 2:03Speaker 00

  Hi, it's Casey here. There's not long now until Casefile returns, with all new episodes dropping from July 19 onwards. In the meantime, you might have noticed something a little different here on the Casefile feed. We've been releasing the first episodes of some of the other series we produce under the Casefile Presents banner. The decision to do this came after something surprising kept cropping up in conversations I'd had with people at our recent live shows. Many Casefile listeners had no idea that we produce other shows outside of Casefile, and some had never even heard of Casefile Presents. The realisation dawned on me that if someone is a big enough supporter of our show to come to a live event,

• 2:48Speaker 00

  but hasn't heard of our production company, then clearly we need to do a better job of highlighting the other stories we've put so much care and work into. For those who don't know, Casefile Presents is our broader production platform. While Casefile is our flagship show, we've also created a number of other podcasts under the Casefile Presents banner. Our level of involvement differs from project to project, but we've played a direct role in all of them, whether that's financing, research, editing, music, or production. I even narrate a few of these shows myself. I first discovered the work of private investigator Julia Robson

• 3:31Speaker 00

  when listening to her hit podcast, Chasing Charlie, which was released in 2020. We connected some time after that, and during our chat, Julia mentioned she'd been a long-time Casefile listener but had no idea we were involved in producing other series, or that Casefile Presents even existed. After listening to Chasing Charlie, I knew Julia was exactly the type of person I wanted to collaborate with, so I made sure to let her know to reach out if she ever had another story in the works. A few years later, Julia did indeed reach out, with troubled waters. In 2011, the body of 24-year-old Louisa Ioannidis

• 4:15Speaker 00

  was found in a suburban Melbourne creek, dressed in a pink dressing gown. Louisa was a strong swimmer and the water was shallow enough that she could have stood up even if she wasn't. Regardless, the police quickly concluded that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death and her story barely made the news.

• 4:38Speaker 00

  But Louisa's brother Tass never accepted that explanation. And more than a decade later, Julia Robson and producer Claire McGrath embarked on a fresh investigation into the case. What they uncovered is a gripping narrative full of intrigue. From an international kidnapping, a daring escape and a family's desperate bid to stay together, it all unravels into a downward spiral exacerbated by a toxic relationship, all the while revealing flaws in a family violence support system that desperately needs fixing. Troubled Waters is a powerful, deeply moving series that brings Louisa's life and the

• 5:22Speaker 00

  unanswered questions surrounding her death into full focus. We're releasing episode one here on the Case File feed. If you like what you hear, you can find the rest of the series by searching for Troubled Waters wherever you get your podcasts. Now, here's episode one.

• 5:44Speaker 03

  This podcast contains content that may be upsetting to some listeners. Before continuing, please prioritise your own wellbeing and mental health. Please check the show notes for more detailed descriptions of the episodes.

• 5:59Speaker 03

  Have you ever heard a story about someone you've lost touch with? Perhaps a friend of a friend that just doesn't seem to add up? It's as if you're only getting pieces of the truth and the rest seems too exaggerated or too strange to even be true. It's like that childhood game of telephone where the message evolves and twists with each retelling. You say to yourself, "This isn't right." So you do your own digging, maybe asking around, looking on social media, but there's no reliable way to confirm the accuracy of any of it.

• 6:32Speaker 03

  Imagine, for example, you hear that an old friend was in a tragic freak accident, but you haven't been in touch with them for years. You go online, hoping to find a news report or something about the accident, but you find nothing. Eventually, you just convince yourself that wherever, whoever the story originally came from, must have been mistaken. But then, years later, that same story resurfaces, perhaps in a slightly altered form, and you find yourself asking, "Did this really happen? And if it did, what am I meant to believe?" This is one of those stories.

• 7:16Speaker 04

  Emergency services, hello, where do you need the police?

• 7:19Speaker 05

  I think I've seen what looks like a dead body in...

• 7:23Speaker 04

  Where?

• 7:24Speaker 05

  I just need to find out, where is this, Ellis? Where is this place? I'm sorry, is it going out now? We just came for a walk along the Darabin Trail Creek, and we passed Northland.

• 7:36Speaker 04

  And you don't think an ambulance is required?

• 7:39Speaker 05

  No, this person's gone, man.

• 7:48Speaker 03

  Episode 1, Locate and Identify. Chances are, unless you've spent time in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, you've likely never heard of Darabin Creek. I've lived and worked as a private investigator in Melbourne for over 15 years. Yet, it's this case, the mysterious death of a 24-year-old woman, that first introduced me to this body of water.

