# New Information and the Rabbit Hole

An episode of [What Happened To…](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1812362613), 9 Aug 2026, 37 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/8c185e62-46f1-4292-81b7-b2d00059655d/d78899ed-20ec-430d-beb5-b49c003c4bf2/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=fcf80ea6-cd25-4daa-b194-b2d000596ad2

I didn’t ever think I would open up my laptop again and start writing another episode about Des, who disappeared 40 years ago. After we released episode 5 I was not hopeful anyone would come forward with new information. That was until Tuesday night the 4th of September when my phone pinged just before going to bed….. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Appodjay production.
[0:11] Speaker 2: I didn't ever think I would open up my laptop
[0:13] Speaker 2: again and start writing another episode about my uncle Dev's
[0:17] Speaker 2: on a road just south of Broome in northwestern Australia.
[0:22] Speaker 2: After we released the final episode, I was not hopeful
[0:25] Speaker 2: anything or anyone would come forward with new information about
[0:29] Speaker 2: my uncle's disappearance. My family was happy with the fact
[0:34] Speaker 2: we were able to get the story out and the
[0:36] Speaker 2: podcast had some success both here and overseas. We had
[0:41] Speaker 2: set up a website to help show some of the
[0:43] Speaker 2: details of his disappearance, and as part of that site
[0:47] Speaker 2: we had a simple contact us page. We had a
[0:51] Speaker 2: few hundred emails from people wishing us well, some gave
[0:54] Speaker 2: their own theories about what happened, and some just wanted
[0:58] Speaker 2: to say they enjoyed listening to the podcast. That was
[1:01] Speaker 2: until Tuesday night, the fourth of September, when my phone
[1:05] Speaker 2: pined just before going to bed. It was an email
[1:09] Speaker 2: from the contact us page and it read, Hi, I
[1:15] Speaker 2: knew Dead's in the seventies in Broom, where we both
[1:17] Speaker 2: worked on building sites before he moved to Derby. I
[1:21] Speaker 2: saw Dez in the evening of Saturday, the fourth of
[1:23] Speaker 2: August at the Broom Rodeo. He was very drunk and
[1:27] Speaker 2: I was with children, so I didn't speak with him.
[1:30] Speaker 2: He seemed to be with two couples aged in their twenties.
[1:33] Speaker 2: They looked like travelers, possibly European. I'll stop reading the
[1:39] Speaker 2: email from there, but it was sent by a man
[1:42] Speaker 2: called Peter Connolly. That man's name had never come up
[1:46] Speaker 2: in all my time researching what had happened to my uncle.
[1:49] Speaker 2: Des To say I didn't sleep the night I got
[1:53] Speaker 2: this email is a massive understatement. I had so many questions.
[1:58] Speaker 2: My head was spinning with theories, excitement, and a little
[2:03] Speaker 2: bit to worry. Worried this might be a very large
[2:07] Speaker 2: rabbit hole that I was about to dive back into
[2:10] Speaker 2: and still get no more answers than where we left
[2:13] Speaker 2: you in episode five. The main thing that went through
[2:19] Speaker 2: my mind was the actual time of my uncle's disappearance. Remember,
[2:26] Speaker 2: Dez was last seen at three pm on the second
[2:30] Speaker 2: of August by his road manager while working on his
[2:33] Speaker 2: road roller, and at four pm when they returned to
[2:37] Speaker 2: pick him up, he was no longer there. Luckily, Peter,
[2:41] Speaker 2: who had sent the email, had left his number, so
[2:45] Speaker 2: my next step was to give him a call. Hello, Peter,
[2:55] Speaker 2: it's appropriate to have a chat now. Yeah.
[2:58] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll just go and sit myself down inside. And
[3:02] Speaker 1: you're lucky because I've just come in out doing a
[3:05] Speaker 1: little bit of work this afternoon.
[3:08] Speaker 2: So where do you live in Broom?
[3:11] Speaker 1: Ye?
[3:12] Speaker 2: Peter is seventy one years old now and has been
[3:15] Speaker 2: living with the information he's about to give me for
[3:18] Speaker 2: forty years. I'm not the only person who's told this
[3:22] Speaker 2: story too, but we'll get to that later. The first
[3:25] Speaker 2: thing I wanted to know was why, after all these
[3:29] Speaker 2: years did he get in contact.
[3:31] Speaker 1: My daughter in law is a bit of a podcast freak,
[3:35] Speaker 1: and she started talking about the guy that went missing
[3:38] Speaker 1: him Room and I said to her, his name wasn't
[3:42] Speaker 1: Dez Was? He said yeah. I then downloaded the podcast myself.
[3:48] Speaker 1: I listened to it and I said, well, I've got
[3:50] Speaker 1: a bit of information I think I should tell somebody.
[3:53] Speaker 1: So that's basically where it comes from.
[3:56] Speaker 2: I wanted to get a bit of a backstory from
[3:58] Speaker 2: Peter on how he knew my uncle Daz, partly to
[4:01] Speaker 2: try and verify that he actually did know him, and
[4:04] Speaker 2: part lead to try and understand how they came to
[4:07] Speaker 2: meet and how often they'd see each other.
[4:10] Speaker 1: I met him in Broom. He was working for the
[4:13] Speaker 1: building company that I was working for. I was a
[4:17] Speaker 1: contract carpenter building the homes West houses here in Broome,
[4:22] Speaker 1: and Des was also working for the same company. He
[4:26] Speaker 1: was a vinyl four tiler at that the time, laying
[4:31] Speaker 1: the vinyl four tiles and the units that we were building.
