π Australian Crime Stories: The Investigators (2023) - Season 3 Episode 1
Behind every headline is a story of courage, investigation, and the relentless pursuit of justice. In Episode 1, [brief hook: see episode-specific hooks below]. Follow detectives, forensic experts, and survivors as they piece together the truth in some of Australia's most compelling cases.
πΉ Episode Highlights:
β’ [E01 Hook: "A cold case reopens: new evidence brings hope to a grieving family"]
β’ [E05 Hook: "The final piece falls into place: how investigators cracked the code"]
β’ Exclusive access: interviews with detectives, forensic analysts & key witnesses
β’ Investigative process: from crime scene to courtroom, the journey to justice
β’ Human impact: stories of resilience, loss, and the power of truth
πΉ Series Info:
β’ Format: True Crime Documentary / Investigative Series / Crime Journalism
β’ Original Network: 7plus / Seven Network (Australia) / International Streaming
β’ Series Launch: 2023 | Season: 3 | Episodes: 1 & 5
β’ Focus: Real Australian Cases, Police Investigations, Forensic Breakthroughs
β’ Setting: Across Australia β Urban & Regional Crime Scenes
β’ Language: English (Original Audio) + Subtitles Available
β’ Runtime: ~45-60 minutes (full) | Clip/Highlight version: ~10-15 min
π§ Prefer audio? Listen to true crime recaps & investigative podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts.
π Enjoying the series? Hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and comment: "What case would YOU like to see investigated next? ππ" Turn on notifications π so you never miss the next breakthrough!
#AustralianCrimeStories #TheInvestigators #TrueCrime #CrimeDocumentary #SevenNetwork #S3E[X] #ColdCase #Forensics #BingeWatch #JusticeServed #AustralianTV #CrimeJunkie
β οΈ Copyright Disclaimer: This video is shared for promotional, review, and informational purposes only. All rights to "Australian Crime Stories: The Investigators" belong to Seven Network and the original production company. This upload complies with Fair Use guidelines (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act). No copyright infringement intended.
Behind every headline is a story of courage, investigation, and the relentless pursuit of justice. In Episode 1, [brief hook: see episode-specific hooks below]. Follow detectives, forensic experts, and survivors as they piece together the truth in some of Australia's most compelling cases.
πΉ Episode Highlights:
β’ [E01 Hook: "A cold case reopens: new evidence brings hope to a grieving family"]
β’ [E05 Hook: "The final piece falls into place: how investigators cracked the code"]
β’ Exclusive access: interviews with detectives, forensic analysts & key witnesses
β’ Investigative process: from crime scene to courtroom, the journey to justice
β’ Human impact: stories of resilience, loss, and the power of truth
πΉ Series Info:
β’ Format: True Crime Documentary / Investigative Series / Crime Journalism
β’ Original Network: 7plus / Seven Network (Australia) / International Streaming
β’ Series Launch: 2023 | Season: 3 | Episodes: 1 & 5
β’ Focus: Real Australian Cases, Police Investigations, Forensic Breakthroughs
β’ Setting: Across Australia β Urban & Regional Crime Scenes
β’ Language: English (Original Audio) + Subtitles Available
β’ Runtime: ~45-60 minutes (full) | Clip/Highlight version: ~10-15 min
π§ Prefer audio? Listen to true crime recaps & investigative podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts.
π Enjoying the series? Hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and comment: "What case would YOU like to see investigated next? ππ" Turn on notifications π so you never miss the next breakthrough!
#AustralianCrimeStories #TheInvestigators #TrueCrime #CrimeDocumentary #SevenNetwork #S3E[X] #ColdCase #Forensics #BingeWatch #JusticeServed #AustralianTV #CrimeJunkie
β οΈ Copyright Disclaimer: This video is shared for promotional, review, and informational purposes only. All rights to "Australian Crime Stories: The Investigators" belong to Seven Network and the original production company. This upload complies with Fair Use guidelines (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act). No copyright infringement intended.
