- 2 days ago
The Investigators delves into the tragic case of Rachel Barber, a 15-year-old aspiring dancer whose 1999 disappearance shocked Melbourne.
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00:25I've now got 37 years in policing.
00:29I've travelled the world with policing.
00:32I'm still not aware of another homicide matter that looks like this.
00:4015-year-old dancer Rachel Barber went missing on the 1st of March.
00:45I was wondering if I could give you one of these flies, it's of my daughter.
00:49She was going with an old female friend.
00:54This female friend, once we find her, will lead us to Rachel.
01:03Carolyn had a script for the crime and what was going to happen after the crime.
01:08She was going to become not just a Rachel-like, but Rachel herself.
01:17We were looking at the anatomy of a murder.
01:36For Rachel, movement was everything to her, even at a young age.
01:43She loved to dance.
01:46When she used to come home from school, we'd just let her push all the furniture back
01:50and she used to put classical music on and she would just dance.
02:17I'm Elizabeth Barber and I'm the mother of Rachel Barber.
02:24Also, her sisters, Ashley Rose and Heather.
02:28And married to my husband, Mike.
02:33Our lives did revolve around Rachel.
02:36Hello, Rachel.
02:38It doesn't feel a girl again.
02:41And the thing about Rachel is she was very empathetic
02:44and she didn't like it when people were sad or unhappy
02:48and she liked to make them feel better in themselves.
02:52One of my sweetest memories was when she was 13
02:56and she went off to school.
02:58She went out the door and then there was a knock on the door
03:01and she came back.
03:05And she said to me, Mum, thank you for giving birth to me.
03:12I've always remembered that.
03:31I took her to Doncaster Shopping Town and we bought her some new block pants.
03:38And I agreed that she could have a kitten.
03:40So she was really happy.
03:46When I went to bed, she came through and said,
03:48good night and I love you.
03:49And I remember her hair brushing across my face.
04:03That day, I said to her, you're up to something.
04:06And I remember this.
04:08She looked at me and she smiled and she didn't say anything.
04:11She gave me a cuddle and a kiss and she stepped out the front door.
04:39Rachel was doing a Diploma of Performing Arts.
04:43It was only the second week, I think.
04:47I had some concerns about Rachel
04:49because she was a few years younger than the other students.
04:52She had left school at the end of year nine
04:55and she had been accepted into this a couple of years earlier.
05:00She didn't enjoy school
05:03and performing arts was everything that she wanted to do.
05:33Michael would pick Rachel up.
05:35They normally get home about 6.30 and it was only quarter to seven
05:40and I'm thinking, oh, they're running a bit late.
05:45I didn't think too much of it.
05:47We didn't have mobile phones then.
05:49They could have got a flat tyre or anything.
05:53But then I got a phone call from Michael
05:56and he'd been waiting at the tram stop for Rachel
06:00and she normally got off at quarter past six.
06:05In the morning, she had specifically said to him, I'll see you tonight, Dad.
06:10And she didn't get off her tram.
06:14He said that he'd waited an hour for the other trams
06:17and she hadn't been on it.
06:20So that's why we were concerned.
06:25I rang the police then.
06:28I said, I'd like to report a missing person.
06:33And the male officer seemed concerned and he said,
06:36good, could you tell me her name and her age?
06:40And then how long has she been missing?
06:42An hour and a quarter.
06:45You can imagine the pause at the end of the phone.
06:52Well, it hasn't been that long.
06:55You know, she's 15.
06:56She's probably gone off with a few friends.
06:59You know, you'll probably see her later on tonight
07:02being very apologetic.
07:05I had rung up the dance factory
07:07and as far as they were concerned, she left at quarter to six.
07:14We went to Richmond.
07:20The dance factory was closed then.
07:23But we still walked around
07:26and we were calling out, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel.
07:31If she had suddenly been grabbed or kidnapped
07:34and she was somewhere in a house
07:36in the back streets of Richmond,
07:38she might have heard us
07:39and known that we were searching for her.
07:43We felt that if we were going to find our daughter
07:46and bring her home,
07:48we had to start this investigation ourselves
07:51because we knew something was wrong.