• 8:14Speaker 03

  I'm Julia Robson, and I'm committed to working on cases that have been otherwise overlooked. Together with my producer, Claire McGrath, we're taking on a challenge that has all the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster: tragedy, secrets, an extraordinary international rescue, and a fresh investigation that reveals startling new evidence.

• 8:36Speaker 06

  Honestly, I don't know a lot about the way she died, but all I know is it's a mystery. Absolute mystery how she died.

• 8:43Speaker 03

  For those already familiar with this death, it's always been a topic of speculation and rumour. But over time, has slowly stopped being told.

• 8:52Speaker 07

  There's a reason why you're suspicious about this case, even though it's been several years now. We have every right to be suspicious about this case, because it's suspicious.

• 9:02Speaker 03

  So with this podcast, our goal is to re-evaluate certain aspects that have gone unquestioned for far too long. But first, let's head back to the creek.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  Darabin Creek, winding through Melbourne's northern suburbs, is a natural boundary, connecting quiet neighbourhoods before joining the Yarra River. During daylight hours, the sheltered trails along the banks of the creek attract families, fitness enthusiasts, cyclists and dog walkers. With a keen eye, they may even catch a glimpse of a wedge-tailed eagle or kingfisher among the trees, although the distant hum of the freeway is never too far away. Despite all of its beauty, Darabin Creek also has a reputation among some locals as a place to avoid after sunset. Accessible via dead-end streets, it offers only minimal lighting as darkness falls, making it a hotspot for late-night activities that raises safety issues

• 10:00Speaker 03

  when walking alone on the isolated pathways. And it's at Darabin Creek, the Preston entrance of the Parklands, to be exact, where this case begins.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  It was the 11th of October 2011, and newcomers to the area, Diane and Alice, were exploring their local backyard. Diane, originally from Ireland, and Alice, an ecologist, would often venture into remote natural areas that many of us might otherwise avoid.

• 10:29Speaker 08

  Yeah, we get a lot of cyclists coming along here, and runners. And I think there's a football pitch up there, where people play games and stuff. So it's pretty active around here. But I guess not a lot of people go down back where we went there. But we, like being the nature lovers we are, we kind of went a little bit off track. It's very common for us to do that.

• 10:47Speaker 03

  Nearly 12 years later, Diane and Alice have returned to Darabin Creek, with me, to revisit the spot of their tragic discovery.

• 10:55Speaker 08

  Yeah, it was a nice day. It was probably a bit of a similar day to today. We were enjoying the water. We were worried about snakes. I was, I'm always worried about them. Yeah, still paranoid about all the things in Australia that can kill you.

• 11:08Speaker 03

  As we walk, Diane and Alice share their vivid recollections of that evening in 2011.

• 11:14Speaker 08

  It was the kind of walk we were having, like a lovely, calm, not very breezy day at all. Sunny, bright, blue skies, sounds of birds. Yeah, you've got lorikeets and musk lorikeets and rainbow lorikeets around here. Oh, I think it's up further. I don't think we're in the right spot. I think it's much further on.

• 11:34Speaker 03

  Back then, it was while strolling along the waterway around 6pm, dust settling in, they noticed something unusual in the creek.

• 11:42Speaker 08

  I saw a big thing in the water. And I kept saying, "Is that a teddy bear?" It just looked wrong. I feel like my gut reaction was probably, "Is it like a person?" But also like my second one was like, "Can't be a person. It's gotta be like a teddy bear or something like that." But it was something that had a form. I suppose that's the best way to describe it, because I was putting a form to it. It wasn't just a rock and it wasn't just a bit of limb or, you know,

• 12:12Speaker 08

  tree stump or anything. It was a formed thing which alerted us. And Alice was probably more alert. She was the one that probably went, "Oh, there's something more." She said it up there.

• 12:24Speaker 03

  Approaching the object, they soon realised it was definitely not a teddy bear.

• 12:30Speaker 08

  So, as I said, I picked up a stick thinking, "Well, I don't know what I'm going to come up to, so I'll just, you know, poke it, whatever it is, to see if it's a teddy or a person." And so we made our way to the place and...

• 12:46Speaker 08

  Yeah, we kind of tried to get in a bit closer and we just, we didn't need to use the stick to be honest. We could kind of observe much closer up that it was, potentially, I thought it was a female. Well, quite sure initially, but we kind of went in a bit closer to look. And yeah, we thought, yeah, that's, that's a, that's a person.