[4:35] Speaker 1: And what year was that, very very early seventies.
[4:39] Speaker 2: And how long did you work together with him?
[4:41] Speaker 1: Probably a couple of years. So I did know him
[4:46] Speaker 1: reasonably well. He wasn't my best mate, Let's be honest
[4:49] Speaker 1: that he was the sort of guy that I worked with.
[4:52] Speaker 1: I walked into the pub and he was sitting at
[4:54] Speaker 1: the bar. I'd go and to have a beer with him.
[4:57] Speaker 1: We spoke to each other quite often, just a general mate.
[5:01] Speaker 2: Okay, So before the information you gave me via email,
[5:05] Speaker 2: when was the last time he saw Dez before that?
[5:08] Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been trying to think. I ran into him
[5:10] Speaker 1: in Broom again. This is after it moved to Derby
[5:15] Speaker 1: and I seen him up near the hospital walking down
[5:17] Speaker 1: the road one day and I stopped and talked to him. Now,
[5:20] Speaker 1: this I reckon. This was maybe towards the end of
[5:26] Speaker 1: the seventies, maybe seventy seven, seventy eight. I stopped my
[5:32] Speaker 1: car and had a good yarn with him. He seemed
[5:35] Speaker 1: quite good. I can't really remember if he said why
[5:39] Speaker 1: he was in Broom, but that's the last time that
[5:41] Speaker 1: I seen him at the time before I recognized him,
[5:45] Speaker 1: you know.
[5:47] Speaker 2: So let's go to that time that you emailed me about.
[5:51] Speaker 1: I'm sure it was a Saturday night because that's the
[5:53] Speaker 1: only time they have the radas on. I knew it
[5:57] Speaker 1: was the next Saturday night after Dez went missing. So
[6:03] Speaker 1: I kind of done a bit of research self, and
[6:05] Speaker 1: I found out that that was the fort.
[6:09] Speaker 2: So we're talking Saturday, the fourth of August nineteen seventy nine,
[6:14] Speaker 2: and so it was a rodeo in Brow in Broom. Yeah,
[6:18] Speaker 2: tell me what you saw.
[6:21] Speaker 1: Well, I was at the rodeo with my children. I
[6:26] Speaker 1: had one son of my own and three other children
[6:31] Speaker 1: that I was looking after time. So I was standing
[6:35] Speaker 1: there watching the rodeo. It's kind of an early evening,
[6:39] Speaker 1: I exactly eight o'clock something along those lines, and I
[6:45] Speaker 1: was standing kind of reasonably close, and I could see
[6:48] Speaker 1: the bar, and I looked up and I could see
[6:51] Speaker 1: Dais walking up to the bar. Now at this time,
[6:54] Speaker 1: I noticed that he was really, really quite drunk. You're
[6:58] Speaker 1: doing quite a bit of staggering. It looked like he
[7:02] Speaker 1: was talking to two couples of people, to the degree
[7:06] Speaker 1: that I thought he was actually with them. That I
[7:10] Speaker 1: didn't make contact because I was with my kids, and
[7:14] Speaker 1: I thought, the ms suffer are you're a bit too
[7:16] Speaker 1: drunk to talk to tonight? This? So I just let it go.
[7:20] Speaker 2: And so these people he was standing with by the bar,
[7:24] Speaker 2: who were they?
[7:25] Speaker 1: Do?
[7:25] Speaker 2: You know?
[7:25] Speaker 1: Well, look, they weren't local people from Broom. I knew
[7:29] Speaker 1: that that I'd never seen them before. They looked like
[7:34] Speaker 1: young European backpackers to me kind of saw in European,
[7:38] Speaker 1: maybe German, Swedish, something along these lines. That was just
[7:42] Speaker 1: the impression that I got, Like, like I said, there
[7:45] Speaker 1: seems to be with them. I couldn't hear what he
[7:48] Speaker 1: was saying, but I can see that he was talking
[7:51] Speaker 1: to them in general.
[7:53] Speaker 2: And you said it was a couple or a couple
[7:55] Speaker 2: of people?
[7:56] Speaker 1: Was two couples a girl or a guy and a
[7:59] Speaker 1: girl or the guy?
[8:00] Speaker 2: Okay? And did he look like they were friends or
[8:04] Speaker 2: friendly or.
[8:06] Speaker 1: I kind of got the impression that he was with them.
[8:15] Speaker 2: So to recap. Peter says he saw Dez a few
[8:20] Speaker 2: days after he went missing. He was talking with two
[8:24] Speaker 2: couples and he was drunk.
[8:27] Speaker 1: At that time. I didn't know that it was Dev
[8:29] Speaker 1: that was missing.
[8:31] Speaker 2: So when did you find that out?
[8:33] Speaker 1: It was early the next week, may have even been
[8:36] Speaker 1: on the Sunday. I can't quite remember if I heard
[8:42] Speaker 1: it on the news or somebody told me, but it
[8:45] Speaker 1: was early the next week that I heard that it
[8:47] Speaker 1: was Dez, and bang, all of a sudden, I said
[8:50] Speaker 1: to myself, well, I've seen him on Saturday night. I
[8:53] Speaker 1: was positive that it was him.
