Ebony Simpson | Crimes That Shook Australia | S1E01

in august 1992 the sleepy town of bargo near sydney becomes the scene of the most horrendous crime she was so beautiful i just knew somebody had taken her i can't believe that another human being would do that to a little girl or any child nine-year-old ebony simpson has vanished without a trace whilst walking home from school [Music] there's no reason for her not to come home you can only assume that something's happened it's everybody's nightmare a parent's nightmare their child being abducted even if you're out there darling if you can get home get home or give us a ring it's pretty much the worst case scenario the fate of the schoolgirl will unfold in the most shocking way he knew where she was all the time he joined the search party all that time we were looking for ebony and the killer's car is a few yards away i hadn't heard something as callous as being on the search party to cover your tracks it just it disgusts me 20 years later the abduction of ebony simpson was so horrific it rocks the foundations of a close-knit community and is a crime that shook australia [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] seriously on the afternoon of wednesday the 19th of august 1992 pretty ebony simpson disappeared on her way home from school she went to school she didn't come home and she got off the school bus and you know she had to walk a couple hundred yards just up the road and uh she just didn't come home the tragedy that was to unfold would rip through the heart of a family who had moved to the small town of bargo many years before to start a new life we bought an old farmhouse and done that up we'd been there about 14 years we'd chosen to live in the country and the boys at a country school and then ebony came along so it was an ideal life for children and and us with two young boys christine and her husband peter completed their family with the arrival of their daughter ebony jane in 1983. i remember when i had ebony i had two boys and then i had ebony and i just couldn't believe i got this beautiful little girl yeah she was pretty special she was soft kind and we were very close she was just lovely and warm it was just really nice you know um a nice way to live and we moved to the country so that the kids would have a better life and then this happened to us the simpsons built their new life on their farm until everything changed in august 1992. ebeneered had a talk at school with the police the day before about stranger danger she came home and told me i said to her if anything ever comes up you know in your life anything happens you have to come home and tell me you know then you know i read her a story she went to bed [Music] and the next day when she went to school she didn't come home [Music] the usual school routine meant christine met ebony at the bus stop just meters away from their house at the end of the day [Music] normally i was always home and i was always there and we were getting insurance and i was a bit late and i said to one of my sons you know just just go down and meet the bus through everybody i'll be a little bit late but i won't be far away ebony's school was only five kilometers away from the simpson home her bus journey took 10 minutes and the walk from the bus stop up to the simpson farm was just one kilometer away but this last minute change of plan brought a strange twist of fate his bus was late and he thought she was at home and then i came home and and as soon as i pulled up at the house i knew that um there was no shoes there but issues went at their front door my husband at the time peter notified the police rang them and i went down to the bus stop and then i went along the road and i ran through the creek and i went in the house next door looking for her thinking maybe she got scared or something you know but she was a very responsible young girl you know she was nine nearly 10 at the time i drove out to the simpsons home where i met with a bunch of other police that were waiting there for me local officers quickly began an action plan to search for the schoolgirl the first information i was given was that ebony had um caught the school bus from embargo school and she was seen to actually get off the bus at the corner of arena road embargo road and started walking towards her house rod grant now had a possible sighting but ebony's movements were still sketchy as the search for her got underway further news came in an older man um come up to the command post he'd heard that there was something wrong and a lot of police cars had come up to ask what was happening and he told the general duties police that his two sons had seen ebony walking home and just before she got around the corner just near her house there was another small yellow car with a man with the bonnet up and the boys waved to her to ebony and she waved back to them and they and they continued driving home this new information placed somebody else in the vicinity but police needed more then i went inside and i spoke to peter and christine simpson [Music] got some background information about ebony her normal behaviors pretty much want to find out you know is this out of the norm and straight away you could tell it was completely out of the norm yeah because um she was a very reliable young girl come from a good family background no dramas at all [Music] and further news is to heighten the growing sense of panic once she got to that car she didn't make it past that point because there's a couple more houses between her home and where this car was and so we had a confirmed sighting that she was at that site so she didn't make it past there and so then the alarm bells are ringing nine-year-old ebony simpson has gone missing on her way home from school a delay with her brother's bus meant that he didn't