A Father’s Day tragedy: Was it murder or accident? | Forensic Files

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This episode involves a crime against children. It may not be suitable for all listeners.
In Australia, Father’s Day falls on the first Sunday of September. Every year in the state of Victoria, the Father's Day Council awards one
individual with the prestigious Father of the Year Award, a tradition held since 1956.
A long list of celebrity “top dads” have received this recognition, but in recent years, the Council has focused on ordinary dads with extraordinary stories.
In 2005, Doctor Rob Moodie was awarded Victoria’s Father of the Year. As the chief executive of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation,
Dr Moodie had an esteemed career in the public health sector. But for his two children,
Nick and Penny, it was his role as their father that truly defined him. Understanding that not
everyone is lucky enough to be raised by a loving father, Penny expressed her gratitude
to her dad and explained why he deserved the win, stating: “He’s always there when I need help.”
On Sunday September 4 2005, far more humble celebrations were underway at a home in the
port city of Geelong. Shane and his partner were introducing the newest member of their family
to their friends and relatives. The young couple had just become first-time parents,
with mother and baby released from hospital earlier that day. Shane had an extra special reason to celebrate the occasion - it was his first Father’s Day as a dad.
Late in the day, Shane and his friend, Tony, returned home to Winchelsea, a small township 113 kilometres from Melbourne. It was only a short visit,
as the pair organised someone to look after their dogs overnight. It was after 7PM when
they started the approximately-40 minute drive back to Geelong via the Princes Highway.
Prior to construction that expanded the number of lanes and added a grassy median strip, the roadway
on the outskirts of Winchelsea featured two undivided lanes - one travelling each way. Little
in the surrounding landscape has changed over the years, which in 2005 featured rural flatlands.
These were primarily large, fertile pastures dotted with trees and the odd shed or dam.
Shane drove towards a section of the highway that rose to a railway overpass, three kilometres out
of the Winchelsea town centre. Suddenly, the car in front swerved around something.
When Shane reached the same spot, a man leapt out from the darkness on the side of the road.
Shane’s brother had taken his own life months earlier. Suspecting the man was trying to do the same, Shane was compelled to pull over.
The man, who was soaking wet and waving his arms, ran up to Shane. He was short,
standing at just over 150 centimetres tall with a stocky build and a noticeable paunch.
He had brown hair and deep-set brown eyes. “What the fuck are you doing standing on
the side of the road?” Shane asked him. “Are you trying to kill yourself, mate?”
The man was frantic and appeared out of breath. His words were lost in an incoherent babble of
rambling, sobbing, and swear words. “What have I done? What’s happened?” He kept asking. Shane told
him to calm down, but the man remained frazzled. He wanted to speak to a woman named Cindy. He told
Shane to give him a lift back to Winchelsea so he could tell Cindy that he just killed the kids.
Immediately following his chilling confession, the man asked Shane and Tony for a cigarette.
Baffled, they handed him a few. The man went on to explain that he’d had a coughing fit
while driving, which caused him to black out. He believed he had done a wheel bearing that caused
his car to end up in the dam. He had woken to find himself submerged in water up to his chest.
There were two dams nearby. The man couldn’t point out which one he had allegedly driven into.
Shane looked towards the nearest one. He could barely make it out in the darkness.
The surface was smooth like glass, as if nothing had happened there. Skeptical of the man’s claim,
Shane didn’t think any of the local dams were deep enough to completely submerge a car.
Shane offered to call the police or an ambulance, but the man refused. He and Tony also offered to jump into the dam to look for the man's children,
but he replied: “No, don’t go down there, it’s too late - they’ve already gone.”
The man continued to request a lift to Winchelsea to speak to Cindy. It seemed as though he mentioned her name at least a hundred times. But he was pointing in
the opposite direction, towards Geelong. Shane and Tony were equal parts unnerved and confused.
They wondered whether the man was suffering from a mental illness or had made up the disturbing story
to hide the fact that he was trying to take his own life by leaping in front of oncoming traffic.
Shane ultimately agreed to give the man a lift and guided him to the front passenger seat.
Concerned that the man was unstable, Tony sat directly behind him so he could reach over and restrain him if required.
Shane steered the car around and drove back towards Winchelsea. During the short ride the man continued to ask himself: “What have I done?”
When Shane drove into town, he turned on his car's interior light and realised he recognised the man.
It was a Winchelsea local who used to mow lawns around town when Shane was younger.
The man’s name was Robert Farquharson. Robert Farquharson was a born and bred local, having lived in Winchelsea almost all his life.
For a time, he’d had his own lawn mowing business but by 2005 he was working two jobs as a cleaner.
His friends and neighbours knew him as a friendly family man who loved Australian Rules Football.
In 1991, when Robert was in his early 20s, he visited the Winchelsea Hotel for a few drinks.
There, he met 19-year-old Cindy Gambino. The two shared mutual friends and soon
struck up a close friendship of their own. At the time, Cindy was embroiled in a long term,
tempestuous relationship. Everything changed when her boyfriend died suddenly in a car accident.
Robert became a huge support to the grief stricken Cindy. He visited her often at home to check in on
her, and even helped her financially after she lost her job at the local supermarket.
At Christmas in 1992, Robert suddenly confessed his love to Cindy. Although Cindy considered Robert a friend only, he’d been nursing a secret crush on her almost
since they first met. He wanted nothing more than for them to be together. The two soon began
dating and had a whirlwind romance. In less than nine months, they’d moved in together and Robert
proposed. Three days after they got engaged, Cindy discovered she was pregnant. The young couple
were worried about their finances, but Cindy was pleased - she had always wanted to be a mother.
On October 4 1994, she gave birth to their first child: a baby boy they named Jai.
Robert was excited to have a son and the couple built a house for their young family.
As he got bigger, it became clear that Jai was a real livewire and a generous kid with
a mischievous sense of humour. He grew up to love the Essendon Bombers footy team,
just like his dad, and enjoyed playing the sport too. Almost four years after Jai’s birth, Cindy and Robert welcomed a second boy into their lives,
Tyler. Tyler was particularly affectionate, always wanting to give his mum cuddles.
Though a hint of cheekiness was evident in his smile. The family joked that Tyler’s motto was:
have food, will travel. Like his big brother, Tyler loved playing football. As described in the book On Father’s Day by Megan Norris, Robert encouraged this passion
by purchasing expensive footy boots for both of his sons, telling people: “Only the best will do.”
By the year 2000, Cindy and Robert decided they’d been engaged long enough and it was time to get married. The date was set for August 26 and they were wed at a local church.
Their third son, Bailey, was born on New Years’ Eve in 2002. Bailey adored his two big brothers, and followed them everywhere. He also famously loved animals.
A neighbour had given the family a pet cockatiel that developed a special bond with Bailey,
perching on his shoulder and eating cereal from his hand. Although their family was now complete, Robert and Cindy’s marriage didn’t last. In late 2004, Cindy
decided she wanted a separation and Robert agreed. The couple remained amicable for their three boys.
Robert moved in with his father until he could find a place of his own, while Cindy continued living in the family home with Jai, Tyler, and Bailey.