[8:55] Speaker 2: This new information has really blown me away to think
[8:59] Speaker 2: that this podcast about my uncle Dez, who's been missing
[9:02] Speaker 2: for forty years, was heard by some one's daughter in
[9:05] Speaker 2: law and in conversation she brings it up and her
[9:09] Speaker 2: father in law.
[9:09] Speaker 1: Says, his name wasn't Dev, was it?
[9:12] Speaker 2: That's my uncle Dez, the man we've been searching for
[9:16] Speaker 2: answers for for about forty years. Peter says he did
[9:20] Speaker 2: go to the police a few days after he found
[9:23] Speaker 2: out that Dez was missing to report what he saw.
[9:26] Speaker 1: At that time, I was a member of the local
[9:29] Speaker 1: show council here and so I just messed us to
[9:33] Speaker 1: kind of a liais with us quite often, so I
[9:36] Speaker 1: did know him on a personal basis. I discussed it
[9:40] Speaker 1: with him and said that i'd send him the rodeo.
[9:43] Speaker 1: And he asked me if I made verbal contact with him,
[9:46] Speaker 1: if I spoke to him, and I said I didn't,
[9:49] Speaker 1: and explain the reasons why it was because I had
[9:52] Speaker 1: the kids for me, and he said, well, look, it's
[9:55] Speaker 1: not a true terification of Dez and it was basically
[9:59] Speaker 1: left at that. Reflecting back on it again, now, I
[10:04] Speaker 1: didn't make a statement of any sort, he didn't take
[10:08] Speaker 1: any notes. I got a feeling that he might have
[10:11] Speaker 1: just passed it all forgotten about this on reflection, that's
[10:16] Speaker 1: what I kind of think, because he didn't write out
[10:20] Speaker 1: a description or anything.
[10:22] Speaker 2: Wow, this is amazing information, it really is, Peter, and
[10:27] Speaker 2: I know the family and me being as part of
[10:30] Speaker 2: the family, are grateful that you've come forward. How confident
[10:35] Speaker 2: are you that it was dead that you saw at
[10:37] Speaker 2: the rodeo that night?
[10:39] Speaker 1: Well, look, no one can be one hundred percent that
[10:42] Speaker 1: I'd say, you know ninety percent sure that it was dead.
[10:46] Speaker 1: Theirs was a fairly outstanding sort of a guy. He
[10:50] Speaker 1: wasn't the sort of guy that looks like anybody else,
[10:53] Speaker 1: you know. He he had a unique look about him,
[10:57] Speaker 1: and he was to me, he was very easy to recognize.
[11:01] Speaker 1: And for the length of time that I knew him
[11:04] Speaker 1: from the early seventies rugh It up to that point,
[11:07] Speaker 1: even when he moved to Derby, I did see him
[11:10] Speaker 1: from time to time, so I knew him over a
[11:14] Speaker 1: fairly long period of time. So look, you know, i'd
[11:18] Speaker 1: be ninety percent sure that it was dead. I was
[11:22] Speaker 1: shocked when I found out that he was the guy
[11:25] Speaker 1: that was setting from the main Rows.
[11:27] Speaker 2: I'm thinking, surely the police would have a record of
[11:31] Speaker 2: Peter reporting the sighting. You would hope so. But from
[11:35] Speaker 2: Peter's memory, it sounds like the copper on the day
[11:38] Speaker 2: was a little more relaxed than I was when I
[11:40] Speaker 2: heard the information. I've emailed the detective you've heard in
[11:45] Speaker 2: earlier episodes to chase up this information that will no
[11:49] Speaker 2: doubt form part of a future episode when we get it.
[11:54] Speaker 2: I recall him one of the many interviews I did
[11:56] Speaker 2: with my mum and my Auntie Joy that there was
[11:59] Speaker 2: a story that the Main Roads team actually didn't report
[12:02] Speaker 2: des missing until Monday, when he didn't turn up for work.
[12:07] Speaker 2: This was part of the Channel nine story around DES's disappearance.
[12:11] Speaker 1: Thinking he may have quit work early, the foreman didn't
[12:14] Speaker 1: raise the alarm until after the weekend.
[12:17] Speaker 2: They thought that he had just knocked off early and
[12:20] Speaker 2: maybe gone home to see family in Perth. No one
[12:23] Speaker 2: from Main Roads called the family until Monday, the sixth
[12:26] Speaker 2: of August nineteen seventy nine to ask if dev was
[12:29] Speaker 2: with them. It was at this stage the police report
[12:33] Speaker 2: was filed. August six was two days after Peter Connolly
[12:39] Speaker 2: says he saw Dez very drunk hanging out with a
[12:42] Speaker 2: few travelers at the Broom Rodeo. My family always thought
[12:47] Speaker 2: the crucial time was that hour between three pm and
[12:51] Speaker 2: four pm on the second of August, where Des was
[12:54] Speaker 2: last seen standing by his roller. Now he could have
[12:59] Speaker 2: gone missing any time after that point, potentially from a
[13:03] Speaker 2: different location. That now opens up a whole bunch of
[13:08] Speaker 2: new questions. This is what I was afraid of. Peter
[13:14] Speaker 2: had lived with this information for forty years and it
[13:18] Speaker 2: wasn't until this podcast that he had a way of
[13:21] Speaker 2: telling his story.
