A homicide on CCTV | The Murder of Jamie Gao by Roger Rogerson | True Crime

now I really believe this he was allured to the dark side it's a load of crap I think Roger was born on the dark side he was the darkness he was the darkness yeah he truly was it's a homicide on CCTV free men were seen entering a storage facility only two came out alive 2x cops with murder on their minds it takes your breath away and the wannabe gangster Jamie girl told his friends he was going to make a lot of money investigative crime reporter Adam Shand follows the damning trail of evidence what was the message to you do you think that he would like to see me dead and uncovers the secrets of storage units 803 he got two people a dead body and each is saying the other did it [Music] this is renterspace self storage in padstow in Southwest Sydney [Music] on Tuesday May 20 2014 a young man was murdered in cold blood inside this storage unit the planning and the aftermath of the crime were captured in minute detail on CCTV and from these images New South Wales police would painstakingly uncover what took place here and bring the killers to Justice five days after the murder New South Wales police took the unusual step of calling a press conference to say they feared a 20 year old University student had been kidnapped his name was Jamie Gow I think there are people who must know what's happened to Jamie it's possible that Mr gow was getting himself into some kind of trouble and indeed may have been getting himself in over his head [Music] Jamie GAO seemed like an average Australian he was studying for a business degree he lived with his family in a comfortable Suburban home and enjoyed an active social life but beneath the surface he harbored dreams of being a gangster I actually was working that Sunday when he went missing it was strange they had this big press conference saying a young guy had disappeared and had been kidnapped and they were looking for information Mark Murray had been a crime reporter in Sydney for more than 30 years long enough to know when the cops are holding something back and he was right in the days before the press conference police had been Gathering evidence that GAO had in fact been murdered Jamie GAO was last seen on Tuesday May 20. the next day gal's lawyer reported him missing and gal's friends told police Jamie had been bragging about a new connection former New South Wales Detective Glenn McNamara police swung into action and collected CCTV footage that showed GAO meeting McNamara numerous times more footage showed GAO getting into McNamara's car on the day of his disappearance then early on Saturday the 24th police secretly seized McNamara's car inside 2.8 kilos of ice with a street value of seven hundred thousand dollars that night police arrested Glenn McNamara Glenn McNamara portrayed himself as a crusader against drugs and police corruption in two modest selling books in 2014 McNamara was going through a messy divorce and was working as a private investigator that's how he met Jamie GAO both were working for a solicitor acting for one of gow's mates who was facing a drugs charge McNamara was the pi and gal was the Cantonese interpreter for his friend by the time police arrested McNamara they had CCTV footage showing what happened after he picked up GAO in his car they drove to a nearby storage facility and McNamara and GAO entered unit 803 moments later police were intrigued to see another man making his way towards the storage unit a man with a very distinctive walk Sunday night I get a phone call Miranda Devine had heard a colleague a wild wild rumor that Roger Rogerson was wanted for murder [Music] rogerson's career in the New South Wales police force is steeped in infamy at one time he was the most decorated officer of his generation oh really really loved the job and uh look you don't end up with a certain affording commendations you don't end up winning the Buddha Mitchell award by [ __ ] on your [ __ ] ass I mean I got it from hard yakka you know I was a successful Detective despite his achievements he left the job in disgrace after killing two suspects in dubious circumstances he has since done time for dishonesty and perverting the course of Justice as well as an alleged involvement in bribery assault and drug dealing with his name now connected to the murder of Jamie GAO police raided rogerson's home late Sunday night well I'm Paul Kenny um I was Rogers solicitor from around about the year 2000 up until about 2015. Paul Kenny took a phone call during the raid it was rogerson's wife Anne on the line uh I asked to speak to the officer in charge there was a detective inspector mcshee Mick came onto the phone I was asking what's going on what are you looking for I didn't know where Roger was he eventually told me it was uh something along the lines of a kidnapping I said kidnapping like kidnapping her what what's going on here what's this all about but he just wouldn't tell me police were looking for Rogerson in Sydney but he'd flown to Brisbane where he was staying with a former bodyguard Mark Dixon known as the hammer I was running a boxing gym in redcliffe at the time and we were having inter-club fights just on a Sunday afternoon and I invited Roger up as a draw card getting