Category
πΉ
FunTranscript
00:25Straight away we knew this was going to be a big job and that media interests
00:29would be intense not just in our state but across the country but we could never have
00:34estimated at that moment how big it would become.
00:40There's been a strong response to appeals for public health in solving the shocking
00:43Wanaka suitcase murder.
00:45Major crime detectives hoping to uncover a clue as to who the young murder victim was.
00:51The victim is most likely a little girl.
00:53You can't have a child go missing in Australia and no one notice.
00:56The investigators naturally form the belief that something has also happened to the mother.
01:02Police say they won't draw any conclusions about human remains found in the Belanglo State Forest.
01:08This was Ivan Milath's chosen killing field.
01:11This was a case that had crossed three state lines.
01:15This is the kind of person who for five years thought he'd gotten away with murder.
01:30I'm Des Bray and I'm the officer in charge of Major Crime Investigation Branch within the
01:35South Australian Police.
01:36So basically our branch has responsibility for the investigation of all homicides and deaths
01:42in custody in South Australia.
01:46On July 15, 2015, I was in my office when I got a call from our investigators to say that
01:54the remains of an infant had been found in a suitcase alongside the highway in South Australia,
02:02about 128 kilometres east of Adelaide.
02:12Some young people have been driving down the road and seen it.
02:25And they saw what they thought were human remains and they contacted the police.
02:37Warnock is a very small town in South Australia's sheep and grain farming region.
02:42It has a population of only around about a hundred people.
02:47I quickly secured a car and drove to the scene with Detective Sergeant Paul Ward.
03:00By the time we got there, the scene had been shut down.
03:04So perimeters had been set up to exclude people.
03:11It was clear that the human remains were many years old, but we had no idea how long they'd
03:17have been in the suitcase.
03:22That's the Lanza suitcase that we saw on the side of the road.
03:26At the time it looked grey like in the photo, however, in reality it had been a black suitcase
03:32and with years and years exposed to the weather, it had turned grey.
03:38Our forensic response investigators set up a tent and during the course of the night, gradually
03:44removed the contents piece by piece and, as best they could, reconstruct a skeleton in that tent.
04:05We now know that the child is between about two and seven years.
04:11Major crime detectives joined by other police and SES volunteers as they scoured scrubland,
04:17hoping to uncover a clue as to who the young murder victim was.
04:23It was right in the open and easily able to be seen.
04:26And it had been seen by locals and other passers by.
04:29Some had stopped to look at the case.
04:32But we had no evidence that anybody had ever opened it.
04:36Initially it was concerning because we had such a young child and nobody had reported the
04:43child missing.
04:44The initial theory we had was there were a number of possibilities.
04:50Firstly, the mother of the child was involved in the child's death or that the child hadn't
04:57been reported missing because the mother was dead herself.
05:04So, it could be a male partner who had murdered both the child and the mum, but all of the
05:11investigation team and myself were firmly at the view that we would find who this little
05:17child was.
05:18Because you just can't go missing.
05:20You can't have a child go missing in Australia and no one notice.
05:26Obviously, once we had the remains, we wanted to know whether it was a little boy or a little
05:30girl.
05:32We thought we would be able to readily extract DNA.
05:36But that was a process that took many, many weeks and many failed attempts.
05:42Because for children of that age, it's very difficult when they're exposed to the elements
05:46like that.
05:50We were fearful at one point that we might not actually get a DNA sample that could be
05:54analysed.
05:57One thing we knew, but we would never reveal to the public, was that the child had been subject
06:03to an unspeakable death.
06:08It really hit home at that point, the significant murder that this was.
06:19Young children just don't disappear without people noticing.
06:22Someone must have missed this child.
06:27One lead we had to work with was the clothing found with the child's body in the suitcase.
06:33It appeared most likely to be worn by a young girl.
