We have received no meaningful update from WAPol since the massive police search within Ray’s HOLE back in June, although we suspect that news is available. It’s all quite torturous, given that we had previously been told via the DPP that there is “insufficient burden of proof” (evidence) to charge any ‘person of interest’, and now that some has been evidently spoon-fed them via the Easter search, the question must be asked: What TF is taking them so long this time?
So, I was in need of constructive activity lest the darkness envelop us in this most recent limbo. I was approached by Australian True Crime podcast earlier in the year – in the midst of that search – but gave them the old "kinda busy right now…maybe later" and thankfully they were persistent, messaging again a fortnight ago out of the blue. Given the current stagnation, I crumbled harder than a garden gnome under an anvil, and recorded an episode of 'ATC' with Meshel Laurie last weekend.
The episode airs tomorrow – Monday Sept 4 – on all the usual podcast platforms, look out for it on these options and more:
www.australiantruecrimethepodcast.com
(No, I have not heard a preview. The results are left for you to scrutinise without bias.)
Australian True Crime is a popular and very successful independent production. A quarter of a million peeps listen to that podcast any given week, such is the public penchant for murderous plight. I started listening to ATC circa ‘16, when answers in Ray and Jennie’s investigation had flatlined and I was in need of much learning in the arts of true crime. What a naive dotard I was up to that point. Australia has more cold cases than Dan Murphy's warehouse!
A short reminder in that regard from the Media Mandates post written this calendar week a mere two years ago:
The statistics of missing persons in Australia unfortunately make our family story not at all uncommon. Each year, enough people to half-fill Optus Stadium are listed as missing persons. One-in-twenty of those then go on to be listed as long-term missing persons—three months or more. Many are never found.
So, if you are reading these posts believing that you are a passive observer, simply a true-crime fan, and something like this could “never happen to me”, you are wrong. What is less likely is that any particular missing person be reported in a prime news article, let alone become a constant source of headlines for months and years on end.
I've listened to hundreds of true crime podcasts over the last six years, initially as an attempt to desensitise myself... It did not help. In fact, doing so possibly made the anxiety worse. Perhaps the most frightening realisation I’ve had these past years is that there could easily be hundreds of Grumpy Gray Millers (name changed to protect the guilty) out there, freely roaming the streets, devoid of guilt or consequence.
Meanwhile, hundreds of families all over Australia have been turning to the podcast and blogging world for help in getting a media spotlight on their own mysteries and plights, having been ignored for years (and in some cases, decades) by mainstream sources.
The decompression stage after the podcast recording was relatively eased by how easy it was to chat with Meshel – I’d call it a “pleasure”, yet of course the subject matter disallows such feelings. Although, afterwards, I had no reason to concern myself with the usual worries of ‘did I remember to say this’, or ‘should I have said that’. No, instead I had moments to savour having said the right things for a change:
A big shoutout to Richard and Jed, two utterly commendable, indescribably humbling human beings.
Calls for information from eastern states Golden nAUmads who perhaps might have been in the Sandstone area in March 2015, and so far unaware that they may be able to confirm or deny the likelihood that certain rifle-wielding maniacs atop Tabletop Hill were nothing more than a figment of someone’s bald imagination.
Asking for dash cam footage of anyone driving the 8hr route between Sandstone and Perth on that 2015 weekend, who perhaps encountered a man resembling a “garden gnome” on his grumpy little way home. (Meshel genuinely chortled at that reference.)
Much else to be proud of.
Heartfelt gratitude to Meshel, Matthew and the entire ATC crew for the opportunity to share Ray and Jennie’s story with the hope of more answers coming to light.
Please tune in to Australian True Crime tomorrow, listen, and share.
Thank you for your continued support. Please follow the Man in the HOLE Book of Faces group for more regular updates.