Doomsday Wieambilla cop killer’s threatening emails never shared with Qld police
The NSW detective who requested Queensland police visit the Trains’ Wieambilla property did not open email attachments where Gareth Train made threats towards police, an inquest has heard.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The New South Wales detective who requested Queensland police visit the Trains’ Wieambilla property said he did not open email attachments where Gareth Train made threats towards police, including that: “If trouble arrives on my doorstep, it will be dealt with forthwith.”
Detective Senior Constable Timothy Montgomery said he only sent part of the available information to his Queensland counterparts, having only read one of the “narratives” on the internal police system and had not read email attachments where Gareth wrote a series of threatening comments.
It comes after the inquest heard that the threatening emails about police were not sent to Queensland from NSW because the file wasn’t ready to be transferred interstate.
This is despite a detective overseeing the missing person report into Nathaniel Train saying his investigators had “exhausted” all avenues of investigation in New South Wales and phone records and sightings suggested he was in Queensland.
Had the full file been transferred on December 12, Queensland officers asked to attend at the request of NSW would have been told about a series of emails written by Gareth that claimed police wanted his missing brother dead and that when the “bully men” found him, Nathaniel would “greet them as they deserve”.
The inquest has heard the emails were given to NSW Police on the morning of December 12, 2022, but were not passed on to the Queensland officers who went to the property looking for former school principal Nathaniel late that afternoon.
The inquest is examining the murders of police constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold and local resident Alan Dare, as well as the shooting deaths of Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train by the elite Special Emergency Response Team.
The horror attack on police unfolded within two minutes of four officers arriving at the Trains’ Wieambilla bush block on December 12, 2022, to ask after Nathaniel, who had not been seen in his NSW home town for a year.
The Wains Rd property belonged to Gareth and his wife Stacey, who had previously been married to Nathaniel. Stacey and Nathaniel had two children together, who were then adults.
Constables McCrow and Arnold were fatally shot with high-powered rifles, initially fired by Nathaniel from a sniper hide, as the officers walked down the dirt driveway.
Mr Dare was shot when he arrived at the property after noticing a fire there.
The inquest has heard the Trains subscribed to premillennialism and believed Jesus would return after a period of widespread destruction.
Nathaniel was reported missing in NSW in early December 2022, with police there asking their Queensland counterparts to conduct a “welfare check” at his brother’s property.
The Wieambilla inquest heard a person close to missing man Nathaniel Train sent a series of emails to investigators penned by Nathaniel’s brother - paranoid conspiracy theorist Gareth Train - that they described as “next level f…ked up”.
“I am sure when the bully men find Nathaniel he will greet them as they deserve,” one of the emails said.
“Anyone reading the news knows how ‘welfare checks’ in Australia are conducted by police.”
Another email, sent from Gareth to Nathaniel, said: “My guess is that they will attempt to see you dead by saturnalia Satan’s festive holy day of the year … they now come for you. Stay sharp.”
The emails were sent at 8.39am on December 12, 2022, to two NSW officers investigating Nathaniel as a missing person, Sergeant Simon Thorpe and Senior Constable Emma Condon.
The email also included mobile phone numbers for Nathaniel’s children, Aidan and Madelyn.
Sgt Thorpe had by then been moved to another station on secondment but updated the investigation’s online narrative and forwarded the email and its attachments to his colleagues.
Sen Const Condon said she forwarded the email to colleague Det Sen Montgomery who was making inquiries with the children and also contacting Queensland Police to attend the Trains’ address.
She said she went to update their internal police system to include information about Gareth’s emails after being sent the correspondence but could see that Sgt Thorpe had already updated the internal NSW police computer job narrative and emails by 10.47am.
Sen Const Montgomery said he had not read the police narrative before he called Aidan Train to ask if he’d heard from his missing father.
He told the inquest he called Chinchilla police station to ask that local police drive out to Gareth and Stacey Train’s Wieambilla property to ask after Nathaniel.
“I spoke to a Constable Abbott and explained that we in NSW were making some inquiries about a missing person …Nathaniel Train,” he said.
“She pointed out to me that they were busy at the time but if an email could be sent with more detail she would look into it and get back to me.”
He said he read the first narrative before sending it to Queensland Police which included that NSW police had been told Gareth was paranoid and had a dislike of police and that he did not want a report to police about Nathaniel being missing.
