Approache Production.
Welcome back to Our Little Lady, and this is a bit of a different episode. Last week we asked you, the audience of the podcast, to see if you had any questions that you wanted to ask Jason and Amanda. We had stacks of replies, but we needed to choose small number of listeners to jump on a call to ask any questions you wanted of Jason and Amanda. Let's cross to that live recording last week. Jason and Amanda, Hello, good evening, how are you. This is a bit different
than what we normally do. Right. Normally most of our chats are on signal where we can't see each other. But tonight we've been joined by a whole bunch of listeners to our Little Lady, and they've got some questions, and obviously I've got some questions, and maybe I might start with how's the last couple of weeks been since we spoke? Any new developments In Eden's case, There's.
Been a couple things eventuated and a few things that have closed up. And Jackie's putting a brochure out.
So we're talking about Jackie Lamby. She's a massive supporter. What's the contents of that newsletter.
Look, it's gone to every marlbox in Tasmania, I believe, And it's just Jackie showing recognition to her support for getting answers and the autopsy photos for Eden and an inquest into Eden's death. And like I said, I believe that's going to every mailbox in Tasmania.
How do you feel about reading that?
Justice for Eden? In July, I was proud to give a speech that raised many unanswered questions about the death of Eden Westbrook. She was a vibrant fifteen year old who was found hanging in a tree almost ten years ago. The police and the current A deemed it a suicide. But something doesn't seem right, especially considering Paul Reynolds, the disgraced policeman convicted of child abuse, was overseeing Eden's case.
I don't know what happened to Eden, but her parents, Jason and Amanda, along with their other children, deserve answers. This is a case I won't stop pursuing.
We've got a bunch of questions, but I do want to start just before we go to some questions. Firstly with you, Jason. I'm a dad myself, as you know, to young girls who are Edie's age fifteen ten sixteen Father's Day on the weekend.
Look, I've got a lot of love and support from my family and my children that are alive and looking after me.
Mate.
They're sensitive and they're caring, and yeah, I couldn't be proud of to be a dad of all of my children. And unfortunately, some days send a shipmate, and as you know, one of those days we lost Eden. And it's nearly ten years now, mate, so ten Fathers days. Yeah, it's still tough, it's raw.
Now we're going to go to a from someone now the questions from Danny l So from Danielle, my question is do you think Sergeant Paul Reynolds destroyed the autopsy photos? And also how far would have Eden fallen. Let's take the first question first, Jason, Amanda.
If anybody had the chance to destroy the autopsy photos, I think that Paul was in the position to do so and was capable. However, I still hope they're there.
What we do know from sort of everything we've talked about and all the RTI stuff, and we believe the autopsy photos do exist. Is that right?
However, they would never part or form part of Eden's file, Joe. Now, they do have them in their hands or in their office on their records, so they've set them since our requests, actually since Channel nine's requests. My assumption, and I could be wrong, is they're not adequately. They're not adequate. Mate, We're not going to get the answers we're asking for. I've been mindful. The Current has stated in an email
that they never formed part of the file. So we don't feel the Current has ever had the autopsy photos before your podcast, before Channel Line's airing of the request to get those autopsy photos to us to get doctor Richard Barron Collins to do it, as.
To our knowledge that we've been told that.
And the second part of the question, Jail happy to answer that the branch that Eden lost their life from was I would say four to five meters high off the ground the branch itself. To get to that branch, you had to get into the v of the tree. I'm six foot one. I think I've mentioned this before. I needed a mate to get me up the tree when we were putting lights up the tree. It was quite a difficult tree. Then you had to straddle it.
Then you had to get out to the branch eat and died from the height from the all would have been around like I said, four to five meters. Eden was one fifty six, so the weight height would have been three meters of yeah, would have dissipated the neck.
Mate.
We were looking right up at it.
Even Kim, the lady that you had recently on that was delivery driver, she said Eden was eight hundred to a meter high when she saw her. And yet it's in the report she was twenty centimeters from the ground. Either way, massive fall for anyone to fall with something around their neck, yeah, or to drop Yeah.
But if we had seen the footage, we would have seen if Eden was actually capable of this. That's why it was so important to me to see that footage because I would have been able to tell you if my child was capable of doing that to herself or not. And the yeah questions were two questions. Yeah, it was a big.
And that footage you were talking about there, Amanda, was the CCTV footage, right, the footage that has never been recovered but no existed. There's a couple of other questions here, one from Tassia. Have you been to crime stoppers and asked them if they've had any anonymous calls that have come through regarding Eden's case.
