June 18, 2025 • 44 mins
With Casefile on a short break, we thought this would be a great time to shine a light on some of the shows that may have flown under the radar for many of you. These are shows we've put our hearts into and are really proud of.
First up is Missing Niamh—a story that’s very close to me personally. I spent years researching the case and working directly with Niamh’s family to shape the series, which I also narrated. If you’d like to hear the rest of Missing Niamh, just search for it wherever you get your podcasts. It’s a Casefile Presents production—created by the same team behind Casefile, with the same high standards you expect from us.
I hope you enjoy the series. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
First up is Missing Niamh—a story that’s very close to me personally. I spent years researching the case and working directly with Niamh’s family to shape the series, which I also narrated. If you’d like to hear the rest of Missing Niamh, just search for it wherever you get your podcasts. It’s a Casefile Presents production—created by the same team behind Casefile, with the same high standards you expect from us.
I hope you enjoy the series. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A Cast recommends Ishigau tully t and just call me Audrey.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And if you haven't already caught our show, The Receipts Podcast,
then where have you been for the last nine years?
You've missed episodes with guests like Regina King, Louis Thavou, Melby,
Alicia Dixon, and Katherine Ryan's name only a few, plus
thousands of juicy dilemmas sent in from our very own
listeners and unfiltered chat from us. But don't panic. You
can catch our backlog and fresh episodes every Wednesdays on
(00:27):
your favorite podcast app.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
A Cast is home to the world's best podcasts, including
Red Room, catch Up with Louise McSharry and the one
you're listening to right now.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello, it's Casey here. I just wanted to take a
moment to explain why you're hearing something a little different
on the case File feed. Over the past year, I've
had the chance to meet case File listeners at our
live shows and something kept coming up in conversations that
surprised me. A lot of people don't know what case
File presents is, or that we produce other shows. If
(01:06):
someone is a big enough supporter of case File, to
come to a live event but hasn't heard of Case
File Presents. It occurred to me that we need to
work on our messaging for those who don't know. Case
File Presents is our production platform. The main show we
produce is, of course, Case File, but we've also produced
the number of other podcasts. Our level of involvement varies
(01:31):
from show to show, but we've had a direct hand
in all of them, whether it be in financing, research, production,
editing or music. I even narrate a few of them myself.
With Case File and a short Break, we thought this
would be a great time to shine a light on
some of the shows that may have flown under the
radar for many of you. These are shows we've put
(01:54):
our hearts into and are really proud of. First up
is Missing Neem story that's very close to me personally.
I spent years researching the case and working directly with
members of Niam's family to shape the series, which I
also narrated. And yes I know, the traditional pronunciation of
(02:14):
Neam is Neve. The reason why her loved one's called
her Neam is explained early in episode one. The series
went to number one in Australia and remained there for
quite a while. It also charted highly around the world,
racking up millions of downloads. Regardless of its success, it's
an important story and I think it deserves more ears.
(02:38):
Because of that, We are releasing the first episode here
on the case file feed. If you like it. You
can find the rest of the series by searching Missing
Neam wherever you get your podcasts. Now Here is episode one.
(02:59):
When eighteen year old Niam May went missing back in
two thousand and two, her family did everything they could
to help police try and find her, but like so
many missing persons cases, there comes a time when the
leads dry up and there's nowhere left to look. Back then,
there were no podcasts and social media was still a
(03:21):
couple of years away. But times change, and in recent years,
Neam's sister, Foranula, began listening to true crime podcasts and
realized to their potential to make a huge difference, especially
in unsolved cases like theirs. She realized that a podcast
about Neam might bring about the answers the family were
(03:43):
looking for. When Fanula contacted us, we agreed to help
her reinvigorate the investigation into what happened to Neam. So
for the last few years, I've been working with Fanula
to take a much closer look at Neam's case. Even
as I worked on other case file projects, I carried
(04:04):
Neam's story with me at all times. Maybe it was
because we were the same age, or we finished high
school of the same year. Maybe it was the fact
that we both wanted a gap year after leaving school,
or that we liked similar music. Or maybe it was
the fact that Neam was a young eighteen year old
(04:25):
testing the waters of life and something pulled her under
and that could have happened to any of us. Maybe
we just got lucky and survived our teenage years, but
Neim didn't. She didn't get to realize her potential. When
I first started looking into this case in twenty twenty,
(04:47):
it was originally intended to be a case file episode,
but the more I looked, a series of revelations unfolded
that literally and figuratively took me to places that I
could never have anticipated. Neim grew up in a large
Catholic family in Armadale in northern New South Wales. After
(05:10):
finishing her final year at school, she took a working
holiday and went fruit picking down South in blow. Neam
phoned home regularly, and as Easter two thousand and two approached,
she made plans to travel back home to Armadale to
spandista with her family. But Neam never made it home,
(05:32):
and her family has never stopped looking for her, Niam's sister,
for Noula.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It wasn't until I started sort of talking to Mum
and Ad more about it and looking into it more
that I realized how much they took on. So Dad
retired the year that Nim finished school. Mum had retired
a few years earlier. They had seven kids. They just
got them all off their hands, and less than three
months later, their youngest daughter goes missing, presumably murdered, and
(06:03):
they've spent the next eighteen years searching for her.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
They light a candle for her every.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Morning, and in the early years, I think Dad said
they went down there thirty times, and it's a ten
hour about ten to twelve hour drive from Armadale down
there and back again, and they were so methodical about it,
and they had a huge map on the study wall
at home and they marked.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
Off all the areas that they'd searched.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And they've got crazy people contacting them with potential sightings,
some of whom you claim to be psychic, but they
also have just spent time in the local towns, talking
to the local volunteers and obviously working with the police tirelessly.
I knew that it was consuming for them, but I
don't think I realized how much they really took on
(06:51):
because they shielded it from us. At no point have
we just got on with our lives, if you know
what I mean. Like, I heard something recently that really resonated.
It was a woman from America who said that you
never get over grief, you learn to move forward with it.
And I was like, that's yeah, that's the best anyone's
ever described it.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Niam May was born on the twenty first of June
nineteen eighty three. She grew up on a small hobby
farm in Armadale, New South Wales, which is almost five
hundred kilometers north of Sydney, the state capital. The May family,
mum and dad Anne and Brian, and children Katherine, Susan, Kieran, Justine, Tamsen,
(07:36):
Fanula and Neam were raised Catholic. Neiam was the youngest
of the bunch, with her sister Fanula only two years older.
All the children were close knit. Growing up out of town,
Neam and her brother and sisters had the kind of
childhood you might daydream about. Imagine the Australian countryside, blue
(07:59):
sky with cottonball clouds, kids making their own fun, running
wild in open fields, as free as the wind. They
were safe as long as they avoided the snakes in
the grass and the red back spiders in the retaining war.
Before we get too far into Neam's story, we should
(08:19):
clarify her name. Neam is an Irish name spelt Niamh
and traditionally pronounced Neve. Her sister for Nola, explains how
her parents adjusted their daughter's name for the Australian palette.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
She was named Neve the Irish name Neve, but mum
and dad decided that was going to be too hard
for people in the eighties in Australia in country New
South Wales to work out that mh was a V sound,
so they said, I will just drop the h and
everyone could call a Nim like Liam.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
So we all grew up calling a Niam.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So while we will call her Niam, you might hear
others call her name Eve. When Niam's mum and dad
and Brian first met. They were both primary school teachers
before for Nola and Niam were born. Brian did his
PhD and became a lecturer at the University of New
England in Armadale, where he worked for many years, and
(09:20):
continued to teach primary school while having her children, and
also studied her master's in education while pregnant with Niam
and sat her final exam and won the university medal,
and describes what life was like when Niam was born.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Well, she was born very easily number seven, fitted in
very easily and had six bigger siblings who if she
stepped out of line could bring it back into line.
