October 2, 2023 • 32 mins
Tegan Lane’s entire existence was kept a secret. No one knew she had even been born until 3 years later when a social worker accidentally stumbled across her birth records.
Her mother Keli had kept her entire 9 month pregnancy and birth with Tegan hidden from her boyfriend, friends, team mates and even her parents, who she had been living with at the time.
The last confirmed sighting of Tegan was on the 14th of September 1996 when she was just 2 days old. Hospital staff released her into the care of her mother and she’s never been seen since.
Sources:
EXPOSED: The Case Of Keli Lane : ABC iview
Additional sources for the episode can be found here
Click the link above and purchase a 'virtual' coffee to support the show. All donations will go towards creating more content for you.
Alternatively, you can subscribe to the podcast below. Any support is greatly appreciated.
SUBSCRIBE
You can connect with me on Insta & TikTok @bolo.pod or email bolo.pod@icloud.com
If you have a case you'd like me to cover head to my Insta profile or fill in the form here
Music is Forest Lullaby by LESFM Oleksii Kaplunskyi
Missing Persons Organisations:
The Missed Foundation
Leave a Light On Inc
Australian Missing Persons Register
For Support Helplines in Australia go to:
https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/Find-Help/Help-Lines
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Teagan Lane's entire existence was kept a secret.
No one knew she had even beenborn until three years later
when a social workeraccidentally stumbled across her
birth records.
Her mother, kelly, had kept herentire nine month pregnancy and
birth with Teagan hidden fromher boyfriend, teammates,
(00:22):
friends and even her parents,who she'd been living with at
the time.
The last confirmed sighting ofTeagan was on the 14th of
September 1996, when she wasjust two days old.
Hospital staff released herinto the care of her mother and
she's never been seen since.
(00:43):
This episode contains contentrelated to infant homicide and
is not suitable for children.
Today I'm covering the missingperson's case of Teagan Lane,
(01:05):
last seen with her motherleaving Auburn Hospital in
Sydney, new South Wales.
According to Kelly, the daythey were both released from
hospital, she walked with Teaganin her arms to the lobby where
she handed the baby over toTeagan's biological father.
With him was his mother and histhen de facto girlfriend, who
(01:28):
had all agreed, according toKelly, that they were going to
take sole responsibility andcare for Teagan.
The police, however, did notbelieve this version of events
and brought a case for murderagainst Kelly Lane.
Despite searching for Teagan,looking for her remains and
(01:49):
attempting to locate her father.
Nothing has come to light.
Not Teagan, living under adifferent name.
Not Teagan's remains and notTeagan's father.
So, 27 years on, where on earthcould she be?
I'm Carla Morgan and this isBolo, a podcast covering cold
(02:13):
and active missing persons caseswith the aim of helping
families bring their loved oneshome.
Kelly Lane lived in Manly onthe northern beaches in Sydney.
We've talked about the northernbeaches a few times in this
(02:33):
podcast so far.
It's known as the InchilaPeninsula and it does hold some
dark secrets.
So Kelly Lane playedcompetitive water polo
throughout her teens and laterwent on to become a sports
teacher at a local privategirls' school.
Her father was a senior policedetective at the Manly police
(02:56):
station and her mother, who wasa former hospital worker, was
also the manager of Kelly'swater polo team.
They were protective parents,well respected and heavily
involved in the case and heavilyinvolved in the community.
They were also strict and hadvery high expectations of Kelly.
(03:16):
She was living with her parentswhen she became pregnant.
She didn't tell a soul, eventhough there were whispers that
she was pregnant from her waterpolo teammates.
Kelly would wear a towel to theside of the pool and slip in
unnoticed.
Also, she thought In 1995, atnine months pregnant, kelly
(03:40):
played in the New South Walesgrand final for water polo.
And can I just say, after beingnine months pregnant three
times over I could not imaginedoing much, let alone jumping
into a pool and playing thephysically strenuous and rough
30-minute game of water polo.
(04:00):
So after the game the team wentto the pub to celebrate and at
around 10pm they all noticedKelly had left Unbeknownst to
them.
She'd gone into labour andadmitted herself to hospital.
Kelly was 19, and in secret,with no support, she gave birth
(04:22):
to her first child.
She told hospital staff she'dreceived prenatal care in Perth
and she gave a false addresssaying she'd only been in Sydney
for three weeks.
With the help of an agency sheput this child up for adoption.
You might have been thinkingthis child was Teagan.
It was not.
(04:44):
Teagan was Kelly's second child, who was born in 1996 when
Kelly was 21.
This was another secretpregnancy.
She told no friends or familyand, as you know already from
the beginning of the episode,teagan was released into Kelly's
care and, according to Kelly,was given to her biological
(05:08):
father to raise.
Teagan wouldn't be the lastsecret child, as when Kelly was
24, in 1999, she gave birthagain, and this child was also
given up for adoption like thefirst.
Her parents had no idea that shehad given birth to three
(05:29):
children in complete secrecyover a five-year period.
It seems so unfathomable thatno adult that was close to her
suspected anything through threepregnancies, especially being a
water polo player who wastraining multiple times a week
in swimming togs.
(05:49):
Also, water polo is a veryrough sport.
You get kicked, scratched,pulled out and your togs almost
ripped off.
It's a real contact sport andit can be dangerous, especially
so when pregnant.
As I mentioned already, herteammates suspected that Kelly
was pregnant and could see thatshe was hiding it by covering
(06:11):
herself in a towel when out ofthe water and by wearing baggy
clothes, but for whatever reason, her behaviour didn't raise any
suspicion amongst any of theadults around her.
Some people were talking aboutit, yes, but no one said
anything or did anything, whichis kind of indicative of the
(06:31):
time as well.
On the day Teagan was last seen,she was given a clean bill of
health and discharged with hermother at around 2pm, but
reports do vary on the time, andit could have been as early as
12pm.
