I Try to remain positive and think about the good times and and the smile on her face or her dancing as opposed to thinking of The situation which has put bad thoughts and bad images in my head Their images and thoughts that no parent should have to ever consider. No never This lonely and isolated riverbank is a place Cindy Palmer will always have an undeniable connection with a Connection she wishes. She never had it was here on the 5th of November 2015 that the body of her 12 year old daughter T Ali was found the little girl also known as Tia had been murdered Is there any way to describe That moment the pain of that moment you know, I fell to the ground crying because I Guess obviously, it was my daughter and and she was found washed up on a river like What kind of animal leaves a little girl in a river? But the pain I felt Was so bad. I couldn't I couldn't do anything. I Couldn't do anything but cry This is the wretched man who first killed then abandoned the child he promised to protect Right from the start Rick Thorburn was a heartless liar and right from the start his family Did everything they could to keep his evil secret? His callous wife Jolene And their sons 18 year-old Trent who had sexually abused his foster sister a 19 year old Josh We have to keep it all secret we had to pretend All part of the reprehensible conspiracy to save themselves What we had do is break that family bond And the covert police surveillance that revealed the full burn cover-up What really went on behind closed doors? To the outside world. It's just a normal rural property, but they're really easy to hear. So Horace what what occurred here? At just 12 t Olli Parma had already experienced much torment By the time she was 7 she was living in foster care Because the Cindy admits she couldn't always provide her children with the happiest or safest of homes How was it that T Ali was in foster care, how did that eventuate? Well, it wasn't Basically I put her there and why was that Because I was suffering Through a very severe domestic violence situation So I actually went to the department for help because you know I realized that one day I was just going to die and then they were just going to be left there by themselves For the next four years Jiali remained in foster care, but instead of fighting for her return Cindy was on a path of self-destruction At first I was so devastated being apart from her that I spiraled out of control into drugs and homelessness Cindy accepts that at that time T Ali was better off without her I do I still firmly believe that the day that I went to the department asking for help. I made the right decision It's not what I wanted and it wasn't the outcome any of us wanted but at the end of the day that was I thought Was the safer option? It was a broken little girl who arrived on the doorstep of Rick Thorburn and his wife Jolene in January 2015 the Couple and their two teenage sons Trent and Josh both talented dancers lived on an isolated semi rural Property in Chambers flat south of Brisbane the thought burns were considered the poster family for foster care But Cindy had misgivings from the start including that tea Olly would be living with teenage boys Straight away I said no Did you see any evidence in those early days? To make you feel that you were justified in your concerns the first ever time that I met Rick the first words that came out of his mouth were about how he was in a gang when he was younger and he was running guns and prostitutes and and He was proud of this Did you believe him did you think he was telling you the truth? Whether it was true or not It was inappropriate The truth is that Rick Thorburn was a monster hiding in plain sight To the outside world. He was a likeable easygoing bloke a former truck driver with a love of classic cars but in private he was a controlling figure feared by his family including tea Olly and Cindy believes there was more There was a time when her behavior had changed towards Rick she didn't want to be left alone with him and She started misbehaving She was running away She didn't want any bar freak And it wasn't just that it was inappropriate clothes that she all of a sudden started wearing in Dresses that had padded bras in them He'd taken her to get her eyebrows waxed and you know things like that and she never said anything to you about it though She never got a chance Coming up Jiali who disappears when police hear that a 12 year old girl has gone missing you prepare for the worst and An elaborate family cover-up to throw off police at the funeral rick Thorburn carried your daughter's casket just I think it's disgusting That's next on 60 minutes As The Thorburn family would later tell police Friday the 30th of October 2015 Started like any other day They went through and they told us a routine And it was a routine they are all comfortable with Hopping up having breakfast going to the gym getting ready dropping tear at school But it was all lies as police would eventually discover t alley was already dead killed the night before by her foster father Rick Thorburn As Part of the cover-up Rick maintained he dropped he early to school at ten past age This CCTV footage shows he then picked up spare parts before returning home Just before lunch a school counselor calls to say t alley is not at school When police hear that a twelve-year-old girl has gone missing do you immediately think the worst? Are you prepared for the worst? But hope for the best? Sadly in this case. It was the worst it was, you know, it's just tragic in Detective Inspector Damian Hansen from Queensland Police Homicide ran