AT 11.52pm on August 10, 2002, David Breckenridge called his best mate from a phone box and told him to fire up the TV — he was on his way over to watch the international rugby match that was about to start. Eight Minutes later he was dead. Chapter Two of this Podcast Special Investigation delves into David’s lifestyle, his friends, his lovers, his partying ways and questions why would anyone want to murder him?
DAVID Breckenridge was an unlikely murder victim.
The 28-year-old came from a happy home on Sydney’s affluent north shore. One of three children to parents Stephen and Karen. He was the baby of the family — younger brother to Keiran and Kirsty.
David was intelligent and charismatic. He had attended the prestigious Barker College and was a happy man with a wide circle of friends who all told the Daily Telegraph he was not someone to look for trouble.
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In fact they insist he was adept at avoiding it.
So how did someone with no obvious enemies, who did not mix in unsavoury circles, come to be brutally murdered in a Sydney laneway 15 years ago?
Those closest to David said he was like most twenty-somethings — he indulged in a few too many drinks on occasion, experimented with recreational drugs and had the odd one-night stand.
But they denied his love of a good time had anything to do with his murder.
“We were just good time guys who liked having fun together, meeting up and having drinks and a lot of our social activities revolved around sport, watching the local rugby team, or going to events,” David’s best mate Phillip Noyce said.
“That would usually revolve around drinks and sometimes that might get a bit out of hand in terms of consumption, but I really don’t think that there was anything bad.”
Phil’s wife Georgina, who had a special bond with David, said their lifestyle was like most people their age.
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“He was a normal guy, he blended in with his friends, he loved to go out — perhaps he went out a little bit longer than everyone else, but there was a whole group of them,” she said.
And while David’s friends said he experimented in drugs, they insisted it was not to the extent that it would have put him in contact with dangerous people.
“Dave dabbled in it, but I don’t feel like it was anything more serious than once a week, if that,” Georgina said.
“He wasn’t buying drugs on the scale that would mean he would be stabbed like that in the street.
“Nobody dies over two ecstasy pills and a couple of lines of coke.”
A FRIEND TO EVERYONE
What is clear from David’s friends is that he was a good guy who treated everyone with kindness and respect.
“He was one of those people you know when you talk to him, there was nobody else in the room and it didn’t matter who you were, he was like that with everybody,’ ex-girlfriend Vanessa Baylis said.
“I think it was one of the first times in my life that I met somebody who saw me, I just understood him and he understood me, and long after our relationship ended we were very close.
“I loved him.”
David maintained relationships with many of his school mates, but was known to make new friends easily and often.
“He was a popular guy and I guess his circle of friends was so wide that if you didn’t see him for a while then you know perhaps there’d be someone new there on the scene or what not, but what his relationship was with that person or how you know how deep it was you know you never really knew,” Phil Noyce said.
And with movie star looks, the attention of women was never far away.
“Yeah, girls loved him,” said Vanessa. “He had such a lot of friends from a lot of different walks of life.”
And it was those friends that would be questioned by police in the first few days after his murder but they failed to turn up any leads as to why David was stabbed 24 times and left for dead in a St Leonards lane.
‘YOU’VE KILLED MY BABY!’
Karen Breckenridge’s voice reduced to a whisper when she explained how she has had to endure her son’s death not once, but twice.
When David was just 20 months old his tiny body was crushed by a truck
Karen said she had gone outside to pay the lady who delivered her bread when she saw David come out onto the front veranda before losing sight of him.
“I’d hoped he’d gone back inside, but as the truck drove off I saw this little body underneath one of the wheels of the truck and I just shouted out “you’ve killed my baby, you’ve killed my baby”,” Karen said.
David underwent emergency surgery and his parents said it was touch and go for months.
“Everybody in the family was just totally devastated,” David’s father Stephen said.
The family feared for the worse after months went by without David uttering a word.
But it was the family dog that would finally bring some joy.
“Our dog Patch jumped on his bed and snuggled up to David and he just said ‘oh there’s Patch’,” Stephen said.
“And suddenly out of nothing for months this kid starts to speak and everybody in the room was laughing and jumping up and down and clapping and my mother got down on our knees and thanked God.”
David’s parents said he was a good kid growing up and was adored.
“He was bright. He was personable. He was always wanting to be almost the peacemaker between his older brother Keiran and big sister Kirsty,” Stephen said.
“He was smart and he never ever got involved in a fight. I remember him saying to Vanessa once if there’s an issue just turn your back and walk away don’t get involved.”
Vanessa said David could talk himself out of any situation.
“He wasn’t one to get involved in an altercation. He worked in hospitality; he worked in bars in the inner city, we lived in the inner city and he worked night shifts” she said.
“He was incredibly streetwise. If I was ever out without him he used to say to me keep walking Vanessa, don’t ever stop. Don’t ever take anybody on, no matter what they say to you.
“He wasn’t a fighter, he wouldn’t have taken anybody on. He would have tried to walk away, he wouldn’t have thrown loose comments to provoke anybody.
“He was just too street smart for that.”
But Vanessa revealed to the Daily Telegraph that on the day of David’s murder she received a phone call from someone she had never spoken to before which left her questioning what happened to him.
That person said to her: “I guess it all finally caught up with him.”
IN THE NEXT CHAPTER
In chapter three of Eight Minutes the Daily Telegraph examines the 11-month homicide investigation and the families concerns about crucial errors made in the efforts to catch David’s killer.
Do you know something about what happened to David Breckenridge? Even the smallest detail could help bring a murderer to justice and help bring some closure to David’s family and friends.
Help us catch a killer.
Email eightminutes@dailytelegraph.com.au or call Crime Stoppers 1800333000.
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