• 13:09Speaker 03

  At this point, any doubts were dispelled. They had discovered a fully clothed body among the branches, partially submerged in the water.

• 13:17Speaker 08

  I could tell it was someone, I could see the hair at that point and skin and I knew like it was a person at that point. There was a bit of hair, like I remember seeing it kind of flowing out like this.

• 13:27Speaker 03

  Upon their discovery, they knew they needed to seek emergency assistance. In a quick thinking move, Diane found a discarded aerosol paint can nearby. She used it to mark the grass with pink paint, leaving the can as a guide and promptly dialed triple zero for help. The following is an excerpt from the actual emergency call.

• 13:50Speaker 04

  Is it, is it moving or still? Is it, is it in the river or is it still? So is it moving or is it still?

• 13:56Speaker 08

  It's, it's in the river.

• 13:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, but is it, is it right up, is it right up on the side though and against the side of the river? Or is it flowing downstream in the river?

• 14:04Speaker 08

  Uh, it's, it's still, it's not moving in the river.

• 14:07Speaker 04

  Okay, but what I'm saying is, is it floating or is it up against the side?

• 14:11Speaker 08

  It's up against the side.

• 14:12Speaker 04

  It's up against the side, okay.

• 14:14Speaker 08

  Yeah.

• 14:16Speaker 04

  On the same side as you?

• 14:18Speaker 08

  Uh, yeah. I reckon it's a woman. She's on her side, looks like a woman to me, I don't know.

• 14:24Speaker 04

  How far away from it are you?

• 14:26Speaker 08

  Uh, about five metres.

• 14:28Speaker 04

  Okay, Diane, are you, are you happy to wait for the police? You don't have to wait right near it?

• 14:33Speaker 08

  No, it's fine, I'll wait.

• 14:35Speaker 04

  Because what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give them your phone number and if they have any trouble finding you, okay, they're gonna call you, but I've let them know, I do think I know where you are, okay?

• 14:43Speaker 08

  Okay.

• 14:43Speaker 04

  If you've walked about three kilometres from Northland, all right?

• 14:47Speaker 03

  Just after 7pm, only half an hour before sunset, two police cars pulled into Blake Street, Preston, and made their way down to the car park at a nearby sports stadium bordering the Parklands by Darabin Creek. In one car, two Divisional Patrol Constables, and in the other, an acting sergeant. Upon hearing about the discovery of a dead body, Diane and Alice might have expected a larger team of police detectives and specialists. They were certain it was a body, but it seemed the police needed to verify this themselves before escalating the situation. With police officers now on tow, Diane took the lead, guiding them through the Parklands towards a footbridge over the creek.

• 15:32Speaker 08

  I can't remember what we spoke of, to be honest. I remember that we must have said something to prompt them to say, "No, we have to wait for the dive squad", which I thought was a bit weird. I was like, "The dive squad? It's 300 mile of water. What are you diving after?", this was what I was thinking. But that's what you said. "Oh, they're probably looking for evidence. You'll go check in the water." And I said, "Oh, that probably makes sense."

• 15:54Speaker 03

  The officers, after thanking Diane and Alice, continued on their own, vanishing into the dense shrubbery. They soon found the pink aerosol can Diane had left lying in the grass. Looking over the steep bank into the creek, they were confronted with a disturbing sight: a body, partially submerged in the water, clad in a pink dressing gown amidst the branches. Even for experienced officers, it was an unsettling sight, as the appearance suggested the body had been in the water for some time. They decided to leave everything untouched, securing the scene for the detectives from the Criminal Investigation Unit, CIU, as well as calling in the water police. But what about the homicide squad?

• 16:39Speaker 03

  Yes, they were notified, but the responsibility for the scene rested with detectives from the CIU. The homicide squad's involvement hinged on whether the CIU detected any suspicious circumstances. Currently, the detectives were working with few clues: the body of a young woman in a pink dressing gown, her slender build and long brown hair hinting at her age, somewhere in her twenties. One detective's examination led to an initial assessment of non-suspicious circumstances.

• 17:13Speaker 09

  The deceased was placed on a tarp and I examined the deceased for any wounds or signs of violence. There appeared to be no obvious signs of any types of wounds or trauma caused to the deceased. The deceased appeared to be female, in her early twenties, wearing a sock on her left foot, no sock on her right foot. Tight-fitting dark jeans, dark-coloured singlet tucked in, a red bra, a pink dressing gown, a tiger-patterned hair clip, a bling-type ring on her right ring finger, and an anklet on her left ankle. It was deemed at this stage that the circumstances were not suspicious. I then contacted and updated the homicide squad in relation to the incident.

