A brutal crime shakes a small Australian community | Forensic Files

[Music] our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents if you feel at
anytime you need support please contact your local crisis center for suggested phone numbers for confidential support
please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website Chiara is attend in the Central West
region of New South Wales located about 300 kilometres west of Sydney and a hundred and ninety kilometers north of
Australia's capital Canberra prior to European settlement the area was occupied by Australia's indigenous
Wiradjuri people and in the early 1800s as Europeans began sprawling out from the coast province the area was labelled
unfit to settle so a military Depot was built instead it became known as a place
to pass through when gold was found West but when gold started being dug up in the surrounding hills the town of Cara
was built right on the banks of the Lockland River despite the verdict from early European settlers that car was
unfit to settle it became an area known for its rich agriculture the edge or cannery was built in 1943 where local
vegetables were canned and sent all over including to those serving in the Second
World War vineyards were later planted and by the 1980s Cairo was famous for its Chardonnay
grapes in 1987 Cairo was still a very small country town it was rich in history but had remained a small
community with less than 10,000 residents it was a town where everyone knew everyone and things that happened
took no time to be whispered across the bar at the pub or in the yard after church as far as violent crime goes
Keira wouldn't rank at the top of any lists it was best known for being the scene of the largest prisoner of war
breakout in modern history known as the Kara breakout during World War two Kara was the site
of a prisoner of war camp on August 5th 1944 Japanese prisoners attempted a mass
breakout by charging through machine-gun posts armed with only improvised weapons
locked wooden bats and sharpened mess-hall noise 231 Japanese soldiers and 4 Australian soldiers were killed
over 100 Japanese soldiers were wounded despite that wartime incident kara was in a place where the locals thought much
about violence or violent crime it wasn't something that was of great concern within the community of course
there was trouble every community had its fair share of that but it was very much a normal country town it wasn't
unusual for many houses in the 80s to leave their doors unlocked it was just the way it was safe people looked out
for one another but in the early hours of Wednesday April 15th 1987 the simple peaceful country town of Kara was faced
with a crime so violent and so shocking it would be forever changed [Music] Catherine Holmes also known as Catherine
Paula was born and raised in Cara after leaving school at 15 she moved away in search of work opportunities in other
parts of New South Wales during the last years of the 70s she lived and worked in
various places before returning to care when she was 21 back in Cara she settled into her old
life she was comfortable that it was familiar it wasn't long before she met and fell in love with a local abattoir
worker named Bruce Holmes and the two married in 1981 they moved to the New South Wales Central Coast north of
Sydney and had two daughters together after just a couple of years in 1983 their marriage broke down and Catherine
returned to Kara with their two daughters it was a sad breakup but the couple remained amicable for their
children and although Bruce remained on the Central Coast he visited his girls often Catherine and the girls moved into
a home on Jindo Lee circuit there was a housing commission home located in the northwestern part of town
Catherine worked two jobs to support her girls part-time of annoyed she worked as
a barmaid at the Lachlan Hotel in the southern part of town but her main day job was in a factory at edgehill's
cannery where she worked on the production line canning locally grown vegetables it was that edgehill's
factory where she met Georgina watt more georgina was also born and raised in Cara her father died when she was young
but she grew up in an exceptionally close family with her mum and brother like Catherine
Georgina also left school at age 15 she became a shop assistant for a few years before she too moved out of the small
town in search of other opportunities she settled south in Canberra where she worked various jobs for a few years but
just like Catherine she moved back home to the comfort of the small town Cara the town she knew well and where people
knew her Georgina wasn't married and didn't have children she lived alone in a unit on Brougham Street just a few
blocks south of the Lachlan Hotel upon who returned a carer she got a job at a jewels cannery and almost immediately
she and Catherine struck up a close friendship Catherine was four years older but they were firm friends and
looked out for each other they often socialize together in Georgina became very close to
Catherine's daughters so close in fact that Georgina would often work different shifts - Catherine at the factory so she
could babysit Catherines girls Catherine and Georgina were well-known and well-liked around here both were
described as bright and friendly there were good people and good friends on Tuesday April 14th 1987 Katherine's
