February 16, 2021 • 42 mins
On July 18, 2009, the battered bodies of newsagent Min Lin, his wife Lily Lin, their sons Henry and Terry; and Lily's sister Irene were found in their North Epping home. Brenda Lin was the only family member to survive - saved only by a school trip to New Caledonia. After making pleas for public assistance to solve the case, Min's brother-in-law Robert Xie was charged with their murders in 2011. In 2017, Xie was found guilty of murdering all five members of the Lin family and sentenced to five life terms in jail. In February 2021, Chief Justice Tom Bathurst and Justices Robert Allan Hulme and Robert Beech-Jones rejected Xie's appeal and found Xie didn't suffer a miscarriage of justice.
This story originally aired on Sunday Night in 2017.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I'd go to my friend's house and you see their
parents and with their families, and I know that I
would never have that. You'd see sometimes as teenagers of
children fight with their families, and I'd bet that I
(00:40):
do give anything to have my family back. Whenever I
see families now, I sort of smile to myself and
I think it's absolutely lovely, but it's also very bittersweet.
It was a reminds me of what I don't have.
(01:01):
Probably never will.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Police emergency, what's wrong?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So give someone's dying? My bird is chilled kill my brothers. Why?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
In one unthinkable night in this middle class suburban house
on Sydney's leafy North Shore, Australia's most horrific family massacre,
five members of Brenda Lynne's family bludgeoned to death in
their bedrooms. Brenda's mum Lily, her father Min, her little
(01:54):
brothers Henry and Terry, and her aunt Irene. Brenda was fifteen,
her family's only survivor, and the person she turned to
for help and a safe home was her uncle Robert.
You were on the war there was.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Front on a bad Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Brenda had no idea what he'd done or how much danger.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
She was in my goodness, she was living with her
family's murderer. That is just yet another awful aspect of
an awful tale.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
He was someone I trusted.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Tonight for the first time, Brenda confronts the awful truth
about what happened and why did he hurt you? This
terrible tragedy is also a story of love and hope.
How a young girl who lost her entire family, her
(03:00):
life shattered, her heart broken, managed to emerge strong, loving
and grateful forever thankful to all the people who rescued her.
Your identity has been suppressed. Yes, why do you want
to come out now?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Because I started off being really better and I didn't
like what happened to me. I was I blamed the wild?
How could there be such horrible people in this world?
Throughout that journey, a lot of really, really amazing people,
just everyday people who've reached out a helping hand, And
(03:38):
it's really changed my life in the way that I
see things. It's changed my perspective on life and on
people as well.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
The Lynn family's life in Australia is typical of so
many migrant success stories. Brenda's mum and dad, Lily and
Minn migrated from China as students. They meet in Sydney
and fell in love.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Your dad an absolutely amazing person. He's probably the most
hard working person I know.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Tell me about your mum.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
She was always with us at home. We'd cooked together,
or she'll take us to the park, and she spent
a lot of time with us and very very loving.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Lily and min worked hard, saved hard, and began a family.
Brenda was their first born. Next came Henry.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
He really loved tennis and badminton and very outgoing and
very cheery person, someone you just would know, automatically friends
with and easy to talk to, and very much like
my dad I think in that sense.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And three years later Terry was born.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He used to follow me around everywhere and I definitely
felt like the big, bossy sister. All three of us
had very similar interests and now we still all sit
on the couch and read books together. We'd read the
same books and so we'd talk about them afterwards. Oh No,
we'd sit in front of the TV and all play
games and we each have a control and were conversing
(05:12):
each other and wanting to win and all that. So
it was good. It was very very fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Lilly's sister, Brenda's aren't Tyrene also moved into their two
story family house at Airping. She helped out by working
part time with the family's thriving news agency. The business
kept Brenda's dad men busy seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
He's worked really hard and everything he's done was for
this family. Was to give me and my brothers the
best education possible, for us to have the best possible
life and have everything that he didn't have when he
was a child.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
There were also regular family get togethers with Brenda's aunt
Kathy and uncle Robert. He was an ear nose and
throat specialist in China, and after migrating to Australia, opened
a restaurant in Melbourne, which failed. They moved to Sydney,
just around the corner from the Lynn family. Uncle Robert
(06:10):
would play badminton with Brenda's brother Henry.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
My uncle was also good at badminton. He was going
over there on daily basis, dream school holidays to practice
with him.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
On the surface, Uncle Robert was a caring and loving relative.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
As a child, you're brought up being told that, no,
your family are amazing people. Your parents always right there.
The people you look up to and you know, definitely
don't know. There are bad people in the world, and
bad things happen in the world, but your family is
definitely not one of them. They always be there to
protect you and they're people that you can rely on.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
But Uncle Robert was not all that he seemed. He
was secretly jealous of the success of Brenda's family and
their news agency, also harbored unspeakable desires the target his niece. Brenda.
She had no idea.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I felt like I knew my uncle and he's this
amazing guy. Here's my family.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
In July two thousand and nine, Brenda was in year
ten at one of Sydney's leading public high.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Schools, Quiet Studious. I've had a look at past reports
and she even then had a very close group of
friends and worked very well and cooperative with other students,
but a very intelligent girl.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
As part of her studies, Brenda signed up for a
school excursion to practice French in New Caledonia. The night
before leaving, she recalls being nervous and excited.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I hugged my mother, I told her I'd miss her
a lot, went back upstairs, went back into bed, go
out of bed, went to go see Henry, he was
in the room opposite me, and tell him I'd miss
him a lot as well, and that have fun without me,
but I'll be back soon. By that time, Terry was
already asleep, Irene was in her room as well. I
(08:07):
didn't want to disturb by. I thought, look, it's going
to be a week. It's going to go by so
ridiculously fast. I'll be back before they even know it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
The next morning, her dad Min drove Brenda to the
airport where her school friends were saying emotional goodbyes to
their parents.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
A lot of them were in tears, saying they would
miss them a lot and as a teenager, and I
was trying to be cool, and I was saying, I know,
you guys are just being absolutely ridiculous. So I so
my dad stood next to me, sort of stood there awkwardly.