Kelly's whereabouts were thenunknown up until the time she
arrived at her parents' house toget dressed and ready for a
(06:54):
friend's wedding.
She then attended the wedding,which started around 4pm.
She was wearing a full whitepantsuit, which seems an
incredulous choice for a womanwho has just given birth, and
she can be seen in footagesmiling and enjoying herself.
No one would suspect she hadjust had a baby and given the
(07:17):
child up, nor would they believeshe had done the unthinkable to
that baby.
Whatever Kelly Lane is, she isa master at hiding in plain
sight.
In 1999, when Kelly had herthird child in hospital, she
told staff it was her first andonce again put the child up for
(07:40):
adoption through an agency, asshe had done with her first.
However, when the adoptionagency couldn't reach her to
finalise the paperwork as shehad given them false contact
information, the baby was putinto the care of Docs while they
attempted to locate her.
So Docs was the NSW StateGovernment Department of
(08:04):
Community Services that providedchild welfare services from
1881 until it was abolished in2009.
The Docs social worker who wasput in charge of locating Kelly,
his name was John Barovnik.
He was the person whodiscovered for the very first
(08:24):
time other than hospital staffthat Teagan even existed.
He uncovered this purely byaccident, and when he went in
search of more information aboutthe child he could find no
records of her, no medicalrecords, nothing to indicate
that Teagan was alive and well.
(08:45):
He also found out that Kellyhad had another child her first,
who was adopted previously.
So this got him thinking.
Well, she's had three children.
Her first and third wereadopted out here on Earth is a
second.
He managed to eventuallycontact Kelly by phone and ask
(09:11):
her point blank if she had givenbirth to a child called Teagan.
At Orban Hospital Kelly deniedhaving any previous children,
saying her third child was herfirst.
Then, a week later, she toldthe social worker that she had
(09:31):
in fact had Teagan and thatTeagan was living in Perth with
her dad.
He couldn't locate Teagan orthe father, so he alerted the
Manly Police Department andreported Teagan as a potential
missing person.
By this time Teagan would havebeen three years old.
(09:54):
The initial investigation intoTeagan's disappearance was slow.
The case was taken on by seniorconstable Matthew Kehoe, even
though he knew Kelly's fatherfrom when he had been a sergeant
at Manly Police Department.
Kelly's father had retired in1995, so he was no longer on the
(10:16):
force, but still this wasclearly a conflict of interest
to be investigating the previoussergeant's daughter.
In 2000, kelly fell pregnantagain, but this time she told
her boyfriend and her familythat she was pregnant.
So for the very first time sheannounced the pregnancy.
(10:40):
She went to regularobstetrician appointments and
she prepared for this baby andbirth like none other.
Despite a sluggish start in 2001, a missing person's
(11:03):
investigation for Teagan wasunderway.
During a police interview,Kelly admitted that she had
given Teagan to her biologicalfather and that his name was
Andrew Morris.
No one in her life knew thisAndrew Morris, nor could anyone
recall Kelly talking aboutsomeone by that name.
Kelly maintained that had abrief affair and she had told no
(11:28):
one about it except for onefriend.
And she came forward much laterand it was revealed in the ABC
documentary Exposed that Kellyhad told her when she was out
one night about a guy namedAndrew that she'd been seeing.
It all appears a bit vague, butperhaps that was by design.
(11:50):
Despite this, police stillcouldn't locate an Andrew Morris
and, with Kelly claiming shedidn't know where Teagan was,
they were at a complete dead end.
In May 2003, a new detective,detective Gort, came on the
scene and in his first interviewwith Kelly she revealed she had
(12:12):
made a mistake and the man'sname was not Andrew Morris, it
was Andrew Norris with an N.
It's in this recorded interviewthat I'm sure most of you have
seen.
It's on YouTube if you want tolook at it.
She's asked if she's beinguntruthful and in response to
(12:32):
the question she sits incomplete silence for a full 60
seconds.
Goren says no.
She adamantly denies killingTeagan and says she would never
harm her.
Now a minute might not soundlike a long time, but sitting in
(12:54):
a police interview room it's anuncomfortably lengthy pause.
Detective Gore reiterated thathe still didn't believe her
story and said that they wouldcontinue their investigations.
At this point in the interview,kelly became visibly upset, but
her concern didn't appear to beabout Teagan or the fact that
(13:18):
she was considered missing, nordid she possibly realise the
implication that she was beingsuspected of harming Teagan or
of murder.
It was more apparent that shewas fearful of her parents and
the wider community finding outeverything that she kept hidden
for so long.
Kelly had kept not only herpregnancies, births and
(13:40):
adoptions secret, but also thefact that she was being
questioned and investigated bypolice in her own child's
missing persons case.
No one knew anything.
Once again, a master ofdeception.
All smoke and mirrors, nothingto see here.
In January 2004, the thirdpolice interview took place and
(14:03):
she still hadn't told anyone.
She was still clearly worriedabout how people would view her,
what her parents would think ifand when they found out.
She was also now concernedabout whether her most recent
child, who was in her care,would be taken away from her.
So the consequences of thisinvestigation were starting to
(14:24):
hit home if they couldn't findTeagan.
So, before the police could,she told her parents, telling
them she'd had a baby and thatthe police thought she'd done
something to it.
Her words, her parents believedher version of events, as they
still do today.
They continued to stand by herand also emphatically state she
(14:49):
would never harm a child.
In fact, in all of thereporting on this story, there's
not one person who came forwardto say that Kelly had a mean
streak or that she had potentialto hurt anyone, let alone a
baby.
Everyone has said there's justno way.
(15:10):
After Teagan had been missingfor seven and a half years, the
case was referred to the coronerand in February of 2006, the
coronial inquest was held, kellywas offered immunity from any
charges if she told the policewhere the baby was.
Immunity was on the table.
