A case for murder: Investigating the death of Jeffrey Brooks | True Stories

we have never had justice Jeffery's sloth was taken from him at the hand of another the pioneer now heart is just incredible and that will never go away truth and justice that's all we're asking and for whoever did this to pay for the crime a crime scene like no other jeffrey brooks shotgun wound to the chest slumped in the front seat of a car the weapon that killed him an old farm shotgun is underneath his body Jeffrey's hat in a pool of blood 11 meters away what happened how did police treat this case from the beginning okay there's an accident within an hour they said it looked like an accident it's easy to say that it was an accident but all the evidence safe suggests is something else Jeffrey called you on the day that he died yes do you remember what he said he had found something and then he said I gotta go I can hear someone coming these words were to my curiosity killed the cat tonight we reconstruct the day of Jeffrey's death the exact location the same car same go for what you're saying is this couldn't have happened that we complete the ballistics tests police never bothered to do we investigate the disturbing list of missing evidence at best gross negligence its incomprehensible and talk to the people who've been pressured to stay quiet for all these years what was the result of your report we use the term not accidental may involve murder there are allegations that go to the very top of the Queensland police loose pants and we track down the last people to see Geoffrey alive [Music] as a kid was Jeff I was interested in fishing marine life he was this teeny as I come when it come to fishing you loved it we weren't ready strata when he was five and he caught his first fish in the Fortescue River I remember that day yeah pull it up and he was just over the moon jeffrey brooks was raised in the country the eldest of four kids had to miss big fella six three yeah yeah gentle giant though I know he was he used to love to rumble her kids loved to rumble we're dead then in the end we had to stop because he would never give up and the lounge just to get smashed young Jeffrey had an eye on the future he thought aquaculture which involves the farming of fish or crayfish would be the way to feed the world's booming population so Jeff decides to go into marine biology yeah what did you think at the time I thought it was great because it was his dream you know it was his dream he didn't want a desk job he won't hands-on and that's the job he got Jeff didn't know it yet but being employed at this farm would be his first and last job new business venture the early days must have been exciting I was especially exciting for makes it was something new something I've never done before in 1991 Paul Stewart Gregory Miller and John Peck were three men in their 30s with an ambitious plan to run a crayfish farm in Queensland similar to a yachty crayfish grow quickly and easily the property at Bentley has 41 dams filled the dams with car tires for crayfish to nest in drain the dams one at a time harvest and repeat what was your job I was the sales manager for the farm to go and find places to supply I focused on place like the Sheraton the Marriott this is all on the Gold Coast they put these crayfish on these seafood buffets the three friends were only investors so they hired workers to run the farm a German by the name of Hans Geiger was employed as the manager his wife Roisin alongside him and a farmhand Graham Lloyd how was business how was demand it grew it started out slow but once we got momentum it was really good but there was a problem 41 dams teaming with crayfish more orders than they can handle the business should have been a runaway success but it wasn't year after year for five years it operated at a heavy loss the owners had to find out why for that they hired an expert a young marine biologist fresh out of university his name Jeffery Brooks a big friendly gentleman top Blake that's weird by now jeff was 23 years old he had his degree in marine biology and this was his dream job and to top it off he got married one of the things that they had planned but they were gonna start their family baby and they were he looked really rosy it really did and he was excited and when Jeffrey was excited he was he's fun he was excited and everybody else knew but not everyone was happy for Jeff the three farm workers Hans Regine and Graham saw him as a threat a young upstart telling them how to do their jobs a spy reporting back to the owners of the farm tell me about what Jeffrey called the warning shot he was then working in the ponds one day and shotgun went off and the pellets hit the water just in front of him and he looked around and there was hands standing up behind him with the gun I ain't at all sorry I was shooting at a bird and Jeffrey said there was no birds around and what did Jeffrey take that to man just took it as a warning shot you know behave yourself or else a crucial part of this story is the fact jeffrey brooks mu guns his family has been involved in shooting clubs for generations they make their own bullets they pride themselves on gun safety [Music] jeffrey at about i think his first word was bang and he always you look at the photo albums and he's always got a plastic gun or a cowboy gun and holster on his hip or something you know part of Jeffrey's new job that the