the proud then you know they could meet him he could sell some books things like that he'd been up there since Thursday I think or Friday staying at my uncle's place up the road paid for him to come up he was going to fly home on the Tuesday he did receive a phone call that night we were sitting back at my uncle's place after the fights and uh we were sitting out under the Bunga tree of knowledge as he calls it having a few drinks and he took a phone call and his Vibe changed he said oh I'm going to bed I said see ya see you in the morning and I went to sleep by he wasn't there at six o'clock in the morning he was gone we're gonna take you live shots now coming up we believe this is his lawyer Roger Rogerson arrested live on TV Mr Rogers do you maintain your innocence sir we're back to the guitar about days you know I've got a very round here did you know Jamie gown foreign was a 20 year old University student with a sideline dealing drugs it was a short career that ended badly six days after he disappeared gals family awoke to breaking news just after Dawn off cronulla a body wrapped in a blue tarp floating on the ocean's surface believed to be that a missing uni student Jamie GAO gal was shot twice in the chest near a tattoo that read every saint has a past and every sinner has a future Gower dreamed of becoming a big time Gangster he thought that doing a drug deal with an ex-cop like Glenn McNamara would be his moment to strike it rich McNamara had already been arrested the previous day and now police were after Rogerson when I found out that Glenn McNamara had been charged with murder they wanted to get Roger back so I just said you know I'll get him back here just leave it at that so we just made some sort of tentative Arrangement I'd just bring him just into the Sydney police Center because that's closer to Central Court because I thought that's where he'd be going and there was the arrangement but it didn't quite play out like that at the request of his lawyer Rogerson had driven down from Brisbane on Monday and headed straight home where he was greeted by news crews who'd camped out in anticipation as Dawn broke the next day it became a nationwide media event I'm going to take you live shots now we believe this is his lawyer I've never seen anything like it there's that many media people and media vehicles coming like all the way up East Street I was thinking you know what's going on here you know the whole thing was farcical this is a very serious situation it should be treated very seriously and not like some idiot situation like an OJ Simpson situation rodgerson arrived early this morning under the cover of Darkness he stayed holed up inside skulking Behind Closed curtains so I just went in and saw Roger just in his little ham office and we just started having a legal conference what was his demeanor well he was just sitting there taking it in just uh we're just having a chat and next thing um please turn up banging on the door and they went into Roger's little office room and Roger's just sitting there they told him he's under arrest and he saw the footage outside the place it was ridiculous Roger Caleb Rogerson under arrest Mr Rogers do you maintain your innocence sir we're back to the gazab in custody over a uni student's murder bundled into a police car he was smiling but he was still complaining did you know Jamie gown so what was rogerson's connection to McNamara they hadn't worked together in the force and nor were they friends but they did share a sketchy reputation amongst their former police colleagues what about McNamara what do you know of him you know he supposedly turned whistleblower up at the cross he was as dirty as everybody obviously and about four weeks before the murder Roger said I'm working with this guy Glenn McNamara you've got to come and meet him and I never did all I know is that other people kept saying to Roger what are you doing with this guy and Roger so mate now you've got to give him a chance you know [Music] your view is mcmara is not a person of credit oh that's correct former assistant commissioner Clive small shares a dim view of McNamara McNamara was considering writing a book as was Rogerson and he met up with Jamie Gower during that time he also heard about the fact that guy had possession of drugs basically he put the word on GAO to buy drugs and then he went and got Rogerson involved both McNamara and Rogerson were looking for money and they agreed to buy I think it was about three kilos off Gower was studying business at University but it seems his real ambition was to be a gangster gal told friends that the drug deal with McNamara was his chance to strike it rich and to forge an alliance with the Triads in Hong Kong Michael great to see you thank you we asked Michael Drury a former undercover cop to take a look at the footage that led to the arrest of McNamara and Rogerson starting with the meeting between GAO and McNamara on May 19. this was the last of 27 such encounters within 18 hours GAO would be dead the Meridian Hotel in Hurstville what are they doing here me we know that as an excited 20 year old he told his friends he was going to do this major business deal and make a lot of money and he was dealing with a former police officer