get back in time to meet her ebony's house is only a kilometer away from the bus stop but in that short distance she has vanished and now to add to the rising panic neighbors report seeing her walking towards a stranger's car but there has been no sign of her since i don't know when you let a child get off a school bus we lived there for 14 years people said oh let her get off the bus all kids should be allowed to do that and just walk around up the corner at home it's a part of growing up but you know obviously i'm wrong [Music] ebony has now been missing for hours with her family frantic with worry this news of a sighting offer and a car spotted on a route home officers were now in a race against time to discover where the little girl could have gone at that time there's two tasks and we had to separate that pretty early on there's a search for ebony and there's also a criminal investigation both taking place at the same time so the search was set up as a grid pattern for several kilometers around where she was last seen homes and paddocks dams bush [Music] by now darkness has fallen news of ebony's disappearance is spreading through the community and beyond there's no reason for her not to come home you can only assume that something's happened as officers ramp up their search they call on members of the public to help their plight i can still remember what's going through my mind the priority is just to find her and find her alive the whole town was volunteering to come and help everybody who was anybody pretty much was just was out there looking searching so that had to be coordinated because you couldn't just have people running around everywhere police are looking for everybody searching for it i mean helicopters were flying above you know with sensor lights on them as the minutes turn into agonizing hours for the simpsons buildings and acres of bushland are scoured for any clues i think you you make anything up in your head that gets you through that time but i don't think we slept we just stood there waiting for some sort of answer they said oh she would have gone to someone else's place to play but she wouldn't do that she wasn't like that you know what i mean by the following morning christine and her family are desperate for news as more people offer to help with the search rod grant tries to uncover anything unusual during the last few weeks i'd spoken with christine back at the house and i said that she's seen anything suspicious and at first she said no she hadn't seen anything anybody suspicious hanging around and then i remembered maybe i should rephrase the question have you what have you seen have you seen any cars that don't or people that don't fit the area then she said a matter of fact i saw a man parked down near the bus stop in a yellow in a small yellow car she said i think it was a datsun 120y this was now the second description given to rod of a yellow car seen in the area christine thomas actually saw that car twice and from the canvas that we did with neighbours as well that night and the following days they said that they'd seen a car hang around for a few weeks this little yellow car i thought he was just some young guy and you know his card broken down and i went down to get ebony off the bus and went past him and i remember looking at him and thinking i'll pick everything up and i'll come back around and i'll see if i can help you this vehicle is now becoming a major focus rod is desperate to see if christine's account of this car is similar to the one seen by the two boys who waved at ebony just moments before she vanished i pulled up my notebook and i started talking to one of the boys he was 13 and his brother was 17 and they started straight away telling me what they'd seen it was a mazda 808 the bonnet was up the man was leaning into the engine bay with something black in his hand the car's fairly dirty there's mud splashed up on the near side and then he said there's patch up work on it as well and you can see where somebody has painted he said it's called yellow ochre and he told me the name of the colour oh my god this is so much detail as a clearer picture is emerging on this vehicle last seen near ebony other officers work with her family as the search is scaled up detective sergeant colt payment and detective sergeant steve foster they went out to the simpson household and sat out there with the simpsons and they got a you know pretty much a really really detailed background about you know what ebony's wearing that day what she had in her backpack what she had for lunch all those sorts of details of all the background of the family is there any problems [Music] the police command post set up outside the simpson home has by now become a focal point for concerned residents extra officers and the country's media all desperate to help everybody was given an area to search in their groups it was the police ses rural fire service and just volunteers from the community so they all had areas that had to go and search there's a sense of urgency there people running around and locals walk out the police how can i get involved how can i help people arriving all the time various specialist units arriving police-wise a real big build-up right outside the family home a couple of police that were coming from campbelltown arrived late to the briefing they missed the briefing and a sergeant there he said he told them they said well what's the guy what are we what are we looking for and he said well described everybody and we're also looking for a yellow mazda 808 and one of the guys said to the sergeant he said like like that car over there and the sergeant turned and looked at the car which was parked at the command post just not even 50 meters away he said if that's a mazda 808 that's the type of car we're looking for so alarm bell started