On the evening of Sunday September 4 2005, Cindy Gambino was at home waiting. She busied herself
by doing chores, but when 7:30 came and went with no sign of the old Commodore - she began
to wonder what the hold up was. Robert was notoriously punctual. Where could he be?
At 7:35, Cindy was closing some curtains in the children’s playroom when she sighted an unfamiliar car zoom around the corner and pull up outside. Moments later,
someone was knocking frantically on her front door and shouting her name. Cindy ran over
and yanked the door open. Standing on her front porch was Shane and Robert, who was saturated.
He babbled repeatedly: “I’ve killed the kids.” “They’re in the water,” he told her.
“I must have had a coughing fit and passed out. I woke up in the water. I couldn’t get them out.”
Cindy began screaming. “Where are they? Why didn’t you stay with them?” She launched herself at Robert and hit him.
Shane realised he had made a mistake by bringing Robert to Cindy’s home. The entire drive over,
Shane had been wary of Robert’s claims but now the severity of the situation sank in.
He and his friend Tony left to notify the police, while an incredibly distressed Cindy leapt in her
own car. Robert sat in the backseat, directing her to the dam near the railway overpass.
Stephen Moules was expecting Cindy Gambino to arrive at his home any minute. The plan had been for her to quickly duck home and collect her boys,
then head to his place for dinner while their children played together. While he waited,
Stephen cooked a chicken stir-fry and chatted with his 18-year-old cousin, Ahren, who was
also visiting. But the minutes ticked by with no sign of Cindy. The stir-fry began to grow cold.
Suddenly, Stephen’s mobile phone rang. Ahren answered it, then handed it over to Stephen,
saying: “It’s Cindy”. As Stephen pressed the phone to his ear, he heard Cindy screaming:
“Rob has been in some kind of accident – the kids are in the water.” Like Cindy, Stephen was a divorced parent of three. The pair had become friends a
year earlier when Cindy hired Stephen to lay the foundation for a new home she and Robert were building. Following Cindy and Robert’s split, their friendship deepened.
Although they had developed romantic feelings for one another, they were not yet officially
together – Stephen wanted to wait until Cindy was divorced for that to happen. Stephen tried to understand what Cindy was saying, but the call disconnected before
he could find out where she was. He and Ahren jumped in Ahren’s car and raced off to find her.
While Ahren drove, Stephen called Cindy back. Through sobs, she managed to tell him the location Robert had taken her to.
Stephen and Ahren pulled up at the overpass at 7:49PM. A section of a timber and wire fence that
spanned the length of the neighbouring paddock had been mowed down and was strewn across the ground.
Through the darkness, they sighted Cindy running back and forth through long, wet grass. She was screaming into her mobile phone at an emergency services dispatcher:
“Please, God, not my babies, please don’t take my babies, please, God.” That particular Father’s Day started out well for Cindy. She visited Stephen Moules early
in the morning to give him some presents – an electric wok and a framed collage she’d crafted
using photos of Stephen with his children. Stephen loved his gifts and suggested she
and the boys come over later that night, so he could cook her a meal in the new wok.
Cindy then took her sons – 10-year-old Jai, 7-year-old Tyler, and 2-year-old Bailey – to her parents’ home for a Father’s Day visit with their grandad.
The boys presented their grandad with a gift and he in turn treated them to biscuits and icy-poles.
Jai also had fun steering his grandparents’ ride-on lawnmower around the property.
He loved offering to mow their lawn, because it felt more like a game than a chore.
As an added bonus, his grandad always paid him 20 dollars at the end. Next, Cindy drove the boys to Robert’s father’s house so they could spend
some time with their dad. Robert had custody of them every other weekend. Although Father’s Day didn’t fall on one of Robert’s allotted weekends, Cindy had
suggested he take their sons for the afternoon so they could celebrate the occasion with him.
The boys were excited to give their dad his presents – a set of saucepans Cindy
had bought to help Robert set up his new home and a framed photograph of the three of them squeezed
side-by-side on a sofa. However, Jai grew upset when he realised he’d forgotten to
bring a backscratcher he’d purchased at his school’s Father’s Day market. Cindy
reassured him that they could give Robert this additional present the next time they saw him.
They’d arrived at about 3PM and Jai and Tyler ran in to see their dad. At 2-years-old,
Bailey was somewhat shy and wanted to stay with his mum, but she encouraged him to go to Robert.
Before leaving, Cindy embraced and kissed each of her boys in turn, telling them she loved them.
Bailey approached her with his arms out for a hug. As she cuddled him close, he said: “Love you.”
Cindy handed Robert a backpack that contained nappies for Bailey. She asked him to bring the boys home by 7:30. In reply, Robert simply nodded.
Robert Farquharson stood by the side of the highway, looking vague and remaining
completely still. A car pulled to a stop nearby and Stephen Moules jumped out. As he approached, Robert turned to him and asked: “Where’s your smokes?” Stunned, Stephen couldn’t
fathom why Robert would be asking for a cigarette while his children were allegedly in trouble.
Stephen snapped: “How could you worry about a smoke at a time like this? Where are your kids?”
Robert raised an arm and pointed towards the paddock, stating: “In the water down there.”
Cindy stood nearby – still on the phone, crying and pleading for help. Stephen embraced her, then raced to the paddock. Pulling off his jacket
and boots as he ran, Stephen scanned the dark area for any sign of water. Up by the highway, Ahren moved his car so it faced down the embankment. He switched on its
high beams, illuminating the pitch black expanse in front of him. Suddenly, a wide, rectangular
shaped dam with curved corners became visible. A few skinny trees stood around its border.
Stephen waded in. The water was extremely cold. As he made his way around the edge of the dam,
Stephen's feet slipped on the muddy soil below. His hands were outstretched as he grasped,
hoping to find something. He dove into the icy water, his body aching with each attempt.
Again and again Stephen pushed himself forward into the dam’s murky depths. He found nothing.
The sound of sirens filled the air as first responders rushed to the scene. At 8:07PM, the first ambulance arrived, then two police officers from Geelong pulled up.
Additional paramedics, police, and the fire brigade soon followed. The loud whirring of a helicopter’s blades could be heard overhead
as a rescue helicopter hovered above the dam, shining a spotlight down on the water.
There was still no sign of the Commodore or the missing Farquharson boys. Stephen Moules, who was soaking wet and freezing,
was escorted away by emergency workers. Cindy wept inside a family member’s car.
Robert stood outside, his face blank and arms crossed as he surveyed the scene.
Paramedic David Watson approached Robert and took him into an ambulance. He dried
Robert off and wrapped him in thermal blankets, before checking his lungs with a stethoscope.
David didn’t hear anything untoward. He asked Robert to cough. Robert did so, but didn’t produce any phlegm. David noted that he was alert and lucid, and exhibited no confusion.
When David asked Robert to tell him what had happened, he replied: “I was driving home when I had a coughing fit which caused me to black out and lose
control of my Commodore, ending up in a dam, floating. My older son opened the car door,
causing the car to fill up with water and sink. I then got out and flagged down a vehicle, went to
Winch to tell the police and my ex-wife.” Robert explained that he’d had a severe cold recently.