(08:47):
So I looked at him, and I didn't say anything.
I didn't say anything to him. I just watched everyone
else being emotional and I thought it was ridiculous. And
then we all left, and that's the last time I
(09:09):
saw him. I didn't get to say thank you for
being an amazing father. Oh, and did you get to
(09:34):
tell him I loved him, and that was the last
time I talked to you. I know, I just wish
I told him that he's an amazing person and thank
(09:58):
you for doing doing everything for us. And I never
told him that I was grateful, never taught him I
loved it, and I'll never be able to.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
The Lynn family home sits at the end of a
long driveway in the middle class Sydney suburb of Epping.
Brenda's mum, dad, her two brothers, and aunt Irene were
asleep in the early hours of July eighteen, two thousand
and nine. Brenda was overseas in New Caledonia on a
school trip.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It's going to maybe a week. It's gonna go by
so ridiculously fast. I'll be back before they even know it.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
The first inkling that something was wrong was when the
family news agency didn't open. Brenda's auntie Kathy and uncle
Robert lived just across the park, about three hundred meters
away from the Lynn family home, down this driveway. They
were the first to come here that morning.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
What's wrong, I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Why do you think someone's dying?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Birthday? Someone chilled kill my brother.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
The morning.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
We are coming. How about can you see their body?
I thought, why.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
You can say they found it out.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
I don't know why. I saw my sister in law
lying on the back, and I also saw the.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Blood marks on the wall in three bedrooms worth five bodies.
All of Brenda's family had been brutally murdered.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
My sister lawn lying maybe a part of bodies out
of the bed, and also that besides it, that one
was I think maybe my brother, but I can't see
any hand, leg or head or any body part of
my brother's body.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
The bodies were found by a family member just before
ten this morning.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
The cause of death is yet to be established, and
the bodies remained instituted.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
News of the massacre quickly spread. Brenda was in New
Caledonia with a girlfriend looking at Facebook.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
One of my friends sent over a link to a
news article and it had a photo of my house.
No you go, Oko, that's my house. It was such say,
it was such a surreal sort of feeling it. I
didn't believe it. It's not possible it's someone else. I
(13:33):
don't know. I was just in so much of.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Immediately, my phone started ringing from parents in the community
and teachers who live in the community to ensure that
I was aware that it was one of our families,
and I will never forget that day.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The principle of Brenda's school, Susan Bridge, began arranging help
and support for her year ten student.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
My first thought was Brenda. I knew she was overseas
and I wanted to make sure that she was safe.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Brenda caught the next flight home.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
We got to send the airport and the police made
us air brought us through through this room and there
was my aunt and uncle and cousin. As soon as
I saw my aunt, she gave this to me, this
massive part because she was crying as well. That's when
I knew it was all real.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
At the crime scene in Epping, police were piecing together
how the calculated and brutal attack had unfolded. Brenda's mom
and dad, Lily and Minn were bludgeoned to death with
a hammer like object as they slept. The killer moved
(15:04):
quickly down the hallway to Aunt Irene's room and bashed
her to death. Then the killer turned on twelve year
old Henry and nine year old Terry. They both woke
up during the attack. Henry was killed with three blows
to the head. Terry fought back and was struck six times.
(15:35):
Anything you may say or do will be recorded on DVD,
video and audio, and my lady be using evidence of court.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Do you understand that here.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Uncle Robert had discovered the crime scene with his wife, Kathy.
How long was it before you noticed the blood?
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I'm sorry this a few second and I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He was interviewed extensively by police, his car was seized,
and within a few weeks he and his wife were
running the Linn Family News agency. During police interrogations, Uncle
Robert claimed he was horrified by the murders, trying to
stop Kathy tour look at this thing. I don't look
(16:22):
as to look things.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, that's why I want Why was that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Scary?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It was scary.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
It doesn't bear the hallmarks of a typical home invasion
in that we haven't established that anything was stolen from
the home.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Detectives suspected the killer had a key to the house,
knew its layout, and knew the family well. Uncle Robert
even made an appeal to catch the killer.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
People haven't experienced this, cannot feel what we are experiencing.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Anyone can help.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Please contact the police. Uncle Robert was among the hundreds
of mourners at the funeral, the enormity of the tragedy
(17:28):
evident in a slow, painful procession of five coffins. Brenda
recorded a message for the service.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Well.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
Where are you?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Why did you leave? Now that you have gone, who
am I going to share my secrets with? Who is
going to foss over me every single day? I miss you?
(18:04):
I miss you so much.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Do you remember thinking through that? Do you remember doing it,
recording it?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I remember recording it, and and I remember just not
knowing what to say. It was just so soon after,
and there's lots of things I want to say to them,
but anything. At that time, I was really very I
(18:39):
don't know if angry is the right word, but very
upset that they left me behind. I was just so
amazed by the turnout, how the school it organized, and
(19:01):
a bus to take all the girls there, and just
the amount of loving people they came up much to me,
huddled me.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
And I remember everyone just a lot of us linking
arms and accompanying each other, and I thought that was like,
really nice.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
We were just stuck, we all stuck together.
Speaker 7 (19:26):
You can't you can't like replace what's been lost, like
you can't take the brokenness out of a situation.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
We kept being friends. We did it as best as
were good.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I've been to funerals before, I've whipt for people. I've
never seen such raw grief in my life. It was
torrential grief. It was overwhelming grief. Her grandparents were distraught,
(20:09):
and while I absolutely respected it was very moving, but
there was no room in that grief for a fifteen
year old girl.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
I say it, but are you?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
They were torn apart by grief. It was distressing to
watch and impossible not to be moved by.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Going to the cemetery and not in the headstone, They're
all I won't mean that. With the.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Murders had left Brenda an orphan. Where was she going
to live?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I really wanted to go home. I was just imagining
myself living there on my own for the rest of
my life. I don't know why, but everybody wanted to
go home. We went there, but it was just so
scary work being there. When I got dar, I think
I pictured. I imagined what might have happened at night,
(21:47):
or the furniture. The beds were gone, and the thing
that with blood on it was cleaned and gone, and
you just knew that something had happened, and yeah it,
she reminds you of Han.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Brenda was just fifteen, too young to live alone, so
she moved in here to the family she felt closest to,
her Aunt Kathy and Uncle Robert. Brenda had no idea
she was now living under the same roof as the killer.
