You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters. This podcast was recorded on It's July twenty fourteen in Gympie in southeast Queensland and Alison Russell receives a phone call. It's about her daughter. Her boyfriend has told the paramedics she had an overdose of antidepressants, but after being rushed to the local hospital, Kyrillie McLaughlin's injuries are so severe she's been flown to the Gold Coast. She doesn't survive. The twenty
seven year old dies the following day. A total of one hundred and five bruises are found on her body. The mother of Faur's official cause of death is from a catastrophic brain injury. Police have been called to Kirale's Beenham Valley Road home before the young mum had previously called Triple Zero herself, telling them her partner had attacked her. When they arrived, however, she told them she'd made a mistake.
A few months later, she was dead and that's where the story ended for about eight years, because there were no arrests, no charges, no further investigations until two Gimpi police officers took matters into their own hands.
You look at other suspicious deaths and there's plenty of coverage about them, but this just seemed to go by the wayside and she was forgotten. This case has been haunting me because I feel for the victim. I feel for her family. So when I left the police, I thought, now I could do something about it because I'm not a police officer anymore.
I'm Jimmy Bath. And this is True Crime Conversations, a mom of Mere podcast exploring the world most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This Domestic and Family Violence Prevention months, We're digging into our archives to revisit crimes that should have changed everything. In this case, two former cops found they were able to do more good for this victim and her family by using a podcast instead of their position within the
police force to push for action. Let that sink in for a minute. In twenty nineteen, former Gimpe police officers Jamie Pultz and Tom Daunt started releasing episodes of their Beenham Valley Road investigation. It had been the case Jamie couldn't let go of he'd been called to Kirile's house while still on the bead, and he'd learned about her
death while sitting in Gimpi police station. When he read her autopsy report, he noticed there was no mention of any domestic violence relationship, but he knew her former partner had multiple convictions for DV. He knew he'd previously gone to prison. He knew u Kiri Lee had been alone with him the night she was injured. He knew the toxicology report had suggested Kira Lee hadn't overdosed like the
boyfriend had suggested. When Jamie spoke to True Crime Conversations in April twenty twenty, no one had been charged over Kira's death. A coronial inquest had been announced but not formalized. In twenty twenty four, all of that has changed, But first it's worth listening to where the case stood only a few short years ago. He's Jesse and Jamie.
So you actually met Kierra McLaughlin. What was that encounter like?
Yeah, so, Jesse, that was about twenty thirteen. I was a first year constable off police in Gimpi and you know the call when I went there wasn't actually for anything police related to do with her anyway. It's hard to explain what I was there for, but it was for something else. It was actually a case that was there.
It was called the Torso case, and a torso had rocked up and had been burnt in a nearby area and no one knew who it was, and obviously, as a result, the police were going to every house and just checking that everybody was living there that was still alive and making sure they weren't the torso. And so as a result, I went to Kira's house and I knocked on the door and that's when I first met her. So that interaction was just the normal interaction. It was
just an everyday job. And when I met her, she had four little kids, she was twenty seven. You know, she was nice. I could relate to her in that way. But it was the second call for a dramestic violence incident, which I can't go into too much details for legal reasons, But that was the one that really stuck with me because six months later or so, she was dead. And I guess that sort of players in your mind that did you do everything right? Or what could we have done?
Or I guess you know, your brain plays tricks in.
Your Did you meet her alongside her partner at the time.
I met her the first time I was there. That was not to do with them. He was there and you know, it was like eight o'clock in the morning, I'm pretty sure, and he had a beer and he was a bit rough and just gave me that impression. I don't really need to say anymore. You kind of know what I'm talking about, but that kind of a guy been in trouble before and had a pretty big
rap sheet. I didn't really speak to him too much, though, but my partner at the time when I was doing the podcast with Tom, he had actually interviewed him for a few offenses and knew him and was at the crime scene and he was involved in that way. But I didn't actually have to do anything with him apart from meeting him once.
And the next time you heard Kira's name was in quite different circumstances. What had happened to Kira when you heard that again?
Well, I was in the police station, I remember it very clearly, and someone popped up. I wasn't working at that day, and I remember coming back into work and someone had said, oh, Kira McLoughlin died, and you know, they discussed a little bit about it, how it was Susan, she'd been beaten, and I remember just sinking into the chair and just my heart dropped because it was the
first time. I mean, I'd been to a few dead bodies already in my second shift was a dead body, and you come across them quite a lot, and domestic violences, but this is the first time that I had attended a job for domestic violence and this person had quite likely died as a result of domestic violence. That hasn't
been proven, but that's where I'm thinking it went. And it really hit me because I thought, well, this is very serious, you know, like what we deal with, the conversations we have with people as we're attending these jobs. The consequences are massive, their life changing, their life threatening. It's hard to put into words really.