If she divulged any criminaloffence For example, she could
(15:35):
have confessed to accidentallyharming her illegal adoption.
Selling Teagan anything butmurder would get her off any and
all charges.
She didn't take the dealbecause, as she says in the
exposed documentary, she wouldnever admit to something she
didn't do.
(15:56):
Initially, the court was closedto the public and there was a
gag order so nothing could bereported in the media.
But once Kelly refused to takethe deal and exercised her right
not to speak at the inquest,the judge lifted the no
publication order and a mediacircus ensued.
After hiding so many secretsfor so many years now,
(16:21):
everything was out there foreveryone to see and I can
remember this case being in themedia.
It was high profile.
The things people were shockedabout were how she was able to
hide a pregnancy, or threepregnancies, from everyone and
people questioning like well,why didn't she just use birth
(16:42):
control if you didn't plan onhaving the babies, especially
after the first one?
This is how people were talkinghere about the case and about
her choices.
They were also talking abouther reputation and there was
certainly an element of slutshaming.
The police also used thismomentum to appeal to the public
(17:03):
to help find Teagan.
If she was out there, if herdad, her grandmother and her
stepmother were all out therestill caring for Teagan, where
were they?
Why didn't they come forward?
Why have they not come forward?
The coroner, john Abernethy,ruled that he was satisfied
Teagan was deceased, but thatthere was not enough evidence to
(17:27):
charge a known person with herhomicide.
The coroner called Kelly'saccounts a litany of lies based
on what she had told police,social services and adoption
agencies and said that herversion of what happened to
Teagan was possible but unlikely.
He maintained that, as Kellyherself had provided no further
(17:52):
details or answers to questionsput to her at the inquest, that
he was simply unable to do morethan refer the case to the New
South Wales Homicide Squad forreview and further investigation
.
This is when Detective SharonRhodes said about
reinvestigating the case.
(18:12):
There was a dig conductedunderneath a house in Venus
Street in Gladesville inSydney's inner west.
This happened in 2008, so 12years after Teagan had been born
.
The house was previously ownedby the boyfriend.
Kelly had been dating at thetime and she apparently told
(18:32):
police in an interview that shehad briefly visited on the day
she was discharged from hospital.
Well, perhaps police thoughtthis because in the exposed
documentary she said that AndrewNorris, or Morris, dropped her
off at home after she met him atthe hospital, which I
(18:54):
personally find incredible.
If she was trying to hide thefact that she'd had a baby, why
would she then allow him to dropher off at home with a baby in
the car and possibly be seen?
I don't know.
Nothing of note was found atthe dig, despite bringing in
cadaver dogs and doing athorough grid search on that
(19:17):
property.
Teagan was not there, butneighbours did report that there
had been extensive renovationsdone on the home from 2004.
A call was put out to thepublic asking for anyone who had
contact with Kelly while shewas in hospital or anyone who
had seen her in the car park onthe 14th of September in 1996 to
(19:40):
please come forward.
After two years of furtherinvestigating, the police still
didn't have enough evidence tocharge Kelly with any crime, so
they went to the DPP, which isthe Department of Public
Prosecutions, for legal adviceas to whether to continue
investigating or drop it.
(20:01):
The DPP said yes, proceed withthe case.
So in 2009, kelly Lane wascharged with murder.
In 2010, the trial began in theSupreme Court.
(20:25):
Kelly did not take the stand atany time and did not testify,
so the prosecution had no body,no murder weapon, no evidence of
death, no witnesses and noconfession.
In addition to the murdercharge was three counts of lying
(20:45):
in relation to the previousbirths, and this meant the jury
was able to hear about thesebirths, these secret births.
In any other trial, thisinformation wouldn't be allowed
to be admitted as there was noconnection to the original
charge of murder.
In fact, the judge presidingover the case explicitly asked
(21:05):
the defence if they wanted tostrike the three charges of
lying from the record, but theydidn't, so it was allowed.
It also became evident that thepolice investigation was
continuing on.
Throughout the trial, theprosecution was still submitting
documentation and evidence thatthe defence had to work through
(21:26):
.
Both the judge and the defencefound this frustrating, and the
judge raised his concerns sayinglook, if this continues, the
trial would have to be aborted.
They stopped and the trialcontinued.
The prosecution alleged thatKelly murdered Teagan and dumped
(21:47):
her body at Olympic Park.
It was a theory without anysupporting evidence, and it was
later withdrawn and struck fromthe record Because of this.
The judge offered the defencefor the jury to be discharged
and a new jury assembled, butthey declined and the trial
proceeded with the originaljurors.
(22:08):
It would seem the defencereally thought they had an open
and shut case.
Kelly was innocent.
They didn't know the how, thewhen, the where or the why, or
even if Teagan was actuallydeceased, so there was no chance
that Kelly could be foundguilty.
They didn't bring forward anywitnesses not one, while the
(22:33):
prosecution had over 75.
Ultimately, kelly Lane wasfound guilty and convicted of
murder and three counts of lyingunder the oath in December of
2010.
She was sentenced to 18 yearsin Silverwater Women's
Correctional Centre but has beenmoved to other correctional
(22:54):
centres during that time, andshe is currently due for release
in May 2024.
She appealed in the High Courtin 2014 against her conviction,
but lost, and it was in 2018that she agreed to do an ABC
tell all interview documentaryin the hope that someone would
(23:16):
come forward with Teagan.
The series, as I mentioned, iscalled Exposed the Case of Kelly
Lane, and I'll leave a link toit in the show notes if you'd
like to watch it.
I believe it's the very firsttime she speaks publicly about
her story and she stillstrenuously and continuously
denies any involvement in thealleged crime.
(23:37):
Some key points revealed in thedocumentary that I think are
worth mentioning are theinvestigative journalist found a
tenant from the apartmentbuilding where Kelly said Norris
Andrew Norris had lived.