ringing again astonishingly this similar car was just yards away but crucially the officers cannot jump to conclusions as they hone in on the vehicle christine is asked to describe the man she has seen in the days before my role at this stage was to do a what they call a photo fit or a penry id based on information that christine simpson could provide me with as you can imagine she was going through a large amount of emotions at that time so i had to be very careful with what i did and what i said to christine but in the end she provided me with a brilliant description and a fantastic photo fit that would progress the investigation considerably what happens next is to be the biggest turning point in the hunt for ebony so far we couldn't do anything more with what we had with what she'd provided me i walked outside and as i was walking up to the front gate of the property i my boss came down and i just said well this is what christine simpson's given me and he just he took a step back and said that's the bloke we were just talking to wayne had put this picture together at the house the same time the guys realised that we'd better watch this car and see who comes back to it they're doing checks on who it belongs to one of the policemen came back down to our farm and they said i think the guy's out the front and they said to me we want you to come and have a look at the car and i went up to the front out in front of our farm and i had a look at the car and i said well it's similar but i don't know it's just a yellow car you know but one thing was that when i saw him three days before losing ebony he was looking into the motor of the car and it was stopped on the side of the road and it was a it was a mazda 808 and the bonnet opened the other way and i remembered that and that's what that car was the car has a striking resemblance to the yellow vehicle seen in the area and the photo fit picture police have compiled from christine's recollection now looks very similar to the description given by the boys rod has interviewed but officers know nothing more time is running out and they have to act fast he came back to the car so they started asking a couple questions about the car where his movements and all that sort of stuff then they called wayne out to take some photos of the car and he just put this picture together with christine police waste no time questioning the man about his car he was really compliant actually he was he wasn't evasive in any ways really he was fairly quiet john raine's first priority was can you open the boot because and he did because he thought well is happening still in the booth if this is the car he was really compliant he was really calm um so he didn't really raise suspicions like he wasn't evasive and he wasn't you know trying to avoid helping nothing looks immediately suspicious in the boot but officers know it is essential to get the vehicle to the station for further tests i think they said at that stage we want to use it to take some photographs to put in the media for them for the news that night to put this is the type of car that we're looking for for the media that was some it wasn't a ploy but it was a real thing that we're going to do anyway just in case you know because you didn't want to put a little eggs in one basket measures are quickly taken to tow the car to a secure police garage where forensic searches get underway my role with the vehicle is to go over it with a fine-tooth comb and try and identify any physical evidence that may either put ebony in that car it might have been biological evidence it might have been clothing it could have been school books anything i was looking for anything as wayne day scrutinizes the vehicle for any clues the owner is eager to help with inquiries and agrees to go to the station to answer any questions they go inside into the detective's office and say what are we going to do and asking each other as i call it the hard questions do we just go and put it straight on him where is she because we still got a missing girl the criminal investigation at that stage was a second priority the first priority was finding her life so and he was so cool and and calm that they had to second-guess themselves and think maybe he isn't involved so we'll just treat him like you know a witness about his car ask him where he's been time is now of the essence the team need answers but they are still unsure if this man had anything to do with ebony's disappearance as questioning gets underway they learn more about this local now identified as andrew garforth andrew peter garfurth born 5863 he'd only been in the area a few months he and his wife had moved to the area prior to that he came from western australia so there really weren't any alarm bells alarm bells about this guy living in the community or being a threat to kids in the area just totally out of the blue as far as everyone was concerned he was married with two children and you know lived up the road and hadn't been in trouble locally as far as we know with little information on this 29 year old the detectives are eager to find out if garforth has anything to do with ebony's disappearance he starts asking him questions about what his movements were the hardware shop bought two bolts he gave an account pretty much said he'd been to the video store at tarmal what time was it when you left to go to chicago to the video still headquartered in his account he avoided saying that he went along bargo road and arena road i drove down business road [Music] turn left onto nightingale because that was the most that would have been the most direct route that he would have taken if he was going into bargo to return a video or to go to the shop so after a few more questions detective payment was just thinking what next to ask him pretty much and then he goes