[13:23] Speaker 1: From time to time, I've seen something in the paper
[13:28] Speaker 1: and I've kind of thought about it. It's something that
[13:30] Speaker 1: hasn't left my mind. It's continuously been there. I often
[13:35] Speaker 1: wonder actually what happened to him? Yeah, Like there were
[13:39] Speaker 1: times that I thought, well, maybe I should dry and
[13:41] Speaker 1: contact the family. I didn't really know how to go
[13:44] Speaker 1: about that. I kind of thought, well, I've done all
[13:48] Speaker 1: I can by going to the place. But on reflection,
[13:52] Speaker 1: I really don't think they've done anything about it. There's
[13:55] Speaker 1: been a few friends that I've told over time, both
[13:58] Speaker 1: here and in Derby, but you know, no one seemed
[14:03] Speaker 1: to know anything.
[14:04] Speaker 2: I next told any of my family yet, because I
[14:06] Speaker 2: wanted to chat to you first, obvious leader, to make
[14:09] Speaker 2: sure that We've had lots of emails of different people.
[14:12] Speaker 2: This is the first piece of credible information that's come
[14:15] Speaker 2: through from the website. And so, Peter, you mentioned that
[14:19] Speaker 2: you'd be happy to talk to the police again.
[14:22] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll quite prepared to make an.
[14:26] Speaker 2: I want to tell my family, in particular my mum
[14:30] Speaker 2: and my auntie Joy. I know the family will hear
[14:34] Speaker 2: this podcast, so it's only right that I call them
[14:37] Speaker 2: and let them know what I've found out before it's released.
[14:41] Speaker 2: I'm also torn about recording the call to my auntie,
[14:45] Speaker 2: who is the first person I think I would tell.
[14:48] Speaker 2: Because I don't think Mum would handle it as well.
[14:52] Speaker 2: I decide I'll sleep on it.
[15:09] Speaker 3: Hello, honey, Joy, Oh yes, yeah it is how I Oh,
[15:14] Speaker 3: I'm good thing you?
[15:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, not too bad. Sorry I'm so late.
[15:19] Speaker 4: I'm just sitting here being lady.
[15:21] Speaker 2: Oh well yeah, that's a nice way to be.
[15:23] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[15:24] Speaker 3: We've got some more news, have you.
[15:26] Speaker 2: I don't know if you know this information. So when
[15:31] Speaker 2: we released the podcast, I set up a website and
[15:35] Speaker 2: we had a really simple contact us page there that
[15:39] Speaker 2: someone could send an email in or make contact with us.
[15:43] Speaker 2: I got an email only a little while ago from
[15:47] Speaker 2: a man called Peter Connolly. So, Peter Connolly believes that
[15:52] Speaker 2: he saw Dez at the Broom Rodeo on the Saturday
[16:00] Speaker 2: night after he was reported missing. Had you heard that before?
[16:05] Speaker 4: I hadn't.
[16:12] Speaker 2: When we left you in episode six, we had learned
[16:15] Speaker 2: some new information from a man who reached out to
[16:18] Speaker 2: us via the website we set up. His name was
[16:21] Speaker 2: Peter Connolly.
[16:22] Speaker 1: I was at the rodeo with my children. I had
[16:29] Speaker 1: one son of my own and three other children that
[16:32] Speaker 1: I was looking after time. So I was standing there
[16:36] Speaker 1: watching the rodeo. It's kind of an early evening, eight
[16:42] Speaker 1: o'clock something along those lines. And I was standing kind
[16:47] Speaker 1: of reasonably close and I could see the bar, and
[16:51] Speaker 1: I looked up and I could see Dais walking up
[16:53] Speaker 1: to the bar. Now at this time, I noticed that
[16:56] Speaker 1: he was really, really quite drunk. You're doing quite a
[17:00] Speaker 1: bit of staggering. It looked like he was talking to
[17:04] Speaker 1: two couple of people, to the degree that I thought
[17:08] Speaker 1: he was actually with them. That I didn't make contact
[17:12] Speaker 1: because I was with my kids, and I thought themself,
[17:16] Speaker 1: are you're a bit too drunk to talk to tonight?
[17:18] Speaker 4: This?
[17:19] Speaker 2: So I just let it go. And so these people
[17:22] Speaker 2: he was standing with by the bar, who were they?
[17:26] Speaker 1: Do? You know? Well, look, they weren't local people from Broom.
[17:29] Speaker 1: I knew that that I'd never seen them before. They
[17:34] Speaker 1: looked like young European backpackers to me, kind of Northern European,
[17:38] Speaker 1: maybe German, Swedish, something along these lines. That was just
[17:43] Speaker 1: the impression that I got. Like I said, there seemed
[17:46] Speaker 1: to be with them. I couldn't hear what he was saying,
[17:49] Speaker 1: but I can see that he was talking to them.
[17:52] Speaker 2: In general, my chat with Peter left many unanswered questions.
[17:56] Speaker 2: Some of these questions had no real way of moving
[17:59] Speaker 2: to a next step. For instance, Peter mentioned he saw
[18:03] Speaker 2: Dez hanging out with too Foreign at the Broome Rodeo
[18:07] Speaker 2: two nights after he was reported missing. It's going to
[18:10] Speaker 2: be nearly impossible to find any trace of those people.