This tenant had never beeninterviewed by police, had never
been found by police and hepositively ID Kelly Lane as
(24:01):
being there.
So he claims he saw her comingand going at around the time
that she would have been seeingAndrew Norris.
However, he doesn't rememberseeing or knowing about a tenant
called Andrew Morris or AndrewNorris.
They also discovered that a mancalled Andrew Morris was
interviewed by New South Walespolice during the investigation.
(24:24):
This Andrew Morris claims hehad one sexual encounter with
Kelly and that he didn't haveTeagan with him.
Kelly denies ever meeting thisman.
He was nominated as a witnessfor the trial but after a
negotiation between the defenseand the prosecution he was never
called to testify.
(24:45):
Now he can't confidently saythat it was her.
He feels he was led or coachedto come up with the memory by
police and he says this in thedocumentary.
So the negotiation or the dealwas a witness swap out.
The prosecution agreed not toput Andrew Morris on the stand
(25:06):
if the defense didn't callKelly's friend, who was prepared
to testify that Kelly had toldher she was seeing a guy called
Andrew Norris or Morris At thetime before she became pregnant
with Teagan.
If this witness for the defensehad gone on the stand, it's
possible her testimony may haveprovided enough reasonable doubt
(25:27):
for the jury not to convict.
Is Kelly currently serving asentence for a crime she didn't
commit and Teagan is alive andwell, presumably living under a
new identity?
Or did Kelly do the unthinkableand murder her two day old
(25:48):
child and dispose of her remains?
The Bridge of Hope InnocenceInitiative believes that Kelly
Lange's case is a wrongfulconviction.
The evidence they have tosupport this is phone records
weren't checked adequately atthe time to confirm that Kelly
was in contact with AndrewNorris in the early days, as she
(26:12):
says that she was.
These phone records have sincebeen destroyed.
Police didn't look hard enoughfor Andrew Norris and they
didn't find the witness in theapartment block that Kelly said
he lived in, who positively IDKelly as being there.
They didn't work with Kelly toprovide a conflict drawing to
(26:33):
show to the public to appeal forthe father's whereabouts, and
she was also unfairly slutshamed.
This is from the petition ofMercy on their website, and I'll
link their website in the shownotes sources.
In 2019, the Bridge of HopeInnocence Initiative called for
an urgent review into the KellyLange murder case, following
(26:56):
evidence that has cast out overthe adequacy of the police
investigation and the fairnessof her trial.
We have petitioned the AttorneyGeneral of New South Wales to
open a full inquiry into theinvestigation, prosecution and
conviction of Kelly Lange.
While we are supporting aposition for a review into
(27:18):
Lange's conviction, what isneeded urgently is an
investigation into the policingand prosecutorial practices that
led to Lange's trial in thefirst place.
The two emergent theories arethat Teagan was murdered by
(27:45):
Kelly just after she left thehospital, or that Teagan was
given to the care of a mancalled Andrew Norris, who has
never been located.
Neither has his mother orgirlfriend, who Kelly claims was
with him when she handed Teaganover to him.
It's worth mentioning that inAustralia, we do have a history
(28:07):
of accusing and convictingmothers of infanticide and later
exonerating them.
Lindy Chamberlain and CatherineFolbig are two Australian
mothers who were convicted ofmurdering their children in what
one could definitely say was atrial by media and a witch hunt,
only to be exonerated yearslater when more evidence was
(28:31):
uncovered or when the evidenceused to convict was proven to be
flawed.
You can basically get an expertwitness to literally say
anything you need them to if itsupports your case in trial, and
this is what we saw with theaforementioned cases.
Both of these women are nowfree and have been exonerated.
(28:53):
In my opinion, it would havebeen difficult to leave the
hospital, murder Teagan anddispose of her remains and then
get back to her parents placethat day in time for the wedding
Not impossible, but difficult.
And why?
If she had given her firstchild up for adoption, would she
(29:14):
not do it for her second, asshe did again for her third?
I can totally understandcovering everything up.
At a young age, kelly wasresourceful and came up with a
plan for two of her childrenthree, if we believe her story.
That involved keeping herchildren safe and cared for when
(29:36):
she could not.
She had also had two abortionspreviously in her teens, so she
knew what options were availableto her if she did not wish to
keep her children, and sheutilised the services at the
time.
It's not a crime to have asecret pregnancy and give birth
(29:57):
to a baby and give them up foradoption.
It's perplexing that she woulddecide on a different plan with
one of those children.
I feel it more plausible thatshe gave the baby to someone and
she's still either protectingthat someone or she genuinely
didn't know them or didn't wantany contact and therefore can't
(30:20):
trace them.
Now, like a private adoptionwith no future contact agreed
between the two parties, it'salso possible that that person
has decided, for whatever reason, not to come forward with
Teagan, perhaps to protect thechild, to protect themselves.
If Kelly knew more than whatshe's letting on, she had ample
(30:43):
opportunity to get immunity andnot go to prison by telling the
police what she knew.
She did not or chose not to.
So the only person who reallyknows the truth about what
happened to Teagan is Kellyherself.
New South Wales has recentlyintroduced a new law after the
(31:04):
Lynette Dawson case.
Lynne's law is no body, noparole, so convicted murderers
will not be released until theyreveal the location of their
victim's body.
Kelly is still serving her 18year sentence and has reportedly
been a model prisoner.
I've read in one article thatshe's even considered Queen B,
(31:27):
which here is like top dog.
She's due for release in early2024 and Lynne's law doesn't
apply retrospectively, so sheshould be released at that time.
There have been recent reportsthat she's currently living in a
halfway house and has afull-time job for the prison in
preparation for her release nextyear.
(31:49):
She maintains her innocence andthe investigation into Teagan's
whereabouts continues.
The fact remains that Teagan isstill a missing person and will
be until either she is foundalive or her remains are located
.
