Police logs, witness statements reveal two dogs searching for Rachel Antonio gave alerts at same site

THE father of missing Queensland schoolgirl Rachel Antonio says police failed to search where he thinks would be an obvious place to dump a body - and fears it’s too late to search there now.

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POLICE logs and witness statements reveal how two ­cadaver dogs searching for missing schoolgirl Rachel ­Antonio came to give alerts on the same sand dune.

One handler revealed that his dog had years of experience — thousands of hours of training — and had previously located a body in another police investigation.

Rachel’s disappearance from Bowen in north Queensland on Anzac Day 1998 is the subject of a new Courier-Mail podcast series, which topped Australian charts when it launched yesterday.

The cadaver dogs gave alerts less than a metre apart on consecutive days at the end of Bowen’s Kings Beach Rd, about three weeks after Rachel went missing.

Police dug up the site at the time but did not locate any ­remains.

Her father Ian Antonio believes the 16-year-old’s body may have been moved to a skip bin and ended up at the town’s dump, which has never been searched.

Police were unable to use cadaver dogs to search the dump because of the range of scents from rubbish deposited there, The Courier-Mail can reveal.

Rachel’s father Ian Antonio says the former dump manager contacted him last year and said he put aside the town’s rubbish the week after she went missing, but it wasn’t searched.

Rachel Antonio in 1997.

“I would have done the search myself if I’d known,” Mr Antonio said.

“I would have driven the excavator and paid for the fuel myself.”

Rachel’s mum Cheryl yesterday added: “I believe the dump should have been searched.”

More than 300 police witness statements and police logs from the case have been obtained by The Courier-Mail as part of the podcast, Searching for Rachel Antonio.

Coroner David O’Connell approved the release of the documents and other unseen material after a formal request for the brief of evidence.

One statement is from dog handler Roy Wright, who started searching for Rachel about three weeks after she went missing.

Cheryl and Ian Antonio at the beach where Rachel was last seen alive. PIC: Jack Tran

“My dog at the time of this incident had four years of ­experience and thousands of hours of training during both night and day,” Mr Wright told police in 2014.

“Each dog can be slightly different, but the handler will know the specific body language that suggests an alert.”

His dog Ellie was trained to disregard food, refuse, odd smells and other animals.

“If the dog gives an alert in this instance, it can only be a deceased human being or deceased pig remains. This is due to similarity in the scents and their training,” his statement reads.

He was aware other dog handlers, Shirley and Kevin Matheson, had also been in Bowen assisting with the search for Rachel.

“I was briefed on the incident, but was not told anything in relation to what Shirley and Kevin were doing or their results at that time.

“I went out to the area with the SES on that morning. Within an hour of commencing, Ellie alerted to a scent on the top of the first dune in the grassed and treed area.”

Ellie was used in a previous police case and gave an alert where a body was submerged in a creek at Beachmere, north of Brisbane. The dog was also later used successfully in a police search at Logan.

The initial police search for Rachel Antonio involved dozens of officers. PIC: Supplied.

Mr Wright said he searched Bowen for about five days. He made no mention of Ellie giving any other alerts during the search for Rachel.

The Courier-Mail contacted Mr Wright yesterday. Asked how long a body would have to be at a location for a dog to pick up the scent, he said: “Any period of time.”

Police logs refer to the cadaver dog searches. One entry from May 19, 1998, reads: “The dog will work mornings and afternoons when scents are ­stronger. They will also work into the wind.” Another entry from May 22 reads: “One dog with thorns in feet to be rested for the remainder of day.

“Roy Wright dog handler to continue with his dogs … Dogs are able to detect a body submersed in water.”

Episodes of Searching for Rachel Antonio will be released each Monday.

Follow the bold links to listen:

iPhone or iPad users search for “rachel antonio podcast” on iTunes — by clicking subscribe, each weekly episode will appear on you podcast app.

Android users can listen by following The Courier-Mail on Soundcloud at soundcloud.com/couriermail.

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TOO MANY YEARS HAVE PASSED TO SEARCH TIP

RACHEL Antonio’s parents hold little hope of finding their daughter’s body in the Bowen dump.

They say after 18 years, she would be almost impossible to find if police decided to launch a search.

“There wouldn’t be a chance in the world,” dad Ian Antonio said yesterday.

“That was a quarry in 1998. You used to drive 30m down to get to the bottom to dump your rubbish.

“Now it’s built up over the years so much, you go up about 30m to dump the rubbish.”

Mr Antonio revealed in a new podcast series, Searching for Rachel Antonio, his belief that Rachel’s body ended up at the dump, which has never been searched.

Police also did not search the tip for a missing T-shirt worn by Robert Hytch on the night she went missing.

Hytch was found guilty of manslaughter, but was acquitted after a retrial.

Mr Hytch said he left the shirt in his car, but when police searched the vehicle, they say they couldn’t find it.

He has denied any involvement in Rachel’s disappearance.

The white Nike shirt has not been found. The Queensland Police Service did not respond yesterday when asked if it would consider searching the dump. “I don’t blame the police for not having a look,” Mr Antonio said.

“At the time, as police said, we weren’t looking so much for a body. We were looking for somebody in trouble or kidnapping or something like that.

“There were still so many leads to follow up. There were sightings all over the place.

“If I thought at the time it was a possibility, I would have looked myself.”