[18:15] Speaker 2: Were they known to Dez before the night? And where
[18:18] Speaker 2: are they now? The other question I had was did
[18:23] Speaker 2: the police actually investigate this sighting of Dez at the
[18:26] Speaker 2: Broome Rodeo. From Peter's account of his visit to the
[18:30] Speaker 2: police station over forty years ago, he didn't feel like
[18:34] Speaker 2: they really did much with the information. Finally, did my
[18:39] Speaker 2: family and in particular DES's sisters, my Mum and my
[18:44] Speaker 2: Auntie Joy, have any idea of Peter Connolly's story? Had
[18:48] Speaker 2: this come up in over forty years of questions? Let's
[18:53] Speaker 2: pick up that call to my Auntie Joy from episode six.
[18:57] Speaker 1: We've got some more news, have you so?
[18:59] Speaker 2: Peter Connolly believes that he saw Dez at the Broom
[19:06] Speaker 2: Rodeo on the Saturday night after he was reported missing.
[19:13] Speaker 2: Had you heard that before? No?
[19:15] Speaker 1: Not.
[19:17] Speaker 2: The story goes to Peter Connolly is that he saw
[19:20] Speaker 2: Uncle Dez at the rodeo at about seven o'clock at night. Now,
[19:24] Speaker 2: Peter was with his kids at the time, and he
[19:27] Speaker 2: was going to go and talk to Dez from what
[19:31] Speaker 2: he says, but Des looked like he was pretty drunk. Oh,
[19:36] Speaker 2: so he didn't go and talk to him. I asked
[19:39] Speaker 2: him was he positive it was Uncle Dez, and he
[19:45] Speaker 2: said he was ninety percent sure that the man he
[19:49] Speaker 2: saw that night was Uncle DA's. Now, the other thing
[19:57] Speaker 2: that he said in the conversation I had with him
[20:00] Speaker 2: was that Uncle dev was standing with two couples and
[20:04] Speaker 2: the couple weren't from Broom. Because Peter obviously is a
[20:07] Speaker 2: Broom resident and knows most people there. These two couples
[20:11] Speaker 2: look like they were backpackers from either a European country. Oh,
[20:18] Speaker 2: and Das look like he was very friendly with them.
[20:21] Speaker 2: What are your first thoughts?
[20:24] Speaker 5: Unbelievable.
[20:29] Speaker 1: Yeah, then.
[20:31] Speaker 4: I really don't know Jason, to be honest.
[20:34] Speaker 2: The other thing that Peter Connolly said, because I asked him,
[20:38] Speaker 2: did he report it to the police, And he said
[20:42] Speaker 2: he went to the Broom police station and reported it
[20:45] Speaker 2: to an officer, an officer he knew at the time,
[20:49] Speaker 2: because obviously they're all mates up there. And he sort
[20:53] Speaker 2: of said that. The officer sort of went, oh, did
[20:56] Speaker 2: you talk to him? And Peter said, no, I didn't
[20:58] Speaker 2: talk to him because he was drunk. And then a
[21:02] Speaker 2: police officer said that, well, how can you be sure
[21:05] Speaker 2: it was him?
[21:07] Speaker 4: Yeah, See, that's the thing, you just there's so many
[21:09] Speaker 4: people look alike too.
[21:11] Speaker 1: But then.
[21:14] Speaker 2: So Peter said that he'd worked with him for a
[21:16] Speaker 2: couple of years. He worked together when they were building
[21:19] Speaker 2: homes west houses. Oh you and uncle Daz was a
[21:24] Speaker 2: vinyl floor layer.
[21:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, and that wasn't mentioned before.
[21:30] Speaker 2: Well, yeah, Peter says that he knew das well. He
[21:32] Speaker 2: knew him well enough to sit with him at apart
[21:35] Speaker 2: and have a beer. And he said Dez was also
[21:39] Speaker 2: and obviously we know this des was very He wasn't
[21:43] Speaker 2: the sort of person you could mistake for someone else
[21:46] Speaker 2: because he was quite distinct, wasn't he. Yeah, And so
[21:51] Speaker 2: then when he by the time he reached police, and
[21:54] Speaker 2: I can only go off what Peter said, were still
[21:56] Speaker 2: waiting to hear back from the from the detective. But
[22:00] Speaker 2: from what I understand, Peter has gone to the police
[22:05] Speaker 2: as sit as in you and from what he tells us,
[22:08] Speaker 2: the police didn't really follow that up.
[22:12] Speaker 4: Follow it up? That's bad.
[22:15] Speaker 1: No, it's.
[22:17] Speaker 4: I really don't know what to think about it. If
[22:20] Speaker 4: that was so, surely the good even with those backpackers
[22:25] Speaker 4: that he meant, Surely that somebody would have known something,
[22:30] Speaker 4: because Des didn't have all his Medicare cards and wallet
[22:35] Speaker 4: and everything. We're still in his rooms, that's right.
[22:38] Speaker 2: So if he was at the rodeo having a few drinks,
[22:43] Speaker 2: who was paying for them?
[22:44] Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, And to go to the rodeau he
[22:48] Speaker 4: probably had to have an entrance spee.
[22:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, correct. And so do you think Uncle Dev
[22:56] Speaker 2: would have been the sort of person that would just
[22:58] Speaker 2: hang out with random people?
[23:00] Speaker 4: I doubt it might have done. I mean, I couldn't
[23:04] Speaker 4: say much about that because I mean it's been said
[23:09] Speaker 4: that he was a loner, but he might have been
[23:11] Speaker 4: a loner but not alone sort of thing.