No, We've put a request in several titles through a first lawyer. We put in a request to have all Triple O calls on the seventeenth and eighteenth of February, because we were told that these things are only kept for seven years on record, So we made written requests to the coroner's office and requested for the current to access those to see on what phone calls may or may not have been sent on those dates. The Triple O calls will never formed part of again, the file
of Eden's death with the coroner. She never even after a request, they weren't obtained, So we have never seen anything.
Yes, answering the question, we have requested on numerous occasions for the Triple zero calls of any kind that related to Eden's death or hers her being alive even the night before.
I'm pretty sure the RTI we have out now one of them is that as well. Again, Jay, just we're not sure of the time frame or loss we may have there.
And just to jump in, there is a current RTI and all calls to crime stoppers from twenty fifteen to now that's been lodged recently. And for those that don't know an RTI has a right to information request. Let's head over to Maddie, who's also got a question. Guys, h Hello, Hi.
I've got a couple of questions. My first question is have you ever been told what happened with all the evidence, etc. Like the rope, the ug roots, everything else. Have they ever said where that is or have you ever seen any of that?
No, great question, and the answer is no, No, we don't know where it is. We don't know where the rope is. There's discrepancy over the rope, as you would have heard in Jay's podcast. I believe the rope was a twenty five or mooring rope, so that we were there on the morning we saw it.
All we received from the police was a little bracelet that had an engraved insane love. That's that's all we got back from the police.
And that was ten days or twelve days after eating pasted.
And they've never said anything about it.
It's disgraceful.
I really wanted us to go away, Maddie, that's.
For them. And on the evening, which was twelve days after eating passed, when they gave us Eden's hope and Love bracelet that she was wearing on the night and with those two words they're engraved on her rose at the park where she passed. At Official Memorial Park, we actually have the words love and hope engraved on Eden's rose, which is that's if anyone want to know, that's why. And on that day we gave them a painting which was given to us at Eden's funeral by people that
would visit us in Saint Helen's. An elderly couple they were picking up their daughter from the Lonceston Wood for care of people that were going.
Through mental issues severely.
So they asked if their daughter could attend Eden's funeral. We were happy for them to bring this girl because Eden had actually met her. And when they were picking her up, there was another girl there. Kate was there in the wood. She heard that this girl was going
to Eden's funeral. She's raced over to these people and given them a painting of the bay and the tree and with her name on it Kate on the back and her phone number and said to mister and missus Turner, if you're going to Eden's funeral, give this to Jason and Amanda, they need to call me. I have information on what happened to Eden, and again when the police come with her Hope. I actually gave it to Constables that painting with Kate's phone number, and I said, I
can't ring her. I just don't want to talk to her. But you guys used to it, and that painting has never been No one knows where it what happened to them, and Kate only got interviewed last year.
Jay just that, Maddie, did you have any other questions for Jason, Amanda or anything else you'd like to Yeah, I do.
In regards to the police officers that dealt with Eden's case, have any of them ever reached out to either of you to or apologize for the outcomes, or you know, apologize that they wish they had done more or anything like that.
No, they haven't. However, we did have an incident with one of our daughters that needed ambulance and a police officer came who claimed that he wasn't at the scene on the day, but he knew that we both knew that he was, and he chose that day to apologize for the actions of him on the day. And since and I was a bit annoyed, and I just told him, if that's what you're here to do, no, this is not the time of the place to do this. I'm
actually needing the ambulance. And they'd sent police and we were really annoyed that that was your case.
Look, one police officer did jay and the guy was Smiths, Consortable Smithurst. He would often come past the park when we were there and he'd always come and have a chat. He was one of those officers that was very approachable and he's actually the officer that Tom Eden was last thinger live at two. I am un escape of the night, a woman arguing now, he apologized on behalf of the police. He also stated that not all the police in that station get on as any workplace.
This is Ruth Jason, Amanda.
Hello, is it working.
Yeah, We've got your high Ruth.
Okay, good. How are you hello? How are you hi?
Ruth?
I'm good. Yeah. My question is to get more attention to Eden's case. What can we do as listeners. You know, I've listened from the very start and then up to date. I'm eating's age as well. I'm twenty five, and I feel very connected to it, like what can we do as a public group, like we've created quite a community. Yeah, does like hassle from assholep in government situations or.
This in this case, this is about so much about our community, this movement. It's more than just Jason and I fighting for Eden's rights. This is about people's rights and the way change that we're going through. And generosity isn't charity. So I think eventually we may need a fundraiser because the lawyer that we may embark on may not be pro bono.
