In October nineteen ninety seven, a law student in Canberra, Australia, made a plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party. But it wasn't a secret. The dinner guests had all heard rumors about the plan and went along with morbid curiosity. But in what could be described as the ultimate bystander effect, nobody warned the young man.
Surely they thought it was a Joe.
Surely everybody knew but him. This is the devastating case of Joe chinque Oh.
I know of this one, but I didn't know even already.
All those Ah, well, you are going to need to strap yourself in kind of like oars sounded a bit like exactly. This case has affected me in more ways than I could have imagined. I picked up the book by Helen Ghana, Joe Chinkway's Consolation, after going to buy Helen Ghana's latest book on the mushroom cook Aaron Patterson, our favorite. This story is devastating and it's honestly a
case that I cannot stop thinking about. I read the book quickly, I listened to anything I could, and I feel like my mind was pretty made up about how I felt about what happened. I'd love to hear your opinion, gee, and I'd also love to hear what listeners think.
Nita tells the story first.
Okay, okay, you know you're right, You are right, Thank you.
I usually have Okay.
Joe was murdered. What I didn't expect to learn was how many complex feelings I had about the killer and the friend who helped her.
Oh okay.
In fact, it resonated with me on a personal level, with my own brother developing drug psychosis and completely changing as a brother I once loved and grew up with. I cannot recommend the book highly enough. As always, I commit my undying love for Helen Ghana and how she can find the human in people who were often deemed monsters.
It's interesting to say that, because I mean, just that sentence itself, a lot of people would say, well, no, there's no human in here. Yeah. Yeah, roughly she writes, and how I suppose in depth she goes into her story.
Yeah, and she looks at things in a really different way. Yeah. This is a story of a man's life who was taken too soon, far too soon, and a complex look into the lives and why from what we can glean the pair did it and why no one did anything to stop it?
My God, tell me what happened?
Well, g do you know a lot about this case already?
Obviously I know that a girlfriend. I think it was like a murder, like a suicide.
Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, backed out.
That's about all I remember.
Okay, Well we'll go into it, and I really want to hear your thoughts on it, yeah, because it's really fascinating and there's a lot. There's a lot in here. Joe Chinkwa was a twenty six year old engineer living with his girlfriend, a new sing in their Harra's house in Canberra.
Yeah, I remember, I remember a news name.
Yeah. Yeah, there's an interesting part of this, but I think it's kind of glossed over when I read the transcript script of the call to the ambulance. I'd like you to keep in mind what kind of house they lived in. Joe was working full time and Anew was finishing her final year of law. Joe was killed.
That's ironic, I know.
Yeah, Well, all the people that were at the dinner party were actually lawyers. Go back to be Joe was killed by a lethal injection of heroin while he was unconscious from rohypnol which she had drugged him with in his coffee. Oh my god, I'm going to refer to the book for a transcript of the call to the ambulance. This is what Helen Ghana writes as the opening to that transcript.
He isn't even getting out his physical book, like I put a little post it notes, My god, you're so cute, just like my father. Why is there an apple on the cover.
We'll get into it, into it well you hey, apple, ale? Okay, very good apple. The house he died in on Sunday twenty sixth of October nineteen ninety seven was not far from the Canberra Ambulance headquarters. Oh the paramedics would have been able to reach him in a flash, but it took the dispatcher almost twenty minutes to get to the right address from the hysterical young woman who placed the zero zero zero call, the triple zero call. Like all
emergency calls, this one was recorded. This is the male dispatcher. Okay, and the phone number you're ringing from. Could I get an ambulance please? I have a person potentially overdosed on heroin. Potentially overdosed. Well, he's not. He's vomiting everywhere. Blood stuff. He's vomiting blood, right, Okay? What's the address? Is that a bad sign? What's the address? Can you hang on? Please just tell me? Is that a bad sign? That's well, it's not good if he's vomiting blood. Oh is he
going to be? Okay? I don't know. I'll send an ambulance for them to check him out. Fair enough. What's the address? Thirty Antil Street? Is that a flat or a house? Oh? It's a flat? What number is Antil Street? What number in Antel Street? What's going to happen? What's the flat number? Oh? Shit, shit, listen to me, says a paramedic again. Oh hang on, what am I going to do? Settle down? Settle down? Okay? What am I going to do? Well? If you tell me the address,
I'll get an ambulance out to you. Will he be? Okay?
Oh this is so frustrating.
I don't know. We'll have to get an ambulance to you to assess him. What is the number of the flat in Antel is is? Oh shit? What is the number of the flat in Antil Street? It's seventy nine, Flat thirty seventy nine. Is that correct? Yeah? No, hang on Flat thirty hang on? Where's the ambulance. The ambulance is at Dixon. Now just calm down. What's your name? What's your name? Oh shit, he's vomiting blood? What and the dispatcher again says what's your name? And who says
is he going to die? What is your name? Tell me? Tell me? Please? Cries an. What is your name? Oh? Oh god, Olivia says an. Oh, what is your name? Please? Olivia? Olivia? Oh fuck? Hang on? Hang on? What's the number you're ringing from? Hang on? His heart's still beating. Good, right, Okay, just settle down, for God's sake, says a Dispatcher'd be pretty uncommon, you'd think, for a dispatcher to say that, Flat thirty seventy nine Antil Street.
Okay, we've got there.
Flat thirty seventy nine, No, seventy nine Antil Street. What's the flat number? It's a townhouse? What it's seventy nine in Antil Street? Yeah, yeah, get here quickly. All right, we've got someone there now. Now that was not the only call that was made that night, but it's a really interesting call. Because a new calls herself Olivia in that call nine of times, a number of times. And as we heard before, they lived in a townhouse.
And it was her address.
She lived there, she lived there, Yeah, yeah, which could be you know, she was like the cover up what happened.
Yeah, exactly, because the way that reads is as if she didn't really know if she was there for a dinner party, she didn't really know the address, so she was trying to find out what it was. And I mean, god, touch would I don't know what it's like to be in that situation where you're panicking and calling an ambulance. But I mean it's very easy to say from this point of view, but you would think you could just spit out the address if you knew it.
You think you'd be able to Yeah, it was your own home. On June eleventh, nineteen seventy one, Joe was born to Nino and Maria Chinque in Newcastle, New South Wales. He was named after his grandfather, Giuseppe or Joe for short, A beautiful I love. Yeah. It was a way to carry on his heritage. They thought he was the most that's right, German heritage. They thought he was the most beautiful baby they'd ever seen, do you.
I mean most parents say that. Mine did not about me. What my older sister Katie was the most beautiful baby anyone's ever seen. And then I came out and my mom was like, oh, she does not look.
Like she does not look like Kaie.
The reason my godmother is my godmother is because she was like, oh my god, it's beautiful. And Mom was like, no, she's not an I don't like you can and we'll be listening to this too, actually, and I was like, yes she is, and Mama, well you can have.
Joe's parents immigrated to Australia from Italy four years prior they knew it in now he said Germany. In nineteen seventy five, Nino and Maria welcomed their second boy, Anthony. With two boys, the house was bustling, often described as chaotic. It's my worst time, toys and games all over the floor, kind of like digs. I was living with digs. But Nino and Maria loved everything about it. They were happy to have their two boys. They lived in a red
brick house in Newcastle. Newcastle is a harbor city in the Australian state of New South Wales. It's located one hundred and sixty two kilometers or one hundred and one miles from Sydney. Joe's mum was a housewife and his father worked as a tradesman. Joe saw that his dad. Joe saw what his dad had done for a living, and he ended up working at the same company that he and his grandfather and his father had all worked out.