[23:14] Speaker 2: There's one question that's sort of a few people had
[23:17] Speaker 2: asked via the via the website, and now this new
[23:21] Speaker 2: information has come forward. Would he have just gone off
[23:27] Speaker 2: to not make contact with the family anymore?
[23:30] Speaker 3: Do you think I would say?
[23:32] Speaker 4: No, definitely not, because when he went up north, mum
[23:36] Speaker 4: was very sick at the time. Calvin was only a
[23:39] Speaker 4: baby then, And I've found a letter the other day
[23:43] Speaker 4: actually that Mum had written and said this and his
[23:47] Speaker 4: mate Colin had been in to see them, and he
[23:49] Speaker 4: promised he'd be back in a couple of months to
[23:52] Speaker 4: see Mum because she wasn't well. And I just can't
[23:56] Speaker 4: see him just not contacting, particularly Gwen, because Gwen and
[24:00] Speaker 4: DEA's were very close. You know, they had more in
[24:05] Speaker 4: common I suppose you might say, with the speedway and
[24:07] Speaker 4: things like that. So I just couldn't imagine he would
[24:11] Speaker 4: go off. I mean, I know that's being probably talking
[24:16] Speaker 4: from family. Yeah, Like I say, the growing up years
[24:22] Speaker 4: with Dares, I wasn't with him so much then. I
[24:27] Speaker 4: was living down here. All my information sort of thing
[24:30] Speaker 4: about Dares and Churl and when and that came by
[24:34] Speaker 4: Grandma and my letters, because even those days it wasn't
[24:38] Speaker 4: much phone call.
[24:40] Speaker 2: You can tell this was new information for my auntie.
[24:43] Speaker 2: And it doesn't seem like she had any idea of
[24:45] Speaker 2: this siding, which sort of makes me think maybe it
[24:49] Speaker 2: wasn't reported at all. If it was, surely my family
[24:53] Speaker 2: would know of the sighting. Forty years may have passed,
[24:57] Speaker 2: but this is not something you would easily forget. As
[25:02] Speaker 2: mentioned in the last episode, I'd send any to the
[25:05] Speaker 2: detective in charge of Missing Persons WA, Jude severright. Jude
[25:10] Speaker 2: had been very helpful up to this point in sharing
[25:13] Speaker 2: the actual official police records of what was reported around
[25:17] Speaker 2: my uncle's disappearance. In my numerous chats with Jude in
[25:21] Speaker 2: the podcast to date, the story of Peter Connolly and
[25:24] Speaker 2: what he says he reported to police was never mentioned.
[25:28] Speaker 2: In an effort to verify Peter's story and to see
[25:31] Speaker 2: if this was actually ever reported to police officially, I
[25:35] Speaker 2: got in touch with Jude.
[25:38] Speaker 3: Good morning, Missing Persons jud Super speaking.
[25:40] Speaker 2: Hi Jude, Jay, how are you going?
[25:42] Speaker 3: Hey, very well, thank you.
[25:43] Speaker 2: Would you mind just giving me what you received or
[25:46] Speaker 2: from the police report.
[25:48] Speaker 3: The police report comments that there was a phone call
[25:53] Speaker 3: received from.
[25:56] Speaker 2: Missus Moore sister, that's right, Gwen Moyer, who was Dez's
[26:02] Speaker 2: older sister.
[26:04] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right now. She apparently received some information from
[26:07] Speaker 3: another gentleman who had been speaking to Peter, who told
[26:13] Speaker 3: him about deciding at the Broom rodeo, and so that
[26:18] Speaker 3: was followed up by Broom police and the information was
[26:23] Speaker 3: that received that Peter had seen dead at the rodeo
[26:28] Speaker 3: in Broom on the eleventh of August, and apparently according
[26:32] Speaker 3: to the report, he was in the drunken state at
[26:34] Speaker 3: the time this particular person that Peter had seen, so
[26:40] Speaker 3: Brain police followed that up from the report and says
[26:43] Speaker 3: that Peter attended at the Broom police station where he
[26:47] Speaker 3: actually spoke to the police, and this was followed up
[26:52] Speaker 3: by one of the police aides who in fact I
[26:55] Speaker 3: believe went with Peter to the rodeo to have a
[26:59] Speaker 3: look and sort of see where he'd been seen at
[27:03] Speaker 3: this particular time. And from talking to Peter it seemed
[27:07] Speaker 3: to be the case that he wasn't entirely sure if
[27:09] Speaker 3: it was in facts. And also there was some information
[27:14] Speaker 3: that there was other workers there from main Roads out
[27:19] Speaker 3: the rodeo on this particular day. So the assumption was
[27:22] Speaker 3: that if Das had it been there, that he would
[27:26] Speaker 3: have been cited by his other co workers. So the
[27:30] Speaker 3: outcome was that more than likely the person that Peter
[27:34] Speaker 3: saw was not THEIRS.
[27:36] Speaker 2: I'm really thankful Peter came forward. His call was very genuine.
[27:40] Speaker 2: As a family member, any information we receive is helpful,
[27:43] Speaker 2: whether it leads somewhere or not. It's helpful to either
[27:47] Speaker 2: shut down possible theories or sometimes even to give us
[27:50] Speaker 2: some closure. I thought the best way to tackle this
[27:54] Speaker 2: new information from police was to give Peter another call.