Share our story through Jay's podcast is the most ubble tool we have at the moment. The more people hearing our story, the more support we get in listeners, we get to support in the petition, we put pressure on the government, We put pressure on the Tasmanian authorities to really look into this. So, yeah, that's what I would want. Because we're pretty humble, Amanda and I, we don't ask for much. Jay's given us so much more than we
could ever expect. With this story, going to you, to all these people that are listening and supporting Amanda, you may have been one of the people that's written. So we get back. She gets back to everyone, and that's empowering because there's days we're broken. We're not as strong as Jayson made us look. Maybe because you know we are human. You know we have tough days. Hearing our story,
sharing our story, telling your friends, telling your family. It's a tough one to hear, I know for some people, but it needs to be told.
And that's what we feel like we're We've been so diplomatic in our movements and so passive, and we really just want people to be passive in their movements when they're making change.
What Amanda's saying, We've got to do this with love. There's no anger, there's no hate. This isn't a witch hunt. We want to get to the truth for it, for the love of Eden, or for people for justice, because this could be anyone's sister, anyone's friend, anyone.
And when you think about Jason and I as two grown adults who are very wrong, together, we know what's right from wrong. We've knocked on so many doors to try and get to the bottom of this. If you're an eight year old, or a nine year old, or a fifteen year old, or even a fifteen year old like Eden, who do you go and talk to about this? When all the doors just keep slamming, even to these adults that are kind of defending a vulnerable person.
Ruth, thanks so much for your question, and I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Here's a question for everyone. Will you trust figures of authority if required in the future. I wonder where we turn to in the time of crisis. As a parent, it terrifies me that the people who are supported to support us to protect our children can be the powers that destroy them.
Well, I've got to say yes. For the reason being there has been a couple of occasions in my life, going through my childhood into a young adult woman, and even at the scene a few months afterwards, there was there always seems to be a good cop, bad cop, and if you get the bad cop, well it's just going to be a real ugly scene. But if you get the good cop, you do get all those qualities that the police do stand by and one of us I gave Hunter after she was harassed by a security
guard hired by the counsel. He was so disturbed by the way the scene was handled, the way that our family was getting handled. He gave her his mobile number and said give this to your parents, and they had to call me any time. Now I only had to call him twice, but he still come good. And you know, yeah, you do need to still trust the authorities because.
There's good people that work there. Yeah, of course, yeah, there's good people in the uniforms.
Tassi asked some more questions about this, and so I might just read these, given that she can't jump on. What do we know about Kate? Is Kate the lady who has seen arguing with Edie on the CCTV.
I don't believe. So we believe Kate was. We believe Kate Leeward.
And there so that I don't know what that mate, because what we what we have heard from smith Hurst, who is now deceased, was that the person on the cct was an older person.
Correct, right, And see I feel when Chris was telling me that he was talking of a middle aged woman like my age in the sense of in the forties or fifties, just the way the conversation was, it was an older woman. Where Kate at the time was twenty one, Eden was fifteen. You wouldn't be calling a twenty one year old and older woman, you know, I certainly wouldn't be anyway, I'd be calling she was with a teenager, a younger woman, not an older woman. It just yeah,
I've been given a name. I've actually been given a couple of names. I'm not going to say those obviously, but yeah. Eden was also seen arguing in Thompson Court with an older woman too. I don't know if that's been said. That's the same night saying on the path down to skate park. She was also seen when we've got that person doesn't want to come on the show and doesn't want to make a witness statement because they're frightened.
And there was another older woman, just a little bit older than me that was seen having an argument with her as well. So there was a few women arguing with the fifteen year old that night.
Jay, what are the people that were with Eden that night? Comments ring you. You know, we know that you didn't killed, We know you weren't part of her death, but we know, you know something. We know there was more than just Kate with We know there's a lot of people because like, just do it, get it off your back. It just come forward to you. You can do it anonymously, Jay, and you can get a statement from or an interview.
You know you will keep and protect it. We just want to know who, what, when and why, and it's going to take more than what we got because you know you, We've tried with the Chief Magistrate, We've asked the Crown several times. We need a little bit more.
The other question for Tassire, I think I can answer this one. Is there any evidence that Kate has been linked to Paul Reynolds. The answer is no, there's not. We don't have any of that and we've never claimed that she did know Paul Reynolds. So yeah, thanks for your questions. Taste are really great questions, and we appreciate you jumping a question from Kim here and I'll read it out because I think it's a good discussion point.