(22:40):
Five members of the Lynn family are dead. The killer
has not been found. The soul's survivor, Brenda Lynn, contemplates
returning to live in the home, but she's fifteen and
needs someone to care for her. She moved just across
the park into the home of Aunt Kathy and Uncle Robert.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
My aunt and uncle. They were the substitute family I had,
and I lived with them for a long time. They
took me to school, made my school lunches, if I
needed anything done that helped me out. They were the
next best thing to my family.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
But school principal Susan Bridge had serious doubts about who
Brenda had chosen to live with. She'd witnessed a disturbing
encounter between Brenda and her uncle Robert.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Spot was tongue up with me.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
It was so physically very close and face only this
far away, speaking loudly, rapidly in Chinese. Brenda with her
head about down, tears falling down. It was clear he
was trying to get her to agree to something. I
did feel that I had seen a side of Robert
(24:08):
that was a potentially dangerous side.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
What did you say to your husband that night when
you went home?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I think I've spent all day with the murderer, she
told me.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
She went home and said to her husband that night,
I just had lunch with the murderer.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
She knew then, How does she know? It was definitely
not a murder in my eyes, and he was just
an uncle, a family guy. That was it.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
A year after the murders, Uncle Robert had become a
prime person of interest to the homicide investigators. Have you
got any idea who may have been responsible for the murder?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Maybe? Or not?
Speaker 6 (24:55):
Have you thought about who it may have been responsible?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Oh, bloody footprints at the crime scene matched the size
and style of a pair of assex gellivation joggers owned
by Uncle Robert. The only bedroom where there were no
bloody footprints was Brenda's, suggesting the killer must have known
(25:20):
she was not at home at the time.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I just got a gut feeling that he was a
dangerous person, and I was very worried for Brenda's safety.
I did share those with the police, but that was
all I could do. I mean, what else could I do.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Susan introduced Brenda to a lawyer, Patrick Parkinson. He too
began to suspect Uncle Robert, even though Brenda didn't think
it was possible.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I think she didn't believe he was could have been
guilty for a very very long time. I'm sure that
that was a mechanisms for her to cope with it.
With it or how could one believe that your uncle
has moded the rest of your family?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But evidence against the uncle was mounting. Police installed cameras
in his home and recorded him destroying a shoe box
that matched the shoes worn by the killer.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
They put some secret cameras into the house and there
was evidence of him taking that shoe box and cutting
that up and flushing it down the toilet.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
And in Uncle Robert's garage under a chest of drawers.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence a smear
of human genetic material known as staying ninety one. It
matches the DNA of several of the victims.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
According to the best expertise that the prosecution could bring forward,
at least seemed to indicate the mixed DNA of four of.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
The On May five, twenty eleven, nearly two years after
the Lynn family murders, Brenda's uncle, Robert Z was arrested.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
He was surprised I him to be have the police arrivaly.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Store an absolutely shop. I knew he didn't do it
because he's a family member and I knew him.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
But during the first trial, Brenda was forced for the
first time to confront all of the evidence police had
gathered against her uncle. The blood in the garage, the
footprints matching his shoes, the knowledge of the house, and
the uncle was secretly recorded in jail confessing to a
cellmate that he'd sedated his wife Kathy in order to
(27:51):
sneak out of their house unnoticed.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Realizing that he might be involved with something that was
life changing, something that was yeah, completely eye opening.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Is there anything else you want to tell me about him?
Things he may have done, how he ever made you feel.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I think at the times after the murders, he and
as a teenager myself, I was very insecure, very I
didn't know what I was doing, and he knew that.
(28:41):
He read it very well.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Uncle Robert had taken advantage of Brenda at her most
vulnerable and in the most despicable way, But she found
the strength to trust her lawyer with shocking truth. She
revealed Uncle Robert had been sexually abusing her since before
the murders.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Brenda revealed something that she didn't think was relevant to
the murder trial, by which I thought was so I
think the trudge had had no choice but to start
the trial all over again.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
On the opening day of the second trial sensational new evidence.
The prosecution claims robert Z's motive for murder was his
sexual obsession with his niece. He killed her whole family,
everyone she loved, so Brenda would be forced to live
under his roof. Did your uncle Robert Z sexually abuse you?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
He did. And that's something that I'm not very I'm
very private about and something that at this point in
time I don't feel comfortable talking about as well. So
I hope people can respect that and respect my privacy.
And now, at one point in time in the future,
(30:14):
maybe I will be able to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Just with everything that happened to you, with everything you
were going through. Can't begin to imagine just how it
made you feel.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
At this point in time. I haven't quite processed it properly,
and I don't even know how I'm meant to feel
about this or how I meant to describe how it's
affected me.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Do you remember the moment you realized that maybe this
was part of his motivation to do what he did.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
For a moment, I did think that, But I also
don't think that something like this would warrant him to
kill five people. I don't know what goes through his mind,
and I can't be sure, and I don't think I
ever will be sure about why he was modivented to
do what he did.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's perfect Christ.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Justice would take years. The second trial was aborted when
the judge fell ill. The third trial ended in a
hum jury and Uncle Robert being released on bail. I'm
grateful to be harm and I'll continue revive for my nism.
Speaker 8 (31:44):
At about ten am.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
In January this year, the jury in the fourth trial
convicted Robert Z of five murders.
Speaker 8 (31:53):
You are sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Brenda's evidence of sexual abuse had been suppressed by the court.
It was finally addressed by the judge earlier this month
as she sentenced Robert Z to five life terms in jail.
The court was told that he was driven to commit
the unthinkable crime by a sick and depraved obsession with Brenda.
Speaker 8 (32:21):
First, the offender's sexual interest in miss ab as evidenced
by his sexual interest in her before the murders and
his serialized sexual abuse of her after the murders, when,
as I have noted, upon the death of all members
of her immediate family, she became a member of his household.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Do you feel relieved that it's out there people know.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I'm not quite sure yet, because everyone who knew me
before the murders or were close to me after no already.
