How Karlie Pearce-Stevenson’s friend helped solve double murder

The murders of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her toddler Khandalyce haunted the nation. In her book The Lost Girls, The Sunday Telegraph’s crime reporter Ava Benny-Morrison reveals for the first time how police eventually cracked the case.

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The murders of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her toddler Khandalyce haunted the nation — after their bodies were found in separate states and not identified until years after their deaths. In her book The Lost Girls, The Sunday Telegraph’s crime reporter Ava Benny-Morrison reveals for the first time how police eventually cracked the case

October 2015

The pink child’s coat, with the faux fur around the collar, seemed familiar to Tanya Webber.

She’d spotted the distinctive jacket while reading a news story about child’s bones found in a suitcase in Wynarka in South Australia.

Other images caught her attention too: a pair of purple silk boxer shorts with a teddy bear print, pink girls’ pants and Holden branded shorts.

As she read through story after story, Tanya found herself in tears in front of the computer.

She couldn’t help but think of Karlie and Khandalyce.

Since the young mother and daughter had left Alice Springs almost seven years earlier, Tanya had thought of them often, wondering where they were and how they were doing.

Khandals would be nine by now, Tanya would think, and probably looked just like her mum: slim, fair, with brown eyes.

Karlie’s mother Colleen Povey and friend Tanya Webber.

Karlie (far left, blue top) as a child with her grandmother Connie Duffy and cousins.

LOST GIRLS BOOK EXTRACT

’LOOK AFTER THEM’: FRIENDS LAST WORDS TO A KILLER

Now Tanya was uneasy, a feeling that only intensified following a day spent with Karlie’s stepfather, Scott.

After the death of her best friend, Colleen, Tanya had eventually left Alice Springs and settled in Darwin, where she’d set up a business from home with her husband, Michael.

Coincidentally, Colleen’s widower, Scott, had moved to Darwin too, and the two old friends had simply picked up from where they’d left off.

On 3 October 2015, they’d caught up for a few drinks at a local pub on the afternoon of the AFL grand final.

In the early evening, Tanya and Scott’s new partner, Brenda, retired to Scott and Brenda’s balcony overlooking a glistening bay in Darwin’s west while the men had one last beer in town.

The last known picture taken of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and daughter Khandalyce.

A pink coat was among the clothing found in a suitcase containing a child’s remains in 2015 — later identified as being Khandalyce Pearce.

The images Tanya had seen of the clothing in the suitcase were playing on her mind and she discussed her niggling fears with Brenda. While Brenda, a compassionate and warm woman, hadn’t met the missing mother and child, she knew that their absence had caused Scott’s family enormous pain.

‘Karlie used to dress Khandals in boxer shorts when she was hot. She’d run around with them over her nappy,’ Tanya said.

She also pointed out that Khandalyce fitted the description of the unidentified child — two-and-a-half to four years old, blonde hair, Caucasian.

Scott had recognised the coat too, Brenda said, and had spent hours poring over news stories about the Wynarka investigation.

Then he’d spoken to his sisters, who’d remarked that a unique quilt found in the suitcase looked exactly like the quilt Scott’s late mother had given to Khandalyce after she was born.

In a bid to put his racing mind at ease, Scott had told Brenda he’d go to a police station and report the names of Karlie and Khandalyce.

Hopefully, the police would rule out Khandalyce as a potential victim and confirm that his suspicions were far-fetched.

Karlie and Khandalyce would still be missing but it was more comforting than the alternative.

But when the Wynarka case broke, Scott was working out of Adelaide, overseeing a huge logistics operation.

More of the child's clothing found in the suitcase along the Karoonda Highway, Wynarka.

Police released images of the clothing, having already ruled out 10 potential victims.

He’d been working around the clock and when a colleague’s son died unexpectedly, his workload increased. In short, he’d not managed to get down to a police station.

As Tanya listened to Brenda relay Scott’s concerns, she decided she needed to categorically rule out the possibility that the girl in the suitcase was Khandalyce.

The following morning, she would call Crime Stoppers and put forward the toddler’s name.

But while she’d made the decision, following through proved much more challenging.

It felt like a physically impossible task.

Every time she picked up the phone, she put it down again, convinced she was overreacting.

Sure, Khandalyce had similar clothing but it was all mass produced.

Hundreds of other children probably had the same coat and boxer shorts.

As for the quilt, another family could’ve picked it up at a second-hand shop.

She knew Karlie was planning to travel to Adelaide or Melbourne, and there had also been whispers she was in Queensland in recent years.

Karlie could’ve dumped that quilt in any town during her travels.

It took another restless night’s sleep for Tanya to make the call. Finally, on 6 October, she dialled the number.

Among the items found in the suitcase was a distinctive quilt.

Khandalyce’s great aunt recognised the quilt as one given to the baby by her great grandmother. The quilt can be seen in this picture of Khandalyce.

She got through.

After hanging up the phone, Tanya spoke to Brenda.

Concerned about causing Scott unnecessary grief over an unconfirmed hunch, they decided to hold off telling him until they knew more.

If it turned out to be true, he’d be the first to know, but, until then, they didn’t see the benefit in worrying him further.

As she waited for a follow-up phone call from South Australia Police, Tanya searched nervously for evidence that might link Khandalyce to the suitcase.

