September 21, 2025 • 23 mins
The official finding says Cain Moore’s death was accidental, but his family and investigators see gaps in the police work. Why were certain cars cleared? How did drivers see in the dark? And could forensic details have been overlooked? This episode puts the investigation under the microscope.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Approche production.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Cain ran Moore was born on the twenty second of
September two thousand and four and died sometime between twenty
one April twenty twenty three and the twenty second of
April twenty twenty three in Alice River, near Townsville. He
was eighteen years old. That's the first two lines of
the coroner's finding after the completion of a coronial investigation
(00:38):
into Caine's death in November of twenty twenty four. Police
and the coroner say it was a horrible accident. Caine
was lying on the ground in a park just minutes
from his home when a vehicle ran over his head.
(00:59):
His family don't disagree it was an accident, but they
do think someone knows something. Someone knows who ran over
their cano. They don't believe anyone did this on purpose,
but they do want someone to come forward. They've always
believed there's more to the story.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
The thing that really gets me is that they didn't stop.
They did not stop. They left him there. Now, they
wouldn't even have known that he died instantly. They've he
could have been, you know, laying there suffering all night,
and they've just let just left him.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
That I can never get over how anyone could do that.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, No, it was only about ten meters from where
his friends were. It was very close, Yeah, to where
the tables and chairs and the little hut were where
they were drinking. To where he was run over near
the tennis court. Was absolutely freak accident. And even the
(02:13):
next day, hearing what happened on the news or people talking, yeah,
I would think that they would realize, oh yeah, something
triggering their mind as to the night before, and then
come forward. But we're hoping that they still will. The
hardest thing watching that news. I've still got a copy
(02:36):
of it on my phone. It's unreal watching it because
just hearing his name, you know, his full name on
the news.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And seeing the police fans and.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You can even see I'm around with a blanket over
it if.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
You zoom in, and it's just, yeah, it's horrible.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Not something I can look at or think about at all.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Police acted quickly. The COIB commenced an investigation into Kine's death.
Cain had no criminal history and no negative contact from
the police. Ever, Here's what police said when they first
got to the park.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Initial inquiries by police identified distinct tire track marks in
the grass that lined up with Cain. It was suspected
Cain had tragically been run over by a motor vehicle.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
In the days after Caine was found, police carried out
investigations from the scene. The crime scene showed.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Tire impressions in the grass leading up to and immediately
after where Cain had been located. The path of the
tire and condition of Kane's body suggested he had likely
been run over by a vehicle at low speed.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
They downloaded the data from Kane's phone. His activity stopped
on his phone at about nine pm the night of
April twenty first, the night of the party. Police also
used CCTV and witness statements to identify two cars that
were in the park that night, a small car and
(04:13):
a larger four wheel drive. That second car had only
been in the area for less than five minutes. They
seized both of these cars and started interviewing everyone who
was at the park that night.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I just thought that they would have found who it
was with confiscating all the cars and everything and interviewing
all the kids. I just thought it would be within
that few days to a week tops for them working
out who it was.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I really did, really really did. So you strongly believe
that it was someone there in that group at the
park that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Night well, or someone that came there to the park, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Sir Jane. Once a few days had passed or a week,
how are you and Gary feeling about what was happening
with the case?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Every day I thought that they were going to read
me to tell me something, but no, nothing. We had
to keep in contact with them and keep trying to
bring an email them, and we didn't want to harass
them too much. We wanted to let them do their job.
But anything we heard we put into an email straight
away or gave them a call. And I did a
(05:23):
lot by email because I know that they're very busy
and I didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Be hassling them. But no, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Just felt like we were sort of just always asking,
you know, is there anything that's happened or and just heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Did the police ever ask you for a statement?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I thought that was I thought that was funny too.