08:07My name's Neil Patterson.
08:09Back in March of 1999,
08:11I was a detective senior constable
08:13at our missing persons unit.
08:15I first heard about Rachel going missing
08:17on Tuesday the 2nd of March.
08:22I had a very good friend
08:24who ran a cafe below the dance factory.
08:27He rang me that afternoon and said,
08:29hey, I've got this family
08:31and their daughter has gone missing.
08:33She was from the dance factory upstairs.
08:34I know you're a detective at missing persons.
08:36Would you just at least speak to them?
08:41So I called and I gave Elizabeth some information.
08:45Most young people go missing of their own accord
08:48that they will turn up within 24 hours
08:51or a short time after that period of time
08:53because that is what the general data
08:55and what history tells us.
09:00Here in Victoria, we have over 20,000 people a year
09:05that are reported as missing to police.
09:08That's 56 people a day.
09:11The overwhelming majority are children
09:13under the age of 18 years.
09:18Most people, it's about 70% of the people
09:21that are reported missing are located within 24 hours.
09:2480% are located within 48 hours
09:27and about 85% are located within 72 hours.
09:32I said that at this stage,
09:33missing persons unit wouldn't take on a job
09:36like Rachel being reported as missing.
09:40He was trying to be understanding.
09:43But at that time,
09:45we had contacted the police 10 times
09:48and it was like lost dogs had more rights
09:50than lost children.
09:53I could tell how frustrated Elizabeth was
09:56with the apparent lack of interest by police.
10:00And then Elizabeth told me a concerning conversation
10:03she'd had with Rachel's boyfriend,
10:05Manny Caralla,
10:06on the night she disappeared.
10:09He said,
10:10Rachel said she was going with an old female friend
10:16and that she wasn't coming home for a few hours.
10:19She was going out
10:19and that she was going to earn a lot of money
10:22and to be given clothes.
10:25She'd said it was either a secret,
10:29it was private,
10:30not to tell anybody
10:31and not to worry.
10:35And I felt my heart sink.
10:41The case was still in the hands of local detectives
10:44and that was appropriate.
10:45But after what Elizabeth told me,
10:47I asked her to write down the names of all the people
10:50in Rachel's life.
10:52He said,
10:54write out lists
10:55and he would chase up the investigation.
11:00Now Rachel had been missing for less than 24 hours.
11:04I told Elizabeth,
11:06officially it was too soon for a full scale investigation
11:09from my team.
11:11But unofficially,
11:13I got to work.
11:14So, given that there is a mention of an old friend,
11:17we will want to be speaking to people
11:19that interact with Rachel on a regular basis
11:22to find out what she's been saying to them recently
11:25so that we can start to piece together
11:28a picture of what might have happened.
11:32I started making calls,
11:34doing what I could to find Rachel.
11:37At that stage,
11:38I was still confident of a positive outcome.
11:42I absolutely fully expected
11:44that we would find Rachel alive and well,
11:47that there'd be a bizarre, interesting story
11:50and she'd be very sorry and regretful
11:52and there'd be hugs and tears of joy
11:54with the reuniting with the family.
11:57There was no inkling
11:59that there would be a homicide involved.
12:03That was the furthest thing from my mind.
12:21The Barber family were doing everything they could to find Rachel.
12:25They were walking the streets day and night,
12:28plastering hundreds of posters of their missing daughter.
12:31Get the poster down,
12:33and all those people working with us as well is really good.
12:39When you have a homicide,
12:40or indeed a missing person,
12:42you will look very much with an open mind as a detective.
12:45What that means is,
12:46often family members are considered persons of interest.
12:51that was never the case here.
12:56It was so clear from speaking to Michael and Elizabeth
13:01that they could not have been involved in Rachel's disappearance.
13:06Their level of concern and distress was high and unique.
13:21Four days after Rachel went missing,
13:23the family home was searched by uniformed police.
13:30In Rachel's bedroom they found handwritten notes.
13:36Two words seemed to indicate to the officers
13:39that Rachel may have planned her disappearance.
