Perfect Victim (26 page)

When police spoke to some women who had been workmates of Caroline Robertson’s at Kompass, they all remembered Robertson as the girl who had changed her name from Reid in 1998 when she was living with her father. Sarah Dean recalled Robertson telling her that the name change came about because she had been having problems with her father. Sarah described her as a manipulative young woman who liked to gossip. She also appeared to lack confidence and blushed easily, especially when the women talked about sex. Josephine Fsadni and Carmel Rosendale saw Robertson as an ‘acquaintance’ rather than a friend. Josephine, who had helped Robertson find her earlier flat in St Kilda, recalled Robertson mentioning her father’s property at Kilmore, as did the others, and her saying that she sometimes visited by train because she couldn’t drive.

Everyone remembered Robertson’s conversations about her family and her failure to get along with either her mother or stepmother. Sarah Dean said Robertson seemed resentful because of her stepmother’s obvious preference for her younger sisters. She told Sarah she thought her mother was ‘mad’, and wanted to have nothing to do with her. The relationship with her father seemed strained, said Sarah.

Colleagues remembered Robertson saying she was looking for a flat, claiming her stepmother didn’t want her in her father’s house. ‘I remember Caroline told me about her father getting married to her stepmother,’ Sarah Dean told detectives. ‘She made preparations for the wedding by buying new shoes and clothing. While she was preparing for this wedding she told me that her younger sisters were going to look gorgeous as they were young, slim and pretty.’

Kompass colleagues told police no one had ever been to the new flat in Trinian Street where Robertson lived, though Sarah and Carmel had been to Robertson’s former home in St Kilda. They said she had occasionally invited people around, but no one ever went.

Sarah recalled going to the St Kilda flat on several occasions during 1998 to use Robertson’s electric hot water shower during a time of gas restrictions. Carmel said she had accompanied Robertson home on an occasion in 1998 after she had suffered an epileptic seizure, which she blamed on stress. The workmate said, though, that Robertson was generally a calm person.

Robertson resigned from Kompass in 1998, saying she could not cope with the added pressure of her work. After leaving, she continued to stay in touch with some of her former associates, mainly by telephone.

Strangely, during the first week of March 1999, in the days after Rachel Barber disappeared, Robertson rang Josephine Fsadni out of the blue, asking if she would like to move in with her. Josephine, who was considering moving, said she would get back to Robertson on this. She had no idea Robertson had only a one-bedroom flat.

The women who had visited the St Kilda flat were later able to describe to police a blue throw rug they had seen draped across a couch there. Their descriptions matched that of the rug wrapped around Rachel Barber’s body when it was found.

Carmel Rosendale also told Homicide detectives how she had received a strange email from Robertson the week Rachel Barber disappeared. ‘It started, “Where the fuck are you!” ’ said the woman. ‘This was a bit of a shock to me, as it was unlike Caroline to use terminology like this on an email.’

After reading of Robertson’s arrest in the media, two of her former Kompass workmates, Michelle Batselas and Denise Harris, wrote to her in the Deer Park prison, sending her a stamped self-addressed envelope. She responded, inviting them to visit her on remand.

She told the women she had been sick from her epilepsy and claimed there were people who wanted to visit her ‘out of curiosity’. She also told them not to believe everything they read about her in the newspapers. This letter was subsequently handed over to Homicide Squad detectives.

On Saturday, 17 April, the two women went to Deer Park to visit Robertson, spending over two hours with her. She discussed her pending court appearance but declined to talk about the case, claiming the interview room was ‘bugged’.

Neither women asked her about the case but noticed that her hair had recently been dyed blonde. When asked why she had done this, she responded that she wanted to get rid of the green dye that had been in her hair at the time of her arrest. She said she had no idea why she’d had green hair in the first place.

She then accused her mother of ringing a newspaper to volunteer ‘her story’. Robertson told the women she would not allow her mother, or stepmother to visit her.

After the visit Michelle Batselas continued to write to Robertson, but never received a response.

