04: Love and Other Bruises

This podcast contains information and details relating to suicide. We urge anyone struggling with their emotions to contact Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen thirteen eleven fourteen or visit them at lifeline dot org dot AU. A twenty four year old devoted mother of two fleeing a violent relationship. As bags pack car running, her daughters strapped into the backseat.

Mom told me that she needed to go back inside to grab something.

Panic.

I Amy is dead, Sir aim his dead?

Eight confusion about five minutes, say sit not to suicide.

One hundred percent.

This is emersing. What do you think is really the honest truth about Amy?

The Truth About Amy?

Episode four, I'm Liam Bartlett.

And I'm Alison's Andy.

Amy sits on the end of her bed, brushing her daughter's hair as they sing along to Taylor Swift Go Sing. Amy knows her partner, David Simmons will be home any minute now. Amy's smile fails. There are a lot of home movies with Amy and her daughter's good job, including Naya's second birthday party, excursions and activities explorer like painting with watercolors in the park.

Hey Hi.

And family get togethers now.

I am.

Most of these don't include David, but when he is in the frame, Amy certainly appears less comfortable. Fair to say, her closest friends were completely aware of her problems with David.

It was a rollercoaster on and off, up and down. I think every relationship has their troubles, but theirs was more bad than good.

Eron Gower met Amy in high school. The pair had children around the same age and trusted each other implicitly.

Our long phone calls or just a quick text or.

Aaron says, while they could tell each other anything. She regrets not being more critical of Amy's relationship with Simmons.

I just wanted to be more of someone that she could open up to if she had you know, everyone wants someone to vent to about their relationship without any judgment. If she was to complain to her mom or you know, one of his family members, they might have tried to steer away or make her feel bad for staying or so. I always just wanted to be that person that she could openly speak to.

You tried very hard just to be non judgmental.

Yeah.

Yeah, I didn't want her to feel, you know, like I was pushing her to leave or anything. But when the times did come that they were in a down place in their relationship, I always offered come and stay with me, Like I just always tried to open my door so that she knew that she had somewhere to come and feel comfortable.

And during those times, were you secretly hoping that she would stay away? Oh?

Yeah, yeah she. I think one time that they were sort of apart, she started to talk to someone new and that was exciting, and you know, sort of tried to coach her and oh, this is fun, and you know it's so good, and you probably feel regreat and all that sort of thing. But then you know, David had this way about him and he would sort of lure her back in and then they were back on the roller coaster again.

What was it about their relationship that was that was bad to you as an observer?

I think Amy was She's a really nice person, a people pleaser, and I think David was very demanding or controlling. You know, he had to sort of have his say in everything, and Amy wasn't really allowed to work, but prior to him, she had multiple jobs. You know, she was sort of really independent and a social butterfly, But yeah, he sort of made sure that what he wanted was

Did you directly witness any of that controlling behavior.

I saw him overpower her before physically, Yeah, physically in what way. I've always went to her house for playdates. You know, our kids were the same age. So one time when I was at her house, he should have been at work, but he came home really early. It was before lunchtime. We were just in the lound room and he sat on the couch next to her, and I can't remember what the conversation was or anything, but Amy was a really small, really little frame. Pretty petite, yeah,

She would have been embarrassed.

Also, Yeah, yeah, that's why she sort of laughed it off as a you know, he's playing around or it's okay, but you could see that it wasn't.

And you could tell that it was obviously a forceful grab around the neck.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, No one really wants to be put into that position of being folded in half.

Liam pulls out a photograph of a woman's neck turned to the side. Erin had told police about it when she was finally able to speak to someone, and when she followed it up, they said they couldn't find it. I found it within twenty minutes of getting access to Amy's iPhone data. There are visible red marks across the neck, indicating a recent trauma. The image property shows the date as Tuesday, the tenth of July twenty twelve, at about six thirty pm.

Erin, I've got a photograph that I believe Amy said this to you on via tech? Is that right?

She did send me a photo.

We've got a photograph here that's blown up of a rather large bruise on Amy's neck.

That is it?

See?

I got told that they didn't find.

This, The police didn't find it. Yeah, well we did, and it's on her neck. I mean those sort of bruises don't get there just by chance, do they.

This is the first time I've seen it since it happened.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean.

To that's gay.

See.

I tried so hard to make sure that I could get this available to Anna to back you know, the stories of how he treated her.

