Killed by a Double Murderer that slipped through the System?! | The Tragedy of Raechell Betts

just 90 minutes Drive Southeast of Melbourne Philip island with its rugged beauty is the perfect destination for a short break but in August 2009 that Tranquility was shattered when human remains began to wash up onto the shore police are hoping missing person reports could shed some light on a gruesome find at Philip Island the grizzly Discovery would stun a family there was a black and white photo of a tattoo and something about a leg being found and I looked at it and I thought what's that they say they're confident they're closing in on Rachel's killer and quickly he asked her whether she'd like to come in and see a Dissection the dark past of a killer would shine a light on the nation's justice system this guy is a master manipulator he had people wrap around his little fingers and the system allowed him out to do this there is no such thing as closure for me and there never will be there never has been any sense of closure at all revelations in court would uncover one of Australia's most evil Killers God knows what he really did or even definitely where he did it because no DNA was recovered from the bathroom where she was supposed to have been cut [Music] up the murder of Rachel Betts was a crime That Shook Australia [Applause] [Music] in August 2009 27-year-old childcare worker Rachel Betts went missing from her home in eping a Northern suburb of Melbourne what happened to her would leave a family devastated and shine a light on the nation's criminal justice [Music] system at the start of Rachel's life Rachel was an only child for about 11 years I had her at a time when most of my friends didn't have children so she was very popular with my [Music] friends she was a real aset to the family all the time she was great with her cousins my nieces she was the eldest of the Seven [Music] Girls Rachel was a very loving girl it's not unusual in a steep parting situation where the children not too happy about one of their parents having a new partner and vice versa and possibly having step siblings and Rachel built Bridges between my children and the younger two girls Rachel was really good at making friends with strangers pretty much on the spot anybody she wanted to meet she would just March right up and do so like very bubbly and very good at making people feel feel welcome and like they were instantly the most important person around her just fun and [Music] lovable although we lived together sometimes we didn't see each other every day she'd be I'd hereo get up in the morning I always knew she was up and awake and getting ready cuz I could smell her toast and coffee she was always happy and bouny she was always happy to see you happy to help she was just one of those people who ins insired you to be better she was Rachel you have a problem you call her she's there I could always call and talk to her if I was say like having an argument at home or worried about school or my personal issues with friends or anything like that she always made us feel that she would never judge us as she got older she began to be interested in other things like education she really wanted to be um like a teacher and a care of children which might have been influenced by babysitting us all the [Music] time Rachel had devoted her life to children by the age of 27 she had a successful career as a childcare worker but unfortunately she wasn't able to have children of her own in late 2008 she met two teenagers who were looking for a place to stay Rachel's caring nature meant she was quick to welcome them into her home Rachel had met them through a friend of ours neighbor so they started to drop in and they were both having issues at home so Rachel being Rachel went any problems you can always come here and stay here when Rachel took the girls in October 2008 November 2008 the 2 one they really took over her life and at at first I thought that they were the source of the problems the longer the girls were with her the more she seemed run down and and I was sort of thinking well she's overworked and this is getting too much for her she was always stressed about money and being able to get by basically being able to provide had had two jobs and she lost one of [Music] them faced with an Ever dwindling income looking after the two girls was beginning to take its toll on Rachel and left her in an increasingly vulnerable situation when an opportunity to make some extra money arose Rachel was Keen to take advantage Rachel had met a fellow and this fellow had been working with an older man and that older man had said to this guy that he was looking for young people to recruit to sell drugs and for some reason this guy introduced Rachel to him and as I understand it came around and did a cell you know oh look at you you're trying to look after two kids and you're working so hard with two jobs and you know you could have the girls through the day and run them around and at night time you could go out to some um nightclubs and pubs or whatever and you can meet up with people you can sell some drugs you'll make a lot of money your life will be easier things will be better for you if you if you do this how he managed to make that cell I don't know but she decided to give it a go I guess she probably thought I could stop work for a while see how it goes you know the problem with when you're moving with people who take those drugs rather than just selling it she was actually taking it and it began to have quite a severe effect on her after a [Music] while Rachel began abusing crystal meth or ice an Insidious drug that is ravaging parts of Australia it began to take a terrible toll on Rachel both physically and mentally and her life