It ended up by chance that theday I wrote this episode was
(32:12):
Teagan's birthday.
She would be 27 years old now.
Happy birthday, teagan.
If you or anyone you know knowanything at all, please contact
Police Link on 131-444 or callCrime Stoppers on 1800-333-000.
(32:35):
Thanks for listening to Bolo.
If this episode has brought upfeelings for you and you need
support, please reach out toLifeline on 131114 or Respect on
1800.
Respect.
You can connect with me onInsta or TikTok at Bolopod or
(32:58):
email me at Bolopod at iCloudcomif you have a case you'd like
me to cover.
Until next week, stay safe andthanks again for listening.
Teagan Lane's entire existence was kept a secret.
No one knew she had even beenborn until three years later
when a social workeraccidentally stumbled across her
birth records.
Her mother, kelly, had kept herentire nine month pregnancy and
birth with Teagan hidden fromher boyfriend, teammates,
(00:22):
friends and even her parents,who she'd been living with at
the time.
The last confirmed sighting ofTeagan was on the 14th of
September 1996, when she wasjust two days old.
Hospital staff released herinto the care of her mother and
she's never been seen since.
(00:43):
This episode contains contentrelated to infant homicide and
is not suitable for children.
Today I'm covering the missingperson's case of Teagan Lane,
(01:05):
last seen with her motherleaving Auburn Hospital in
Sydney, new South Wales.
According to Kelly, the daythey were both released from
hospital, she walked with Teaganin her arms to the lobby where
she handed the baby over toTeagan's biological father.
With him was his mother and histhen de facto girlfriend, who
(01:28):
had all agreed, according toKelly, that they were going to
take sole responsibility andcare for Teagan.
The police, however, did notbelieve this version of events
and brought a case for murderagainst Kelly Lane.
Despite searching for Teagan,looking for her remains and
(01:49):
attempting to locate her father.
Nothing has come to light.
Not Teagan, living under adifferent name.
Not Teagan's remains and notTeagan's father.
So, 27 years on, where on earthcould she be?
I'm Carla Morgan and this isBolo, a podcast covering cold
(02:13):
and active missing persons caseswith the aim of helping
families bring their loved oneshome.
Kelly Lane lived in Manly onthe northern beaches in Sydney.
We've talked about the northernbeaches a few times in this
(02:33):
podcast so far.
It's known as the InchilaPeninsula and it does hold some
dark secrets.
So Kelly Lane playedcompetitive water polo
throughout her teens and laterwent on to become a sports
teacher at a local privategirls' school.
Her father was a senior policedetective at the Manly police
(02:56):
station and her mother, who wasa former hospital worker, was
also the manager of Kelly'swater polo team.
They were protective parents,well respected and heavily
involved in the case and heavilyinvolved in the community.
They were also strict and hadvery high expectations of Kelly.
(03:16):
She was living with her parentswhen she became pregnant.
She didn't tell a soul, eventhough there were whispers that
she was pregnant from her waterpolo teammates.
Kelly would wear a towel to theside of the pool and slip in
unnoticed.
Also, she thought In 1995, atnine months pregnant, kelly
(03:40):
played in the New South Walesgrand final for water polo.
And can I just say, after beingnine months pregnant three
times over I could not imaginedoing much, let alone jumping
into a pool and playing thephysically strenuous and rough
30-minute game of water polo.
(04:00):
So after the game the team wentto the pub to celebrate and at
around 10pm they all noticedKelly had left Unbeknownst to
them.
She'd gone into labour andadmitted herself to hospital.
Kelly was 19, and in secret,with no support, she gave birth
(04:22):
to her first child.
She told hospital staff she'dreceived prenatal care in Perth
and she gave a false addresssaying she'd only been in Sydney
for three weeks.
With the help of an agency sheput this child up for adoption.
You might have been thinkingthis child was Teagan.
It was not.
(04:44):
Teagan was Kelly's second child, who was born in 1996 when
Kelly was 21.
This was another secretpregnancy.
She told no friends or familyand, as you know already from
the beginning of the episode,teagan was released into Kelly's
care and, according to Kelly,was given to her biological
(05:08):
father to raise.
Teagan wouldn't be the lastsecret child, as when Kelly was
24, in 1999, she gave birthagain, and this child was also
given up for adoption like thefirst.
Her parents had no idea that shehad given birth to three
(05:29):
children in complete secrecyover a five-year period.
It seems so unfathomable thatno adult that was close to her
suspected anything through threepregnancies, especially being a
water polo player who wastraining multiple times a week
in swimming togs.
(05:49):
Also, water polo is a veryrough sport.
You get kicked, scratched,pulled out and your togs almost
ripped off.
It's a real contact sport andit can be dangerous, especially
so when pregnant.
As I mentioned already, herteammates suspected that Kelly
was pregnant and could see thatshe was hiding it by covering
(06:11):
herself in a towel when out ofthe water and by wearing baggy
clothes, but for whatever reason, her behaviour didn't raise any
suspicion amongst any of theadults around her.
Some people were talking aboutit, yes, but no one said
anything or did anything, whichis kind of indicative of the
(06:31):
time as well.
On the day Teagan was last seen,she was given a clean bill of
health and discharged with hermother at around 2pm, but
reports do vary on the time, andit could have been as early as
12pm.
Kelly's whereabouts were thenunknown up until the time she
arrived at her parents' house toget dressed and ready for a
(06:54):
friend's wedding.
She then attended the wedding,which started around 4pm.
She was wearing a full whitepantsuit, which seems an
incredulous choice for a womanwho has just given birth, and
she can be seen in footagesmiling and enjoying herself.
No one would suspect she hadjust had a baby and given the
(07:17):
child up, nor would they believeshe had done the unthinkable to
that baby.
Whatever Kelly Lane is, she isa master at hiding in plain
sight.