13:43They showed us this note,
13:45and on it it said,
13:46running away.
13:48She'd written running away.
13:50And as far as they were concerned,
13:53she was a runaway.
13:56The running away we couldn't work out,
13:58and Michael was going running away, running away, runaways.
14:02And I said, they're gym shoes.
14:07She did have a thing about shoes.
14:11We told the police this, but no.
14:18We were really struggling,
14:19because we felt that the police were looking for evidence
14:23to prove that she'd run away.
14:26I was warned that I could be put on a caution
14:29because I spat the dummy at the Richmond police station.
14:33Understandably,
14:35Elizabeth had become quite upset
14:37that the police weren't taking this seriously,
14:40and they were essentially manhandled out of the police station.
14:44The thing that stood out with this one,
14:46even though there was no intelligence or evidence,
14:50was the level of distress of Elizabeth and Michael.
14:55It was so clear that this was so out of character for Rachel
14:59to be away for an hour or so,
15:02let alone overnight and into the next days,
15:04that there must be something wrong.
15:19I was wondering if I could give you one of these flies.
15:22It's of my daughter that went missing nine days ago.
15:25Okay.
15:27Michael had already started the grieving process
15:30because he believed Rachel was dead.
15:35He collapsed at home, trembling and shaking and flailing around
15:39and crying out,
15:41she's dead, she's dead.
15:42And that made me angry,
15:46because I believe she was alive.
15:51We had maintained contact with the detectives at Richmond,
15:55but officially it wasn't till the morning of the 10th of March
15:58that the missing persons unit took on the investigation.
16:05Family and friends hold grave fears
16:07for the safety of a 15-year-old girl
16:09who disappeared after her dancing class in Richmond.
16:12It was on March 10 that we got a big break,
16:16thanks to the Barber family's missing persons posters.
16:20A girl who knew Rachel saw one and came forward.
16:25She told us she'd seen Rachel on a tram in Paran at 6.40pm
16:30on the day she vanished.
16:32And she wasn't alone.
16:35She saw her with a girl
16:37who Rachel was obviously friendly with.
16:41She heard her mention a kitten
16:43and she heard her mention a boyfriend.
16:47And when Rachel got off,
16:50she did her little tiny wave that she used to do.
16:54So that was a positive sighting
16:56and that was about 6.30, 4.00 to 7.00.
17:01The information was crucial,
17:04but it didn't paint a picture
17:06that there was foul play involved.
17:13It doesn't appear to be a stressful situation
17:16or a situation that might be untoward.
17:20Indeed, it goes to confirm
17:23some of the information we already had,
17:25which was that Rachel may have been catching up
17:28with an old female friend
17:29and some sort of job or undertaking
17:33where she would earn a lot of money
17:34was the words back then.
17:36It's a high likelihood that we'll find Rachel alive.
17:40We need to investigate who this female friend is
17:43and this female friend, once we find her,
17:46will lead us to Rachel.
18:00We now had a good lead in the disappearance
18:03of 15-year-old Rachel Barber.
18:06A witness had seen Rachel on the number 6 tram
18:09in Paran on the night she went missing.
18:13Rachel was with another girl
18:15who was slightly older than her,
18:17but clearly she was with someone she knew.
18:21The witness helped us put together a photo-fit picture.
18:31I knew the face, but I couldn't, I couldn't get the name.
18:36And, and Michael knew the face.
18:42Despite their frustration, it did feel like we were getting closer.
18:47So we're looking for any friends or family or anyone else in her past
18:51that might be connected to the Paran area as well.
18:55She has been offered some sort of employment opportunity
18:58which she hasn't been prepared to tell her family and friends about,
19:01which obviously causes us great concern.
19:09In the early days of the search for Rachel,
19:11when the missing persons unit was not officially involved,
19:15I'd asked Elizabeth to write down a list of all the people in Rachel's life.
19:21None of the names Elizabeth provided had led to any solid leads.
19:26But on March 11, Elizabeth had another go at her list.
19:31A girlfriend of mine, Chris, had come to help.
19:34She said, come on Elizabeth, you've got to drag this list out.
