September 7, 2025 • 25 mins
Kane Moore was a classic North Queensland larrikin—goofy, big-hearted, outdoorsy. He grew up by the river, loved his motorbike, doted on the family’s German shepherd Poppy, and wore the kind of haircut that got him in strife at school. He lived with his dad and sister just minutes from Rupertswood Park, where he and his mates often hung out.
Then, in April 2023, Kane’s aunt Katie and his sister walked into that same park and found him lying on the grass gone. What follows are the frantic calls, the first statements, and the question that won’t let his family go: if this was a tragic mistake, why has no one come forward?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Approache production.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The next morning, I got up and I made a cuppa.
I think I had five SIPs out of my cuppa
and walked out to the back table, pulled the chair out,
sat down, and then Michaelas called me. And I'm pretty
confident that would have been very close to that seven
o'clock mark. And she called me, and the sound of
her voice didn't concern me. She said, I found him
(00:34):
very calm and wasn't hysterical and like wasn't crying or
anything like that. And I said, well, where is he?
He's just laying there. I said, well, kick him up
the bar. No, I've been beeping the horn and he's
not moving. And I didn't know at this stage it
was at the park. So I started getting my cuppa
and walking towards the front, thinking that she's out the
front here somewhere close. She says, no, no, I'm at
(00:56):
the park, and I said, hmm, okay, cool. And I
think it was at that point that I started to
feel like something's not right, But again, wasn't rushing to
the park to think what we were going to find.
So we drove down that progress road pretty confident that
he would have propped, my husband would have been doing
(01:17):
at least one hundred kilomes an hour, if not more,
because I was in the passenger street saying just go
fast and go faster. So and then I hung up
from Mikayla at that point, and then we sort of
cruised in and as I could see Mikayla the whole
way going down progress road, I could see her walking
around her car, and my husband sort of pulled up
(01:40):
to the.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Where the mound was.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He didn't go over the mound, he just pulled up
prior to the mound. And my door was already half open,
and I was already out.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Of the car.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
We'd obviously already seen him at that stage, and I
was running towards him, and Mikayla was just literally just
walking in circles. I don't know what the hell she
was doing. It was like she was in shock at
that point because she Yeah. I went to roll him
on his side, thinking I'm gonna have to do first
aid here, trying to remember the first aid. What you've
(02:13):
got to do That was kind of gone through my head.
This is it, and I have to do first AYE
for the first time.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Are you okay?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
But when you when you touch someone that's gone, you know,
then you know they're gone.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
It's a feeling that I don't think i'll ever get over.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
He was he'd been gone for a while, and I
remember looking up at my husband and and I said
to him, he's he's gone.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
He's dead.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
My husband's screaming at me to call an ambulance. And
I got on the phone with the ambulance and called
the ambulance and they wanted me.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
To do a polse check, and I said there's no
point in doing a pulse check.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
Because he was already cold and hard, so he had
been there for a while. They asked me to do
a one to walk around him and tell me exactly
what they saw what I saw, and I did, and
he was laying in a very comfortable position.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And he had a big pool of blood underneath his head.
And my husband said, someone's hit him. Send the police.
Throw about an ambulance and the police, someone's hurt him.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
That's Katie, and the person she's talking about is her nephew, Caine,
who was just eighteen years old. To Caine, she was
Auntie Katie. And Untie Katie found Caine dead in a
park near his home in twenty twenty three. She wasn't
alone that morning. Cane's system Mikayla was also there. As
(04:15):
we started looking into this case back in twenty twenty three,
there always seemed to be more to the story.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I want answers, and I do believe that it would
help me heal just a little bit, but really nothing's
going to bring him back. But it's still just been
nice for a bit of justice for him.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, a bit of justice can Alice Riverman Caine Moore
eighteen was found dead in a park with a number
of injuries after a party with friends.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
But sometimes I don't know if I am sometimes just
to let it go, but I don't want to regret
that later that I did nothing. So at this stage
I can. I can say that I haven't got anything
to regret at all, and that I have done a
fair bit in the search for answers.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
When my auntie got there, she ran over to him
and sort of.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
Grabbed him, and.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yet I'd realized at that point that he was gone.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
And will definitely bring me some closure. Just knowing what
happened and just someone coming forward and getting it off
their chest, making things right.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I thought it would be solved by now.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
But now you don't run someone over and not feel it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Our criminal investigation was launched. Someone out there you know something,
and they're keeping quiet. They're not coming forward and it
would be eating at them.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
I just want justice from my boy.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I want to find out. I just need some justice,
for instant closure for our family, just anything at all. Please,
someone out there knows something. Welcome to.