And what was the cause of Kira's death.
Catastrophic head injuries was the cause of her death. Basically, she was beaten to death. The pathologist doing the autopsy noted one hundred and five bruises on Kira's body, so that's a fair bit of damage. And the ultimate cause of death was head injuries and Alice and the mother had to make the heart wrenching decision to shut the life support off because there was actually her words were there was no brain activity left. The incident happened the
day before. They were alone that night. Somewhere during that night, something's happened and she's been unconscious, and he waited like twelve hours to call ambulance and by the time they got there, she was in a pretty bad way. They took her to Gimpi, but they couldn't deal with what she had, so they flew her via helicopter to the Gold Coast University Hospital, where she died the next day.
So going back to the day before, Kira had people over to the house, didn't.
She Yeah, this was a matter of contention during the podcast. So to go back a little bit, when I was in the police, I remember hearing that there was some story of the sister of the guy I'm calling Jason,
Kira's partner, which is not his real name. There was a conversation about her having a fight with Kira at that house Bean and Balley Road, And we didn't really know going into this podcast, we had no idea that was all we really knew because I couldn't go back and look on the police starticisms anymore, not being a cop. So what we did was we went to Allison and we asked her what she knew had happened, and she thought there was a gathering there of a few people.
And throughout the podcast we learned that it was Jason, Jason's sister, Tamika who came on the podcast, Jason's nephew, and Tamik his nephew, Tamika's two year old, and at some point her mum was there. Jason and Tamika's mum was there in the afternoon for a little bit, and Kira and they were having drinks and they were playing music. But the part where this gets murky is that the neighbors don't agree with that they didn't see people, they didn't hear music. They can hear and see things because
noise does travel in those sort of rural plays. But that's what the narrative we were given. And at some point, though, around about nine o'clock, they all left, including Jason, because Tamika, by her own admissions, had a fight with Kira and it was about something silly. They were drinking and it got out of hand and they were throwing tie chains and throwing cans of paint and it was pretty nasty, and Tamika says that she hit her about four times
in total, at one point knocking her out. So Tamika does think, and she said on the record that she thinks that she might have had something to do with her death, even though it's probably not likely, but that's what she told us. Happened, and they all left the house. The mum picked them all up, leaving Kira alone. But at some point when everyone had left the house, Jason said, I need to go back. Kira is called to say that she's going to take all her pills kill herself basically.
So the brother, Nakota, drove Jason back to the house and I spoke to Nakoda and he said that happened. He saw him walk up. He saw Kira there though, so she was alive at that point. After that, the other neighbor heard an argument and heard someone on the phone Jason saying, I fed up. I don't know what to do, and then they heard a car arrive. It
was silent after that. The next morning, both neighbors on both sides saw a white car at around about eight o'clock in the morning at Kira's house with the man and a woman getting out of the car and walk into the house.
You're listening to true crime conversations. Up next, we delve into kier Lee's partner's history of domestic violence and what Jamie was able to find out about his past relationships.
The day before when that fight broke out and allegedly there were people over and Jason's sister, as you say in her own words, had a physical fight with Kira. Does it look like there was alcohol or drugs involved at that time.
Yeah. So. Jesse, who is Tamika's niece I also spoke to, said that Kira was drunk. That's what she said. She was drunk. She didn't drink very often, so she was quite intoxicated. Tamika had said in episode three or four that they had all decided to take a sugar pill, which people who have known Jason said, that's absolute crap because he knows what a drug is and he's not going to fall for a sugar pill. So I'm kind of thinking that maybe they gave Kira a sugar pill
because there was no drugs found in her system. As far as I'm aware from the toxicology report, but maybe they had the real drug and maybe Kira had a sugar pill, but there was definitely alcohol involved. And I don't know about the others. They certainly have a rap sheet for drug use.
So and with Kira, was it usual for her to be fighting with Jason's sister. Was there of some underlying tensions there with her or why did this seem to kind of explode on that particular night.
Well, Tamika told me Kira wasn't a fighter, and Jason was actually trying to hold Tamika back because you know, he was saying she's not a fighter. But Kia was feisty and she didn't take anyone's shit. That's what Allison told me. She did not take anyone's crap, and you know that would sometimes get her into trouble with certain people. She did have that feistiness about her, and that's sticking
up for herself. And as far as any issues between the two, they'd only met a few times, but Tamika tells me when I first met her on the record that she didn't like Kira, straight up didn't like her. I don't know why that is. So there definitely was some underlying tension there. I believe that's why we called the episode My Brother's Keeper because she now she says she doesn't, but at that point she was her brother's keeper. She would always bail him out. They had a system.