Well, I would have thought this is clear evidence of the domestic violence that was going on, And for her to take that photograph and text it on the phone means that she was also very worried. Yeah, ye, why did she send you that?

She always told me all the bad things that had happened, you know, when they fought and that sort of stuff.

I mean, was that a cry for help or is she just saying, look, this should be sort of on the record.

Maybe both. Maybe I just didn't take it as her cry for help could have been. But yeah I didn't. I don't know. I was the same age. I was young as well, and you know, if I could go back in time, definitely I would try and help her get out quicker, knowing you know what was happening.

It's hard, though, it was not when you get between people in a relationship. Yeah, as you say, I mean, it's a difficult thing to do anyway, full stop.

Yeah, Like Amy didn't want to. She already had one father to a child, and now she's got a second child's dad in the picture, and so she.

Was desperate to make this work.

She wanted to make her family work. Was always on and off. And you know, she gave him all these chances, but he just never grew up.

What sort of man does that?

Though?

It too? Yeah, a woman's.

Name, yep, And like I said, she was tiny.

One day, Amy sent erin a text about how she hoped to escape her Bush prison.

Back on Facebook.

Loll erin, I'm so annoyed right now, David rocks up at four point thirty am, jumps in bed. I ask what's wrong. He said he's pissed off because he lost his phone, Samsung Galaxy S two in Bush, no insurance. I say, you're pissed off because you're on drugs. He laid there quiet, so I asked him again. He replies, yeah, I had a few tokes of crack. By this time, my heart is pounding so hard. I see red and start punching into him. He then man handles me, choking

The first time that I got really worried was he made jokes about if he was ever to do anything to her, he was ever to kill Amy, He had options of what he could do with her body.

What possible context couldn't that have been.

It was the end of one of their kid's birthday party, so it was just us three sitting out the front of the house in Pinjarra. Everyone had left and we're just hanging out.

Was he drunk, Yeah, he'd been drinking.

Your day, Amy was sort of you know, dealing with all the party or the guests and the kids and all that sort of stuff. And this was the time that I ever was like, this person's a little bit unhinged. You don't really joke about what you've thought to do about your partner's body if you ever killed them. His two options were he could take her out bush, leave

So he was putting forward suggestions of what he would do with her body yep, if he killed her yep. Or was it a joke?

Well, coming from him, he made it seem like he was joking. But I certainly don't think that that's something you joke about, especially if it sounds like you've thought.

About it before.

Clearly it stayed in your mind. Oh yeah, yep, so you must have thought at the time it was it was most unusual. Yeah, when you first heard how did you hear about Amy being shot?

This also has stuck with me. I woke up to a text from Nancy that morning and it was something really simple. Two lines said Aaron Amy's dead. She shot herself. And I was like, what, like that doesn't this isn't a funny joke. Oh, so I instantly rang Amy just to you know, like your mums sent me this stupid message like wrong, Yeah, and I went I went to voicemails. I was like, Okay, that's weird. Try again, voicemail again. And then my next feeling was she didn't do it.

So did you ring Nancy then?

Or I sent her a message and I said I took some time to you know, like got hit around it, and then I sent her a message and got her to call me. She sort of told me what happened or what they say has happened.

Did you express your doubt to her then?

Ye?

Yeah, I've always said to anyone that I've spoke to about it that I don't think that she committed suicide. She wasn't that sort of person. She didn't speak about suicide. She loved her girls, and she was just such a happy person. Like every time we were together it was just laughter and like joking and fun and it just wasn't It wasn't her.

When was the last time you talked to Amy had any sort of communication?

Well, like I said, we were always just like you know, little texts and stuff here and there. But our last long conversation was I think the week.

Before, only a week before. Yeah, And was there anything in that that anything in her voice that you would have thought was unusual.

Or not well, unusual for the good I guess Amy had a plan. She was so excited so because of the car accident when she fructured her neck and stuff, she was seeking compensation for that. She was excited. She thought that it was almost finalized, so she was ready to get her pay out for that, much to David's disappointment, because he was upset that he would be the one that had to pay for I don't know how those things.

Work, but well, effectively that was a claim against David, wasn't it. Yeah, because he was driving. Yeah.

Yeah.

So he didn't want her to do it, obviously, because then he would have had to pay this debt. But she stuck to her guns with this, and she was excited because it was almost done and she was ready to get the girls out. She'd started looking for rentals, you know. She wanted to get a little place for her and the girls. And another thing she was really excited for was to work. I think she knew someone that had a cafe or something starting up, and she wanted to go and work part time.