Speaker 7 (06:18):
Something outside twenty eight degrees, don't yours ebel bus, and
to keeping the island exit clear.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
Remember.
Speaker 7 (06:31):
Townsville is the tropical gateway in northern Queensland. It's nestled
between the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef, and it's
known for its sun soak esplanades and has a.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Rich military history.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
It's quiet and beautiful and it's not often you hear
of a young man being found dead in a park
just down the road, a fifteen minute walk from his
family home. I've been to Townsville before a few times,
but mostly it's to the tourist hotspots like the Strand
(07:04):
and at Banic Island, but I've never really been out
to the suburbs. And that's where Cain lived, in a
place he stayed with his dad and his sister. Literally
just down the road, there's the park where Kaine was
found back in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
It's called Rupertswood Park.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
Cain was found in this park on Saturday, the twenty
second of May, April twenty twenty three, at seven thirty am.
It's always hard to gain a sense of a crime
scene from Google Maps and photos, so me and the
team decided to stop by the park to get a
better idea of the scene.
Speaker 9 (07:44):
So at the end of the street we're going to
reach Rupert's Wood Park.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
As we're driving down this road in our high car,
a few things really stood out.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
It's like a fire brigate there for a community hall.
We've got security campals just let down there. Oh let's
see Curry camera up there. So that's your only entry
and accident to the park is just.
Speaker 7 (08:14):
Rived driving away from that park towards a family home
which is just literally minutes away. I couldn't help thinking
about my own upbringing and how many times at night,
as a teenager or young adult that I pop down
the park or to a mate's place to catch up
and maybe sneak a few drinks. My mum and dad
were never really worried because I was just down the road,
(08:38):
but that night, so was Kane. As we pull up
to the front of Kane's dad's house where Caine lived,
It's a normal suburban house in Townsville, I thank yeah, yeah,
(09:07):
it had big palm trees out the front, a modest,
single story, clean looking home, and within seconds, Cane's mom
pops out to say Hi. I don't know how to
explain it, but Sarah had that sort of mum feeling,
(09:29):
if I can put it that way. We'd barely put
our recording gear down when she asked us if we
want a slice of cake and some coffee. As we
settled in the kitchen and Sarah put the kettle on,
I'm looking out the back door of the house and
we're getting the backstory of how this was sort of
like caine sanctuary for him and his mates.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So Gary Camee's dad's away work at the moment, and
whilst still be here, short lived, but this is very
worn here. That's the other river there.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Always on the down the river with.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
His mate, and so that's why I've got to be
nice to comping up. And there's the campaign now on
the back there with his mates and him voice hung out.
Mikayla was one when we moved here, and Kane was
born here, so secret and more special. I'm glad. I'm
glad my husband's still saying he and keeping it because yeah,
(10:27):
I'd never had to sell it and lose it and
not be able to come here anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I always find this part a little awkward.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
How do you go from talking about whether you want
a cookie or coffee and then sitting down and asking
about how you found your brother dead in a park.
It's in those uncomfortable moments where you really have to
emphathize with the person you're talking to.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
All Right, we are rolling on audio, and in this
case it's Mikayla, Caine's oldest sister.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Oh he was.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Larakan, always made you laugh. He's just if I could
describe him in one word, I'd say goofy. That was
his whole personality, never serious about anything, and if it was,
it was when he was being told to clean his room.
Speaker 7 (11:16):
There's only three and a half years between Cain and Mikayla,
and like all siblings, they had that classic annoying brother
sister relationship.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
We used to have a few fights, not serious, but
you know, just annoying little brother, you know, always coming
into my room. He'd come into my room and lay
on my bed in his dirty work clothes, just annoy me.
But he was a really good brother, always made me laugh.
Speaker 7 (11:43):
Caine seemed like a good Aussie bloke, a lovely larrikin,
a big goofy, annoying to his sister, but loved by
his family and his mates. Cain also loved his haircut,
a classic amongst most eight eight year olds in Townsville.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
He was a good, good kid, but he'd talk a
lot in class and get in trouble for his haircuts
because he went to Calvary Christian College and you couldn't
have a mullet there, and he wasn't very impressed about that.
Tried to convince him to cut it off a few times,
but yeah, no, you couldn't convince him to do that.