It didn't fall on me, which was very handy. But
on the whole she just just fitted in. She used
(10:01):
to love using her little hand puppets and playing games
with them and making up stories.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Even though Fanula was only a small child herself, she
still remembers Niam as a baby.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
We grew up together.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
She's my little pal, so her and the sister above me, Tamson,
where we were known as the three little kids, the
little kids, so we all shared a bedroom. It was
the little Kids room and even I think as adult
to remember one Christmas, not even that long ago, someone said, like, oh,
get one of the little kids to do it.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
I'm like, I'm like thirty something.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
So we've kept our family positions regardless of our age.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Yeah. So Niam's chubby cheeks.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Little cutie with absolutely adorable little chubby cheeks. And she was,
you know, spoilt being the youngest. I'm called it choppa babba.
And she could chuck a chantrum. She'd throw her head
back and she had these huge veins that would pop
out of her neck and we'd teaser about them when
she chucked dantrum.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But sibling teasing is quickly forgotten when there are fields
to explore and forts to build.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Growing up, we pretty much just ran wild, not ran wild,
but like we had the run of our neighbors properties
as well. We were only fifteen acres because there was
just a hobby farm or mum and dad worked in town.
But yeah, mom and dad built their own house in
the seventies, this long, split level house with four bedrooms,
and we had fifteen acres around it to run around.
And yeah, we used to just wander around and make
(11:29):
up games. We built a fort out of stones in
our neighbors to call it Row of Trees, wind break
under all these pine trees. We just built this little
rock fort. Used to go and hang out there and
make up all sorts of games, played a lot of
a lot of cards, used to go camping, should like
to make stupid faces. It was just really cheeky, really
(11:51):
in a good way.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Though.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The May kids were all quite independent. Here is Niam's mum, Anne,
explaining what the first day of school like for Naam.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
And when she first went to school. Her first day
at school, we used to get up and I always
get up early and have breakfast, and I'd be up
early marking kids books and things for school, and then
i'd go up and milk the cow, and others that'd
get up and get ready for school and get their
own breakfast and their own school lunches. The stuff was
all there, and then they'd head off for the school
(12:24):
bus down at the corner. And Neve's first day at school,
I came in and I'd always taken the others to school,
driven them in for the first day, and I looked
around after I'd milked and separated and come inside and
lo and behold, couldn't find her. She hadn't even said goodbye.
(12:47):
I was really quite upset she hadn't said goodbye. She
just went and got on the bus, because that's what
she did. Years later, her kindergarten teacher said, yes, I'd
always wondered why she turned up by herself. That first
day was no problem. She just turned up and then
went and joined the other kids to get on the
bus after school and came home and that was that.
(13:08):
So she was independent, free well from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
By the time Niam hit secondary school, the small girl
with the chubby cheeks was gone. In her place was
a young woman, independent, intelligent, creative and not afraid to
stand out from the crowd. The older May children, Katherine, Susan, Kieran,
Justine and Tamzen, had all gone to the same high
(13:36):
school that their mother and taught at. However, for for
Nola and neam And decided that it might be a
good idea to send them to a different school, so
the two younger girls went to Juval High School in Armadale. There,
Niam's creative side absolutely shone through. Anne remembers M's dogger
(14:00):
determination as a student.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
So as well as being creative, she was also well organized,
you know, you have an image of creative people often
being that they're utterly chaotic, and she wasn't. She was
highly organized. She was almost obsessive about things being precise.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Neam had a keen aptitude for writing and loved English.
It was in these classes that her talent really stood out.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
When she was in high school she decided that she
liked writing. She wrote when she was in primary school too,
they all did. She then produced a short story that
her teachers liked, so she's actually had it published in
an anthology of a whole lot of school kids that
(14:49):
was excellent. And then when she got to high school,
in particular, she did extension English as she got up
into the higher level to high school, and then she
wanted to do photography, and Neve had been very canny
about doing that because she was interested in creative things
(15:13):
and productive things and merging that with her English extension.
So she taught herself in the final years of high
school and used it then as part of her English
with them photos and filming, and she then made a
film wrote it. He didn't have any money, so she
(15:36):
went and begged volunteers. A couple of young chaps from
University of Macquarie. At Macquarie, I think had some camera
gear so that they could borrow. And then she'd advertised
for an actress and she only had one person in it.
(15:58):
So this girl came forward and Volune and they sort
of cobbled together a film which she submitted as part
of Righteous.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
By this time all the older siblings had moved out
of home to study your work. The bustling may house
became quieter, and Neiam and Fanulla, by themselves for the
first time, became very close. They went to parties together
and even worked together at the local pizza shop. This
(16:29):
used to annoy Fanulla because Niam was the better worker
and always one employee of the month. Everyone at the
pizza shop loved her. She was funky and a bit alternative.
Niam also had a cool taste in music. She loved
the Stone Roses, Radiohead, Back Counting Crows, and System of
(16:51):
a Down, to name a few. She also went through
a teen goth stage, which raised some my brows in
their country town. Niam dyed her hair blue and wore
a thick blue eyeshadow to go with her goth clothing.
Vanila remembers Naam always trying to be different and stand
out from the crowd.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
She liked to be a little bit different but unique.
Mum had a sary that she bought when so Mum
traveled around in the sixties all over the world and
bought a sari when she was must have mean from India,
I assume so Niam wore for her uten formal. She
just I think wanted to be a little bit unique.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Each time she did something out of the ordinary. None
of the Maize were surprised, nor did they care. Well,
that's a name for you, they said. Niam's dad, Brian,
saw in Neam a determination to succeed in life and
to try as many new things as she could.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
She actually was a qualified open water scuba diver, and
she also I think would be fair to say he
used to read a lot, and she was a very
good writer. He did some impressive writer and through into
senior high school. I think she enjoyed a challenge. She
used to set herself a challenge and work towards it,
whether it came to be physically in sporting wise, or
(18:12):
whether it was academic or intellectual activity.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Niam's dad could also see his daughter looking beyond their
little town of Armadale and doubt into the world. She'll
be a traveler.
Speaker 8 (18:25):
He thought she had an interest in people who were different,
and she did have a trip to France at one stage,
to the end of year ten, she traveled and had
the school holiday Christmas holiday trip in Paris.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Banula remembers this trip to Paris as well. Neiam was
fluent in French and manage to outshine her brother who'd
been there for longer than she had.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
She went to France on exchange. That's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
She spoke fluent French, so in addition to being smart
enough with everything else, she also spoke fluent French. So
she went on exchange to France at the end of
year eleven over the winter there. Our brother Kieran was
living in Paris for work, and he said he just
remember being really embarrassed because he's been living there for
months and I can't remember. He went somewhere with us
(19:10):
and was trying to order something or whatever and they
didn't understand him, and she was just like blah blah,
blah blah, just rattled it off and they're like, oh,
almost such as a native French speaker, like here you go,
have whatever it is you want and he just stood
there going smart ass.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Not only was she smart, Niam developed empathy for others.
She used her developing voice to stand up for others
who couldn't speak out for themselves.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
She was a great stickler for social justice people. You know,
she didn't think people were behaving fairly. She would say so.
She had a sense of fairness and she had a
sense of doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Niam's sister for Nola, saw her growing passion for social justice.
It takes courage to speak against unfairness, especially when you
take the side of the underdog.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
She was very like a real passionate social advocate, quite outspoken,
and you know, stood up for people hated injustice, and
I think that's sort of in all of us. So
I think she was maybe fifteen when she wrote a
letter to the local paper because there were a few
articles about local residents opposing a brothel in the town
(20:27):
or it was, I think it was close to a
residential area and they were opposing it and saying it
should be in a commercial area, or.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
It shouldn't be there at all.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
And she just wrote a really well written, eloquent letter
basically saying it's the oldest profession in the world and
they need someway safe to work like everybody else. And
I think a lot of people were a bit shocked
by her age and her outspokenness on the matter, whereas
I just didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
And sometimes the fight got closer to home.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
She may have also been politely requested to leave a
job that she had at a local club after very
firmly telling some old patrons that were sitting at the
end of the bar who were speaking quite loudly, really
like basically just being really racist. And she was just like, no,
we don't stand for that here. And then the boss
was like, oh, they've been coming here for years and
(21:15):
they're really old.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Leave them alone. And she's like, okay, whatever, I don't
want to work with you.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
We will be back after a short break.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
A cast recommends Ishigau tudy tea and just call me Audrey.
And if you haven't already caught our show, The Receipts Podcast,
then where have you been for the last nine years?