But it's still fairly strange having all these people who
know so much more about me.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
The love for you from people who don't even know
you is extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
It is indeed, I wasn't expecting it. I've been on
the internet and just having to look at through all
of them, and some of the comments are just so lovely.
I don't think I've seen one bad comment, so that's
been very very encouraging to me. And also, is it.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Not wanting to have this define who you are because
you are so much more than what happened to you.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I hope that's the case. I hope people can see
that as well.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Brendan Lynn is on a pilgrimage to Guanzhou, China, retracing
her family's past, the family massacred by her uncle seven
years ago.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I think have been so close to buy it right now.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Four Oh gosh, that's so loud.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Oh me comes to smoke.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
This is where her parents, Min and Lily are from.
Brendas come here to honor their memory.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Does it make you.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Feel a little more connected to your family heritage being here,
Oh definitely.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
So I'm to understand a little bit more, and I
understand the environment they grew up in, and I think
through that is what I understand what sort of people
that were like, and maybe the like they might.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Have had as well.
Speaker 9 (34:41):
So it means a lot to me that I can
still connect here that in yeah, some sort of be more.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
One of the things I noticed the most was whenever
you speak to me about your family, you talk about
them in the present tense.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I noticed that too as well, because I like to
think they're still here and still are with me today. Yeah,
I hope they're looking down at me and still seeing
how I'm going, and it's hard because they're not physically
here with you.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
You've seen humanity at its worst, and you've also experienced
and seen humanity at its best.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I have, but it took amazing people in the wider
community who've done amazing things, and I've seen that the
majority of humanity being I think I've seen the good people.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
I feel like this was sometimes like the serious discussion
table back in Sydney. It's a relief to see Brenda
can still be a happy young woman with her old schoolmates.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
Once Brenda came back after everything had happened, we all
just really looked after each other, which was really nice, special.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Under this tree. After the murders, Beck and Pip were
part of Brenda's group in the simplest ways. They helped
her through the darkest of times.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
Treating her just as normal was the only way we
knew how.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
And just felt right.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
Just to do normal teenage things, just hang out, watch
movies and do make up and hang out as we'd
always done. It just felt really right.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
These friends have remained close to Brenda in the years
since her uncle Robert murdered her family. His wife, her
aunt Kathy, still refuses to believe he's guilty.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
He is in the son.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
We believe that he is in their son.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
We keeps fighting for him. Oh, I was wrote her
pointed by that because when I when I gave evidence,
I didn't. I told the truth, and she used to
send me messages saying that he was innocent. He's been
(37:15):
framed by the police. I hope one day she can
realize that all I did was tell the truth. She's
better off not with him.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
A key person in Brenda's journey back to some kind
of normal life is her high school principal, Susan Bridge.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I've shut definitely.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
She talks with Brenda regularly about life, family, and the future.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
I learned as much from Brenda as anything I may
have given her.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
What did you learn from Brenda?
Speaker 3 (38:01):
I was always worried that she wouldn't remember how to love,
that that would be something that was also taken from her.
I needn't her worry. She she taught me that love
is the most important thing.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Helping Brenda to feel love and trust again is her
new best friend, Sky, a one year old husky.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
You know, I do everything with her. I take her
with me everywhere. It's like looking at all the kids sometimes,
and she's family. And with dogs, the great thing about
them is that you know they'll always love you and
they don't have any other agenda. And that's something I've
been worried about for a long time with people, and
I'm mean cautious about that with people. Dogs just genuinely
(38:49):
love for you for who you are, and and they're
for you. So this guy is great. She's probably one
of the best decisions I've made in my life.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
A few days ago, a small but very special gathering
of friends, they've come together to celebrate the beginning of
a new chapter in Brenda's life.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
Just by all that she's been through. She's been out
to help so many people already, and I know she'll
like help so many people in the future as well,
just by sharing her story.
Speaker 7 (39:24):
Brenda's just been such a great encouragement to us, saying
things to us like hope is the only thing that
keeps everyone living.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And Brenda's former school principal, Susan Bridge, wouldn't miss this
for anything, Darling.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
I have said to her some time ago now that
it is my dearest wish that one day she will
invite me to her wedding, and that one day I
can attend the christening of her child, because she will
make a wonderful mother and she will start a fabulous family.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Susan Bridge tells me she can't wait to be invited
to your wedding and.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
That ever happens, yeah, lovely, because it's things like this
where no graduations, weddings where traditionally you've got your family there,
so it'd be really sad if no one came. But
as in it reminds me. I think there's times like
(40:32):
that makes me misses them the most because it reminds
you so much that they're not there.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
The dad, min, Mum, Lily, little brothers Terry and Henry
and aren't Irene are never far from Brenda's thoughts. How
do you honor them?
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I like to be someone they're proud of. I think
just doing the things they would have wanted me to
do and would have like to be to have done.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
So how do you see your future? What do you
want to do?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I'm sure that I would like to do something to
help other people in the future. I want to be
able to show kindness to people, to others the way
they've shown kindness to me, because it's made a very
very big impact to who I am now and what
I have now. I'm extremely extremely grateful.
Speaker 10 (41:33):
He is four years into his punishment for killing the
Lynn family, So what is time for Robert Z when
he's serving five life sentences.
Speaker 8 (41:41):
A course of offending that can only be described as
heinous in the extreme.
Speaker 10 (41:46):
It took full trials spanning three years to secure the
convictions and ten minutes for him to learn he was
unsuccessful in appealing against them. The appeal court did not
accept that a miscourage of justice occurred. Z maintains he
didn't care his brother in law Minleyn, his wife Lily,
their two boys, Henry and Terry, and Lily's sister Irene
in their North Epping home in two thousand and nine,
(42:07):
and claims he had no intention of taking over the
family business so his lawyer is lodged and appeal criticizing
the expert evidence provided on stain ninety one, a small
blood spot which contained DNA from four of the five
victims found in Z's garage, it was misleading or confusing
to the jury, causing prejudice, but the appeals court did
not agree. Robert Z appeared vi video link from jail
(42:30):
and put his head in his hands when the judges
handed down their decision. He's only and final option now
would be to appeal the convictions in the High Court.