She would pick him up when he was in trouble with the police. You know, he would run out to the bush somewhere and Kui and she would know where to find him. Like they had a system. Having that often had a system.
And you say that Jason had quite the record, what did that record look like? And do we know much about the relationship he'd had with Kira up until that point.
He had a record of domestic violence and there's also drugs there and maybe a few other things, not one hundred percent certain of them, but definitely domestic violence charges. I know he'd been in prison for that. There was one time where he did go to jail for an offense of domestic violence for contravening in domestic violence protection order, and Kira was the aggrieved in that order. So I know that happened definitely once, and I'm not sure exactly
the circumstances around that. I can't access all the information. He definitely did have other history with other things. He's incarcerated at the moment for a number of other offenses relating to another female that he met after Kira. In a relation to Kira's relationship with him, it's quite murky and it's a turbulent relationship. So what happened was Jason was in a de factor relationship with another lady who I also interviewed, Katie. They had a domestic violence relationship.
It was listening to Katie's story was horrendous what she went through with Jason, and they lived nearby. They lived in Warville, the same community as Kira, and through that community and through Jason and Kira working together at the Turkey Farm, they met and Jason was quite flirtatious and that sort of thing, and they started, you know, hanging out, and basically Jason just took Kira and basically stopped the
relationship with Kira's husband. She was married at the time, and Katie was left to sit at home at the shed with her kids while Jason was off with Kira, but he kept both of them. He would go to Kira's house for the day or a few nights and then come back and make sure that Katie was still there and still doing what he told her to and all that sort of stuff, and trapping her bed basically,
and then she calls it her escape. She actually made an escape where she had finally swallowed her pride and contacted an old friend to come up, and they made a time and they drove her out of there. They packed their stuff up and left. Then it was just Kira and Jason. And Katie remembers calling Kira and saying, has he hit you yet? And she would say yes, and she's like, man, you've got to get out of there.
You've got to get out of there. But sometimes you just can't telp when they're in this situation.
And Kia, you say that she was in a relationship before she had four kids. Were they to that previous partner.
Yeah, all four kids were with her husband. She was married young. It was like eighteen or nineteen off the top of my head. So she married young and she had four kids pretty quickly. Child one to four was very quick. I don't know if this is true or not, but Katie, her friend would say that she was staying to maybe look for more attention. Maybe her husband wasn't
giving her what she wanted. So she started to have a bit of a fleeing with the seventeen eighteen year old neighbor who I also interview, And so they had a fling, and maybe Jason could see her vulnerability, you know, with that, and when he met her, he was giving her that attention that she might have needed after talking
to all these people. I believe that that's true. Maybe she did want some more attention and he gave her that, But then when she was in it, she realized she was in trouble and was trying to make those to get away. I think because the neighbor's damo on that fateful night, he heard her say I don't love you anymore, you know, or words to that effect. So I think she had made that decision to go with him and then regretted it and paid the ultimate price for it.
Really and didn't the subject of this seventeen year old neighbor come up on her last night? There was some allusion to that from ta Meeka. I believe when they were fighting. Is it possible that she was still in that relationship up until the end, or had it ended?
Well? When I speak to Sean, the seventeen year old. He flat out denies that. He says he wasn't there. It stopped when Jason had got out of jail, because Kira told him, look, I've got a new partner. He's in jail. He's pretty serious, so I think this should stop. So he assures me that it stopped. And I originally did think that he may have been there after Jason
and everyone had left the house. Maybe Kira had got him over there to comfort her, and Jason had returned to the house and found them together and then just lost it. That's sort of what I was thinking had happened. But his family can vouched for him that he was definitely not there. I think on that night, though, it sounds like Kira maybe was trying to get back at someone or do something, because she did bring up the
seventeen year old nighbors. She did say that. I think her words were, I was hooking up with a seventeen year old or performing oral sex or something like that. And Tamika made the comment on the record as well that she went down to Jason, who was having a bong in the shed, you better put your dog on a leash. That's what her words were.
So did Tamika say whether he appeared particularly angry about that? Is there a chance that that could have set him off?