19:38If it was a dance school friend, she wouldn't have said old female friend.
19:42It's somebody else.
19:44Chris said, what about the neighbours in Montalbert?
19:50And I said, OK, the Reeds.
19:56I wrote down Caroline and her two younger sisters' names.
20:02Here's the thing.
20:03On March 11, my colleagues and I at the missing persons unit
20:07didn't know about the new names on Elizabeth's list.
20:10We certainly didn't know anything about Caroline Reid.
20:14But we were about to find out, independently of Elizabeth's new list.
20:20David DePile was our analyst back at the missing persons unit.
20:24And analysts are worth their weight in gold.
20:29So he's there conducting inquiries on the phone number of the barber's house.
20:35I tasked David with checking all the call charge records for the landline at the barber's house.
20:41And specifically for the period leading up to Rachel's disappearance.
20:46Who has phoned into that house and the numbers that have been dialled from that house?
20:51Who are those phone numbers registered to?
20:53Where do they live?
20:56And there was an address for one of those phone numbers that came up to the Paran area.
21:03They discovered that the silent number had rung our house twice.
21:09Two lengthy phone calls of about 20 minutes each.
21:12On the night before Rachel went missing.
21:16David's looking into that and comes up with a name of who that phone is registered to.
21:24But that's not a name that rings any bells from the list that we've already received from the barbers.
21:30They said to us, do we know a Caroline Robertson?
21:35They asked Michael.
21:37We know a Caroline Reid.
21:46At that point they realised that Caroline Reid, or the girl Caroline Robertson, actually listed her name as Caroline Reid
21:56Robertson.
21:58As a detective, the hairs on the back of your neck start to go, this is interesting, something's not right
22:03here.
22:06Caroline Reid Robertson, from Paran, was the person who had called the Barber family home twice the night before Rachel
22:14disappeared.
22:16Caroline was estranged from her family and had legally changed her name from Caroline Reid, spelled R-E-I-D,
22:25to Caroline Reid, R-E-E-D Robertson.
22:32She was 20 years of age, just five years older than Rachel, and she had been a neighbour.
22:41Things started moving very quickly.
22:46We headed straight to Reid Robertson's apartment in Paran, hoping that Rachel was inside, alive and safe.
22:55The police were thinking that maybe Caroline and Rachel had run off, done something like that.
23:02We knocked on the door, and no one is home.
23:07OK, so who's the body corporate for this block of flats? How could I get keys?
23:13We located Caroline's father, and Steve Waddell, my senior sergeant, and I went and visited him at his office.
23:22He explained to us Caroline's history, that she'd had various challenges through her life.
23:29The most striking thing that he had said was that he had a level of concern about Rachel's welfare, given
23:38that his daughter was a little unusual.
23:44We've got the keys to the flat.
23:47I put the keys into the door.
23:51It does turn the lock, but the lock is snibbed from the inside.
23:57There's no other entrance or exit from the flat, which means to me that there's someone inside the flat.
24:11On March 12, 1999, we went to the home of Caroline Reid Robertson in Paran.
24:19We suspected someone was inside her apartment because the door was latched from the inside.
24:26A fire crew raised a ladder to the flat on the top floor.
24:31Through a window, they saw a body lying on the floor.
24:36A fire brigade officer broke in and unlocked the front door.
24:46On entry, we realised the body wasn't Rachel.
24:49It was Caroline.
24:51She was alive, but apparently unconscious, surrounded by empty packets of epilepsy medication.
25:00She was taken to hospital.
25:11When I was able to go into the room where Caroline was lying in a bed, she had her eyes
25:16shut.
25:17And I said to her,
25:19Do you know where Rachel is?
25:22Yes.
25:24She's dead.
25:27How did that happen?
25:28I killed her.
25:30Do you know where her body is?
25:32The farm.
25:35Having already spoken to Caroline's father, I knew that he had a farm up at Kilmore.
25:42And she said she's buried near the trees.
25:48And how did you get her body there?
25:50Removal van.
25:51How did she die?
25:52I can't remember.
25:54I'm tired.
25:57Then she refused to talk anymore.