he could trust this guy McNamara had credibility in the mind of GAO to do the business the girl needed to have credibility with the Chinese Triads to give him so much of the drug this was not a nickel and dime deal son didn't attend any of the meetings with GAO and on the day of the murder CCTV captures McNamara's car driving to a meeting with GAO and his two Associates [Music] but someone else is watching as McNamara and GAO drive off to do the deal moments after the pair leave a silver station wagon pulls out of a nearby car park [Music] the driver is Roger Rogerson so now we have two cars coming towards the storage facility here in padstow a few minutes away from the collection point there are CCTV cameras that cover all the Alleyways between the storage units and there's another camera that captures vehicles on arrival where they have to punch in their access code to enter the facility [Music] so at this point GAO is not concerned at all about what's going on he thinks he's part of a deal going down oh correct he knew McNamara was a former police officer this is all part of the make-believe clandestine or secretive actions of this group in the mind of Jamie gow that also includes him this is McNamara's vehicle what's he doing there he's pulling up outside seemingly so he gets a direct line into the shed he gets out [Music] you just see gas slip in from the back seat into the storage shed yes done very quickly for privacy to give it that air of clandestine Behavior so we go on and there's the silver station wagon and who gets out of it a man with a very distinctive gate mic or someone you know yes an associate from many years ago not a friendly associate Mr Roger Rogerson so he Waddles over like the penguin can you see the Casual way that he comes up to the crime scene what you've got to remember is you've got a man in Rogerson who's just about to become involved in the murder of an individual it takes your breath away next I brought it up and I forward one shot was Rogerson ever a good cop fairly quickly after that the second shot or was he just born bad did you think you're about to do that night yes I suppose if Roger had his time again I'd probably feel exactly the same thing uh I probably have exactly the same thing again uh but maybe I'd be a little bit more careful when I met Rogerson you seem to prefer the company of villains to police where once he'd epitomized the idea of rough Justice on the streets in later years he seemed more interested in money than anything else he was so hungry for cash I heard he once offered his Services as a Hitman during Melbourne's Gangland Wars foreign he was telling stories on the comedy circuit about how he cleaned up the Mean Streets of Sydney in fact I had 28 years in the cop before they caught up with me I was having a good time so who was the real Roger initially I thought that Rogerson was a Dirty Harry that had gone too far you know he shot bad guys it might have even set them up but that was the way he was trained and then after the Jamie GAO murder I was then given a bit of time to really dig around Roger and I really believe this he was lured to the dark side it's a load of crap I think Roger born on the dark side and he saw the police force as the way that he could use that for what he wanted to do he was the darkness he was the darkness yeah he truly was [Music] former New South Wales assistant Police Commissioner Clive small thinks the rot set in when Rogerson arrested career criminal Nettie Smith in 1976. the Crim and the cop became firm friends he was steered away from robberies and towards the drug trade and Nettie Smith went in with a fervor with a lot of people in the drug trade knowing that he was supported by Rogerson and ultimately he told Tales out of school about Roger absolutely probably the most notable incident was the case of Warren land friendship [Music] on June 27 1981 nydia Smith bought drug dealer Warren land franchi to this Lane in Sydney's Chippendale to meet Roger Rogerson Smith later claimed that landfranci wanted to negotiate a Secret payment to Rogerson to avoid being charged over a drug matter Rogerson claimed that Lan franchi was robbing banks and because at that point of time he then suddenly just backed around and pulled this gun out from these very tight trousers and as she was bringing it up I realized this boat's going to shoot me he didn't bring Len Francie in he shot him dead on this street so I've reached behind for my gun and because I didn't mess around and I brought it up and I saw it one shot and then valleyed quickly after that the second shot [Music] two shots in quick succession the classic double tap that police recruits learn in firearms training foreign was brought against Rogerson and he was commended for bravery despite claims by lamb Frenchy's girlfriend Sally Anne hutstep that land franchi had ten thousand dollars down his pants and not a gun how do you know Sally that he didn't have a gun in the car that he didn't pick it up on the the path as he walked out that he'd never planted somewhere because he left the gun at home and I had the gun Rogerson has never wavered from his claim that he acted in self-defense in 1986 the body of Sally Ann Huck's step was found in a shallow pond in Sydney's