So she knew there was money on the way, yep, and she was making a plan to use that to improve herself.

Yep.

Yep. She was going to pay a car off, get a place, and then set herself up for her and her girls to go and live by themselves.

But in none of these plans that you've just mentioned is the notion of David being with her.

She'd had enough.

She'd had enough, yep. And she told you that in very yep certain terms.

Yep. She was ready to go, and that was.

A week before this happened.

Yeah, Amy had formulated a plan, a plan she was confident enough in to communicate to erin just one week before she died. Everything was in motion, and she was excited about the prospect of a new life with her two young daughters and without David.

Amy.

It also not long before it had happened, she found out that she was pregnant, so she did not want any more kids, especially in her state. You know, she's very fragile. How is she going to be able to carry a baby nine months and be as fragile as she was. David wanted a son, so he was sort of pushing her, but it didn't take into consideration how she felt, you know, how she going to physically do this. He didn't care. But that was another thing that she sort of stuck to her guns.

This was after the car accident where Simmons insisted on driving, causing Amy serious injury, which resulted in her having a permanent neck disability. Amy knew having another baby could exacerbate her always delicate condition, and as it was very early days, she was able to terminate the pregnancy safely. Amy was taking back control of her life, looking at rental accommodation, applying for jobs, and planning a way forward where she could raise her daughters independently of him.

Did he know about the termination?

Ah, I don't actually remember. I'm not sure if she had just gone to the doctor. I do know that she she just got the you know, sometimes you've got to go into a clinic or you just can take the medication. She went the medication route, So I'm not one hundred percent sure if she told him or not.

Do you think David knew about her plans?

I'm not sure. I have no idea.

I wonder if he either had a feeling or was across what she intended to do.

Yeah, look, it's so long ago now, I don't remember if she had told me that she did tell him or not. But and that's always stuck with me, that she was ready to get out and it was the most exciting time, but it just never came.

I'm sure you've gone over this a million times in your mind, because there's been so many sort of false starts in this story, hasn't there in trying to find out the truth about Amy? How do you see what happened in the ensuing hours and days and weeks with the police action.

Well, I never got contacted by police until Anna started pushing for something to be done. That's one of the things that has frustrated me this whole time is if they actually looked into it properly at the beginning, they would have seen what sort of a person Amy was like compared to what David was like, how bad of a temper he had, his drug use, his alcohol abuse, all these sorts of things that I don't think that they really took into consideration at the time. They just

That's interesting you point that out. So it wasn't until Anna started digging yep, and making noise and really creating a problem for authorities, that there was any sort of action, and that you were contacted her best friend to then inquire about the background.

Yep.

Yeah, I think someone called me and it was just sort of a quick phone call. Someone's going to be in touch, you know, to get some more information from you. And I ended up having to contact them a couple of times. The left messages, you know, someone said that they're going to be calling me for information, and no one has. And I think by the end of it, I did get a call, and it was just a very quick phone call just to oh, yeah, what sort of a person was she like? And you know, what

If it wasn't for her auntie, Yeah, some of this would never have got to where we are today.

No, not at all. I would have just gone through as a suicide. And that's what everyone would have thought.

So you get the distinct impression that really nobody in a position of power really has ever wanted to genuinely get to the bottom of it.

Not at all.

No, No, I think that there's they should have done the right thing from the start. It's very frustrating. I think I'm fueled by frustration now.

One thing I still get stuck on with this is the notion that you can have two little girls in a car with a car running and their bags packed, and the police get to know this information and still decide that their mum has gone inside and committed suicide. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Just if anyone's got common sense, they would know that that doesn't make sense. Two days later was her daughter's birthday. She had the presence in the car like it just and they don't know Amy's personality. They didn't know what sort of a person she was. She would not have done that. She didn't speak of suicide. She loved her daughters. It just it doesn't make sense.

And the toxicology reports show that she didn't have any alcohol or drugs in her sister apart from very normal levels of hand He depressed medication.

That was one thing that also frustrated me. During the inquest, they kept saying referring to Amy's mental health, and you know she's depressed and all these things. So I sort of piped up. David admitted that he had used drugs, he'd been drinking all day, he had anger issues. Why did no one think to take in all his sort of mental health and where his mindset was at that day, everyone just kept sort of pushing everything on Amy. Amy. Amy her fault. You know, she had antidepressants in a system.