06:37And while there were issues with the fibres being degraded, a few things stood out to us.
06:43There were two dresses, a pink one and a distinctive black one, which had survived for years more
06:49or less intact.
06:51There was also a homemade quilt in the suitcase.
06:55Very small fragment remaining with what looked like some teddy bears.
07:00We went to quilt makers and quilting associations and we found out that that quilt would be difficult
07:05to make for a novice and most likely an older person.
07:09So that immediately told us that somebody that made that quilt and went to that effort really
07:14loved that child.
07:16We thought if we could recreate the quilt and publicise that, somebody out there would be
07:22able to identify that quilt.
07:23Detectives hope new pictures released today will provide much needed leads in the baffling
07:28suitcase murder investigation.
07:30A mannequin dressed in a blonde wig and a distinctive black dress.
07:33It's the haunting figure now at the centre of a gruesome Murray Mallee mystery.
07:38The victim is most likely a little girl, two to four years of age, who would be about this
07:45size.
07:45Detectives desperate to hear from anyone who recognises the bag or these girls clothes found
07:51inside it.
07:52A dress, a shoe, shorts and t-shirts among the items.
07:56Police hope this display will trigger someone's memory.
08:02That strategy brought about, ultimately, caller 1267.
08:09Caller 1267, that's a number that's etched in my mind.
08:14That was an amazing moment when I got a phone call that Crimestoppers had received a call.
08:18The pink dress, which was the subject of the call, as well as the quilt.
08:26And caller 1267 contacted Crimestoppers to state that friends of hers, Carly and Candelace,
08:34had not been seen for over seven years.
08:48The victim is most likely a little girl, two to four years of age.
08:57Tanya Webber had called Crimestoppers on that day to state that friends of hers, Carly and
09:04Candelace, had not been seen for over seven years.
09:08It was your call that helped police unlock this mystery.
09:13Yep.
09:14You were the breakthrough that they needed.
09:15Yeah.
09:16I'm glad I called.
09:17Really glad I'm called.
09:18Yeah.
09:21She was the call that they had been waiting for, in many ways had been waiting five years
09:26for.
09:27Carly.
09:29Tanya Webber was a close friend of Carly, Pierce-Stevenson's mother.
09:35And I met her when we were filming The 60 Minutes Story.
09:42Carly Pierce-Stevenson grew up in Alice Springs, surrounded by loving family.
09:49It was the perfect place for the 20-year-old single mum to raise her two-year-old daughter,
09:54Candelace, or candles as she was affectionately known.
09:59So when Tanya Webber saw the police appeal to help try and identify the remains of this
10:04young girl, she noticed something familiar.
10:08My husband walked through the door and I said, oh, you know, these could be candles.
10:14After identifying the pink dress and the quilt was belonging to Candelace, Tanya Webber
10:19then provided photos to us that would unlock the case.
10:28This photograph shows Candelace in the pram.
10:32And it's an earlier shot of her, but importantly, it's got the quilt behind her used as cushioning.
10:38And you can see the distinctive musical notes that were around the edge of that quilt.
10:46In the later photograph, you see Candelace wearing a little pink dress.
10:52We had no doubt as a result of receiving those photos that it would be Candelace.
10:59But it was just too early to confirm that without proof.
11:05The proof we needed came on October 12, 2015.
11:10Using medical records obtained from Adelaide, we were able to finally identify the body in the suitcase
11:18as being Candelace Kiara Pierce.
11:24Candelace, two and a half years old at the time of her death.
11:28A little, blonde child who had the rest of her life ahead of her, but it was cut short.
11:41Candelace had left Alice Springs with her mother, Carly, and had not been seen by friends or family since 2008.
11:50And so the investigators naturally formed an assumption or belief that something has also happened to the mother.
11:58The mother of a two-year-old child wouldn't generally leave the child alone to end up the way she
12:06did.
12:12Victimology is a big part of detective work.