He’d had a persistent cough over the past few days but had never blacked out before.
Senior Constable Ted Harmon stopped by the ambulance and asked Robert to take a breath test. He agreed and passed. When Constable Harmon asked what had happened,
Robert explained that he’d experienced sudden chest pain, then blacked out. At 8:34, he was taken in the ambulance to Geelong Hospital to undergo a more thorough examination.
Cindy was transported to Winchelsea hospital, where she was sedated and treated for shock.
Senior Constable Rebecca Caskey was a professional diver with the search and rescue squad.
She arrived at the dam at 9:45PM, tasked with finding the Commodore. Some snapped twigs and broken housing from a car’s side mirror on the ground
indicated the point where it had likely entered the water. Constable Caskey dove in and performed multiple sweeps of the area. Eventually, her fingers
brushed against some plastic debris and pieces of metal. She was getting close. She had been in the
water for more than 20 minutes when her head suddenly bumped into something - a car wheel.
Robert’s Commodore was perched vertically with its nose pressed into the ground. It
was 28 metres from the dam’s edge and 7.4 metres deep. Constable Caskey was facing its underside.
She swam to the surface. Knowing police would be treating the vehicle as a possible crime scene,
Caskey returned to the dam’s cold depths to seal it. All the windows were closed and
only the driver’s door was open. As Caskey went to close it, she felt a child’s head
protruding from the vehicle. She gently pushed it back inside and carefully closed the door.
Shortly after midnight, a police SUV winched the Commodore out of the dam. Water gushed from the scraped and muddy vehicle as it was hauled to dry land. The bodies of all three
Farquharson boys were visible inside. 10-year-old Jai was lying face down across the front seats,
free from his seatbelt. In the back was seven-year-old Tyler, who was also unrestrained.
He lay on his right side on the rear driver’s side seat with his feet on the centre console.
Next to him was two-year-old Bailey, who was tangled in the unsecured straps of his child seat.
At the scene, Cindy Gambino’s friend Stephen Moules turned to a police officer and remarked:
“I smell a rat. There’s something not right.” Cindy didn’t share Stephen’s suspicions. When she was well enough to speak with police
she told them that Robert was a devoted father who would never hurt his children.
He’d never raised a hand to them and had no history of violence. Blood tests showed no evidence that Robert had been drinking alcohol or consuming drugs. He told
his examining doctor at Geelong Hospital that he’d been sick with the flu for the past fortnight.
Two weeks before that, one of his colleagues had seen him cough so hard that he was bent
double with his hands on his knees. On August 18, a local GP had diagnosed him with an upper
respiratory infection. Robert saw the doctor again five days later, complaining of a chesty cough.
His chest was found to be clear, but the GP had prescribed some antibiotics. Two days before the accident, another colleague witnessed Robert
endure a 15-second coughing fit that was so extreme she worried he was having a stroke.
The emergency ward doctor had x-rays taken of Robert’s chest. They revealed no issues.
Based on what Robert had described, the doctor made a provisional diagnosis of cough syncope – a
condition where coughing can trigger loss of consciousness for up to 20 seconds.
It was a rare condition mostly found in patients with asthma or chronic lung disease,
neither of which Robert Farquharson suffered from. Shortly before 10PM, Senior Sergeant Jeff Smith and Senior Constable Rohan Courtis from
Victoria’s Major Collision Investigation Unit arrived to take Robert’s statement.
That Father’s Day had been low key for Robert. He’d worked a shift at one of his
cleaning jobs in the morning, then headed home in preparation for his sons’ visit.
He was in his bedroom when Cindy dropped the boys off in the afternoon. The two eldest boys had run up to him, excitedly offering their gifts.
After Cindy left, Robert had taken his three sons shopping at a local KMart. He’d bought Jai a new cricket ball and DVDs for Tyler and Bailey. They ordered KFC for dinner,
which the boys were very excited about. At 7PM, they quickly paid a visit to Robert’s
sister at her home. Then they all piled back in the car so he could drop them at Cindy’s.
Jai sat next to Robert in the front passenger seat, while Tyler sat behind him.
Bailey was next to Tyler in his booster seat. There was a bit of traffic on the highway,
so Robert made sure to drive under the speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour. He didn’t want to take any risks with his children in the car.
During the drive, Jai complained of being cold, so Robert turned the car heater on. Soon,
he broke out in a coughing fit. He speculated that the hot air from the heater had triggered it.
The next thing he knew, Jai was shaking him awake and crying out: “Dad, we’re in water!”
Shocked, Robert had replied: “Just sit there, mate – don’t panic.” He claimed that Jai
then opened his door, causing water to gush in. The car took a sharp nosedive. Robert reached across Jai to slam the door shut, then tried to unbuckle his children
from their seatbelts. He couldn’t. The three boys were all screaming. Believing the water was only shallow, Robert opened his door so he could get out and run
around to free his children. But the dam was deeper than expected and the car sank rapidly.
Robert tried to dive after it but failed. It was so dark in the water that he quickly
lost sight of the Commodore. He clambered to shore and flagged down a passing car for help.
When recalling these events to police that night, Robert described everything as having happened so
quickly - “just a big blur.” Both policemen noted that Robert seemed calm when telling his story.
The only time he coughed was when he described the fit he’d had while driving. Robert didn’t ask whether his children had been found. Sergeant Smith said carefully:
“Mate, do you realise that the children didn’t make it? Out of the car?” Robert gave a short exhale, before replying in a flat voice: “I gathered that.” Then he asked:
“I’ve never been in trouble before, so what’s the likely scenario for me?” Sergeant Smith and Constable Courtis were troubled. They compared what Robert told
them about the accident with what he’d said to others and found some slight variations.
At the scene of the crash, he told a police officer that he’d only suffered from chest pain,
while remarking to others that he had suffered a coughing fit. He’d also blamed a faulty wheel bearing for causing the Commodore to steer into
the dam - indicating the car itself was responsible, not his coughing fit. There were also
inconsistencies as to what exactly happened inside the car once it hit the surface of the water.
Distinct actions had been performed in the vehicle that Robert failed to mention in his statement.
The keys were in the ignition, but it was switched off. The handbrake was also secured in position.
The heater, which Robert believed had caused his coughing fit, was not on. Neither were the
car’s headlights. All of this was strange. The headlights in particular would have been on when
Robert was driving and if they remained on, they would have facilitated the search for the car.
As for the other actions - if the accident was as unexpected and urgent as Robert claimed - why would anyone have the time or cause to turn these things off?
Police were also having trouble matching his statements with the physical evidence at the
scene. Investigators from Victoria’s Major Collision Investigation unit had inspected
the area in the clear light of day. The stretch of highway where Robert had veered off the road was smooth and straight, with no sharp corners or bends.
There was nothing on the bitumen that would cause a car to unexpectedly skid off the road.
In some roadside gravel, rolling tyre prints could be seen leaving the road. There were also visible wheel tracks along the grassy embankment leading into the water.
Collision squad investigators estimated that in order to land in the dam, the car must have turned right at an angle of approximately 30 degrees.
It then crossed over the opposite lane, crashed through the wire fence, continued driving through
the grassy embankment, and scraped a tree on its left before arriving in the water.