the near year-long murder investigation Was there anything unusual right at the beginning of this case in the reporting of tle going missing? In enhanced IPS. It was sort of Rick's Demeanor his behavior. He became very emotional right from the start He's broken down tears so much so that the social worker actually had drove him to the police station to report her missing What also made Rick's emotional and immediate reaction Suspicious was that t Ali had run away before and had always been found within a matter of hours T Ali's. Mom Cindy was hoping this time would be the same. I Was doing what I could but It just wasn't enough I Was speaking with police I was catching public transport to go to Look for her This time it was so dead. There was nothing there was literally nothing So with that silence, what did you think was going on? Did you think you'd find her? I Don't know I think that My heart was telling me that I had to find her and that You know, I wanted to find her and things were going to be okay But I think deep down I knew that something was really wrong Volunteers trudged through the muddy banks of the pimp amar river searching for answers Anything that might explain what cost a twelve-year-old girl her life The 5th of November 2015 Six days after being reported missing to police T Ali's body was found here on the banks of the pimp amar river south of Brisbane What do you think of Rick's Thorburn using a place like this to to dump this poor girl it's total disregard It shows what he thought of heard. They dumped trash he and that's Obviously sums up what he thought of TIA Local fishermen found T. Alley their unexpected and shocking discovery leaving them traumatized She was just off off the bank here in the reads understand only in shallow water And what state was her body in? She was naked apart from pair of underwear. That was partially pulled down she was decomposed so Identification was trouble The worst had come to pass now police had to find who had done the unthinkable So on the discovery of Charlie's body Who became your immediate suspect? Did we look at Thor bones first? Yes we did. But you know there are a lot of other Lawrence inquiries It was a very difficult and long investigation Who else did you look at? We knew that rich said she was dropped at school around ten past eight. We spoke to in Interviewed all the children at the school and we had a number of false sightings the odd tear we canvassed then All sex offenders in the area and we had numerous people that we looked at hundreds about 350 sex offenders a line that Weeks shameless lies here to police were nothing compared to the show He his wife and their sons put on at t Ali's funeral They danced and they cried a family united in grief At the funeral rick Thorburn Carried your daughter's casket when you reflect on that What do you think? I Think it's disgusting. I Just I think it's disgusting And all that sobbing and the tears and the concern the grief, what do you make of that now Because it was just their way of Doing what they did for the 11 months that they weren't caught and that was To not get caught They were acting apart You know he wanted to be the victim you think he enjoyed the attention He loved it. He will will him he must have He went to great lengths to get it Great lengths Coming up an anonymous tip-off, so that was the beginning of Let's crack this family. Yes. It was and a family crisis There'd been a family meeting the night before Leeds police strike back to the for burns define coincidence She goes missing the next day that's next on 60 minutes Six months into the investigation of tle Parma's murder police still had no concrete leads the Thorburn story was so Unshakable. They were no longer suspects. There was no forensic evidence t Ali's body was so badly decomposed that unless they told police will never know how she was murdered as For motive there was no clue as to why this young girl had to die that was until Crimestoppers got a tip-off It was an anonymous call came through and gave us details that there was a Facebook message sent from Trent outlining a Sexual activity with T. Holly And that they had been a family meeting the night before she disappeared This is the Facebook message that changed everything and forced a crisis meeting of the Thorburn x' In it Rick Thor Byrnes youngest son 18 year old Trent confesses. I'm in trouble and I don't know what to do He's had sex with 12 year old T Allie and fears. She may be pregnant fears to the legal trouble He may be in I've never had sex before and she made me do that with her He goes on to tell his cousin I just want the kid gone and out of my life But I know she's also a source of income for mom and dad as well. The cousin advises Trent to tell his parents Which he says he'll do You look at the content of that Facebook message you look at the the fact there's a family meeting and The product coincidence she goes missing next day Yes, it's it's suspicious So they're crimestopper call was perhaps not a Eureka moment, but the beginning of Let's look at the thought burns more closely. There's crosses family. Yes it was It was crucial The call to Crimestoppers Followed the explosive news that Rick Thorburn had been charged with the sexual abuse of two children under 12 Those charges which are yet to be tested in court Do not relate to t alley but rather to other children who attended his wife's daycare center That Center was run out of the family home and was allowed to operate for a further six months after t Ali's murder. I Think it's unbelievable. I Think they should have been shut down straightaway They