12:14And South Australia police commenced the victimology profile of Carly.
12:21And through that victimology, they identified that she'd been associating with and travelling with a fellow named Daniel Marshall.
12:32He used more than one name throughout his life.
12:36I know him as Daniel Holden from my investigations.
12:41I remember talking to Tanya about when Carly first met Daniel.
12:46I think they knew him as Daniel Marshall back then, but Tanya didn't like him.
12:51He was, well, A, he was much older than Carly.
12:54There was something about him, Tanya said to me, that just irked her.
12:58She just felt uncomfortable in his presence.
13:00Tanya resented the fact that this older man, this unfriendly man, had come into Carly's life and almost brainwashed her.
13:09You know, he had found a vulnerability in Carly and exploited it.
13:14She was packing up her life, packing up everything she'd ever known and taking her two-year-old daughter with
13:20her to start a new life with this mysterious man who no one liked, who everyone had a bad feeling
13:26about.
13:31How long was it before you next heard from Carly?
13:36About a week or a week and a half after she left.
13:40She rang me up.
13:41She was crying.
13:43She just said to me that she thought she'd fucked up.
13:47She wanted to come home by the sounds of things.
13:50And I said, well, I can book a flight.
13:52I can pay for a flight.
13:52Do you have money?
13:53No, no, no.
13:54You know, it's okay.
13:55And by the end of the conversation, she was sort of back to her ugly laughing self.
14:01So I didn't think too much more of it.
14:04That was the last time you heard from Carly?
14:06Yeah.
14:11Carly's mother had been in contact with Carly.
14:16She had had last contact with Carly through phone calls in 2008 and received some messages from Carly via SMS
14:25in 2009.
14:27After those SMS communications ceased, she reported Carly as missing person in 2009.
14:40We found out that Carly had been reported missing in 2009 in the Northern Territory.
14:46Candelise hadn't been reported as a missing person because Carly was the person the report was made out to.
14:52And although I mentioned she was with Candelise, Candelise didn't appear on any databases as a missing person.
14:59What we learned from Northern Territory was that they'd made contact with Daniel Holden.
15:07And he had said that she'd left and gone to Queensland.
15:13Not long after that, her family received a text message from Carly's phone saying that she was okay.
15:23So in their mind, Carly was still alive.
15:28They reported that to the Northern Territory police and that was enough for police to pull Carly's missing persons report
15:34from their database.
15:37Carly's bank cards were still being accessed.
15:39Money was still being withdrawn from her accounts.
15:43In the minds of police at the time in Northern Territory, Carly was alive and well.
15:50As the investigation progressed, that information was reviewed and it was established that the contacts in 2009 from Carly via
16:04SMS were not Carly at all.
16:15When the remains in the suitcase were identified as two-year-old Candelise, the next step was to find her
16:21mother Carly.
16:24The two had left Alice Springs with Daniel Holden in 2008.
16:29Even though texts had been sent to family and friends, seemingly from Carly, she had not been seen for nearly
16:36seven years.
16:52Good evening.
16:53Police say they won't draw any conclusions about human remains found in the Belanglo State Forest.
16:59The bones were found by trail bike riders and the homicide squad has been on the scene all day.
17:07On the 29th of August 2010, some trail bike riders riding through the Belanglo Forest took a break from their
17:14riding for a short comfort stop.
17:18And one of the gentlemen that were riding the trail bikes located some remains lying beside a large tree.
17:26They were skeletal remains on the forest floor.
17:30And they were remains that were scattered across about a 60 square metre area.
17:38Once the gentlemen reported the matter to police and the state homicide squad responded, Strike Force Hickson was commenced.
17:52The discovery of bones in the Belanglo Forest obviously drew an inference to Ivan Milat.
18:08It may be coincidence, but this was Ivan Milat's chosen killing field.
18:13A sign by the road with an eerie message, please be careful.