27

O
BSESSION

Detectives building a case against the suspect on remand were intrigued by the meticulous observations contained in the handwritten dossier Robertson had carefully compiled on her chosen victim. A victim she perceived to be perfect.

Though the document bore no date, it was obvious from the detail in the character study and background history that the suspect had shown more than a passing interest in Rachel, and had been closely monitoring the girl for at least twelve months. The general opinion among the detectives was that this crime stemmed from some powerful fascination with the victim. She appeared to be a girl who had been targeted over a long period of time.

To the Homicide Squad the dossier, collected along with other equally mystifying writings from Robertson’s flat, suggested almost an
admiration
for Rachel Barber. The romanticised list of the younger girl’s qualities catalogued in a neat, orderly fashion down the page certainly seemed obsessive. This was not, though, a hate list. On the contrary, there was no mention of any ill feeling towards Rachel. It was only Robertson’s closing statement, ‘All things come to pass’, that sounded warning bells.

The unhealthy interest was not confined to Rachel either. Robertson’s writings showed that she had done some detailed background work on the entire family.

Her research tracked the Barbers from their early days in England together, to Elizabeth’s work in a castle, and followed them to Australia and the large country house they’d struggled to sell. She even noted the Barber home was ‘one filled with joy’. She’d studied the victim’s uncle Tony, and Rachel’s grandfather, the prominent Australian children’s writer, Ivan Southall. Living opposite Rachel in Mont Albert, Robertson would have been fully aware of the family’s creative talents. Rachel’s mother Elizabeth was a writer, her father a toymaker and designer. Rachel’s step-grandmother Susan was a photographer and artist, her Uncle Drew an artist and author. Ashleigh-Rose had taken up the flute and little Heather, with her beautiful singing voice, was musical too.

It was not surprising that Rachel had been born with an artistic streak. It had been obvious to everyone, from very early on, that Rachel’s talents lay in dancing. She danced almost as soon as she could walk. Robertson, a heavy, plain girl, could well have been envious of this slightly built dancer. She would have observed Rachel running in and out of her house in ballet outfits, hopping into the car for constant lifts to her latest performances. She’d also been fascinated by a photographic portrait of Rachel that hung in the Barbers’ lounge room, commenting on her graceful neck.

Still, nothing in this profile gave police the faintest idea why Robertson had chosen Rachel in particular. And the lack of any explanation by the suspect after her arrest, and her refusal to answer further questions, left everyone baffled.

Police had sensed that there was something extraordinary about this crime. And as the committal hearing loomed, and the pile of information grew, they were able to throw more light on Robertson’s character and her choice of prey.

The pile of paper was sent to police forensic scientists. Some of the notes were intriguing. Other documents made little sense to the untrained eye. Seemingly useless, innocent sheets of blank paper left in notepads where pages had been ripped out were closely scrutinised for information. If useful evidence had been destroyed in the missing pages, the forensic experts would soon find it. Using special electronic equipment, the scientists quickly discovered that these blank pages were loaded with vital clues. They were able to reconstruct fresh notes from the missing sheets of paper – interpreting indentations made by the writer’s pen as much as six pages below.

A forensic comparison of handwriting samples was conducted to identify Robertson’s handwriting. Almost all the writings, concluded forensic scientist Dr David Black, were penned by the killer. They were compiled into a legible transcript for Homicide Squad detectives. And what they revealed was startling indeed. The scientists had uncovered a blueprint for Rachel Barber’s murder. In her own hand, Robertson had written down details of a complicated and bizarre scheme to lure the teenager to her death. It was a grim plot that involved drugging, killing and disfiguring her, then dumping the girl far away. Her body, concealed in an army bag, was to be disposed of at a place only the killer knew.

Detectives now believed that Rachel Barber’s death could not possibly have been accidental, as Robertson had originally claimed. On the contrary, the crime had been very deliberately planned, a cold-hearted murder that had involved considerable thought. Crown Prosecutor Jeremy Rapke, QC, would later tell the Supreme Court hearing that this was the premeditated and cruel murder of a totally innocent, harmless child by the older daughter of a family friend.