Speaker 7 (12:20):
As we moved from happy memories to laughs, it's harder
to imagine that we're talking about her brother that was
found dead in a park just down the road just
over three years ago. That day for them was a
normal Friday like any other.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Yeah, so I actually had the day off work and
he wasn't working that day either, so it was like,
and I sometimes think back to this, like that we
both had that same day off and we hung out together,
you know, just briefly on the couch, and then he
went outside to clean his car and you know, things
like that. But like that was the last day that
(12:57):
I had with him. So yeah, but yeah, I went
in town to get my car service and I've come
back and he was here and he'd cleaned his car
and you know, and then I left to go out
to my friend's party. It was her birthday the following day,
(13:18):
so yeah, we went out to town and stuff. And
that's when I remember Katie ringing me or texting me
to say, like, have you heard from Caine? Can you
try and ring Cain. I tried ringing him a couple
of times, but yeah, there was no answer. And this
was probably about maybe midnight, and I remember thinking, you know.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Oh, he'll be right.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
But then I had that bit of worry in the
back of my mind, like, you know, what if stomach's happened.
What if he's you know, like sick somewhere off like
over and because I knew he had been at the park,
and I just you know had that bit of worry,
but then I thought, maybe he's just left and gone
to a mate's house.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
We're talking about a park, but really what we're describing
isn't the normal park you see in suburban cities. I'd
call it more a recreational land or a semi rural park.
It's spare land on several acres. It's well established, has
some beautiful trees, has a dirt driveway that leads to
a circle where cars can loop around, and off to
(14:29):
the right is a playground, community center.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The scouts, and a toilet block. Yeah such as.
Speaker 9 (14:38):
I see playground off to the right, it's like toilets
on a toilet cap com.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
There's a few lights around the tennis court. And as
I said, it's in the middle of semi rural suburbia
with residential properties sharing their back fence with a park.
It's not isolated, but there's also not lots of houses around.
It seems like a safe place to hang out with friends.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
I left it for a bit and then I think
Katie called me again or something, and I said that
I hadn't been able to contact him, and that's when
I went on to find my iPhone app and it's
said that he was in the horse like so this
is the park and then over here is like a
(15:25):
horse arena, like a horse club, and it said that
his location was in the middle of the thing. So
that's why I thought, oh, that's a bit weird. So
I've rung Katie and told her that that's where his
location's coming up. But yeah, they couldn't find him because
it was very dark that night.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
Mikayla remembers that Friday was a normal day, nothing out
of the ordinary. Caine was happy and a little bit
annoyed because he had to stay home that night to
look after a dog, but they were busy planning their weekend.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Honestly, I think he was saying something. So he was
saying something about, you know, oh, we're going to have
a party to and I meet at the park. And
I've actually told him, no, you have to stay home
because we had a dog that had just had surgery
and she had to be like monitored so that she
didn't so that she didn't like chew her stitches. And
(16:21):
I was like, no, you have to stay home. And
this was like, remember the conversation because I was sitting
there and he was sitting here, and he was like, no,
I'm an eighteen year old boy, I'm going out.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
To have fun.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
And I was like, right out, I couldn't tell him,
so yeah, And I always think like if he did
stay home with the dog like I asked him to,
that he would still be alive today. But though, yeah,
those were his exact words, like, I'm an eighteen year
old boy, I'm going out to have fun with my friends.
And I was like, okay.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
This park we're talking about is about fifteen minutes walk
from the house where Caine lived. We drove to it
in about two minutes. The kids, that is, Kan and
his mates and cousins used to go to this park
because their parents in the area were sick of being
woken up with parties and houses in the area.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I think because majority of the parents were probably getting
sick of it and being like no, no more so
that I think that's why they moved to the park
as their little hangout area. This is no parents they're
telling them.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
What to do.
Speaker 7 (17:22):
So this park was the place that came and his
mates went to listen to music and hang out and
maybe have some drinks. On that Friday night, there were
about ten to fifteen people in the park. We'll talk
to two of them later in this podcast.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
So I had been drinking, so I really wanted to
get my car and drive home to go and look
at the park. But i'd been drinking and I don't
drink drive, So I went to sleep, and I actually
set an alarm for six am because I hadn't really
drunk that much, so I knew i'd be fine to
drive by six am. And I remember that night like,
(17:58):
I just didn't sleep like as good as I normally do,
Like it was sort of like a I was conscious
and like worrying. But yeah, I woke up the next
morning and left my friend's house in bird El, got
a coffee, and then drove home.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Thinking that, you know, I was going.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
To pull up at the park and I'd find him
somewhere asleep. But yeah, that's when I did. I drove
down the park road, and I've then driven around the building,
the community hall so like that, and then come back
like over here to probably like twenty fifteen meters away
(18:38):
maybe from him, and I've noticed, yeah, that he was
laying there on the ground, and I've thought, oh, yeah,
he's asleep, you know. So I've pulled up and started
beeping a horn like multiple times, like trying to wake
him up, And then when he didn't sit up, I
then started to like feel like something wasn't right, Like
(19:01):
I couldn't approach him by myself because I had that
worrying in the back of that my mind that if
I walked up and checked and something had happened, that
I like I would freak out if I was by myself.