The distance from the edge of the road to the dam was 44 metres. The path travelled by the
car had been clear and direct. Police couldn’t find anything that indicated Robert had lost
control of his vehicle. There were no signs that Robert had slammed the brakes at any time.
Experts checked whether there’d been a mechanical failure that caused the fatal incident.
They found no major faults with the Commodore, but discovered that it had a lot of wear and tear.
It had clocked up 387,000 kilometres on its odometer, had secondhand tyres, and the engine was known to cut out on occasion.
A mechanic who’d recently serviced the car had noticed that it tended to drift right
while being driven. He’d recommended a wheel alignment to correct this, but didn’t have the equipment to do so himself. He performed a wheel balancing instead.
A police examination found no problems with the car’s wheel alignment. The right rear door, next to where Tyler had been seated,
was faulty and could only be opened from the inside. When the car was recovered,
both of the rear doors were locked, with a childproof lock also engaged on the faulty one.
Disturbed by the turn that the case was taking, Sergeant Smith began compiling two lists.
One he titled: He Did It. Under that, he wrote down a number of incriminating facts,
such as Robert’s demeanour, his inconsistent story, the way the scene didn’t match what
he’d described, and Robert’s insistence, above all else, on being driven to his ex-wife so he could
be the one to tell her that their sons had died. The other list was labelled: He didn’t do it.
The only thing Sergeant Smith could think to write under that one was: Who could be this evil?
Victoria Police’s Homicide Squad officially took control of the investigation, with Detective
Senior Sergeant Gerard Clanchy at the helm. One of their first actions was to conduct a
formal interview with Robert Farquharson, who had been discharged from hospital.
Detective Clanchy and Senior Constable Andrew Stamper drove to Robert’s street and found journalists and TV crews already gathered there.
Winchelsea was close knit, so news of the tragic incident spread quickly. But it’s impact was far
greater than the small, touristy town. The entire state was in mourning for the three young boys.
Clanchy and Stamper approached the house that Robert shared with his father, Don. It was a
cramped, cold place that Cindy had nicknamed ‘the morgue’. Prior to Robert moving in almost
a year earlier, his father had lived there alone since Robert’s mother died of lung cancer in 2002.
Her loss had been devastating to Robert. He had been his mother’s favourite child.
The two officers knocked on the front door. Don answered and ushered them inside to where Robert was sitting. They informed Robert that they needed him to
accompany them to police headquarters in Melbourne for a recorded interview. He agreed. The three men piled into the police car for the two-hour journey.
Constable Stamper sat in the backseat with Robert and chatted with him throughout the drive,
while Detective Clanchy drove. Unbeknownst to Robert, Stamper was wearing a wire.
After some friendly back-and-forth, the constable asked Robert what he thought might have happened
the night that his sons died. Robert said he struggled to remember all of the details,
but was adamant it had been an accident. He’d done all he could to save his boys.
He maintained his version of events when the formal interview commenced at the police
headquarters. Once again, he detailed how he had a coughing fit and awoke to find his car in the dam.
He had no idea how its headlights and ignition came to be turned off. When asked why he’d insisted on being driven to Cindy’s house after the accident
instead of seeking help, Robert replied: “I don’t know… I can’t answer that.” Although Jai, Tyler, and Bailey were found unrestrained, the officers had confirmed
this was not Robert’s doing. The boys had somehow managed to free themselves. They
asked why he hadn’t managed to unbuckle any of their seatbelts. Robert’s tone became indignant.
He responded: “I’ve got two arms, two legs. I can’t save three.” His lower lip trembled, but to detectives
it appeared that he was only pretending to look distressed. Despite his recent marriage breakdown, Robert said he bore his ex-wife no ill will. Their
relationship had begun to falter a few years earlier. Cindy had realised she’d never truly
been in love with Robert and felt he was more of a friend. Robert also struggled with depression
following his mother’s cancer diagnosis and resisted Cindy’s requests to seek help.
By the time he finally did so in October 2004, Cindy told him she wanted a divorce.
Cindy told Robert not to worry about paying child support and to focus on saving money for his own home instead. But Robert insisted,
pointing out that it would be illegal for him not to provide financially for his kids.
He also continued paying off the mortgage on the family home without resistance.
The only bone of contention was the division of the couple’s two cars. They owned two Holden Commodores: one was a 1989, white model with a lot of wear and
tear while the other was a 2002 silver VX. Cindy insisted on having the newer car,
as she would be the parent responsible for driving the children around the most. Robert agreed,
but was annoyed about being stuck with, quote: “the shit car” while Cindy got “the good” one.
He told the two officers that he wasn’t jealous that Cindy had already seemingly moved on
with Stephen Moules. She’d gone out of her way to make sure he stayed involved in the boys’ lives.
Robert was adamant that Cindy and her family didn’t blame him for the accident,
and had already visited him to reassure him of that. When Clanchy asked Robert point blank if he’d deliberately driven into the dam,
Robert replied: “No, I did not”. His eyes slid away from the detective’s. Robert demanded that police have him take a polygraph test to prove he wasn’t lying.
Detectives agreed and he subsequently sat for a test at Geelong police station. It failed to provide a clear result.
When Cindy found out that her ex-husband had been questioned by homicide detectives,
she was devastated. She was certain that her sons’ deaths had been a tragic accident.
The thought that Robert was under suspicion exacerbated her grief and anguish. Autopsies confirmed that all three boys had drowned.
There was nothing in their systems that indicated they had been drugged before their deaths.
Jai had several abrasions on the left side of his forehead and face, which had likely
come from his head hitting the windscreen. The boys had no other notable injuries.
In the days after the accident, three small white crosses were erected along the highway
near the dam. Locals visited to leave flowers, cards, and toys. Cindy and Robert began making
funeral plans. Cindy purchased a burial vault for Jai, Tyler, and Bailey at Winchelsea Cemetery.
She also bought a plot alongside it for herself so she could be laid to rest with
her boys when she passed. Ten days later, Robert followed suit by purchasing an adjoining grave.
On September 14, hundreds of Winchelsea residents gathered at St John the Baptist Catholic Church,
including children from the local primary school and Jai’s scout troop. Plastic chairs and a giant screen had been set up outside to accommodate the mourners who wouldn’t
fit inside the small bluestone chapel. At the front of the church were three small caskets,
each of which had been personalised with a memento. Jai’s had a football pennant he’d recently been awarded, Tyler’s had an Essendon Football Club
bear, and Bailey’s had a toy chainsaw and a Bob the Builder hat. Inside, each of the boys wore a
locket that Robert had purchased specially and filled with a photo of their parents.
At the end of the service, the boys’ favourite song – Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors – was
played for the congregation as pallbearers carried their caskets from the church.
Cindy wailed as her boys were taken to the waiting hearses. Press photographers captured pictures of her clutching Robert supportively,
whose face was also contorted with grief, as they walked outside into the spring sunshine.
Meanwhile, the homicide squad continued their investigation. They spoke to the owner of the property where the dam was located. He said that
over the past eight years, seven vehicles had crashed through his fence from the highway.