Well, that supported the suicide theory, didn't it. Yeah, yep, So it was able to be pushed. Yeah, there's hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Australians who were on exactly the same antidepressant medication that Amy was on and in the same dosages. Yeah, and they're not committing suicide.

And she had many reasons to live. She was happy, she had a goal and she was excited for that to come through.

So she had a longer term plan and she had a very short term plan as well, So she was planning all round.

Yep.

Does someone like that then go back inside and commit suicide?

Definitely not.

Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it.

Anyone with common sense that looks at the mountain of stuff that's happened in this In Amy's case, you can definitely see that there's something not right.

Do you want somebody somewhere in a position of authority to chase this all the way down the rabbit hole?

Yep? I think with enough pressure, the truth will come out and with some actual real police work to happen. You know, they can't hold it in forever.

Do you think there are people involved in this who know a lot more than what they've ever said.

Andre said, I think that that's something that you can't hold into yourself. So someone's spoken to someone about what happened to get it off their chest, and there's definitely people that should come forward and think of the girls. Someone needs to be held accountable for what happened.

Does it strike he was a little bit strange that those three guys who were there on the day, David Simmons, Gareth Price and Joshua Brydon are still all very close.

It's worth mentioning here that while Joshua Bridon was there on the day, he apparently left before Amy was shot. We'll be doing a deep dive on Bridon later in the series and discuss whether the evidence actually supports this claim.

Oh yeah, yep, I saw that Gareth on social media. You know, he sort of said something along the lines of oh, I can't take this anymore, and David was straight in there with the comment and I'll be home, I'll be home tomorrow or something. You know. It just seemed very weird the way that he commented and reacted to his posts.

I just wanted to check with you something else. When we had a chat, Gareth Price. He said a couple of things about Amy. Yeah, and I want to check them with you because you knew her a lot better than he did. Did she like shooting?

Amy loved animals. This was one of the things that David had been doing, hunting and stuff for way before Amy, so she needed to find a common ground, common interest. She wasn't really a big drinker, she wasn't a camper, She didn't go out camping prior to meeting David. So it was sort of one of those things where this is a really big coby of his. Maybe I can take it up. We've got that common interest.

She was trying to please him.

Yeah, yeah, So it was definitely something that she just wanted to do so that they had something that they could do together.

Gareth was insistent. He said she loved shooting. Amy loved shooting.

Well, she got a pink gun. But you know, if you can make anything girly, because she was a girly girl. But yeah, she didn't. I don't think that she loved it at all.

He also said she loved skinning things.

Nope, like I said, Amy loved animals.

She had a little.

Piglet at one stage, they had dogs and chickens and all that sort of stuff. It was again, just something that she could do to be on the same level as him, something to try and make things work and make the relationship easier for them to get along.

So she certainly didn't love it.

I did not love it.

Why would Gareth say those things?

I don't know.

He also said that that four ten that shotgun was hers, that was her gun.

I'm not sure that. I only know that she had the pink gun. That's totally Amy style, just to have something girly. But I don't know. I didn't really. I'm not a gun person. Again, we had the same sort of personality, and I don't like guns or hunting or anything.

So Gareth was wrong about the four to ten shotgun being Amy's. Police records have Simmons admitting that the gun did belong to him. Poor Cameron audio into the Ari concode on ABC Sinclub. Now we turn to another close friend of Amy's, Natasha Selsa. Okay, here we go. The pair lived together when Amy was pregnant with Tay and Natasha tells me she was horrified by what she witnessed. Well, listen, thanks a lot for sitting down and talking to us

How could you not?

How have you interpreted all that Over the years.

I think hindsight has made it so obvious to me what was happening at the time. Now I don't think I knew what was happening in the moment. I didn't realize the abuse that was happening. I don't think it was forefront of my mind that that is abuse. And I just sort of wanted to do with my friend, wanted to do I wanted to help her, she wanted

You've ruined it. You've ruined any hope of justice.

We can now only pray that we get the justice that Amy needs and she deserves, and those girls deserve, her daughters.

But yeah, it's a lot, a lot to think about.

You don't think it was suicide.

No, I don't.

I got the phone call from Nancy and I remember her saying to me, Amy's been shot. Amy's been shot. And then she's saying the police are saying she shot herself. The police are saying she shot herself. And I said, no, this isn't Amy. No, no, No, that didn't happen. She wouldn't have done that. And I know Amy well enough to know that she wouldn't have done that, And she wouldn't have done that with her two daughters in a car, with her belongings.