began to spiral out of control we actually ended up having after living together for years and up having a bit of an argument and I moved out in March of 2009 I can honestly say she probably knew me better than anybody and same for me with her but by that time I couldn't tell you what she'd been up to for the day usually I could tell you what she ate for breakfast lunch and dinner she started to develop some of these symptoms of paranoia and it was obvious that something was wrong she said there were all these people she didn't know were coming around friends of the young girls were coming around and she was feeling uncomfortable and unsafe this paranoia thing that comes with taking these drugs was affecting her she started becoming delusional she had all kinds of strange experiences where she thought she was being watched or being followed she was involved in a car accident where this car came through a red light and she thought that it had been set up and somehow deliberate these sort of delusional ideas that do come with that particular drug ice her teeth were very important to her smile was beautiful and here she is taking this drug that is making her grind her teeth and that really distressed me I I cried when I saw she had a baby's dummy by the bed to put between her teeth so that she wouldn't grind them and that she'd protect those those front teeth my God what is going on here and I could see that there was this deterioration in her the final straw for her friends and family came when Rachel collapsed at her friend's home she went to the hospital to be examined because they thought they may have been drugged and raped so talk to the doctors make sure everything was checked out they were safe blood tests the um Chris's ass team came because she she wasn't well unfortunately I think it was the drugs that got to her and made her paranoid they assessed her took her to the hospital got her into rehab to dry her out and July she was back here with us with her sisters and myself and in a safe place despite returning home The Temptations of her other life were proving too much for Rachel she had a party one night a couple of friends around and the girls were here and they had come out to stay for a couple of nights and they were getting noisy the point is to keep her away from any drugs and there wasn't supposed to be any drugs so I I asked them to leave anyway Rachel took it as an opportunity to go and take the girls and go off to this other place that she had been organizing for them to live at when she was leaving she was distressed and I was quite distressed too um she just felt I think stifled um living under her mother's roof again I remember saying to her that you're being looked after here that it had been a positive thing that she was here I think she felt guilty and the last words she ever said to me in person were if I leave tonight will you still love me tomorrow and I started to cry and said of course I will I felt like I had only just gotten my big sister back for the first time in quite a while and to have her leave that night I was filled with Dread I knew that nothing good could come with it what her family couldn't have known was that it would be the last time they would see Rachel alive human remains have washed up on a beach southeast of Melbourne the gruesome Discovery was made by a man jogging along ventner Beach on Philip Island in August 2009 the friends and family of Rachel Betts were becoming increasingly worried for her welfare the 27-year-old childcare worker h had in the last few months been involved with both drug abuse and dealing and her loved ones were growing concerned I rang her up especially to say to her to please come home here to this house I said to her I'm really worried you're not safe there you're safe here please come home I said they will they were my last words to her please come [Music] home on the 18th of August a new story broke about a Grizzly Discovery at a popular tourist destination police are hoping missing person reports could shed some light on a gruesome find at Philip Island a woman's tattooed left leg the tattoo features red and violet flowers on a twisting Vine the Revelation about the tattooed leg set off alarm bells for Sandra holding on to the Slender hope that her daughter was alive and well she began frantically calling Rachel's friends I phoned eping and asked the girls where's Rachel and have you heard from her have you spoken to her and the youngest one lied to me and said oh you know yes I I heard from her about lunchtime and this is this is n right and so I said put the other girl on the on the phone and she said oh no I haven't seen her for for days and we've been calling and she's not answering and this was just totally out of character if Rachel was doing something those girls would know exactly where she was going exactly when she'd be back how to contact her while she was away Rachel had disappeared and uh we didn't know where she was and Sandra was getting very frantic she' started placing called to friends and family and sent text out to everybody that she thought uh Rachel [Music] knew mother called up one time messaged me so 12 at night time midnight and I gone who's messing me at midnight you know and I found out was okay call with Sandra Rachel's mom have you seen Rachel so I this is David no I haven't seen her for 2 months she's supposed to be in rehab and that's when she told me about the foot they found on the beach where the T same as Rachels so they're stting of course the worry that Rachel may have died something may have happened to her at the location of the Grim discovery on Philip Island detectives were beginning to arrive at the beach that was now a crime scene I was afternoon on call on on