Oh my god, before they knew it. Joe and Anthony were young men, growing up all too soon for Maria's liking, but they would all all have family dinners every single night because they all stayed close by. Joe was a gifted athlete, playing tennis and soccer. There were trophies littered all around the family home. He also radiated confidence and energy. He was a great student and a fantastic friend, often the one to bury the hatchet in any quarrel and
find a way to move on. So two friends were kind of finding he'd be the one to go to. He was extremely well liked by everyone who met him. You just couldn't help but be drawn to him. He wanted to study architecture, but also didn't want a career that would keep him inside all day strapped to the desk. So instead he decided to take up a career in civil engineering. Wow. In nineteen ninety four, at just twenty
four years old, he graduated university. His parents had bought him a ticket overseas as a gift for graduating.
Oh nice marine, nice one.
He really wanted to go traveling before starting his working life, and time broke it off with his girlfriend, Rebecca, who everyone kind of thought he'd end up with.
Oh god, that's not very nice, Like, see, I.
Want to go. I know, yeah, I know. I don't know if you said it like that, but that's probably Yeah. After Joe died, Rebecca turned up to the family home and told Maria that she just wished Joe had loved her like she had loved him on that heartbreaking She bought flowers and told her that, oh my god. When he got back, he found a job at a civil engineering company as a project manager, which was close to his family in Newcastle.
I want to get sorry. I wanted to look at what Joe looks like. I'd like to have a visual of him. Yeah, of course I actually know what a new sing looks like. But isn't that terrible I know what she looks like. And I've actually got in my notes the name a new sin for an episode to do. Oh really, not Joe's. Is that terrible? We always talk about how you know that shouldn't be the.
Because yeah, yeah, Maria, Joe's mother said in Helen Ghana's book that Joe's father and grandfather had worked the same engineering company, like I said before, so it's a big over you know, International Corporation.
Oh yes, yeah, I'm looking at him. Yeah, yeah, they look very I mean, this is such a boring basic thing to say. They look like a couple in the nineties. Yeah, like, yeah, kind of mid to late twenties.
A good looking couple.
Yeah, he looks quite American.
He does, doesn't he He's.
Very like chies or jaw, a bit like.
Like Italian American. Doesn't mean like, he's got a very Italian kind of face, boyish charm. If he didn't have enough to do, like you know, all week, he'd find he'd find himself really restless. Maria kind of noticed this with him from a young age. He would hang out with friends, go to the pub, or put in extra hours at work with his friends. He would regularly hang out at a local pub called the Brewery. That's when he met twenty two year old a new thing. She's
only two, only twenty two at the time. Yeah. Anu was born in India on September third, nineteen seventy two. Parents relocated to Newcastle when she was really young. Both of her parents were doctors and pushed their children to do well in their studies. And you had completed her schooling and got a h SC. Do I say that right?
Yeah?
But and HS and HSC to go into economics and law in at a n U, which is the Australian National University in Canberra. She also called the Act the.
Act the Act of going to University. Correct a little bit of trivia for our international listeners because I would has it. I guess most people outside of Australia don't know this. Canberra is actually our capital city, not Sydney.
Yeah, and it was because the two were fighting it out, weren't they.
As we always do even hundred years ago. We were, And so they just picked a city in the middle.
And you know what it's It is a lovely place, Canberra. I quite like Canberra, but they're nothing around it.
No, it's yeah, it's in the it's in the middle, just a city that they was not even in the middle. It's closer to Sydney. But that's a very Melbourne person.
To say they got it close up. Yeah, So she moved down there and started her degree. So that a New moved to Canberra and started her degree in the early nineties, but didn't cope living away from a home. She called her mother a lot and would go back home frequently. A New was extremely attractive, high achieving, and very well spoken. She had a focus on going to
the gym and was an obsessive dieter. Her parents ended up moving to Sydney and lived and worked there, and You graduated in economics and her plan was to go back and finish her law degree.
Wow.
When Anew and Joe met at the brewery, they immediately hit it off. A New was back home for a short period of time. Their two friendship groups happened to know each other and they got chatting. Anew had a boyfriend at the time who she lived with in Canberra. His name was Simon Walsh. One report stated that he found out about the fling and ended it. Another stated that the more time Joe and a New spent together the less she could see Simon and it eventually fizzled out.
So I don't really know which one is true. There it seemed like, yeah, he found out about it, big blow up, or that they stayed together for a while and the eventually.
It sounds like there was some kind of crossover.
There was some sort of crossovering.
Joe was the reason she and Simon ended. Yep, yet whatever the timeline was.
That's right. Yeah, but a New was really heartbroken by the breakup with Simon. Senior parole Officer Naomi Buick had spent hours interviewing a New and said that she had terminated a pregnancy while with Simon, which had a lasting and traumatic effect on her.
Oh sad.
She was particularly hurt by a claim he made calling her intellectually inferior, which which is what she said about others. So it really hit her, I guess because she said about everybody. Yeah, it had a really big impact on her. It was a huge turning point in her behavior.
So she's allowed to call other people intellectually inferior, but if someone calls her that, yeah she was crazy.
Yeah, okay, dish it out, but you can't take care not me. I didn't growl and I didn't cover that out of the podcast. By late nineteen ninety five, she developed bollimia. She spiraled into a deep depression and moved back in with her parents. She wanted liposuction and refused to admit that she was suffering. She had a diet of Coca cola, tim tams, and she would smoke. She also dabbled in drugs. So she actually I think that her dad actually went through with the liposuction, which there was no.
She had went through with it.
Sorry, So I actually paid for her to have liposuctions. So she was really kind of the way that she spoke to people. She kind of seemed like she did to get her way with anything that she said, and there was nothing to her. She was the skinniest person and actually had lipeer sunction.
I just looked up the photos understand that.
Joe had been in an awful car accident with his family at the age of just eight years old. His mother, Maria, had a debilitating foot injury, and so Joe acted as caretaker during this time. He was soon to become a caretaker once again to a new They would talk on the phone dozens of times per day, dozens dozens, So when he was in Newcastle and she was in Canberra, a call about fifteen times a day.
Well that's toxic.
Joe was now by her side and her condition did not show signs of improvements. One of the things that was often commented that Anew would say that she was really sick, she had something, and Joe would have to continually go back to Camber to look after her.
I've known a couple like that.
Yeah, it's really yeah, Well I.
Didn't end h murder on my lord.
No, I didn't. So that what did you look at me? And the iron growl as well?
That out of a podcast too.
Joe. Joe had fallen head over heels for a new and who was a strikingly beautiful person. Like I mentioned before, Knew and Joe would talk for hours and hours at a time. By nineteen ninety six they were dating exclusively nice.
Nice.
They spent its like I looked at you like you. We always say because it looks at you, don't always say nice.
You haven't been talking about without exclusively ready one two three Nice.
They spent most of their free time together and from the outside looked like a very happy couple. Joe's family sat down for dinner with a new to finally meet her. They wanted to know kind of who this person was that their son was spending all this time with. Joe's parents believed she was intelligent, but thought that something was a bit off about her.
Oh.
She brought up a lot of odd topics, talking a lot about the afterlife, and also spoke about a previous relationship in great detail, saying there was almost a little incestuous. It was very strange, but her parents passed it off as someone who liked to shock people with different out their ideas.
Haang on, I'm going to need to ask more about the ancestuous comment. There was a relationship with his family was incestuous.
There was nothing more about it. But she described their sex life in great detail, I think, kind of saying that he was like a brother to her. It was like really incestuous. Joe didn't say anything at the time and continued eating, so she just kind of spoke about all of this in great detail.
He is used to it, she speaks like that all the time. Or maybe he felt uncomfortable so just didn't get involved in the comp's.