Will you be going to the High Court? His wife
Kathie would not say. Her niece and soul survivor Brendolin
sat meters behind her in court. A once close family
split by greed and bloodshed. Leoni Ryan at seven yews
I'd go to my friend's house and you see their
parents and with their families, and I know that I
would never have that. You'd see sometimes as teenagers of
children fight with their families, and I'd bet that I
(00:40):
do give anything to have my family back. Whenever I
see families now, I sort of smile to myself and
I think it's absolutely lovely, but it's also very bittersweet.
It was a reminds me of what I don't have.
(01:01):
Probably never will.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Police emergency, what's wrong?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So give someone's dying? My bird is chilled kill my brothers. Why?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
In one unthinkable night in this middle class suburban house
on Sydney's leafy North Shore, Australia's most horrific family massacre,
five members of Brenda Lynne's family bludgeoned to death in
their bedrooms. Brenda's mum Lily, her father Min, her little
(01:54):
brothers Henry and Terry, and her aunt Irene. Brenda was fifteen,
her family's only survivor, and the person she turned to
for help and a safe home was her uncle Robert.
You were on the war there was.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Front on a bad Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Brenda had no idea what he'd done or how much danger.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
She was in my goodness, she was living with her
family's murderer. That is just yet another awful aspect of
an awful tale.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
He was someone I trusted.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Tonight for the first time, Brenda confronts the awful truth
about what happened and why did he hurt you? This
terrible tragedy is also a story of love and hope.
How a young girl who lost her entire family, her
(03:00):
life shattered, her heart broken, managed to emerge strong, loving
and grateful forever thankful to all the people who rescued her.
Your identity has been suppressed. Yes, why do you want
to come out now?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Because I started off being really better and I didn't
like what happened to me. I was I blamed the wild?
How could there be such horrible people in this world?
Throughout that journey, a lot of really, really amazing people,
just everyday people who've reached out a helping hand, And
(03:38):
it's really changed my life in the way that I
see things. It's changed my perspective on life and on
people as well.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
The Lynn family's life in Australia is typical of so
many migrant success stories. Brenda's mum and dad, Lily and
Minn migrated from China as students. They meet in Sydney
and fell in love.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Your dad an absolutely amazing person. He's probably the most
hard working person I know.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Tell me about your mum.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
She was always with us at home. We'd cooked together,
or she'll take us to the park, and she spent
a lot of time with us and very very loving.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Lily and min worked hard, saved hard, and began a family.
Brenda was their first born. Next came Henry.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
He really loved tennis and badminton and very outgoing and
very cheery person, someone you just would know, automatically friends
with and easy to talk to, and very much like
my dad I think in that sense.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And three years later Terry was born.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He used to follow me around everywhere and I definitely
felt like the big, bossy sister. All three of us
had very similar interests and now we still all sit
on the couch and read books together. We'd read the
same books and so we'd talk about them afterwards. Oh No,
we'd sit in front of the TV and all play
games and we each have a control and were conversing
(05:12):
each other and wanting to win and all that. So
it was good. It was very very fun. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Lilly's sister, Brenda's aren't Tyrene also moved into their two
story family house at Airping. She helped out by working
part time with the family's thriving news agency. The business
kept Brenda's dad men busy seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
He's worked really hard and everything he's done was for
this family. Was to give me and my brothers the
best education possible, for us to have the best possible
life and have everything that he didn't have when he
was a child.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
There were also regular family get togethers with Brenda's aunt
Kathy and uncle Robert. He was an ear nose and
throat specialist in China, and after migrating to Australia, opened
a restaurant in Melbourne, which failed. They moved to Sydney,
just around the corner from the Lynn family. Uncle Robert
(06:10):
would play badminton with Brenda's brother Henry.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
My uncle was also good at badminton. He was going
over there on daily basis, dream school holidays to practice
with him.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
On the surface, Uncle Robert was a caring and loving relative.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
As a child, you're brought up being told that, no,
your family are amazing people. Your parents always right there.
The people you look up to and you know, definitely
don't know. There are bad people in the world, and
bad things happen in the world, but your family is
definitely not one of them. They always be there to
protect you and they're people that you can rely on.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
But Uncle Robert was not all that he seemed. He
was secretly jealous of the success of Brenda's family and
their news agency, also harbored unspeakable desires the target his niece. Brenda.
She had no idea.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I felt like I knew my uncle and he's this
amazing guy. Here's my family.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
In July two thousand and nine, Brenda was in year
ten at one of Sydney's leading public high.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Schools, Quiet Studious. I've had a look at past reports
and she even then had a very close group of
friends and worked very well and cooperative with other students,
but a very intelligent girl.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
As part of her studies, Brenda signed up for a
school excursion to practice French in New Caledonia. The night
before leaving, she recalls being nervous and excited.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I hugged my mother, I told her I'd miss her
a lot, went back upstairs, went back into bed, go
out of bed, went to go see Henry, he was
in the room opposite me, and tell him I'd miss
him a lot as well, and that have fun without me,
but I'll be back soon. By that time, Terry was
already asleep, Irene was in her room as well. I
(08:07):
didn't want to disturb by. I thought, look, it's going
to be a week. It's going to go by so
ridiculously fast. I'll be back before they even know it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
The next morning, her dad Min drove Brenda to the
airport where her school friends were saying emotional goodbyes to
their parents.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
A lot of them were in tears, saying they would
miss them a lot and as a teenager, and I
was trying to be cool, and I was saying, I know,
you guys are just being absolutely ridiculous. So I so
my dad stood next to me, sort of stood there awkwardly.
(08:47):
So I looked at him, and I didn't say anything.
I didn't say anything to him. I just watched everyone
else being emotional and I thought it was ridiculous. And
then we all left, and that's the last time I
(09:09):
saw him. I didn't get to say thank you for
being an amazing father. Oh, and did you get to
(09:34):
tell him I loved him, and that was the last
time I talked to you. I know, I just wish
I told him that he's an amazing person and thank
(09:58):
you for doing doing everything for us. And I never
told him that I was grateful, never taught him I
loved it, and I'll never be able to.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
The Lynn family home sits at the end of a
long driveway in the middle class Sydney suburb of Epping.