• 17:48Speaker 03

  The homicide squad would not be handling this case and it would remain with the CIU. But despite the absence of obvious injuries or suspicious items, you have to admit, it was still pretty odd. So why were the police so sure it wasn't suspicious? If it was a medical-related matter, then sure, they can happen without warning and we've all heard of stories where the fittest people out running have suddenly dropped dead due to cardiac events. But whoever this was clearly hadn't been out for a jog or cycle along the beautiful paths in her dressing gown. Ex-homicide detective Charlie Bazina and his book The Job: Fighting Crime From the

• 18:30Speaker 03

  Front Line sheds light on police decision-making in such cases.

• 18:35Speaker 10

  I was very selective about which scenes we attended. We couldn't afford to waste resources on a whim because it might have caused another genuine homicide investigation to suffer.

• 18:44Speaker 03

  The decision not to involve the homicide squad also meant no additional experts were called to the scene.

• 18:51Speaker 10

  The homicide squad has access to a selection of raft of forensic specialists, including a crime scene examiner, chemist, biologist, botanist, anthropologist, pathologist, entomologist, arson examiners, blood spatter experts, ballistics, gunshot residue, and Clendenstein drug labs, along with the police air wing and canine units, just to name a few.

• 19:15Speaker 03

  We will be back after a short break.

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• 22:23Speaker 03

  The detectives noted debris in the trees indicating higher water levels in previous weeks, which led them to consider drowning as a cause of death. However, without knowing her identity, they couldn't progress further that night. Within the hour, the woman's body was transported to the moor tree and the scene was cleared. As darkness fell over Darabin Creek, the woman in the pink dressing gown, still nameless, remained a mystery.

• 22:53Speaker 03

  The next day, a different detective in the CIU took on the formidable task of identifying the yet unnamed woman. But where would they begin? Starting with photographs taken at the creek from the previous day, the officer noted she was wearing only one sock on her left side, triggering a return back to the creek in search of the missing right. Despite an extensive search, it was nowhere to be found. A label in the dressing gown pointed to the Cotton On brand, but inquiries at a nearby store in Northland Shopping Centre revealed no recent purchases of such an item. There was also no reports of recent thefts of these either. Attention then turned

• 23:37Speaker 03

  to outstanding missing persons reports. For this task, the detective called in the assistance of a leading senior constable, who well were referred to as TL. TL was the obvious choice to help as he was one of the first officers on scene at Darabin Creek the day before. This is also an officer we will come back to. According to police statements, and this is important, TL spent all of the 12th and 13th of October searching the Victorian Police Database for missing persons reports in and around the metropolitan area in an attempt to locate any outstanding missing persons. Surely there was a report of a woman

• 24:21Speaker 03

  missing in the Preston area somewhere in that list. But all roads led nowhere and it was back to square one.

• 24:30Speaker 03

  On the 14th of October, just three days after the body was discovered, a post-mortem examination was performed. While initial investigations by detectives didn't raise suspicions, perhaps the forensic pathologist could shed more light on the woman's fate. According to the pathologist, the body was described as:

• 24:49Speaker 09

  "That of an adult Caucasian female measuring approximately 170cm in length and weighing 54kg."

• 24:57Speaker 03

  Given her youthful appearance, it was not surprising that there was no evidence of any significant disease process. A thorough examination revealed nothing to suggest her death was the result of a medical episode or health-related matter. Focus then shifted to any signs of injury on the body. It was noted that aside from some minor bruising on her legs and right arm, there was no evidence of trauma, particularly no injuries to her head or neck. With no medical or trauma-related issues emerging from the post-mortem examination, the forensic pathologist concluded that the cause of death was consistent with drowning. This now explained the how, but without identifying who she was,

• 25:42Speaker 03

  the police were still no closer to explaining why this happened. The mystery of her identity continued.

• 25:51Speaker 03

  It was around this time Diane and Alice, who made the tragic discovery of the body in the creek, reached out to police to find out if there had been any updates.

• 26:02Speaker 12

  And I was very upset that the police couldn't find anyone that belonged to her. For many reasons, I was like, for that poor person. They must have people who love them and worry about them. Even if they don't know she's missing, when they do find out, they're going to be upset.