over the version again can you just give me that again and then he gives a whole different route that he took and left onto arena [Music] right onto burger arena road is the last place ebony was seen garforth's change in his account immediately raises their suspicion i'm pretty sure he realized that his movements could be checked about the times because one we could have spoken to his wife what time he left the people at the shop the video shop how long does it take you to drive from your home at pheasant's nest to the video store at fargo roughly 10 minutes officers have only been questioning garforth for 15 minutes nobody could have expected the next words he was to utter and when the young girls walking past the car we're glad to be in the group [Music] over 300 people have now come together in the search for missing school girl ebony simpson there's nowhere else i can really look because i've searched all the houses around here most of their properties she'd only get into a car with someone you know a yellow car on the police radar has been parked just yards away from the command post for most of the search officers waste no time in with questioning the shop bought two bolts and could never have imagined what is to unfold he starts with i drove along bagha road turned onto arena road i stopped to put oil in my car i had the bottom of the car up made the boot of the car open i was putting oil in the car when the girl walked past when the young girl was walking past the car the black people the detectives are led to believe ebony never made it beyond the vehicle i drove away and where did you drive to dean arena now garforth is calmly reaffirming their worst fears what did she say to you she asked me if i was gonna let it go and i said i didn't know with this horrifying admission they are one step closer to uncovering her fate and are now desperate to discover her whereabouts he um drove her benny to a bush track down down not far away he um went to the back of his car got some speaker wire and he tied her hands behind her back and her feet behind her as well and then tied her feet to her hands and he just picked her up and threw her in the damn [Music] i really don't know what my emotions were at that moment in time i suppose my main concern is well we need to try and locate her in case she's still alive that's that's the probably the most important thing at that stage there was no mucking around it's in the cars pack up get to this location [Music] it is now 11 pm ebony has been missing for over 30 hours the alert goes out to get to the scene of the crime as quickly as possible with garforth willing to show officers the location they rushed to just six kilometers from ebony's home praying they will find her alive we walked up to the dam and it's something that stick with me forever and i get goosebumps talking about it is walking up over the top of the lip of the dam and seeing the pink lunchbox floating on the water and the water was like as still as still no wind no movement at all it was just like glass as soon as i saw that i knew she was in there and we couldn't see her on the banks or anything like that and yeah that was probably it was disappointing but mind you with the temperatures in the area at that particular time [Music] she would probably wouldn't have survived anyway if she'd been into the water and then come out she would have been just the exposure probably would have killed her in any case there was no chance that ebony was still going to be alive because she there was no sign of her and she was still in the water so they could tell that she was thrown like you know eight ten metres in there's no way she could make it and the way she was tired no way she could make it to the bank ebony simpson has died at the hands of a brutal attacker in what appears to be an utterly senseless crime andrew garfurth stood at the water's edge describing his actions to police with no remorse whatsoever whilst the police and rescue teams have the painful task of recovering ebony's body officers are sent to christine and her family to deliver the heartbreaking news i think it was about two o'clock in the morning the police came and they'd sent two really young policemen up to tell us and they weren't equipped you know and i remember i just remember falling onto the veranda saying let me i've got a holder let me hold her you know she might come back to life if i could hold i said you can't do that [Music] nothing can prepare ebony's family for the other news that is to follow in the next interview he went on that there was more he actually said that he's sexy assaulted ebony i took her up onto the bank of the dam tied her hands and feet pulled her pants down around her ankles especially a soldier picked her up and threw in the damn [Music] i couldn't clean my teeth i couldn't get out of bed if it wasn't for my two sisters coming and bringing food and feeding my other two children and telling me to get up and have a shower and do this do that i mean i was a [ __ ] i was a zombie you know i just um sat instead um well nothing means anything anymore i mean all the things about life you know that are so precious has just been ripped away from it [Music] the sexual assault and murder of this defenseless little girl soon shook the whole country and provoked a fierce reaction there was community outrage and very quickly from the moment uh the matter was scheduled for court there's a large gathering of locals throughout the front of the court and everyone was wild ropable keep looking over your shoulder buddy [Applause] yelling abuse at that gar forth well tie his arms and legs and see how he goes come on get him in there you know you filthy so and so you'd die you pig and you know hang him and all this sort of stuff it was a little lynch mob stubborn and i really you