Packed ready to go, she had everything ready to go.

I've seen her leave before, and I've never seen her leave like that before.

She's always come to me before, and she's left him.

And he's always dragged her back in his way, he charms her into coming back, and then nothing changes.

It's just the same and it's just all a facade.

And then when she's backed, it's coercial control. If she's got no money, you can't get a job. No, you stay at home, you look after the kids, don't talk to men. You can't do that, you can't do this. You're a slut, you're that, you're this. It's just the constant belittling and all that sort of stuff is it's a lot.

Did you ever witness any of that, Natasha.

Yeah, one hundred percent.

So he's His demeanor towards Amy changed when she pretty much got pregnant, and I saw it. I saw how his demeanor was with her. He was very jealous. He was very much I'm going to do.

What I want to do.

I'm going to go out. I'm going to go see the boys. I'll be home when I get home. You just stay here. And if she was to go out, it would be well will free. So I don't know she was pregnant.

If she was to go out and didn't tell him, it would be an issue.

She would come home, he might be drunk or intoxicated in any the other way, and it turns into an argument because he starts getting jealous. Who have you been texting? Show me your phone, show me this, show me that. So she had a habit of always deleting her Facebook, she had a habit of being quiet when he'd walk in the room. He'd had like, it's just all these things.

So you'd notice her it.

Changed, it changed, And I remember when she moved from the house Incomes got to the house in Pinjarra, we would have a lot more phone conversations because she was a lot further away from me then, so she was about an hour drive from me, so we would be on the phone a lot more. And I could tell every time he came in the room or he came home subject change. She would go quiet and then you would just tell you could feel it like she didn't

Was, oh, he's on the phone.

So it's a very jealous sort of reaction every time it came to that sort of thing. So she is like eventually she just got it. And I remember her deleting her Facebook so many times and him going through her phone or like all these claims. But yet we're hearing all this stuff about him cheating. So it's a bit like it was projecting. I feel like he definitely projected onto Amy, and then Amy sort of suffered at it, like she suffered for whatever he's thinking in his head.

Would get angry. Don't get me wrong, Amy had a fight and I like.

Oh, good girl, should I reckon and she did. She'd give it back to him if he gave it to her. But he was nasty. It was nasty. It was not just the physical demeanor and the standing over and just the physical difference of them, like Amy was so pteite and so little and David standing so tall and so muscly, like at the time he was quite muscly.

There was a suggestion at one stage, I think during the inquest as well, this was brought up that they had an argument earlier before the gun went off and Amy had somehow head butted David.

Oh I honestly, if that was the case, I would say it was going to be a very volatile argument, and I think it would be coming from both directions. I don't say that Amy wouldn't have sat there and probably got frustrated and done something.

I can't say she wouldn't have. I don't know. I wasn't there, But I.

Would imagine knowing Amy and knowing the history of the going out and not coming home, or coming home on drugs, or coming home drunk or all those sort of things, all those factors, I can imagine how angry she would have been that night, and I can imagine the fight that would have ensued from that.

But with their size difference and with their height difference, was Amy capable of being more aggressive toward him than he didn't?

I don't think so.

I think at the end of the day, Amy may have smashed a tank because he says, that's not hurting you.

Like she's so petteeue. I can't explain it.

She's just such so much a small person that man could easily just push her over.

That's the difference.

Like, I don't see how she could sit there and like head butt him and do any type of damage that would be of any significance. I think it would more be a case of they're in each other's face and maybe he's come down and hit her head.

I don't feel like Amy is that type of my I.

Don't see her getting all hung through and head batting someone. I see her being angry. I see her being volatile in that sense and maybe smashing a tank. Because I'm not gonna lie.

It's a pattern.

It's a many year long pattern of him going out, drinking, doing drugs, coming home and just having an attitude. And this is where I feel like on that night, it was pretty final.

I think she was done. I think he knew she was done.

Did you ever have a conversation with her about leaving because you've got a great relationship? I mean, did you ever say to her, look, you know you can have a relationship like mine, for example, you don't have to put up with this.

Yeah.

And did she agree or did you have arguments about that?

No, no arguments. She agreed and she left him. She left many times. She came to me and she came to my house. I've got text where she sat there saying to me, like, you know, I've gone home but he's done nothing. All he's done is he's just pulled me back home. He's not talking to me all this type of stuff, Like he.