Centennial Park erson's partner in crime Nettie Smith was recorded confessing to her murder on the orders of Rogerson although Smith was acquitted and Rogerson was never charged he found himself tainted from that time on the highest profile detective in New South Wales was now damaged goods [Music] of course back in 1984 you were the target of another murder conspiracy in which Rogerson was involved yes I remember that night [Music] detective mcdrewry had been washing up in the kitchen of his Chatswood home when the gunman fired twice at close range through the window he was rushed to hospital in a critical condition but you also investigated the shooting of police officer Michael Drury well again Rogerson played a significant role in that Alan Williams a Melbourne criminal had been buying drugs off Nettie Smith he'd also been selling some of those drugs in Melbourne and also some back into Sydney Williams was approached by Michael Drury who was an undercover officer and when he sold the drugs to Drury he was arrested and charged at that time Williams was one of the biggest heroin dealers in Melbourne and he didn't want to go to jail so he attempted to buy his way out the decision was made to approach Rogers and to see if he could bribe Drury Alan Williams put up about a hundred thousand dollars Drury knocked the offer back Rogerson came back and told them that he couldn't be bribed I'd have to look for another alternative the alternative I thought was The Killing you know it's it's very Vivid I remember it very Vivid but two shots yes did you know you'd been shot or you just well at first I think I went into um a a state of semi-shock and I'd been thrown about 10 feet plus across the room up against the wall and I remember um crawling up from the floor and I could see the blood on the wall behind me did you think you're about to die that night yes even though the drug dealer Williams confessed to the attempted bribe and claimed Rogerson was involved Rogerson was acquitted of conspiring to kill Drury but at one stage that things were going the other way but fortunately as I said Justice prevailed and I've been acquitted Drury has always publicly maintained that hired Hitman Chris renter kill Flannery pulled the trigger but now he's not so sure was it well was it because the suggestion by some is that the grouping of the shots suggested a policeman double tap yes yes I used to see Roger quite a lot and I remember bringing up Drury you know on a drinking session and that was the time of he just looked at me it was like I just froze I was like don't bring it up the look he gave me then just sent chills down me does that color your views about Rochester at all um no it has put me on a path of almost 40 Years of educational development understanding these people as to why they do this type of thing and how they live with themselves foreign to show absolutely no remorse towards the family of this young boy that they've murdered absolutely no remorse whatsoever [Music] it's that characteristic double tap of the police Marksman that points to Rogerson as MC dreary's would be assassin it was the same style it was apparent in the shooting of Jamie GAO two rounds fired in quick succession there were two ex-policemen in that storage shed when Jamie GAO was shot which one pulled the trigger was it Rogerson or was it McNamara solicitor I'm saying nothing Roger Rogerson and Glenn McNamara were both arrested and charged with Jamie gow's murder in May 2014. they spent the next 52 days sharing a cell in Sydney's silverwater jail with threw on the scene when Jamie Gower was shot dead but only they knew who pulled the trigger and Roger Rogerson was determined to control how that story was told I'm Charles woodstreet I'm a barristered at law and I've been practicing although not at the moment for 45 years Charles Water Street was Glenn McNamara's Barrister I asked the warden to separate them uh because I thought that uh Mr Rogers and my have been influencing Mr McNamara and Julian so Mr Robinson was so arrogant about his control over Mr mcmower that he hand wrote my opening my opening to the jury that are what I should say on behalf of Mr McNamara and it was in handwriting in about 20 pages long this is what Rogerson wanted the jury to believe he came to storage unit 803 for innocent purposes he told his wife from jail that he only entered to see what was happening and to offer a bit of fatherly advice to McNamara Richardson was concerned that McNamara had gotten mixed up with GAO as the door was raised Roger said he saw McNamara as white as a ghost and Jamie gow who lay dead on the floor in the world according to Rogerson he said McNamara claimed that GAO pulled a gun on him and a struggle had followed McNamara then said that in the middle of the struggle he was able to grab hold of gal's hand and twisted the gun around it went off twice gal shot himself in the chest so that's rogerson's version GAO manages to shoot himself twice in the struggle before Rogerson even enters the shed McNamara when asked for his recollection gave a completely different account in McNamara's version he was inside the shed with GAO waiting for Rogerson to arrive to do the drug deal Rogerson lifted the door entered the shed produced a