18:19In addition to Ivan Milat, his nephew had also committed a murder in the Belanglo Forest.
18:26And so those two lines of inquiry were prolific for the initial investigation team.
18:31Police still don't know who the victim is, but they say the bones are those of a young woman aged
18:37between 15 and 25.
18:40Investigators have one vital clue, a piece of clothing found with the bones, which they hope will help them identify
18:45this young woman.
18:51I remember back in 2010, first hearing about the angel of Belanglo.
18:56She was given that name because of a t-shirt that was found, basically discarded, you know, on the side
19:01of a track that was discovered by a few dirt bike riders.
19:04And you just automatically feel for the family who doesn't have answers, right?
19:10Because this person didn't have an identity, they were just bones at that point.
19:13They were simply remains and a t-shirt, discarded on the side of a track.
19:21Some of the lines of inquiry that Strike Force Hickson pursued were a detailed crime scene examination,
19:28looking into all the things and artefacts discovered at the crime scene within the forest,
19:34DNA and forensic procedures.
19:36They utilised a facial approximation process where the skull that was recovered was recreated into a facial image
19:45and that was circulated across the media.
19:49They reached out to the Australian Dental Association through the Australian Dental Journal
19:54to try and identify the remains through the teeth that were recovered at the crime scene.
20:14The victim is most likely a little girl.
20:20After our public appeal for information regarding the suitcase remains,
20:24Tanya Webber called Crimestoppers to say she believes that Candelis was the victim.
20:30Before DNA testing confirmed she was correct,
20:34investigators from Task Force Malley started looking for Candelis' mother, Carly.
20:40She was no longer registered as a missing person,
20:44even though she hadn't been seen since 2008.
20:48We established that Carly and Candelis were last seen in Canberra in December 2008.
20:53That was just a two-hour drive from where the Angel of Belangelo was found in 2010.
20:58Could Carly be the Angel of Belangelo?
21:04So, once the DNA of Candelis had been confirmed by our State Forensic Science Centre,
21:13I made a call to Sydney Homicide and asked them if it would be worth running the DNA results from
21:23Candelis
21:24against the body in the Belangelo Forest.
21:31I thought it was a long shot, but we thought it was a shot we needed to take.
21:36New South Wales Police were fantastic.
21:40They got on board.
21:42Forensic Science in South Australia ran the DNA.
21:48The Belangelo Angel was positively identified forensically through medical records.
21:54Carly Pearce Stevenson, Candelis' mother.
22:01A significant day in the investigation.
22:18To find out that we had two murders 1,100 kilometres apart, years and years apart, were linked, was unbelievable.
22:28And it supported the original thought we had on the day that Candelis wasn't reported missing because their mother was
22:37dead.
22:39The key people for us in New South Wales was Detective Superintendent Mick Willing, Detective Inspector Jason Dickinson and Detective
22:49Sergeant Darren Gunn.
22:50We were in contact with them constantly, regardless of where we were.
22:55My name's Jason Dickinson. I'm a Detective Superintendent in the New South Wales Police Force.
23:01In 2015, I was a Detective Inspector attached to the Homicide Squad.
23:07When the link between the two cases was identified, we moved very quickly.
23:12And from that point on, it was about coordinating our effort, identifying what was known by both investigations, where our
23:18gaps were.
23:19And it was then a case of formulating our strategies going forward so that we were working collectively and that
23:27we were coordinating our effort.
23:30The major factor was that they hadn't been seen for over seven years, which meant the suspect or suspects were
23:41seven years ahead of us.
23:44Now, the question was, who was responsible?
23:48The evidence and victimology pointed to one suspect, Carly's boyfriend, Daniel Holden.
23:55And we didn't have to look too hard to find him.
24:03When police located Daniel Holden, he was already in prison.
24:10He was already serving time for the sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl.
24:14This is the kind of person we're talking about.
24:17This was the kind of person who had a track record for abusing and preying on young, vulnerable women and
24:24girls.