That's all I could think of, is what about Gary,
your husband? No, nothing at all.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And I put it down to the simple factors that
we weren't there. You know, Gary was away working and
I was at my house at Kelso.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So I'm guessing nothing happening. You're feeling just getting more
and more.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Disappointed just hearing what all the kids were saying. So
that's one thing that they were all saying the same thing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
They were all on p with.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So we thought that the police were going to solve
it though, So you know, we really did kick back
and just in hope that they were going to investigate it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But it's.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It's heartbreaking to think that nothing's happened yet and it's
just been handed over to the coroner's court because.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
They had nothing more to go on. That's heartbreaking. Kine's
family fear that someone knows more, but this person has
chosen to stay silent. But again, the police and the
coroner don't agree, and there's no evidence to suggest someone
is choosing to stay silent.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think he was ran over. But we're not going
to stop until they come forward, until we've got answers.
We deserve answers as a family, a little bit of
closure for Caine. We deserve to know what happened to him.
I don't want this to just go unsolved. That's my
(07:20):
worst fear. We want to know what happened to him.
Why he was left in the park there all night,
in the cold, cold park, just on the ground by himself.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That tears me apart. There's a lot of questions that
I wanted an expert to help answer. Damien Marrett is
a former police detective in Victoria and now runs Marit Investigations.
He's been involved in investigating some of the highest profile
(07:56):
cases in Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
The bulk of my career was around major crime, in
drugs and covert operations.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Investigate a part of that job forms a large part
of what you do as a detective.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Right divisional work, which is local cib or CiU work.
It can range day to day what happens you can
be called to. It could be a suicide where the
suspicious circumstances. It could be a homicide, It could be
a rape, could be a serious assault, a group of thieves,
(08:30):
you know, organized sort of thieves, organized crime in your area.
You basically cover whatever comes across the desk that needs
further investigation that uniform usually carry out or can get
rid of.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You've seen this case of Caine more. We've spoken about
it for some time. We actually started talking about last
year and then other things got in the way. Was
there anything? Firstly, when you saw the case and you've
now had a chance to look at the current as
finding what was your initial thoughts look like anything.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I went into it reading a bit of an open mind.
What I did notice was there wasn't that much media
around it other than him being a good bloke and
you know, people liked him and so forth. But there
wasn't any huge conspiracy theories or the dark side of
this crime or anything hinting that way, which surprised me
(09:21):
because usually in any case like this, you know there'll
be some link of Ah, there was death threats three
days before, and you know, it changes the whole facet
of it. So when I read the coroner's report after that,
it was all pretty straightforward. It didn't seem like there
was any malice or foul play involved. It sounded like
(09:43):
a straight out accident. It seems highly likely he did
fall asleep on a thoroughfare. Now, a thoroughfare is anywhere
a car can go, so a car's allowed to drive there.
So he's fallen asleep in the path of where cars
are driving, and he's also fallen asleep just behind a
(10:05):
road what do you.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Call them, mound of dirt? Really, Yeah, it's like a
road bump, but it's not the traditional speed bump. It's
a small hill that's probably been dug out by rain
and sand and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So there's bumps on that road anyway. So if somebody
had it driven over that, especially in a larger sort
of vehicle, which I think it had to be, like
a four wheel drive or ESSUEV, you might think, geez,
that bump was bigger than I expected. But you've got
to easily drive away not knowing that somebody was on
the side of that bump or so, you know, it's
(10:40):
quite possible or I think likely. I agree with the
Currenters report. It's likely that somebody did not know at
that time that they had run somebody over.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And that's the gist of this podcast. No one's claiming
that this wasn't a tragic accident. The questions lie around
what happened after this tragedy, what did police do to investigate,
and did they leave any stone unturned? Or is there
really more to the story. Damian and I have actually
(11:17):
worked across a number of cases on both TV and
podcast and across the years we've worked together. I know
that Damien tells it like it is. He's not one
to mince words. But he's also not here at bash
police as he would say or add any gst to
the story that isn't there. And you can hear when
he first started looking into this story. For us, it
(11:38):
seemed pretty simple. Kane died as a result of a
tragic accident, and that's exactly what the coroner found when
she delivered her finding in November of last year. I
think it's important firstly to understand the difference between what
a coroner does and what a police investigation does. So