In 1999, when Kelly had herthird child in hospital, she
told staff it was her first andonce again put the child up for
(07:40):
adoption through an agency, asshe had done with her first.
However, when the adoptionagency couldn't reach her to
finalise the paperwork as shehad given them false contact
information, the baby was putinto the care of Docs while they
attempted to locate her.
So Docs was the NSW StateGovernment Department of
(08:04):
Community Services that providedchild welfare services from
1881 until it was abolished in2009.
The Docs social worker who wasput in charge of locating Kelly,
his name was John Barovnik.
He was the person whodiscovered for the very first
(08:24):
time other than hospital staffthat Teagan even existed.
He uncovered this purely byaccident, and when he went in
search of more information aboutthe child he could find no
records of her, no medicalrecords, nothing to indicate
that Teagan was alive and well.
(08:45):
He also found out that Kellyhad had another child her first,
who was adopted previously.
So this got him thinking.
Well, she's had three children.
Her first and third wereadopted out here on Earth is a
second.
He managed to eventuallycontact Kelly by phone and ask
(09:11):
her point blank if she had givenbirth to a child called Teagan.
At Orban Hospital Kelly deniedhaving any previous children,
saying her third child was herfirst.
Then, a week later, she toldthe social worker that she had
(09:31):
in fact had Teagan and thatTeagan was living in Perth with
her dad.
He couldn't locate Teagan orthe father, so he alerted the
Manly Police Department andreported Teagan as a potential
missing person.
By this time Teagan would havebeen three years old.
(09:54):
The initial investigation intoTeagan's disappearance was slow.
The case was taken on by seniorconstable Matthew Kehoe, even
though he knew Kelly's fatherfrom when he had been a sergeant
at Manly Police Department.
Kelly's father had retired in1995, so he was no longer on the
(10:16):
force, but still this wasclearly a conflict of interest
to be investigating the previoussergeant's daughter.
In 2000, kelly fell pregnantagain, but this time she told
her boyfriend and her familythat she was pregnant.
So for the very first time sheannounced the pregnancy.
(10:40):
She went to regularobstetrician appointments and
she prepared for this baby andbirth like none other.
Despite a sluggish start in 2001, a missing person's
(11:03):
investigation for Teagan wasunderway.
During a police interview,Kelly admitted that she had
given Teagan to her biologicalfather and that his name was
Andrew Morris.
No one in her life knew thisAndrew Morris, nor could anyone
recall Kelly talking aboutsomeone by that name.
Kelly maintained that had abrief affair and she had told no
(11:28):
one about it except for onefriend.
And she came forward much laterand it was revealed in the ABC
documentary Exposed that Kellyhad told her when she was out
one night about a guy namedAndrew that she'd been seeing.
It all appears a bit vague, butperhaps that was by design.
(11:50):
Despite this, police stillcouldn't locate an Andrew Morris
and, with Kelly claiming shedidn't know where Teagan was,
they were at a complete dead end.
In May 2003, a new detective,detective Gort, came on the
scene and in his first interviewwith Kelly she revealed she had
(12:12):
made a mistake and the man'sname was not Andrew Morris, it
was Andrew Norris with an N.
It's in this recorded interviewthat I'm sure most of you have
seen.
It's on YouTube if you want tolook at it.
She's asked if she's beinguntruthful and in response to
(12:32):
the question she sits incomplete silence for a full 60
seconds.
Goren says no.
She adamantly denies killingTeagan and says she would never
harm her.
Now a minute might not soundlike a long time, but sitting in
(12:54):
a police interview room it's anuncomfortably lengthy pause.
Detective Gore reiterated thathe still didn't believe her
story and said that they wouldcontinue their investigations.
At this point in the interview,kelly became visibly upset, but
her concern didn't appear to beabout Teagan or the fact that
(13:18):
she was considered missing, nordid she possibly realise the
implication that she was beingsuspected of harming Teagan or
of murder.
It was more apparent that shewas fearful of her parents and
the wider community finding outeverything that she kept hidden
for so long.
Kelly had kept not only herpregnancies, births and
(13:40):
adoptions secret, but also thefact that she was being
questioned and investigated bypolice in her own child's
missing persons case.
No one knew anything.
Once again, a master ofdeception.
All smoke and mirrors, nothingto see here.
In January 2004, the thirdpolice interview took place and
(14:03):
she still hadn't told anyone.
She was still clearly worriedabout how people would view her,
what her parents would think ifand when they found out.
She was also now concernedabout whether her most recent
child, who was in her care,would be taken away from her.
So the consequences of thisinvestigation were starting to
(14:24):
hit home if they couldn't findTeagan.
So, before the police could,she told her parents, telling
them she'd had a baby and thatthe police thought she'd done
something to it.
Her words, her parents believedher version of events, as they
still do today.
They continued to stand by herand also emphatically state she
(14:49):
would never harm a child.
In fact, in all of thereporting on this story, there's
not one person who came forwardto say that Kelly had a mean
streak or that she had potentialto hurt anyone, let alone a
baby.
Everyone has said there's justno way.
(15:10):
After Teagan had been missingfor seven and a half years, the
case was referred to the coronerand in February of 2006, the
coronial inquest was held, kellywas offered immunity from any
charges if she told the policewhere the baby was.
Immunity was on the table.
If she divulged any criminaloffence For example, she could
(15:35):
have confessed to accidentallyharming her illegal adoption.
Selling Teagan anything butmurder would get her off any and
all charges.
She didn't take the dealbecause, as she says in the
exposed documentary, she wouldnever admit to something she
didn't do.
(15:56):
Initially, the court was closedto the public and there was a
gag order so nothing could bereported in the media.
But once Kelly refused to takethe deal and exercised her right
not to speak at the inquest,the judge lifted the no
publication order and a mediacircus ensued.
After hiding so many secretsfor so many years now,
(16:21):
everything was out there foreveryone to see and I can
remember this case being in themedia.