24:25This is the kind of person who, for five years, thought he'd gotten away with murder.
24:37South Australia police quickly established that Holden was in custody in New South Wales.
24:44So they had to investigate his association and history with Carly to progress further.
24:54Since 2014, Holden had been in Cessnock jail serving a four-year sentence.
25:00What we needed to establish was his whereabouts in the days following the last known sighting of Carly and Kenderleafs
25:06in Canberra in December 2008.
25:12So basically, we sought to identify anybody associated with Carly and with Daniel Holden.
25:19We knew Daniel Holden had been with Carly for a period of time.
25:23We started building profiles on everybody to look at who we would have to speak to.
25:30And it was decided that that would be done simultaneously across the country.
25:37The date we picked was the 21st of October.
25:39October 2015.
25:43The most important, as we saw it, was the interview of a key suspect, Daniel Holden.
25:49He was taken to the Cessnock police station for interview.
25:58In the preparation for our interview with Holden, Detective Hupperts and I established that should Holden be prepared to talk
26:06to us about the matter.
26:09We would seek to establish his association with Carly and the history of their movements throughout Australia in the time
26:19that they were together.
26:22We were prepared to listen to his version and his story about what had taken place whilst he and Carly
26:31were together.
26:35So for the seven hours and 24 minutes the interview took, Holden did talk to us.
26:42And he talked to us a lot.
26:44He talked to us about his relationship with Carly.
26:48He talked about the last time he saw Carly.
26:52He talked about Carly leaving him and then him returning to South Australia after living in the ACT.
27:02He was prepared to talk a lot.
27:06But he denied being involved in their murders.
27:13Categorically denied being involved in their murders.
27:29On the 21st of October there was a lot going on away from Cessnock.
27:34There was witnesses being spoken to.
27:47When the South Australian police was speaking with his former partner, Hazel Passmore,
27:53she provided information to them about Holden's involvement in the murders of Carly and Candelise.
28:02That included the existence of photographs which were potentially connected to the crime.
28:12On October the 22nd, a relative of Holden's partner, Hazel Passmore, walked into the police station and handed the SD
28:22card to detectives.
28:28When that SD card was handed in, everybody was shocked at the contents of it.
28:37And it was clearly evident from those photographs that Carly was dead.
28:43And there was terrible photos of her remains being defiled.
29:01Yeah, this is a picture of Hazel Passmore, who was the partner of Daniel Holden in 2008.
29:12In about September 2008, she was with Holden, travelling in a vehicle with three kids.
29:21Holden was driving, the vehicle rolled, and unfortunately two of Hazel's children died at the scene.
29:28And she herself was trapped for a number of hours in the vehicle.
29:34As a result of that, she lost a leg.
29:40And it was while Hazel Passmore was in hospital that Holden commenced his relationship with Carly.
29:48Hazel Passmore became prolific in this investigation.
29:54It was very clear that Hazel and Holden had a relationship, I think, that can be best described as perverse
30:04in many ways.
30:06They shared some dark secrets when Carly died.
30:14Holden recommenced his relationship with Hazel Passmore.
30:19It appears for the following year or year and a half that Holden kept Carly's phone active.
30:30He took on her social security identity and through that process defrauded large sums of money under Carly's name.
30:44But it wasn't the revelations of their perverse relationship or the confirmation of the social security fraud which stunned us.
30:53It was clear to us that Hazel had seen those photos of Carly, didn't notify the police, and kept those
31:04to herself.
31:06Hazel told us she'd given the SD card to a relative in 2012, telling her to keep it in case
31:13anything ever happened to her.
31:15She said she was fearful of what Holden was capable of.
31:21Once we got it, our team began the arduous process of forensically examining every aspect of its contents, including photos
31:29of Carly's murder scene.
31:38Yeah, this is a really important photo and was critical to the success of the investigation.
31:46It's assumed in photograph of a forearm of Daniel Holden.