maybe we just stepped through that first, Damien.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay. So if you look at in simple terms, the
coroner's report is the initial finding by the coroner, and
it's to work out who died, when they died, why
they died, how they died, and pretty much that's where
(12:20):
it stops. So if there's suspicious circumstances and the police
haven't investigated fully, the coroner would direct them to go
and investigate further in the possibility of holding an inquest,
which is, you know, the inquest court matter, looking at
everybody in witnesses and so forth. But at this stage
(12:41):
there's nothing to suggest any as we've said, any foul
play or you know, she's basically determined the who, how, when,
what and why. So just because the police haven't found
the person who actually was involved doesn't mean that she
would direct them to go out and find him, because
(13:01):
it's not going to change her findings into the actual
death and what happened.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
What the family wants, though, is that they feel it
would be unusual to roll over someone in a car
at low speed and not think that could have been me.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah. Look, and I also think even though they don't
suspect any foul play or you know, have anything against
what the police have told them, I think for absolute closure,
they want to know who did it. And I think
what sort of exacerbates that in a little bit is
that the people in that park that night all knew
(13:41):
each other. Yes, so there'd be this weird feeling of, well,
the person who did this was probably at the funeral.
The person who did this is probably somebody who gives
me a hunt down the shops, you know, because it
could be one of his friends and somebody who likes him.
So you know, I mean, when you lose people, you
(14:03):
want to know every single detail, and if there's something
not finished or chopped up and put in a box
and put on the shelf, it just stays in your head. Well,
who did it? Was there anything else to it? I know,
I don't mean foul play, but I mean did they
stop and not help him? Did they you know? Was
there anything else? So to get absolute closure, I think
(14:25):
they and they probably wouldn't blame the person if it
was an accident and a friend of his, But so
much time's gone on it kind of makes it hard
harder to forgive people.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Let's play this out as it might have happened, So
someone accidentally runs over Caine in the park doesn't necessarily
know that they've done it at the time. The next
day cops grab everyone. Over the next two or three
days they grab everyone. They grabbed the cars in question.
(14:58):
One of the people actually comes forward themselves and says,
I was in the park. What would happen if they
went I don't know if me or not, but it
could have been.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
If whoever did it stuck to their guns and said
I had no idea it was me. And as time's
gone on, I'm just keep thinking it could have been.
Can you check out my vehicle. Can you do this
and do that? You know, I doubt if anything would
happen at all.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Legally, the person that we're talking about did have another
person in the car at the time. They also state
that they didn't feel anything unusual on the evening. In
the coronial report that was sent to the family, it
says the driver volunteered information to police that he had
only been in the park for a short time, around
(15:44):
four minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
As a placeman, if somebody's turning up to a party
like that for four minutes, five minutes and leaving, my
brain would say it's got something to do with some
sort of transaction.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Damien's just said, as our line of questioning to the
Queensland Police, it's about those two cars that were in
the park that night. The first was a smaller car,
a front wheel drive, the second a larger car, a
four wheel drive. Both were seen by witnesses driving in
(16:20):
the area where Cain was found. The driver of the
second car came forward to police to say they were
driving in the park that night for around four minutes.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Definitely, the first people you look at, people who are
conducting criminal activities when something like this happens because they're
more likely to cover up why they were there because
they don't want to get done for whatever it was,
if they were looking for somebody for criminal activities, whatever
it was.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
We're not alleging anyone was conducting criminal activity in the
park that night. Damien is giving his opinion as a
former detective on what steps he might take when investigating.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You know, and the first question police are going to ask,
and I'm guessing there were cameras and things, so they
know how long this guy would have been there, and
that's passenger. You know, it looks very suss when people
come somewhere for four minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
They also did a check on his wheels and the
tire markings on obviously on the ground on Cain and
then on the car and found that those wheels didn't match.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Okay, so do you know how long after they checked
his car?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So here's the questions we've sent off to Queensland Police
in late August of twenty twenty five. We asked questions
about why the person in a four wheel drive was
in the park for less than five minutes. Did that
raise any suspicions? Is that person or any other people
persons of interest. We also asked the details from police
(17:55):
around the checks of the tires on this car and
if the undercarriage of the car was forensically examined. There
are also some questions about the statement that appears in
the onial report from the driver of the second car.