Brenda's mum, dad, her two brothers, and aunt Irene were
asleep in the early hours of July eighteen, two thousand
and nine. Brenda was overseas in New Caledonia on a
school trip.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It's going to maybe a week. It's gonna go by
so ridiculously fast. I'll be back before they even know it.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
The first inkling that something was wrong was when the
family news agency didn't open. Brenda's auntie Kathy and uncle
Robert lived just across the park, about three hundred meters
away from the Lynn family home, down this driveway. They
were the first to come here that morning.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
What's wrong, I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Why do you think someone's dying?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Birthday? Someone chilled kill my brother.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
The morning.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
We are coming. How about can you see their body?
I thought, why.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
You can say they found it out.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
I don't know why. I saw my sister in law
lying on the back, and I also saw the.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Blood marks on the wall in three bedrooms worth five bodies.
All of Brenda's family had been brutally murdered.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
My sister lawn lying maybe a part of bodies out
of the bed, and also that besides it, that one
was I think maybe my brother, but I can't see
any hand, leg or head or any body part of
my brother's body.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
The bodies were found by a family member just before
ten this morning.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
The cause of death is yet to be established, and
the bodies remained instituted.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
News of the massacre quickly spread. Brenda was in New
Caledonia with a girlfriend looking at Facebook.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
One of my friends sent over a link to a
news article and it had a photo of my house.
No you go, Oko, that's my house. It was such say,
it was such a surreal sort of feeling it. I
didn't believe it. It's not possible it's someone else. I
(13:33):
don't know. I was just in so much of.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Immediately, my phone started ringing from parents in the community
and teachers who live in the community to ensure that
I was aware that it was one of our families,
and I will never forget that day.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The principle of Brenda's school, Susan Bridge, began arranging help
and support for her year ten student.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
My first thought was Brenda. I knew she was overseas
and I wanted to make sure that she was safe.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Brenda caught the next flight home.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
We got to send the airport and the police made
us air brought us through through this room and there
was my aunt and uncle and cousin. As soon as
I saw my aunt, she gave this to me, this
massive part because she was crying as well. That's when
I knew it was all real.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
At the crime scene in Epping, police were piecing together
how the calculated and brutal attack had unfolded. Brenda's mom
and dad, Lily and Minn were bludgeoned to death with
a hammer like object as they slept. The killer moved
(15:04):
quickly down the hallway to Aunt Irene's room and bashed
her to death. Then the killer turned on twelve year
old Henry and nine year old Terry. They both woke
up during the attack. Henry was killed with three blows
to the head. Terry fought back and was struck six times.
(15:35):
Anything you may say or do will be recorded on DVD,
video and audio, and my lady be using evidence of court.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Do you understand that here.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Uncle Robert had discovered the crime scene with his wife, Kathy.
How long was it before you noticed the blood?
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I'm sorry this a few second and I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He was interviewed extensively by police, his car was seized,
and within a few weeks he and his wife were
running the Linn Family News agency. During police interrogations, Uncle
Robert claimed he was horrified by the murders, trying to
stop Kathy tour look at this thing. I don't look
(16:22):
as to look things.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, that's why I want Why was that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Scary?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It was scary.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
It doesn't bear the hallmarks of a typical home invasion
in that we haven't established that anything was stolen from
the home.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Detectives suspected the killer had a key to the house,
knew its layout, and knew the family well. Uncle Robert
even made an appeal to catch the killer.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
People haven't experienced this, cannot feel what we are experiencing.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Anyone can help.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Please contact the police. Uncle Robert was among the hundreds
of mourners at the funeral, the enormity of the tragedy
(17:28):
evident in a slow, painful procession of five coffins. Brenda
recorded a message for the service.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Well.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
Where are you?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Why did you leave? Now that you have gone, who
am I going to share my secrets with? Who is
going to foss over me every single day? I miss you?
(18:04):
I miss you so much.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Do you remember thinking through that? Do you remember doing it,
recording it?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I remember recording it, and and I remember just not
knowing what to say. It was just so soon after,
and there's lots of things I want to say to them,
but anything. At that time, I was really very I
(18:39):
don't know if angry is the right word, but very
upset that they left me behind. I was just so
amazed by the turnout, how the school it organized, and
(19:01):
a bus to take all the girls there, and just
the amount of loving people they came up much to me,
huddled me.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
And I remember everyone just a lot of us linking
arms and accompanying each other, and I thought that was like,
really nice.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
We were just stuck, we all stuck together.
Speaker 7 (19:26):
You can't you can't like replace what's been lost, like
you can't take the brokenness out of a situation.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
We kept being friends. We did it as best as
were good.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I've been to funerals before, I've whipt for people. I've
never seen such raw grief in my life. It was
torrential grief. It was overwhelming grief. Her grandparents were distraught,
(20:09):
and while I absolutely respected it was very moving, but
there was no room in that grief for a fifteen
year old girl.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
I say it, but are you?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
They were torn apart by grief. It was distressing to
watch and impossible not to be moved by.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Going to the cemetery and not in the headstone, They're
all I won't mean that. With the.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Murders had left Brenda an orphan. Where was she going
to live?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I really wanted to go home. I was just imagining
myself living there on my own for the rest of
my life. I don't know why, but everybody wanted to
go home. We went there, but it was just so
scary work being there. When I got dar, I think
I pictured. I imagined what might have happened at night,
(21:47):
or the furniture. The beds were gone, and the thing
that with blood on it was cleaned and gone, and
you just knew that something had happened, and yeah it,
she reminds you of Han.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Brenda was just fifteen, too young to live alone, so
she moved in here to the family she felt closest to,
her Aunt Kathy and Uncle Robert. Brenda had no idea
she was now living under the same roof as the killer.