Robert Farquharson’s was the only one that had ended up in the dam. Acting Sergeant Glen Urquhart of the Major Collision Investigation Unit carried out a
series of tests. He used a 1990 Holden Commodore with a video camera set up inside to film the
entire experiment. Prints left by Robert’s car indicated he’d been travelling at a speed of
around 60 kilometres per hour. Urquhart set off down the same stretch of highway,
cruising along at 64 kilometres. When he took his hands off the wheel, it didn’t veer right
as Robert Farquharson’s car had, but instead began to drift to the left. Urquhart tried again multiple times, testing out the faster speeds of 82 and 101 kilometres,
as well as the much slower one of 10 kilometres. In those three instances, the car continued travelling directly ahead in a neat, straight line.
Although Robert’s mechanic said his car was inclined to veer right, Urquhart knew there
was a big difference between a slow drift across lanes and the sharp turn the Commodore had taken.
Using a specialised computer software program, Urquhart reconstructed the car’s path. He found
that Robert must have turned his steering wheel at a 220-degree angle in order for the car to take
the dramatic trajectory it had travelled. After turning right off the highway, Robert would have
had to drive straight towards the dam, then veer right again to avoid hitting a nearby tree. It
stood to reason that none of these actions could have been taken if he was unconscious at the time.
Police also carried out experiments at a similar dam in the regional city of Ballarat,
to see how long it would take a vehicle to sink. They kept the location a secret to prevent members of the press turning up. After plunging into the
water, the car bobbed on the surface, floating harmlessly. Only when a police diver opened
the driver’s side door did it start to sink. Within 15 seconds, it had reached the bottom.
Robert’s various medical tests had revealed nothing that could account for a coughing fit
so extreme that it resulted in him losing consciousness. Detectives consulted doctors
who concluded that Farquharson's version of events were "highly unlikely at best".
Several days after police began looking into the case, officers in Geelong received a phone call
from a man named Colin who had a tip for them. Colin was a former policeman who now worked at
a local bus company. He was worried. One of his drivers was a close friend of Robert Farquharson’s
and had appeared increasingly distressed in the days following the accident in Winchelsea.
He suggested detectives speak to the driver, whose name was Greg. Officers brought Greg into the station. He seemed relieved when he was asked to share what he knew.
Two months prior to the accident, Greg had driven his children to Winchelsea’s fish and chip shop at
6 o’clock on a Friday evening. While his kids went inside to collect the family’s order, Greg waited
out the front in his car. Robert Farquharson was also in the shop with his own children, but he
came outside for a chat when he spotted Greg’s car. Greg noticed that Robert seemed “down in
the dumps”. As the two were talking, Cindy Gambino also pulled up in her silver Commodore. She smiled
and said hello to the two men before entering the shop where her sons were, but Robert ignored her.
Greg reprimanded Robert for being rude, but Robert became angry, snapping: “I’ve got nothing. Nobody does that to me and gets away with it. It’s all her fault.”
He was furious about Cindy driving the family’s new car that he’d paid $30,000 for,
while he was stuck with the “f***ing s**t one”. Even worse, he sometimes saw Cindy’s new boyfriend
Stephen driving the car. He was enraged at the thought that Stephen might move into the home
he and Cindy had built together, while Robert was still paying off its mortgage. Finally, he said:
“She’s going to pay big time for this! I’m going to take away the most important thing… to her.”
As he said this, Robert nodded his head towards the fish and chip shop where his
ex-wife and children were still inside. When Greg asked what he meant by the statement,
Robert mumbled something about having had a dream where he drove into a dam. He survived the accident, but all of his sons died.
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conversation was interrupted by Greg’s kids returning. He and his children headed home,
where Greg immediately told his wife about Robert’s disturbing remarks. His wife later said she had no memory of this conversation. Although Greg was troubled,
he didn’t really think anything would come of Robert’s threats. Robert was known to whinge and
complain, and Greg suspected he was angry, but would never actually act out his rage.
Two months later, when he heard that Robert had driven his three sons into a dam
and was the only one to survive, Greg became distraught. He couldn’t stop thinking about their conversation. He felt sick with guilt that he hadn’t done anything about it.
Greg had nightmares about the accident and cried unexpectedly. His distress was obvious to everyone around him, and led to Colin Pavey calling the police.
After providing detectives with two statements, Greg agreed to help them by reaching out to Robert. He would ask his friend about
the accident, all the while recording the conversation by wearing a wire. Greg had been too upset to attend the Farquharson boys’ funeral, so he paid a visit to Robert at
home the day after they were laid to rest. He apologised for his absence the day prior.
Robert shrugged it off, saying: “A lot of people didn’t come. I understand that. It’s a million
times harder for me, so you don’t have to say nothing, I know.” Greg reminded Robert of their
conversation outside the fish and chip shop and added: “I hope it’s got nothing to do with that.”
Robert immediately denied having meant anything nefarious by his previous remarks,
saying “No. No way. No, no, no, no, no. You know I would never–.” Greg confided that police had asked to speak with him and he was “freaking out” at the prospect.
Robert encouraged him to tell them what an excellent father he’d been. He urged Greg to avoid
mentioning the fish and chip shop conversation altogether, lest investigators get the wrong idea.
Despite Greg’s repeated attempts to draw out a confession, Robert insisted the crash
had been nothing more than a tragic accident, saying: “No way would I do anything like that…
That has never, ever entered my mind.” But when police later listened to the recording,
they were encouraged to hear that Robert had acknowledged the fish and chip shop conversation.
Maybe if pressed again, he might make a full admission. They had Greg repeat the exercise one month later on October 13.
This time, Greg asked Robert what he’d meant about having a dream where he drove into a dam.
Robert denied making such a comment, stating: “I never, never said that. You’re getting it all wrong, all twisted. I meant one day [Cindy’s] going
to wake up that I’m not as weak as piss as what she thought – I’m going to accomplish something.”
He was upset that his friend would suggest such a thing. He admitted he’d initially been angry at Cindy following their split, but they’d been on good
terms by the time he ran into Greg at the fish and chip shop. He also claimed that
he’d blacked out from coughing about a week before the accident. On September 1, Robert had
told a friend that he’d had a coughing fit while driving and briefly passed out behind the wheel.
When he woke, he realised his car had continued travelling an additional 20 metres down the road.
Detectives were surprised by this sudden mention of another blackout. They asked Greg to keep reflecting on the fish and chip shop conversation,
and to write down anything else that he remembered. Meanwhile, they kept investigating.
They tapped Robert’s phone, but captured nothing incriminating. Throughout November, Greg couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation.
More details were coming back to him. As these memories returned, he typed notes on his computer,
keeping a written record of each new recollection. The more he wrote, the more he recalled.
Greg remembered that when he asked Robert what he meant by saying he’d take “the
most important thing” away from Cindy, Robert looked directly at him and said: “Kill them”. Greg called his bluff, saying: “Bullshit, that’s your own flesh and blood,
Robbie.” Robert retorted: “So? I hate them.” Then he detailed how he would have an accident in a dam
and it would take place on Father’s Day. That way, everyone would remember it and he would be the one with the boys during their final moments.
On every Father’s Day that followed, Cindy would be tormented by the memory of how her sons died.