The second vehicle was the driver had volunteered information to
the police as he had been at the party for
(18:15):
a short period around four minutes. He advised he had
driven through the area where Caine was later found and
on leaving the parks or a person he believed was
sleeping on the ground in that area.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Okay, so it was corroborated by somebody who is a
friend or an associate, because I'm guessing that's the passenger
in the car.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Correct. Police have excluded both cars after measuring the wheel
span and the tires. One thing still bugs me and
Damien as well. Police said it was very dark in
the park that night.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Police conducted a walk through at a similar time of
night that Kane was first noticed missing to establish the
lighting in the park. Investigators found there was very little
visibility without torchlight, and that even with torchlight, visibility was limited.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
The forensic crash Unit inspected the scene and said.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
That vision from a vehicle, even at low speed would
have been restricted by blind spots and shadowing due to
the darkness the view. The driver of the vehicle who
ran over Cain was unlikely to be aware of what
had occurred due to the low light in the park
and the position of Caine in the park prior to
his death.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And that's what raised more questions for us. If the
person in the fall Wall drive said that they drove
through the area where Kine was found and said that
as they were leaving they saw a person who they
believed was sleeping in the area on the ground, how
would he have seen him in the dark of night,
possibly not from the front of his car but behind.
(19:46):
These facts make us feel there's more questions that need
to be asked.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
If police haven't looked further and corroborated where vehicle spain
and you know where exactly would have driven that night,
because I don't think they're wide sort of tracks, are they.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
The police say that it was very dark and very
dark on the night, there's not a lot of light
around and the track is like what you would drive
an all terrain vehicle, like a four wheel motorbike over right,
So it's not a large track and it's just it's
dirt surrounded by grass.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, well look at it in this way. He's put
himself at the scene. So he's one of three vehicles
that were seen.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Originally two, but then they found a third, so.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
They've eliminated two other vehicles, which I'm guessing were friends
and family that were at the park that night who
are more likely to come forward. Even if it was
an accident, because we know the victim was on the track,
it seems like would have been more of an accident.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I wanted to know from Damien, as a former police officer,
what sort of things he would do in this type
of investigation. Again, we're not alleging this unnamed person we're
referring to did any of this. Damien's just giving his
opinion as a former detective what he might do.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
You could even go and look a driveway if it's
a dirt driveway, and see different sort of tire marks there,
places goes associates goes to and try and match those
tire prints that were I think the coroner said they
were a bit strange or different. Then I would sort
of source local tie deals, whether he's got other cars
(21:31):
for to change those tires from. I would even ask
to consent to asserch house check whether the tires are there.
I mean, when you take tires off, there's not many
places you can put them. And the minute doesn't consent
to that. You know that rings bells and then okay,
let's get a warrant. You know, it probably got out
(21:52):
that there was three vehicles and a camera would be
a suspect for me or a person of interest at
that stage, and I'd carry out those inquiries. And even
if it got to the stage where I totally believe
it just wasn't stating up. I mean, I would go
to data records and stuff like that and just se
been for the last three days, because I mean, that's
(22:12):
not a big time three days to get data and
pinpointing to different areas of Townsville just to see where
might have been during those three days.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Next time on more to the story.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
When he passed, I had to go straight into his
room and just lay on his better, just smell.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
His clothes and stuff. I just couldn't leave it.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
I remember the police officer saying to me at that
point that he never said to me yes, we agree
with you, Katie, but he said something in a way
that made me feel like they were investigating it. We
don't know whether Cain has been there when he drove
in or whether it's only there when he drove out,
(23:02):
because we've got a lot of messages from people saying
someone today was mailed and offer I know exactly what happened.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Again m hm
Approche production.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Cain ran Moore was born on the twenty second of
September two thousand and four and died sometime between twenty
one April twenty twenty three and the twenty second of
April twenty twenty three in Alice River, near Townsville. He
was eighteen years old. That's the first two lines of
the coroner's finding after the completion of a coronial investigation
(00:38):
into Caine's death in November of twenty twenty four. Police
and the coroner say it was a horrible accident. Caine
was lying on the ground in a park just minutes
from his home when a vehicle ran over his head.