Would sit there and bait her to come home, say all the right things, and then just act the same way it would be every time. So he just keeps repeating the same behaviors. That's all he does.

One of the girls is his own, wouldn't you think that he would be proud?

I always think about that, But then I always flashed back to when Amy was pregnant. She was giving birth that weekend and he had his hands around her throat. So was he thinking about his daughter?

Then?

No, I don't know if he's ever thought about his daughter.

So sorry, just take me there.

So back when.

Amy was nine months pregnant with Tay, I was staying at her house because we were obviously a bit concerned she was going to go into labor, and David had opted to go out for the weekend, so he had been out I think since the Thursday night. So me and Amy and Naa we went and pulled the matress out and had a summer party in the lounge room and we stayed in there pretty much the whole weekend. Didn't really see David much until I think it was Saturday afternoon he came home.

He stayed out for a lot three days.

Yeah, so this would probably be on the twenty sixth of June. He came home and he had been out drinking. He was obviously on drugs.

Amy was livid, as I'm not going to lie now, mother myself, any mother nine months pregnant would be with you, partner out like that when you're about.

To give birth. Well, she was full term, she was full term, she.

Was due, she was overdue. I'm pretty sure I think, yeah, she was overdue. So she was. We were waiting, We were very very close. He came home, very volatile. So it started. He was intoxicated then drinking, was on drugs. Amy started saying to him, this is a not I'm pregnant, Like how I'm going to get to the hospital now, like all this sort of stuff. Yeah, all valid, yeah, all valid points. And it ended up getting quite heated

I don't know what happened, but they were fighting in the kitchen and I turned to walk out the loundry and back through the kitchen, and all I saw was David with his hands around Amy's neck, bent over like her back pushed up against the table, with his hands around her neck, pushing her back, and She's reached out and just twisted his gold chain around his neck. And I remember just having to separate them and to send him out front and like deal with Amy and then

Is wrong with you?

He had both of his hands around her, his hands.

Around her neck, and she was sitting there with his like trying to grab something. So she's scorn and sort of wraps like her hand around his chain like that, and.

He's bending her over the table at the same time.

Yeah, bending her so pushing her back over the table as she's reaching out to.

Grab that chain around.

So this is a woman who's nine months pregnant about to give birth. Anymi teet as well.

You've got to remember Amy was like it was like a basketball that baby.

She's pregnant. I'm just struggling with this what sort of mentality is this.

He'd been on drugs, and it was very obvious he'd been on drugs. He'd been out parting with the boys. He actually wanted to go back out again.

And I think that was when that fight happened later in the night, because he was trying to go back out again, and that's when Amy was saying, no, you're not right.

Or thank goodness you were there to mediate.

I know, I think about that. And then literally the next day. I think I left at five o'clock on the Sunday because I had worked the next day, and I said to Amy, call me, I'll tell you to the hospital, WILL do whatever whenever you need to go. I don't think I got half an hour down the road. She sat down in the land room and her waters broke, and we were in hospital and she gave birth the next morning.

So you took her, You went back and took her.

I took her, and I stayed for the birth of Tay and where was he? He was there?

So I ended up picking both of them up and I took him with us. He was not okay to drive, So I have photos of the whole birth and just looking at him in the photos makes me so disappointed and disgusted.

It's just to see and you can tell when you see the photos, you can see that he's not all there. It's sad.

That says a lot. That's not about the nature of that relationship, as you say, Like I said.

It changed when she got pregnant. This is within a nine month period he had his hands around in it. So if that's the start of their.

Relationship, how long were your friends?

I met Amy when she was about sixteen through one of my other friends, and I.

Didn't really talk to her much, like we said hello and night. She I remember she had a kangaroo.

She fostered a little Joey that the mum had died, so she was fostering a baby Joey and she's walking around at sixteen with a little Joey.

And I remember meeting her and I was like, oh, yeah, she's nice and that.

And then on my eighteenth we sort of started talking more and I invited her to my party and then yeah, from there.

Pretty much it was thick and faster and more friends and that sort of that friend you see every day, like you know, you're always hanging out, like she'd be working at the pub at night, and I would go down and sit at the pub and keeper company, like you know. It was, Yeah it was.

I was always at a house wearing sleepovers, it was going out, would go camping or whatever it would be.

Yeah it was.

It was good friendship, good buddies.

Yeah, and yeah I missing.

Did you have a falling out with her?