Kind of yeah, well, it is kind of alleged that he felt uncomfortable and that she was quite controlling. She did all the talking.
There's nothing wrong with that. Samy way looking in the iron.
Growling didn't growl for Joe's friends and who was confident and domineering. It was pushing Joe into the background. He was become less sociable and let a new take the lead in every single conversation. It didn't help when the chin Quis found out that Anew was keeping their relationship a secret from her parents. They wanted her to prioritize her studies over boys. Joe instructed his parents to say if they ever met the Sings to say that he was just a friend of a news brother.
Which is interesting because why would they meet if it weren't because they were dating.
Well, I don't know. In case they just dropped in in Canberra. Maybe I don't know that because I was living together. They ended up living together. Yeah, yeah, I think I reckon.
The only partner I don't know, the only like parents of a partner my parents ever met was like at you know, maybe a twenty first birthday party, like until my parents were yes, I wanted to go and made them didn't invite them.
So so the fact that that she didn't want to say anything about Joe to anyone, Yeah, it made Joe's parents feel a little bit off. They didn't like that Anew wasn't telling anyone about Joe and making him seem really small. They noticed that Joe wasn't quite himself and would now fade away in the background anytime Joe, anytime a Knew was around, and New would interrupt every time
they tried to talk with Joe. One time when Nino the dand was trying to have a private conversation with Joe, and he walked up behind Joe, hugged him, kissed him, and pulled him away. It seemed to the family that Anew was always there to snatch Joe away.
But there's not a lot I hate more than that level of yuck, jealousy, Yeah, murder, murder, first um in no particular or ushual.
Their nightly dinner was often interrupted by Anew, and New eventually went back to Canberra. So this is this is you know, the timeline here is that she kept coming back to Newcastle at different points. She'd come back for a summer period or any holiday she'd come back. She wanted to be with her mum, and then she eventually went back to Canberra, four hundred and fifty kilometers south, which meant that Joe and her couldn't see each other as.
Often didn't realize it was that far.
It's a really long way from Newcastle, yeam. He would drive five and a half hours to see her on a Friday and return early Monday morning to start work hardly sleeping.
Oh my god, that's a good boyfriend.
Very good boyfriend, very good boyfriend. A new call Joe every night, often during the family meal, sometimes after. He would go and talk to her every time she called.
No, sorry, rude. If you're having dinner with your family, to take them.
Well, Maria thought. Marie would often take the phone off him and tell a knew to let him eat his meal. I am like Maria, Yeah, Maria's great because of it's from my.
Said story Marie, I just met a Mario.
That's beautiful. Because of all the calls, their phone bill skyrocketed. The calls were excessive, not to mention the expense. Joe was spending every weekend to spend time with her back in Canberra, and Niel often complained about being sick, which crippled her. From time to time, he would drop everything when she complained about being sick. Maria worried that Joe was exhausting himself and finding it hard to juggle everything with all the other things he had going on in
his life. Maria tried to warn Joe not to let Anew control him, but he said, don't make me choose. I love you, but she needs me. Oh that broke Maria's heart.
That breaks my heart.
I am Maria, You are Maria. In September nineteen ninety six, Joe finally decided that he was going to move in to be with a new He was going to move to Canberra. They moved into a semi detached townhouse together and even opened up a joint bank account called and New and Joe's marriage Account WHOA as while Anew was studying, Joe was going to have to be the financial provider. Their house was in a bustling part of town near the university, in a place called Downer.
In Downer a down hey.
You should you should? You should say that there? I think, dibe you should say it there if you sounds mc ok in Newcastle at the end of the semester, the couple spent three weeks with Joe's family back in Newcastle, but Maria did not like her. She continued to feel that there was something very strange about her.
I mean, I'm going to play devil's advocatire and he's giving a little bit of Italian not wanting another woman to take her as well as Yeah, new sounds a bit alarm a couple in the early twenties.
Absolutely. Yeah. Once back in Canberra, things took a downward spiral?
Was it a bit of a downer?
Nice one again? You did it again?
Thank you?
Yes, it was okay. Anu continued to be hyper fixated on her weight, excessively, going to the gym and watching what she was eating.
Well, that's sad that she's got a mental disorder.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. She was suffering from bolimia and like I said before, her parents she kind of asked her parents' time and time again for liposuction. Her dad allegedly gave in and helped in nineteen ninety seven, and knew was complaining about chronic fatigue and muscle aches. Her health was her obsession and knew constantly had something wrong with her that she was fixated on, but it was all psychological.
She approached Maria to speak about her car accident and how she dealt with the problem she faced with her foot. She noticed that a new was really fidgety that time and thought that perhaps she was having some kind of drug withdrawal. Robert, the Chinqua's godson was really concerned about Joe during his visits to Canberra. He watched the spark disappear from Joe's eyes. By mid nineteen ninety seven, Anu was convinced that she had contracted AIDS, which made her
focus more and more on her health. God so she always had a new fixation of how sick she was and thought there was always something happening.
Like a bit of insinuation, maybe some Mounchausen syndrome.
Yes, yeah, they could be that. But also you know that there is some kind of drug effect there.
As well, so I think, and medical anxiety absolutely yeah.
She believed her body was shutting down. She was furious with Joe that didn't seem to care enough about her many ailments. When the results came back negative about the AIDS, she continued on various other diagnosises, diagnoses, diagnosis, diagnosis. Her parents attempted to have her admitted to a psychiatric facility, but she wasn't seen as a threat to herself or others and could not be admitted against her will. And
this is this is what happens. You know, once you're over eighteen here in Australia, you cannot be admitted anywhere against your will.
Yeah, unless you're deemed.
Unless you're deemed unfit. Yeah, like to a dot where you can't make choices for yourself. And who was taking ippacac for a period of time. She said that Joe would point I'm going to explain that. Don't you worry about that? Aha. She said that Joe had pointed out this drug to her. Now it has been said that perhaps Joe mentioned the drug at a dinner party in passing as it's what supermodels take to keep weight off. Oh.
This is a definition I found of the drug. Syrup of Ippacac, or simply ippocac, is a drug that was once widely used as an ex expert torrent except torrent accept YEA and a rapid acting emetic. It is obtained from the ride rhizome and roots of the epicaquana plant, from which it derives its name. It is no longer regularly used in medicine.
So did it like an appetite of presidism.
Yeah, yeah, and kind of like a weight loss thing. So a lot of supermodels did it to keep the weight off, you know. And the big thing here was that and who was like, oh, we mentioned it as a suggestion for me, But it later went on to say that he probably just mentioned it one time and she thought, I'll use that. And New had been taking a lot of drugs for recreational use at the time. Drugs were really big at the time at ANU and Canberra in general. She would take ecstasy with her previous
boyfriend Simon. She would stop when she went home to her parents and would often have withdrawals at the time. Her parents are both doctors as well, so they've kind of would have seen what was happening. At the time. A New had some building resentment, stating that Joe didn't do anything around the house and that she felt that she was a housewife. She made another complaint to the university counselor, saying that Joe had hit her, yelled at her,
and abused her. He had blamed her for hitting her and that she couldn't leave him because he was financially supporting her. This took place a few months before Joe's death.
Do we know that allegation?
Oh yeah yeahs since come out after a newer sentenced that she made that.
Up, as in, she admitted to making it up, or other people have said.
She made it up. Yeah, she told the counselor and she said that she was building a case.
Yeah, oh Jesus, okay, knew I was going to have a believe women moment if other people had said, no, she made that up?
Yeah, no, no, no, it was definitely Yeah, something that she made up and knew then believed that she had a degenerative muscle wasting disease that was fatal and believed that she she only had a few months to live.