(00:59):
His family don't disagree it was an accident, but they
do think someone knows something. Someone knows who ran over
their cano. They don't believe anyone did this on purpose,
but they do want someone to come forward. They've always
believed there's more to the story.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
The thing that really gets me is that they didn't stop.
They did not stop. They left him there. Now, they
wouldn't even have known that he died instantly. They've he
could have been, you know, laying there suffering all night,
and they've just let just left him.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
That I can never get over how anyone could do that.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, No, it was only about ten meters from where
his friends were. It was very close, Yeah, to where
the tables and chairs and the little hut were where
they were drinking. To where he was run over near
the tennis court. Was absolutely freak accident. And even the
(02:13):
next day, hearing what happened on the news or people talking, yeah,
I would think that they would realize, oh yeah, something
triggering their mind as to the night before, and then
come forward. But we're hoping that they still will. The
hardest thing watching that news. I've still got a copy
(02:36):
of it on my phone. It's unreal watching it because
just hearing his name, you know, his full name on
the news.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And seeing the police fans and.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You can even see I'm around with a blanket over
it if.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
You zoom in, and it's just, yeah, it's horrible.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Not something I can look at or think about at all.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Police acted quickly. The COIB commenced an investigation into Kine's death.
Cain had no criminal history and no negative contact from
the police. Ever, Here's what police said when they first
got to the park.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Initial inquiries by police identified distinct tire track marks in
the grass that lined up with Cain. It was suspected
Cain had tragically been run over by a motor vehicle.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
In the days after Caine was found, police carried out
investigations from the scene. The crime scene showed.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Tire impressions in the grass leading up to and immediately
after where Cain had been located. The path of the
tire and condition of Kane's body suggested he had likely
been run over by a vehicle at low speed.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
They downloaded the data from Kane's phone. His activity stopped
on his phone at about nine pm the night of
April twenty first, the night of the party. Police also
used CCTV and witness statements to identify two cars that
were in the park that night, a small car and
(04:13):
a larger four wheel drive. That second car had only
been in the area for less than five minutes. They
seized both of these cars and started interviewing everyone who
was at the park that night.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I just thought that they would have found who it
was with confiscating all the cars and everything and interviewing
all the kids. I just thought it would be within
that few days to a week tops for them working
out who it was.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I really did, really really did. So you strongly believe
that it was someone there in that group at the
park that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Night well, or someone that came there to the park, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Sir Jane. Once a few days had passed or a week,
how are you and Gary feeling about what was happening
with the case?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Every day I thought that they were going to read
me to tell me something, but no, nothing. We had
to keep in contact with them and keep trying to
bring an email them, and we didn't want to harass
them too much. We wanted to let them do their job.
But anything we heard we put into an email straight
away or gave them a call. And I did a
(05:23):
lot by email because I know that they're very busy
and I didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Be hassling them. But no, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Just felt like we were sort of just always asking,
you know, is there anything that's happened or and just heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Did the police ever ask you for a statement?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I thought that was I thought that was funny too.