Sunday the 16th of August 2009 I was contacted by by detective Sergeant sha odley and he advised uh that a leg had been found at New Haven Beach Philip Island it was a a a female leg a full female leg had had been severed around the hip joint it appeared that I guess it would be a a nons survivable incident that had occurred so um expected fair play pretty much straight away there was a floral tattoo on the foot it gave us something at least to go and start checking our records to see if they were missing persons firstly and there's various databases of people with tattoos they were looked at in the following days and we weren't really getting any with that that um came to nothing rain got onto the computer and looked up some photos on Facebook and she saw a photo of Rachel dancing Barefoot and it was definitely the left foot that had the tattoo on it and that's when I phoned the police police and said look I I think that this is my daughter DNA testing conclusively proved Sandra's worst fears the leg did indeed belong to her daughter three weeks later further remains were found on another Beach followed by reports of a right leg cited by the crew of a ferry tragically the rest of Rachel's body was never recovered now they had identified the victim police began to investigate Rachel's background for Clues as to what had led to her tragic death it wasn't long until her associations with the world of illegal drugs came to light she was working in childcare till about end of 2008 and after that point in time 2009 it appears that that's when the drug dealing took off Rachel been given the impression that she could make easy money quickly it meant for Rachel that she could get that big a house have that money for the Brenton bond to move myself herself the girls they'd have their own room it wasn't for a lavish lifestyle it was so that Rachel felt that she could provide for them it just didn't work out that way for her Rachel's mother Sandra was a aware that her daughter was mixing with nefarious characters and one name in particular was causing her great concern 54-year-old peroli John Leslie kums I had conversations with her about John kums and I said this man sounds really wrong to me and she said well he's got a criminal history I said well you've got to avoid this person this is this is not good a search of Rachel's home in eping was also making detectives suspicious about John kums there were various Diaries they mentioned of various people that she knew lots of phone numbers also some drug dealing type of equations were in these things as well there's a reference to being scared of a JC whom we beli to be John kums but the more digging we did I suppose speaking to friends of Rachel we realize that um John KS was her boss in R to drug dealing and we also spoke to one person who said that um Rachel told them that she was going fishing with her with her boss and she was looking forward to it but going fishing seem to be code for going away and and dealing in drugs or drug drug type of trip and uh those closest to her knew that's what the terminology meant and we also go through the list of names of people that you knew and obviously John KS stood out because of his prior criminal history Rachel's family they knew obviously how close Rachel was with these girls in her care and they found it very hard to believe that these girls didn't know where Rachel had gone on that Tuesday evening these girls were very fearful they were told by Rachel that she was gone and she'd be on a fishing trip or 48 hours at the latest sort of thing so after that period of time they became increasingly concerned they did know that she went away with John K but they were terrified to to speak with us about it they thought the best course of action was to keep it to themselves I think they got a bit of an idea that we were on the right track with Mr kums anyway I dealt with the two girls fairly regularly over that first two months I end up taking about half a dozen statements from the youngest one who was probably closest to Rachel and she took a while to to warm to us as well because all she'd really known I suppose was um she'd seen rual drug trafficking I guess police were the enemy if you're out there drug trafficking and uh after a while she decided that it was okay to divulge what she did know and um she knew a lot with the help of the young girl detectives were able to trace Rachel's last movements on the 10th of August 6 days before her remains were found Rachel drove the 20 minutes from eping to heidleberg where she left her car and was allegedly picked up at some nearby shops by John kums the last time anyone was in contact with Rachel was 6:30 that night when she spoke to her friend Dean on the phone the call betrayed none of the imminent danger Rachel was in she' said to me she was going fishing she'd be back and I said well yeah cuz we plans made up on the Monday and no no I'll be fine I'll be back and I said seemed happy and to be doing whatever maybe she was doing it sounded to me like she was jumping in a car she didn't seem scared to my understanding when Rachel was talking she was happy about wherever she was going so at no point did she sound threatened or anything like that I don't believe ra thought that she wasn't coming [Music] back when questioned by police kums provided a seemingly solid Alibi to explain his movements at the time of Rachel's disappearance his associates corroborated his story however using mobile phone tracking and other techniques detectives were quick to cast doubt on his version of events as their suspicions grew and in order to establish the facts the decision was made to arrest John kums also arrested were his associates kum's 54-year-old partner Morin Renwick another