Sydney teen could have been killed by one of his own friends
IT is the murder mystery that has baffled Sydney for 15 years. Nathan Garriock was violently killed at a party attended by 100 teens - but there were no witnesses. Take our interactive look at the crime scene to examine the clues. LISTEN TO PART TWO OF THE INVESTIGATIVE PODCAST.
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IT is a murder mystery that has baffled Sydney’s southwest. Nathan Garriock was violently killed at his best mate’s 18th party attended by 100 teens. There were no witnesses. Now 15 years on, his parents are desperate for answers.
EPISODE TWO: THE HUNT FOR THE DRIVER
IT is 5am and barely six degrees outside when Bill and Joan walk through the car park at Camden Hospital.
Three hours earlier they had been told their 17-year-old son Nathan had died from severe head injuries.
Unable to comprehend what they have been told, the couple begin to negotiate the car drive home.
The details police gave them were vague. All they knew was a 22-year-old man, who was turned away from Nathan’s best mate’s 18th birthday party the night before, had retaliated by driving a white Holden Commodore into a crowd of teens, killing Nathan in the collision.
Joan, who had picked up Nathan’s lifeless body lying on the hospital bed, to hold him, to be close to him, was reflecting on his injuries.
It was playing on her mind why he didn’t have any other injuries apart from those on his head — he had not one broken bone.
Well-wishers start arriving at their house to pay their respects, then a group of police officers knock at their door.
“The police came the next day, that’s when they tried to explain a few things, so we had to get rid of everybody out of the house,” says Joan.
Joan pounces on the detective in charge.
“I just said to him, how do you know that Nathan was hit by the car? I said ‘wouldn’t he have any injuries on him or anything broken or anything?’ and he just looked at me and said ‘oh, we didn’t actually say that, we just presumed it’. They must of taken Nathan in for another x-ray and found there were no broken bones and realised he didn’t get hit by the car.”
The initial medical report on June 15 states Nathan sustained fatal injuries from a car colliding with a group of bystanders.
It would take a few days for police to drop the bombshell. Nathan did not die from injuries sustained from the impact of the car.
The autopsy conducted on June 16, 2003 revealed Nathan died from closed head injuries, suffering from blunt force trauma to the front and side of his head.
A large y-shaped fracture almost cracked his skull in half. The majority of injuries were to the front and right side of his face.
The dimension of the injuries indicates Nathan was struck repeatedly by an object.
According to police it was possibly a long piece of timber, such as the ones that were used by the partygoers to fend off the gatecrashers.
Medical reports and police evidence verify Nathan was attacked from behind and he died from two massive blows to the back of his head.
There are two possible theories. The person who hit Nathan may have not recognised him in the chaos, or the perpetrator intentionally attacked Nathan.
Given the incident occurred at 12.30am in a semirural area with no street lighting, it would have been very difficult to see who was in front of you, so the first theory is plausible. But alcohol would have also played a massive part.
WHAT THE CSI FOUND
The owner of the white Holden Commodore is arrested and taken into Camden Police Station. He says he wasn’t behind the wheel. While he is in custody, he receives a phone call from the actual driver of the car.
The man on the phone says to let the police know he was driving the car and he doesn’t want his mate to take the rap for it and that he’s not going to hand himself in.
Mates protecting mates — a reoccurring theme in this story.
Nathan’s friends tell police there’s no way Nathan survived the impact of the car. But a crime scene investigator finds conclusive evidence that he did. Multiple footprints are found on the rear passenger side window. They match Nathan’s shoe.
But then a bombshell. Nathan’s mother Joan Garriock says she was standing in her kitchen, a few days after her son’s death, when one of his friends approached her. “He said to me, ‘I think I might have hit Nathan in the head’.”
For legal reasons we have not named this friend. When approached to tell his side of the story, the friend told the Sunday Telegraph: “I don’t remember saying it. It’s destroyed my life. I’ve got to live with it you know? I’ve got family now, I’ve got kids, I’ve got a job.
“I’m just trying to get on with my life,” he said.
“It’s been half of my life, I’ve spent the last 15 years thinking about it.”
The friend said that night the brawl was out of control. “It was carnage, complete carnage. We were just boys, drunk boys and these career criminals rocked up. People were hitting each other and it was pitch black. It could have been anyone.”
In the next episode of Gatecrash: The capture of the man who was driving the white Holden Commodore. What he says to police as he’s being arrested is going to blow the whole police investigation wide open.
If you know anything about the death of Nathan Garriock, you can make an anonymous phone call to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
or email nicole.hogan@news.com.au
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EPISODE ONE — THE PARTY — OUT NOW
EPISODE TWO — THE HUNT FOR THE DRIVER — OUT NOW
EPISODE THREE — THE INQUEST — OUT NOW
EPISODE FOUR — FINDING ANSWERS — COMING SOON
Originally published as Sydney teen could have been killed by one of his own friends
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