gun pointed at a gow and shot him twice Rogerson then turned the gun on McNamara and said I'm gonna kill you if you talk and think of your lovely daughters and that phrase think of your lovely daughters as a phrase that he often used as a Veiled Threat should McNamara you know astray from me handwritten opening that he had prepared so carefully for me so there were two very different versions of what went on inside storage unit 803 but here's a fact after the shooting gunshot residue was found on rogerson's clothes including inside his trouser pocket which suggests that he very recently fired a gun McNamara also claimed that Rogerson had threatened him but let's see what the video evidence suggests on a number of occasions the video clearly shows leading up to the murder the murder and post the murder Mr McNamara is totally involved and extremely relaxed minutes after GAO was shot dead without warning as McNamara Claims One Moment is particularly damning so now McNamara comes out and gets the surfboard cover the surfboard cover McNamara collected from home it belongs to his daughter so one would suspect that that surfboard cover was there to put the body in there was no surfboard inside it yes it was part of the uh pre-murder planning [Music] after the murder Rogerson and McNamara went back to McNamara's apartment here we see them getting into the lift together with some beer McNamara does not appear to be a man under duress the bit later filmed with the six-pack it's pretty cold how we would have done it next two killers one dead body and the Cutthroat defense they're pointing at each other in the Box saying you did no I did it you did it I didn't [Music] the partnership between Rogerson and McNamara did not last long by 2015 the killers were blaming each other in a tape phone call to his daughter Lucy McNamara said that he had no choice but to go along with Rogerson despite the damning video evidence he was trying to reassure his daughter that he was no cold-blooded killer no you protected your own life that kind of crime yeah yeah you'll have to do that yeah but yeah I know we didn't do anything McNamara is a desperate desperate man in his family they're desperate and they must be desperately wanting to believe that their father was allured into this by Rogerson you know no one wants to think that their father is that that evil [Music] in March 2015 both accused men pleaded not guilty to the murder of GAO and not guilty to supplying 2.78 kilograms of ice [Music] TV appeared to show both men working together yet their only hope at trial would be a Cutthroat defense cathode defenses where you've got two people a dead body and each is saying the other did it so they're actually pointing at each other in the Box saying you didn't no I did it you did it I you did it you did that's a cut through a defense as a leading Sydney Barrister Charles Water Street is no stranger to high-profile cases this was one case though the Charles Waters Street would not be on for long the trial was only into its second day when it was abruptly aborted following Mr water Street's opening address in the address Water Street had made a reference to Roger Rogers and killing two or three people when he was in the police force comments the judge believed had the potential to Prejudice the jury the judge also reacted negatively to a couple of social media posts by Water Street it's a great tragedy and Mr McNamara's life and I'll take some responsibility and I was very confident that we would win with all this accumulated knowledge that went to water because it just couldn't be passed on McNamara scramble to assemble a defense team to face a new trial without Water Street Roger Rogerson told the jury GAO had pulled a gun and wrestled with Glenn McNamara accidentally shooting himself in the chest McNamara told the court it was Rogerson who shot Mr GAO without Robinson alleged McNamara warned this place is going to be soaring with Chinese he threatened McNamara's daughter admitted they dragged the body out of the unit the body ended up off the coast of cronulla if they stuck together they'd be Roger Rogerson and Glenn McNamara were once mates but they're falling out as being breathtaking [Music] foreign today found Roger Rogerson and Glenn McNamara guilty of murdering student Jamie GAO two years ago Roger Rogerson was silent as a life sentence washed over the court but his partner in crime Glenn McNamara tapped his chest and yelled stays strong as he was led away his daughters Jessica and Lucy left without a word in the end the Cutthroat defense failed the jury members did not need to determine who pulled the trigger as they concluded the killers were part of a joint criminal Enterprise which the CCTV evidence proved in spades [Music] story I feel for the family of Jamie gow's family regardless of what was said about young Jamie he's still a human being it could have been any one of our sons or daughters in a statement gow's family said no 20 year old deserves to lose their life over a stupid mistake no matter what today's findings are or the sentence that's given it won't change the fact that Jaime remains absent from the lives of our family foreign was found guilty Mark Murray wrote a story detailing rogerson's role in gow's