girls were with their father Bruce on the Central Coast about a five hour drive away it was school holidays and
the upcoming weekend was Easter weekend so they were spending time away with their father
this gave Catherine the chance to work more shifts and also have some time for herself and relax a little that day
Catherine then aged 28 in Georgina age 24 both worked a shift at edgehill's cannery finishing up at 3:30 p.m. after
work they thought they'd unwind and have a few drinks so they visited a few of the local hotels in Kara Catherine first
returned home and got changed then went back out to meet Georgina they socialized with a few different people
throughout the evening seeing many people they knew about town about 7:00 p.m. they headed to the Lachlan Hotel on
Kendall Street this was the pub where Catherine worked a few nights a week the Lachlan was a busy lively main
street pub and Catherine was very popular amongst the patrons she knew pretty much everyone there and she and
Georgina socialized with a number of different people throughout the evening they were both happy and in really good
moods when the Lachlan hotel closed at midnight Catherine Georgina and for other people
they were with decided to go back to Catherine's place in June delay circuit and hang out and drink some more
georgina made a quick detour to her place on Broome Street she grabbed some clothes so she could stay over at
Catherine's and also grabbed a small amount of marijuana before heading to gently' circuit to join the others
gingerly circuit is on the outskirts of town catherine lived in a corner house on genderly and Victor Street with green
fields and grazing cattle close by Catherine and Georgina were joined at the house party by one other woman and
three men it wasn't a wild party by any stretch it was simply a small casual gathering of friends they shared a few
more drinks together before Catherine said she was done about 1:45 a.m. she had to work that day so she said
goodnight and went to bed leaving the others to finish up Georgina wanted to go to sleep too but
the others weren't quite ready to leave so instead of sleeping on the couch she went and jumped into Catherine's bed
with her leaving the for others to finish their drinks two of the remaining guests left shortly after about 2:30
a.m. and to the final two guests left some time closer to 3:20 a.m. they left out the back door leaving it unlocked
the back door was always unlocked so this was a no big deal at 3:30 a.m. one of Catherine's
neighbors was woken by the sound of a piercing scream this was followed by four or five further screams another
neighbor was also woken by a scream which he believed was followed by the sound of a motor vehicle starting up and
driving off from Jindo a circuit but he couldn't recall the time of the scream or the car a third neighbor also heard
screams but couldn't recall the time either the police won't call and nobody investigated the neighbors didn't think
too much of it at the time on the morning of Wednesday April 15th Catherine didn't report for her shift at
a JAL's cannery when her neighbor Robin Mulder came out of her house that morning and saw Catherine's car she
thought it was unusual she wasn't at work but Robin took it as an opportunity to catch up with Catherine for a cup of
tea into chat at 9:45 a.m. Robins husband walked over to Catherine's house to invite her over to their place as he
walked past the front bedroom window he heard what he described the strange noises he knocked and called out to
Catherine but there was no answer he returned home and he and Robin thought that although it seemed strange there
must have been an explanation but as the morning went on both Robin and her husband felt something was a little off
so by lunchtime when there was still no movement at Catherines house Robin went and got another neighbour
Lesley Marsh and they walked over to Catherine's together they called out at the front door but again no one answered
remembering her husband describing strange noises coming from the bedroom Robin decided to check there she heard
what she thought was snoring surprised Catherine was still asleep Robin called out again and tried to wake her up she
and Lesley then looked through the window for a moment both Robin and Lesley thought Catherine was playing a
joke on them it looked like there was blood everywhere but it didn't seem real so they
continued your call well and then panic set in they saw two blood-soaked bodies one
lying on the bed and one on the floor blood covered the bed the furniture and of the walls
Robin and Leslie immediately ran to the back door and straight inside the house the back door into the back fly screen
door were both wide open the screen door was actually propped open using the pneumatic door closer someone had
deliberately kept that door open what Robin and Leslie discovered in the main bedroom were the bodies of Catherine
homes in Georgina what more the noises that Robins husband had heard earlier that morning were coming from Georgina
she was struggling to hold on to life and to the gurgling noises were her fighting to breathe through all the
blood she was alive but barely catherine was dead they immediately called an ambulance in the police
Cara paramedics arrived and rushed Georgina to hospital but she was dead on arrival when police arrived at the house