You've missed episodes with guests like Regina King, Louis Tavou, Melby,
Alicia Dixon, and Katherine Ryan's name only a few plus
thousands of juicy dilemmas sent in from our very own listeners.
Speaker 9 (21:47):
And unfiltered chat from us.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
But don't panic. You can catch our backlog and fresh
episodes every Wednesdays on your favorite podcast app.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
A cast is home to the world's best podcast including
Red Room, catch Up with Louise McSharry, and when You're
Listening to Right Now.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
So to her family, Niam was fearless, outspoken and very clever.
What was she like to her peers? Niam's childhood friend
Jass describes her as a humanitarian and a leader.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
Niam and I went to We met in kindergarten and
we went from kindergarten all the way up to year
twelve together and we were in the same friendship group,
just like a little close bunch of friends. There was
like seven of us that were very close and we're
all still close. And Niam was very academic and she
(22:50):
was a leader. She's very influential, had a lot of
humanitarian traits from a young age, always stick up for
the underdog and or you know what she believed in.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
As a student on a school outing, Niam spoke her
mind to Midnight Oil frontman turned politician Peter Garrett.
Speaker 9 (23:15):
We once went to the university to see Peter Garrett
speak when he was the Environmental Minister, and we were
I think we were in year eleven or year twelve,
and you know, we all sunk back in our seats
when she stood up and Mike gave him a big
serving about her thoughts on his position and what it
was doing.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Neiam completed her high school certificate in two thousand and
one and scored in the top five percent of the state.
She applied to study at the University of Technology in
Sydney and was accepted to study film. Niam decided to
take a gap year in two thousand and two, save
up a bit of money and go to university the
(23:57):
year after. It was a decision that changed the lives
of the May family forever. Neam heard through friends about
fruit picking. It sounded like a perfect opportunity to save
a bit of cash, see Australia and spend some time
outdoors for Neam, and also meant she could set off
(24:19):
on adventures and test her independence. Her friend Jess had
a similar idea.
Speaker 9 (24:26):
And she planned to go to UTS in Sydney to
study film and I was going to do music in Brisbane.
We decided to go on some kind of road trick
around Australia, so you know, like take a year off
and just leave home and go on an adventure. It
(24:48):
wasn't well planned out at all, but I think it
was just exciting, you know, the prospect of finishing school
and having a year off before going into any kind
of other studies. And three of our other friends had
been fruit picking and they had taken a trip previously
(25:11):
to this particular area that we went.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
It's easy to see why this idea would have appealed
to Naam. Taking a gap year between school and university
gives teenagers a sense of freedom that's unlikely ever to
be duplicated. A whole year stretching ahead with no timetables,
no particular places to be, not a care in the world.
(25:36):
It feels like forever is lying just in front of you.
And for the young and idealistic, it's a time to
test yourself and to find out who you really are.
Perhaps it is natural that prospective fruit pickers head to Batlow,
famed for its apples. That's a small character filled town
(25:56):
dotted with apple orchids that produce enough to suppor like
ten percent of Australia's apples. Niam arrived in Butlow at
the end of January two thousand and two, fully intent
on fruit picking and living the fruit pickers lifestyle, but
it would prove a false start. She only got a
(26:17):
couple of days of work before unseasonal summer rains canceled
most of the picking. In a few weeks, Niam was
back home with not much more to show for her
travels than photos of her on the job war wounds,
mainly bruises from fruit toads and ladders. Undaunted by the
(26:38):
first trip, Niim couldn't wait to return to Butlow when
the weather settled. She had only been home for four
days when she and her dad went shopping to buy
some camping gear for her next trip. She talked over
her plans with Brian.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
I can recall when she came home the first time,
when she said she wanted to go apple picking in Battleo.
I asked her why she would want to do that
sort of work. I grew up myself on a banana
and tomato farm, pineapples and other tropical fruit, so I
knew what was involved in laboring in the fields. And
(27:15):
I said, you know, it's a hard job. And she said, well,
I'd just like to try and see how I go.
And we talked through some of the plans that she
had for how she was going to support herself, how
she's going to organize herself, and she would take a
hikers tentant camp. She had a tent that was big
(27:37):
enough for her and her possessions. And I said to her, now,
how are you going to afford this tent? And she
told me which one it was, and it cost I
think one hundred dollars or something, and her response was, well,
I was hoping you might help me out. Whereupon I
agreed and we went and had checked out the tent
(27:58):
because we used to take the family camping quite a
bit when they were all young, so she was familiar
with camping, she was familiar with traveling.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Niam's mum, Anne, tried to make her daughter aware of
the difficulties she might face on her fruit picking year.
It might not be as rosy as she thought, but
Niam was not to be discouraged. Her friend Jas remembers
how excited Niam was to go back to fruit picking
after her brief stand.
Speaker 9 (28:29):
And then she came back and she was really excited
and she said, let's go fruit picking. You know, it
was summertime. I just turned eighteen, and she said, you know,
stuff this like no, I think we both had like
cafe jobs or something, and you know, she was like,
let's you know, let's let's go out into the bush.
Let's go and pick fruit. We can get fit, we
(28:50):
can be healthy. You know, we can go on an
adventure and we can make some money. We can buy
a car and we can drive to Brisbane and we'll
go on and you know, we'll visit some friends who
had already started unis. And that's how the idea came.
So her and I decided to go. We booked a
(29:11):
train ticket from Armordale to Sydney and we were going
to stay with her sister Fanula for one night and
then we would carry on to this place called Battlo.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Jess put her trust in Niam's planning skills.
Speaker 9 (29:30):
Neam had always been quite fastidious with details and organizational skills,
like for my whole life. She was the person that
would you know, she was known as a good organizer.
So I kind of just booked this train ticket and
thought that she knew what we were doing and where
we were going and how it was working, how it's
(29:53):
going to work, and there was you know, there was
a lot of trust that we would just be taken
care of. We were going to somehow we would get
to Battleo train and bus and then we would go
to this camping ground and you know, we just supposedly
if we just went to the caravan park and pitched
a tent, you know, the owners would put us in
(30:15):
touch with some people that we could go and work for.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Niam's mum, Anne remembers the level of planning for the
second trip. The first failed mission had given name inside
into what she would need, and she set about organizing
what she would take with her.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
She knew she'd have to have shirts with long sleeves,
so she hit Venni's and the Salvos and places like
that and got long sloved shirts that she could wear
fru it picking. And she didn't take anything that was
peripheral or extra. Took no jewelry except for one tickie
on a thong that she wore around her neck, which
(30:57):
had been a gift from her godmother, and she had
her camera giyear with her. She also, when she'd gone
down earlier in the year, she came home, indexed all
her photos, labeled them, dated them. She had been saving
and putting aside things for when she needed to be
(31:19):
at UNI.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Well, Nam was back home, she spoke to another friend, Lisa.
She convinced her to go to Batlo as well.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
So when she finished school, I knew she had plans
to go and study in Sydney and live with Nula,
and she was planning to go to film school. She
really and which actually initially surprised me because she excelled
so much in so many other areas. But there was
this creative streak to her that I think she wanted
(31:54):
to tell stories and yeah, and it was a passion
that she had. At the end of year twelve, see,
I left school a little before the others and I
went and started working, and so I was a little
bit disconnected from Neam and probably my other friends for
a little while. And then, funnily enough, when she was
(32:15):
in she'd been in bat Low and she came home
and she called me and I spoke to her and
she was like, oh, yeah, I've been down there. We're
making money and it's you know, she was telling me
about things that were happening down there. And I said, oh,
I'm kind of looking for work, and she's like, oh,
you should come down.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
It's really easy.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Anyone can get work. So I was like, oh, okay, yeah,
all right, I'm I'll come down. I'll come and do
a couple of weeks. And I saw her briefly. She said, yeah,
I'm just picking up some stuff and heading back down.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Lisa decided she would travel by car with her boyfriend
and join Neam in but Low, and then there was
a last minute addition to their fruit picking on taraj.