I had a little falling out.

So just after bye, I just heard some stupid stuff, and I think, being young and dumb, I regret it. I can't tell you how much I can tell you to love and forgive because I never get to say what I really wanted to say to Amy now.

So yeah, how long ago was that before?

So we fell out for about start twenty twelve, and then I started talking to her again.

Was when the car accident happened.

So I got word from Amy's sister that Amy was in hospital and that she'd being involved in a car accident with David and the girls.

It was a bad accident for her, wasn't it.

It was bad for Amy.

Surprisingly for Amy, So that side of the cart somehow got more damaged than anywhere else. So Amy ended up in a halo. So I reached out to her then, because as soon as I heard that, I it.

Didn't feel right.

I just felt really sick to my stomach, and just knowing David, I wasn't comfortable. So I thought I'd reach out to her, and that's when, thankfully we did start to talk and men do.

And all that sort of stuff. But she was very hesitant for me to see her.

I think that goes in part and parcel with I wouldn't take a lot of David's crap if I saw it.

I was very vocal.

If I saw anything, I would intervene, I would say something. I wouldn't allow her to be treated in any way in front of me.

So I feel like, yeah, it was good that we sort of started to get back on track and we were starting to talk, but she was a bit hesitant to see me, and I have a feeling it's because of the whole halo situation. I know she said to me she didn't want me to see her in a halo.

The car crash happened at about six pm on the twentieth of January twenty thirteen. The girls were in the back seat of a white nineteen ninety seven Toyota land Cruiser along with Amy's younger step brother, Deacon, who was twelve at the time. Amy was in the front passenger seat and David Simmons was driving down Shrevena Road in Serpentine, an unsealed grubble road. They were all wearing seat belts.

The car started to slide and the rear canopy of the car struck a burl of a tree which hangs out over the road. As a result, this caused the car to slide sideways and come off the road to the right hand side in impact with a tree in the dead center of the front of the car's bonnet. I am unable to recall whether I had applied the brakes or not, and really didn't have the time to do anything. The impact caused me to smack my head on the right hand side of the car. I was

The ambulance was taking a while to arrive, so Simmons called a mate who came and picked them up. He drove Amy and the kids to Armadale Hospital.

We took Amy to the emergency department and she was seen by doctors. They advised us Amy had to go to Royal Perth Hospital and she was transferred by an ambulance. Amy had scans on her neck, but I was also on the bed getting checked over and had a few stitches for a laceration above my right eye. Amy was in hospital at least a week. She had a halo placed around her head as she suffered a fractured vertebrae. She had the halo removed about a month or so ago.

It was pretty confronting and in fact, very lucky for her it wasn't more serious.

Per it could have been a lot more serious, like they're off road, it's what would happen. I've seen it before. You know, you go a throne and no rules apply. But yeah, so that's when we sort of started reaching out.

I'd be texting her in that and having a chat and I would be asking her how are you going, and that she's just the same old So to me, it's the same old, same old stuff, David, same old drinking, same old going out, not coming home.

Nothing changed in that controlling sort of atmosphere. Though. She probably didn't want you hanging around too much because it would have made it tougher for her, wouldn't it.

It would have, and I think I would. I'm not type of person to ten a blind eye if I saw something.

I wouldn't be able to.

Not do anything. I couldn't. I love her and I'll do anything for her.

At the time of the crash, I was not under the influence of alcohol, prohibited drugs, or any other mind altering substances. At the time, I was not taking any prescribed medication. There is no medical reason which may have affected my ability to operate a motor vehicle in a safe manner. At the time of the road crash. There were no witnesses to the crash. Police did not attend the crash. I have no ongoing injuries of this crash. As a result of this crash, my personal life has not changed.

However, less than a year later, his personal life would change. On the twenty ninth of July twenty thirteen, the Insurance Commission of Western Australia asked Simmons to admit full liability for the claim made by Amy Wensley. Documents state that until just a couple of days before her death, Amy was not going to proceed with the claim, but she changed her mind and told the Commission she would go ahead after all. Two days later, Amy was dead.

I never thought it would get to this point.

I really thought that the day that Nancy was calling me, I was getting a phone call to say Amy was in hospital.

More than anything, that's what immediately came to your mind.

That's immediately because I hadn't really spoken with Amy. Go to remember, I hadn't spoken with Amy for a while. We've been texting. For me to get a phone call, and I'm very close with Nancy, but for me to get a phone call at.