It was high profile.
The things people were shockedabout were how she was able to
hide a pregnancy, or threepregnancies, from everyone and
people questioning like well,why didn't she just use birth
(16:42):
control if you didn't plan onhaving the babies, especially
after the first one?
This is how people were talkinghere about the case and about
her choices.
They were also talking abouther reputation and there was
certainly an element of slutshaming.
The police also used thismomentum to appeal to the public
(17:03):
to help find Teagan.
If she was out there, if herdad, her grandmother and her
stepmother were all out therestill caring for Teagan, where
were they?
Why didn't they come forward?
Why have they not come forward?
The coroner, john Abernethy,ruled that he was satisfied
Teagan was deceased, but thatthere was not enough evidence to
(17:27):
charge a known person with herhomicide.
The coroner called Kelly'saccounts a litany of lies based
on what she had told police,social services and adoption
agencies and said that herversion of what happened to
Teagan was possible but unlikely.
He maintained that, as Kellyherself had provided no further
(17:52):
details or answers to questionsput to her at the inquest, that
he was simply unable to do morethan refer the case to the New
South Wales Homicide Squad forreview and further investigation
.
This is when Detective SharonRhodes said about
reinvestigating the case.
(18:12):
There was a dig conductedunderneath a house in Venus
Street in Gladesville inSydney's inner west.
This happened in 2008, so 12years after Teagan had been born
.
The house was previously ownedby the boyfriend.
Kelly had been dating at thetime and she apparently told
(18:32):
police in an interview that shehad briefly visited on the day
she was discharged from hospital.
Well, perhaps police thoughtthis because in the exposed
documentary she said that AndrewNorris, or Morris, dropped her
off at home after she met him atthe hospital, which I
(18:54):
personally find incredible.
If she was trying to hide thefact that she'd had a baby, why
would she then allow him to dropher off at home with a baby in
the car and possibly be seen?
I don't know.
Nothing of note was found atthe dig, despite bringing in
cadaver dogs and doing athorough grid search on that
(19:17):
property.
Teagan was not there, butneighbours did report that there
had been extensive renovationsdone on the home from 2004.
A call was put out to thepublic asking for anyone who had
contact with Kelly while shewas in hospital or anyone who
had seen her in the car park onthe 14th of September in 1996 to
(19:40):
please come forward.
After two years of furtherinvestigating, the police still
didn't have enough evidence tocharge Kelly with any crime, so
they went to the DPP, which isthe Department of Public
Prosecutions, for legal adviceas to whether to continue
investigating or drop it.
(20:01):
The DPP said yes, proceed withthe case.
So in 2009, kelly Lane wascharged with murder.
In 2010, the trial began in theSupreme Court.
(20:25):
Kelly did not take the stand atany time and did not testify,
so the prosecution had no body,no murder weapon, no evidence of
death, no witnesses and noconfession.
In addition to the murdercharge was three counts of lying
(20:45):
in relation to the previousbirths, and this meant the jury
was able to hear about thesebirths, these secret births.
In any other trial, thisinformation wouldn't be allowed
to be admitted as there was noconnection to the original
charge of murder.
In fact, the judge presidingover the case explicitly asked
(21:05):
the defence if they wanted tostrike the three charges of
lying from the record, but theydidn't, so it was allowed.
It also became evident that thepolice investigation was
continuing on.
Throughout the trial, theprosecution was still submitting
documentation and evidence thatthe defence had to work through
(21:26):
.
Both the judge and the defencefound this frustrating, and the
judge raised his concerns sayinglook, if this continues, the
trial would have to be aborted.
They stopped and the trialcontinued.
The prosecution alleged thatKelly murdered Teagan and dumped
(21:47):
her body at Olympic Park.
It was a theory without anysupporting evidence, and it was
later withdrawn and struck fromthe record Because of this.
The judge offered the defencefor the jury to be discharged
and a new jury assembled, butthey declined and the trial
proceeded with the originaljurors.
(22:08):
It would seem the defencereally thought they had an open
and shut case.
Kelly was innocent.
They didn't know the how, thewhen, the where or the why, or
even if Teagan was actuallydeceased, so there was no chance
that Kelly could be foundguilty.
They didn't bring forward anywitnesses not one, while the
(22:33):
prosecution had over 75.
Ultimately, kelly Lane wasfound guilty and convicted of
murder and three counts of lyingunder the oath in December of
2010.
She was sentenced to 18 yearsin Silverwater Women's
Correctional Centre but has beenmoved to other correctional
(22:54):
centres during that time, andshe is currently due for release
in May 2024.
She appealed in the High Courtin 2014 against her conviction,
but lost, and it was in 2018that she agreed to do an ABC
tell all interview documentaryin the hope that someone would
(23:16):
come forward with Teagan.
The series, as I mentioned, iscalled Exposed the Case of Kelly
Lane, and I'll leave a link toit in the show notes if you'd
like to watch it.
I believe it's the very firsttime she speaks publicly about
her story and she stillstrenuously and continuously
denies any involvement in thealleged crime.
(23:37):
Some key points revealed in thedocumentary that I think are
worth mentioning are theinvestigative journalist found a
tenant from the apartmentbuilding where Kelly said Norris
Andrew Norris had lived.
This tenant had never beeninterviewed by police, had never
been found by police and hepositively ID Kelly Lane as
(24:01):
being there.
So he claims he saw her comingand going at around the time
that she would have been seeingAndrew Norris.
However, he doesn't rememberseeing or knowing about a tenant
called Andrew Morris or AndrewNorris.
They also discovered that a mancalled Andrew Morris was
interviewed by New South Walespolice during the investigation.
(24:24):
This Andrew Morris claims hehad one sexual encounter with
Kelly and that he didn't haveTeagan with him.
Kelly denies ever meeting thisman.
He was nominated as a witnessfor the trial but after a
negotiation between the defenseand the prosecution he was never
called to testify.