26:11At 2pm on Saturday, March 13, investigators arrived at the Reeds Farm near Kilmore, about 70 kilometres north of Melbourne.
26:23There, in a shallow grave, they discovered Rachel's body, with a wire ligature around her neck.
26:38Delivering a death message to anyone is a really tough thing to do.
26:44It actually doesn't get easier through a career as a police officer.
26:51At 6 o'clock, there was a knock at the door, and Neil Patterson and Steve Wardell were there.
26:59We knew we were telling the barbers information that would change their lives forever.
27:05They looked at us and they said, I'm sorry.
27:09There's no other way of saying this, but Rachel has been murdered.
27:17Michael said, we expected you to come here and tell us that Rachel had been murdered.
27:24But that she'd been murdered by a man.
27:27But that's not what we were telling them.
27:30We're telling them that their beloved daughter has been killed by another girl, a few years older than Rachel, who
27:40was a friend of the family.
27:50That first night, I didn't sleep.
27:55And early in the morning, I got up and I walked down to Rachel's bedroom.
27:59And I got into bed with my mum and she put her arm around me and I said, I've lost
28:06my baby.
28:06And I just broke down.
28:08And we both cried together.
28:18When I first spoke to Caroline in hospital, she confessed to killing Rachel.
28:23But she never said why or how.
28:29When we searched Caroline's apartment, we found out why she killed Rachel and how she did it.
28:38Pages and pages of notes written by Caroline.
28:42We were looking at the anatomy of a murder.
28:48Very detailed plans, quite evil plans.
28:52I've been involved in quite a number of homicide investigations.
28:56And these are things you don't find.
28:58You do not find people making detailed notes of how they're going to undertake a murder.
29:10In her own hand, Reid Robertson had sketched out a complicated and bizarre scheme to lure Rachel to her death.
29:20It was very obvious she was trying to take on the identity of Rachel.
29:28And the impossible task, of course, to become Rachel.
29:43Following the murder of Rachel Barber, police were able to deconstruct a grim plot,
29:49hatched by Caroline Reid Robertson to drug, kill and dump the 15-year-old's body.
29:57All the details were laid out in a chilling series of handwritten notes we found in Caroline's apartment.
30:06These were the notes of someone quite pathological, taking and planning individual steps that would lead to Rachel's murder, the
30:18covering up of that murder.
30:19That would lead to her assuming Rachel's identity with sufficient knowledge of the family history and background that she could
30:27potentially pass herself off as Rachel.
30:31What did you tell police about Caroline?
30:35Caroline was very unhappy in her own home life.
31:07Caroline was very unhappy in her story.
31:08Caroline, we knew that she was a troubled person.
31:14I regret ever having her as a babysitter.
31:27Rachel really didn't need babysitting if we'd gone out,
31:29but with the two younger children,
31:31Rachel wasn't old enough really to be left with them.
31:35So a couple of times, Caroline had come to the house
31:40and she'd quite often chat with Michael
31:42while he was mowing the lawn.
31:44He went and repaired her computer on a couple of occasions
31:47and she came and we used our computers.
31:50We'd just leave her there for the day.
31:53She was polite with us.
31:56We had no reason to wonder about anything,
32:01but this picture here,
32:04she always used to love this picture.
32:10No one could have known Caroline
32:12was pathologically obsessed with Rachel.
32:17Caroline used Elizabeth and Michael's kindness
32:21to get inside their family home
32:23to learn everything she could about their daughter.
32:29When the barbers moved house to Bayswater,
32:32Caroline was no longer their neighbour,
32:34but that wasn't going to stop her.
32:38Her plans, all carefully written down,
32:42were already in motion.
32:46She had plans to slim down.
32:49Rachel was a very beautiful young girl and a dancer
32:53and had a dancer's figure.
32:55Caroline did not.
32:57So she had plans to, as far as possible,
33:00start to look like Rachel,
33:03to be armed with information about her family background
33:07so that she could pass herself off as being Rachel.
33:12Caroline had got Rachel's birth date
33:14and she'd applied for Rachel's birth certificate.
