Wieambilla inquest: ‘If trouble arrives on my doorstep...’: Gareth Train’s chilling emails to cops

Emails penned by Gareth Train warned police wanted his missing brother dead and that when the “bully men” found him, Nathaniel would “greet them as they deserve”.

A New South Wales police officer was forwarded a threatening email exchange on the morning of the Wieambilla massacre described by the sender as “next level f***ed up” that contained threats from Gareth Train towards police.

Sergeant Simon Thorpe entered a missing persons report for former school principal Nathaniel Train on December 1, 2022, after speaking with a local person close to the missing man in the NSW town where he worked.

The officer told the Wieambilla inquest he had already formed a view that Nathaniel’s brother Gareth was paranoid and delusional when he received forwarded email correspondence involving Gareth making threatening remarks towards police.

He said he had also noted that Queensland police should not go to Gareth’s Wieambilla property because he was known to be hostile towards police.

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.

Gareth and Stacey Train recorded and uploaded a video to YouTube on Monday night, after killing the massacre.

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.

The inquest has heard the Trains subscribed to premillennialism and believed Jesus would return after a period of widespread destruction.

Sgt Thorpe told the inquest he first spoke to a close associate of Nathaniel’s on November 17 and again on November 23 about concerns for his welfare but the person was not sure they wanted to make a formal missing persons report.

The associate cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Sgt Thorpe agreed his wife had worked at the same school as Nathaniel and that he’d been called to the school on August 10, 2021 when Nathaniel had had a serious cardiac arrest.

He said he had performed CPR on Nathaniel that day.

Inside the Train’s property at Wieambilla, 300km west of Brisbane.

He said after consulting with a senior officer and the NSW Police missing persons registry, he was advised to enter the report himself.

Sgt Thorpe said he initially considered Nathaniel to be “low risk” given he had told people he was going camping, had camping gear with him and had remained in contact for some months after.

But he was advised that because Nathaniel had stopped taking his heart medication a month before his disappearance, he should be considered high risk.

He told the court he organised for a media release to be put out, as well as conducting standard checks of bank and Medicare records and number plate recognition records.

He also called Gareth and left a message on his phone, asking him to call back and explaining a missing persons report had been made in relation to Nathaniel.

Sgt Thorpe told the court he had formed the view that police in Queensland should not go to the Wieambilla property.

“My main concern was that the information I had … was that Gareth had a dislike for police and authority figures,” he said.

“We had no information … Nathaniel would be at the property at the time.”

Sgt Thorpe said he believed the missing persons investigation would eventually be transferred to Queensland police and visiting the property at that time might make things worse in the long run.

“I thought that if we sent Queensland police out there to make these inquiries now and he wasn’t there … Queensland police would be met with most likely hostility … and (Gareth) would be uncooperative,” he said.

Some of the items that were found at the Train’s property at Wieambilla.

On December 10, Sgt Thorpe worked his final day in the town where Nathaniel had been living and drove to Byron Bay to begin duties at a new station.

At 8.30am on December 12, he received an email from Nathaniel’s close associate that contained four attachments and the descriptor: “It’s next level f***ed up.”

The inquest has previously heard the attachments were of an email exchange between Gareth and Aidan Train where Gareth warned he’d be waiting for police “with an eye open”.

Sgt Thorpe said he updated the missing persons report on the internal computer database at 10.43am, including with a lengthy text summary of the emails.

Former principal turned cop-killer Nathaniel Train.

He uploaded the attachments at 10.47am.

He also forwarded the emails to colleagues at his old station at 9.06am, writing: “Good morning mate, looks like there will be no co-operation with Gareth by reading the email from Gareth to Aidan.”

The four Queensland police officers left to make inquiries at the Wieambilla station at 4pm.

Under cross examination, Sgt Thorpe confirmed he formed a preliminary view that Nathaniel Train may have been a victim of foul play by Gareth.

“It was a passing thought at the time,” Sgt Thorpe said.

“Because from a policing perspective, you’ve got to consider the worst case scenarios first but then I discounted that quite quickly.”

Police drone of the Train property at Wieambilla.

The inquest was told the NSW police policy for missing people was that if a person was last seen interstate, it would be a “catalyst” for transferring the file interstate.

Sgt Thorpe said the policy also required initial investigating officers to commence an investigation and then potentially transfer the case at a later date.

Sgt Thorpe said he believed it would be transferred interstate but wanted to conduct as many inquiries before sending it to the NSW missing persons unit to make an assessment on whether the file would be transferred.

He said the file would have most likely been sent on after requests for information from other agencies had been completed.

NSW Police Inspector David Marr, whose role included being the regional missing persons coordinator for the Central North Police district in 2022, had spoken to Sgt Thorpe about Nathaniel’s disappearance for guidance in the investigation.

On December 5 he outlined in an email to Sgt Thorpe and other officers about what tasks they should complete for the investigation, including obtaining a photograph and conducting searches with other organisations which would include phone and bank records.

He told the inquest he was not made aware of the troubling emails Gareth had sent until after the Wieambilla tragedy.

When questioned if he should have been sent the information by investigators, who were conducting tasks for Sgt Thorpe, Insp Marr responded: “Yes”.

Asked if he would have passed the information from the emails on to Queensland, had he seen it, he responded: “That is correct”.

Asked what he found concerning in the emails, Insp Marr responded: “The comment of ‘dealt with forthwith’ would be relevant I believe. Just the nature of the comment.”