Garriock family want answers into son Nathan’s death
AFTER three months of pushing the NSW police to answer questions raised from our investigation into the death of 17-year- old Nathan Garriock, a senior detective has been assigned to his cold case. It has been 15 years since their son was brutally bashed over the head at a party and the Garriock family want answers.
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THE coronial documents into Nathan Garriock’s death total thousands of pages.
However at the end of the inquest, the coroner hands down an open finding, not able to find any one person or persons was or were responsible for the death of 17-year-old Nathan Garriock.
EPISODE FOUR: FINDING ANSWERS
Initially police thought Nathan had died from injuries sustained from the impact of a car that was driven into a crowd of teenage partygoers, on the night on June 15, 2003.
But a crime scene investigator discovered Nathan’s footprints on the rear passenger-side window of the car, meaning he was alive and well enough to repeatedly kick the window after the car was bogged in a ditch.
The driver — Shannon Macaulay — was captured and charged with 18 offences relating to driving the car but not for causing Nathan’s death.
As Macaulay is arrested he tells police that Nathan was alive and ran past him after the car was stuck in the ditch.
One of the other gatecrashers says during his police interview that he saw someone was smashing the passenger-side window just after impact and described him as being tall.
This person also tells police he thinks Macaulay ran around the other side of the car to confront the person smashing the window — where Nathan would have been when he was hit — but said Macaulay didn’t have anything, like a plank of wood, in his hands when he saw him.
Macaulay still hasn’t been ruled out as a person of interest in the homicide investigation.
But then there is Nathan’s friend, who confessed to Joan Garriock that he might have hit Nathan. In his second police interview, he admits to smashing the back windscreen with a plank of wood.
From the hundreds of witness statements, four people can be placed near Nathan at the time of his death.
Three of them are the gatecrashers and one of them is a mate of Nathan’s.
One of Nathan’s close friends, Jamie Cross, says he has heard rumours about the possibility of one of Nathan’s friends being responsible for his death.
“I know what is going around, could it have been one of us by accident? As much as I do want to know too, I don’t want anyone in trouble either.”
Bill Garriock says he just wants to find out the truth. “We just want to find out what happened so we can close the case and get on with lives, because it’s just open to us, every day, we just don’t have any answers.”
Two months after the gatecrash investigation began, the Garriock family are told by the police they have assigned a senior detective to look into Nathan’s case. A positive step forward for the Garriock family.
In a police statement, a spokesperson said: ‘The investigation into the 2003 death of Nathan Garriock is currently undergoing a formal review under the new processes of the Unsolved Homicide Unit. The review is expected to take a number of months.’
“Oh come forward and give us some information. Whatever small information it is just may make a difference,” says Bill.
“Can you imagine losing one of your children? You’d want to know what happened. You want to know what happened, just come forward.”
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If you know anything about the death of Nathan Garriock, you can make an anonymous phone call to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
or email nicole.hogan@news.com.au
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