That's all I could think of, is what about Gary,
your husband? No, nothing at all.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And I put it down to the simple factors that
we weren't there. You know, Gary was away working and
I was at my house at Kelso.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So I'm guessing nothing happening. You're feeling just getting more
and more.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Disappointed just hearing what all the kids were saying. So
that's one thing that they were all saying the same thing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
They were all on p with.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So we thought that the police were going to solve
it though, So you know, we really did kick back
and just in hope that they were going to investigate it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But it's.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It's heartbreaking to think that nothing's happened yet and it's
just been handed over to the coroner's court because.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
They had nothing more to go on. That's heartbreaking. Kine's
family fear that someone knows more, but this person has
chosen to stay silent. But again, the police and the
coroner don't agree, and there's no evidence to suggest someone
is choosing to stay silent.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think he was ran over. But we're not going
to stop until they come forward, until we've got answers.
We deserve answers as a family, a little bit of
closure for Caine. We deserve to know what happened to him.
I don't want this to just go unsolved. That's my
(07:20):
worst fear. We want to know what happened to him.
Why he was left in the park there all night,
in the cold, cold park, just on the ground by himself.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That tears me apart. There's a lot of questions that
I wanted an expert to help answer. Damien Marrett is
a former police detective in Victoria and now runs Marit Investigations.
He's been involved in investigating some of the highest profile
(07:56):
cases in Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
The bulk of my career was around major crime, in
drugs and covert operations.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Investigate a part of that job forms a large part
of what you do as a detective.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Right divisional work, which is local cib or CiU work.
It can range day to day what happens you can
be called to. It could be a suicide where the
suspicious circumstances. It could be a homicide, It could be
a rape, could be a serious assault, a group of thieves,
(08:30):
you know, organized sort of thieves, organized crime in your area.
You basically cover whatever comes across the desk that needs
further investigation that uniform usually carry out or can get
rid of.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You've seen this case of Caine more. We've spoken about
it for some time. We actually started talking about last
year and then other things got in the way. Was
there anything? Firstly, when you saw the case and you've
now had a chance to look at the current as
finding what was your initial thoughts look like anything.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I went into it reading a bit of an open mind.
What I did notice was there wasn't that much media
around it other than him being a good bloke and
you know, people liked him and so forth. But there
wasn't any huge conspiracy theories or the dark side of
this crime or anything hinting that way, which surprised me
(09:21):
because usually in any case like this, you know there'll
be some link of Ah, there was death threats three
days before, and you know, it changes the whole facet
of it. So when I read the coroner's report after that,
it was all pretty straightforward. It didn't seem like there
was any malice or foul play involved. It sounded like
(09:43):
a straight out accident. It seems highly likely he did
fall asleep on a thoroughfare. Now, a thoroughfare is anywhere
a car can go, so a car's allowed to drive there.
So he's fallen asleep in the path of where cars
are driving, and he's also fallen asleep just behind a
(10:05):
road what do you.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Call them, mound of dirt? Really, Yeah, it's like a
road bump, but it's not the traditional speed bump. It's
a small hill that's probably been dug out by rain
and sand and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So there's bumps on that road anyway. So if somebody
had it driven over that, especially in a larger sort
of vehicle, which I think it had to be, like
a four wheel drive or ESSUEV, you might think, geez,
that bump was bigger than I expected. But you've got
to easily drive away not knowing that somebody was on
the side of that bump or so, you know, it's
(10:40):
quite possible or I think likely. I agree with the
Currenters report. It's likely that somebody did not know at
that time that they had run somebody over.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And that's the gist of this podcast. No one's claiming
that this wasn't a tragic accident. The questions lie around
what happened after this tragedy, what did police do to investigate,
and did they leave any stone unturned? Or is there
really more to the story. Damian and I have actually
(11:17):
worked across a number of cases on both TV and
podcast and across the years we've worked together. I know
that Damien tells it like it is. He's not one
to mince words. But he's also not here at bash
police as he would say or add any gst to
the story that isn't there. And you can hear when
he first started looking into this story. For us, it
(11:38):
seemed pretty simple. Kane died as a result of a
tragic accident, and that's exactly what the coroner found when
she delivered her finding in November of last year. I
think it's important firstly to understand the difference between what
a coroner does and what a police investigation does. So
maybe we just stepped through that first, Damien.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Okay. So if you look at in simple terms, the
coroner's report is the initial finding by the coroner, and
it's to work out who died, when they died, why
they died, how they died, and pretty much that's where
(12:20):
it stops. So if there's suspicious circumstances and the police
haven't investigated fully, the coroner would direct them to go
and investigate further in the possibility of holding an inquest,
which is, you know, the inquest court matter, looking at
everybody in witnesses and so forth. But at this stage
(12:41):
there's nothing to suggest any as we've said, any foul
play or you know, she's basically determined the who, how, when,
what and why. So just because the police haven't found
the person who actually was involved doesn't mean that she
would direct them to go out and find him, because
(13:01):
it's not going to change her findings into the actual
death and what happened.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
What the family wants, though, is that they feel it
would be unusual to roll over someone in a car
at low speed and not think that could have been me.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah. Look, and I also think even though they don't
suspect any foul play or you know, have anything against
what the police have told them, I think for absolute closure,
they want to know who did it. And I think
what sort of exacerbates that in a little bit is
that the people in that park that night all knew
(13:41):
each other. Yes, so there'd be this weird feeling of, well,
the person who did this was probably at the funeral.