Does that a bit Munchausen, doesn't it?
Yeah? It does.
She's really believing she's got all these things that are wrong. Dear, is it or is it? Yeah? Munchausen by proxy is when a parent or someone but Munchausen is well, I feel like a hypercontract. Yeah. Yeah, maybe it's just that. To be fair, I think Munchausen is more you kind of believe you've got illness and that actually wheels it on.
Ah right, I think, yeah, I'm wrong.
Dear listeners. But yeah, maybe it's just hypochoni.
Yeah yeah, Like she just kind of felt like she had everything. She didn't tell her parents what it was exactly, just that she was sick. Her parents continued to encourage her to go to the doctor time and time again. She told her friends, but her friends kind of thought that it was a tall tale. So she was known for exaggerating.
Yeah, exactly, Okay, it's got something else again, now.
Something else again. Yeah, it was a figment of her imagination, but it was like she believed it. She started giving away her CDs and clothes. She showered up to seven times a day. Oh god, so she's really obsessive, like really obsessive. She believed that she got the disease from taking ippocac and blamed Joe for that.
Oh dear.
She actually told some people that she was going to kill Joe.
Oh okay.
She also told several people that she was going to kill herself and who made several attempts to get a gun. She went off, Yeah, so she wanted to kill herself with a gun that didn't happen, and so then she decided she'll go to different dealers to get heroin and have a lethal overdose of heroin. Someone told her that that's actually a pain free way to do it.
And she had never like she wasn't a heroin user.
No, well, yeah, no, I don't think so. I think that was the first time she did heroin. I mean, yeah, are the drugs, but not so.
It was kind of like, I've never done heroines, so it would be quite easy to overdose on that. Maybe it was the thought she had.
Well, someone told her that that's how you can kill yourself. Yeah, so saying that if you actually had a lethal doze, it would be the best way to go bit paint free and knew would allegedly talk about how much smarter she was than Joe and constantly put him down in front of everyone.
Again, because you felt so good when your ex boyfriend did that to you. Let's go and dime.
No, let's have to think about that. She does far worse, but let's ever think about that as well. Joe was getting sick of the relationship and wanted an out. He was starting to make plans to break it off. He had purchased a new car, which was the first part of his exit plan and the first time you could see the joy back in his eyes. Many have since stated that knew newho knew. That's a hard one there, sorry,
but everyone knew that he was going to leave. In fact, in his diary he had a note that he was going to pack up and leave. On the Monday, Joe's mother, Maria, had noticed that most of his things were gone in the house, like he had already been packing up and trying to leave. And who spoke quite openly, I'm so sorry. What doll along.
The ground but with his leg both his front and back legs stretched out as far as he could possibly do, like like kind of cool?
Did would you say? No comment? And Wu spoke quite openly about killing herself and a suicide pact between her and Joe. She would speak quite openly about it, but no one ever paid attention to her.
I'm so sorry, I'm laughing at Diggs. I'll stop looking at him, obviously not laughing about this story. I'm so sorry, blessed mom.
So yeah, she spoke openly about wanting to take her own life with a suicide pact with Joe. She would speak quite openly about it, but no one paid any attention to her anymore.
Oh god, that it sounds like a proper boy who cried wolf.
At this point, absolutely and New was diagnosed with a personality disorder and depression, but a lot of people around her said that she was just being dramatic and often lied about what was going on and what she was going to do. At that point as well, in nineteen ninety seven, a New told a friend that she hated Joe and wanted to go on a rampage and kill Joe, her ex boyfriend Simon, and all of the doctors that
had misdiagnosed her and did not take her seriously. She said, I studied psychiatric texts and it wouldn't be too hard to convince someone you're insane.
Oh oh god, I'm sorry. Like I'm flicking between oh no, the poor thing and oh yeah, this.
Is what it did to me as well. Yeah. She visited the library with her close friend and fellow student, Martavi raw great name, great name. A little bit about Martyvi. Martivi was an only child until the birth of a much younger sibling who was disabled. The family's hopes then focused on Martyvi, and all pressure out seemed to be placed on her. She was a great tennis player growing up and a good student, although she didn't get high enough a high enough score after high school to get
into medicine, so decided she'd do law instead. Pretty good options still imagine going, I can't get medicine, just be lawyer.
I guess I'll just do law.
Her father was a well respected teacher and her mother a doctor. They both retired by the time that Martivi was at in university, but by the time the trial began they both had to start working again to pay for her legal fees and her defense lawyer. In the family home, there was strictly no smoking and no drinking. It's a friend of news, it's a friend of a nurse yep. Martivi was the quieter, more studious of her
in Anu, and she followed her blindly. It was since being kind of stated that she was a bit of a doormat and was constantly walked on by stronger people. So Anu and Martave sourced a book about the individual's right to die. It contained information about assisted suicide and legislation. They photocopied several pages of this book. During this time, her parents tried to have her committed to a psychiatric facility again without her consent. This time this had to
go through a magistrate. And before this long long approval process, Joe chinkwe would be dead, oh shit, and who told several people that Joe and her would be overdosing together in a suicide pact. That she and Joe would be overdosing in a suicide pact. But Joe had no idea about this plot.
That's not a suicide packed.
Then she was telling people to get them on kind of so that they would not raise aus vision with Joe, which is which is sorry.
So she was saying, it's a suicide patht so don't say anything, don't say anything, Okay, far out. So it's obviously not a suicide pact. But that's what she was telling.
That's what she was telling people. She told other people that she was going to drug him so that he was not aware that she was killing herself. So another another part of what she was saying was I'm going to kill myself, but Joe would get too upset. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna drug him with row hipnole in his coffee. He's nightly coffee. He's one of those people that has coffee.
Weirdo.
I don't understand.
No, no, no Italian Italian.
It's Italian, not a weirdo Italian.
Sometimes they're confused.
A new purchased another graham of heroin.
Hang on, could we just go back to the I'll drug him because they'll get too upset. So it would be much better if he wakes up from a drugged stupor not knowing why he passed out and found his girlfriend dead. Yeah, that's maybe worse.
It's a perfect plan. I don't I don't really, I don't really understand. I think she was. I don't think she's thinking clearly at all in any of this. And I think that this was part of her plan that she thought and Martivey was going.
Along for the ride, like willingly sorry, not willingly knowingly? Or was she just kind of thinking, my friend's just gonna talk and smoke again.
There's a bit of that. There's a bit of who knows. There's a bit of who knows, your honor? Who knows? Magistrate? I employ you can, I can I raise this? Who knows? I don't know, I think in this it was she kind of always thought that a New was talking smack. She she said this several times before. However, she did continually tell people throughout all of this.
That told people that this is what I was saying.
And that's what she was doing. A New purchased a graham of heroin. The dealer asked why she needed so much, and she said, someone's coming with me. The dealer asked if a New intended to end her own life, and she said that she did, but she would never reveal who the other person was.
And the dealer still sold it to her.
A dealer is or what's going to sell it?
Tokay, Yeah, that's a good point.
There is no there is I don't think with a dealer there is anything.
Deal was like, I just wanted to have a good time. Yeah, and that's all I care about.
Deals not going is this for? Who's that for? Good point?
Good point, good point, good point.
Now what we are going to go is the first part of this horrible, horrible, horrible event titled the First Dinner Party. Oh October Sunday. Okay, I said that in the weirdest way. October Sunday, nineteenth Joe visited his parents in Newcastle. Sunday, October nighty easier Sunday, October nineteen Joe, I'll do it one more time.
No.