crayfish farm involved shooting mostly scaring off birds that come to eat the crayfish crayfish farm attracts all types of predators so the manager hans went out and he bought a shotgun this is the exact same weapon a single barreled harrington & richardson 1901 rake loaded shotgun it was falling apart and it was so dangerous that the hammer was known to go off without pulling the trigger now this gun will form an important part of this story but for now all you need to know is jeffrey refused to use it he said it was just too dangerous if you see the photo as i did a couple of radiating tree and holding the stock together the front wood was missing take your life in your own hands the old gun that was on the farm did you know at the time that it was dangerous gun not until Jeff started working me What did he say he refused to use that gun point-blank did you ever see Jeff with that gun never Jeffrey complained so much about the old farm gun the owners bought him a new one a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun there's two shotguns on the farm where were they kept it not in the office in a locked cupboard is there any reason why Jeff would have taken the old gun over his brand-new washer no Jeff use the new shotgun to control the birds the owners thought they were the reason crayfish numbers were so low but Jeffrey found there was a much bigger problem Jeff we found out that most of the crayfish were going at the back door for cash sighs that's where the thousands of crayfish were going some are being eaten by birds and turtles and things but he'd found out that it wasn't the bird so much it was all the cash sales so for five years that farm operated at a loss and Jeffrey found out that the reason for that loss was hmm cash sales of crayfish yep like if you put 10,000 upon and you only get 3,000 now that's a lot of money going somewhere this discovery was backed up by the marketing manager Paul Stewart while doing the rounds of hotels and restaurants he found someone else had beaten him to it initially when I first started I was cold calling and around the tweed area two hotels yeah I introduced myself he told me had already had purchased from them before so they'd been been selling to the these places prior to my even starting suspicions fell on the farmworkers hands Regine and Graham so later on to be certain the farm owners hired a private investigator how long were you in the police force with me training 35 and a half years it's quite some time hmm Warren Smithers was an ex-cop good at his job he took a handycam and followed Roisin for several days as she dropped off endless boxes of crayfish at hotels and restaurants he even saw a receipt what sort of money are we talking about with these sales well the one document from one month I think the amount was six thousand nine hundred dollars for the previous month and that wouldn't include what the ones that we seem to leave it to the different places six thousand eight hundred dollars in one month in 1996 yeah so that's a fair amount of money Oh anyone's terms Jeff finds out these cash sales are most likely ruining the business he does an interesting thing he doesn't just tell the owners of the company hmm he told the workers I think he thought that by saying this maybe they might mend their ways it's a difficult thought to have but in a way Geoffrey sealed his own fate he did we believe so cash sales and poor breeding practices had run the stocks too low it was over the farm was closing down Hans regime and Graham was sacked but the workers refused to leave the property they went to see the owners in a fiery meeting I remember that meeting I remember it got heated and chrome demanded he's over top and he slammed his fist down on the desks and stormed out making a statement did he get it no whatever way to he was gonna get his money tensions between the workers and Jeff are at boiling point jeff has already had one near miss and now he has a chilling premonition Bob Martin is a close family friend he came to my place and he said I'm frightened I'm gonna cop a bullet Jeffrey was very specific about his fears wasn't he he was one day he thought it felt that he would wear a bullet and it would remind to look like an accident so he thought that he would be shot on that farm yep yeah he did without a doubt [Music] on the 13th of March Jeff arrives early for work the owners want him to keep the farm running until it's sold [Music] Hans & Roisin are at the managers house on the farm surprisingly Graham arrives and joins them at about 9 a.m. according to police statements Hans Roisin and Graham are standing near the work shed at about 1:30 p.m. they claim to hear two gunshots then at about 2 p.m. even though they've all lost their jobs Hans says he drives into town to run errands for the farm Hans clothes he stops at three locations a car wreckers Franklin's and a muffler workshop witness statements revealed no one is certain when he was there he returns some time after 3 p.m. back at the farm Graeme Lloyd takes a farm vehicle and he goes to feed the crayfish at the back down Graham claims this is when he makes a gruesome discovery [Music] Jeffrey slumped across the front seats of the old were cute crime-scene photos show the Ute rolled partway down a damn embankment the old farm gun is underneath Jeff's body Jeff sweat a kübra is near a pool of blood eleven and a half metres away how did you find