The person who did this is probably somebody who gives
me a hunt down the shops, you know, because it
could be one of his friends and somebody who likes him.
So you know, I mean, when you lose people, you
(14:03):
want to know every single detail, and if there's something
not finished or chopped up and put in a box
and put on the shelf, it just stays in your head. Well,
who did it? Was there anything else to it? I know,
I don't mean foul play, but I mean did they
stop and not help him? Did they you know? Was
there anything else? So to get absolute closure, I think
(14:25):
they and they probably wouldn't blame the person if it
was an accident and a friend of his, But so
much time's gone on it kind of makes it hard
harder to forgive people.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Let's play this out as it might have happened, So
someone accidentally runs over Caine in the park doesn't necessarily
know that they've done it at the time. The next
day cops grab everyone. Over the next two or three
days they grab everyone. They grabbed the cars in question.
(14:58):
One of the people actually comes forward themselves and says,
I was in the park. What would happen if they
went I don't know if me or not, but it
could have been.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
If whoever did it stuck to their guns and said
I had no idea it was me. And as time's
gone on, I'm just keep thinking it could have been.
Can you check out my vehicle. Can you do this
and do that? You know, I doubt if anything would
happen at all.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Legally, the person that we're talking about did have another
person in the car at the time. They also state
that they didn't feel anything unusual on the evening. In
the coronial report that was sent to the family, it
says the driver volunteered information to police that he had
only been in the park for a short time, around
(15:44):
four minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
As a placeman, if somebody's turning up to a party
like that for four minutes, five minutes and leaving, my
brain would say it's got something to do with some
sort of transaction.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Damien's just said, as our line of questioning to the
Queensland Police, it's about those two cars that were in
the park that night. The first was a smaller car,
a front wheel drive, the second a larger car, a
four wheel drive. Both were seen by witnesses driving in
(16:20):
the area where Cain was found. The driver of the
second car came forward to police to say they were
driving in the park that night for around four minutes.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Definitely, the first people you look at, people who are
conducting criminal activities when something like this happens because they're
more likely to cover up why they were there because
they don't want to get done for whatever it was,
if they were looking for somebody for criminal activities, whatever
it was.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
We're not alleging anyone was conducting criminal activity in the
park that night. Damien is giving his opinion as a
former detective on what steps he might take when investigating.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You know, and the first question police are going to ask,
and I'm guessing there were cameras and things, so they
know how long this guy would have been there, and
that's passenger. You know, it looks very suss when people
come somewhere for four minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
They also did a check on his wheels and the
tire markings on obviously on the ground on Cain and
then on the car and found that those wheels didn't match.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Okay, so do you know how long after they checked
his car?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So here's the questions we've sent off to Queensland Police
in late August of twenty twenty five. We asked questions
about why the person in a four wheel drive was
in the park for less than five minutes. Did that
raise any suspicions? Is that person or any other people
persons of interest. We also asked the details from police
(17:55):
around the checks of the tires on this car and
if the undercarriage of the car was forensically examined. There
are also some questions about the statement that appears in
the onial report from the driver of the second car.