Greg forwarded his typed document to Detective Gerard Clanchy and a warrant was issued for Robert’s arrest.
On December 14 2005, Robert voluntarily surrendered himself to the Geelong police station,
accompanied by his lawyer. He was charged with three counts of murder and remanded to custody.
He was granted bail two weeks later after his lawyer successfully argued that Robert was a low
flight risk and had tremendous support throughout his community. Cindy Gambino was devastated to learn her ex-husband was charged with murdering their three
sons. Robert had been a proud and dedicated father who encouraged his children’s hobbies and took
them out for fun activities, like swimming and bike riding. She couldn’t believe he’d be capable
of deliberately harming them, nor would he ever want to. She was also aware that Robert was prone
to suffer from bad coughs each winter. To her, his version of events seemed entirely plausible.
Much of the Winchelsea community shared Cindy’s support of Robert, with one of her relatives
telling the Herald Sun newspaper: “Nobody believes it.” But other members of the public
had their doubts. They thought Robert’s story about a coughing fit sounded utterly absurd.
Since the deaths of her sons, Cindy Gambino had become fixated with the colour purple. It was a colour she’d always loved,
and the fact that new age types believed it was associated with ‘healing’ made it
even more appealing. When Robert’s trial began in Victoria’s Supreme Court on August 21 2007,
Cindy made sure she was wearing purple as she attended in support of her ex-husband.
When it was time for her to take the stand, she sobbed as she described how Robert had appeared
at her home, soaking wet and babbling that their children had drowned. Following the tragedy,
Cindy had a number of conversations with Robert in which she offered support and comfort.
Even though she didn’t hold him responsible, she knew how guilty he must have felt.
She was adamant that there was no way he could have killed their children on purpose.
After Cindy finished testifying, she left the courtroom. She could be heard wailing outside.
Early on in the trial, the jury was driven from Melbourne out to the dam in Winchelsea, so they could survey the site for themselves.
The three white crosses symbolising the young lives lost there still stood by the highway.
Acting Sergeant Glen Urquhart of the Major Collision Investigation Unit told the jury about
his work on the case, and how Robert Farquharson had to drive deliberately and turn his steering
wheel 220 degrees to end up in the dam. A defence expert dismissed Constable Urquhart’s evidence,
arguing that there should have been sideways skid marks on the road if Robert had driven
as Constable Urquhart described. He believed the car’s reported tendency to drift right and the
slight, right-leaning slope of the road would have been enough to accidentally drive into the dam.
The prosecution’s star witness was Robert’s friend Greg. As the covert recordings he’d
made of his chats with Robert were played to the court, Robert repeatedly shook his head.
The defence found it suspicious that the more Greg spoke to police, the more incriminating and detailed his recollections had become.
They suggested Greg was so disturbed by the tragedy that he couldn’t distinguish
between his nightmares and reality. But Greg firmly defended his evidence. Coming forward had been incredibly painful, but he’d done it because he felt obligated to do so.
Robert’s legal team opted against calling him to the stand to testify in his own defence.
Instead, their case hinged on expert testimony regarding Robert’s claim that he’d blacked out
following a coughing fit. Dr Christopher Steinfort, a thoracic specialist, informed
the court that he thought Robert exhibited some “classic” symptoms of a cough syncope.
Although this was a highly rare condition usually seen in people with chronic lung disease,
Dr Steinfort said it could be triggered by a bout of the flu. It was a condition he was familiar with. Roughly 15 patients who’d attended his
private practice over the past decade had reported instances of cough syncope. More recently, a GP had informed him of another case where a man who was driving
his children to a football game suffered a coughing fit and ran his car off the road.
Dr Steinfort examined Robert Farquharson on a number of occasions following the dam accident. Although Robert didn’t suffer from lung disease,
he was an overweight smoker with sleep apnoea, which could make him more prone to coughing bouts.
He’d also been witnessed coughing severely in the past. But Matthew Naughton, a specialist in sleep and respiratory medicine who testified for
the prosecution, believed it was “highly unlikely” Robert had suffered from a cough
syncope. Nothing he’d ever seen or read about the disorder in medical literature pointed to
individuals with healthy heart, lung, and neurological functions experiencing it.
He thought it was even less likely that Robert would have passed out, as the car was warm due
to its heater being on. Although Robert had claimed he’d blacked out on at least one
other occasion due to coughing, this couldn’t be confirmed by any eyewitnesses or medical evidence.
To demonstrate that Robert never had any desire to harm his family, the defence also called his
counsellor to the stand. Following his split with Cindy, Robert finally started receiving treatment
for depression that he’d experienced since his mother’s illness and death several years earlier.
He’d had about six appointments with a counsellor named Peter Popko, telling him how upset he was
over the breakdown of his family. Robert never expressed any suicidal ideation.
Nor did he mention wanting to hurt Cindy or their children. The only person he seemed to want revenge against was Stephen Moules. Robert had detailed
a fantasy in which he would provoke Stephen into punching him, then take him to court for assault.
This revelation came as no surprise to Stephen. He’d met Cindy and Robert shortly before the couple broke up. Although he and Cindy
quickly developed a connection, Stephen had recently gone through his own messy divorce.
He was adamant that he wouldn’t become involved with a woman who was still married. Instead,
he’d inadvertently become a confidant to Robert. After Robert moved out of his and Cindy’s home, he
began turning up at Stephen’s house almost every night of the week, crying and seeking advice.
Stephen made suggestions as to how Robert could improve his situation. But Robert never listened or changed his behaviours – he just complained incessantly.
After a couple of months, Stephen grew fed up with Robert’s constant whinging and told him: “You know what? You’re an idiot. You don’t want your wife back.”
He said Robert should grow up and act like a father instead of a “spoilt little boy”. Robert
stopped asking for Stephen’s advice after that, and Stephen subsequently grew closer to Cindy.
On October 2, the jury retired to consider their verdict. Two days later it was Jai’s
13th birthday. Robert arranged for someone to deliver three red tulips to his son’s grave,
along with a handwritten note that read: Dear Jai, thinking of you on your birthday. Love you, Dad.
On October 5, the jury finally returned. Robert stood, dressed in a grey shirt and a charcoal-coloured tie and trousers,
as the jury foreman announced the first verdict: Guilty of the murder of Jai Farquharson.
Shocked, Robert dropped to his seat. Cindy cried out in despair. Continuing on, the
foreman confirmed that Robert had also been found guilty of murdering Tyler and Bailey Farquharson.
Cindy screamed, “Why, why, why?” Her mother Bev fainted. Both women were escorted to an ambulance and treated for shock.
One month later, Robert returned to the Supreme Court for sentencing. He kept his head down as the judge addressed him: “You wiped out your entire family in one act.
Only two parents remained: you, because you had always intended to save yourself,
and their mother, because you intended her to live a life of suffering.” He sentenced Robert to three
life sentences. He refused to set a minimum term, excluding the possibility for parole.