31:52We know it's Daniel Holden because on that photograph you can see two moles that were on his arm.
31:59And that photograph had him and Carly in the photograph at the same time.
32:05I won't talk about the other photos because they're too graphic and too disturbing.
32:10There was one series of photographs important to the investigation I can talk about.
32:16The SD card contained photographs of Holden attending an event at a school in Alice Springs following the death of
32:24Hazel's children.
32:26And it was a memorial, if you like, that was put in by the school.
32:29And Holden went back for that and he's photographed with the classmates of the deceased children and the school teacher.
32:39One of our detectives, upon reviewing all the photographs and looking at the metadata,
32:44realised that the metadata and the time clock for all the photos was significantly out of time by many years.
32:53When he saw this photo, he identified there was a faint image of a watch being worn by a school
32:58teacher.
32:59So he contacted the school, identified the date of this and was able to identify the exact time this photograph
33:07was taken.
33:08And he was able to use that to adjust the timings on the metadata, not just for this photo, but
33:14every photo on the SD card.
33:16And that meant that we could put Daniel Holden in Belangelo Forest at the critical time when Carly was killed.
33:25And could also put Daniel Holden in Wanaka, where the lifeless body of Carly's daughter Candelis was dumped in a
33:33suitcase.
33:35An amazing piece of work.
33:40Further to the metadata breakthrough, Hazel Pasmore recalled a conversation she'd had with Daniel Holden
33:47regarding the murder of two-year-old Candelis.
33:51Partway through Hazel's interview, she described graphically the murder of Candelis and what she had been told by Holden.
34:03We began to feel quietly confident we were not only pursuing the right perpetrator, but the evidence was mounting against
34:10him.
34:12We had the confessions that he'd made to a number of people, including a person in Canberra to Pasmore.
34:19We had cell tower movements that supported the fact that he'd gone to Belangelo.
34:23We had the photographs.
34:26We had him identified as being in the forest with her body.
34:30We had the moles.
34:32We had the purchase of the duct tape and the cloth that was used in her murder.
34:36The Lancer bag.
34:39Yeah, we just had an enormous amount of evidence.
34:44The only thing we didn't have was the truth from Holden.
34:50On the 28th of October, I received the notification from Correctives New South Wales that Holden wanted to speak to
34:58us.
34:58And we were really excited that he may be going to tell us about his involvement in the murders of
35:06Carly and Candelis.
35:08We commenced the interview with him and Holden produced a seven page document consisting of handwritten notes.
35:20And in doing so, implicated his cousin, Derek Dover, and his partner, Christine.
35:30It was a self-serving process for Holden, who had no intention of admitting his involvement in the murders of
35:39Carly and Candelis.
35:42Daniel Holden gave three accounts of what happened to Carly and Candelis.
35:47His first version on the 21st of October.
35:49His second version on the 28th of October.
35:52And then a version he provided to a psychiatrist in pre-sentence screening for the Supreme Court.
36:00Every version's different.
36:05I have difficulty believing anything that Daniel Holden says.
36:10I believe he's a pathological liar.
36:15By October 28th, we were confident that Holden had killed the mother and child.
36:22However, there was a question mark over where he ended the toddler's life.
36:27It may have been in New South Wales.
36:30Or it may have been in South Australia.
36:33While we put more work into that, we decided to only charge him for Carly's murder.
36:41It was at that point I arrested him for her murder.
36:52Tonight, a 41-year-old man is behind bars accused of murdering young mother Carly Pierce Stevenson.
36:59The face of an alleged killer, a man police say did the unthinkable, Daniel Holden.
37:05He's charged with murdering 20-year-old mother Carly Pierce Stevenson dumping her body in Belanglo Forest.
37:14He has not been charged with murdering Carly's two-year-old daughter Candelise.
37:21We still didn't know where Candelise had been murdered.