a child's bike was lying in the driveway a crime scene was established and police
cordoned off the home putting up palings around the edge of the property to hold
up a barrier it keeps sightseers away the neighborhood had never seen anything like it
the crime scene was gruesome one of the first officers on the scene said it was a sight that would live in
his memory for a long time and even senior police officers commented that the crime scene was one of the most
gruesome they had ever encountered Catherine's house was placed under police guard for several days as the
crime scene examination was carried out they discovered partial fingerprints in the main bedroom there was no match on
the police system and no match to anyone in the house they may have belonged to the previous tenants well they may
belong to the killer whose prints weren't on record there was no way of knowing for sure the killer left a blood
trail in the victim's blood the blood trail led from the bedroom through the laundry yeah at the back door and
continued up to the front of the house where it ended at the road there was no sign of forced entry at all police
believed the killer may have been aware Catherine left her back door unlocked the theory being that the killer entered
through the unlocked door then propped open the screen door leaving both doors wide open to allow a quick escape
partial footprints were also located but they weren't caused by a shoe police believe after entering through the back
door the killer took off their shoes allowing them to creep up on the bedroom more quietly the signs were pointing to
a level of planning and premeditation but in the immediate aftermath of the murder there was no clue why anyone
would want Catherine and georgina dead the vicious attacks in the dead of the night in a quiet and safe town brought a
lot of media attention early reports said that they were hacked to death the severe head injuries thought to be
caused by a sharp heavy object with the early suggestion being that it could have been an axe so from the very first
day the crimes were referred to as the Kara axe murders but other reports also suggest that a meat cleaver a tomahawk
or a machete could also have caused the injuries but examinations showed otherwise due to the severity of the
blows the killer left indentations on the wooden bed frame showing that the weapon was likely a blunt hard solid
object like a tire iron not an axe they were bludgeoned to death the post-mortem examinations determined
that Katherine and Georgina died as a result of severe head injuries respiratory failure and blood loss
Katherine suffered lacerations to her forehead and scalp and defensive wounds to her hands
Georgina suffered severe lacerations to her mouth neck and dry side of her head and she had minor defensive wounds to
the back of her hands the level of violence inflicted on Katherine was far greater than on Georgina Katherine was
struck 15 times Georgina was struck five the wounds Katherine suffered were far more horrific it appeared she may have
been the main target local detectives from Kara and the nearby towns of Forbes and Young were joined in the
investigation by six detectives from the state's homicide squad a large-scale search was immediately put into action
their main goal was to try to find the murder weapon and any dumped clothing or other evidence from the killer officers
from the Tactical Response Group were called in to assist in the search and they checked every house and every yard
surrounding Katherine's they also went through drains and waterways and moved on to properties and paddocks in the
wider surrounding area police divers were called in to search the Lockland River and other nearby waterways and
dams the flow of Kara's entire water supply from the local Dam was actually stopped which lowered the water level in
the Lockland River to make the search easier but it proved fruitless police searched the grounds of a Jules cannery
where Kathryn and Georgina worked they also searched the local abattoir including employee lockers they searched
the local tip and other known dumping grounds but they found nothing Catherines ex-husband Bruce Holmes was
cleared he was at home on the Central Coast with their children the murder of Katherine came as a huge shock and Bruce
struggled to come to terms with it he said Kathy didn't seem like a person to make too many enemies I can't understand
it it's going to be hard for their children they were pretty fond of Georgina too
Bruce's mother filmer Holmes said Kathy could do no wrong by me she was a lovely
person if anybody knows any more about what has happened they should tell the police
detectives began focusing on the community a gas pipeline was under construction nearby and a large number
of workers from outside the area were employed there the criminal history of everyone working on the pipeline was
examined detectives were particularly interested in anyone with a history of violence towards women many of the
workers were from overseas and this meant police were faced with a hard task of tracking criminal histories from all
over the world with no immediate suspect or even a clear motive detectives had to
consider the possibility it could be the work of a serial killer who had possibly
struck in other areas kara lies at the intersection of three main highways it's a town many have to pass through and