Neiam's friend Jess explains how Brody entered the picture. Brody
was young than the other girls, but she had also
left school.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
The day before we were going to leave. We were
walking through the mall. We come from a small town,
so we're just walking through town and this younger girl
that we knew by association, you know, friends of friends,
she was hanging out and we approached her and asked
(33:27):
her what she was doing, and we were pretty excited.
We were like, you know, it's summertime, it's February. We
don't have to go to school. You know, we're going
to go fruit picking and make some money, buy a car,
go on a road trip. So Brodie was younger than us,
So I would have been eighteen and I reckon Brody
would have been fifteen, I'm not sure. And we were like,
(33:49):
come through picking if you're not going to go to school,
and so Brody decided to come with us, and she
went and booked a train to kids.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Brody and Neam had hit it off right from the start,
even though Brody was young girl.
Speaker 10 (34:07):
I don't remember the first time we actually met. I
just know that we kind of met through our group
of friends. Like I was a fire tweller and I
was in a group and me and Jess would go
fire tweling with them a lot. And I think Jess
and Neam went to high school together, so I probably
met Neim through Jess. And yeah, we just would be
(34:30):
at parties together, and I just remember we there was
one party in particular where we started hanging out.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
I already knew her, but we hung out a lot more.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Brody's favorite story of Neam reminds me of the saying
dance like no one is watching.
Speaker 10 (34:46):
She really was into like system of Down at the time,
and yeah, the Toxicity album and I just remember catching
her one time listening to it and she was like
just dancing for really funny. Really it was really awkward,
but it was really really cute and she was like
just having fun by herself and I was like, oh,
(35:08):
I love that album and then she was like, oh
my god, shocked that I saw her. And I think
that's probably my favorite kind of memory of her.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
When Naam and Jess suggested she'd come fruit picking with them,
Brody cleared it with her mom and left.
Speaker 10 (35:25):
The next day, I was at Taife and I had
took a lunch break and I walked up town and
I bumped into Jess and she was like, oh, me
and Niama going to go fruit picking, like you should come,
and I was like okay, like I'll come, and I yeah,
ran back down to see my mom because she was
also doing tafe with me at the same time, and yeah,
I got some money off her and we pretty much
(35:46):
left the very next day, so it was really spur
of the moment.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
On Valentine's Day, Thursday, the fourteenth of February two thousand
and two, Niam, Jess, and Brody left Armadale. They planned
to stay with Fanla in Sydney for the night, where
she was studying and working before heading south to Batlow.
Brian remembers saying goodbye to his youngest daughter, So.
Speaker 8 (36:14):
Off she went. And the last thing, she was hopping
into the car out here, just out in front of
the garage, about to go off to catch the train
with the friends. And I was standing at the top
of the steps, and she dashed over and gave me
a big hug and hopped in the car with Anna,
and off she went.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Jess also remembers when it came time to say goodbye
to their families as they took the train to Sydney.
From the moment the three girls hopped on the train
that morning, an uneasy feeling began to bury itself in
the pit of her stomach. It would stay there and
grow as time went on.
Speaker 9 (36:55):
And the next day we went to the train station
and we got on the train and I sat on
the left side, and Niam and Brody sat together on
the right side, and my mom stood outside on the
platform and she like waved a white handkerchief, and I
was like, oh my god, she's so embarrassed, and you know,
(37:18):
there were tears running down her eyes. And I remember
Neiam's mum standing there too, looking very stern. And concerned,
you know, just very serious. And I noticed that Brody
and Neim were just getting along really well, and I
had a really funny feeling and I didn't like it,
and I didn't like how well they were getting along
(37:38):
with each other. Kind of probably made me feel jealous
because I was like, oh, you know, they're getting along
a lot better than I am. This is weird. Maybe
we shouldn't have Brody coming with us because she's only fifteen.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Vanorla remembers Neam and her friends arriving at her place
in Sydney. They had a great time together.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
And then fourteenth of February, she came back to Sydney
with Jess and another girl, Brody, from Armadale. They came
to Sydney and she came into the city and met me,
and I was I just finished work, so we went
out for a couple of drinks with our brother Kieren,
and then peted home. I was living with two flat
mates in Chatswood in a musty, old mankey sharehouse, and yeah,
(38:22):
they crashed on our bloundry floor and we just hung out.
But yeah, then the next morning she headed off and
I just remember them like heading off and waving and
me being like, b careful, call me, all that sort
of stuff, and I remember for a fleeting second thinking, oh,
I should give them my phone because I had a
mobile phone at that stage and she didn't, and I
remember thinking I should give her my phone, and then
I was like, oh, but you know, like they were
already heading off and it's you know, a hassle to
(38:45):
sort out the bills or replacements and all that sort
of stuff, so I didn't. I mean, I've got a
lot of small regrets, and that's one of them. Realistically,
there was no reception down there anyway, so I don't
think would have made much difference.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
The train trip to Butlow perhaps set the scene for
what was the follow The plan was for the girls
to catch the seven to fifteen am train from Sydney
to Kudamundra and from there catch a Country Link bus
to blow They missed the train from Sydney and had
to wait around for a later one. Jess explains, and
(39:22):
that was a really weird thing that we missed the train,
because we would never miss a train.
Speaker 9 (39:30):
And I remember it was like the world was trying
to stop it from the very start, and when like
I remember me and being really stressed out and getting
so cross and angry that we'd missed the train, and
I thought, this is so unlike her.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
But when you miss a train, eventually another one follows
and the girls were able to hop on board. Unlike Jess,
who felt a strange foreboding about the trip. They're young
go traveling companion Brody did not the.
Speaker 10 (40:03):
Train trip from Sydney to Kudamundra me and then we're
having lots of fun and chatting to strangers. We turned
our chair around to talk to these people that were there,
and we had a few drinks and we were just
having a good time. It was an adventure. I didn't
feel nervous particularly. I always wanted to get away from Armadale.
(40:24):
I was always leaving, running away. Yeah, so it was
just another adventure really.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
But for Jess, the further from home they got, the
more her uneasiness grew.
Speaker 9 (40:39):
We got on this train from Sydney to Kudamundra and
when we got on the train, it was nearing nighttime
and Neam and Brody were sitting together on the left
hand side seat in front of me, and this group
(41:00):
of men were sitting on the right hand side and
they were all drinking, and it made me feel nervous,
and so I pretended to go to sleep, and then
I fell asleep because I knew that Brody and Liam
were like, yeah, you know, let's drink with these guys.
And I don't know if they did drink with these guys.
They were like a rough group of old men. And
(41:24):
then I fell asleep and I woke up and all
of the the small group of men that had been
drinking were now asleep and snoring.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Because they had missed their original train, there was no
CountryLink bus to take them to blow when they arrived
at the remote Kudamundra train station in the dead of
the night. As Jess sat on the train, she knew
they would have to find it their own way to Batlow,
which was one hundred and twenty kilometers away from Kudamundra.
(41:56):
Jess kept a diary on the trip, and this was
her tree about that train ride.
Speaker 9 (42:03):
There were revolting men on the train who I felt
really sorry for. Niam and Brody, I thought behaved. I
don't know how they behaved, but I was saddened and
I'm not impressed with the rude, obnoxious, drunk attitudes of
a group of people who were much older Jesus Christ.
This would be very funny to watch on a film.
(42:26):
At the beginning of the film, everything is so optimistic
and positive, but slowly after the train tracks, the mood
changes and it becomes uncomfortably evil.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Coming up on Missing Naan.
Speaker 10 (42:46):
Yeah, well, people would just come up to the tents
and be like, hey, and what are you doing? You know,
just there wasn't really a lot of privacy.
Speaker 9 (42:55):
And then one day the Blackhurst arrived. And when the
Blackhurst arrived, these two men got out and as soon
as I saw them, and I saw that Blackshess, I
thought their baddies stay away from them.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Thanks for listening. If you'd like to hear the rest
of Missing Naam, just search for it wherever you get
your podcasts. It's a Case File Presents production created by
the same team behind Case File, with the same high
standards you expect from us. I hope you enjoyed the series.
Speaker 11 (43:42):
Your child is bleeding, you take them to hospital. It's
the right thing to do, or is it.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
They started on barding us with questions saying, we don't
believe the story of the injury to our daughter.
Speaker 11 (43:56):
Imagine how you would feel if the whole weight of
the state had turned against you.