murder and his links to nearly a dozen unsolved murders I felt pretty sick when I had done it all probably some of the best journalism I've ever done but I didn't have this elated feeling when I saw it I'm just going it was a bit of an empty feeling because I had got to like him not hugely but I got the unliked him [Music] Mori saw Rogerson again at his sentencing where it was clear that Rogerson had read Maury's article seen me and he's just gone red and stood up and he literally went and started mouthing obscenity younger and um if you've seen a Roger look it's not not a pretty look you know and I've got to admit I was a bit shaken what was the message to you do you think it was that he would like to see me dead next gone fishing this is all part of the facade how the two killers tried to dispose of the body and failed Roger Rogerson and Glenn McNamara are both serving life sentences in Sydney's long bay jail Rogerson will probably die here it would have been much harder for the police to convict the pair without a body and were it not for the Killer's own stupidity Jamie gow's corpse would never have been found floating in the waves off cronulla foreign CCTV Vision shows the two men in the lift at McNamara's apartment block seemingly off on a fishing trip in reality they're about to dispose of Jamie gow's body I can't see the bait I can't say the box of sinkers and Hawks yeah well this this is all part of the facade but it's also where the plot begins to unravel because anyone who knows Roger Rogerson will will tell you that he always talks about how you dispose of bodies you can't just drop a body over the side because it will rise up and yet that's exactly what happened after murdering gal they stored his body in a boat then the next morning they took the boat out to sea McNamara said Rogerson was with him the whole time threatening him with a gun however Rogerson maintained he stayed on dry land Rogerson had been on the boat when the body was thrown overboard he would have known that they had to put either a very heavy weight to the body so that when it was thrown overboard it would sink immediately although he had to cut the body open so there's no Oxygen in there causing the body to float it leads me to believe that for whatever reason McNamara might have taken out the body by himself so the next question that needs answering is why did Rogerson and McNamara execute Jamie GAO intriguingly GAO was known to have visited the Australian crime Commission in the lead-up to his murder I have a theory and you know I put it to a couple of the detectives I said so Roger's not an idiot you don't just shoot a guy and steal I think 700 000 worth of drugs from the Chinese Triads and so I said is it possible that that was sanctioned that after Jamie GAO and being sent at the crime commission to get him killed and the contract payment was you keep the drugs and I've been told it's not a not a a crazy Theory foreign was not just a drug dealer but a snitch for the Australian crime commission and Roger had a green light from the Triads to kill him let's go back to the moment that GAO arrived on the street to meet McNamara there were two other people in the car with him could they be Triad gang members these two men leave and return five hours later to pick up his car by which time GAO is dead [Music] it's now dark Jamie gower's vehicle that he drove there is still there on the corner but now we see them walking up their two young men they have no drugs no driver obviously Chinese now they're they're driving off in his vehicle what happens to these two characters they leave a couple of days later through Sydney International Airport for uh Asia I believe Hong Kong they're out of the country to get rid of the connections it's my belief that Roger Rogerson is the most evil man to ever wear a police badge in New South Wales he relished that notoriety he even called his autobiography the dark side here at Long Bay jail Roger is housed in the Kevin Waller unit for Aged and frail prisoners it's not because he's frail it's because authorities fear that he will manipulate and exploit younger more impressionable inmates to do his bidding I'm very ashamed to say that McNamara and Rogerson they were members of the New South Wales Police Service I have always been a member of the New South Wales Police Service these two individuals they betrayed the people of New South Wales they betrayed every decent police officer in this state and believe you me there are some wonderful police officers in our community and what these two did only God can forgive them at the end of the day because I can't [Music] [Music]

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 439,936

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Gangs & Mobs, Psychology of Crime, Stalkers, child crime, con artists, crime, crime documentary, crime series, disappearances, family crime, murder, police, serial killer, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series, Jamie Gao, Crim, Criminal, Murder, Killing, Drug crime, Murder Mystery, Gangs, ACC, Drug commision, true crime tiktoks, true crime podcast, murders documentary, Criminal cases

Id: chJ7FktYoHk

Length: 45min 59sec (2759 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022