• 26:17Speaker 03

  While still actively monitoring reported missing persons and exploring the option of a media release, on the 18th of October, one week after the discovery in the creek, police arranged for a door knock and letter drop within the surrounding residential area. When a Preston resident living in Seston Street came home and checked her letterbox, she discussed the letter with her family. Their collective concerns were enough to make contact with Crime Stoppers, reporting they believed the unidentified woman was their neighbour.

• 26:49Speaker 12

  So they said that they found a young female in the creek, and they were trying to identify her, just based off descriptions like hair colour. And I went, oh, no, no, come on. And when we read it, and we knew straight away, oh my goodness, that's Louisa.

• 27:09Speaker 03

  Finally, a lead. Receiving this information, the detective working this case entered Louisa's name into the Victorian Police database and identified a record of her fingerprints already in the system. A request was made to make a manual comparison between these records and the prints obtained during the post-mortem. At 7:55 AM on the 19th of October 2011, eight days after inquiries began to identify her, the body in the creek was formally identified as 24-year-old Louisa Eunidus.

• 27:45Speaker 13

  This girl Louisa, bubbly, fun to be around, smart, but very mysterious, you know, at the same time.

• 27:54Speaker 03

  This is Louisa's older half-brother Anastasios, better known to his family, friends, and those around him as Tass. Louisa and Tass share the same beautiful mother, Helen. As the older brother of 13 years, Tass's relationship with Louisa took on more of a fatherly role than the typical sibling dynamic.

• 28:17Speaker 13

  So you felt like there was things that she was holding, things that she wouldn't say or something. I wanted to show that smile because she would always smile whenever we saw each other. I just held on to that and it made our conversation, in most cases, great. There were times in the early days that our relationship wasn't great because I had to step in and then try and give him some guidance. Stay out of trouble, go to school, stop wagging, you know, because there was a bit of that going on too. And just to keep away from scumbags, that's it.

• 28:57Speaker 03

  Those who knew Louisa all shared the same sentiment about her. She was a glamour.

• 29:03Speaker 12

  Oh, she was glamorous. Yeah. They used to do my makeup. Even Louisa's sister, she used to do my makeup. Come on, let's get you dressed and do your hair. So they were always, I'm like, where do you get your clothes? You've got to teach me. So she was always ready for the whole day, like she was going to conquer the whole world. You never saw her not dressed at all, head to toe. Her beautiful hair, her makeup. She was just beautiful, in and out.

• 29:32Speaker 03

  Tassla spoke to his sister on September 26, 2011, just two weeks before her body's discovery. Louisa had turned up at his house unannounced. She seemed down, not quite herself, and didn't stay long.

• 29:47Speaker 13

  I do recall just her, as she was leaving, just turning around a couple of extra times just to see me and just to wave goodbye kind of thing. And then I stayed to the end until they actually got in their car and zoomed off and just a wave and that was it. And yeah, I don't usually wait. I just let people out the door and that's it. But this time I remember vividly, just there on my porch, on a porch that you saw.

• 30:20Speaker 14

  Just waved her off, was it? That was the last time I saw Louisa.

• 30:24Speaker 03

  Tass was naturally protective over his naive yet courageous younger sister. Since the passing of their mother in 2009, two years before Louisa's death, he had tried to bring as much stability as he could to Louisa's life, helping her to find work and ringing her on a weekly basis. It was when she stopped answering Tass's calls and wasn't ringing him back that he really started to worry.

• 30:48Speaker 14

  For a period of time, for a week or two, I was trying to get a hold of her via her phone, just going straight to her message bank. I also sent her emails as well.

• 31:01Speaker 03

  He eventually became so concerned that he drove over to her unit in Preston, hoping to find her out back playing with her puppy or feeding their mother's beloved parrot Gina, who was a bird with an eerie ability to repeat every word she heard. When he arrived, however, he found the house locked up and Louisa nowhere to be found. The birdcage, once occupied by Gina the talking parrot, was empty with the cage door left wide open. Louisa cared deeply for her animals and Tass knew in his heart something just wasn't right about all of this. He drove directly to Reservoir Police Station and explained his concerns about his missing sister. He provided as much information as he could to the officer,

• 31:44Speaker 03

  including a description and her address at Seston Street, Preston. It wasn't long before Tass received the worst possible news.

• 31:55Speaker 14

  A week or a few days later, she was, I received a phone call from John, which is my mum's cousin that works in the police force, telling me that they located her body, located her in a creek. I remember that moment very vividly. I was in my car just heading to work for my rounds and got me a pull over first. I pulled over and at that point I had an inkling that I was about to hear it was going to be truly terrible because we had heard anything whatsoever. And he goes, "Tass, they found her, she's dead. They found her in the creek, she was still in her robe. And I went into shock, I went into shock."