(22:40):
Five members of the Lynn family are dead. The killer
has not been found. The soul's survivor, Brenda Lynn, contemplates
returning to live in the home, but she's fifteen and
needs someone to care for her. She moved just across
the park into the home of Aunt Kathy and Uncle Robert.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
My aunt and uncle. They were the substitute family I had,
and I lived with them for a long time. They
took me to school, made my school lunches, if I
needed anything done that helped me out. They were the
next best thing to my family.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
But school principal Susan Bridge had serious doubts about who
Brenda had chosen to live with. She'd witnessed a disturbing
encounter between Brenda and her uncle Robert.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Spot was tongue up with me.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
It was so physically very close and face only this
far away, speaking loudly, rapidly in Chinese. Brenda with her
head about down, tears falling down. It was clear he
was trying to get her to agree to something. I
did feel that I had seen a side of Robert
(24:08):
that was a potentially dangerous side.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
What did you say to your husband that night when
you went home?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
I think I've spent all day with the murderer, she
told me.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
She went home and said to her husband that night,
I just had lunch with the murderer.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
She knew then, How does she know? It was definitely
not a murder in my eyes, and he was just
an uncle, a family guy. That was it.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
A year after the murders, Uncle Robert had become a
prime person of interest to the homicide investigators. Have you
got any idea who may have been responsible for the murder?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Maybe? Or not?
Speaker 6 (24:55):
Have you thought about who it may have been responsible?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Oh, bloody footprints at the crime scene matched the size
and style of a pair of assex gellivation joggers owned
by Uncle Robert. The only bedroom where there were no
bloody footprints was Brenda's, suggesting the killer must have known
(25:20):
she was not at home at the time.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I just got a gut feeling that he was a
dangerous person, and I was very worried for Brenda's safety.
I did share those with the police, but that was
all I could do. I mean, what else could I do.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Susan introduced Brenda to a lawyer, Patrick Parkinson. He too
began to suspect Uncle Robert, even though Brenda didn't think
it was possible.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I think she didn't believe he was could have been
guilty for a very very long time. I'm sure that
that was a mechanisms for her to cope with it.
With it or how could one believe that your uncle
has moded the rest of your family?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But evidence against the uncle was mounting. Police installed cameras
in his home and recorded him destroying a shoe box
that matched the shoes worn by the killer.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
They put some secret cameras into the house and there
was evidence of him taking that shoe box and cutting
that up and flushing it down the toilet.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
And in Uncle Robert's garage under a chest of drawers.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence a smear
of human genetic material known as staying ninety one. It
matches the DNA of several of the victims.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
According to the best expertise that the prosecution could bring forward,
at least seemed to indicate the mixed DNA of four of.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
The On May five, twenty eleven, nearly two years after
the Lynn family murders, Brenda's uncle, Robert Z was arrested.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
He was surprised I him to be have the police arrivaly.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Store an absolutely shop. I knew he didn't do it
because he's a family member and I knew him.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
But during the first trial, Brenda was forced for the
first time to confront all of the evidence police had
gathered against her uncle. The blood in the garage, the
footprints matching his shoes, the knowledge of the house, and
the uncle was secretly recorded in jail confessing to a
cellmate that he'd sedated his wife Kathy in order to
(27:51):
sneak out of their house unnoticed.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Realizing that he might be involved with something that was
life changing, something that was yeah, completely eye opening.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Is there anything else you want to tell me about him?
Things he may have done, how he ever made you feel.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I think at the times after the murders, he and
as a teenager myself, I was very insecure, very I
didn't know what I was doing, and he knew that.
(28:41):
He read it very well.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Uncle Robert had taken advantage of Brenda at her most
vulnerable and in the most despicable way, But she found
the strength to trust her lawyer with shocking truth. She
revealed Uncle Robert had been sexually abusing her since before
the murders.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Brenda revealed something that she didn't think was relevant to
the murder trial, by which I thought was so I
think the trudge had had no choice but to start
the trial all over again.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
On the opening day of the second trial sensational new evidence.
The prosecution claims robert Z's motive for murder was his
sexual obsession with his niece. He killed her whole family,
everyone she loved, so Brenda would be forced to live
under his roof. Did your uncle Robert Z sexually abuse you?
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
He did. And that's something that I'm not very I'm
very private about and something that at this point in
time I don't feel comfortable talking about as well. So
I hope people can respect that and respect my privacy.
And now, at one point in time in the future,
(30:14):
maybe I will be able to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Just with everything that happened to you, with everything you
were going through. Can't begin to imagine just how it
made you feel.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
At this point in time. I haven't quite processed it properly,
and I don't even know how I'm meant to feel
about this or how I meant to describe how it's
affected me.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Do you remember the moment you realized that maybe this
was part of his motivation to do what he did.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
For a moment, I did think that, But I also
don't think that something like this would warrant him to
kill five people. I don't know what goes through his mind,
and I can't be sure, and I don't think I
ever will be sure about why he was modivented to
do what he did.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's perfect Christ.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Justice would take years. The second trial was aborted when
the judge fell ill. The third trial ended in a
hum jury and Uncle Robert being released on bail. I'm
grateful to be harm and I'll continue revive for my nism.
Speaker 8 (31:44):
At about ten am.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
In January this year, the jury in the fourth trial
convicted Robert Z of five murders.
Speaker 8 (31:53):
You are sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Brenda's evidence of sexual abuse had been suppressed by the court.
It was finally addressed by the judge earlier this month
as she sentenced Robert Z to five life terms in jail.
The court was told that he was driven to commit
the unthinkable crime by a sick and depraved obsession with Brenda.
Speaker 8 (32:21):
First, the offender's sexual interest in miss ab as evidenced
by his sexual interest in her before the murders and
his serialized sexual abuse of her after the murders, when,
as I have noted, upon the death of all members
of her immediate family, she became a member of his household.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Do you feel relieved that it's out there people know.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I'm not quite sure yet, because everyone who knew me
before the murders or were close to me after no already.
But it's still fairly strange having all these people who
know so much more about me.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
The love for you from people who don't even know
you is extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
It is indeed, I wasn't expecting it. I've been on
the internet and just having to look at through all
of them, and some of the comments are just so lovely.
