Wieambilla inquest: Why Nathaniel Train was reported missing

A man who murdered two police officers had stopped contacting key people in his life in the months leading up to the horror ambush, an inquest has been told.

A former school principal who helped murder two police officers and an innocent bystander had stopped making contact with key people in his life, including his doctors, months after he suffered a cardiac arrest, a coronial inquest was told.

Nathaniel Train, his brother Gareth and his wife Stacey gunned down constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow during an ambush on a rural property in Wieambilla, Queensland, on December 12.

Constable Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow were murdered at the property.

The trio later murdered Alan Dare, who lived nearby, after he spotted smoke billowing from the Wains Rd property.

As the coronial inquest into the deaths entered its 12th day, a person who knew Nathaniel gave evidence about their interactions with him in the year leading up to December 12.

The witness, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the inquest the last time they saw Nathaniel was in December 2021.

He told the witness that he was going camping and wanted to visit his adult children in Queensland.

It wasn’t until a year later, the witness learnt, that Nathaniel had illegally crossed the Queensland border on December 17, 2021, during Covid restrictions and ditched several weapons he owned.

Nathaniel Train had been a principal at several schools in Queensland and NSW.

His car was also later abandoned after he’d driven through floodwater.

An arrest warrant was later issued for Nathaniel for wilful damage and unlawful disposal of weapons.

CROSSING THE BORDER

Constable Michael Brownlee told the inquest on Thursday he’d received reports an e-gate at Talwood near the Queensland border had been damaged about December 2021.

The inquest was told a farmer had reported he’d seen Nathaniel drive into flood water and later offered him assistance when his car was damaged.

Constable Brownlee said the farmer told him during his police statement that he thought it was “strange” when he saw Nathaniel had been carrying a crossbow, rainbow knives and two firearms.

Following the flooding incident, Nathaniel used the farmer’s mobile to call his brother Gareth.

When asked should Mr Train had been charged over carrying firearms, Constable Brownlee said it wasn’t necessary.

“Mr Train had minimal history,” he said.

Constable Michael Brownlee says he investigated Nathaniel’s border crossing.Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

“He had a current weapons license to carry firearms.

“In rural communities, it’s not uncommon to carry firearms for fishing or hunting.”

The inquest was told the farmer later discovered some more firearms, camping gear and school books with Nathaniel’s name on them when floodwaters receded.

Constable Brownlee said he contacted the weapons licencing office and learnt that Nathaniel was a registered gun owner.

However, the firearms that had been found by the farmer had a bit more of a bizarre history.

“One should be in a gun shop in Parramatta (but when I called they said they) gave the firearm back to Mr Train about 5 years prior,” constable Brownlee said.

“The other gun should have been in a police station in Mackay but they didn’t know where it was other than in Goondiwindi police station.”

Constable Brownlee said the second firearm had belonged to a person in far north Queensland but they’d moved to Portugal about 12 years beforehand according to his inquiries.

Nathaniel had previously worked in far north Queensland as a teacher. 

Nathaniel Train had crossed into Queensland in December 2021.

VISITING 251 WAINS RD

Senior constable Nathan Rigg told the inquest he visited the Trains property in August 2022 after receiving a job about Nathaniel’s arrest warrant.

He said he visited the property with Constable Randall Kirk - who later escaped with his life from the Trains in December 2022 - and left a “calling card” indicating they were looking for Nathaniel.

The inquest has previously heard it was this calling card experts believed triggered the Trains belief that police were trying to take Nathaniel away from them and they began planning their armed response.

Constable Rigg said they left the card after they found the front gate locked.

When asked whether he would jump a fence in that situation, constable Rigg said he’d been advised by senior officers to never walk down a driveway of a rural property.

“The example to me was that .. if we were to come across someone who was hostile and arrest was required... the last thing we’d want is the officer to run down to get the police vehicle,” constable Rigg said.

“In those rural environments, personally, working in the way I do and the given the advice I’ve been given....I wouldn’t walk in, I would be driving.

“There are a lot of unlicensed firearms in the area. We have to consider that.”

Senior Constable Nathan Rigg (R) says he left a calling card at the Trains property when he was looking for Nathaniel.Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

NATHANIEL’S FINAL MONTHS

The witness who knew Nathaniel said when they learnt that he’d ditched his car in December 2021, they became even more concerned about Nathaniel because he had never told them about that.

The witness told the inquest that they had been communicating through text, calls and email to Nathaniel up until May 30, 2022.

Their communication ceased because the witness said they wanted to protect their own mental health.

The witness said they had become concerned about Nathaniel’s determination to get them to read about biblical readings he believed related to Covid.

The witness said while they weren’t in direct contact with Nathaniel after May 2022, they knew others were, but when those communications ended around October, the witness’s concern for Nathaniel grew.

“(Another person the witness knew) let me know that Nathaniel had stopped responding to her emails (at the end of July 2022),” the witness said.

“I also wrote to Gareth and Stacey to ask if they were still in contact with Nathaniel.

“They responded and to told me ‘to go away’ pretty much.”

The witness said they made efforts to contact Nathaniel but were unsuccessful.

Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train had been staying at the Wieambilla property. Picture: 9 News

The inquest had been told Nathaniel experienced cardiac arrest in August 2021 that left his heart only operating at 26 per cent without medical care.

After he was released from hospital, Nathaniel declined further medical treatment and had even stopped taking his medication in about November 2021.

The inquest was told a letter reportedly written by Nathaniel on October 9, 2022, stated that he was going “out bush” to go camping and would be turning his phone off.

After this letter, the inquest was told Nathaniel’s email account was accessed and it was discovered that he had many unanswered emails, including one from his doctor with his latest medical results.

In another email, Nathaniel told someone there was “no point talking to me anyway”.

A missing person’s report was ultimately made in early December, prompting NSW police to issue a social media post on December 8 calling for information about where Nathaniel might be.

The inquest was told concerning emails sent from Gareth to others in the days prior were forwarded to NSW Police on December 12

The witness who knew Nathaniel told the inquest they received a text message from Gareth about 6pm on December 12 that read: “You sent people to kill us. Run.”

The witness said they immediately contacted police but had always thought Gareth was simply a “keyboard warrior” despite “highly derogatory abusive” communication from him in the past.

Stacey and Gareth Train uploaded a video to a now deleted YouTube channel after they killed three people.

The inquest was previously told constables Arnold and McCrow and Mr Dare were murdered between 4.30pm and 5.30pm on December 12.

A few hours later, SERT officers fatally shot the three Trains at the Wains Rd property after they failed to respond to lengthy negotiations asking them to surrender.

The two constables and their two colleagues, constables Randall Kirk and Keely Brough, had been at the property to perform a welfare check on Nathaniel and issue an arrest warrant for him related the weapons offences in December 2021.

Originally published as Wieambilla inquest: Why Nathaniel Train was reported missing