acquaintance Nicole Godfrey and friend Ryan Bima we believe we had sufficient evidence to arrest him and to charge him with the murder of Rachel bets but also the other people that we arrested at the time too as in Morin Renwick Ryan BMA and Nicole Godfrey so it was a coordinated arrest of all of those people to get their version of events at the same time so once we arrested him we placed him in the vehicle and Lee Smith said to him um the hardest part it and he said yeah I know she pushed my buttons and he said I killed her she made me [ __ ] angry um she taunted me that's what he said police now had Rachel's alleged killer in custody they now had to determine exactly what had happened to [Music] her with the suspected murderer of Rachel Betts in custody the dark chilling past of John Leslie kums began to emerge in the first of a series of interviews with the alleged killer the detective's first task was to try and establish from kums exactly how Rachel had met her tragic and untimely death no one really knows exactly what happened to Rachel we've got Mr kum's version of events as to when when I interviewed him uh he said that they drove down there to together to Philip Island to three Terry cresant woman in Heights um Nicole Godfrey's house and that they arrived there after midnight and that Nicole Godfrey had a cup of coffee or a cup of tea with the two of them Mr Kum says that after they had their coffee or whatever Rachel went and lay in one of the the rooms on the bed detectives were stunned when in an effort to explain what had happened to her kums claimed that was implicated in the abuse of the two girls she was caring for Mr kum's claimed that Rachel let him know that she' allowed for the girls to be sexually assaulted and that um she made money out of it because the girls got to pay her debts and uh kum's claimed that that infuriated him and he decided to put her in a sleeper hold and strangle her I said uh how did you do it and he showed with our movements as to what he did in relation to strangling Rachel kums went on to describe how he mutilated Rachel's body he said that she deserved to to die didn't deserve to go to you know to leave this earth as a woman so he says he's you know stabbed her repal in the breast region and I believe that was after she she died you had to look at it as if it was a a side of beef that's how he kind of described it it was something where the life had gone um it's a piece of meat that he had to just make the cuts separate the joint points and treat it like like that that's how he referred to it he did that when I interviewed him he explained that way and he also explained it this the same way to Morin Renwick in a prison phone call he said they had to make something bigger smaller pretty horrendous another chilling version of events came from Nicole Godfrey kum's acquaintance who was present in the house on the supposed night of Rachel's murder she talked about um limbs popping and things like that that she could hear and that at one stage he asked her whether she'd like to come in and see a dissection so um she was certainly present whilst this was going on in her bathroom and it was quite a small three bedroom house down there despite the detail and the description detectives question the veracity of kum's version of events at one point he he he did talk to Morin on the phone about it and he said um something about the manner of death and it was like one click it was a cleanest kill ever so you hear that and you say to yourself what is that then is that a strangulation is that um breaking of the neck or what is that you know it could be a I don't know in my mind I saw him cutting out her tattoos on her abdomen he also cut her breasts off and again with we've got all kinds of stories oh he used five different knives oh no he used a box cutter that you keep cutting the [Music] thing it's hard to believe word that comes out of Mr K's mouth it's very to know when it was that she was actually killed there was no forensic evidence but they did clean um with bleach based cleaning products God knows what he really did or even definitely where he did because no DNA was recovered from the bathroom where she was supposed to have been cut [Music] up it came as no surprise to Sandra Betts when John Leslie kums was charged with her daughter's murder in November 2009 when the police asked us who did we think it would likely to be we said John Coons because we knew he had some kind of criminal history and and at the time that was all I knew I now know a great deal more about him there was a lot of police reports a lot of coronial reports that we had to go through to to look at ks's past and it's a very dark past we were told that kums had had two previous convictions and two major previous convictions where he' killed he'd killed two people he killed a fellow blame Michael spani in February 1984 Michael spani lived in the seaside town of Mount Martha in 1984 he was selling his car and his potential purchaser was one John Leslie kums on the pretense of confirming whether the car could tow a boat kums hitched up a trailer and then offered Michael the chance to accompany him on a trip out to sea John kum's entice Michael spani come out for a ride on the boat it transpired that spani was dating one of kum's friends a relationship that his friend disapproved of kums seemingly had thought of a solution to this problem P was a soldier on the boat and then he was uh stabbed by kums he was thrown into the water and kums then ran over him with the boat propeller and then after a while uh went up to him and pulled him up slightly and then then stabbed him some more and uh kums made a comment to his wife at the time when he later relayed what happened and um said that