The last known video and audio of missing teen Katrina Bohnenkamp released
An inquest has heard a shock claim from Katrina Bohnenkamp’s stepsister into what happened to the missing teen. It comes after the last known video and audio of Katrina were released.
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A relative of missing teen Katrina Bohnenkamp has told an inquest about a stunning theory she had about her suspected death in the years since she vanished
Savannah Olden, Katrina’s stepsister, recalled the conversation she had with two Auburn detectives in 2016 where she revealed her theory that her mother Karen Walters, her brother Rick Olden and Katrina’s father Maiko Bohnenkamp may have been involved.
As a result of that conversation, Ms Olden was then taken on a walk-through of bushland near the Cook River canal in Strathfield with detectives after pointing it out on a map because of a “gut feeling”.
The revelation came as the inquest into her death continued on Friday.
HEAR THE CALL HERE:
Ms Olden, however, maintained the theory she discussed with Inspector Christie Houldin was not based on anything the trio had ever told her, but instead based on suspicions arising after her family waited months before telling her Katrina had vanished.
Her theory, she told the inquest, also came to the surface because she had only just found out Katrina was last seen at the trio’s home in Strathfield, as opposed to in Greenacre.
“I was hurt and angry, I did find it odd that I wasn’t told within a week of her disappearance … I was suspicious,” Ms Olden said.
“Maybe there was an argument, maybe Rick jumped in and Katrina tried to get out she fell and hit her head, maybe someone pushed her, maybe there were so many people against her but it was all speculation because I wasn’t there.”
Giving evidence on Friday afternoon, Ms Olden “possibly recalled” saying that as part of the theory, the trio did not call an ambulance because they were afraid of being charged with manslaughter and she said she was “99.9 per cent certain” they were on drugs at the time Katrina went missing.
“Do you remember saying that you thought that Maiko and Rick may have stolen a car and disposed of her body in the bushes,” counsel assisting Phillip Strickland SC asked.
“I didn’t say anything like that at all,” Ms Olden replied.
“Everything was sprung on me that day and now my own family, my mum and my brother Rick, were the last people to see her alive.
“This is all got to do state of mind when you’re on drugs, you think differently, I don’t know what drugs they were on, on that day.”
The coroner had earlier released to the media the final video taken of Katrina.
In it she can be seen smiling as she passes the camera while in another portion of the clip she is sitting down with her head in her hands.
It’s believed to have been captured within a day of her last confirmed sighting, at her father’s home in Strathfield.
The last recorded call of the teen, made to the child protection helpline, came just months before she disappeared for good after being banned from a Bankstown shopping centre for stealing soft drinks.
“A few people and me have got ourselves into trouble,” Katrina says in the clip.
Her inquest has also heard that in the lead up to her disappearance, the teen had dabbled in drugs and was surrounded by criminals, drug users and a number of sex offenders.
One of the men in close contact with Katrina is a registered sex offender in his 40s, who the inquest heard would take the teen out on day trips and would return from them “stoned”.
However, the focus of investigators is now on a mystery boyfriend, pictured kissing Katrina in July 2012.
He has never been able to be traced in the seven years since Katrina went missing.
It became a source of interest when it was discovered that after absconding from a care home prior to her disappearance, she claimed to have been staying with a boyfriend and his mother in Kempsey or Campsie.
The inquest before Coroner Carmel Forbes will resume next March.
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