So yeah, I remember getting out of the car and
ringing Katie, my auntie she lived here at the time.
(19:21):
She basically just jumped straight in her car and was
at the park within like two minutes, and she's yeah,
then jumped out of the car and basically just ran
over to him. And even at that point, I even
I still stood back, like I never went right up
to him, Like I stood about, yeah, like probably five
(19:42):
ten meters away and just.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Could not go up to him.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
But as Katie just ran straight up and was like
grabbing him, trying to be like, see if you know
what was wrong with him. But yeah, that was at
the point that we realized that he was.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I was just in shock.
Speaker 8 (20:01):
I just yeah, could not believe it.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
I just stood back and just like remember just looking
like the opposite way and just going like what the hell,
and like my first thing that I could just the
only thing I could think about was Mum and dad,
Like Mum and Dad were finding out. That was my
only yeah concern at that point, Like even though I
had no thoughts, they were my only thoughts as like
(20:28):
oh my god, like is this really happening. Yeah, it
didn't feel real. Sometimes I think about it, and it's
like I feel as though I was the one that
was meant to find him, because that night Katie and
(20:51):
Caitlin and another friend were at the park looking for
him after everyone had left, and they couldn't find him.
So that's when they thought that he had gone to
someone's house or yet gone to a girl's house or something.
But yeah, and then the next morning, Yeah, I just
had this like funny feeling, and then I tried to
(21:13):
tell myself like, no, it's fine, like he's probably just
he's probably fine, like don't overthink it. And I remember
driving home and I didn't feel like like on edge,
like freaking out or anything, but it was like in
the back of my mind, I was like, what if
something has happened to him? But if I'm being honest,
I really thought that I was just going to find
him asleep somewhere, and that's why when I pulled up,
(21:37):
I like was beeping the horn. And this was early
in the morning too, but yeah, I was just holding
the horn down like waiting for him to sit up.
So where he was was a little bit so probably
about twenty meters away from where they were all partying
that night, So I really was just in shock, so
(22:01):
I wasn't really looking around. I really don't remember much.
I just remember like just sitting there, like on the rock,
probably about ten meters away from him, just facing the
opposite way, just staring over at the playground at the
park and just going like what the hell is happening?
And my first thought was that he had, you know,
(22:24):
fallen and hit his head and then gotten up and
then stumbled and then fell passed out, and then something
had happened.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Like internally, it.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Was just the way he was laying looked so peaceful,
as if he had laid down drunk and just gone
to sleep. Like he wasn't curled up, but he was
like face down, like his face looking at this way
and then one knee up, so like he looked pretty comfy,
(22:53):
and that's why I originally thought that he was asleep
when I pulled up, because it didn't look like, yeah,
like horrific or gory or anything like that, but there
was nothing.
Speaker 8 (23:04):
It was just grass.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
There was nothing that he would have hit his head
on where he was laying, So that was my thought
that maybe there was something like an internal injury or
that he had been in a fight and then fell
and then left there. So we really had no idea
(23:26):
at that point. It did not look like he had
been run over, so we really did not know. So
I sort of just stood there and I remember the
ambulance rocking up, which they came down the road with
no lights or sirens on, which I thought was really weird,
but might have been just because he was already passed.
(23:47):
So they have pulled up, and then the first responder
of police had turned up as well about a few
minutes later, and I just remember the first thing that
they said was just like get back, get back, as
they were putting their tape up, But there was like
no sympathy whatsoever that I had just found my brother dead.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Next time a more to the story.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
So they were there walking around all the areas over
to the horse club, and they couldn't find him. And
yet it turns out that where they were walking, he.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
Was probably about like five six meters back from there.
And Cain around the same age me and Came always
stuck at the kids table together when we used to
go out to lunch or dinner. So yeah, we were
just always close. He was like a brother to me.
We fought like siblings. We had come home and I
(24:48):
said to the girls, we're going to sit an alarm
at five o'clock in the morning to look for him.