Sunday, October nineteenth, Joe visited his parents in Newcastle. He told his mum that he and Anu were hosting a dinner party the following evening back in Canberra. He wanted to know if his mum had any meals prepared that he could serve his guests. So what a younger towing boy.
If I did, I tell you? I love that, Mama, Please.
Mamma, please, we'll come back to Sydney. Cook to Newcastle, Sorry, not to Sydney.
So take your your home cooked meals four hundreds and I love it.
So he wanted to know if she had any preprepared meals so she could serve all of his guests for a dinner party.
Don't feel like she would have.
Well, Maria offered to cook something, but instead he'd pick up some fried chicken on the way home, which I don't think that's a dinner party if she was getting fried show.
And it's not comparable to Maria's beautiful Italian food.
No beautiful ton food.
Maria I'll have your Italian food play.
Well. The beautiful thing about this story, and there is only kind of one person, is that Helen Ghana got to spend quite a lot of time with Maria, and Maria would always cook for her and have her over Maria, Maria is beautiful. October twentieth, nineteen ninety seven, dinner party Monday was set to be held, and everyone showed up fully aware of a new's a new a news mental state. Martavi turned up with one of her friends, Olivia, who had not met Joe or anew before.
Sorry when you're aware of her mental state, meaning that she wasn't in a good place, that she knowing what her plans were both what, No, I don't believe that. I can't believe that. Yeah, so they've come to a dinner party knowing.
Martave has told everybody exactly why they're going along.
We're going to this dinner party tonight afterwards, and Anu is going to drug her boyfriend with rehypnot.
No, no, not that there's gonna be suicide packed after What the fuck?
Why would you go to that dinner party?
Well, this is the thing everyone went. It was a more curiosity no before the dinner, Marta V showed her a needle mark in her skin, explaining that Aniu had been practicing injecting on her to practice for her suicide. She explained to Olivia that the dinner was a final dinner before anew and Joe's joint packed.
And Olivia is a random friend who came with Marti who didn't know the others.
That's right, Novia was actually visiting from out of town. I think it was that friend there, Sammy.
If you invited me to a dinner party with a friend and they're like on the way, you were like, oh, by the way, the friends are going to kill themselves afterwards, what do you say I won't come? Thank you very much?
Well, you jump out of the card, stop dropping and roll.
I stopped up and roll, And then I would get your mum to make me dinner's family.
You know what, nothing against my mother, but I don't think it'd be a beautiful meal like Maria's.
Cooking better than mine.
Anu told Olivia and mar Devi that she had prepared too much food and that they had that they should go and knock on the doors of nearby people and get them to come. They did.
It's going on. This is the weirdest store I've ever heard.
Rumors had spread by that point of a News intentions for that night, spurring other students, some of which were total strangers, to attend in some kind of morbid curiosity.
What are you talking about, Sammy?
This is why this case is so bizarre, and through Helen Ganna's book, because she says, why did these people not do more? Joe Chinque was dead. That's what she kind of repeats throughout the book, and it's very powerful.
I love the power of that.
It's the effect.
That I need the answer I don't.
There is no question people went on to be lawyers, and a lot of them have since spoken out about it, some of them have not, and they that they all wanted to go and see why the people invited all new of a News plans to take her and Joe's life. They all believed it was some kind of farewell party. The only person that didn't know again was Joe Chinque. I hate this and who made it clear to everyone
invited that Joe was in on the pact. They appeared really loving towards each other all night, which made a lot of people who intended to believe it was all now a harmless joke. So they went along, and then they went, oh, okay, maybe it's a joke all along.
I feel like I mean, as I've just very obviously said, I wouldn't go anyway, but I feel like if they were seeing me really lovely and nice, that would almost make me believe it more, because you often hear the people who have decided they're going to take their own lives are quite happy and at peace and comforted.
Sure, yeah, day, well because he didn't know what was going on, but you know, but maybe they could looked to both of them and when they're both happy.
But the guests thought he did now yeah, yeah, so yeah, I don't know. I think I would go, oh, yeah, they've decided to do this, and then oh god, yeah, I wouldn't think that. Again, I wouldn't be there.
Martave drove quite a few of the guests home, telling them that the suicide was going ahead. Later that night, a few of the people asked they should seek medical assistance, but Martive told them not to a few of the people thought that it was a news choice if you really wanted to do that, and it wasn't their place to get involved or intervene. Yes, it was that's well. That night, a new crushed sedatives into Joe's drink so
that he would drift off. She then fetched a pre prepared syringe, but she struggled to find the right vein. Joe got up in the morning and went to work, seemingly unaware of what had happened. By God, Aneu called Martivi and told her what happened. Martive was doing work experience at the Community and Health Services Complaints Commission. Ironic, she told two colleagues that something really serious had happened the night before and was paranoid the police were going to come.
After Tell the police, Tell the police.
She told her to.
Tell your colleagues, tell the police.
It was the major crime of the century. Ah and it had to do with revenge ha ha. And Neil asked one of her heroin dealer friends to source her some roue hipnol. The friend had no problem getting it. She got fifteen tablets. When paired with heroin, only one tablet was necessary, esus. So the heroin had actually congealed and she couldn't get it to work. It had been too long in the syringe and she couldn't get the heroin. She couldn't actually get it to inject, so Joe was
knocked out after having in the morning coffee. Woke up the next morning and went, oh, we probably felt a bit groggy in as when he had no idea that it happened. A few days later, the same guests. Was surprised to receive another invitation, all of them all the same guests yep for I don't know if it's all the same guests, but a lot of the same people for Friday, October twenty fourth, Oh my god, same week the second dinner party yep, Monday was the first one, and then Friday's second.
Hate this story.
Despite the unsettling knowledge of their plans, they went along. The guests were told again that she was planning to take her and Joe's lives. Joe returned home to see a full house of people. He was surprised. He didn't know about the second dinner party, but went along with it. He was gracious and a sociable host.
Oh my god, if I came home and there was a house full of people eating crack.
In that fried chicken again. He was talking excitedly about his new car and his upcoming holiday to Queensland. Martivy told her friend Olivia that the plan was going ahead for real this time, but Olivia dismissed her, saying, people who are going to do this sort of thing don't just talk about it. They go ahead and do it, or.
They're only talking about it.
Yeah.
Again, I suppose that. I feel like that's what I.
Would happened once before the year. Yeah. I think a lot.
About the things that she just talks about and.
She cries out. Yes. Martave was certain that there was nothing she could do to stop it. Another guest thought it couldn't be true, and others thought it was another one of a news tall tales. The couple interacted exactly the same that night. They were both happy and bubbly.
Which is interesting when we've just said that Joe had been planning to break up with her. Yeah.
Yeah, maybe he was acting for his friends. I don't know. Maybe, I don't know, who knows. The party continued into the early hours without incident. At six am the following morning, Martivi arrived home and told one of her friends that anew had put ten Rowe Hypnal tablets into Joe's coffee and tried to inject him with a lethal dose of heroin.
Was Martaby saying this because she was there or because that's what Anu said she was going to do.
She was apparently there at the time because left after she did that.
Oh shit, Yeah that's accessory.
Yes, it didn't work. It's amazing. It wasn't his time to go.
Martaby said that.
Yeah. When the friend asked why Anu was trying to hurt Joe, Martavi said, Joe's the problem. She wants to take Joe with her. It's because she blames him her condition.
Oh no.
Martivy decided at that point that she wasn't going to be involved in any further plan, So her friend kind of talked to her out of it and said, what are you doing?
Hang on, sorry, after being there to witness someone give.
Someone yeah tenor hypnos and then he pissed off. Yeah, well didn't see the heroin but and.
Said, you know what, I've let my friend taught me out.
Of doing that ever again, I'm not going to do that anymore.