Speaker 9 (44:00):
If the system had worked, this would never have been prosecuted.
Speaker 11 (44:03):
Imagine how you would feel if ten years later your
name still hadn't been cleared. I'm Ruth Nager and this
is a Story of our Time from RTE Documentary on
One and RTE investigates First Conviction. Available on Artie Radio
Player and wherever you get your podcasts.
A Cast recommends Ishigau tully t and just call me Audrey.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And if you haven't already caught our show, The Receipts Podcast,
then where have you been for the last nine years?
You've missed episodes with guests like Regina King, Louis Thavou, Melby,
Alicia Dixon, and Katherine Ryan's name only a few, plus
thousands of juicy dilemmas sent in from our very own
listeners and unfiltered chat from us. But don't panic. You
can catch our backlog and fresh episodes every Wednesdays on
(00:27):
your favorite podcast app.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
A Cast is home to the world's best podcasts, including
Red Room, catch Up with Louise McSharry and the one
you're listening to right now.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello, it's Casey here. I just wanted to take a
moment to explain why you're hearing something a little different
on the case File feed. Over the past year, I've
had the chance to meet case File listeners at our
live shows and something kept coming up in conversations that
surprised me. A lot of people don't know what case
File presents is, or that we produce other shows. If
(01:06):
someone is a big enough supporter of case File, to
come to a live event but hasn't heard of Case
File Presents. It occurred to me that we need to
work on our messaging for those who don't know. Case
File Presents is our production platform. The main show we
produce is, of course, Case File, but we've also produced
the number of other podcasts. Our level of involvement varies
(01:31):
from show to show, but we've had a direct hand
in all of them, whether it be in financing, research, production,
editing or music. I even narrate a few of them myself.
With Case File and a short Break, we thought this
would be a great time to shine a light on
some of the shows that may have flown under the
radar for many of you. These are shows we've put
(01:54):
our hearts into and are really proud of. First up
is Missing Neem story that's very close to me personally.
I spent years researching the case and working directly with
members of Niam's family to shape the series, which I
also narrated. And yes I know, the traditional pronunciation of
(02:14):
Neam is Neve. The reason why her loved one's called
her Neam is explained early in episode one. The series
went to number one in Australia and remained there for
quite a while. It also charted highly around the world,
racking up millions of downloads. Regardless of its success, it's
an important story and I think it deserves more ears.
(02:38):
Because of that, We are releasing the first episode here
on the case file feed. If you like it. You
can find the rest of the series by searching Missing
Neam wherever you get your podcasts. Now Here is episode one.
(02:59):
When eighteen year old Niam May went missing back in
two thousand and two, her family did everything they could
to help police try and find her, but like so
many missing persons cases, there comes a time when the
leads dry up and there's nowhere left to look. Back then,
there were no podcasts and social media was still a
(03:21):
couple of years away. But times change, and in recent years,
Neam's sister, Foranula, began listening to true crime podcasts and
realized to their potential to make a huge difference, especially
in unsolved cases like theirs. She realized that a podcast
about Neam might bring about the answers the family were
(03:43):
looking for. When Fanula contacted us, we agreed to help
her reinvigorate the investigation into what happened to Neam. So
for the last few years, I've been working with Fanula
to take a much closer look at Neam's case. Even
as I worked on other case file projects, I carried
(04:04):
Neam's story with me at all times. Maybe it was
because we were the same age, or we finished high
school of the same year. Maybe it was the fact
that we both wanted a gap year after leaving school,
or that we liked similar music. Or maybe it was
the fact that Neam was a young eighteen year old
(04:25):
testing the waters of life and something pulled her under
and that could have happened to any of us. Maybe
we just got lucky and survived our teenage years, but
Neim didn't. She didn't get to realize her potential. When
I first started looking into this case in twenty twenty,
(04:47):
it was originally intended to be a case file episode,
but the more I looked, a series of revelations unfolded
that literally and figuratively took me to places that I
could never have anticipated. Neim grew up in a large
Catholic family in Armadale in northern New South Wales. After
(05:10):
finishing her final year at school, she took a working
holiday and went fruit picking down South in blow. Neam
phoned home regularly, and as Easter two thousand and two approached,
she made plans to travel back home to Armadale to
spandista with her family. But Neam never made it home,
(05:32):
and her family has never stopped looking for her, Niam's sister,
for Noula.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It wasn't until I started sort of talking to Mum
and Ad more about it and looking into it more
that I realized how much they took on. So Dad
retired the year that Nim finished school. Mum had retired
a few years earlier. They had seven kids. They just
got them all off their hands, and less than three
months later, their youngest daughter goes missing, presumably murdered, and
(06:03):
they've spent the next eighteen years searching for her.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
They light a candle for her every.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Morning, and in the early years, I think Dad said
they went down there thirty times, and it's a ten
hour about ten to twelve hour drive from Armadale down
there and back again, and they were so methodical about it,
and they had a huge map on the study wall
at home and they marked.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
Off all the areas that they'd searched.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And they've got crazy people contacting them with potential sightings,
some of whom you claim to be psychic, but they
also have just spent time in the local towns, talking
to the local volunteers and obviously working with the police tirelessly.
I knew that it was consuming for them, but I
don't think I realized how much they really took on
(06:51):
because they shielded it from us. At no point have
we just got on with our lives, if you know
what I mean. Like, I heard something recently that really resonated.
It was a woman from America who said that you
never get over grief, you learn to move forward with it.
And I was like, that's yeah, that's the best anyone's
ever described it.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Niam May was born on the twenty first of June
nineteen eighty three. She grew up on a small hobby
farm in Armadale, New South Wales, which is almost five
hundred kilometers north of Sydney, the state capital. The May family,
mum and dad Anne and Brian, and children Katherine, Susan, Kieran, Justine, Tamsen,
(07:36):
Fanula and Neam were raised Catholic. Neiam was the youngest
of the bunch, with her sister Fanula only two years older.
All the children were close knit. Growing up out of town,
Neam and her brother and sisters had the kind of
childhood you might daydream about. Imagine the Australian countryside, blue
(07:59):
sky with cottonball clouds, kids making their own fun, running
wild in open fields, as free as the wind. They
were safe as long as they avoided the snakes in
the grass and the red back spiders in the retaining war.
Before we get too far into Neam's story, we should
(08:19):
clarify her name. Neam is an Irish name spelt Niamh
and traditionally pronounced Neve. Her sister for Nola, explains how
her parents adjusted their daughter's name for the Australian palette.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
She was named Neve the Irish name Neve, but mum
and dad decided that was going to be too hard
for people in the eighties in Australia in country New
South Wales to work out that mh was a V sound,
so they said, I will just drop the h and
everyone could call a Nim like Liam.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
So we all grew up calling a Niam.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So while we will call her Niam, you might hear
others call her name Eve. When Niam's mum and dad
and Brian first met. They were both primary school teachers
before for Nola and Niam were born. Brian did his
PhD and became a lecturer at the University of New
England in Armadale, where he worked for many years, and
(09:20):
continued to teach primary school while having her children, and
also studied her master's in education while pregnant with Niam
and sat her final exam and won the university medal,
and describes what life was like when Niam was born.
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Well, she was born very easily number seven, fitted in
very easily and had six bigger siblings who if she
stepped out of line could bring it back into line.
It didn't fall on me, which was very handy. But
on the whole she just just fitted in. She used
(10:01):
to love using her little hand puppets and playing games
with them and making up stories.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Even though Fanula was only a small child herself, she
still remembers Niam as a baby.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
We grew up together.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
She's my little pal, so her and the sister above me, Tamson,
where we were known as the three little kids, the
little kids, so we all shared a bedroom. It was
the little Kids room and even I think as adult
to remember one Christmas, not even that long ago, someone said, like, oh,
get one of the little kids to do it.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
I'm like, I'm like thirty something.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
So we've kept our family positions regardless of our age.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Yeah. So Niam's chubby cheeks.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Little cutie with absolutely adorable little chubby cheeks. And she was,
you know, spoilt being the youngest. I'm called it choppa babba.