And then by the time that alarm went off, we
were all just so buggered that, you know, I just
thought his phone, like, he's going to be a Ki's
probably just at a girlfriend's house. We were there drinking,
Cain was smoking weed along with the rest of his friends,
(25:08):
his friends. I went from being drunk and sick and
you know, couldn't even move to jumping straight up and
my stomach had dropped, and I was very, very like
I used to always watch Overcame what he was doing
and how much he had had, he had had he
had had, he had had
Approache production.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The next morning, I got up and I made a cuppa.
I think I had five SIPs out of my cuppa
and walked out to the back table, pulled the chair out,
sat down, and then Michaelas called me. And I'm pretty
confident that would have been very close to that seven
o'clock mark. And she called me, and the sound of
her voice didn't concern me. She said, I found him
(00:34):
very calm and wasn't hysterical and like wasn't crying or
anything like that. And I said, well, where is he?
He's just laying there. I said, well, kick him up
the bar. No, I've been beeping the horn and he's
not moving. And I didn't know at this stage it
was at the park. So I started getting my cuppa
and walking towards the front, thinking that she's out the
front here somewhere close. She says, no, no, I'm at
(00:56):
the park, and I said, hmm, okay, cool. And I
think it was at that point that I started to
feel like something's not right, But again, wasn't rushing to
the park to think what we were going to find.
So we drove down that progress road pretty confident that
he would have propped, my husband would have been doing
(01:17):
at least one hundred kilomes an hour, if not more,
because I was in the passenger street saying just go
fast and go faster. So and then I hung up
from Mikayla at that point, and then we sort of
cruised in and as I could see Mikayla the whole
way going down progress road, I could see her walking
around her car, and my husband sort of pulled up
(01:40):
to the.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Where the mound was.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He didn't go over the mound, he just pulled up
prior to the mound. And my door was already half open,
and I was already out.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Of the car.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
We'd obviously already seen him at that stage, and I
was running towards him, and Mikayla was just literally just
walking in circles. I don't know what the hell she
was doing. It was like she was in shock at
that point because she Yeah. I went to roll him
on his side, thinking I'm gonna have to do first
aid here, trying to remember the first aid. What you've
(02:13):
got to do That was kind of gone through my head.
This is it, and I have to do first AYE
for the first time.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Are you okay?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
But when you when you touch someone that's gone, you know,
then you know they're gone.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
It's a feeling that I don't think i'll ever get over.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
He was he'd been gone for a while, and I
remember looking up at my husband and and I said
to him, he's he's gone.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
He's dead.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
My husband's screaming at me to call an ambulance. And
I got on the phone with the ambulance and called
the ambulance and they wanted me.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
To do a polse check, and I said there's no
point in doing a pulse check.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
Because he was already cold and hard, so he had
been there for a while. They asked me to do
a one to walk around him and tell me exactly
what they saw what I saw, and I did, and
he was laying in a very comfortable position.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And he had a big pool of blood underneath his head.
And my husband said, someone's hit him. Send the police.
Throw about an ambulance and the police, someone's hurt him.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
That's Katie, and the person she's talking about is her nephew, Caine,
who was just eighteen years old. To Caine, she was
Auntie Katie. And Untie Katie found Caine dead in a
park near his home in twenty twenty three. She wasn't
alone that morning. Cane's system Mikayla was also there. As
(04:15):
we started looking into this case back in twenty twenty three,
there always seemed to be more to the story.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I want answers, and I do believe that it would
help me heal just a little bit, but really nothing's
going to bring him back. But it's still just been
nice for a bit of justice for him.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, a bit of justice can Alice Riverman Caine Moore
eighteen was found dead in a park with a number
of injuries after a party with friends.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
But sometimes I don't know if I am sometimes just
to let it go, but I don't want to regret
that later that I did nothing. So at this stage
I can. I can say that I haven't got anything
to regret at all, and that I have done a
fair bit in the search for answers.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
When my auntie got there, she ran over to him
and sort of.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
Grabbed him, and.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yet I'd realized at that point that he was gone.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
And will definitely bring me some closure. Just knowing what
happened and just someone coming forward and getting it off
their chest, making things right.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I thought it would be solved by now.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
But now you don't run someone over and not feel it.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Our criminal investigation was launched. Someone out there you know something,
and they're keeping quiet. They're not coming forward and it
would be eating at them.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
I just want justice from my boy.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I want to find out. I just need some justice,
for instant closure for our family, just anything at all. Please,
someone out there knows something. Welcome to.
Speaker 7 (06:18):
Something outside twenty eight degrees, don't yours ebel bus, and
to keeping the island exit clear.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
Remember.
Speaker 7 (06:31):
Townsville is the tropical gateway in northern Queensland. It's nestled
between the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef, and it's
known for its sun soak esplanades and has a.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Rich military history.