I don't like Martiby.
As the day continued, word of a news plan spread. One friend threatened to contact the police, but a new found out about this and talked to the friend out of it.
Hang on, so Joe, do we know what Joe's condition is? At this point? No ok?
And New told the friend that she would do nothing to hurt Joe. And who told this person that they were going to be engaged? Why would she hurt him? And New admitted to these concerned people that she had given Joe the sedatives, but she had only done it so that he would be sleep when she tried to end her own life. She convinced them that Joe was not in any danger and she would confess to him about spiking his drink. Everyone decided to let this go. Oh wow, So the news at that point had only
spread of the tembro hypnol tablets. But I'm sure at that point it wasn't I'm sure at that point though, it wasn't ten like I'm sure people drugged exactly. At ten nineteen that evening, Anu called her friend Len, who was fully aware of the sinister plans, but expressed his opinion to others that it was just a new being dramatic and a desperate cry for attention.
Ten pm the following night, Saturday and night day.
Neil asked how strong ra hypnol was She said that Joe had been asleep for a really long time, about fifteen hours, and was now groggy and couldn't keep his eyes open. She was worried about what she had done, but Len told her that she wouldn't have caused any long term damage. Joe took the phone and said, hey, mate, my mind is one hundred percent functional. Joe said that apparently, yet my body just wants to sleep like crazy. That's all.
She's worried for nothing. Now. I'm very confused about that, apparently, he I don't know if she ever told him that she had given him that much for hypnol, but it seems like she did confess that to him, told him that on the phone, I gave you a hypnol blah blah blah blah.
That's why you can't stay awake.
That's right, I think she had told him at that point. After midnight, Anew called another friend, asking if it was impossible, if it was possible to inject heroin into your legs or the backs of your arm. The next morning, Sunday, October twenty sixth, nineteen ninety seven, a new visited Martavi and told her Joe wasn't breathing and she needed money to get some heroin to take her own life. Martave drove her to an Am and withdrew two hundred and fifty dollars cash before walking home alone.
I'm so sorry Marta. By Martive, you can get fucked.
Yeah, should't get fucked. At nine am, a New purchased half a gram of heroin. She was anxious and kept saying today's the day. Anew continually called Martive that day. Martyve told Anu to leave her alone, but eventually caved after Anu was extremely persistent. Martive went to pick her up.
So she was like, leave me alone, go kill yourselven peace. Yeah, fuck this girl.
They both had a heated argument. While Anu appeared to be very distressed. Martivi went to speak to Len and told him that after Joe awoke the night before, he told Anew that he was going to leave her. Martive then explained that a new tried to kill Joe with heroin. Len had been convinced it was all a tall tale up until this point. He suggested calling a news parents to tell them in case a New later claim that
Joe had injected himself. Len and martivey went for a drive just in case Anew tried to involve them further. During that drive, Martivi told Lenn that she had actually been to their house earlier that day and had witnessed Joe unconscious on their bed. She'd seen that, and she went to the house, saw him unconscious, not moving.
And left and then was like, I don't want to help anymore.
I don't want to help anymore.
Took her to get him and all.
That more time at the car, his skin was pale, his lips were blue, but he was still breathing, and Marv decided to leave anywhere.
This is the person who wanted to study medicine.
That's right, right, a new phone, the friend who had supplied the Rowe hypnole. She was advised to call an ambulance, but I knew said that she couldn't because Joe didn't know and he would be furious. She said that Joe was didn't know that that she had given him a hypno, and that if you.
Don't call the ambulance for Joe would be because it'll be mad at me for giving him a hypno.
That's right, and the story she said that Joe was taking one breath every ten seconds. The friend said that she needed to do mouth to mouth resuscitation. Joe began vomiting black liquid. The friend told her time and time again to hang up and call an ambulance, but a news said it was all too late. The friend then told her new that if she didn't call the ambulance then she might have a murder change to deal with. At this point, a new disconnected the call. At twelve
ten PMS. Is on the Sunday, a new called emergency services.
So we're bordering on twenty four hours from when.
She hypno, not the heroine, but yeah, the rape and just watched him. She was absolutely hysterical on the phone, which we spoke about at the start. She continually changed the address or kind of justs gave a fake address. When asked for her name, she said her name was Olivia. The dispatcher told her to provide mouth to mouth resuscitation, but she couldn't because he was coughing up so much
blood and his teeth were cleanched shut. When paramedics arrived, well, I don't know, I don't know, this is what's I know. When paramedics arrived, a new waved them down. Joe was lying diagonally across the bed, naked from the waist down. He could not be resuscitated and knew begged them to keep trying, throwing herself onto his body. It wasn't supposed to happen this way, she said. We were supposed to go together. Oh God. When police arrived, they had to
physically remove anew from the bedroom. She explained that she had given Joe four or hypnoal tablets and then injected him. She promptly taken into custody.
She said, that's police, straight away, straight away. That's interesting.
On the twenty sixth of October, Joe's mother, Maria, was on the edge. Joe called her always to check in every Sunday, but this time he hadn't. When Joe still hadn't called, Maria called Joe, but was met with a police officer's voice.
Oh god.
Her blood ran cold. At the same time, there was an officer knocking on her door. The police told Maria and Nino that they were there about Joe. Maria begged them not to tell her anything more. She knew that Joe was gone, but she did not want to hear it. Family and friends traveled to the Margue to identify Joe. Robert, the Chinkway's godson, could hardly believe it. He had seen Joe smiling like he used to when he spoke about his car. Police explained that foul play was suspected and
anew had been taken into custody. Toxicology report showed high levels of heroin and roe hypnol. It was so ro hypnol itself is ten times stronger than vallium.
Oh wow. So yeah, it's probably a stupid question. I'm sure the answer is for sedation, but what is real hypno used forty someone unwittingly?
I don't know. It is a very strong sedative, I don't. I don't think we have it here, Yeah anymore.
I think you only hear about it used as it like, for exactly, because it's so strong, drugging people in nightclubs.
And exactly, and it's you know, ten times stronger than vallium just one. So yeah, imagine.
So I almost feel like I don't know why it exists, which I understand it's an ignorant comment, but it just feels like, why can people get it at all?
Yeah, it must be used if you have a prescription for it must be used for something, but I don't really know.
Like the was it fentanyl that Michael Jackson, Yeah, yeah, maybe that kind of thing.
Maybe that. Yeah. So it didn't take two long for Martiv row New's best friend to be brought in for questioning. Detectives soon learnt that Joe's murder had been planned for months. Anew had studied suicide methods extensively, and how to inject someone with heroin.
Then it's not suicide if it's injecting someone else.
Yeah, Anew needed to rely on her friend, Martivi, who had rehypnol, who had connections on how to obtain it. So yeah, Martive's friend who actually had the rhypnoal and how to obtain it. At both dinner parties, a New laced Joe's coffee with a sedative, So first it was it was another sedative, and then the second time it was hypnol. The first attempt to inject him with the heroin didn't work, it had congealed inside of the syringe. On the second evening, a New managed to inject a
fatal amount of heroin in his bloodstream. While he lay paralyzed and unable to save himself, Martive was taken to the station and was also charged for the murder of Joe Chinque Martavi said, I tried at every stage to intercede. Three days later, her parents secured her one hundred thousand dollars bail, but she had to remain under supervision. Most disturbing of all, a nurse sat and watched as Joe
suffered in pain for a very very long time. It was only when his lips started turning blue and started coughing blood, and people repeatedly taught her to call paramedics that a new called an acquaintance and told her that there had been an overdose.
I called an acquaintance, Well called her.