I don't think I've seen one bad comment, so that's
been very very encouraging to me. And also, is it.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Not wanting to have this define who you are because
you are so much more than what happened to you.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I hope that's the case. I hope people can see
that as well.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Brendan Lynn is on a pilgrimage to Guanzhou, China, retracing
her family's past, the family massacred by her uncle seven
years ago.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I think have been so close to buy it right now.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Four Oh gosh, that's so loud.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Oh me comes to smoke.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
This is where her parents, Min and Lily are from.
Brendas come here to honor their memory.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Does it make you.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Feel a little more connected to your family heritage being here,
Oh definitely.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
So I'm to understand a little bit more, and I
understand the environment they grew up in, and I think
through that is what I understand what sort of people
that were like, and maybe the like they might.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Have had as well.
Speaker 9 (34:41):
So it means a lot to me that I can
still connect here that in yeah, some sort of be more.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
One of the things I noticed the most was whenever
you speak to me about your family, you talk about
them in the present tense.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I noticed that too as well, because I like to
think they're still here and still are with me today. Yeah,
I hope they're looking down at me and still seeing
how I'm going, and it's hard because they're not physically
here with you.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
You've seen humanity at its worst, and you've also experienced
and seen humanity at its best.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I have, but it took amazing people in the wider
community who've done amazing things, and I've seen that the
majority of humanity being I think I've seen the good people.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
I feel like this was sometimes like the serious discussion
table back in Sydney. It's a relief to see Brenda
can still be a happy young woman with her old schoolmates.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
Once Brenda came back after everything had happened, we all
just really looked after each other, which was really nice, special.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Under this tree. After the murders, Beck and Pip were
part of Brenda's group in the simplest ways. They helped
her through the darkest of times.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
Treating her just as normal was the only way we
knew how.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
And just felt right.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
Just to do normal teenage things, just hang out, watch
movies and do make up and hang out as we'd
always done. It just felt really right.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
These friends have remained close to Brenda in the years
since her uncle Robert murdered her family. His wife, her
aunt Kathy, still refuses to believe he's guilty.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
He is in the son.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
We believe that he is in their son.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
We keeps fighting for him. Oh, I was wrote her
pointed by that because when I when I gave evidence,
I didn't. I told the truth, and she used to
send me messages saying that he was innocent. He's been
(37:15):
framed by the police. I hope one day she can
realize that all I did was tell the truth. She's
better off not with him.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
A key person in Brenda's journey back to some kind
of normal life is her high school principal, Susan Bridge.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I've shut definitely.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
She talks with Brenda regularly about life, family, and the future.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
I learned as much from Brenda as anything I may
have given her.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
What did you learn from Brenda?
Speaker 3 (38:01):
I was always worried that she wouldn't remember how to love,
that that would be something that was also taken from her.
I needn't her worry. She she taught me that love
is the most important thing.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Helping Brenda to feel love and trust again is her
new best friend, Sky, a one year old husky.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
You know, I do everything with her. I take her
with me everywhere. It's like looking at all the kids sometimes,
and she's family. And with dogs, the great thing about
them is that you know they'll always love you and
they don't have any other agenda. And that's something I've
been worried about for a long time with people, and
I'm mean cautious about that with people. Dogs just genuinely
(38:49):
love for you for who you are, and and they're
for you. So this guy is great. She's probably one
of the best decisions I've made in my life.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
A few days ago, a small but very special gathering
of friends, they've come together to celebrate the beginning of
a new chapter in Brenda's life.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
Just by all that she's been through. She's been out
to help so many people already, and I know she'll
like help so many people in the future as well,
just by sharing her story.
Speaker 7 (39:24):
Brenda's just been such a great encouragement to us, saying
things to us like hope is the only thing that
keeps everyone living.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And Brenda's former school principal, Susan Bridge, wouldn't miss this
for anything, Darling.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
I have said to her some time ago now that
it is my dearest wish that one day she will
invite me to her wedding, and that one day I
can attend the christening of her child, because she will
make a wonderful mother and she will start a fabulous family.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Susan Bridge tells me she can't wait to be invited
to your wedding and.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
That ever happens, yeah, lovely, because it's things like this
where no graduations, weddings where traditionally you've got your family there,
so it'd be really sad if no one came. But
as in it reminds me. I think there's times like
(40:32):
that makes me misses them the most because it reminds
you so much that they're not there.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
The dad, min, Mum, Lily, little brothers Terry and Henry
and aren't Irene are never far from Brenda's thoughts. How
do you honor them?
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I like to be someone they're proud of. I think
just doing the things they would have wanted me to
do and would have like to be to have done.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
So how do you see your future? What do you
want to do?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I'm sure that I would like to do something to
help other people in the future. I want to be
able to show kindness to people, to others the way
they've shown kindness to me, because it's made a very
very big impact to who I am now and what
I have now. I'm extremely extremely grateful.
Speaker 10 (41:33):
He is four years into his punishment for killing the
Lynn family, So what is time for Robert Z when
he's serving five life sentences.
Speaker 8 (41:41):
A course of offending that can only be described as
heinous in the extreme.
Speaker 10 (41:46):
It took full trials spanning three years to secure the
convictions and ten minutes for him to learn he was
unsuccessful in appealing against them. The appeal court did not
accept that a miscourage of justice occurred. Z maintains he
didn't care his brother in law Minleyn, his wife Lily,
their two boys, Henry and Terry, and Lily's sister Irene
in their North Epping home in two thousand and nine,
(42:07):
and claims he had no intention of taking over the
family business so his lawyer is lodged and appeal criticizing
the expert evidence provided on stain ninety one, a small
blood spot which contained DNA from four of the five
victims found in Z's garage, it was misleading or confusing
to the jury, causing prejudice, but the appeals court did
not agree. Robert Z appeared vi video link from jail
(42:30):
and put his head in his hands when the judges
handed down their decision. He's only and final option now
would be to appeal the convictions in the High Court.
Will you be going to the High Court? His wife
Kathie would not say. Her niece and soul survivor Brendolin
sat meters behind her in court. A once close family
split by greed and bloodshed. Leoni Ryan at seven yews
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