Speaker 7 (06:43):
It's quiet and beautiful and it's not often you hear
of a young man being found dead in a park
just down the road, a fifteen minute walk from his
family home. I've been to Townsville before a few times,
but mostly it's to the tourist hotspots like the Strand
(07:04):
and at Banic Island, but I've never really been out
to the suburbs. And that's where Cain lived, in a
place he stayed with his dad and his sister. Literally
just down the road, there's the park where Kaine was
found back in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
It's called Rupertswood Park.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
Cain was found in this park on Saturday, the twenty
second of May, April twenty twenty three, at seven thirty am.
It's always hard to gain a sense of a crime
scene from Google Maps and photos, so me and the
team decided to stop by the park to get a
better idea of the scene.
Speaker 9 (07:44):
So at the end of the street we're going to
reach Rupert's Wood Park.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
As we're driving down this road in our high car,
a few things really stood out.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
It's like a fire brigate there for a community hall.
We've got security campals just let down there. Oh let's
see Curry camera up there. So that's your only entry
and accident to the park is just.
Speaker 7 (08:14):
Rived driving away from that park towards a family home
which is just literally minutes away. I couldn't help thinking
about my own upbringing and how many times at night,
as a teenager or young adult that I pop down
the park or to a mate's place to catch up
and maybe sneak a few drinks. My mum and dad
were never really worried because I was just down the road,
(08:38):
but that night, so was Kane. As we pull up
to the front of Kane's dad's house where Caine lived,
It's a normal suburban house in Townsville, I thank yeah, yeah,
(09:07):
it had big palm trees out the front, a modest,
single story, clean looking home, and within seconds, Cane's mom
pops out to say Hi. I don't know how to
explain it, but Sarah had that sort of mum feeling,
(09:29):
if I can put it that way. We'd barely put
our recording gear down when she asked us if we
want a slice of cake and some coffee. As we
settled in the kitchen and Sarah put the kettle on,
I'm looking out the back door of the house and
we're getting the backstory of how this was sort of
like caine sanctuary for him and his mates.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So Gary Camee's dad's away work at the moment, and
whilst still be here, short lived, but this is very
worn here. That's the other river there.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Always on the down the river with.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
His mate, and so that's why I've got to be
nice to comping up. And there's the campaign now on
the back there with his mates and him voice hung out.
Mikayla was one when we moved here, and Kane was
born here, so secret and more special. I'm glad. I'm
glad my husband's still saying he and keeping it because yeah,
(10:27):
I'd never had to sell it and lose it and
not be able to come here anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I always find this part a little awkward.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
How do you go from talking about whether you want
a cookie or coffee and then sitting down and asking
about how you found your brother dead in a park.
It's in those uncomfortable moments where you really have to
emphathize with the person you're talking to.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
All Right, we are rolling on audio, and in this
case it's Mikayla, Caine's oldest sister.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Oh he was.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Larakan, always made you laugh. He's just if I could
describe him in one word, I'd say goofy. That was
his whole personality, never serious about anything, and if it was,
it was when he was being told to clean his room.
Speaker 7 (11:16):
There's only three and a half years between Cain and Mikayla,
and like all siblings, they had that classic annoying brother
sister relationship.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
We used to have a few fights, not serious, but
you know, just annoying little brother, you know, always coming
into my room. He'd come into my room and lay
on my bed in his dirty work clothes, just annoy me.
But he was a really good brother, always made me laugh.
Speaker 7 (11:43):
Caine seemed like a good Aussie bloke, a lovely larrikin,
a big goofy, annoying to his sister, but loved by
his family and his mates. Cain also loved his haircut,
a classic amongst most eight eight year olds in Townsville.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
He was a good, good kid, but he'd talk a
lot in class and get in trouble for his haircuts
because he went to Calvary Christian College and you couldn't
have a mullet there, and he wasn't very impressed about that.
Tried to convince him to cut it off a few times,
but yeah, no, you couldn't convince him to do that.
