Buninyong Sergeant Peter Anderson reflects on 1998 kidnapping rescue - The Courier -September 30 2025 - video Dailymotion

The Courier

Retired Buninyong police sergeant Peter Anderson recalls the rescue of a kidnapped teenager from a mine in Ballarat in 1998. Video by Lachlan Bence

Transcript

00:00It was back in November of 1998 and we had a missing person case from the night before

00:08that probably was a little bit unusual. At that time too, to paint it into context,

00:14we've had a number of murders sort of around that period in Ballarat and it was

00:21a pretty edgy time, you know, pretty touchy time to be working and so this sort of attracted

00:28alarm bells with the team who were investigating it the night before and they

00:36were able to like they went out to the to the girls address, spoke to the parents,

00:42they had a look in her room and did all the usual

00:46investigation and things she'd been missing since about midday on the Friday and one of the members

00:54went back in and had it said do you mind if I have another look at the room just a quick

00:59look before we leave and he actually found a business card that was a fake business card but

01:05it had a correct phone number on it and the story went that he befriended this girl over a number of

01:14days claiming to be a wild flower picker you know made money by selling wildflowers to local florists

01:26and then he offered her a job and said if you want to come and make some money picking wildflowers

01:30give me a ring so the card was there in her bedroom and he found that card and follow up with that

01:39card the details on that card lead to an address in ballarat central and when police went to that

01:46address and had a look in the room of the offender they found some quite disturbing material that

01:57then changed everything really it changed the focus from just a young girl that had gone on to

02:03something much much more sinister so as a result of that it led us to the mine at black hill um in

02:13the early hours of saturday morning so i started work at seven o'clock i was briefed up the two the

02:19crew that came on in the morning were all briefed up and we tracked down someone from um what is now

02:26deca the the mines section of deca who said well from the description you've given of this offender

02:36looking for a padlock to use to lock this mine away so that no one could touch his gold that he'd found

02:44in there he said there's only one that matches that description and it was up in black hill and sure

02:51enough it was the one and we all headed up there and there was a fresh padlock on it didn't look

02:58like anyone had been there overnight there was sort of silt in like you know around the crate where it

03:03opened up there'd been a bit of rain through the night and of course silt had sort of washed down

03:10into that so it looked very much unused but we cut the lock off and i went down you know i saw it down

03:18vertically for probably 10 or 12 feet and then it opened up into the drive weaning under black hill

03:26and there was some stuff at the entrance to the mine um that was pretty disturbing um

03:35and i recall yelling out saying look it all looks pretty quiet in here at the moment but

03:40there's a shovel and some other things here that are pretty not right and they look like they

03:45haven't been here very long so i'm gonna go up and have a look go go to the end of this thing

03:52and i sort of went on and on really under black hill that was quite a quite a ways there were parts

03:59where i had to get down and crawl where they'd been you know the roof had sort of caved in so you were

04:04going up over things and then it had opened up a bit there i was with me me and the torch

04:09and i got to the sort of it i wasn't quite the end but it was right up the far end of the drive

04:17and there's been a large uh fall from the ceiling it was quite significant probably went up 15 or 20

04:24feet from floor level and of course the roof had correspondingly come down so the distance between

04:30roof and floor hadn't changed it just did a bit up and over and um i recall you know i'm looking where

04:41my feet are going and i recall there was a drive either side and this main shaft going off either side

04:50and i looked to the right with the torch and i looked up and there's nothing nothing there and of course the

04:59whole way i'm looking for feasts and hands and stuff sticking out of the dirt you know it's all my

05:05best um you know horror movies were replaying in my head yeah the other thing missing was the music

05:14anyway swung the torch from the right to the left to have a look down the other side and the brain

05:22you know the the brain takes a while to catch up with the eyes of seeing and i thought

05:26what on earth was that and i swung the torch back and there's two sets of eyes at the top of this

05:33berm of dirt probably about 15 feet away from me in complete silence just these two sets of eyes and

05:41the torch light and i did a double take and sort of worked there pretty quickly obviously that we were

05:49dealing with and i remember yelling at him to get his hands up where i could see them he was busily

05:58fiddle around below the level of the dirt as it turned out i think he was pulling his tracks and pants

06:04up um but i couldn't see what he was doing his hands i just remember challenging him to get his hands

06:10up where i could see them and to get down on his belly you know so i'm yelling get your hands up where i can

06:19see him get out of your guts get out on your guts and he's going well what do you want me to do and

06:23i said stop being a smart ass yeah stop being a smart ass and get your hands up anyway as i'm doing

06:30this i've got the torch in one hand i'm sort of scrabbling up the dirt to get onto and when it was up

06:37there was pretty tight so i recall crawling over him and then turning around and so that i'm looking at

06:43at the back of his head and then i handcuffed him and the whole time he's just complaining that it

06:49wasn't how it looked that's not how it looks anyway i'd pretty much not taken you know i wasn't

06:58concentrating on her at this stage i was sort of more focused on getting him under arrest yep and when

07:06i had him handcuffed so i'm sitting a stride in and i looked across at her with the torch remember

07:11it's completely dark except for the torch cold and wet yeah yeah yeah so i shone the torch at her and i

07:18said are you okay she said who are you and i said it's the police and she burst into tears and she i

07:27recall her saying either then or shortly after that she thought i was a co-offender that had come in

07:33um because she had she had she was genuinely i think of the belief that she wasn't going to get

07:41out um and i reassured her that it was the police and she sort of and i said look just be patient we'll

07:49get someone up here to take you out and you know everything's going to be okay and i recall yelling

07:57up the tunnel saying i've got them i've got them they're here and of course no one can hear me out

08:03they're all outside going i wonder what's going on down there it's been a while don't

08:08don't so anyway someone eventually i could hear the noise of them coming down and they yelled out are

08:14you all right and i said yeah look i've got them there i've got him under arrest and she's here with you

08:20and of course then everything burst into action then and a policewoman by the name of megan ferry

08:29came up and took the young girl out and i i recalled megan saying to me that she said what can we do

08:38for you what can we get you and she said look and i have some mcdonald's because i didn't think i'd

08:43ever taste it again and of course his aunt 15 and for her uh she wanted a a freedom of comments

08:51and i'm and of course the rest is history from there he was um taken into custody and

08:59eventually convicted took 17 years and refused to have his dma taken which was eventually he went

09:08through all the court levels with an appeal process eventually he lost dna was taken and they solved

09:18another series of historic ropes as a result of his dna putting taken and um he's back in custody

09:27doing another 17 years yeah as a result of the second series yeah of the thing so which predated

09:34is obviously our our incident here in bellerat

Buninyong Sergeant Peter Anderson reflects on 1998 kidnapping rescue - The Courier -September 30 2025

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