Eden Westbook: Family claim police covered up suicide of Tasmanian teenager

A Tasmanian teenager believed to have died by suicide nearly ten years ago could have met with foul play, according to new claims.

A teenager believed to have taken her own life nearly a decade ago could have met with foul play, according to new claims.

Eden Westbrook’s life was cut short when on February 18, 2015, she was found in Fisherman’s Memorial Park in St Helens, two hours from Launceston in Tasmania.

While a coroner ruled her death a suicide, several inconsistencies have emerged - sparking a popular podcast as the family search for answers about what really happened to their daughter.

The 15-year-old, after a fight with her father about mobile phone use, had stormed off, with her body later found in the park.

Eden Westbrook was only 15 when she died. Picture: Supplied

A coroner said there were ‘no suspicious circumstances’. Picture: Supplied

“I initially thought it was a badly bungled by the cops, but we launched the podcast and witnesses came forward I realised it was more sinister,” criminal barrister Peter Lavac told news.com.au.

The podcast, The Garden of Eden, has been downloaded nearly five million times garnering massive publicity for the case and prompting more witnesses to come forward.

Mr Lavac said it was impossible that Eden, who was 156cm and weighed a mere 45kg could have dragged the heavy fishing rope from the wharf she used to publicly hang herself and get to the top of the tree.

The coroner admitted in the report there was “no available evidence” regarding the route taken by Eden to the location of her death.

Last year, Mr Lavac said a whistleblower approached with more damning evidence the teenager was murdered.

The teenager ‘consistently performed well at school’ and was adored by her family. Picture: Supplied

The Westbrook family, Eden fourth from left. Picture: Supplied

The man explained that he had been drinking with a friend in Launceston a couple of weeks earlier when they started talking about the topic of suicide, and Eden’s name came up.

“The person that he was speaking to said, ‘Oh no, Eden Westbrook didn’t kill herself. I know the guy that (was involved)’, and provided names of a man and a woman who were said to have made the death look like a suicide,” said Mr Lavac.

He added that important witnesses have not been interviewed, and that police have given conflicting accounts over whether Eden was seen arguing with an older woman in CCTV footage.

Perhaps most disturbing, a psychologist passed on information that a man in a position of power was sexually grooming Eden before her death, and another witness claimed Eden was the “victim of paedophile sexual abuse”.

Mr Lavac accused Tasmanian police of a “cover up”.

The family would like a Royal Commission style inquiry. Picture: Facebook / Eden Westbrook

More witnesses have come forward since a podcast was launched. Picture: Supplied

Her body was found by a delivery driver the morning after she left home.

Eden’s lifeless body was also seen by multiple people, including a bus full of schoolchildren.

Her mother and father, who heard reports a body had been found, rushed to the park, and also saw her - an image that has haunted them as they campaign for the case to be reopened.

Coroner Olivia McTaggart would deliver her verdict into Eden’s death the following September without holding an inquest, concluding there were “no suspicious circumstances” and Eden had indeed taken her own life.

She described Eden as a “good student who consistently performed well” and who was a “sensitive person who cared about others” but experienced some “mental anguish” which she felt no way out.

Eden, according to the report, had been “depressed for some time” and her school internet history showed that she had been visiting websites relating to pregnancy, unprotected sex, depression, suicide, family problems and drugs.

Her father Jason Westbrook rejected the notion Eden was depressed.

“We really feel that Eden did not leave our home to commit suicide, we feel she left home because she had a fight with her dad and met with the wrong people,” he said.

The family are calling for an open, transparent, Royal Commission-style inquiry into her death.

A spokesperson for Tasmanian police told news.com.au: “Coroner’s findings were made public and included the circumstances leading up to Eden’s death and the competency of the police investigation.

“Tasmania Police recognises the lasting emotional toll that remains with Miss Westbrook’s family, and the broader St Helens Community,” the spokesperson said.

For Eden’s distraught father, his daughter was a typical Tassie teenager.

Adventurous, athletic, funny is how he remembers her.

“An incredible kid,” he told news.com.au.

He won’t rest, he said, until the full truth comes out.