Speaker 7 (12:20):
As we moved from happy memories to laughs, it's harder
to imagine that we're talking about her brother that was
found dead in a park just down the road just
over three years ago. That day for them was a
normal Friday like any other.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Yeah, so I actually had the day off work and
he wasn't working that day either, so it was like,
and I sometimes think back to this, like that we
both had that same day off and we hung out together,
you know, just briefly on the couch, and then he
went outside to clean his car and you know, things
like that. But like that was the last day that
(12:57):
I had with him. So yeah, but yeah, I went
in town to get my car service and I've come
back and he was here and he'd cleaned his car
and you know, and then I left to go out
to my friend's party. It was her birthday the following day,
(13:18):
so yeah, we went out to town and stuff. And
that's when I remember Katie ringing me or texting me
to say, like, have you heard from Caine? Can you
try and ring Cain. I tried ringing him a couple
of times, but yeah, there was no answer. And this
was probably about maybe midnight, and I remember thinking, you know.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Oh, he'll be right.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
But then I had that bit of worry in the
back of my mind, like, you know, what if stomach's happened.
What if he's you know, like sick somewhere off like
over and because I knew he had been at the park,
and I just you know had that bit of worry,
but then I thought, maybe he's just left and gone
to a mate's house.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
We're talking about a park, but really what we're describing
isn't the normal park you see in suburban cities. I'd
call it more a recreational land or a semi rural park.
It's spare land on several acres. It's well established, has
some beautiful trees, has a dirt driveway that leads to
a circle where cars can loop around, and off to
(14:29):
the right is a playground, community center.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The scouts, and a toilet block. Yeah such as.
Speaker 9 (14:38):
I see playground off to the right, it's like toilets
on a toilet cap com.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
There's a few lights around the tennis court. And as
I said, it's in the middle of semi rural suburbia
with residential properties sharing their back fence with a park.
It's not isolated, but there's also not lots of houses around.
It seems like a safe place to hang out with friends.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
I left it for a bit and then I think
Katie called me again or something, and I said that
I hadn't been able to contact him, and that's when
I went on to find my iPhone app and it's
said that he was in the horse like so this
is the park and then over here is like a
(15:25):
horse arena, like a horse club, and it said that
his location was in the middle of the thing. So
that's why I thought, oh, that's a bit weird. So
I've rung Katie and told her that that's where his
location's coming up. But yeah, they couldn't find him because
it was very dark that night.
Speaker 7 (15:45):
Mikayla remembers that Friday was a normal day, nothing out
of the ordinary. Caine was happy and a little bit
annoyed because he had to stay home that night to
look after a dog, but they were busy planning their weekend.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Honestly, I think he was saying something. So he was
saying something about, you know, oh, we're going to have
a party to and I meet at the park. And
I've actually told him, no, you have to stay home
because we had a dog that had just had surgery
and she had to be like monitored so that she
didn't so that she didn't like chew her stitches. And
(16:21):
I was like, no, you have to stay home. And
this was like, remember the conversation because I was sitting
there and he was sitting here, and he was like, no,
I'm an eighteen year old boy, I'm going out.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
To have fun.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
And I was like, right out, I couldn't tell him,
so yeah, And I always think like if he did
stay home with the dog like I asked him to,
that he would still be alive today. But though, yeah,
those were his exact words, like, I'm an eighteen year
old boy, I'm going out to have fun with my friends.
And I was like, okay.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
This park we're talking about is about fifteen minutes walk
from the house where Caine lived. We drove to it
in about two minutes. The kids, that is, Kan and
his mates and cousins used to go to this park
because their parents in the area were sick of being
woken up with parties and houses in the area.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I think because majority of the parents were probably getting
sick of it and being like no, no more so
that I think that's why they moved to the park
as their little hangout area. This is no parents they're
telling them.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
What to do.
Speaker 7 (17:22):
So this park was the place that came and his
mates went to listen to music and hang out and
maybe have some drinks. On that Friday night, there were
about ten to fifteen people in the park. We'll talk
to two of them later in this podcast.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
So I had been drinking, so I really wanted to
get my car and drive home to go and look
at the park. But i'd been drinking and I don't
drink drive, So I went to sleep, and I actually
set an alarm for six am because I hadn't really
drunk that much, so I knew i'd be fine to
drive by six am. And I remember that night like,
(17:58):
I just didn't sleep like as good as I normally do,
Like it was sort of like a I was conscious
and like worrying. But yeah, I woke up the next
morning and left my friend's house in bird El, got
a coffee, and then drove home.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Thinking that, you know, I was going.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
To pull up at the park and I'd find him
somewhere asleep. But yeah, that's when I did. I drove
down the park road, and I've then driven around the building,
the community hall so like that, and then come back
like over here to probably like twenty fifteen meters away
(18:38):
maybe from him, and I've noticed, yeah, that he was
laying there on the ground, and I've thought, oh, yeah,
he's asleep, you know. So I've pulled up and started
beeping a horn like multiple times, like trying to wake
him up, And then when he didn't sit up, I
then started to like feel like something wasn't right, Like
(19:01):
I couldn't approach him by myself because I had that
worrying in the back of that my mind that if
I walked up and checked and something had happened, that
I like I would freak out if I was by myself.