I remember she called the friend and said, oh do I do what I do? Every pressure second was eaten up with the wild goose chase. She put the paramedics through, giving incorrect information and even referring to herself as Olivia on the phone.
Yeah, I want to know more about that.
Meanwhile, Joe died of a cardiac arrest.
Is that most is that commonly what an overdose would cause?
I think I think it's pretty common. Yeah, I think it is pretty common. Yeah, yeah, especially when you can't you can't really breathe properly, and there's yeah, I don't know, like with Yeah. Police searched Joe's diary and found an appointment scheduled get ready to move, move urgent today. Joe was obviously trying to leave a new he wanted out.
I mean that's interesting in itself. One, why do you put that in your diary when you, yeah, live with someone. Two he was happy at the dinner party. By all accounts from other people, I don't know. Maybe they've said that because they feel like they realized they might be access.
To Yeah, well you know people, do you know, play nice in front of other people if there's other people around. I think. One year later, Anew and MARTIVI were scheduled to be tried together.
Oh wow, both charged with murder.
Yeah, this was this is what was going to happen. Yeah, A new was held in custody, a new phone of friend asking them to bring her all the high court cases where somebody had pled not guilty due to reasons of insanity.
I decided that's what she's going to that's what she's.
Going to go with. The joint trial began on October sixth, nineteen ninety eight, at the Supreme Court a new pled not guilty for reasons of diminished responsibility. This meant that she admitted to what she had done, but she could not be held liable for murder because of her mental
state at the time. She claimed that she was suffering from untreated borderline personality disorder, a major depressive disorder, which include explosive anger, unstable relationships, chronic fears of abandonment, and a false sense of reality.
I don't really know if any of them would.
Justify murder killing someone.
No, exactly.
Borderline personal disorder is an interesting one, Like, I don't really know heaps about that. I certainly know people who have had borderline personal disorder, and it is it is a very hut breaking thing to see someone.
Yes, I can't think of a case I've heard of where that's been successfully as a defense for killing somebody. But no, I could be very wrong. I just can't think of the time I've heard that.
No, it may have. The dealer who supplied the heroine was granted immunity for providing evidence against the pair. Many people came forward saying that they knew of the plans and that Martive assisted in carrying out the plan when pressed, when no one came forward at the time. No one could provide a sufficient explanation. That's why you got so angry before. We can't provide one. I'm so sorry.
I still waiting for you too. You haven't finished this story yet, and if you don't provide me, I'm really mad.
During the fourth week of the trial, the judge realized that mounting that mounting evidence against the pair would likely cause unfair prejudice against Martavi. He terminated the proceedings, deciding that Martive and Anu should be tried separately at a later date.
Wait what so understand that.
Realized that Mardive should not be tried with a new.
You can't do that four weeks into her trial?
Surely, well apparently they did.
What This whole thing is so confusing, Like none of the things you're saying sound like they're real.
I know, they're just words, I say the prosecution.
I've know you long enough now. I just listened to the words you say, and then after a while I go, wait, tell what?
Wait what? The prosecution offered Anew the opportunity to plead to manslaughter for a reduced sentence, but she refused, maintaining her innocence. While awaiting her second trial, Anew had a letter seized from her locker. It read, I've decided to write down how this happened to get it clear in my mind. Also, she went on to describe all of the events that led to Joe's death, starting with her and Martive going to the library to find the book
on assisted. She said that she had initially intended to end her own life, but then after reading about partners were married who had married a couple of years after their loved ones had died of suicide, she decided it was only fair that Joe would die with her. So that's not your choice because it'd be heartbroken. Blah blah blah.
No, that is not your choice.
From then, all she thought about was death. She wrote, Didn't I think at the time that these friends of mine were helping me to die? Didn't I stop and think that Joe was helping me to live? No? I felt compelled to do it because I thought everyone was against me and only cared if Joe died or not. No.
Sorry, I'm aware that at the start you said, you know, compassion or understanding for her, and maybe we're getting there, but right now quit with your poetic bullshit and just admit guilt.
She goes on, Then I wasn't sure where to call the ambulance because Martavy said that if you call the ambulance, he will leave you and put.
You in as Oh my God.
In a letter addressed to her mother, a new wrote, the most wonderful man in the world loved me so much, would have made a perfect husband and father ruined, perfect life ruined. Now everyone is better off than me when I had it all. I bet everyone is laughing at me now because of my own artist stupidity and selfishness. You must start preparing for my death. Now my life is over. I made the wrong choice when so many others were available at the time, worked with Druggies rather
than Joe. Should have protected him and worked with him. Now so many lives are ruined.
She's written this letter to her mind mother more than a year after Yeah.
A new solo trial began in March nineteen ninety nine. It was a judge only trial. Her plea. And there's also no way, Yeah, that you could have any kind of person in the camera that wouldn't have known about you. Her plea was not guilty. The defense stated that she suffered from borderline personal disorder and severe oppression since her teens. She was in a delusional world where she truly believed
that she was going to die from a disease. She was suffering from a depressive illness that culminated in Joe's death. Oh my God, psychiatrist spoke of a personal disorder as exacerbated by her substance abuse and bolimia. If she had sought help, it would have changed everything. The psychiatrist stated the new should be put into a facility, not to prison. The prosecution argued that her news actions were not impacted by her mental state and she was perfectly capable of
making rational decisions. This was proven by her waiting to call an ambulance, and by the time she did it it seemed as though she was hindering efforts to saves to save Joe's life by giving false information. They argued that she was depressed. She would have actually killed herself after Joe, not made not made her up sorry, not made a decision for herself after that fact, not to go. Her diara was also displayed, which was destroyed and pieced
back together, which showed a vengeance against Joe. She also watched him die, which was an act of extraordinary cruelty. Various witnesses described Anew as psycho dramatic and appeared healthy, which is why no one questioned whether she was serious in killing herself.
Which that's not fair.
A psychiatrist for the prosecution concluded that Anew was of sound mind when she killed Joe. Her problem was a lack of maturity, which impaired her from being able to control her moods or temper. She had actually called a friend to ask for help, which showed that she was trying to remove any guilt away from her and worried about the consequences. Justice Crispin acknowledged the profound challenges of
the case. He was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that she intended to murder Joe, but he also accepted that she was suffering from an abnormality of mind. It was impossible to determine what she was thinking at the time or what led her to take such actions. The case was absolutely massive. Camera crews and journalists were everywhere ready for the verdicts. The Hinque sat at the front of the courtroom awaiting the verdict. They did not miss a day
of court, Maria was sobbing into her handkerchief. The family could not accept that so many people knew of a news claims and that no one, particularly at both dinner parties, did anything about it. Just as Crispin addressed Anew directly, in the next few years, you will have to come to terms with the fact that you killed the man you love. You have caused immense pain. If you find the moral courage, you may be able to rebuild from this wreckage, to repay the trust people have put in you.
He then declared her not guilty of Joe's murder, but guilty of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. Wow and Neew was sentenced to only ten years in prison, with a non parole period of four years backdated to the time of Joe's death. She would be eligible in two years. When Justice Crispin left the courtroom, Maria turned to Anu and said, this is where you belong. You stay forever Rodin, How you bitch devil, She's a demon? My son, that's
all four years? How can you sleep at night? Four years? Is that all my son is worth? So sad, so sad. Maria told the journalis outside that Anu should have been sentenced to death. It was widely believed that Anu had fooled the court into believing that she wasn't of sound mind. Joe Chinque was twenty six years old. He was looking forward to sharing his life with his girlfriend, a new singer. He had supported her and he stayed with her with all her ailments, real or not real. She herself called
him the most wonderful man in the world. She was premeditated, she planned to kill him, and she was acquitted of murder for diminished responsibility. Six months later, Martivi Rau pled not guilty for fuck sake. The prosecution stated that she was criminally responsible for aiding a knew she was fully aware of the plot to kill Joe and failed her
duty of care. The prosecution believed that she was present when Anu put the sedatives in Joe's coffee or a hypnoal that morning at six am, but it could not be proven what time this all happened and when Joe was injected. When she saw Joe ill in his bedroom, she did not have a duty of care and she was a friend, not a spouse.