Detectives speculated about the length of time Robertson had been planning the crime. How far back was it that she had begun cataloguing her intended victim’s movements, her physical characteristics? A fixation this powerful must have taken a long time to germinate.

The documents included endless ‘action’ lists. Things to be done, places to go. They seemed very precise and methodical, checklists ticked off in order. Always organised. Among her plans was a trip around Australia for the weeks immediately following Rachel Barber’s disappearance. There was also a note about a train ticket from Melbourne to Sydney, and another about a ticket to Queensland. Since Robertson could not drive because of her epilepsy, train transport made sense.

Police also found an application for a bank loan, made out in Robertson’s name just two days before her arrest. She had applied to borrow $10 000 for a new car. The application was rejected, of course. What
did
she want the money for? Travel perhaps.

In other lists Robertson recorded items she wanted to buy. Household items. Lists of cosmetics and clothing. And repeated notes on plans for cosmetic surgery. Expensive procedures: a nose job, liposculpture. Would $10 000 cover this? Strangely enough, though, Robertson had not made a single mark in her diary for the day Rachel Barber disappeared. Or during the weeks after the teenager’s disappearance. Not a single note on a single day during the first two weeks of March. It seemed out of character for such an organised and careful thinker, one who had even prepared a careful countdown for the day leading up to the murder: plans for showering, dressing, calling in sick, even what she would have for breakfast.

And Robertson
had
taken extreme care to compile a priority list of the things she would need to do immediately after killing Rachel Barber in order to conceal her death. It was a checklist of all the things police later concluded she had done in the days after the murder: things like checking a farm, a reference to a bag, trashing stuff, going to the Grand Prix and arranging the loan. Then there was the name Jem Southall – Byron Bay, Bondi Beach.

Now
this
name was a bit of a puzzle to police. Southall, police already knew from Robertson’s writings, was Elizabeth’s father’s name.

Another thing that struck the police as even stranger was that Robertson had also appeared to have completed research on missing persons: questions were listed such as, did they still have rights; and for how long? What about applying for things like birth certificates; and was there a list that enabled follow-up checks to be done on missing people? She considered the prospect of private detectives, writing in brackets the words ‘six years’. Was she wondering, perhaps, how long someone might search for a missing person before giving up? Then she wrote of a plan to rent a box ‘so Rachel can’t be traced’. Undoubtedly this was a reference to Rachel Barber and the police assumed the box she wrote about was some kind of post-office box.

More concerning still was yet another peculiar action plan, an orderly checklist which seemed to prioritise her week. It began by repeating the mention of a farm, then on Tuesday she would arrange the bank loan; then a moving van. She’d allocated a night to disguise her hair and thoroughly clean her house, including a steam clean of all the carpets.

So, she didn’t intend Rachel Barber to be found? Or perhaps
she
was intending to go missing herself? After all, she’d taken the trouble to dye her long brown hair green. And only recently too. Had she cleaned her carpet to remove any evidence that would have revealed Rachel had been there? Police thought this possible since they had found another note planning ‘to fix everything’, including cleaning the carpet. It also revealed plans to sleep in nearby parklands on the Friday evening, but she was arrested hours before this could happen. And since Rachel had been missing twelve days by the time Forensics moved into the flat, there would have been sufficient time for her to erase any incriminating stains or other evidence.

Detectives gathered from the telephone call trace, revealing Robertson’s two lengthy calls to the Barber household the night before Rachel’s disappearance, that this was when she had put her murder plan into action. This was when she offered the naive young dancer $100 to take part in the so-called ‘highly confidential’ psychological study she had written into her plan. This, the Crown speculated at Robertson’s final plea hearing, was the bait she laid for the unsuspecting girl, a plan that was headed ‘Rachel Southall’ rather than ‘Rachel Barber’.