The second vehicle was the driver had volunteered information to
the police as he had been at the party for
(18:15):
a short period around four minutes. He advised he had
driven through the area where Caine was later found and
on leaving the parks or a person he believed was
sleeping on the ground in that area.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Okay, so it was corroborated by somebody who is a
friend or an associate, because I'm guessing that's the passenger
in the car.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Correct. Police have excluded both cars after measuring the wheel
span and the tires. One thing still bugs me and
Damien as well. Police said it was very dark in
the park that night.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Police conducted a walk through at a similar time of
night that Kane was first noticed missing to establish the
lighting in the park. Investigators found there was very little
visibility without torchlight, and that even with torchlight, visibility was limited.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
The forensic crash Unit inspected the scene and said.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
That vision from a vehicle, even at low speed would
have been restricted by blind spots and shadowing due to
the darkness the view. The driver of the vehicle who
ran over Cain was unlikely to be aware of what
had occurred due to the low light in the park
and the position of Caine in the park prior to
his death.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And that's what raised more questions for us. If the
person in the fall Wall drive said that they drove
through the area where Kine was found and said that
as they were leaving they saw a person who they
believed was sleeping in the area on the ground, how
would he have seen him in the dark of night,
possibly not from the front of his car but behind.
(19:46):
These facts make us feel there's more questions that need
to be asked.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
If police haven't looked further and corroborated where vehicle spain
and you know where exactly would have driven that night,
because I don't think they're wide sort of tracks, are they.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
The police say that it was very dark and very
dark on the night, there's not a lot of light
around and the track is like what you would drive
an all terrain vehicle, like a four wheel motorbike over right,
So it's not a large track and it's just it's
dirt surrounded by grass.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, well look at it in this way. He's put
himself at the scene. So he's one of three vehicles
that were seen.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Originally two, but then they found a third, so.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
They've eliminated two other vehicles, which I'm guessing were friends
and family that were at the park that night who
are more likely to come forward. Even if it was
an accident, because we know the victim was on the track,
it seems like would have been more of an accident.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I wanted to know from Damien, as a former police officer,
what sort of things he would do in this type
of investigation. Again, we're not alleging this unnamed person we're
referring to did any of this. Damien's just giving his
opinion as a former detective what he might do.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
You could even go and look a driveway if it's
a dirt driveway, and see different sort of tire marks there,
places goes associates goes to and try and match those
tire prints that were I think the coroner said they
were a bit strange or different. Then I would sort
of source local tie deals, whether he's got other cars
(21:31):
for to change those tires from. I would even ask
to consent to asserch house check whether the tires are there.
I mean, when you take tires off, there's not many
places you can put them. And the minute doesn't consent
to that. You know that rings bells and then okay,
let's get a warrant. You know, it probably got out
(21:52):
that there was three vehicles and a camera would be
a suspect for me or a person of interest at
that stage, and I'd carry out those inquiries. And even
if it got to the stage where I totally believe
it just wasn't stating up. I mean, I would go
to data records and stuff like that and just se
been for the last three days, because I mean, that's
(22:12):
not a big time three days to get data and
pinpointing to different areas of Townsville just to see where
might have been during those three days.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Next time on more to the story.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
When he passed, I had to go straight into his
room and just lay on his better, just smell.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
His clothes and stuff. I just couldn't leave it.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
I remember the police officer saying to me at that
point that he never said to me yes, we agree
with you, Katie, but he said something in a way
that made me feel like they were investigating it. We
don't know whether Cain has been there when he drove
in or whether it's only there when he drove out,
(23:02):
because we've got a lot of messages from people saying
someone today was mailed and offer I know exactly what happened.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Again m hm
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