I do think that there was something said between the three of them that I think feuded this, and I don't know what that was, but it certainly must have been along those lines. Maybe you could assume that Kira was trying to leave the relationship, and maybe she was trying to get back at him or say something to anger him. I don't know why, but maybe that's the case. Maybe that has angered him. Maybe that has and that
could have set him off for sure. But if you listen to Nakota the Brother and Katie, he would just lose it and just go off. You know, it doesn't have to be anything massive. But if he did lose it, he really lost it. And it's just one of those cases that it does appear the writing is on the wall, like it does appear that he's done something to her and she's met with foul play those kind of injuries. How do you explain that? It's hard to explain. Why do you not call the ambulance as soon as you
notice something? She defecated and urinated? Why she was in the semi unconscious state, picked her up and showered her to clean her up, and then he called Nakota about eight am the next day to say what do I do? And he said, mate, call on f an evilence. I'm not a doctor, and he didn't. He waited till about two pm. So you put those dots together and you sort of think, well, she's obviously met with foul play, but it mustn't be that clear because he hasn't been charged with anything.
So was he formally interviewed by the police.
Yeah, I believe so, and so was Tamika. But that's the thing, what Tamika and everyone has told me on the podcast might be different to what they told police. They could lie through their teeth to the police, and there was no evidence, you know, there's no CCTV or fingerprints or anything like that. Not the fingerprints would do anything, because it only proves that they lived together. But there was no direct evidence apart from her injuries, that would
tie him to it. So I guess if he lied about it, or Tamika lied about it, then it's kind of hard for them to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
If you've got on the record that Tamika is saying that she had a physical fight with Kira where she did hit her head, and it sounds quite serious, and then the next day Kira has died of a brain injury. From someone who might not know the intricacies of the case, you would think that Tamika would be a clear suspect. Was she ever a suspect.
I don't know if she was ever labeled a suspect, but she was definitely interviewed and definitely gave a statement, and she was definitely on their radar. But I'm not
a medical expert, but I don't think. I mean, it certainly could have contributed to it one hundred percent, but I don't one hundred percent know that that's the truth that would happen, because when I spoke to Jesse, Tamika's niece, she doesn't remember, and she was there, and she claims that she was sober, and she doesn't remember Tamika hitting
her with a closed fist. She remembers her pushing her a few times, but she definitely does not remember to Meeka punching her with a closed fist up to four times. So I don't know whether Tamika has been told that by Jason. That's certainly a theory that's been thrown around that. You know, Tamika has been told that while she was drunk and intoxicated, that you had a fight with Kira, you punched her. You know, you did this, you did that.
That's what I mean with this case, Like, yeah, you got one person saying I did this, but then you've got a person who's sober and doesn't have much to do with the family anymore saying that no, I was there and that didn't happen. So it's really it's really hard to know what's the truth.
Here and what's to Meeka's relationship with her brother, like now.
She says it's non existent. She cut ties with him, And you know, I tend to believe her on that because she did meet us, and she did provide us a lot of information. She gave us documents, and you know, she came on the record, despite what you think of her and what other people might think of her, to come on the record and put all that out there and for hundreds of thousands of people to hear, it's pretty ballsy. So I tend to believe her when she says that she doesn't have anything to do with him
and doesn't want anything to do with him. It's really hard to because she's sort of not responding to me anymore. So I don't know where she stands with it.
On the podcast, did she have a theory about what happened to Kira? As someone who knew her brother as well as she did and knew the dynamic of their relationship. Does she have a theory about what caused Kira's death?
Yes, she does because she was told by someone. He told I don't know how much you can play on the air here, but what happened was Tamika became friends with Jason's next girl for enoughter Kira. I called her Sally. That's not her real name. She lives into state. But Jason and Sally hooked up over Facebook and they had a very bad relationship and allegedly that's why he's in
prison now for stuff that happened to her. She refused to speak to me on the record, but she did give me text messages and was happy for me to reach them out. She told me, and she told Tamika, Tamika, this is not your crime. He broke down and confessed to me what happened. One day, and this is what he said happened, and allegedly he repeatedly smashed a head against the bathroom floor.
And with that kind of I suppose it's not clear evidence because it's via sort of a secondary source. But is that enough for the police to sort of look more closely, because clearly this wasn't an accident. This is someone who's died as a result of foul play. And there's now been a coronial inquest opened, hasn't that.
Yeah, they yet to announce a date, but yes, they have said that they would be doing a coronial inquest into it. So I would assume that that would ruffle some feathers and shake the trees a bit, because yeah, I agree, it is secondary, but when you put all those links together, it certainly strength a case. And I believe Sally has told the police that. But again, I think it comes down to he says, she says, you know that old saying if they're the only two present,
and he denies it, but she says it happens. But yeah, I read that on the podcast. Actually I debated whether I should or shouldn't, but I did because it is important and well, that's what Tmka's theory was She tends to believe that that's what's happened, that he's become enraged about something and just lost it and just started smashing her head.