stop at on the way to other destinations in western New South Wales or northern Victoria so looking at this was
important but again nothing came up every way they looked they seemed to come back to the feeling that the killer
was known to Katharine and Georgina likely known to their circle of friends and known to the local community
detectives got to work interviewing everyone they could fall it they went door to door and interviewed neighbors
where they learnt of the screams and the car heard driving off they tracked down
everyone who had been in the hotels drinking at the same time as Georgina and Kathryn the night of their deaths
those inquiries revealed it was a happy and carefree night there were no issues at all Georgina and Kathryn were in good
spirits and didn't have any run-ins with anyone their work colleagues and edgehill's
cannery were interviewed and police also searched employee lockers there but again no leads were found they
identified the four people who had gone back to Catherine's house for the party after closing time they were extensively
interviewed but all were eventually cleared of any involvement there were no issues in the house between anyone that
night there was a completely drama-free event everyone was in good spirits and having fun being a small country town
rumors started to fly around the local community about what happened there were even whispers that the small gathering
at Catherines place was actually an out-of-control wild party Georgina's brother David told The Sydney
Morning Herald newspaper quote we don't know what it's all about but they weren't wild girls and the night of the
killings they just had a few friends over for drinks after the pub Georgina was a good person and she had a lot of
good friends the talk of a wild party is nonsense David's comments were supported
by Catherine's neighbors a lot of them didn't hear anything but those that did described it as nothing more than a
small after pub gathering nothing wild or out-of-control were unusual at all within three weeks
detectives had interviewed over 500 people and as the investigation went on a few things did come up two friends of
Catherine's reported that they had been babysitting Catherine's daughters only a
few weeks prior to the murders they were at her house babysitting when they heard
someone into the house walk through Catherine's bedroom and then leave when Catherine came home the friends told her
what had happened Catherine told them she knew who it was but refused to elaborate any further then one of
Catherine's neighbors reported seeing a suspicious man wearing a cowboy hat sitting in the park across the road from
Catherine's house police made a media appeal for him to come forward but he was eventually
eliminated from the investigation one crucial witness who came forward was a 15 year old boy on April 14th the
afternoon before the murders he was walking home from school around 3:40 p.m. he was walking along Victor Street
which crosses genderly circuit he walked past Catherine's side gate and he saw her arguing with a male person in the
back yard he said he saw the male person strike Catherine across the face during
this argument the description from the boy was quite vague in the beginning so arrangements were made to place him
under hypnosis this resulted in more detail he described the man as 30 years of age Brianne too dark medium length
hair with a distinctive set of tattoos on his forearm he was driving a medium sized white 70's model four-door sedan a
car matching this description was also seen outside Catherine's house late one night in the week before the killings
detectives were able to identify a man who match this description who was known to Catherine he was interviewed but the
night he was involved in any sort of argument or dispute with Catherine he was released and remained on the list of
persons of interest despite the hours detectives worked around the clock conducting interviews and entering data
into a burrowed computer which had been delivered from Sydney they were unable to establish many leads and two there
was still no clear motive at all Detective Inspector Don Nicholson said we have no red-hot suspect at the moment
at this stage there is no apparent motive but we are looking into the woman's lifestyles to see if we can
establish anything there there is nothing to suggest there was someone from outside Cara
with the level of violence inflicted on Catherine considerably more severe than that on Georgina police believes that
killer may have only been targeting Catherine they felt that whoever was responsible may have gone to her house
knowing her two children were away on the Central Coast with their father for Easter there was no forced entry no
robbery no sexual assault and it was the middle of the night the killer appeared to have knowledge of
the premises it was a spur-of-the-moment decision by Georgina to stay over at Catherines so the killer likely wouldn't
have known she would be there the ferocity of the attack and the way it appeared to have been carried out in a
frenzy led detectives to believe that it was driven by rage it seemed full of emotion and anger
it was personal the killer wanted to inflict as much violence as possible on Catherine and it was possible that
Georgina was just in the wrong place at the wrong time the town was stunned kara had never