And she could chuck a chantrum. She'd throw her head
back and she had these huge veins that would pop
out of her neck and we'd teaser about them when
she chucked dantrum.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But sibling teasing is quickly forgotten when there are fields
to explore and forts to build.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Growing up, we pretty much just ran wild, not ran wild,
but like we had the run of our neighbors properties
as well. We were only fifteen acres because there was
just a hobby farm or mum and dad worked in town.
But yeah, mom and dad built their own house in
the seventies, this long, split level house with four bedrooms,
and we had fifteen acres around it to run around.
And yeah, we used to just wander around and make
(11:29):
up games. We built a fort out of stones in
our neighbors to call it Row of Trees, wind break
under all these pine trees. We just built this little
rock fort. Used to go and hang out there and
make up all sorts of games, played a lot of
a lot of cards, used to go camping, should like
to make stupid faces. It was just really cheeky, really
(11:51):
in a good way.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Though.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The May kids were all quite independent. Here is Niam's mum, Anne,
explaining what the first day of school like for Naam.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
And when she first went to school. Her first day
at school, we used to get up and I always
get up early and have breakfast, and I'd be up
early marking kids books and things for school, and then
i'd go up and milk the cow, and others that'd
get up and get ready for school and get their
own breakfast and their own school lunches. The stuff was
all there, and then they'd head off for the school
(12:24):
bus down at the corner. And Neve's first day at school,
I came in and I'd always taken the others to school,
driven them in for the first day, and I looked
around after I'd milked and separated and come inside and
lo and behold, couldn't find her. She hadn't even said goodbye.
(12:47):
I was really quite upset she hadn't said goodbye. She
just went and got on the bus, because that's what
she did. Years later, her kindergarten teacher said, yes, I'd
always wondered why she turned up by herself. That first
day was no problem. She just turned up and then
went and joined the other kids to get on the
bus after school and came home and that was that.
(13:08):
So she was independent, free well from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
By the time Niam hit secondary school, the small girl
with the chubby cheeks was gone. In her place was
a young woman, independent, intelligent, creative and not afraid to
stand out from the crowd. The older May children, Katherine, Susan, Kieran,
Justine and Tamzen, had all gone to the same high
(13:36):
school that their mother and taught at. However, for for
Nola and neam And decided that it might be a
good idea to send them to a different school, so
the two younger girls went to Juval High School in Armadale. There,
Niam's creative side absolutely shone through. Anne remembers M's dogger
(14:00):
determination as a student.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
So as well as being creative, she was also well organized,
you know, you have an image of creative people often
being that they're utterly chaotic, and she wasn't. She was
highly organized. She was almost obsessive about things being precise.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Neam had a keen aptitude for writing and loved English.
It was in these classes that her talent really stood out.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
When she was in high school she decided that she
liked writing. She wrote when she was in primary school too,
they all did. She then produced a short story that
her teachers liked, so she's actually had it published in
an anthology of a whole lot of school kids that
(14:49):
was excellent. And then when she got to high school,
in particular, she did extension English as she got up
into the higher level to high school, and then she
wanted to do photography, and Neve had been very canny
about doing that because she was interested in creative things
(15:13):
and productive things and merging that with her English extension.
So she taught herself in the final years of high
school and used it then as part of her English
with them photos and filming, and she then made a
film wrote it. He didn't have any money, so she
(15:36):
went and begged volunteers. A couple of young chaps from
University of Macquarie. At Macquarie, I think had some camera
gear so that they could borrow. And then she'd advertised
for an actress and she only had one person in it.
(15:58):
So this girl came forward and Volune and they sort
of cobbled together a film which she submitted as part
of Righteous.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
By this time all the older siblings had moved out
of home to study your work. The bustling may house
became quieter, and Neiam and Fanulla, by themselves for the
first time, became very close. They went to parties together
and even worked together at the local pizza shop. This
(16:29):
used to annoy Fanulla because Niam was the better worker
and always one employee of the month. Everyone at the
pizza shop loved her. She was funky and a bit alternative.
Niam also had a cool taste in music. She loved
the Stone Roses, Radiohead, Back Counting Crows, and System of
(16:51):
a Down, to name a few. She also went through
a teen goth stage, which raised some my brows in
their country town. Niam dyed her hair blue and wore
a thick blue eyeshadow to go with her goth clothing.
Vanila remembers Naam always trying to be different and stand
out from the crowd.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
She liked to be a little bit different but unique.
Mum had a sary that she bought when so Mum
traveled around in the sixties all over the world and
bought a sari when she was must have mean from India,
I assume so Niam wore for her uten formal. She
just I think wanted to be a little bit unique.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Each time she did something out of the ordinary. None
of the Maize were surprised, nor did they care. Well,
that's a name for you, they said. Niam's dad, Brian,
saw in Neam a determination to succeed in life and
to try as many new things as she could.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
She actually was a qualified open water scuba diver, and
she also I think would be fair to say he
used to read a lot, and she was a very
good writer. He did some impressive writer and through into
senior high school. I think she enjoyed a challenge. She
used to set herself a challenge and work towards it,
whether it came to be physically in sporting wise, or
(18:12):
whether it was academic or intellectual activity.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Niam's dad could also see his daughter looking beyond their
little town of Armadale and doubt into the world. She'll
be a traveler.
Speaker 8 (18:25):
He thought she had an interest in people who were different,
and she did have a trip to France at one stage,
to the end of year ten, she traveled and had
the school holiday Christmas holiday trip in Paris.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Banula remembers this trip to Paris as well. Neiam was
fluent in French and manage to outshine her brother who'd
been there for longer than she had.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
She went to France on exchange. That's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
She spoke fluent French, so in addition to being smart
enough with everything else, she also spoke fluent French. So
she went on exchange to France at the end of
year eleven over the winter there. Our brother Kieran was
living in Paris for work, and he said he just
remember being really embarrassed because he's been living there for
months and I can't remember. He went somewhere with us
(19:10):
and was trying to order something or whatever and they
didn't understand him, and she was just like blah blah,
blah blah, just rattled it off and they're like, oh,
almost such as a native French speaker, like here you go,
have whatever it is you want and he just stood
there going smart ass.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Not only was she smart, Niam developed empathy for others.
She used her developing voice to stand up for others
who couldn't speak out for themselves.
Speaker 8 (19:35):
She was a great stickler for social justice people. You know,
she didn't think people were behaving fairly. She would say so.
She had a sense of fairness and she had a
sense of doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Niam's sister for Nola, saw her growing passion for social justice.
It takes courage to speak against unfairness, especially when you
take the side of the underdog.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
She was very like a real passionate social advocate, quite outspoken,
and you know, stood up for people hated injustice, and
I think that's sort of in all of us. So
I think she was maybe fifteen when she wrote a
letter to the local paper because there were a few
articles about local residents opposing a brothel in the town
(20:27):
or it was, I think it was close to a
residential area and they were opposing it and saying it
should be in a commercial area, or.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
It shouldn't be there at all.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
And she just wrote a really well written, eloquent letter
basically saying it's the oldest profession in the world and
they need someway safe to work like everybody else. And
I think a lot of people were a bit shocked
by her age and her outspokenness on the matter, whereas
I just didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
And sometimes the fight got closer to home.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
She may have also been politely requested to leave a
job that she had at a local club after very
firmly telling some old patrons that were sitting at the
end of the bar who were speaking quite loudly, really
like basically just being really racist. And she was just like, no,
we don't stand for that here. And then the boss
was like, oh, they've been coming here for years and
(21:15):
they're really old.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Leave them alone. And she's like, okay, whatever, I don't
want to work with you.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
We will be back after a short break.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
A cast recommends Ishigau tudy tea and just call me Audrey.
And if you haven't already caught our show, The Receipts Podcast,
then where have you been for the last nine years?
You've missed episodes with guests like Regina King, Louis Tavou, Melby,
Alicia Dixon, and Katherine Ryan's name only a few plus
thousands of juicy dilemmas sent in from our very own listeners.
Speaker 9 (21:47):
And unfiltered chat from us.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
But don't panic. You can catch our backlog and fresh
episodes every Wednesdays on your favorite podcast app.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
A cast is home to the world's best podcast including
Red Room, catch Up with Louise McSharry, and when You're
Listening to Right Now.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
So to her family, Niam was fearless, outspoken and very clever.