Outside the court, a statement was read to reporters on Robert’s behalf: “I received a life sentence on the night my boys died, so I don’t care much about what other people
think of me. I will appeal the verdict because I will not have the public believe that Jai,
Tyler, and Bailey were anything less than the most important part of my life.” Robert Farquharson’s legal team intended to fight his conviction on 24 separate grounds,
but their main argument was that the prosecution had withheld vital information. Namely,
that their star witness, Greg, was a violent man who testified against his best friend
in exchange for having his own criminal charges reduced. Eight months before Robert’s trial, Greg had been drinking at a pub
with his brother-in-law. The pair entered into a physical altercation with some other patrons,
one of whom Greg hit three times in the abdomen. After Greg was charged for the assault, Detective
Gerard Clanchy wrote him a character reference, explaining that he’d been under immense strain due to acting as a police witness in a high profile case.
Several weeks after Robert’s sentencing, Greg pled guilty to a single charge of recklessly causing
injury, was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond, and ordered to pay a 750 dollar fine.
Robert’s defence hadn’t been aware of Greg’s brush with the law, so were denied the chance to question his character while he was on the stand.
On December 17 2009, it was confirmed that three judges had overturned Robert’s conviction and
ordered that a new trial be held. Robert was released on 200,000 dollar bail. His family
and supporters were overjoyed. His two sisters attended his bail hearing wearing badges that
read ‘In Rob We Trust’ and ‘Fact Before Theory’. But not everybody was celebrating the decision.
One individual who was extremely troubled to hear about Robert’s release was a woman named Dawn.
It was getting late on Sunday September 4 2005, when Dawn drove along the Princes Highway.
By 7PM, she was approaching Winchelsea. The early spring weather had been damp and overcast all day.
Clouds still hung in the air, masking the stars and making the evening particularly dark.
Dawn switched on her headlights’ high beams to illuminate the poorly lit roadway.
That’s when she noticed a vehicle up ahead – a light-coloured, older model Holden Commodore.
It had seen better days. The speed limit on the highway was 100 kilometres per hour. Dawn found herself quickly gaining on
the car ahead. It was travelling very slowly, at around half the speed limit. Its brake lights flashed on and off several times and it kept drifting
towards the white line separating the two lanes. Dawn decided to overtake the car,
as the way the driver was veering dangerously close to the opposite lane made her nervous.
She flashed her headlights as a warning of her intentions. She then crossed to the opposite
lane and accelerated. As she drew level with the car, Dawn glanced over at its driver.
He was a clean shaven man in his late 30s with dark hair. She tried to make eye contact with him
and raised her hands in a questioning gesture, as though to ask what exactly he was doing.
But even though the man kept glancing to his right, he refused to look at her. His expression was blank as he repeatedly checked his side mirror.
It appeared as though he was looking for something – possibly a particular turn off. As she passed,
Dawn also noticed three young children sitting in a row in the backseat, including a fair-haired boy who looked to be about seven or eight years old.
He was sitting directly behind the driver, with his face pressed against the window.
Once Dawn had passed the Commodore, she returned to the left lane. At this point, the highway was
gradually rising over a railway track. Dawn sped up the overpass, then glanced back at her rearview
mirror. The Commodore was in the distance. Its headlights veered right and disappeared.
Dawn assumed the driver had turned down an adjoining road. -- The following evening, Dawn was in her kitchen preparing dinner while watching the news.
Footage was shown of Robert Farquharson’s car being winched from the dam and Dawn
instantly recognised it. She cried out to her daughter: “That’s the car! That’s the car!”
Although Dawn was incredibly disturbed by the turn of events, she didn’t report what she’d seen.
Her family had been under a great deal of strain at the time. Early in 2005, they’d relocated from
New Zealand to Australia. They ran a dairy farm in Warrnambool, a near 2-hour drive from Winchelsea.
When Dawn began experiencing chronic illness later that year, she struggled to keep on top
of managing the farm. Then her father and both of her parents-in-law passed away,
and her 16-year-old daughter lost a close friend in a tragic road accident. All of this stress meant she wanted to avoid another difficult matter.
Consequently, Dawn hadn’t followed Robert’s trial, but was relieved when she heard that he’d been charged and ultimately convicted. When she saw
that he had won his appeal, she decided that this time she had to speak with the police.
After hearing from Dawn, investigators contacted Cindy Gambino to inform her of this new
development. Unbeknownst to them, Cindy had been grappling with her own concerns for some time.
Once Robert was incarcerated, he hadn’t called Cindy or responded to any of her letters.
She’d asked to be put on his visitors list so she could see him in person, but he wouldn’t add
her despite accepting visits from their mutual friends. Cindy was baffled and angry. Why was
Robert refusing to see the one person in the world who could understand his pain? She wondered if
perhaps her ex-husband didn’t want to look at her, because she would be able to tell if he was lying.
Stephen Moules listened to her concerns patiently. He believed Robert was guilty from the beginning but deliberately withheld his opinion from Cindy,
sensing her faith in Robert’s innocence was a coping mechanism. The thought that her sons
might have lost their lives because of Robert’s anger at her was too painful to contemplate.
Cindy kept turning over the events in her mind. Her marriage had never been a happy one. In fact,
she’d even doubted whether she should be with Robert on their wedding day. By then, they already had two sons and Robert had proved he wasn’t the supportive partner
Cindy initially thought he would be. He could be childish, throwing tantrums when household
appliances didn’t work, and leaving much of the parenting to her. When the boys were babies,
he’d refused to change their nappies or take turns in feeding them. Cindy had to manage
all the day-to-day running of the household – paying bills, preparing meals, and performing
basic repairs. She complained to one friend that the relationship was "a mortgage, not a marriage."
As well as having depression, Robert was diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder,
which made him insecure, socially awkward, and hypersensitive to perceived slights.
But he had been reliable in one sense: he’d always managed to hold down a steady job.
The one exception was when he decided to purchase a lawn mowing franchise and the business failed miserably, leaving him 40,000 dollars in debt.
Robert’s behaviour with their children had often unsettled Cindy. He never smacked them as a form
of discipline, but he’d once told her that was because he was scared he’d “go overboard” if he
did. He relentlessly teased the two eldest boys, pushing their buttons until they would start
crying or stomp out of the room. It always seemed more like bullying than good-natured roughhousing.
He’d also been cruel towards her, calling her “fat mama”, grabbing at her body while she
was cooking or cleaning, and sulking when she wasn’t in the mood for sex. By October 2004,
Cindy had had enough. She’d never been in love with Robert and she told him she wanted a divorce.
After they separated, Robert stalked Cindy, driving past her house at all hours of the day.
He became fixated with her new relationship and was furious at the thought of another
man becoming a father figure to his sons. Yet he refused to look after the boys when Cindy
needed a babysitter – including on one occasion when she had to go to hospital.
He made menacing threats, saying things like: “I’ve got contacts – don’t underestimate me.”
On the night of September 1, four days before her sons died, Robert called Cindy at home. Throughout
the conversation, Cindy noticed that he sounded very depressed. She was concerned enough that she
mentioned it to Stephen’s mother, who advised her to: “Just watch out”. But Cindy had never
dreamed that her boys might be in danger. She suspected that Robert was suicidal, not homicidal.
Cindy continued to believe in Robert’s innocence throughout his trial, though she was troubled by Greg’s testimony. It didn’t make sense
that a close friend of Robert’s would come forward with such a story if it wasn’t true.