No no no, no, no, no no no.
The defense maintained that she had no more legal responsibility than a complete stranger.
Yeah. Sorry, surely there's still a duty of care for a stranger. If you see someone with blue lips past us, absolutely do something about it.
She was alarmingly passive in her friendship with ANEW and went to unhealthy lengths to put her friend's needs ahead of her own. She had difficulty standing up for herself. She taught a classmate, I've got a friend who's suicidal. She smothers me. A prison welfare officer overheard Anew putting the pressure on Martivi about getting their stories straight. Martivi was declared not guilty, fuck off of all chargers, fuck off. Although her story was suspicious, they could not prove that
she shared a news criminal intent. Maria and Nino had to be escorted out of the court for their protesting about what had happened. Nino collapsed and was rushed to hospital with heart problems. Martiv was let off.
She was now free, just not guilty, completely, just acquitted.
Yeah, she was allowed to leave. A new later said it's my fault entirely. I was hysterical and she just loved me and wanted to help me. What would sending her to jail have really done, would it have eased Maria and Nino's pain anymore.
That's not the only point of a guilty verdict. That's not the only point of punishment and rehabilitation, of retribution.
Having some sort of justice. It seemed this perpetuating sorrow on so many people. Her family would have suffered as my family suffered. I don't put any blame on Martyvi. I Knew served her sentence in a maximum security prison, where she worked in a prison library and shootd other inmates. She underwent psychotherapy and was prescribed for medication to treat depression, anxiety, and conbolsy disorder. She was later transferred and granted day
release to the University of Sydney. In October two thousand and one, she was released on paroul at the age of just twenty nine, two years old. Two years yeah, only a few years older than Joe was when his life was taken away from him. In two thousand and four, she breached her parole conditions for smoking cannabis and went
back to prison for three months. In two thousand and nine, she was awarded a doctorate from the University of Sydney for a thesis offending women toward a greater understanding of women's pathways into and out of crime in Australia. She has since admitted that she lied in nineteen ninety seven when she told a counselor that Joe had been abusive to her. Joe had expressed frustration with her, but he
never indicated that he wanted to leave her. She had told him various times of her intention to take her own life, but he encouraged her to keep living. Then asked why she did it, she said, there's absolutely no legitimate or rational motivation at all. Martyve changed her name and moved to the United States with her husband and kids. She got to have a life. Yeah, A lot of the people who went to the party on those nights
went on to finish their law degrees. The townhouse has since been demolished to make way for a new government housing project. Joe's childhood room remains untouched. The Chinquays are, of course still the Chinquays are, of course still perplexed as to why no one came to Joe's aid. If you see a dog on the street from a car accident, you call somebody to help the bloody dog her father,
Nino said so his father, Nino said. Joe Chinquay's death has often been cited as a tragic example of the bystander effect, a social cycle logical claim where people are less likely to help someone if others are present, believing someone else will act. A new made a public apology to the Chinhwui family on television a Current Affair in two thousand and seven scene, saying, there are many things people don't understand. There's a lot of things that have
been overlooked. I was suffering from a very very severe mental illness of the time. If I could have listened to people and sought the right sort of mental help, this wouldn't have happened. I would like to say to Maria and Nino that I am deeply, deeply sorry for what happened, and to that if I could, if there was any way I could turn back the clock, I would do so in a heartbeat. In the same episode, Muru rejected the apology, calling Anew the devil and responding,
don't tell me this bullshit. You have killed the most precious thing I had in my life, my first son, my firstborn, the one who was going to carry his grandfather's name is not here anymore. Maria Chinque believes that Joe wasn't just betrayed by a new but also the entire justice system. In the book Joe's Hinque's Consolation, Helen Ghana goes to visit Justice Crispin, who presided over the case. Maria had called him all kinds of names and said that she hoped a child of his was murdered so
he would understand. Justice Crispin understood her hurt and frustration. In fact, he had lost a child.
Too, Oh God.
Helen asked him about his lenient ruling in the case of Sing. He said both her parents were doctors. They were terrified about the way she was behaving. They lugged her to doctors and psychiatrists, and then twice tried to have her locked up as an involuntary patient. Imagine how frightened you'd have to be about your own child to want to do that. Justice Crispin also goes on to say about Martavi, I think Rau was very coerced as
to what to do. She was paralyzed with indecision. I think Rau was very concerned as to what to do. I think it means she was paralyzed with indecision. Her friend was saying, these things that were off the planet. Nobody else was taking it seriously. Should she take it seriously? What if she blew the whistle and rang the police and then it all turned out to be a hoax.
That doesn't matter.
By the time of her release, Arne already had a boyfriend who she met during her trial. Back in nineteen ninety nine. She spent eighteen months at the remand center, where male and female inmates were able to make contact. She had three romantic attachments in that time, but only one serious, who later went on to become her partner. After being released, they moved to Sydney together. I Knew managed to finish her PhD in prison and actually wanted
to become a criminologist. I Knew attempted to make a documentary about prison and approach the founder of a victim support group called Enough Is Enough. The founder's response was that if she wanted to genuinely help people, yes, but if she wanted to make a film, then forget about it. Like if she just wanted to make a film, then
just forget about it. They never heard back from a new A few months later, a new spoker out about how annoyed she had been about the public mistreatment and how difficult she felt it was to get a job in a chosen field. Her boyfriend was quoted as saying she wasn't an angel, but has served her time two years. In the book Joe Chinquay's Consolation by Helen Ghana, she starts out wanting to talk to a new to Martivi to get their sides of the story, but what she
realizes is that she needed to get to dojo. She visited with his family so many times and learned not to sit in Joe's chair every time she visited that was his as if they were waiting for him to return home. They also had a photo of him in the kitchen, and when Halen would bring something along like a bottle of wine, it was placed next to Joe as if he was waiting for his house guest. I'd like to end today with Helen talking about sitting with
Maria Chinkway on the couch of their family home. They're watching Joe at a wedding that he was empt seeing. He looked somehow different from his companions at the wedding, with his rather harsh haircut that swept any kind of mullet, bared his long, slender neck, and stripped his cheeks of sideburns. How much of this was projecting with the knowledge I had a horrible fate. It was magic, thinking, sentimental. I tried to pull myself into line. But it wasn't the
only person to be struck by Joe. An occasual moment of proceedings with the guests were attacking the dessert and nothing for more was in progress, where children were tearing about the dance floor among the drifting balloons, and Joe was just standing there alone behind the long bridle table, smiling benignly and looking around him with a calm, bright curiosity. The camera zoomed in discreetly and framed him front, arm,
head and shoulders against the dark curtain. It had no reason to single him out in that moment, let alone focus on his agreeable face. But it found him, and it dwelt on him. It lingered intimately, and without he's ever realizing, for a good seven or eight seconds. His face was fine and sensitive, still faintly blurred look with youth not yet said in the hard lines of manhood. He looked like a man who was lightly poised on
the very rim of the world he came from. I sat on his parents couch and watched him with my heart in my mouth. Maria too ceased her murmured commentary. We gazed in silence on our undefended son. That g is a devastating case of jo chinqua.
Thanks. I hate it. Oh my god, We've never cried this much. Do you think we should take a break.