couldn't blame them it was a community venting police waste no time charging garforth with murder after this initial appearance the trial is set whilst further evidence is gathered and ebony laid to rest the image that will stay with me for life apart from the facts of the story but the image that will stay with me for life is seeing that little coffin as adults you you go to funerals you you say goodbye to your loved ones but this wasn't an adult coffin it was a child's coffin and that was someone saying goodbye to their their child that there's a little girl who was so brutally murdered and didn't deserve it and and the community was saying goodbye to her for the simpsons their fight is only just beginning with a trial to face they are to never imagine the further pain they will endure this man's rape to murder my daughter he's a pedophile the legal system will step in and everything no it doesn't i believed he'd just get locked up for life but it's not like that when we were going to court darling nurse for the sentencing they said he'd get 14 to 20 years i said not acceptable i said that's not acceptable i said you can bring back the death penalty lock him up for the turn of his natural life or i'll get a hit man and blow him away and you know i wasn't joking back then and i'm still not joking today garfurth's unspeakable actions are hard enough to bear but additional news is to come to light about his movements after he had brutally murdered the little girl [Music] perpetrator the man who'd done this to ebony had been up and joined the search party [Music] and walked all over our farm [Music] and he knew where she was all the [Music] time nine-year-old ebony simpson has suffered the most tragic death at the hands of a local paedophile missing for over 30 hours the murderer has calmly admitted to abducting and sexually assaulting the schoolgirl before callously throwing her into a nearby dam [Music] the details of her fate are almost too much to bear but as her family tries to process the news they are to endure even further heartache [Music] they filmed the briefing taking place and i still remember the footage and vaccine of um andrew garfield standing smack bang in the middle of all the people i don't know probably 50 or 60 people standing there having their briefing about to move out to where they were going to search he was just standing there standing smack being in the middle of it he joined the search party i mean when i think of that today it makes me really sick you know we were looking after the person who knew where she was and it already killed her how callous can you be to murder a little girl like that and then pretend to search for her um obviously he's come out now or suggested that his car falls wife um you know convinced him to join the search party do the right thing do the community thing and you know he's masqueraded as a searcher for his own victim that's just unbelievably callous [Music] as christine and her family have to consider life without ebony they spark a nationwide change in the way victims of crime are dealt with we tried to get counselling and nobody wanted to take us on because it's i guess you're too hard how are you going to cancel a family like us what are you going to tell us you know uh you're going to tell us it's all right and we'll be okay and if we just do this that and the other things will be fine i got a phone call from from peter ebony's father and he was really very angry and he said words to the effective you know everyone else is getting counselling here um we haven't had a phone call from a counsellor they really wanted something which which they deserved some decent support professional support help with their two boys help with each other you got one person in that crazy system in there that just follows the book you got one person who stepped outside the boundaries and that was john merrick you know and uh you don't get that very often i can't remember how the idea first crystallized but it was something like these people might benefit from actually speaking to someone who's been through maybe a similar experience and uh there was an upload gary lynch who was the father of anita hobby who was murdered some years prior so he he introduced us to anita cobby's parents gary and peg lynch and john and and four other social workers from from glebe columbus court and we got together and that's how the homicide victim support group was started the homicide victim support group was formed by christine john and a small group of people who sadly have one thing in common their initial aim is to help each other and those in similar circumstances as their work gets underway andrew garforth's highly anticipated trial falls just weeks after and uncovers further evidence towards his guilt as it turns out we had some really really good evidence palm prince on the inner mud guard in inner guard in the boot i was able to interpret that which had the child in the car i was able to reveal finger marks underneath on the underside of the boot lid and you can see where these hands were scraping on the underside of the bootleg the shoe prints in the mud matched to ebony's shoes his shoe prints that we got off him on the day he had there was a blonde hair there was blond hairs in the boot and he was wearing a woollen jumper he had a grey woolen jumper there was one of her hairs on that or a couple actually on that jumper there was a strand of wool from his jumper on a branch at the dam it was dna evidence that we obtained from ebony's body all of this extra detail is hugely compelling and weighs heavily in favor of the prosecution but garforth himself makes no attempt to plead his innocence we didn't need to use all that because he pleaded guilty straight up pretty much straight away he played guilty straight up and he was given life in