33:18She had been writing that Rachel was a free spirit,
33:23allowed to run free,
33:26that she had hypnotic green eyes
33:30and she also thought about names.
33:35She'd written down Rachel Southall,
33:37which is my maiden name,
33:39and then went to Jem Southall.
33:43And there were a lot of ramblings
33:45about Rachel's beauty
33:48and how she considered that she was this ideal person.
34:11With the Rachel Barber case,
34:13we were in essence doing a personality assessment
34:17of the person who had been identified
34:21and charged with the offence.
34:25Caroline Robertson was dissatisfied with her existence.
34:32She was dissatisfied with life.
34:38She didn't think she was getting the things
34:41that she was entitled to.
34:43She wanted to be successful.
34:44She wanted to be beautiful.
34:46She wanted to be a dancer.
34:48She wanted to be a performer.
34:50None of that was occurring
34:52in a natural course of action.
34:55So what did she do?
34:57She fixated on Rachel,
35:00who embodied everything Caroline wanted to be.
35:05Rachel, in her perception,
35:07had the perfect life.
35:10She developed this fantasy
35:12that somehow she was going to become
35:18not just a Rachel-like,
35:22but Rachel herself.
35:27There was an element of trust.
35:29Caroline Robertson had engaged with the parents,
35:32she babysat for the parents,
35:34and so she was a known quantity.
35:36Because of the way Rachel was brought up
35:40in this loving, wholesome environment,
35:43there was an element of naivety there too,
35:46an even greater vulnerability.
35:49That really created, in this case,
35:53the perfect victim.
35:59Caroline Robertson knew,
36:00because of her proximity to the family,
36:03their circumstances.
36:05She knew what Rachel aspired to as well.
36:10And so you've got a dynamic here
36:12that Rachel wants certain things.
36:15In this instance,
36:16it was a particular pair of shoes.
36:20Rachel wanted these chunky Spice Girl shoes.
36:24She'd asked me a few weeks before
36:26if she could buy them,
36:27and I said at the moment
36:29we just didn't have the funds,
36:30so I hadn't,
36:32and I really regret that.
36:34She had put these shoes aside.
36:39When Caroline Reed Robertson
36:40made her secret phone calls
36:42offering Rachel a chance
36:43to earn some money,
36:44she knew the 15-year-old
36:46wouldn't suspect a thing.
36:49We do know that Caroline
36:51had offered money to Rachel
36:53to come for a photo shoot type of job.
36:56You'll get paid handsomely out of this job.
36:59It's only a couple of hours.
37:00Don't tell anyone about it.
37:03Rachel never stood a chance.
37:08After meeting near the dance factory,
37:10they took a tram up Chapel Street,
37:14changed to another tram
37:15at High Street Paran,
37:18then got off at the stop
37:19right by the lane
37:21behind Caroline's flat.
37:25And once the apartment door
37:27closed behind them,
37:29Caroline knew exactly
37:31what would happen next.
37:35Caroline didn't want a person
37:36that would start fighting her,
37:38so it was to lace her food
37:39with a sedative.
37:43She would place something
37:44over Rachel's face.
37:49And ultimately,
37:50we know she used a
37:52discarded PABX telephone cord
37:55around Rachel's neck.
38:04During the night,
38:05a neighbour was woken
38:06by the sound of someone
38:08crying loudly.
38:15The fact that Rachel
38:17pleaded for her life
38:18would have been irrelevant
38:21to Caroline Robertson.
38:24This offender
38:26had no empathy
38:27for her victim.
38:29She had no care
38:30for her victim.
38:32This was all about
38:33Caroline Robertson.
38:37For two days,
38:39Caroline kept Rachel's body
38:40hidden in a wardrobe
38:42before hiring a courier truck
38:44to move her
38:45to the Reid family farm.
38:48Caroline Robertson
38:49had a script
38:51for the crime
38:52and what was going to happen
38:54after the crime.
38:56The day that we found
38:58Caroline on the floor
38:59in her flat,
39:01she was due to be on the train
39:03out of Melbourne to Sydney
39:04at 8pm that night.
39:06And then she was going
39:08to start another life
39:09up in Bondi Beach
39:10and lose weight.