weren't charged at that point with anything. They still had a child in their care who went missing Who was murdered? You know regardless of whether it was or wasn't them. I think that they should have not been allowed to have any more children until The situation was sorted The image of the perfect family was falling apart The soul burns were now the prime suspects and under constant police surveillance when you straight away that they were putting stories together and That he had to stick together and they were telling each other to stay strong all under the roof of this house here Detective Inspector Damien Hanson says while they were very aware of the increased police pressure The thought burns didn't know their house was also being bugged Every lie now on the record. I hope you understand what that means For the first time what was said can be made public Simply the thought burns candid conversations are horrifying in their own dispassionate words We hear how they plan to cover up a child's murder We will have to keep you out of this completely Here Rick and Jolene are schooling their sons to maintain the lie That T Ollie was dropped at school when in fact she was already dead We have to stick to the same story about her going to school the next day Then this Rick tells Trent what to say to police if he's ever Questioned about his sexual abuse of his 12 year old foster sister She came into your room you remember waking up you are still drunk. You are still whatever Never do the recordings capture sadness for Tia or remorse for what was done to her? But they do betray the first moment when two members of the family Jolene and eldest son Josh begin to crack if we have to come clean That's just between you and I we will have to come clean. We've got to come clean to protect you Me and twit for the rest of it Made the decision to go down that path unfortunately, and we're gonna have to live with it if it comes to that armed with these conversations and the damning Facebook message police now had the evidence to prove the family was lying and Leverage to get them to confess we put the Thorburn family before the worse of hearings and As a result of that Facebook message, we were able to prove that Gillian train Josh had all lied at those hearings committed perjury that Was crucial in our investigation because we had to get get one of them or more than one to become crown witnesses against freak Who turned Jill in Josh? Police have given us special access to their interviews with Jolene and Josh Interviews that expose the pair's cowardice and reveal what happened. The night T. Ollie was killed Three hours earlier Thursday the 29th of October 2015 and Julaine shares trance terrible secret with Rick he'd had sex with T Olli the week before Oh lean then leaves tear is now in the house on her own with Rick We believed that at that stage Rick has killed her and he put her body out here in the shed Do you know how long T Olli was in Rick's presence that night? we know there's probably a period of about three hours that between Her being dropped I'm here and Julianne returning home and the boys for returning home as well with no sign of Tears No, so and Rick simply told him that he was gone Josh - breaks ranks with his father and chillingly recounts the moment. He learned of tears death He said I hope you understand that means He didn't cry Yeah But to Cindy Julian's account just doesn't ring true I believe that, you know, Julian left cially there to die that night if we believe the story that they're telling That she left to go be at her sister's house after the conversation happened about Trent sleeping with t Ali I Believe she left her there to die During that the stuffin at home to discuss with you the intricacies of how she was killed No, I still don't know what happened there. I just know that he did. Mm-hmm that he did do it He's said to listed it's best to be done Mary how it happened because the last thing I thought I speak until The instructions for the family would that to carry on life is as normal What's your view of the fact that they did? They did just shows here Keller say it's either they were calculating they were callous They did not care one bit Fatiha There are only interested in themselves and keeping that family unit together You just think that you know if your son slept with an underage girl Then there's so many other ways to deal with it you don't go and kill someone for it I don't think you know, he could have turned him in there had to be more going on than just What they're saying? Coming up Rick's fake school run he's said he stopped at 30 40 seconds He hasn't and the family pact is finally broken. I see them as perpetrators. That's next on 60 minutes Convincing Jolene and Josh to become crown witnesses against Rick Thorburn was a major win for Detective Inspector Damian Hanson When you got word from the lawyers that Jelena and Josh wanted to reveal what they knew about t Ali's murder. What was that moment like There was great When you we had him? But police still had to test Rick's lies gather hard evidence against this master deceiver Rick who repeatedly lied to create the impression T Ali was alive the day after he murdered her he claimed he dropped his foster daughter to school and created a fiction of her meeting a friend on her way in to Fall everyone Rick even drove the school route that Friday morning He told police he'd stopped for 30 to 40 seconds. Just long enough to let T Ali out of the car We used other vehicles as a reference point what Rick didn't count on was that police would go back and check his story With the