And what does here is mother Allison think happen. You spoke to her extensively for the podcast, and she's been really involved in supportive of the work because it's put Kira back in the public's mind. Does she have a theory about what happened?
Yeah, pretty much along those lines. She believes while they are alone together, he's become angry or enraged and he's beaten her to death, probably in the way that Sally describes. She has no out that's what happened because she's seen
behavior from him. Kira and her were quite close, but Kira did keep this from her, And she looks back and she reflects on a few things that happened and a few little mannerisms and words that Kira said, and she now puts it together in hindsight and thinks, yeah, she was trying to protect me from him, because he did threaten Allison, and he did threaten the family. You know, that's the kind of guy he was, and she regrets
it to this day. You know, not talking more, but there was those little cues, all little words, and you know, things that were said and done that maybe were more serious than came across to be. But she believes that wholeheartedly. She died as a result of Jason.
I want to follow up on Kira's four kids. Where were they on that afternoon and night when there were allegedly people over at her house? Where were they?
Well, God that they were not home. They were with Kira's ex husband and Alison at the same time, because Alison didn't live in Queensland, she actually lived in New South Wales, and she came up because what she'd seen and heard from the ex husband and from Kira, she as well as the ex husband were concerned about the kids being in the house with Jason, and so Allison
and she still talks about it this day. She sort of blames herself in a way, but her and the ex husband were trying to get the kids back and they actually wrote to a solicitor who then contacted Kira to say, look, while Jason's in the house, we're not giving the kids back because we don't believe he's safe. And Alison sort of blames herself for that. So Alison was with the ex husband with all four kids while this terrible night was occurring.
Do we know who is looking after the kids?
Now?
Yeah, it's Kira's ex husband, who I haven't mentioned his name throughout the podcast because he's politely asked me not to and he's refused to comment, and he's made it pretty well known to Allison that he doesn't want anything to do with it. He doesn't want the kids' names mentioned, you know, And that's why you don't hear much of
Kira's story before she met up with Jason. Basically, my story starts nine months before she died because I couldn't really go into their relationship, you know, he didn't really want any part of it.
So finally, I want to know if, with the information that you've compiled, and you've found by speaking to neighbors and friends and family members, and now this coronial inquest opening, do you think that it's possible that Kira's family will see justice for what happened to her?
You know what I actually do, And when I first finished the series, I didn't know what to think because I wanted to make that phone call to Alison to say, look, guess what he's been charged or look, guess what this
has happened. But I couldn't do that unfortunately. But you know, with what's being presented and with the future coronial inquests about to happen, will happen one day, I am confident that once they hear all this evidence, you know, because Nakoda the brother was never interviewed, a few other people were never interviewed. I'm really hoping that when they get in there and you know, if they speak truthfully, then yeah, I am confident we can get to the bottom of this. Yeah, I am.
In twenty twenty one, a coronial inquest found that Kirile died from swelling of the brain caused by an obstruction of air or blood. Deputy state coroner Jane Bentley found that her de facto partner, Paul McDonald, who Jamie called Jason at the time of his podcast for legal reasons, was likely drunk and became enraged when she told him.
She was leaving.
Her findings went into shocking detail. If he's seventy plus miss violence convictions, including that he'd choked, bashed, and threatened multiple women, telling one of his victims he'd got away with murder. She wrote that MacDonald likely struck Kierlee's head with a baseball bat, hit her head on the floor, and possibly pushed her head into the toilet wall of the house they shared. It is highly probable he choked her.
She added. While there had been claims that Kierlee's injuries were caused by a drug overdose, unrelated fight, or by striking her head on a shower wall, the coroner said they were all theories inconsistent with the medical evidence. Following the inquest, the Queensland Police Homicide Investigation Unit established an investigation center in Gimpi, and in July twenty twenty two, Paul MacDonald was charged with murder. He faced a committal hearing in April twenty twenty four. His case is still
before the courts. Thanks so much for listening to this special series of true crime conversations, which was hosted by me Jemma Bath with audio design by Scott Stronik. Our executive producer is Geomoylan. Mamma Miya has partnered with the charity Rise Up Australia. Their mission is to deliver life changing and practical support to families experiencing domestic and family violence. If you'd like to support them, you'll find a link
in our show notes. And if this episode has brought up anything for you, or you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call one eight hundred respect on one eight hundred seven three seven seven three to two. I'll be back next week. See you then,