39:12Maybe that was the way
39:13she was going to do it.
39:14The finding of Caroline
39:15and her subsequent arrest
39:16put a stop to the plans
39:19that she had of getting out
39:20of the state of Victoria
39:22and starting to assume
39:24the life of Rachel
39:25interstate.
39:29Sadly,
39:30I don't believe anyone
39:31could have stopped
39:32Caroline Reid Robertson
39:33from killing Rachel Barber.
39:36It's tragic.
39:37It's horrific.
39:39But who could have imagined
39:40a murder scenario
39:41like this?
39:44You know,
39:44I've got 37 years
39:46in policing.
39:46I'm still not aware
39:48of another homicide matter
39:49that looks like this.
40:02The murder confession
40:03that Caroline Reid Robertson
40:05made in hospital
40:06was all we'd ever get
40:07from her.
40:09We sat her down
40:10for a formal police interview
40:12but she made no further
40:13admissions about
40:14what she'd done.
40:16Her silence
40:17was another form
40:18of torture
40:19for Rachel's family.
40:24She'd pleaded
40:25not guilty
40:26all the way through.
40:27We'd better wait
40:28to see what happens.
40:29And then
40:30so close to court
40:33she pleaded
40:34guilty.
40:40And when you saw Caroline
40:42in court
40:43you were shocked
40:43how transformed
40:44she was.
40:45She was already
40:47slighter than what
40:47I knew her
40:48but I was just
40:50studying her hands.
40:52And what was it
40:53about her hands?
40:55Well I
40:56it was those hands
40:58that took our
40:58daughter's life.
41:02I found that difficult.
41:05I found that difficult.
41:09the court heard
41:11Caroline Reid Robertson
41:12loathed everything
41:14about herself
41:14and had a deeply
41:16entrenched
41:16personality disorder.
41:23She claimed
41:24she couldn't really
41:25remember much
41:25about killing
41:26Rachel.
41:28I question
41:30the reality
41:32of the amnesia.
41:34The amnesia
41:36conveniently
41:37allows
41:38Caroline Robertson
41:39to avoid
41:40disclosing
41:42the aspects
41:43of the crime
41:44that would
41:46display her
41:47to everyone
41:48as a monster.
41:54I don't buy
41:56it at all.
41:56I don't
41:57for a minute
41:58buy
41:58that Caroline
41:59does not
42:00remember
42:00exactly
42:01what happened.
42:04The crime
42:05that was
42:06committed here
42:08demonstrated
42:09a significant
42:10level of
42:11planning
42:11and pre-planning.
42:14Caroline Robertson
42:15didn't leave
42:16too much
42:17to chance.
42:18We know
42:20that the
42:21noose itself
42:21that was used
42:23to murder
42:23Rachel
42:24had to have
42:24been pre-prepared.
42:28All of these
42:30parts
42:31and processes
42:32were thought
42:33through.
42:34Caroline was
42:35definitely
42:35not crazy.
43:10The mother
43:10of a murdered
43:11dance student
43:12has confronted
43:13her daughter's
43:13killer as she
43:14attempted to have
43:15her jail term
43:15reduced.
43:19We'd sat
43:20there and
43:20we'd listen
43:21to Caroline
43:22say how
43:25unfairly she
43:26had been
43:26treated.
43:28I very
43:29occasionally
43:30spit the
43:31dummy
43:32and I spat
43:33the dummy.
43:34I waited
43:35until the
43:36judge had
43:37left so I
43:37wasn't in
43:38contempt of
43:38court.
43:39I went up
43:40to where she
43:40was in the
43:41dock and I
43:42blocked it
43:43so she
43:43couldn't get
43:44out.
43:46Guards were
43:46saying,
43:47Madam,
43:47will you
43:47please step
43:48back?
43:48But I
43:48wasn't going
43:49to step
43:49back.
43:49I was
43:50staring in
43:51her eyes.
43:53I wanted
43:54her to see
43:54Rachel in
43:55me because
43:56when I was
43:57younger,
43:59our eyes
44:00looked similar,
44:01same colour.