help of CCTV they determined he did not stop at the school. He just drove by So we're able show timing of his vehicle behind there They calculated a time difference of six or seven seconds between this white van and Rick's car Before and after the school drop-off zone those vehicles just the white van. Yep, and now It's extraordinary They can capture it and there's the blue car. That's that's he he's and that's seven seconds difference So if he's said he stopped the 30 40 seconds, he hasn't with spoken to the driver of the white beam He had no stops on that road that day. Mm-hmm So line number one After his fake school run and some errands Ric returns home as If oblivious to the atrocious crime that has been committed under their roof Jolene works in the daycare center while Rick tinker's on his car at 8 p.m. Rick shifts T Ali's lifeless body from the shed to his car to drive her 42 kilometres away to dump her in the river This time he's wily enough to avoid detection Despite police collecting 50 thousand dollars of CCTV footage during their investigation He was where if police methodologies he left his phone at home He took a route that didn't involve cameras So, yeah, he took all precautions make sure he wasn't Recorded coming here. It was very well-planned. It sounds like those are certainly level of planning Dad said also that he didn't want us home on the Friday night. I'm saying you could do what he had to do Which was hide the body on the Friday night Friday night, yeah I'm tears, but it was like hey Jim Everyone Just went to my god straight away its new walls my way to be was invaded I Said um, my body has been found I said could it be said yes You ever think about after you're done Just take my chances right in the beginning. I really wanna know you but no actually soft little something. That's very upsetting That the Thorburn three of Julaine Josh and Trent seemed to so easily cover up the murder of T Olli is baffling but not one of them had the courage to come forward is shameful They just did as a hotel bar trick it was a bizarre controlling figure Is that all that it came down to that he told them not to so they didn't Yes, he's controlled all facets of their life Always has through fear or through loyalty fear Britain fear violence Eighties they were in taint home keeping them the family unit together Do you see them as perpetrators in this or do you see them as victims? Oh, I see them as perpetrators young There's a little twelve-year-old girl is lost her life. They could have come forward then straightaway in being honest It's a judgment backed by the courts Trent Thorburn was charged and convicted of incest Attempting to pervert the course of justice and two counts of perjury and served 16 months in jail His older brother Joshua pleaded guilty to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice as did their mother Jolene They too were sent to jail But they've all since been released to get on with their lives including celebrating Trent's recent 21st birthday Are there any excuses for the choices she made no No How would you describe the role of Trent in this Disgusting I Just you know, he came to her funeral he danced and he hugged me and he cried and For him to continue this on it's just disgusting Rick Thorburn probably thought his crocodile tears had worked But he had no idea police were coming for him. No idea his wife and son had dubbed him in Rick was tidal shock when he was arrested, but he did die he did take number of pills and in trial to suicide that was his way in I Think he planed that if he was ever ever caught for a Down he wasn't going to face him using And he continued to deny it didn't he I mean to this day I had not heard Rick Thorburn say what he did more. He did it On Friday in Brisbane Supreme Court Rick Thorburn finally pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in jail your conduct throughout all of the offending is made more shocking for the deliberateness of your actions and Your willingness to coerce every member of your family To maintain false accounts in an effort to cover up your despicable behavior But by admitting his crime Thorburn avoids a trial and ever explaining why he did what he did to tea alle Thyng that never entered my mind was somebody who was entrusted with her care that would do this to her, you know there's a lot of bad things that happen in this world and I Just didn't see it coming Cyndi's burden is unbearable But instead of sympathy for her dreadful loss Many continue to find fault with her as a mother even though she has long proven her love for all her four children Had gotten to the point where You know, I was receiving death threats Because they believed that it was my fault that tre was dead People blamed me for her death and what is that like to live with that sort of judgment You know what? It's hard. I try not to I Try not to let it bother me but you know, I've worked really hard to not be that person anymore, but I Guess maybe, there's a little bit of guilt because obviously, you know, I was meant to be a mother and I Should have made better choices. I don't know Do you feel like it's your fault that tle is dead. I didn't murder my daughter I did everything I could to try and get her back you wanted her I did I Wanted our families to be whole again, and it just wasn't with her. Not that Have you yet come to terms with the fact that Your family won't ever be whole again, um Life's hard Extremely hard every day. It doesn't get any easier She was amazing, there was no reason for her to die Hello, I'm Tara brown 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