What was she like to her peers? Niam's childhood friend
Jass describes her as a humanitarian and a leader.
Speaker 9 (22:25):
Niam and I went to We met in kindergarten and
we went from kindergarten all the way up to year
twelve together and we were in the same friendship group,
just like a little close bunch of friends. There was
like seven of us that were very close and we're
all still close. And Niam was very academic and she
(22:50):
was a leader. She's very influential, had a lot of
humanitarian traits from a young age, always stick up for
the underdog and or you know what she believed in.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
As a student on a school outing, Niam spoke her
mind to Midnight Oil frontman turned politician Peter Garrett.
Speaker 9 (23:15):
We once went to the university to see Peter Garrett
speak when he was the Environmental Minister, and we were
I think we were in year eleven or year twelve,
and you know, we all sunk back in our seats
when she stood up and Mike gave him a big
serving about her thoughts on his position and what it
was doing.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Neiam completed her high school certificate in two thousand and
one and scored in the top five percent of the state.
She applied to study at the University of Technology in
Sydney and was accepted to study film. Niam decided to
take a gap year in two thousand and two, save
up a bit of money and go to university the
(23:57):
year after. It was a decision that changed the lives
of the May family forever. Neam heard through friends about
fruit picking. It sounded like a perfect opportunity to save
a bit of cash, see Australia and spend some time
outdoors for Neam, and also meant she could set off
(24:19):
on adventures and test her independence. Her friend Jess had
a similar idea.
Speaker 9 (24:26):
And she planned to go to UTS in Sydney to
study film and I was going to do music in Brisbane.
We decided to go on some kind of road trick
around Australia, so you know, like take a year off
and just leave home and go on an adventure. It
(24:48):
wasn't well planned out at all, but I think it
was just exciting, you know, the prospect of finishing school
and having a year off before going into any kind
of other studies. And three of our other friends had
been fruit picking and they had taken a trip previously
(25:11):
to this particular area that we went.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
It's easy to see why this idea would have appealed
to Naam. Taking a gap year between school and university
gives teenagers a sense of freedom that's unlikely ever to
be duplicated. A whole year stretching ahead with no timetables,
no particular places to be, not a care in the world.
(25:36):
It feels like forever is lying just in front of you.
And for the young and idealistic, it's a time to
test yourself and to find out who you really are.
Perhaps it is natural that prospective fruit pickers head to Batlow,
famed for its apples. That's a small character filled town
(25:56):
dotted with apple orchids that produce enough to suppor like
ten percent of Australia's apples. Niam arrived in Butlow at
the end of January two thousand and two, fully intent
on fruit picking and living the fruit pickers lifestyle, but
it would prove a false start. She only got a
(26:17):
couple of days of work before unseasonal summer rains canceled
most of the picking. In a few weeks, Niam was
back home with not much more to show for her
travels than photos of her on the job war wounds,
mainly bruises from fruit toads and ladders. Undaunted by the
(26:38):
first trip, Niim couldn't wait to return to Butlow when
the weather settled. She had only been home for four
days when she and her dad went shopping to buy
some camping gear for her next trip. She talked over
her plans with Brian.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
I can recall when she came home the first time,
when she said she wanted to go apple picking in Battleo.
I asked her why she would want to do that
sort of work. I grew up myself on a banana
and tomato farm, pineapples and other tropical fruit, so I
knew what was involved in laboring in the fields. And
(27:15):
I said, you know, it's a hard job. And she said, well,
I'd just like to try and see how I go.
And we talked through some of the plans that she
had for how she was going to support herself, how
she's going to organize herself, and she would take a
hikers tentant camp. She had a tent that was big
(27:37):
enough for her and her possessions. And I said to her, now,
how are you going to afford this tent? And she
told me which one it was, and it cost I
think one hundred dollars or something, and her response was, well,
I was hoping you might help me out. Whereupon I
agreed and we went and had checked out the tent
(27:58):
because we used to take the family camping quite a
bit when they were all young, so she was familiar
with camping, she was familiar with traveling.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Niam's mum, Anne, tried to make her daughter aware of
the difficulties she might face on her fruit picking year.
It might not be as rosy as she thought, but
Niam was not to be discouraged. Her friend Jas remembers
how excited Niam was to go back to fruit picking
after her brief stand.
Speaker 9 (28:29):
And then she came back and she was really excited
and she said, let's go fruit picking. You know, it
was summertime. I just turned eighteen, and she said, you know,
stuff this like no, I think we both had like
cafe jobs or something, and you know, she was like,
let's you know, let's let's go out into the bush.
Let's go and pick fruit. We can get fit, we
(28:50):
can be healthy. You know, we can go on an
adventure and we can make some money. We can buy
a car and we can drive to Brisbane and we'll
go on and you know, we'll visit some friends who
had already started unis. And that's how the idea came.
So her and I decided to go. We booked a
(29:11):
train ticket from Armordale to Sydney and we were going
to stay with her sister Fanula for one night and
then we would carry on to this place called Battlo.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Jess put her trust in Niam's planning skills.
Speaker 9 (29:30):
Neam had always been quite fastidious with details and organizational skills,
like for my whole life. She was the person that
would you know, she was known as a good organizer.
So I kind of just booked this train ticket and
thought that she knew what we were doing and where
we were going and how it was working, how it's
(29:53):
going to work, and there was you know, there was
a lot of trust that we would just be taken
care of. We were going to somehow we would get
to Battleo train and bus and then we would go
to this camping ground and you know, we just supposedly
if we just went to the caravan park and pitched
a tent, you know, the owners would put us in
(30:15):
touch with some people that we could go and work for.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Niam's mum, Anne remembers the level of planning for the
second trip. The first failed mission had given name inside
into what she would need, and she set about organizing
what she would take with her.
Speaker 6 (30:35):
She knew she'd have to have shirts with long sleeves,
so she hit Venni's and the Salvos and places like
that and got long sloved shirts that she could wear
fru it picking. And she didn't take anything that was
peripheral or extra. Took no jewelry except for one tickie
on a thong that she wore around her neck, which
(30:57):
had been a gift from her godmother, and she had
her camera giyear with her. She also, when she'd gone
down earlier in the year, she came home, indexed all
her photos, labeled them, dated them. She had been saving
and putting aside things for when she needed to be
(31:19):
at UNI.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Well, Nam was back home, she spoke to another friend, Lisa.
She convinced her to go to Batlo as well.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
So when she finished school, I knew she had plans
to go and study in Sydney and live with Nula,
and she was planning to go to film school. She
really and which actually initially surprised me because she excelled
so much in so many other areas. But there was
this creative streak to her that I think she wanted
(31:54):
to tell stories and yeah, and it was a passion
that she had. At the end of year twelve, see,
I left school a little before the others and I
went and started working, and so I was a little
bit disconnected from Neam and probably my other friends for
a little while. And then, funnily enough, when she was
(32:15):
in she'd been in bat Low and she came home
and she called me and I spoke to her and
she was like, oh, yeah, I've been down there. We're
making money and it's you know, she was telling me
about things that were happening down there. And I said, oh,
I'm kind of looking for work, and she's like, oh,
you should come down.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
It's really easy.
Speaker 7 (32:32):
Anyone can get work. So I was like, oh, okay, yeah,
all right, I'm I'll come down. I'll come and do
a couple of weeks. And I saw her briefly. She said, yeah,
I'm just picking up some stuff and heading back down.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Lisa decided she would travel by car with her boyfriend
and join Neam in but Low, and then there was
a last minute addition to their fruit picking on taraj.
Neiam's friend Jess explains how Brody entered the picture. Brody
was young than the other girls, but she had also
left school.
Speaker 9 (33:04):
The day before we were going to leave. We were
walking through the mall. We come from a small town,
so we're just walking through town and this younger girl
that we knew by association, you know, friends of friends,
she was hanging out and we approached her and asked
(33:27):
her what she was doing, and we were pretty excited.