When she heard Robert had won his appeal, Cindy didn’t feel relieved at all. She began to realise
that perhaps she’d been in denial about her ex-husband’s role in their sons’ deaths.
When Detective Clanchy called to tell her that a witness had come forward, she decided to provide police with a new statement.
This time, she’d reveal some things she’d previously kept hidden about her ex-husband.
The next time Cindy set eyes on Robert was when she walked into Victoria’s Supreme Court for his
retrial on May 4 2010. Cindy and her supporters all wore her trademark shade of purple and her
hair was streaked with violet highlights. When she took the stand, she spoke openly about
the problems before, during, and after her marriage. Several times she glanced at Robert.
Her expression grew angry when she was asked to identify him as her children’s father.
When the defence grilled Cindy on why she was changing her stance after initially supporting
Robert, she replied: “I’ve had five years to think about this. He killed my kids.”
Dawn also testified about what she’d seen on the night of the accident. Robert Farquharson hadn’t taken the stand during his previous trial. But at his retrial,
he was the defence’s first witness. He fidgeted awkwardly as he swore on a bible. His small
stature seemed exaggerated by the formal shirt and tie he was wearing. He refused to look at Cindy.
Robert repeated his story about having a coughing fit and waking to find the car bobbing in the dam.
Although Dawn’s testimony indicated all three boys were squashed together in the back of the car,
Robert insisted that Jai had been sitting beside him in the front passenger seat.
He was unable to answer a number of questions, claiming he couldn’t recall some details or wasn’t sure of certain things.
Under cross-examination, the prosecution asked why Robert hadn’t tried harder to free his children.
Why hadn’t he leaned across the backseat to undo two-year-old Bailey’s booster seat?
Robert simply answered: “I probably had no thought process.” He wasn’t sure how the rear doors had come to be locked,
but suggested Bailey might have inadvertently switched them off by playing with the latch.
Robert said he’d seen Jai open the passenger door, causing water to flood the car, even though the
headlights were off and it was pitch black. He couldn’t say how or when the lights were switched
off. The prosecution suggested he’d turned them off to prevent the car from being easily found.
He denied this, now insisting that they and the ignition were both on when they landed in the water. The prosecution asked:
“Is there any person in the car who could possibly have turned off the ignition, other than you?”
“Well, Jai could have, easily”, said Robert. The jury looked shocked. The prosecution responded: “Are you seriously suggesting that one of your children,
in the moments before they died, would have had any reason to turn off the ignition of that car?”
Robert protested that he was simply trying to answer as best as he could. He had no reason for wanting it to be dark out in the dam.
After watching Robert’s testimony, Cindy had no doubt that he’d avoided her because he was lying.
She was disgusted by him. It seemed as though he lacked any remorse. The trial concluded on July 19 and the jury left to deliberate. At 4:50PM on July 22,
it was announced that they’d come to a verdict. The date would have been Tyler’s 12th birthday if he was still alive. To Cindy, this was a positive omen.
Once again, Robert Farquharson was found guilty on all counts. This time, Cindy turned to the jury and mouthed the words “thank you”.
Almost three months later, Robert was sentenced to life imprisonment with a 33-year minimum.
The judge told the court that in his 38-years of practicing law, this was a case that “defied
imagination”, as the victims were “three vulnerable, helpless, and wholly innocent
children” who had suffered a “terrifying death”. Addressing Robert directly, he stated:
"Your crimes have devastated a significant number of people. Primary among them is your ex-wife Cindy Gambino, the mother of these three children.”
Robert shook his head throughout his sentencing. When he was led out of the courtroom, Cindy began to cry. Outside, she told reporters: “It’s never
going to be enough… It’s a life sentence for me – it should be a life sentence for him.”
In August 2013, Robert Farquharson lost his final appeal. In the years after her children’s deaths, Cindy Gambino was on the receiving end of abuse from
the public. At first, she received letters from people calling her “stupid” for supporting Robert.
Others blamed her for having “driven” her ex to kill. On one occasion, a man approached
her in a supermarket and asked: "What did you do to him to make him do that to you?”
But Cindy also received strong support, encouragement, and countless messages from people who empathised with her pain.
In 2010, she married Stephen Moules. The couple have two sons together. The murders of Jai, Tyler, and Bailey Farquharson and the subsequent legal
proceedings garnered nationwide attention and were widely covered by Australia’s media.
In 2013, crime journalist Megan Norris published a book about the case, titled On Father’s Day.
Norris had previously written about a number of other cases in which men murdered their children
during the course of marriage breakdown. She spent lots of time with Cindy while
working on the book and tells much of the story from Cindy’s perspective. The following year, author Helen Garner released her book,
This House of Grief, which shares her thoughts and experiences from attending both trials.
Cindy has initiated legal action to prevent Robert from being buried in the spot he purchased
alongside their sons’ burial plot and her own grave. In an interview with the Herald Sun,
she explained: "I'd be mortified if my boys and I had to be buried with him. I will move the
boys and myself if I have to. People go to all sorts of extremes for things they believe in.
The night he murdered our boys, he lost every right to be near them." Jai, Tyler, and Bailey share a large marble headstone at Winchelsea Cemetery.
It features oval portrait photographs of the three boys. On the top left-hand side is a
gold logo of the Essendon Football Club, the Australian Rules team beloved by both Jai and
Tyler. On the other side is an etching of Bob the Builder, from Bailey’s favourite television show.
Beneath the boys’ names are the words ‘Much loved and cherished children of Robert and Cindy.’
In 2010, when Robert was out on bail following his first appeal, someone used a chisel or a
similar tool to scratch his name off the headstone, leaving rough gouges in the marble.
It isn’t known who was responsible for doing this. Cindy has resisted calls from Robert’s family to have his name reinstated.

Case 167: Jai, Tyler & Bailey Farquharson

In Australia, Father’s Day falls on the first Sunday of September and is typically a time for families to gather together and celebrate. But on Father’s Day in 2005, the small Victorian town of Winchelsea was rocked by the news that a local man named Robert Farquharson had driven his three young sons – Jai, Tyler and Bailey – into a dam...

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Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Erin Munro and Milly Raso Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn

For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-167-jai-tyler-bailey-farquharson

Brief Summary

Robert Farquharson was convicted of murdering his three sons after their car was found in a dam, raising questions about the incident's circumstances.

Key points

Father's Day Tragedy. A family's celebration turns into a nightmare as Robert confesses to a horrific accident.
Cindy's Desperate Plea. Cindy screams for her children as she realizes the gravity of the situation.
Cough Syncope Diagnosis. Doctors diagnosed Robert with a rare condition that can cause loss of consciousness.
The Accident. Robert's car plunged into a dam, leading to the tragic drowning of his three sons.
Inconsistent Statements. Police noted discrepancies in Robert's account of the accident, raising suspicions.
Funeral Plans. Cindy and Robert began making funeral arrangements for their three sons, marking a community tragedy.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He’s always there when I need help.

Penny expresses gratitude for her father, Dr. Rob Moodie.

3:14WatchMar 6, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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