[27:58] Speaker 2: Thanks so much for firstly for giving us the info
[28:01] Speaker 2: that you gave us. It actually was excellent for the family.
[28:05] Speaker 2: The family really really appreciated it.
[28:07] Speaker 1: And yeah, wrong.
[28:09] Speaker 2: We reached out to the police and the officer that
[28:13] Speaker 2: we've been dealing with that you might have heard in
[28:15] Speaker 2: the podcast, Jude, and she had some information that's a
[28:18] Speaker 2: bit contradictory to what you said. And I just want
[28:20] Speaker 2: to put this out there because we're just trying to
[28:22] Speaker 2: find out a get to the bottom. So in our conversation,
[28:26] Speaker 2: you believe the ninety sre that you saw Dez at
[28:30] Speaker 2: the rodeo on the Saturday after he went missing.
[28:35] Speaker 5: Yeah that's right.
[28:36] Speaker 2: You then went to the police and reported it to
[28:40] Speaker 2: a copper that you knew up at the Broom police station.
[28:43] Speaker 2: Is that right?
[28:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's right.
[28:45] Speaker 2: And he didn't really take much notice in your words, now.
[28:48] Speaker 5: I will like that's the feeling that I got. There
[28:51] Speaker 5: was no written statement or anything, Dagan, Okay, so just
[28:55] Speaker 5: a conversation.
[28:57] Speaker 2: So the contradictory information that we got was that Judea
[29:00] Speaker 2: has come back and said that a gentleman called Frank Bain.
[29:04] Speaker 2: Do you know that name?
[29:05] Speaker 4: No?
[29:06] Speaker 2: Okay, So Frank Bain was the foreman at the Main
[29:09] Speaker 2: Roads Department at the time. Police have on record that
[29:13] Speaker 2: they actually questioned you or us or basically interviewed you
[29:18] Speaker 2: at the time. Do you remember that happening.
[29:21] Speaker 1: No. I went to them, yep.
[29:25] Speaker 5: I went to the Broom police station and say, just Smith.
[29:30] Speaker 2: And that's all you recall.
[29:31] Speaker 5: So no one else interviewed me.
[29:34] Speaker 2: Okay, So I might just read you what I got
[29:36] Speaker 2: from the police officer and we can go from there,
[29:39] Speaker 2: because I in no way am I saying you're not
[29:42] Speaker 2: being truthful. Yeah, it is, and that's why it's you go,
[29:47] Speaker 2: what is going on here? Let me read you the
[29:49] Speaker 2: email that I got from jude Information was received on
[29:53] Speaker 2: the sixth of September nineteen seventy nine from Deser's sister,
[29:56] Speaker 2: Missus Moyer, that's my auntie, that she heard Frank Bain,
[30:00] Speaker 2: who was the Main Roads Department where des worked, that
[30:04] Speaker 2: Peter Connolly I thought he saw des Car at the
[30:07] Speaker 2: rodeo on the eleventh of August nineteen seventy nine, so
[30:10] Speaker 2: that was about a week later. Apparently des was drunk
[30:14] Speaker 2: at the time. Peter Connolly was questioned extensively by the
[30:17] Speaker 2: police at the Brooms Police station and further assisted by
[30:21] Speaker 2: attending the rodeo grounds with the police, where he showed
[30:24] Speaker 2: them the location where he thought he saw Dez.
[30:27] Speaker 1: Did you remember, No, I never will have happened.
[30:31] Speaker 5: I went to the police station and spoke with Sergeant
[30:36] Speaker 5: Keith Smith.
[30:37] Speaker 2: YEP.
[30:39] Speaker 5: I didn't go out to the rodeo grounds with anybody.
[30:45] Speaker 5: I didn't was the other guy's named Frank Baves.
[30:48] Speaker 2: Frank Bain, who worked at the Main Roads at the time.
[30:51] Speaker 5: I've never met him in my life, Okay.
[30:54] Speaker 2: So I'm going to try and get to the bottom
[30:55] Speaker 2: of that with the police officer. It is noted in
[30:59] Speaker 2: the police report that Connolly was not sure if it
[31:02] Speaker 2: was Dez, which you said you were ninety percent sure, sir. Also,
[31:06] Speaker 2: it was noted in the investigating police information provided at
[31:10] Speaker 2: the time that there were other Main Roads Department employees
[31:13] Speaker 2: present at the rodeo who were more than likely would
[31:16] Speaker 2: have recognized Dez if he was there. Oh, it's interesting,
[31:20] Speaker 2: isn't it.
[31:21] Speaker 1: So?
[31:21] Speaker 5: Yeah, it is, but I just don't know why to
[31:23] Speaker 5: put this other stuff in there.
[31:28] Speaker 2: And that's what's blown me away, because your many of
[31:32] Speaker 2: what happened and who you went to see was really clear,
[31:36] Speaker 2: Oh exactly, and it's clarity that you've had for forty years.
[31:41] Speaker 2: So either the police and I'm yet to talk to
[31:46] Speaker 2: the police, and I will in a moment. But either
[31:48] Speaker 2: the police have or whoever, I don't know who's written
[31:52] Speaker 2: that report, so I will find I will find that
[31:54] Speaker 2: out shortly. But you're one hundred percent sure that you
[31:58] Speaker 2: never went to the rodeo grounds.
[32:01] Speaker 1: With the police.
