What really happened to Nathan Edwards?
NATHAN Edwards had landed his dream job. An airline steward for V Australia, the charismatic 24-year-old loved meeting people and seeing the world.
NATHAN Edwards had landed his dream job. An airline steward for V Australia, the charismatic 24-year-old loved meeting people and seeing the world.
Travel suited his impulsive, carefree nature - never taking himself too seriously, he lived by the motto that "apples will grow again" and it was rare to see him without a smile.
The only downside to the job was being away from his family - sister Naomi, brothers Samuel and Daniel and his mum, Karen - who were his life.
Having never previously spent much time apart, Nathan told his mum he would take her with him on one of his flights to Thailand, so she could enjoy the beautiful resorts and relax by the pool.
Tragically, the first time Mrs Edwards would visit the popular tourist spot would be to collect her son's body.
Nathan died on February 14, 2010, after plunging five floors from a Phuket hotel on returning from a night out with colleagues during a routine stop-over.
The boy Mrs Edwards had always called her "sweetheart" had died on Valentine's Day and the next day she found herself making the heartbreaking flight from Adelaide to the very place he had promised to take her.
She was told by Thai police that it was a tragic drunken accident, but the mother-of-four never believed that theory.
Not after she saw the site at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort herself. Not after she was first told he fell from a balcony, and then it later changed to a secure outdoor walkway with barriers.
And not after seeing the description of Nathan's behaviour that night in the Chalong Police Station's notes which seemed completely out of character for the son she knew so well.
Now, two years on, the events surrounding Nathan's death are still being investigated in Thailand and South Australia and the family is still waiting for answers.
"I find myself waiting every day for a phone call, living in anticipation every day just for some more information or answers," Mrs Edwards told the Sunday Mail on the eve of the second anniversary of Nathan's death on Tuesday.
"I'm hoping to find out a lot more but I don't know if we're really going to ever know what happened on that night in those last moments of Nathan's life."
Within 24 hours of the police knocking on the door of her Marion home, Mrs Edwards was on a V Australia flight to Thailand, struggling to comprehend that her beautiful boy was no longer alive and she would finally see Phuket - without him.
"He'd said, 'you'll love it mum, you can lie around the pool for a couple of days' and I was really looking forward to this beautiful paradise destination," she recalled.
"It was just horrific there - I couldn't understand why I was there and then my mind would kick in with little glimpses of realisation and I'd be a mess. I vomited the whole time and could hardly walk or talk."
Along with other family members, Mrs Edwards went to the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort where her son fell to his death.
She was told he had come back about 3am after drinking with friends in nearby Patong, gone to the wrong section of the resort and tried to use his door keycard in a room with a similar number to his own before banging on the door, causing the couple inside to call security. By the time they arrived Nathan was dead on the ground below.
The family were told differing versions of how he was believed to have plunged to his death. Initially they were told Nathan had been "balcony-hopping" before he slipped and fell. But the balcony referred to in the official Thai police notes was at the front of the hotel.
The roped-off site the family were shown where Nathan landed was at the rear, meaning he had fallen not from a balcony but a secure outdoor walkway - with a 1.5m high barrier.
"We had this picture the whole time that he was on a balcony, but the site they took us to at the Hilton was a public walkway," Mrs Edwards said.
To have fallen from there, he would have to have climbed over the barrier, knowing there was a five-storey drop below him, something Mrs Edwards could not comprehend Nathan would do.
She was also told there were no witnesses and he was on his own, which did not make sense if, as police suggested, he had been "skylarking". Suicide was mentioned but ruled out, given Nathan's upbeat nature.
"Afterwards I went to the beach with my children and just absolutely went to pieces," Mrs Edwards said.
"I said to my kids, there was no way Nathan would have climbed the barrier for no reason whatsoever.
"He might have been drinking, but no matter how much he drank, his personality never changed and he was always in control.
"Nathan never used to go far on his own, he always had people around him and he wouldn't have put himself in danger. He wasn't a daredevil.
"Even if he was mucking around, you just don't do those things on your own. I've always wondered whether there was something more sinister behind it."
Mrs Edwards never spoke directly to Thai police, with all communication coming via the two Virgin Blue representatives who travelled with her.
"I was in such a state of shock and disbelief but if you had your wits about you, you would have asked straight away to speak to someone else from the Thai police or from the Department of Foreign Affairs," she said.
After 12 days in Thailand trying to get answers from the police, the airline and the hotel, Mrs Edwards finally brought Nathan's body home.
Sitting in business class on V Australia's Boeing 777-300 - the type of plane Nathan had worked on - Mrs Edwards began sobbing uncontrollably as passengers boarded for the return to Adelaide.
A woman in her 40s, travelling with a similar-aged friend, stopped as she walked through, putting a hand on Mrs Edwards' arm and asking why she was so upset.
"I was trying to get my words out and I said `because my son worked on this plane and he was killed and we're bringing his body home'," Mrs Edwards recalled, breaking down in tears.
"She had read the story in the local Thai paper and seen his photo and remembered he was on there on the way over to Thailand and she held my hand and then went to back of the plane.
"Then during the trip she asked one of the flight attendants to come and tell me that Nathan had been so amazing, they felt like they had known him for ever and he made their trip so special."
The attendant also relayed how Nathan had sneakily gathered up extra chocolates for the two women, who had asked for more but were told there was only one each, and bundled them in a serviette which he dropped in her lap as he walked past.
"When I heard it I just thought `that was my boy, that was who he was' and I felt so proud of him, yet here we were, they were going back two weeks later after their holiday and he was under the plane in a coffin."
