Abduction survivor makes a heartbreaking plea for her missing best friend | 60 Minutes Australia

our special investigation into the abduction of two teenage girls 17 years ago Vanessa Conlon and jessica small were only 15 the scene the main street of Bathurst west of Sydney both girls were taken in the middle of the night Vanessa would escape but Jessica hasn't been seen since four years local police did little about the girls abduction and Jessica's suspected murder but nearly two decades on this cold case is finally cracking this is a reunion Vanessa Conlon has waited 17 years for her bond with fayed Connors is one born out of sheer terror and I did believe you darling I did believe that there was something very bad happened that's all right the last time these two women saw each other Vanessa was a terrified teenager banging on phase front door in the middle of the night if he didn't let me in that night I probably would have been yeah [Music] it's the night Vanessa will never forget [Music] she and her best friend Jessica small both only 15 were abducted from the main street of badness well Vanessa eventually escaped Jessica didn't she's never been seen since what haunts you the most about that night if I'm honest the fact that she was taken and I wasn't that's the thing that's the hardest to live with growing up in Bathurst a small country town in the shadow of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales Jessica small was a cheeky freckle-faced teenager she loved kids and animals and she liked and she loved us she was just a normal happy healthy young girl with a lot of dreams for almost two decades Jessica's mother Ricky small has agonized over what happened to her daughter all I can say honestly Alison is that is said I hope I hope things were over for her quickly if I might say it like that but I can't think or could I had said the time the IDS have been locked up for days or held for days or tortured or I hate to go D it's a pretty dark place it is it's a very dark place [Music] it's October 25 1997 and best friends Jessica and Vanessa are enjoying a night out at the local amusement parlor they leave around midnight there was a man asking about Jessica that night what are the employers it used to work there has actually come forward believe it all this to the police in its day and it turns out that this man was asking about Jess saying things to the effect of she looks like she's up for a good time so the car came along here he was driving really quite slowly he turned and looked at us did a u-turn came down here and pulled up just down here and you made a split-second decision to get in that car yeah and it's a decision I regret it for the rest of mother he said to me I any games of pool and then I put on two together and I just said oh yeah good good and didn't really think anything of it at the time he offered us a lift and we decided to get in but a few minutes into the car trip the girls start getting nervous they're on a quiet country road on the edge of town and the driver is agitated I remember he was driving quite slowly and that kind of you know put a little bit of fear into me and I remember looking into the side mirror trying to see Jess in the backseat because I was really starting to get quite worried he'd been looking side to side and he reached and took his seatbelt off is that the point when you realized you were in real trouble yeah and he had turned the car off turned to look at Jessica and he said to her right come here [Music] and I just looked at him and said no I don't think so and he actually put his hand around my throat quite firmly and pushed me right back into the seat and he was choking me it was at this stage that just went to get out of the car I managed to open my door he realized he can grab a hold of Jes so he grabbed a hold of my hair and I had to rip my hair out of his hands to get out of the car and we're both running towards the house with the light on and just running and running and running so we've both running and screaming and I could hear her behind me and I could hear him behind me and all I could think of was just get to the house with the light on was broken up by somebody hammering on my door and singing out she was just shaking white very very scared I thought she was so scared that she might have even been going to be sick it was fake honors door that Vanessa banged on was she making any sense when you first open the door not really it was very hard to understand because all she kept saying was my friend my friend I need you to help me find my friend and we didn't realize what had happened so we didn't know where her friend was by this time the car with Jes inside was gone Fay rang police but they showed an astonishing lack of interest it would be the first of many police errors you'd like to think that if they hadn't believed during got more cars out and more police out that they would have been able to do a bit more so why do you think the police didn't believe you I think beef was Jess and I were you know troubled teens and we you know been in a little bit of trouble and so some man has Jess doing god-knows-what to her and you say the police weren't overly concerned not at all not even a little bit they outright told me I was lying coming up Jess is missing I could tell something was really wrong really problem but police do nothing now the crucial witness there's like a fear sort of like when she come past scream and an incredible discovery look quite something very suspicious that's next on 60 minutes Vanessa Conlon and her best friend Jessica small were only 15 when they were abducted from the main street of Bathurst