he stepped in a little bit so the fish could finish him [Music] off 44-year-old Henry Desmond Kells was asleep in his Edith veale home when he was attacked in the early hours of the 17th of November 1984 another good friend of his by the name of I it appears that Kels was socializing with op's landl and this upset Opie and Opie complained to kums about it and Kum start he go and fix that problem as well broke into the Bungalow knowing he would be asleep and and drunk and attacked him and attacked him in a really vicious way he pinned him down there were bruises on ks's feet and knees there's evidence that he they punching and um that sort of thing and then kums went to the kitchen got a knife and uh and stabbed him and killed him and also mutilated his genitalia we believe it's probably you know to try and give the impression that there had been some sort of sexual transgression and maybe revenge or taken place something like that which seems to be another theme with Mr kums as well he he seems to blame sexual misbehavior or he alleges sexual misbehavior on behalf of victims uh and um and he did that with that and that occasion with bani and I believe he was probably trying to to give the same impression in relation to what happened with Desmond kills as well in 1985 kums was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Henry Desmond Kels he was granted an 11-year minimum term on appeal at his parole hearing the board was told that kums did not pose a substantial threat to the community what they weren't aware of though was that he had murdered Michael spani 8 months before killing Kels and had got away with it satisfied he was safe to release kums left prison in October 1996 within 3 months of being paroled kums was arrested again and convicted of span's murder despite being now responsible for the deaths of two men but supposedly rehabilitated he was handed a minimum term of just 10 years by 2007 kums was released on parole back into the community where he started a relationship with Morin Renwick and began dealing drugs just 2 years after his release while still on parole Rachel would be dead and he did try and present as the jovial you know grandfatherly type figure he was quite cunning and devious the way he operated to look at him you wouldn't think he was dangerous to that extent I'd met him twice my first reaction to him was well why are you hanging out with someone that's that age this guy is a master manipulator he had people wrapped around his little fingers and he cultivated a facade that was this nice Jolly plump guy who never harm a fly while Rachel's loved ones tried to comprehend kum's his dangerous past and began to ask questions of a justice system that let a killer out onto the streets not once but twice detectives were preparing to go to trial in 2011 John Leslie kums was about to appear in court charged with the murder of Rachel bets for his victim's family the trauma and Devastation of the past 2 years was a about to be played out in public John Leslie kums will face the Melbourne magistrates court for allegedly strangling the 27-year-old and throwing her off a pier on Philip [Music] Island first you have the committal in the magistrates Court where they test to see whether the proceedings will be successful in the Supreme Court it means that kums was able to introduce things in the magistrates Court claims about Rachel which were untrue the committal process the media report all the things that um a bit Sensational and and made Rachel look to be a drug using drug selling woman that the worst Parts I suppose that came out from the witnesses that was what was reported he claimed that Rachel had set these girls up for sex acts for money and all this rubbish and the girls were interviewed in the court and they said no that didn't happen Rachel would never do that to us Etc but he did succeed in be merching her name which was what he wanted to do he got this rubbish into the Press he said that Rachel said that if he played his cards right he could have his way with the little one as in the young girl the younger of the two girls when I interviewed about that and told him that he didn't say that previously to me he goes I did well he didn't we went back and checked the transcripts from the inter and he never did to me it was just another excuse to paint what he'd done in a better light like as if he was doing Society a favor by what he'd done I don't believe that she exposed those girls to or encouraged any sort of interference of them allowed it to happen there's no evidence at all to suggest that apart from what comes out of kum's mouth which cannot be believed at all little could prepare Rachel's family for the emotional torment of being exposed to the baseless allegations about their sister pedal by John kums we had to put up with a lot of lies being told about Rachel in the media and um we weren't really allowed to say anything back or do anything back which was very hard for a long time I never realized how much the journalists themselves are able to pick and choose interesting or sort of headline grabbing elements of Any Given case and put it together in their own way um because the way that cases like these are portrayed to the public have a really quite a large influence on how the public then see the victim or see the perpetrator the way victims and their relatives are treated in court was a shock to the BET's family and something they have been inspired to try and change that's an issue I'm I'm raising at the moment along with the issue of um having your own Barrister in in court to represent the victim's interests specifically as a third party and I think that that's something that happens in a lot of countries around the world and it needs to be looked