experienced anything like this before and people felt the immense loss of too much loved women
neither of whom had caused any trouble one young woman just really beginning her adult life and the other a single
mother working hard to support her two daughters the locals had a hard time even believing it was true no one could
make any sense of it kara became gripped with fear with no idea who the killer was some locals were scared the killer
would strike again people wondered if they would be next the community's reaction to the murders was the kind of
shut down people couldn't sleep and kids weren't allowed out of the house for the
first time in memory residents began locking their doors and everybody watched everybody closely the feeling in
town is best described by those who were there all of the following people spoke
to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper Noll Evans the stand-in publican had a lock on hotel this has rocked us and
we're still walking around stunned Kathy was a very popular person friendly to everyone she had no enemies an
unnamed patron in the Lachlan hotel it could be anyone in town I mean it could be anyone here it makes you think that
you're never safe anywhere cab driver Frank a girl everyone is just shocked and afraid I
knew both girls and you would never think it could happen Georgina used to come into a shop I used
to own all the time when she was younger she was a lovely girl people in the town are scared especially
the women with someone walking around who is capable of doing something like that an unnamed resident in a small town
like this that puts everyone on edge everyone knew them it's that sort of place people have
said one after the other if it happened in Sydney you could understand it but in
Kara people are just shocked that something so vicious happened I don't think that
there's a soul that thinks anyone from Kara did it but of course they could be wrong
there was another reason police for having trouble getting answers despite conducting a large amount of interviews
they felt they'll being hampered by an unwillingness to talk amongst the local community by now police believed there
was a good chance Georgina and Catherine knew their killer and in that small town
that meant that their circle of friends and other townspeople also knew the killer then assistant commissioner Ross
Nixon made the comment that people in the community could be protecting the killer someone knew something and they
were keeping it to themselves Detective Sergeant lemon he said I have a gut feeling at someone in town in fact the
murderer may have already been interviewed by police like in any country town people here
have grown up with each other and are afraid to put someone in it took a great deal of work but eventually police were
able to break down the barriers the local community were putting up it took weeks to gain their trust but things
started to change Detective Sergeant Lemmy explained quote when we first came to the town we had to bring people into
the station to talk to them it was real hard going but now people are starting to come to us people are coming into the
station and talking about the girls their personalities and people they know who are acting strange or who have
changed their behavior in any way it's all just little things trivia really like if a bloke that normally wears a
jacket or a cap he's not wearing it anymore he went on to say that a small piece of information like that could be
the breakthrough they were looking for the rumors around town didn't stop and the room is specifically aimed that the
characters of both women were hard to establish as fact there were rumors of infidelity 'z specifically speculation
that catherine was involved with married men into mending relationships this is something that was looked at especially
since there was the thought in investigators minds that this could be a revenge killing there was also talk of
drug use which led to whispers of drug supplier which led to rumors of a drug ripoff or a drug debt being the motive
for the murders but there was absolutely no evidence to support these claims and
of those inquiries led nowhere the first four months of 1987 was a record time for homicides in the state of New South
Wales catherine and Georgina's murders brought the total to 36 for the year 12 still remained unsolved and things only
got worse just days following the murders in Wagga Wagga about 200 kilometers south from Kara 18 year old
Sally Ann Jones was murdered after leaving a club in the early hours of the morning on Sunday April 19th she was
stabbed 20 times she was found after a jogger discovered drag marks and bloody boots leading into
a river the following Wednesday April 22nd Sheryl Hamburg was stabbed and strangled in Newcastle about 470
kilometers northeast of Cairo she was also found after a passerby discovered drag marks and bloodstains on
the edge of a creek for murders inside a week one two and a half hours south and
one six hours northeast with the murders occurring within such a short space of time it had some people questioning if
they were linked but after a thorough study of the crimes it was concluded that the murders of Sally Ann Jones and
Cheryl and Burchell were just too different to the killings of Kathryn and Georgina they had quite different mos
and it was quite some distance between the three crime scenes a police spokesperson said we cannot rule the