[32:02] Speaker 5: With the police, I definitely did not. Absolutely definitely did not.
[32:08] Speaker 2: And equally, are you one hundred percent sure that you
[32:10] Speaker 2: were never extensively questioned by the police.
[32:13] Speaker 1: No, definitely not.
[32:16] Speaker 5: Like I said, all I'd done was going to seeing
[32:19] Speaker 5: Keith Smith. We had a maybe a five minute conversation
[32:25] Speaker 5: and it was all over. I could tell that he
[32:28] Speaker 5: considered that my report wasn't conclusive.
[32:33] Speaker 2: This now makes it really confusing. Peter's saying one thing
[32:37] Speaker 2: and the police report is saying something totally different. Jude Severright,
[32:41] Speaker 2: the head of Missing Persons WA, said this when I
[32:44] Speaker 2: asked her why the difference between these two accounts.
[32:48] Speaker 3: Well, the only thing I can put that down to,
[32:50] Speaker 3: perhaps is the passage of time, since since the event happened,
[32:57] Speaker 3: I will assume that the information written by the police
[33:00] Speaker 3: on the police report was written at the time of
[33:03] Speaker 3: the investigation with Peter. So perhaps maybe the passage of
[33:07] Speaker 3: time's not correct or I don't know that's what's written
[33:12] Speaker 3: on the report, So it's hard for me to comment.
[33:15] Speaker 3: Got no reason to say that he's not telling the
[33:16] Speaker 3: truth with this detail.
[33:18] Speaker 2: Now that you've got around Peter being one hundred percent
[33:22] Speaker 2: sure that he never went to the rodeo and that
[33:25] Speaker 2: he was never questioned extensively by police, is that enough
[33:30] Speaker 2: to have a conversation with him again?
[33:32] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I've got no issues with having chat with
[33:35] Speaker 3: Peter for sure.
[33:37] Speaker 2: And then from there, I guess it becomes up to
[33:40] Speaker 2: you on what the next steps are. Yeah, we'll have
[33:44] Speaker 2: a chat and.
[33:47] Speaker 3: We'll see what information he's got to give. Who's the
[33:51] Speaker 3: police officer that he spoke to.
[33:53] Speaker 2: I think it was Smith, the police officer's name on
[33:58] Speaker 2: the reporter. Are you able to tell me who that was?
[33:59] Speaker 2: That the same police officer or different?
[34:02] Speaker 3: Different to that?
[34:03] Speaker 2: And he was at Bruin Police This was made it
[34:05] Speaker 2: for a police station. Yeah, so the report name's a
[34:10] Speaker 2: different officer to the one Peter says he spoke with. Also,
[34:15] Speaker 2: Peter said he was at the rodeo on August four.
[34:17] Speaker 2: Police say it was on August eleven. It's been hard
[34:22] Speaker 2: to verify the actual date of the rodeo. The Broom
[34:25] Speaker 2: Rodeo ground has no record before the late eighties. We're
[34:29] Speaker 2: now searching old newspapers to try and establish what date
[34:32] Speaker 2: it was actually on in nineteen seventy nine. I'm hoping
[34:36] Speaker 2: Jude and Peter get to talk and clear up what
[34:38] Speaker 2: seems to be a pretty large discrepancy in what's a
[34:42] Speaker 2: very important piece of information. Is them more to this story?
[34:47] Speaker 2: Is it memory laps or something else. My auntie Gwen's
[34:54] Speaker 2: daughter Michelle, has been reaching out to some of the
[34:57] Speaker 2: family and friends who may be able to verify some
[35:00] Speaker 2: of the different information we've been receiving. Recently, she posts
[35:05] Speaker 2: on a Facebook group for the Derby Noticeboard. Derby isn't
[35:09] Speaker 2: far from where Des went missing and also where he
[35:12] Speaker 2: lived for a while. There have been loads of comments
[35:15] Speaker 2: on Facebook with people tagging friends and family members who
[35:19] Speaker 2: worked at THANGU around this time. Lots of names have
[35:22] Speaker 2: come up, and we're following up with some of them.
[35:25] Speaker 2: Some are people who work with des. Some were at
[35:28] Speaker 2: the rodeo that same night. Did they maybe see him?
[35:32] Speaker 2: And can they verify what Peter says he saw. We
[35:36] Speaker 2: want to make sure that anything we put in the
[35:38] Speaker 2: podcast helps us get closer to some answers. We also
[35:42] Speaker 2: don't want to just throw out wild theories that do
[35:45] Speaker 2: nothing but confuse what is a very confusing situation for
[35:49] Speaker 2: our family. There is no clear path forward. It's really
[35:55] Speaker 2: like trying to find a needle in a haystack. However,
[36:00] Speaker 2: my family's been searching for answers for forty years, so
[36:04] Speaker 2: what's a little longer. We're working in real time now,
[36:09] Speaker 2: so we can't really predict what the next step of
[36:11] Speaker 2: the podcast is. Suffice to say, this doesn't feel like
[36:16] Speaker 2: the end. Thanks for listening to this episode and supporting
[36:27] Speaker 2: this story. Independent storytelling that shapes the world is what
[36:30] Speaker 2: podshape really cares about. Right now, there's thousands of people
[36:33] Speaker 2: listening to this show and our other True Crimes, and
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[36:45] Speaker 2: in the show notes, or head to podshape dot com
[36:48] Speaker 2: to book a free call.

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