jail [Music] eleven months after her murder ebony simpson's killer is handed a sentence that will see him die in jail garfield said to his wife i'll see you in 14 years i thought over my dead body the fact remains that ebony simpson uh got the death sentence the simpson family's got the life sentence and garf's got bed and breakfast he knew the system he'd been in the system all his life he knew he'd he'd probably get 14 and be out in eight so that's how confident he was that he'd played the system over the years i think people need to understand a lot of this because it's the people who can change the system garforth is familiar with the law having previous convictions in other parts of australia for minor crimes this time his sentence will match the severity of his crime he was one of the very first people in new south wales to get life-meaning life in the past life had meant 20 years or so but here he was one of the first first ever in new south wales to to get the newly legislated life meaning life and without a shadow of a doubt and there was not one person in new south wales i'd suggest it thought he wasn't deserving of it [Laughter] garforth will spend the rest of his days behind bars for snatching ebony from a roadside and killing her in cold blood i think they think when you go to court and come out and then you just get on with your life well it's not like that you know there seems to be uh it's there seems to be a lot of rehabilitation for the perpetrators of crime but there's no rehabilitation for the victims in response to her experience christine channels her energy into making major changes for victims of crime with the support group well i think i i took all my anger and turned it into something positive and set up ebony house first recovery center in the world for homicide victims so i burnt up all my angry energy in the positive you know and i didn't know what else to do with it made a lot of changes and very powerful back then [Music] as a tribute to christine's daughter in december 1995 ebony house is opened for anyone affected by the murder of a loved one as a place to be able to grieve in private the support group also goes on to make historic changes [Music] police have been taught now the academy by the homicide victim support group and other folk how to best respond to families what to say what not to do you know correct procedures now that was a real change police are very involved into trying from the outset with with the families and providing them information updates uh details as well without compromising the investigation as well without giving stuff away we've had um uh sentencing submissions and and victims impact statements have made a huge difference as well for families because they feel as though they can be listened to and explain in very personal terms what the murder has meant to them i don't think you can make great changes if you haven't felt the pain it's the pain that drives you you can feel empathy and try to understand but you can't you can't feel that power of that warning change unless it's happened to you as the simpson family has tried to continue with their lives garforth has contributed to their ongoing pain since his conviction he claims he was bashed in jail and at one stage he claimed to have lost hearing in one of his ears and he actually in many of people's eyes had the cheek tenacity to apply for victims compensation initially he was successful in one of those claims i think fortunately was reviewed and overturned and then the money was offered to charity he crossed the lines of what is what's acceptable with society you know and when you cross those lines and they're precious lines with children you can't come back into society you've already isolated yourself you're not worthy of living in in here around children or women or anything else you know so keep him where he is it's the safest place for him trust me the counselling for christine and her family was to span many years and the effort channeled into the victim support group brought about many milestones and legal changes throughout australia one of which guarantees that garforth has no further rights to appeal his sentence we changed a lot of things and and uh that was good um but as i've got older 20 odd years down the track i have to say the pain is still the same i'm happy with what's been done but i've learned to put it somewhere and [Music] i have built a nice life no matter what you do in your life and i've i've put my life back together i think pretty well but there's a part of my heart that's broken and i can't fix it [Music] and it doesn't matter how many years ago boy i much talk about it i can't [Music] and i'm angry about it you know i'm angry about what happened to my daughter [Music] i don't want to have people tell me that i shouldn't be angry i dare or should be angry a man took my daughter's life and ruined our family i'm angry all right you know [Music] and uh it's just this stupid system we got out there that says you're supposed to forgive and not be angry i i find it absurd you know i mean if i wasn't angry and upset i wouldn't be a mother would i [Music] put ebony behind you and move on with your life now i'll take her with me and move on with my life i have no forgiveness whatsoever for what that man did to her and you can move on you don't have to forgive to move on i can see ebony as plain as anything she's still known i can see her hair i can see everything about her i can hear a voice and now i can't forgive a person who took that away from our family do do you

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 103,493

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, Ebony Simpson, Crimes That Shook Australia

Id: j1q-F_5ke7E

Length: 46min 43sec (2803 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 30 2022