out what happened yeah I can picture as if it was yesterday I can call Jeb it'd been shot she said he's dead hmm that's just so much pain still there that doesn't come out did you have suspicions from the beginning when we found out that he had been shot with a gun he refused to use we thought and then knew the history of the farm we thought our no this is he's been murdered they aren't the only ones when the farm owners are notified Paul Stewart gets in a car with Greg Miller they head to the farm it was an important phone call made from that car to the police Greg got on the phone and we dope he dog triple our thing and explain what what it happening while we were going up to any city we'd like to see it is treated as a homicide treat this as a homicide if but police seemingly ignore their play in their version of events Jeff reaches into the Ute to grab the shotgun as he pulls it across the seat the hammer catches pulls back and fires Jeff falls backwards he's hat falling off bleeding heavily he struggles to the ute and slumps across the seats knocking it out of gear the car rolling 11 meters backwards [Music] the workers state this must have happened at about 1:30 p.m. when they heard those gunshots [Music] as a major problem with that timeline of events something that Hans Regina and Graham knew nothing about you see unbeknown to them Jeffrey made a phone call and he made it at 1:51 p.m. 21 minutes after he was supposed to be dead Jeffrey called you on the day that he died the call lasted for less than a minute his remember what he said he went into saying that he he had found something he said I found a book so potentially a cash sales book could be and then he said I got to go I can hear someone coming and his words were to my curiosity killed the cat Loree this looks like a lifetime of work in one room it is it's a huge amount of work Wendy and Laurie Brooks endured the death of their son Jeffrey then every day since they relived it gathering a mountain of evidence to prove the police got it wrong to prove their son was murdered we've got plains of the farm where it happened all the dimensions of the Ute statements from the witnesses we have statutory declarations and post-mortem reports oh it's just incredible yes I believe they had the answer on the day if they would have looked for it that's one hell of a coincidence a man who's in fear of his life of being shot turns up dead absolutely there are more than just that coincidence Peter Boyce is a criminal lawyer who wants a fresh coronial inquest to examine not only Jeffrey's death but the police investigation in your opinion did they do their job well if you follow the experts the answers back when any gun is fired it leaves behind a microscopic powder called gunshot residue it proves that a person either fired or did not fire a weapon Jeff's hands were bagged that day for testing but the coroner was later told not to bother the gunshot residue yep no tests done on Jeffrey's hands but no tests done on the hands of any of the farm workers know why you better ask the investigator because they're pretty obvious something there's one thing I noticed the police brief and the coronal inquest no mention of the shotgun being fingerprinted at all - Oh miss something no so no attempt was made to take fingerprints from the gun then there's the phone for Jeff made to Paul Stewart at 1:51 the kiosk the killcam it's most likely the last phone call ever made perhaps his last ever words all the important content of that was never discussed in any of this investigation but highly relevant war it wasn't don't know in a case of this nature how important our ballistics tests on weapons crucial absolutely crucial in this case never done well of course it could be done now except the weapon was accidently destroyed it's now missing along with the disturbing list of evidence including the x-rays of the gunshot palace crucial improving where the shot came from the t-shirt Jeffrey was wearing the all-important autopsy photos and their negatives inconceivable that's pretty cool surely it's more than poor well I'll describe it even worse than that you just haven't done your job one coincidence is one thing but a stack like this huge number yeah huge number of things that don't add up plausible I didn't think he died by accident [Music] the truth has a strange way of coming out sometimes by accident which is how journalists Kate Kuryakin uncovered this story there's been articles even a podcast for the Korean male a police officer involved in that original investigation was someone we were writing about and the family Wendy and Laurie recognized his name and rang us so who was the police officer in charge back then he was Detective Sergeant Michael Condon today he is the assistant police commissioner in Queensland we just found person after person after person who said to us I spoke to Geoffrey not long before he died and he was terrified he was frightened he thought he was about to be killed and none of this really was brought up at the inquest which we found really really surprising do you believe he has made a mistake with catastrophic results in this case yes I do the coroner wasn't critical of Condon's investigation but plenty of other people yeah Dennis you know thanks for coming no worries when was the last time you were here Dennis it was about 20 years ago 20 years yeah this is the first time Dennis Walker has returned