(24:45):
Now he can't confidently saythat it was her.
He feels he was led or coachedto come up with the memory by
police and he says this in thedocumentary.
So the negotiation or the dealwas a witness swap out.
The prosecution agreed not toput Andrew Morris on the stand
(25:06):
if the defense didn't callKelly's friend, who was prepared
to testify that Kelly had toldher she was seeing a guy called
Andrew Norris or Morris At thetime before she became pregnant
with Teagan.
If this witness for the defensehad gone on the stand, it's
possible her testimony may haveprovided enough reasonable doubt
(25:27):
for the jury not to convict.
Is Kelly currently serving asentence for a crime she didn't
commit and Teagan is alive andwell, presumably living under a
new identity?
Or did Kelly do the unthinkableand murder her two day old
(25:48):
child and dispose of her remains?
The Bridge of Hope InnocenceInitiative believes that Kelly
Lange's case is a wrongfulconviction.
The evidence they have tosupport this is phone records
weren't checked adequately atthe time to confirm that Kelly
was in contact with AndrewNorris in the early days, as she
(26:12):
says that she was.
These phone records have sincebeen destroyed.
Police didn't look hard enoughfor Andrew Norris and they
didn't find the witness in theapartment block that Kelly said
he lived in, who positively IDKelly as being there.
They didn't work with Kelly toprovide a conflict drawing to
(26:33):
show to the public to appeal forthe father's whereabouts, and
she was also unfairly slutshamed.
This is from the petition ofMercy on their website, and I'll
link their website in the shownotes sources.
In 2019, the Bridge of HopeInnocence Initiative called for
an urgent review into the KellyLange murder case, following
(26:56):
evidence that has cast out overthe adequacy of the police
investigation and the fairnessof her trial.
We have petitioned the AttorneyGeneral of New South Wales to
open a full inquiry into theinvestigation, prosecution and
conviction of Kelly Lange.
While we are supporting aposition for a review into
(27:18):
Lange's conviction, what isneeded urgently is an
investigation into the policingand prosecutorial practices that
led to Lange's trial in thefirst place.
The two emergent theories arethat Teagan was murdered by
(27:45):
Kelly just after she left thehospital, or that Teagan was
given to the care of a mancalled Andrew Norris, who has
never been located.
Neither has his mother orgirlfriend, who Kelly claims was
with him when she handed Teaganover to him.
It's worth mentioning that inAustralia, we do have a history
(28:07):
of accusing and convictingmothers of infanticide and later
exonerating them.
Lindy Chamberlain and CatherineFolbig are two Australian
mothers who were convicted ofmurdering their children in what
one could definitely say was atrial by media and a witch hunt,
only to be exonerated yearslater when more evidence was
(28:31):
uncovered or when the evidenceused to convict was proven to be
flawed.
You can basically get an expertwitness to literally say
anything you need them to if itsupports your case in trial, and
this is what we saw with theaforementioned cases.
Both of these women are nowfree and have been exonerated.
(28:53):
In my opinion, it would havebeen difficult to leave the
hospital, murder Teagan anddispose of her remains and then
get back to her parents placethat day in time for the wedding
Not impossible, but difficult.
And why?
If she had given her firstchild up for adoption, would she
(29:14):
not do it for her second, asshe did again for her third?
I can totally understandcovering everything up.
At a young age, kelly wasresourceful and came up with a
plan for two of her childrenthree, if we believe her story.
That involved keeping herchildren safe and cared for when
(29:36):
she could not.
She had also had two abortionspreviously in her teens, so she
knew what options were availableto her if she did not wish to
keep her children, and sheutilised the services at the
time.
It's not a crime to have asecret pregnancy and give birth
(29:57):
to a baby and give them up foradoption.
It's perplexing that she woulddecide on a different plan with
one of those children.
I feel it more plausible thatshe gave the baby to someone and
she's still either protectingthat someone or she genuinely
didn't know them or didn't wantany contact and therefore can't
(30:20):
trace them.
Now, like a private adoptionwith no future contact agreed
between the two parties, it'salso possible that that person
has decided, for whatever reason, not to come forward with
Teagan, perhaps to protect thechild, to protect themselves.
If Kelly knew more than whatshe's letting on, she had ample
(30:43):
opportunity to get immunity andnot go to prison by telling the
police what she knew.
She did not or chose not to.
So the only person who reallyknows the truth about what
happened to Teagan is Kellyherself.
New South Wales has recentlyintroduced a new law after the
(31:04):
Lynette Dawson case.
Lynne's law is no body, noparole, so convicted murderers
will not be released until theyreveal the location of their
victim's body.
Kelly is still serving her 18year sentence and has reportedly
been a model prisoner.
I've read in one article thatshe's even considered Queen B,
(31:27):
which here is like top dog.
She's due for release in early2024 and Lynne's law doesn't
apply retrospectively, so sheshould be released at that time.
There have been recent reportsthat she's currently living in a
halfway house and has afull-time job for the prison in
preparation for her release nextyear.
(31:49):
She maintains her innocence andthe investigation into Teagan's
whereabouts continues.
The fact remains that Teagan isstill a missing person and will
be until either she is foundalive or her remains are located
.
It ended up by chance that theday I wrote this episode was
(32:12):
Teagan's birthday.
She would be 27 years old now.
Happy birthday, teagan.
If you or anyone you know knowanything at all, please contact
Police Link on 131-444 or callCrime Stoppers on 1800-333-000.
(32:35):
Thanks for listening to Bolo.
If this episode has brought upfeelings for you and you need
support, please reach out toLifeline on 131114 or Respect on
1800.
Respect.
You can connect with me onInsta or TikTok at Bolopod or
(32:58):
email me at Bolopod at iCloudcomif you have a case you'd like
me to cover.
Until next week, stay safe andthanks again for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.