Work at like nine am. I was just a bit what's going on?

And as soon as I saw it, she wouldn't call me during work hours, so I knew it was Amy.

I knew, I knew him. My heart was Amy. And then when she said, I don't know, when she says you're shot, you just didn't feel real. It just didn't sound right. It wasn't Amy.

She would never do that.

I know.

She wouldn't let me play devil's advocate for a moment though, Natasha, she was on antidepressant medication, and we know from the toxicology reports from the coroner's court that the level of the antidepressant in her system was totally normal. You know, totally fine. But people who are depressed sometimes to varying degrees,

I wouldn't be lying if I said I haven't thought about it.

I can only sit here and say that in my heart, I one hundred percent believe that Amy would not have done this, And every time I keep thinking about it, and I think of all the possibilities, I just keep coming back to she would not have done this. She had her two daughters in the car.

And to know Amy, to.

Know that her daughters were her life, he would know that she would never do that. In the vicinity of her children. She wouldn't have done that.

She just wouldn't have That's the deal breaker. That's the deal.

Breaker for me. If he's had have been she was at home on her own, or like the kids weren't around, other circumstances, we could discuss this.

No, her children were there, I don't care about the frame of mind. I have seen Amy in hysterics before. She will always put those children above herself, no matter what the situation is, no matter what's going on, it is those kids.

So that for me to hear that they were sitting in a car less than fifty meters away, No, there is no way in hell that that happened.

I'm just trying to be fair, and I'm trying to look at every single possibility in this in looking at that scenario. And you know, tragically, a lot of people who commit suicide their relations and their loved ones. A lot of them say later, you know, I never would have thought XXX would have done this, so it's a natural reaction. Also to those close by.

It does play a big part.

I do believe in my heart, with those girls there, that was what it was. But then we start going into the detail, what we found out after the fact, what we found about the position of their body, what we found out about how she was shot, all that all plays into it too, And from that it.

Just cements that for me, that would not have been the case.

And I'm sorry, I just there is nothing anyone could say to me that would make me feel any other way.

And now she's not here.

Okay. The whole thing is incredibly sad, isn't It's just because it's just seems so unnecessary.

It so just feels surreal, just absolutely surreal. So much could go wrong.

The police have to a certain extent, admitted their mistakes on the night, But do you think they're trying hard enough? Now?

No?

Have you seen the news every second day there's a woman pretty much being murdered.

What change have they made? What change? If there's change, how is it not forefront in our minds.

I can't even sit here and rattle off to you anything that I've seen visually to promote or to help with domestic violence, to help with the femicide that's going on in Australia at the moment, no one is doing much like more needs to be done. Where is the change? Show me the change, because right now I just see figures increasing year by year by year.

It's horrible.

Yes, there's a lot, doesn't it.

Oh, there's a lot, a lot of women. But where's their justice? There's no justice for them.

Natasha is right. In twenty twenty four, a woman is killed every four days, according to the Australian Femicide Watch. The United Nations defines femicide as the most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls and intentional killing with gender related motivation, mostly by intimate partners or members of their own family, and National homicide statistics revealed that last year, the rate of Australian women killed by

Good evening. We begin tonight with breaking news. There have been shots fired and florious these pictures just coming into the newsroom.

Mark Bombara was on the hunt for his wife and daughter, who had sought a restraining order against him from Wa police after they noticed his handgun was missing. WA police refused and they were forced into hiding.

My mother and I made it clear that lives were at risk, and we were repeatedly ignored.

When Bombara couldn't find his intended victims, he sought out his wife's best friend, and when she wouldn't tell him where they were, he shot her and her daughter, Gretel, before turning the gun on himself.

We're being told three people have been shot.

Seven news On understands those people have been killed because neither were intimately connected or related to him. Their deaths are not considered domestic violence related.

What my father did was an act of domestic violence.

It was it was it was so much. She shot herself. That's what happened there.

Next week, Gareth Price, No, he.

Didn't do it.

He didn't do it.

Sorry. Simo is a good buddy, man.

I you were done, You're not done.

It so we was no.

Jim say, if you knew Amy and have information, any information about her death, we'd love to hear from you. Just email us at the Truth about Amy at seven dot com dot Au. That's s E v E N The Truth about Amy at seven dot com dot Au, or visit our website sevenews dot com dot Au forward slash the Truth about Amy. You can also send us an anonymous tip at www dot the Truth about Amy