After four years working for Virgin Blue ground crew in Adelaide, Nathan had only been with V Australia - the long-haul arm of the airline - for three months, but he "absolutely loved it", Mrs Edwards said.
"He was very good at it; he had the gift of the gab and he loved people."
Within hours of his death, up to 30 colleagues of his Virgin Blue "family" - including girlfriend Sara Ansell - had gathered at the home of one of his best friends, Karrie Glazbrook, to laugh, cry and share stories about their "hilarious" and easy-going mate.
For weeks, a constant stream of Nathan's friends dropped by the Edwards house, many staying over to support his family - with up to eight sleeping on mattresses in the lounge room one night.
After returning home, Mrs Edwards was preparing to close Nathan's coffin and sign off on his body before the funeral, when a police officer suggested she contact the Coroner's Office.
"He knew I was distressed and didn't feel everything was right and he said `Karen, if that was my son I would be requesting the coroner look at him first'," she said. "I was surprised and actually relieved that somebody had said something to me."
The Coroner's Office had his body for another two weeks before it was decided the circumstances surrounding his death required a coronial investigation.
The inquiry is still being carried out by police, who would not comment on why it has taken two years and whether they agree with Mrs Edwards' belief there is more to it than an accident.
The Coroner's Office confirmed it was investigating but would not comment further. The Edwards finally laid Nathan to rest a month after his death on March 16. But Mrs Edwards' battle for answers had only just begun.
Australian Federal Police were unable to investigate the death because it was outside their jurisdiction, and she initially even struggled to get NSW Workcover to look into it.
"I appreciate Nathan's situation is complicated because there were so many jurisdictions: he was killed overseas in Thailand, he was a South Australian resident and yet he was employed in New South Wales (where V Australia is based)," Mrs Edwards said.
"However, I would have thought there was someone who could work it out."
Eventually a letter came from NSW Workcover's insurer, QBE.
It was addressed to Nathan and arrived on his birthday, October 15, eight months after his death.
Opening it, Mrs Edwards was staggered to read the insurer was apparently not even aware he had died, asking when he would "return to work" and that they were "looking forward to meeting you (Nathan) in the near future".
"It was just horrific; it was the very first birthday without Nathan since he was born and to open up that letter like he was still here, I just went to pieces," she said.
An apology letter from NSW Workcover quickly followed, although the payout to his family for his death took much longer, taking 18 months to settle.
Mrs Edwards also had to battle his bank, which continued to withdraw fees from his estate after it was frozen and sending bank statements and overdue loan repayment notices addressed to him every month.
But her biggest battle was getting the Thai authorities to deliver to the Department of Foreign Affairs the report on the local police investigation into Nathan's death.
While the Chalong police station was no longer investigating - satisfied it was an accident - they were also yet to officially close the case and furnish the report.
Mrs Edwards eventually wrote to Queen Sirikit of Thailand in April, 2010, appealing for help to find out what had happened.
"I knew she had lost one of her grandchildren in the (2004 Christmas Day) tsunami and I just felt like she may have some compassion so I asked if she could do anything to help me," Mrs Edwards said.
"She was lovely enough to respond to my request and followed it up with the police, and replied with the Thai police version of events which I got (in November 2010) before I received any other correspondence or reports from Thailand."
She then wrote to Thai police, pleading with them to keep the case open, and last month received a reply via DFAT telling her they would review the circumstances and that she may have to travel to Thailand for interviewing.
With SA Major Crime preparing to soon hand their findings to the Coroner who will decide whether there will be an inquest into Nathan's death Mrs Edwards is hopeful for at least some answers in coming weeks.
"I don't know how I'll go (returning to Thailand), having to relive everything, but I could never live with myself letting it go, either," she said.
"To this day, I've never spoken to the Thai police and I haven't had contact from Virgin since the day we buried Nathan, or the Federal Police.
"For your son to go to work and they send him home in a coffin with no explanation or not even follow-ups is appalling."
In the meantime, as the second year without Nathan clocks over on Tuesday, Mrs Edwards, sister Naomi, 24, brothers Samuel, 19, and Daniel, 17, and his father, Garry, will hold a quiet service at his gravesite in Centennial Park Cemetery.
Mrs Edwards said the family have coped by remembering Nathan every day and "because our Christian faith gives us strength and makes us believe he has not gone, just relocated".
They still have many of Nathan's friends dropping by or ringing for a chat, but Mrs Edwards says she always feels him missing amid the laughter and chatter.
`We can have a house full of people and it still feels empty now," she said.
"He was always happy - every morning he would come downstairs with a smile on his face and nothing ever bothered him."
His siblings remember their big brother as someone who was always cracking jokes but was fiercely protective and did anything for his family.
"As much as he was my big brother, Nathan was also like my Dad," Daniel said.
"If I needed him to pick me up from school he was always there waiting - we had such a good connection and I loved to just hang out with him and have laughs."
Samuel laughs as he recalls his big brother teaching him how to drive.
"The first time I drove with him he was sitting on the phone for the whole hour talking, not even looking where we were going - he was very laid-back and you couldn't take him seriously.
"Even if he had $5000 worth of bills and only $500, he was just like `oh well, apples will grow again'."
Naomi remembers the brother who was "our rock". "We're very close, inseparable," she said. "He was very protective of me but growing up he led me astray often.
"We'd open up vegetable soup packets and pour them in the toilet so it looked like we were sick and wouldn't have to go to school - things like that."
Nathan's girlfriend, Sara, who worked alongside him at Virgin ground crew in Adelaide said he was "hilarious" with a "contagious attitude that made everyone want to be around him".
"We all stick together (at Virgin) and we're very close with his family still ... we all just want answers and to know what happened."