and driven out of town Vanessa would escape Jessica's never been seen since and no one has ever been brought to justice but all that may be about to change thanks to crucial new evidence and a witness who saw it all happen the next minute phonetic I mean more that kitchen them and just flown at me climbed her arms around my neck and just wild which or just I could tell by her cry something was really wrong really wrong [Music] on the outskirts of Bathurst Ricky smalls daughter Jessica is fighting for her life it's like a fear sort of like when she can pass scream and you could hear the scream and kamilly the fearless and someone Rob Fitzpatrick lived on the edge of town in the early hours of Sunday morning he'd just returned home from his cousin's wedding when the car come past I seen the white car but the figure of a man driving but a hand coming out from the the driver's right and shoulder being out the window was like she just fighting or something or hitting him or something like that like a panic trying to get out of a window my best way like trying to get get out of the window itself [Music] of what assert a mystical something like that two people arguing and fighting you know better they jump into domestics and that Rob crept along his fence line out of sight and got to within 15 or 20 meters of the curve it was a white Holden Commodore so did you still hear the screams at this point no the screamin had stopped I watched him get out of the car walk around to his boot and get something out of his boot he's kneeling on the seat and reached over the back and he was doing something to see as I'm watching he just drove off casually weren't even on the part off the road he'd just drive up straight straight up the hill and what's beyond that darkness there's not much out there if anyone you could scream as much as you want no one will hear you out there you could say we're the last Road out of town when Rob heard that Jessica small was missing he went straight to the police but incredibly they weren't interested in what he had seen he persisted and went back the following day and this time they reluctantly took his statement just one paragraph but the whole time I got the feeling like he didn't want to take the statement like he's already made up his mind what was going on do you think they didn't care because Jessica was known to them she was a girl from the wrong side of the tracks yes I'd say that if my feeling is if she was there family was far more important in the town would have been a whole different investigation that they were crucial moments those first that first day or two to me we have to get to her we have to find her please help me we've got an order and you don't know where to look where to go I know I'm just praying I guess at that point that I had some smart to Lisbon on the job because I had nothing else did you think in those first few days that she was alive I think I tried to imagine that she would be strong enough to get away from a situation but obviously she wasn't eight months after Jessica vanished to forestry workers stumble across a set of girls underwear a bottle of bleach and a blanket covered in blood that we dubbed in bushland about 75 kilometers east of Bathurst this isolated forest possibly held the most important clue to identifying Jessica's killer [Music] so something pretty horrific it it looked like it was something very suspicious that's the first thing to cross the air mine no one knows this forest better than Glen Christy Johnston he's been working here for 30 years automatically the first thought was of Jessica it was around that time was that spot easily visible to anyone passing by no and I was in an isolated area that road had had been down a track that nobody usually is so it was fairly isolated so do you think whoever hid those items must have had some knowledge of the forest yes they should have all knowledge of how the forest worked anyway true to form Bathurst police all but dismissed Glen - they didn't even bother to take his statement and that potential evidence he found wasn't DNA tested and what's even more shocking it was later destroyed by the local police [Music] all the while Jessica's mother Ricki small is told nothing the fact that it was the following year just blows me away I would mean I would been in that forest scratching the dirt looking for her physically do you feel let down by the place very I'm disgusted no hurt angry and the treatment by police Bettis police like the local detectives that were on the case was just it was just wrong it was abominable coming up the case goes cold until one dogged detective just so obvious she's telling the truth 0z did you kill Jessica see that's next on 60 minutes when Jessica small and her best friend Vanessa Conlon were abducted in October 1997 they were just 15 years old but they already had reputations as Tara ways Vanessa managed to escape from their attacker but Jessica's never been seen since that terrible night for years local police swung between indifference and incompetence colored by the girls wild reputations but finally one dogged detective has narrowed the hunt [Music] Bathurst is a three-hour drive west of Sydney it's where Vanessa Conlon grew up but this place will always be haunted by the disappearance of her best friend Jessica small for 10 years police showed little interest in the case then Detective Sergeant Peter Smith from the New South Wales Homicide Squad knocked on her door he actually said the words to me I believe you it was like the weight of the world had just been lifted and I finally had this light that we might get somewhere it doesn't make sense that