out here we need the pendulum to shift a bit the other way at the moment the victim doesn't have equal rights to the accused and the right to counsel I think is very important one after the middle we were booked off for trial so organized all the witnesses and then on day one of the trial they decided to plead guilty on the 26th of August 2011 John Leslie kums was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility for parole for the murder of Rachel Betts the judge ordered that his sentence would be served cumulatively with it existing term for the spani murder in passing sentence the judge described kums as someone with a frightening predilection for murder I think the thing that stuck out the most was on the day of sentencing when he was in court and they read out the sentence and he was being led from the dock out the side door and he gave the finger up known as the bird to the courtroom on the way out as if to say well I don't really care he's Tu his finger up at him like screw you I killed your daughter and I'm still alive like he's a monster who doesn't deserve to be alive it's really hard to say what Justice is isn't it we got the best outcome that could be created in the circumstances we got a judge who who saw through all the lies and the stories and the accusations that kum's made and who saw that this is a person who had to get a life sentence with no minimum and he really saw it clearly for what it was cuz he didn't make them concurrent he made consecutive life sentences it will be life followed by life and no minimum set as a way of coping with the loss of her daughter Sandra Betts has fought for a more rigorous examination of the parole system something that is a Cornerstone of the Australian legal process parole is a system that enables the gradual supervised release of people from prison into the community so typically when someone is sentenced to a term of imprisonment they will get a minimum sentence and a maximum sentence and what determines when they're released after serving that minimum sentence is a decision by the PRL Authority the PRL board and they have to decide is it appropriate for that person to be released well the paral system was so broken kums was recommended parole on the basis that he was assessed as a low risk low risk a double murderer I wouldn't have thought that that could be possible given the sentence he had but because he was assessed as low risk and the parole board didn't question this he was assigned to a junior Corrections person he wasn't monitored very much so there weren't the checks the crosschecking on what he's saying is true or not true and what he's doing is what he say he's doing what accommodation is the appropriate accommodation what we have seen in Victoria most recently is um some very serious failures that have Shone a light on the pr system and that's been a good thing it shouldn't have taken those horrific crimes for this kind of Reform to happen there's been a substantial increase in the parl board's budget uh there's been improvements in the quality of information uh that is being presented to the PRL board to enable it to make um proper decisions around managing the risk to the community we saw something like 10,000 decisions being made every year with only a few minutes uh for the pro board to consider each one of those decisions when you consider the potential risks involved um and the importance around those decisions it really was an unsustainable practice that we had um that's now changing and that's a positive thing [Music] the death of Rachel Betts and other high-profile murders has made the Australian justice system question itself and its processes but despite the improvements that have and continue to be made it is little comfort for Rachel's friends and family who still have to live their lives without [Music] her the grief that comes with the S of experience where your daughter is murdered is really intense and invasive and it pervades uh daily life most mornings I will wake up with some thoughts of Rachel and it's 6 years down the track and there's always the important times that her birth day um she'd be 33 now it's awful and I know it's not it's not just me that's affected my children have been very affected I miss my Confidant um I miss the support the unconditional support I was looking forward to uh her teaching me how to drive and um being there when I graduated high school I have a sense of what she's lost as well though is what I've lost I've lost my sister my hero but she's lost the potential of a full life it makes me really both angry and sad that she didn't get to see me become an adult myself and then to be able to have that relationship with her on a different level and like every you know new Step I Take in life she doesn't get to know about that or to see that and you see me become someone that we probably could have been even closer now than we were before and I'm also kind of ir rationally scared of overtaking her age to become older than my older sister is really strange but scary to me I dread time moving forward I remember dates and numbers anniversaries and I I feel more hopeless and frustrated that every year goes by is another year further away from what [Music] happened [Music]

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 13,052

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Gangs & Mobs, Stalkers, child crime, cold case, con artists, crime, crime documentary, crime series, disappearances, family crime, ivan milat, murder, podcasts, police, renae marsden, revelle balmain, roger rogerson, serial killer, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series

Id: VCM55eQJnmc

Length: 44min 6sec (2646 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024