other link altogether but they appear to be very different detectives on the case interviewed over
1200 people as part of the investigation into the murders of Katherine and Georgina a number of persons of interest
were identified as a result of those interviews some were able to be eliminated from the investigation but
others couldn't be they searched the homes of people who are on their suspect list
and confiscated items for testing by blood analysis experts in some cases they even seized plumbing from people's
laundries looking for traces of blood despite the large scale and extensive investigation no arrests were ever made
and 30 people in total remained on the suspect list unable to be eliminated by detectives
when discussing the type of person who may have carried out the crimes the acting head of the Criminal
Investigation Branch detective Superintendent Ron Stevenson told the Canberra Times newspaper that the
murders were so horrific they would had to have had an effect on the personality
of the killer something would be off about them that would be noticed by family or friends quote the public would
notice the change of mood and behavior of a person whether they've not turned up for work or whether they become
morose there are people out there today who know who committed these murders no matter how hard the police work no
matter how clever we are without the assistance of the public we will fail [Music]
forensic expert dr. Godfrey O'Toole came from Sydney three weeks after the murders his job was to reexamine the
murder scene to see if he could conclude anything further from it after examining
the case and post-mortem results he said he couldn't rule out an enraged woman as
being responsible given the brutality of the murders many assumed the killer was
a man especially with names like the Kara axe murderer being printed in the papers but that wasn't necessarily the
case the motive and profile of the killer couldn't be clearly established Detective Sergeant lemme quote we just
don't know it could be a man it could be a female or it could be a jilted lover or it could be a workmate the Minister
for Police announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction for the murders the minister
also took the unusual step of saying the New South Wales governor might be advised to extend a free pardon to any
accomplice who didn't take part in the actual killing but this didn't have the desired effect and the investigation
eventually wound up the endless hours of interviewing and the countless experts brought in was not enough to catch the
killer whether hiding in plain sight or gone from Kara for good the killer was free
and the case grew cold a cranial inquest was held in August 1988 before coroner Jim Smith around 30 witnesses in total
gave evidence including the four people who attended the gathering at Catherine's house on the night of the
murders at the conclusion of the inquest the coroner believed that the killer must have been deeply and emotionally
involved with one or both of the victims and he dismissed the rumours that the murders were drug-related he stated that
he was satisfied there had been a total and complete investigation by police his
official finding was quote in Kara on April 15th 1987 each of the deceased had died from the effects of severe head
injuries inflicted on them by a person persons unknown in 2009 Detective Inspector John layman initiated a review
of the case in Strikeforce Alistair was formed detectives from the unsolved homicide squad conducted a thorough
review of the investigation they found that despite the case remaining unsolved it wasn't due to a lack of effort or
poor police work the investigation was extremely thorough and they were impressed with the work done in 1987 but
they now had new tools in new technology at their disposal they brought in the help of the New South Wales Police
behavioural science team who analyzed crime scene behaviour and the capabilities and likely characteristics
of the offender of the 30 people who are unable to be eliminated by the original
investigators strike force Alistair were able to narrow that list down to 12 but
they weren't attached to the idea that the killer had to be on that list it was just the case that those 12 people
couldn't be eliminated they were still keeping an open mind inspector John Lehman told the following
to justine forward in her book one piece of the puzzle quote there was a lot of talk around town that catherine holmes
had been having affairs with married men or men in relationships so the investigators had to look for any
jealous partners seeking revenge who could have been suspects we used psychologists and profilers to help us
work out what kind of person would do this it hasn't assisted us in finding the killer but the profile does fit in
with our current persons of interest someone who was motivated by jealousy or revenge
and there are a number of women on our list of suspects in 2010 the $50,000 reward was increased to $200,000 the
reward increased but the potential immunity for any accomplice was withdrawn this reward increase saw a
rise in the amount of information being called in to Crimestoppers family members of Katherine and Georgina
welcomed the new reward Georgina's brother David said there is someone out there who has information