On finding a USB stick that had once belonged to Colleen, she plugged it into her computer and began trawling through old photographs of happier times in Alice Springs.

A series of photos of Khandalyce appeared and she stopped and hovered the cursor over them.

They were clearly all taken at the same time, and were of Khandals in a black headband and a dusty pink dress with faint stripes.

In all the photos the little girl was holding onto a pram. Tanya’s stomach dropped.

Pulling up an internet browser, she punched the words ‘Wynarka’ and ‘suitcase’ into a search engine and waited.

She found what she was looking for, a photo of a tiny, pink dress with faint stripes and cap sleeves laid out beside a forensic ruler.

Tanya placed the photo of the clothing and the photo of Khandalyce side-by-side on her screen. The dresses were identical.

Friends also recognised a pink dress as one similar to that worn by Khandalyce.

It had been twenty-four hours since Tanya had contacted Crime Stoppers and she hadn’t heard anything.

So when police still hadn’t been in contact the following day, 8 October, she contacted them again and said she had photos she needed to send them.

That night Detective Sergeant Blake Horder, from the Major Crime Investigation Branch, called Tanya and asked her to email the photographs to him.

She did, and less than an hour later, Horder rang to say the police had tracked Karlie and Khandalyce and they were alive and well.

Relieved, she sent Brenda a message updating her on the development.

But as Tanya got into bed that evening the old frustration returned: why hadn’t Karlie called her family?

The following morning Tanya found a new email from Horder and she was instantly alarmed.

The email contained a list of detailed questions about Karlie and Khandalyce.

In her response, Tanya asked whether Karlie had been found. Horder rang an hour later to confirm that police had not located Karlie as they’d first thought.

The sick feeling in Tanya’s stomach returned and she forwarded Horder’s emails to Brenda.

Brenda decided it was time to tell Scott what was going on.

When he heard about the Crime Stoppers report, Scott contacted his two sisters again and asked if they’d had any luck finding photographs of Khandalyce.

Scott’s older sister, Sue, distinctively remembered the unique quilt her mother had given Khandalyce during a visit to Adelaide in 2007.

It was the last blanket her mother had made before she died of cancer in December that year. Like the rest of her family, Sue had long wondered what had happened to Karlie and Khandalyce.

Wynarka near the scene where bones of a child were discovered in the Murray Mallee

South Australia police released these images of a suitcase similar to the one dumped and a mannequin with hair of a similar colour and length, dressed in new versions of items of clothing found with the human remains.

The last she’d heard from her niece was around November 2008 when Karlie texted to say she was in Adelaide and wanted to drop by for a visit. Sue had heard that Karlie was

keeping some unsavoury company, but she would never have denied her request.

It was the people Karlie would turn up with that Sue was worried about. As it turned out, the next day Karlie changed her mind but reassured her aunty that they’d catch up soon.

During the years that followed, Sue bore witness to Colleen’s unwavering hope that Karlie and Khandals would one day return.

When Colleen was in Adelaide for medical treatment, she often stayed with Sue and they’d discuss the latest contact from Karlie.

It was always a text message, never a phone call. More often than not, it was a request for money so Karlie could buy petrol or fix her car so she could make it home.

‘This time she means it,’ Colleen would assure Sue.

After Scott’s request for photographs of Khandalyce, Sue found herself rifling through cupboards looking for the familiar quilt.

Sue had moved into the family home after her mother died and had many of her old blankets.

The scene on the Karoonda Hwy where Khandalyce’s remains were found.

She didn’t find the quilt, but she did find a photograph of Khandalyce, sitting in a stroller with the distinctive quilt behind her.

The top third of the photograph showed the multi-coloured musical notes that made up the quilt’s unique edges. Sue’s daughter had taken the photograph inside their home during Karlie and Khandalyce’s visit in 2007.

‘I sent the photograph to my brother,’ Sue recalled later.

‘We were dumb struck. We didn’t know where to go or where to turn.’

'The Lost Girls' written by Ava Benny-Morrison.

Scott compared the photograph against the image of the quilt found in the suitcase.

There was no doubt the fabric matched.

It was a sobering moment and all but confirmed to Scott that the little girl in the suitcase he had been reading about was the granddaughter he had been looking for.

He knew he’d seen the clothing before but it was the quilt, made by his mother in the same way she carefully sewed his clothing as a young boy, that was the missing piece of the puzzle.

On 11 October, Scott emailed the photograph of his granddaughter’s blanket to Horder.

The following day, when they still haven’t heard back, Sue called Crime Stoppers.

‘I think I have some information on the child in the suitcase in Wynarka,’ she told the operator.

‘We found a picture and we believe it’s the quilt they have been looking for.’

Unbeknownst to Sue, since Tanya’s call detectives had been sourcing Khandalyce’s medical records and organising a DNA comparison.

On 12 October, two detectives from the Major Crime Investigation Branch turned up at Sue’s home. They sat around the dining table, dialled Scott’s number and put the mobile phone on loudspeaker.

As Sue listened to Detective Amanda Bridge, she knew her brother’s heart was breaking.

This is an edited extract from The Lost Girls. $32.99. Available Thursday May 2. Published by ABC Books (an imprint of HarperCollins).