to this farm back then he was an investigator for WorkCover Queensland two years after Jeffrey's death he was asked to do a report on this workplace accident I've never forgotten about this case all these years it's just been something that's stuck in my craw why is that I think um the wrong decision was made and Dennis had access to everything police interviews notebooks and sketches crime-scene photos the coroner's report and most importantly the police evidence room we wanted access to the t-shirt if at all possible and we also wanted to see the x-rays the next day my partner received a phone call from the property officer and he was in a bit of a state and he said like I can't find him what was that so - I I can't really say we don't want to say I don't want to say Dennis Walker was under pressure to agree with police the death was an accident what he did next took courage what was the result of your report we used the term not accidental may involve murder how's that report received not very well and a couple of weeks later I got a call to go in and see one of the powers that be and it was just made clear to me that I think the words were you must stick to the brief and I think it's much more comfortable for them to have called it accident were you pressured to change that report [Music] I'd rather pass on that why there's any time to speak the truth about what happened now is the time were you pressured to change that report well indirectly we felt pressure put it that way Denis was there an injustice that was done here on this property yes I believe so was Jeffrey Brooks murdered in my heart of hearts I believe so [Music] did Jeffrey commit suicide no no did he accidentally shoot himself yet only knock me was Jeffrey murdered yes who believes her Wendy and Laurie Brooks are convinced so for 22 years have been gathering evidence waiting for their time waiting for this case to reopen the problem with reopening this case is that list of missing evidence but there is an essential piece of this puzzle that we can recreate you see when a shotgun fires a shell when the pellets leave the end of this barrel they start to spread now the further distance they travel the greater the spread the greater the wound size and we know that Jeffrey had a wound size of 3 centimeters on that left shoulder so by process of elimination we can work out exactly how far Jeffrey was from the end of the gun and with these cameras we'll see it [Music] this remarkable camera can capture individual shotgun pellets traveling faster than the speed of sound we are using FBI grade ballistics gel to simulate human tissue and pigskin the closest thing to us Ben who is a gunsmith and ballistics expert he's been doing this for 20 years so let's work out the closest the gun could be let's say he grabbed it about here pulling it towards him more or less that distance that distance there okay so we've got there's a impact site so you we're looking at 30 centimeters okay let's try that first this is the same model of gun that killed Jeffrey the same shotgun cartridge gray one let's have a look okay uh it's well under three centimeters huh yeah I'm calling that less than two yep the range is too short we need to get further back to get about three centimeters and his height the farthest Geoffrey could have reached is sixty five centimeters [Music] let's have a look you got two centimeters hello not much more than two centimeters think we're calling that a - yeah yeah that's need to go through the back so we double the distance to one point three meters far beyond Jeff's reach and still the wound size is too small forward touch back a touch the our next measurement is 1.4 meters at this distance the pellets separate further the temporary wound expansion called hydrostatic shock opens that wound long enough for the plastic wad to lodge inside this is also what happened to Jeffrey so again here we're probably two point seven two point seven two point eight yep close to the right wound sighs yes and you're at one point four meters sort of look at what it looks like in an Erlenmeyer from here to one point four meters one point four is here yeah it's almost twice my own length physically impossible for anyone to reach a gun barrel here so that's the distance the next test is to simulate the correct angles get our meter 40 the coroner's report said the wound appears to run downwards the x-rays reveal the shotgun pellets lodged mainly outside the ribcage do you think that angle will give that I do yeah absolutely [Music] well that's definitely the right word trash definitely the right noise no yeah you can see in the side that you can see the pelts here in the front section of the chest these pellets here all lodged middle to front so that seems to have given us the right diameter the right track the right angle which means Jeffrey was shot from above then you've worked with guns your entire life based on what we've done today can you imagine a scenario where Jeffrey accidentally shot himself no I really can't and the possibility that Jeff was shot by someone else that's really a thing that explains the one point four meter distance for me Bob Martin is not only a family friend but also a retired police officer he believes this information proves Jeff could not have shot himself according to the police theory the shotgun was seized and dragged across and caught on something so the problem is that we