this girl would run screaming and obviously terrified to a person's house in the middle of the night and then to have people not believe it it just doesn't make sense given especially now 1617 years have passed and she's maintained the same story and it's cooperated over and over and over again it's just so obvious that she's telling the truth detective Smith inherited a mess incomplete files and a lack of any real detective work but one witness who'd been previously ignored by local police stood out to him an employee at the amusement park where the girls had played pool that night that employee had a strange conversation with a man who matched the description Vanessa gave of her attacker that a mile adult mile had been in the amusements in are asking about Jessica and actually pointed her out and said she looks like she's up for a good time who is that and then during that conversation he made mention that he was an employee of the Oberon timber mill and it was at that point that you realized you had a pretty solid lead it was amazing I just couldn't believe that no one had asked him about that before it's just so important in 2011 Peter and his team began interviewing 400 men who had worked at the oberon timber mill in October 1997 their investigations took them all over Australia and to the UK they eventually narrowed the list down to just two men Andrew McBride and Craig Robertson both were named as persons of interest in this month's inquest into Jessica's suspected murder there's more information or evidence to suggest that Andrew McBride was involved and what is their information McBride had access to a white VK Holden Commodore with holes in the passenger footwell the car that the girls get into on the night Vanessa sits in the front seat as it's driving along Vanessa notices there's holes in the front passenger footwell and that it's a what she later describes as a white Holden Commodore that's pretty explicit it matches acutely Vanessa's description and Alison Langdon from 60 minutes so it's hoping to have a talk to you pleased about the disappearance of Jessica small we are actually trying to have lunch McBride worked at the oberon timber mill for about 12 months but the day Jessica vanished he left town with no explanation we now know that while he was here he had a history of predatory behavior towards teenage girls in 97 the year of the kidnapping he often gave alcohol and marijuana to two 15 year-olds whom he'd met through dating one of their mothers he ended up having sex with one of those girls just after her 16th birthday he was 37 did you abduct Jessica and Vanessa that night oh no I don't mind talking to you about it oh no nothing to these ladies disappearance absolutely nothing no nothing I have no idea what happened to this young lady the circumstances its surrounding it were only made known to me through the police investigation why do you think you are now a person of interest excuse me I'm not really sure you just going through those motions now with my solicitor and through the court I was in Sydney bank deposits and bank statements that put me out elsewhere so you did not kill Jessica small no no I did not mean McBride says he has an alibi that bank records put him in Sydney the night Jessica disappeared that's not correct those bank records put him in Sydney on the 24th of October which is a Friday then I put him anywhere on the Saturday or the Sunday so he could well have been in the bath Asteria that night yeah there's not enough to prove he was involved and there's nothing to prove he wasn't involved why did you leave town in such a hurry after Jessica disappeared your bank statement shows you're in Sydney on the Friday Jessica disappeared on the Saturday to sit opposite hip throughout the inquest and not know if it is him that took Jess and then to hear all these horrible things that he has done before he's so incredibly frustrating did you recognize him to sit here now and say that a hundred percent it's him I can't do that and that breaks my heart as well the horror of that October night has destroyed many lives in the small country town of Bathurst Vanessa still blames herself for not turning back while Rob Fitzpatrick has wrestled with the idea that he may have witnessed the last few minutes of Jessica's life do you think you could have saved her yes I think that's that makes it harder yeah I mean I could have it could have stopped at the front of my house if I now and what I know today would have would have stopped that family yes I think that's one of the hardest things are going to live with why didn't I do more it haunts you doesn't it yep I hide it [Music] for Jessica's mother Ricky there's still hope that one day she will get to say goodbye to her daughter and give her the dignity of a proper burial [Music] we haven't found a 17 years I mean we have Amanda do you think you ever will I would like to have a good I think coming from a mother's heart you always want to bring your child home your baby home you deserve that what she do I think I knew hello I'm Allyson Langdon thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes Australia make sure you subscribe to our Channel you can also download the 9 now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 3,662,845

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Karl Stefanovic, Ray Martin, Peter Stefanovic, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, missing persons, abduction, abducted, jessica small, bathurst abduction, escape, Vanessa Conlan, mitchell, bathurst, sydney, missing

Id: rAacRbZR_AQ

Length: 27min 35sec (1655 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020