Would we ever consider recreating an enactment of or recreating an enactment of Eden's suspected movements on the night for social media platforms that can be shared? So that's not that's a great idea, Kim. What we do know, just to refresh everyone's memory, we know about Eden's movements on the evening in the shed. Now we know that she went to the car, and then we know that she left the property at some point and we know that she was spotted underneath a CCTV camera at two a m.
And there was at Chompson Court as well.
The next time she was seen was was at five to seven the next day when when the delivery driver Kim saw her and reported it. And so I guess, really tough, Kim, I guess to create something like that with that small bit of information. But we believe. And when I say we, I think I speak for you too, Jason and Amanda, that that there are people out there who know at least some information that haven't yet come forward. And that's I guess what you were just saying, Jason.
Like exactly you're going to make you say a bit of an I can please go ahead, it's.
Get it off your chest. And you can do that anonymously. You can do it anonymously to crime stoppers if that's what you want to do. Equally, you can do it anonymously. I know I saw Jason's face grew up there. You can do it anonymously to us if you like. We can take a statement. We can lodge that however you'd like it lodged. And equally, we don't have to put everything that we hear on the podcast and just.
Quickly before I forget mate, you see my face when you mentioned unstopped is okay? The reason I am hesitant for people to go to the police because I feel people already have I personally, and this is just my belief. People have actually gone to give their evidence, have even gone into the police station, and they've been told I'm
not interested. We've blinked ourselves to what's going on. So wow, if there's people that have done that, some of them won't go back because you've been shut down by the police. I don't want those people. I actually would like the people that may have gone to the police to come to you, to come to someone I can trust, because I'm sorry, I just don't trust the Sanaan's police station. Mate. I still don't trust the Sanaan's police station. I live in San's, Mate. None of them say good a to me.
I'm not their fucking enemy, mate. I live in the community there. I'm part of the community. I lost a child in the main street fifty meters from your police station. You should say good ay to me. You don't have to ignore me. I'm not your enemy. You know, we're not your enemy. We want to work with you.
We want, but that's been the difference. It has been them against us, and that's how it feels. It's very juvenile action.
And we know this because you said, Joe, there's good men and women in that uniform.
Amanda has asked, not you, Amanda, but another Amanda who's on the chat has asked, is the reason you're not coming forward? That's people coming forward? Because Saint Helen's is such a small town.
Yeah, yeah, I don't believe that, because people are kind of having conversations about what they know whilst I'm around them or they're behind me, so they know that there's a candid conversation happening Insane Helen's with.
Some people and they're willing to have it behind me, but they're not willing to discuss it with somebody else.
Is The Support's very secretive in Saint Helen's day. Many people support us, but it's not out giving us a hug in the main streets, very quiet and is no one looking. Because I don't want to be seen actually giving you guys support, because I've got a mortgage to pay, I've got a lifestyle that i want to continue to live if I'm seeing supporting you. I could lose my job and my connection to my paying my mortgage off or my children's education. So we understand that. But yeah, it's a yeah.
I don't understand it because if you've got a child, then you should be standing up for the child. We all know what's going on there now, and we all should be coming together and standing up, and nobody should be intimidated to speak to Jason and I. We've put our hearts out on more than one occasion on every platform that we could possibly have. We're approachable. People have approached us, but for some reason we can clear a room in Saint Helen's Hi.
My question is regarding the rope. I just don't understand where Eden got it from and how.
She got the rope from. Across the road at the wharf. We believed the name. Am I allowed to say the name of the ship? We were told you, Yeah, of course you can. Yep, Yeah, it is the Nasalie. It was at port in the wharf that night, and that's apparently where the rope come from. So it was about one hundred meters one hundred and fifty meters from the tree. Eden was found in the rope where she was sourced it from the wharfs across.
The road, and Amanda, in your initial statement to police, which I think we've mentioned in the podcast, you thought that maybe the rope had come from your place, and then after you went back to the house and went actually all of our ropes sore where they should be, so it's definitely from that boat across the road.
When I seen the rope, I thought it's a crape pot rope, and then as I got closer, it was actually a mooring rope. And when the officer heard that, he translated it to our craypots.
So they're green and yellow, and there are certain colors. The rope Eden was found in was exactly the same color as our craypot ropes. That's where Amanda may have thought it was this rape brought from home. We don't have twenty five mooring ropes that color. We only have ten mili crypot ropes. That's what you use in cray potting. None of our crypot ropes were missing. They're all accounted for. And again, it wasn't a ten mil rope, which has
been written in the report. It was definitely a thicker rape I was there I saw it. I was actually quite concerned at the size of the rope that Eden had used.