44:03I said,
44:03you gave our
44:04daughter death.
44:05I had problems
44:06speaking.
44:06I was so
44:07enraged and
44:08I was this
44:09close to her.
44:11And the
44:12thing that
44:12shocked me
44:13was that
44:14there was
44:15absolutely
44:17nothing in
44:17her eyes.
44:19She didn't
44:20respond in
44:21any way.
44:27She'll be
44:28out by the
44:28time she's
44:2934 or
44:2935.
44:30She wants
44:31she can
44:31have a
44:32family.
44:33I wonder
44:33how she'll
44:34feel then
44:34if someone
44:34took any
44:35of her
44:35kids.
44:49The
44:50parole board
44:51says she
44:51will be
44:52supervised
44:52with
44:53reporting
44:53conditions
44:54and can't
44:55leave
44:55Victoria.
44:58Today we
44:58saw her
44:59walking away
45:00from this
45:00facility with
45:01a male and
45:02female.
45:03No doubt
45:03today will
45:04be a very
45:04tough day
45:05for Rachel
45:06Barber's
45:06family.
45:26I'm a
45:27Christian and
45:28in the end I
45:30came to
45:30forgive her.
45:31I didn't want to
45:32remain bitter and
45:32angry all my
45:33life because that
45:35wouldn't help
45:35our family.
45:37I thought if
45:39we don't look
45:39after Rachel's
45:40sisters, if we
45:42fall apart as
45:43a unit, Caroline
45:45really has
45:45destroyed our
45:47family and I
45:47couldn't allow
45:48her to do
45:48that.
45:51Simple messages
45:52of grief lined
45:53the entrance to
45:53St. Hilary's
45:54in Kew as
45:55those who knew
45:56Rachel Barber came
45:57to pay their
45:57final respects.
46:05She was young
46:06and beautiful
46:07holding her
46:08future in her
46:09hands.
46:10Her dreams
46:11were ready to
46:12take flight.
46:33Rachel's family
46:34will meet with
46:34Premier Geoff
46:35Kennett next
46:35week to discuss
46:37assistance for
46:37families of
46:38children missing
46:39in suspicious
46:40circumstances.
46:41There has been
46:42support from
46:43everywhere, from
46:45the Premier's
46:46office, from
46:46the street
46:47kids.
46:53Families do
46:54need support.
46:55In the early
46:56stages of this
46:56investigation, that
46:58wasn't something
46:58that we got
46:59right.
46:59We've learnt
47:00a lot since
47:02then, ways to
47:05do things
47:06better, to
47:08support the
47:09family members
47:09of people that
47:10have reported
47:11missing better.
47:26This was a
47:26family I could
47:27connect with.
47:28These are salt-of-the-earth
47:30people.
47:30This is a loving
47:32family unit.
47:34You've got a
47:35young girl that's
47:37in the early stages
47:38of living out her
47:40passion of a
47:41dance career.
47:43I've never met
47:44Rachel, but I
47:46actually feel like I
47:46know Rachel.
47:51one of my
47:51memories was taking
47:53Rachel to see
47:54Graham Murphy's
47:55Nutcracker Ballet
47:57in Melbourne.
47:58At the end, I had
48:00gone to the
48:00bathroom and
48:02everybody else had
48:02sort of gone away
48:03from the foyer.
48:05I'd left Rachel out
48:06there.
48:06She was about nine
48:07or ten.
48:09I came out and
48:10she was doing her
48:12lovely improvisation of
48:14classical ballet on the
48:15foyer.
48:18And as I was about to
48:19step out, I saw Graham
48:20Murphy watching her.
48:22And I just stayed there.
48:25And he was enamoured by
48:27her as I was and Mike
48:29was when we used to
48:30watch her dance, when she
48:31used to come home from
48:32school and push all the
48:33furniture back.
48:34That Nutcracker Ballet
48:36with him enjoying
48:38Rachel as she was,
48:41being so natural, that's
48:42just one of my
48:42loveliest memories of
48:43her.
48:46piano plays softly
48:48piano plays softly
48:52piano plays softly
48:55I don't know.
49:26I don't know.
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