• 32:37Speaker 03

  Tass was visited by two CIU detectives who had been working relentlessly to identify Louisa. They credited a neighbour's Crime Stoppers tip for providing the crucial lead. Another officer, who we've previously referred to as TL, and had attended both the scene and assisted in helping to identify the body, did not go to Taz's house. If TL had gone, Taz would have recognised him immediately. So how would Taz have recognised him? Two days, two days before Louise's body was found in the creek, Taz had gone to the reservoir police station and reported her as missing. The officer he spoke with was none other than TL.

• 33:22Speaker 03

  Somehow, within two days of taking down Louise's details as a missing person and then attending a body found at Darabin Creek, it seems that no connection was made by TL that they could be linked. This was despite the creek being only 450 metres away from her home. It would then be another eight days of searching by police, part of which was done by TL, before it was a neighbour who rang Crime Stoppers and gave police the lead they were looking for. It is truly hard to comprehend how such a vital link went unnoticed during that crucial period. You're kidding me. It can't be miscommunication.

• 34:07Speaker 03

  It can't be said that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. This is Professor Kieran Carrington, and you can expect to hear more of her forthright approach in upcoming episodes. Just a note here: we sought comment from Victoria Police well before recording, and the response they provided on the eve of recording day didn't really clarify this issue. We don't know exactly what TL or his colleagues would say about his apparent failure to join the dots. Meanwhile, Taz held his own reservations regarding how his sister's case had been handled.

• 34:43Speaker 13

  I knew what the police investigation had involved. They had related it all to just an accident. So, of course, I was...

• 34:55Speaker 13

  I was pretty expecting, I was expecting the coroner's decision that it was going to come back as an accidental death.

• 35:03Speaker 03

  While police concluded there was no suspicious circumstances, concerns continued to linger for Taz. As the months went by and he worked through the emotions dealing with the passing of his tenacious sister, he decided he needed answers about how his sister came to be at the creek. He needed to know what had happened. A family friend explains.

• 35:24Speaker 15

  Taz was not happy with what the coroner came back with because he did not believe that Louisa drowned or whatever. And he wanted the case to reopen. And no one, the case closed and they basically said that the finding was that she drowned.

• 35:42Speaker 03

  In 2013, a year after Taz had made a formal request for an inquest into his sister's death, he received a response from the coroner advising it had been refused. Taz was advised that based on the evidence made available to the coroner at that time, there was...

• 36:00Speaker 16

  No apparent issues that would be likely to be elucidated by an inquest and no legitimate coronial purpose which would be likely to be served by holding an inquest into Miss Ioannidis's death.

• 36:13Speaker 03

  Since her death in 2011, Taz has continued to search for answers around his sister Louisa's tragic passing. Do you believe she drowned?

• 36:22Speaker 13

  No, I don't. I mean, not on her own accord, okay? Because the river, the creek was not deep as far as I'm concerned, all right? She knew how to swim, right? And I don't buy that she just drowned in a little creek. I just, I don't buy it.

• 36:43Speaker 03

  Taz doesn't buy it. But do we share his doubts? What do other experts in their field think? Now, 13 years after her death, we step in to undertake a fresh investigation. We'll speak to those who knew her story, reexamine the evidence, and explore all theories in our pursuit to find truth behind Louisa's fate in the troubled waters of Darabhan Creek. One thing is clear: from speaking to Taz, it's evident that attempting this on his own was taking a significant toll on him.

• 37:17Speaker 15

  How are you feeling? You've gone through a lot.

• 37:21Speaker 13

  Getting a little bit fatigued, to be honest. And that's been my problem since this illness as well. I'm getting very easy fatigue. But I do really want to finish, you know, the medic and the progress.

• 37:38Speaker 03

  Still to come on Troubled Waters.

• 37:40Speaker 13

  I kept on telling my lesson, be careful going there.

• 37:44Speaker 15

  Her brother and her mother supported her at the time and said, "Go back and we will connect you with a few people we know there that will be able to help you."

• 37:52Speaker 13

  And yeah, surely enough, it wasn't all right.

• 38:01Speaker 00

  Thanks for listening. If you'd like to hear the rest of Troubled Waters, 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've come to expect from us. We hope you find the series as compelling as we do.

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• 38:59Speaker 17

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