So yeah, I remember getting out of the car and
ringing Katie, my auntie she lived here at the time.
(19:21):
She basically just jumped straight in her car and was
at the park within like two minutes, and she's yeah,
then jumped out of the car and basically just ran
over to him. And even at that point, I even
I still stood back, like I never went right up
to him, Like I stood about, yeah, like probably five
(19:42):
ten meters away and just.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Could not go up to him.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
But as Katie just ran straight up and was like
grabbing him, trying to be like, see if you know
what was wrong with him. But yeah, that was at
the point that we realized that he was.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I was just in shock.
Speaker 8 (20:01):
I just yeah, could not believe it.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
I just stood back and just like remember just looking
like the opposite way and just going like what the hell,
and like my first thing that I could just the
only thing I could think about was Mum and dad,
Like Mum and Dad were finding out. That was my
only yeah concern at that point, Like even though I
had no thoughts, they were my only thoughts as like
(20:28):
oh my god, like is this really happening. Yeah, it
didn't feel real. Sometimes I think about it, and it's
like I feel as though I was the one that
was meant to find him, because that night Katie and
(20:51):
Caitlin and another friend were at the park looking for
him after everyone had left, and they couldn't find him.
So that's when they thought that he had gone to
someone's house or yet gone to a girl's house or something.
But yeah, and then the next morning, Yeah, I just
had this like funny feeling, and then I tried to
(21:13):
tell myself like, no, it's fine, like he's probably just
he's probably fine, like don't overthink it. And I remember
driving home and I didn't feel like like on edge,
like freaking out or anything, but it was like in
the back of my mind, I was like, what if
something has happened to him? But if I'm being honest,
I really thought that I was just going to find
him asleep somewhere, and that's why when I pulled up,
(21:37):
I like was beeping the horn. And this was early
in the morning too, but yeah, I was just holding
the horn down like waiting for him to sit up.
So where he was was a little bit so probably
about twenty meters away from where they were all partying
that night, So I really was just in shock, so
(22:01):
I wasn't really looking around. I really don't remember much.
I just remember like just sitting there, like on the rock,
probably about ten meters away from him, just facing the
opposite way, just staring over at the playground at the
park and just going like what the hell is happening?
And my first thought was that he had, you know,
(22:24):
fallen and hit his head and then gotten up and
then stumbled and then fell passed out, and then something
had happened.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Like internally, it.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Was just the way he was laying looked so peaceful,
as if he had laid down drunk and just gone
to sleep. Like he wasn't curled up, but he was
like face down, like his face looking at this way
and then one knee up, so like he looked pretty comfy,
(22:53):
and that's why I originally thought that he was asleep
when I pulled up, because it didn't look like, yeah,
like horrific or gory or anything like that, but there
was nothing.
Speaker 8 (23:04):
It was just grass.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
There was nothing that he would have hit his head
on where he was laying, So that was my thought
that maybe there was something like an internal injury or
that he had been in a fight and then fell
and then left there. So we really had no idea
(23:26):
at that point. It did not look like he had
been run over, so we really did not know. So
I sort of just stood there and I remember the
ambulance rocking up, which they came down the road with
no lights or sirens on, which I thought was really weird,
but might have been just because he was already passed.
(23:47):
So they have pulled up, and then the first responder
of police had turned up as well about a few
minutes later, and I just remember the first thing that
they said was just like get back, get back, as
they were putting their tape up, But there was like
no sympathy whatsoever that I had just found my brother dead.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Next time a more to the story.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
So they were there walking around all the areas over
to the horse club, and they couldn't find him. And
yet it turns out that where they were walking, he.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
Was probably about like five six meters back from there.
And Cain around the same age me and Came always
stuck at the kids table together when we used to
go out to lunch or dinner. So yeah, we were
just always close. He was like a brother to me.
We fought like siblings. We had come home and I
(24:48):
said to the girls, we're going to sit an alarm
at five o'clock in the morning to look for him.
And then by the time that alarm went off, we
were all just so buggered that, you know, I just
thought his phone, like, he's going to be a Ki's
probably just at a girlfriend's house. We were there drinking,
Cain was smoking weed along with the rest of his friends,
(25:08):
his friends. I went from being drunk and sick and
you know, couldn't even move to jumping straight up and
my stomach had dropped, and I was very, very like
I used to always watch Overcame what he was doing
and how much he had had, he had had he
had had, he had had
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.