We were like, you know, it's summertime, it's February. We
don't have to go to school. You know, we're going
to go fruit picking and make some money, buy a car,
go on a road trip. So Brodie was younger than us,
So I would have been eighteen and I reckon Brody
would have been fifteen, I'm not sure. And we were like,
(33:49):
come through picking if you're not going to go to school,
and so Brody decided to come with us, and she
went and booked a train to kids.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Brody and Neam had hit it off right from the start,
even though Brody was young girl.
Speaker 10 (34:07):
I don't remember the first time we actually met. I
just know that we kind of met through our group
of friends. Like I was a fire tweller and I
was in a group and me and Jess would go
fire tweling with them a lot. And I think Jess
and Neam went to high school together, so I probably
met Neim through Jess. And yeah, we just would be
(34:30):
at parties together, and I just remember we there was
one party in particular where we started hanging out.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
I already knew her, but we hung out a lot more.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Brody's favorite story of Neam reminds me of the saying
dance like no one is watching.
Speaker 10 (34:46):
She really was into like system of Down at the time,
and yeah, the Toxicity album and I just remember catching
her one time listening to it and she was like
just dancing for really funny. Really it was really awkward,
but it was really really cute and she was like
just having fun by herself and I was like, oh,
(35:08):
I love that album and then she was like, oh
my god, shocked that I saw her. And I think
that's probably my favorite kind of memory of her.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
When Naam and Jess suggested she'd come fruit picking with them,
Brody cleared it with her mom and left.
Speaker 10 (35:25):
The next day, I was at Taife and I had
took a lunch break and I walked up town and
I bumped into Jess and she was like, oh, me
and Niama going to go fruit picking, like you should come,
and I was like okay, like I'll come, and I yeah,
ran back down to see my mom because she was
also doing tafe with me at the same time, and yeah,
I got some money off her and we pretty much
(35:46):
left the very next day, so it was really spur
of the moment.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
On Valentine's Day, Thursday, the fourteenth of February two thousand
and two, Niam, Jess, and Brody left Armadale. They planned
to stay with Fanla in Sydney for the night, where
she was studying and working before heading south to Batlow.
Brian remembers saying goodbye to his youngest daughter, So.
Speaker 8 (36:14):
Off she went. And the last thing, she was hopping
into the car out here, just out in front of
the garage, about to go off to catch the train
with the friends. And I was standing at the top
of the steps, and she dashed over and gave me
a big hug and hopped in the car with Anna,
and off she went.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Jess also remembers when it came time to say goodbye
to their families as they took the train to Sydney.
From the moment the three girls hopped on the train
that morning, an uneasy feeling began to bury itself in
the pit of her stomach. It would stay there and
grow as time went on.
Speaker 9 (36:55):
And the next day we went to the train station
and we got on the train and I sat on
the left side, and Niam and Brody sat together on
the right side, and my mom stood outside on the
platform and she like waved a white handkerchief, and I
was like, oh my god, she's so embarrassed, and you know,
(37:18):
there were tears running down her eyes. And I remember
Neiam's mum standing there too, looking very stern. And concerned,
you know, just very serious. And I noticed that Brody
and Neim were just getting along really well, and I
had a really funny feeling and I didn't like it,
and I didn't like how well they were getting along
(37:38):
with each other. Kind of probably made me feel jealous
because I was like, oh, you know, they're getting along
a lot better than I am. This is weird. Maybe
we shouldn't have Brody coming with us because she's only fifteen.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Vanorla remembers Neam and her friends arriving at her place
in Sydney. They had a great time together.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
And then fourteenth of February, she came back to Sydney
with Jess and another girl, Brody, from Armadale. They came
to Sydney and she came into the city and met me,
and I was I just finished work, so we went
out for a couple of drinks with our brother Kieren,
and then peted home. I was living with two flat
mates in Chatswood in a musty, old mankey sharehouse, and yeah,
(38:22):
they crashed on our bloundry floor and we just hung out.
But yeah, then the next morning she headed off and
I just remember them like heading off and waving and
me being like, b careful, call me, all that sort
of stuff, and I remember for a fleeting second thinking, oh,
I should give them my phone because I had a
mobile phone at that stage and she didn't, and I
remember thinking I should give her my phone, and then
I was like, oh, but you know, like they were
already heading off and it's you know, a hassle to
(38:45):
sort out the bills or replacements and all that sort
of stuff, so I didn't. I mean, I've got a
lot of small regrets, and that's one of them. Realistically,
there was no reception down there anyway, so I don't
think would have made much difference.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
The train trip to Butlow perhaps set the scene for
what was the follow The plan was for the girls
to catch the seven to fifteen am train from Sydney
to Kudamundra and from there catch a Country Link bus
to blow They missed the train from Sydney and had
to wait around for a later one. Jess explains, and
(39:22):
that was a really weird thing that we missed the train,
because we would never miss a train.
Speaker 9 (39:30):
And I remember it was like the world was trying
to stop it from the very start, and when like
I remember me and being really stressed out and getting
so cross and angry that we'd missed the train, and
I thought, this is so unlike her.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
But when you miss a train, eventually another one follows
and the girls were able to hop on board. Unlike Jess,
who felt a strange foreboding about the trip. They're young
go traveling companion Brody did not the.
Speaker 10 (40:03):
Train trip from Sydney to Kudamundra me and then we're
having lots of fun and chatting to strangers. We turned
our chair around to talk to these people that were there,
and we had a few drinks and we were just
having a good time. It was an adventure. I didn't
feel nervous particularly. I always wanted to get away from Armadale.
(40:24):
I was always leaving, running away. Yeah, so it was
just another adventure really.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
But for Jess, the further from home they got, the
more her uneasiness grew.
Speaker 9 (40:39):
We got on this train from Sydney to Kudamundra and
when we got on the train, it was nearing nighttime
and Neam and Brody were sitting together on the left
hand side seat in front of me, and this group
(41:00):
of men were sitting on the right hand side and
they were all drinking, and it made me feel nervous,
and so I pretended to go to sleep, and then
I fell asleep because I knew that Brody and Liam
were like, yeah, you know, let's drink with these guys.
And I don't know if they did drink with these guys.
They were like a rough group of old men. And
(41:24):
then I fell asleep and I woke up and all
of the the small group of men that had been
drinking were now asleep and snoring.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Because they had missed their original train, there was no
CountryLink bus to take them to blow when they arrived
at the remote Kudamundra train station in the dead of
the night. As Jess sat on the train, she knew
they would have to find it their own way to Batlow,
which was one hundred and twenty kilometers away from Kudamundra.
(41:56):
Jess kept a diary on the trip, and this was
her tree about that train ride.
Speaker 9 (42:03):
There were revolting men on the train who I felt
really sorry for. Niam and Brody, I thought behaved. I
don't know how they behaved, but I was saddened and
I'm not impressed with the rude, obnoxious, drunk attitudes of
a group of people who were much older Jesus Christ.
This would be very funny to watch on a film.
(42:26):
At the beginning of the film, everything is so optimistic
and positive, but slowly after the train tracks, the mood
changes and it becomes uncomfortably evil.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Coming up on Missing Naan.
Speaker 10 (42:46):
Yeah, well, people would just come up to the tents
and be like, hey, and what are you doing? You know,
just there wasn't really a lot of privacy.
Speaker 9 (42:55):
And then one day the Blackhurst arrived. And when the
Blackhurst arrived, these two men got out and as soon
as I saw them, and I saw that Blackshess, I
thought their baddies stay away from them.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Thanks for listening. If you'd like to hear the rest
of Missing Naam, just search for it wherever you get
your podcasts. It's a Case File Presents production created by
the same team behind Case File, with the same high
standards you expect from us. I hope you enjoyed the series.
Speaker 11 (43:42):
Your child is bleeding, you take them to hospital. It's
the right thing to do, or is it.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
They started on barding us with questions saying, we don't
believe the story of the injury to our daughter.
Speaker 11 (43:56):
Imagine how you would feel if the whole weight of
the state had turned against you.
Speaker 9 (44:00):
If the system had worked, this would never have been prosecuted.
Speaker 11 (44:03):
Imagine how you would feel if ten years later your
name still hadn't been cleared. I'm Ruth Nager and this
is a Story of our Time from RTE Documentary on
One and RTE investigates First Conviction. Available on Artie Radio
Player and wherever you get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!