need a trajectory of extra could it have happened this way no and Bob has an alternate theory a theory that explains everything from the water marks on his Akoo breh to the angle and distance of the shot the position of the gun Jeffrey going down to the pond to return crayfish to the water [Music] he was confronted by the shooter as a trouble of the bank [Music] so Geoffrey's down the bottom yes shooters at the top yes Jeffrey to see what he's confronted with and he scrambles whether he was soft and that would have given the location in the direction and the track he's fallen landing on his back on his back yeah on his back which gets the grass stains of policemen oh yeah yeah they walked a long block then the shooter has scope the shotgun he's running back in the front walked off Geoff's wound is fatal but the coroner says he would have been alive for several minutes enough time to get to the [Music] the farm you'd had no handbrake so it rolls backwards eleven point four meters from Jeff's hat does the record need to be corrected it does and urgently so if Jeffrey Brooks was shot who pulled the trigger and why according to police there were only three other people on the crayfish farm that day the farmhand Graham Lloyd the manager Hans Geiger and his wife raishin we set out to find them in the hope they would have some answers we've done some digging of our own into the past of hands and regime Geiger and a money trail that ends of this very property the same year that they were employed at the crayfish farm Hans was declared bankrupt financially finished then just three years into their new job at the crayfish farm not only did Hans have his bankruptcy discharged or cleared somehow I found the money for this place where did that money come from [Music] we've been searching for Hans Racine and Graham now for two weeks we must across the Queensland four times by now we've got a lead on two of them go further north I'm gonna give it one more shot finally we found them this is regime now 71 years old remarried and living in Queensland this is the farm manager Hans Geiger also remarried also in Queensland now 74 years of age and some fairly serious allegations have been made against your own ask you some questions about it no first of all I want to ask you if you were selling crayfish for cash sales from the farm while you were running it on vegans there's a permission from the owners I suggested reason we can make a little bit money selling those shares that's it did you sell any for yourself at all no no the same year you're employed by the farm you were declared bankrupt yet three years later the bankruptcy was discharged and you bought a house that's a lot of money from somewhere yeah Germany from Germany you had the money from Germany yeah so that will be in the record somewhere must be so you come here chess I come out from from visiting somebody and you want me to know have you seen what's happened to us I'll ask you a simple question was Geoffrey a threat to you no was he a threat to your business was he a threat no I was welcomed him Hans Geoffrey told his family he feared for his life because of the threats you were making to him I don't know Hans I'm gonna ask you straight out did you shoot Geoffrey Brook of course I wasn't yeah don't you get it you weren't there for part of the day not the whole day not when it's happen how do you know when it happened because maybe I came back to Graham's employee told me he's dead Hans the tests on that gun the same gun show that Jeff couldn't have shot himself could you shoot why not care it's a man's life we're talking about what should I have so low for all right yeah each he finished his life's here but should I drag it around and now and trade it around and drag it on then I'm not involved I wasn't saying my wife was in the house she's not coming time any I'm not there so only one owns a farm or scram so you must have seen Geoffrey I asked him was he upset with Jeffrey yes you can keep bringing allegation as much as you like it's your problem it's not mine and now we finish okay try as we might we couldn't track down Graeme Lloyd but we did go to speak with Reggie hello resume hello return are you able to answer some questions okay [Music] Hans and Regine have moved on from this story but not Wendy and Laurie not yet they want the truth [Music] is Jeffrey watching somewhere all this I don't know whether he's watching but I know where he is and we'll see him again yeah yeah that's he the pine in our heart is just incredible and that will never go away well we want justice for Jeffrey they believe the time is now the right storm for Rose come on their art storm storm is coming you

Channel: 7NEWS Spotlight

Views: 537,518

Rating: 4.6711674 out of 5

Keywords: Sunday Night, 7 Network, News, Channel 7, Australia, Australian News, Current Affairs, world news, headlines, story, stories, Melissa Doyle, Denham Hitchcock, Jeffrey Brooks, death, murder, accident, true crime, unsolved, crime, police, Queensland, gun, gunshot, Hans Geiger, Regine Geiger, Graham Lloyd, Peter Boyce, Paul Stewart, Michael Condon, Beenleigh, Dead Wrong, Kate Kyriacou, Peter Hall, crayfish, 90s, crime scene, cold case, investigation, police corruption, 7news

Id: g8rCw_b5_TQ

Length: 41min 53sec (2513 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 04 2018

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Is that Charlie Kelly’s mom?