37:28Ultimately, we were able to conclude that Daniel Holden had taken young Candelise hostage after killing her mother at Belanglo.
37:38He then kept the two-year-old as his prisoner for four days until he arrived at the Riverina town
37:44of Narrandera, where he checked into a motel.
37:49He killed Candelise there.
37:52And that he then continued from there through New South Wales into South Australia, through the Riverland.
38:00And once he reached Wanaka, he disposed of Candelise in a suitcase on the side of the road.
38:17We could have had trials in both New South Wales and South Australia.
38:23It would have been particularly cruel to subject the family to two trials, possibly many, many, many years apart.
38:31So the decision was made, the right thing to do was for us to relinquish control of the investigation and
38:39transfer the leadership role of the investigation to New South Wales Police.
38:45Now that we charged Holden for both Carly and Candelise's murders, the matter was going to proceed to court.
38:53Ultimately, through the work of the DPP Crown Prosecutor, Holden offered two pleas of guilty to both counts of murder
39:01in July 2018.
39:06This news came as a relief, as we expected a liar like Holden taking us through a drawn out criminal
39:13trial in the Supreme Court.
39:15It meant that all the witnesses that would have to come to a criminal trial would no longer be needing
39:22to go through that arduous process.
39:25And it meant that he'd acknowledged finally his involvement in the murders of Carly and Candelise.
39:35Something which he failed to do in our interviews.
39:40But Holden wasn't done toying with us.
39:43On the last day of his sentencing, he tried to change his plea on the murder of Candelise to not
39:48guilty.
39:50Justice Robert Hume was having none of it.
39:53And on November 30th, 2018, Holden's sentence was finally delivered.
40:02The judge described Daniel Holden's actions as despicable, as unspeakable.
40:11Violating her in a most callous and sadistic way.
40:15He compounded this further when he took photographs of his unspeakable mistreatment, which he kept as a vile trophy of
40:22his own inhumanity.
40:24From somebody who had no remorse, who cared not for his victims, who cared not for their family and loved
40:29ones, who was only thinking of himself and what he could gain from this.
40:35Not only had Daniel Holden killed Carly in Blanglow State Forest, he then took photos of her lifeless body as
40:44if this was some kind of trophy kill.
40:46And he kept those photos.
40:47He kept those photos on his device for years afterwards.
40:50He showed the photos of Carly's lifeless body to his next partner, to Hazel Passmore, and she said nothing.
41:01We were happy that Holden would never be released.
41:04And South Australia and Australia is a much safer place with him in prison.
41:14This was a case that had crossed three state lines.
41:18It started in Northern Territory, it made its way through New South Wales, and it entered in South Australia.
41:25What was required to solve a case like this was incredible police work across three jurisdictions.
41:31It was really the work of the police in South Australia that had helped piece this mystery together.
41:38But the collaboration between jurisdictions that we saw here from police was really incredible work.
41:45This investigation was enormous.
41:47We had over 2,000 reports to Crimestoppers.
41:51We had 57 suspects that we identified.
41:55We identified 12,000 babies that were born in the relevant timeframe to try to identify potential victims from that.
42:06People like Tanya Webber, investigations couldn't be as successful as they are without that assistance.
42:14And we were appreciative of it.
42:18Carly.
42:19Carly.
42:28I do this for the families.
42:32As detectives, we speak for those who cannot speak.
42:37Oh, my little star.
42:44You know I wonder where you are.
42:48This was a job that touched the hearts of everybody across Australia.
42:59I've never been involved in my 50 odd years in the police with a job where there was so much
43:07investment from everybody in the community.
43:10Everybody wanted to solve this case.
43:13You saw roadside memorials.
43:17We had flowers delivered to our office.
43:19We had cards sent to our office.
43:23Yeah, it was just an outpouring of grief, I think, across the country and a sense of relief nationwide when
43:29he was arrested and convicted.
43:32I think I was interested.
44:00I think I asked it.
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