about my sister's death unfortunately their conscience has not been enough to get them to contact police
I hope that this reward is enough to change their mind and to give my family and Catherine some answers as
to what happened that night detective singer constable Matt Peckham from the unsolved homicide squad said
the murder of Kathy homes in Georgina what more remains the subject of much speculation in your window and gossip
within the township of Kara contributing to the heartache and grief of the family
and friends of the girls we will continue to knock on doors speak to people pursue persons of interests and
lines of inquiry until this matter is resolved [Music] the 25 year anniversary in 2012 was used
for a renewed appeal for information it was revealed that original witnesses who
were interviewed back in 1987 had been really interviewed by the unsolved homicide squad resulting in them
identifying new people to speak to about the murders Detective Chief Inspector Lehman we're pretty confident being the
small community that Kiara is that somebody does know something we're committed to solving the case and we're
going to continue sometimes people's memories seem to be jogged by such anniversaries or milestones sometimes
there are people there that for whatever reason may not be willing to come forward and assist us previously we
never closed any unsolved homicide cases inspector Lehman confirmed the original
investigators belief that this was not a random attack and further difficulties faced by the original investigators were
also revealed one officer told the keratins newspaper quote police found in some cases when making inquiries about a
suspect information was being passed on to the suspect on a number of occasions people who gave information to police
about certain individuals for reasons best known to themselves would then tell the individual that they had been to the
police one of the most widely circulated rumors related to the victims being involved in the sale of drugs marking
the 27th anniversary of their deaths family members wrote a memorial to Katherine and Georgina two beautiful
angels were taken from us 27 years ago and it changed our lives forever but there's not a day that goes by that
we don't have our thoughts and memories of you both that time can never erase regarding the other two murders that
occurred within a week of Katherine's and Georgina's Kenneth berry cannon the jogger who found the drag marks and
bloody boots of sowing in Jones in Wagga Wagga was charged and convicted with her
murder a few years later confirming there was no link to Katherine and Georgina's case
the murder of Cheryl and virtually Newcastle still remains unsolved Detective Inspector Lehman in Justine
forward book one piece of the puzzle quote I think the key is to keep an open mind about it
to not draw conclusions or get trapped into thinking it's one person or one group but the very nature of the
environment we're talking about a small town where people know each other's business and there are rumors about
who's sleeping with who and their jealousies give us reason to believe that someone has knowledge of the crime
it is likely that someone from the town was responsible and we believe there are
people with knowledge who we still haven't heard from this case is definitely solvable but there just
seemed to have been a lot of difficulties part of the reason it has been so hard to solve is that we have
possible motives but not clear motives why were these two women motor victims ex-husbands were certainly not
responsible and there were no custody issues as is often the case so we have to keep asking
what made these two stand out as potential targets [Music]

Case 63: Catherine Holmes and Georgina Watmore

Cowra is a town in the central west region of New South Wales, located about 300 kilometres west of Sydney and 189 kilometres north of Australia’s capital, Canberra.

With less than ten thousand residents, it was a town where everyone knew everyone and things that happened took no time to be whispered across the bar at the pub or in the yard after church…

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Anonymous Host Production, scoring – Mike Migas Additional scoring – Andrew Joslyn

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Brief Summary

The episode details the unsolved 1987 murders of Catherine Holmes and Georgina Watt in Kara, New South Wales, exploring the investigation and community impact.

Key points

The Kara Breakout. The largest prisoner of war breakout in modern history occurred in Kara during WWII.
A Shocking Crime. On April 15, 1987, a violent crime shocked the peaceful town of Kara.
The Gruesome Discovery. Neighbors discover two blood-soaked bodies in Catherine's home, leading to panic.
Community Shock. The town of Kara was rocked by the brutal murders, leaving residents in fear.
Investigation Challenges. Despite extensive interviews and efforts, police struggled to find leads in the case.
Renewed Appeal for Information. On the 25th anniversary, police renewed their appeal for information, hoping to jog memories.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It would be forever changed.

Describing the impact of a violent crime on a peaceful town.

3:09WatchNov 20, 2018

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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