Danny Els just ASTs to question the chat and this will be one of our last questions around the rope. Again. Did they do any DNA testing on the rope? And if the rope still exists in evidence they.
Rate it off by nine o'clock as suicide. Why would your DNA the rope when the child's still hanging in it?
Sorry, do you know if that rope still exists?
I doubt it. I don't know, but I doubt it. I just I wouldn't imagine it would Jay saying it's mill rope. We're saying it's a twenty five mil rope. They're saying it's twenty seven minutes off the ground. We're saying it's eight hunderd and two a meter off the ground. Best if that rope disappears, mate, Yeah, there are some tree. Best if the tree disappears, to be mindful the tree disappear before the crime's findings will let out.
Mate.
You know, so a lot of things disappear. Footage disappeared, Three things disappeared, rope, footage, tree, Jeez, you haven't got much to you can't reenactivate that. You can't set that tree back up to see the fall. You can't do any forensics on the tree because it's no longer there. It wasn't there before the coroner made the findings really unusual. The rope, Yes, they definitely haven't got the rope mate.
This will be our final question. Amanda just just come back and said, are you sure eton got the rope or someone else?
Well, just recently, somebody did say to me that was she picked up from when she left home? Did somebody pick her up? And that was a strange question to me in the street.
It's just a question.
Yeah, I guess everyone becomes a sleuth, right once you've heard this story and once you actually look into it, there are you know, like we've seen in the chat today, like when we did our investigation, and continue to there are always new questions that come up. There are always new things that you go what about?
And Yeah, watching a movie, you go back and watch a movie a second time, you see something you didn't see the first time. Same as your podcast. You go back to an episode, there's things you've missed, and then there's so much many more questions, more and more questions are just getting.
Involved that we'd never even put that into the equation that perhaps someone picked her up she walked out onto the highway, And when someone's just mentioned that, I sort of thought, oh, well, where's that come from.
If they took her own and she decided that's what she wanted to do right there in that location. Why and then if we go to yj any girl or any person that may take their life at that age, when we look at the whys, and that doesn't really get investigated because she's written off suicide, depressed and had suicidal tendencies, there's a reason why, and we all can look into the Commission of Inquiry why. You know, people are taking their lives because of grooming and assault by
adults on that child. So this is where we look into Eden's Was she groomed? So it doesn't matter to me whether Eden was up with our plan and was murdered, which is quite possible, or Eden died of suicide, which is possible, but I don't think so we need to know why. We need to know why she was murdered, or we need to know why she died of suicide,
and if it was suicide, what caused it? She was from a good home, good family, good loving family, loving siblings, and this kid ends up dead in the main street of a small seaside town.
Yeah.
Too many questions have got to be answered on that night, on Eden's prior movements and what was happening to Eden with adults on her phone, and we need to get to those. Answer to Jay and I guess that's why we keep on shouting it out mate.
Also, the park had no relevance to our family or to Eden. However it did to Kate. Kate spent her childhood playing in this area unattended, and that park was significant to them. As the fisherman said, he thought it was a blanket hanging at three am that the children had left there, that the ones that.
Normally play that Jason, Amanda, I'm going to give you the floor for a second just to say thank you to everyone that's joined us on the chat tonight.
Thank you so very much for your time, your thoughts, your support. Honestly, support is necessary. If you can give support, only is strong enough to give support. But what I've found is that people that have given support, my small response back has given them support in turn. And like I said, there's to those mothers that have come to me that have lost a child. It's not good enough that we should have to be doing this. It's too many.
There's too many mothers and there's too many fathers that are dealing with children that have been lost under suspicious circumstances that has been suggested that it's suicide. And that's not good enough.
And I'm going to quickly butt in and say thanks guys, thanks j thanks to the audience, thanks to your questions. I am not into sympathy. I've said that I'm into strength. I appreciate everyone's sympathy. I can see a lots written to a mander of empathy and sympathy. However, I'm all about strength. So with that sympathy, we feel it, we love it in the sense that the support, but your strengths what we need. So yeah, we'll live with the strength of all you people that are supporting us in
that way. That's how i want to thank you guys. Thank you.
Of course, if you've got a question that hasn't been asked, or maybe you know information, you can always send it to us. The email address is what happened to Eden at gmail dot com. We'll put that in the show notes. You also heard throughout the episode of how you can help Jason and Amanda share this story. You can do it a couple of ways. If you can hit the follow button on the app you're listening to this podcast on right now and leave a review that'll help share
the story far and wide. And of course, you can always sign the petition at change dot org. The link is in the show notes. Thanks for listening