“I looked up the event number, then I opened up the first narrative attached and read that,” he said.
“It had quite a bit of detail in it. I copied and pasted that into an email.”
He said there were other narratives there but asked whether he’d read beyond the first one, the detective said: “No I didn’t.”
The inquest was told further narratives detailed the contents of the concerning emails and the emails themselves had been uploaded to the system.
He said he only read the attachments after being informed a siege had unfolded at the property.
Sen Const Montgomery said he read the narrative before sending it to Queensland Police which included that NSW police had been told Gareth was paranoid and had a dislike of police and that he did not want a report to police about Nathaniel being missing.
It also suggested that if Aidan went to the police Gareth would “go after him”.
Sen Const Montgomery said he should have called Aidan Train back after reading the narrative to ask him more questions.
He said if he had been aware of the nature of Gareth’s emails, or the contents of Sgt Thorpe’s updated “narrative”, he would have passed them on to Queensland.
The officer who made the missing person’s report, Sergeant Thorpe, was sent the emails by a concerned party on the morning of December 12, the inquest heard.
He was on secondment at Byron Bay at the time but entered the information into the police database, attached the forwarded emails and also forwarded them on to colleagues at his old station.
Detective senior constable Jordan Hammerton was the supervising detective in Walgett and was first involved in Nathaniel’s missing persons case on December 6.
He said an email from Inspector David Marr on December 5 requested a number of tasks be completed as part of their investigation, including banking and phone details.
He told the inquest that he had a discussion with Sgt Thorpe on December 7 that if phone calls to the Trains went unanswered then Queensland police should be asked to go to the address.
On December 11, after having time off, Sen Const Hammerton wrote an email to two other detectives asking them to contact Queensland police to look for Nathaniel.
He said he noticed Sgt Thorpe was on a secondment to another police district and after reviewing the case “saw some things that still needed to be done”.
Sen Const Hammerton wrote to the officers, who were on the next day’s shift on December 12, to make the contact.
At that point Gareth’s alarming emails had not been sent to NSW police.
Sen Const Hammerton said he was told by his superior that the missing persons file was not at a sufficient point to transfer to Queensland despite Nathaniel’s last known sighting being in Queensland, his phone pinging around the Wieambilla area and that he had spoken with a farmer at the border whose phone he had used.
He said NSW detectives had “exhausted” their inquiries in New South Wales and “everything that had come back indicated he was in that area in Queensland”.
“We could see that Nathaniel’s brother lived in the area,” Sen Const Hammerton said.
“Phone tower data indicated he was last in that area close to his brother’s house. So it was not at the address, he was nearby.”
Sen Const Hammerton was on a rostered day off on December 12 and was one of multiple officers sent Gareth’s alarming emails after Sgt Thorpe received them in the morning.
“They were forwarded to me in the morning but I was on a day off and wasn’t accessing my emails,” he said.
“They were brought to my attention at night.”
When asked why the file wasn’t transferred to Queensland when the interstate request was made for police to attend the Trains’ property, Sen Const Hammerton said he had been given examples of evidence that would be required and was told the information they had was not sufficient.
“The evidence needed to be, for example … a transaction of the missing person’s account and for example CCTV from a bank showing that person,” he said.
The inquest on Monday was told Aidan Train wrote to his uncle on the evening of December 10 to let him know police were looking for Nathaniel after a concerned person approached police.
In one of the emails Gareth sent in December, he claimed the person had been making up some “f. king fancy fairytales” that appeared to being supported by “long lost f. king family fools”.
“My guess is that they will attempt to see you dead by saturnalia Satan’s festive holy day of the year,” Gareth wrote, referencing an event that occurs on December 17 each year.
“Where they have failed with Stacey and I, they now come for you. Stay sharp.”
The four Queensland constables left to conduct the welfare check at the Wains Rd property at 4pm on December 12.
‘Pressured’ to strip naked: Photographer’s appeal over model assault case
A photographer has successfully revoked the recording of his conviction after he inappropriately touched a young Brisbane model, who claimed she left the industry after he pressured her to take her clothes off.
$350/night listing for mower death home pulled from Airbnb
A Lockyer Valley property where police believe a mum of three was murdered is being rented as a “peaceful” holiday retreat by her husband who police believe had lovers all over the world.