Bali murder investigation: Aussie woman’s dream trip turns to nightmare
SARA Connor was looking forward to a blissful week with her new lover in Bali. Now they’re accused of murdering a cop. How did it all go so wrong?
SARA Connor was excited.
She was about to spend a blissful week with her new lover in Bali. David Taylor was at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport to pick her up, just after 2pm.
The 34-year-old DJ, calling himself DJ Nutzo, was already on the holiday island, arriving some two weeks earlier.
It was a simple holiday. They weren’t planning a stay in a luxury villa.
The Kubu Kauh Beach Inn in Kuta normally charges 100,000 Rupiah or about $10 per night for a simple room. The couple bargained them down to $8 a night.
POLICE INTERROGATION: Sara Connor breaks down
They went out for dinner and drinks about 7.30pm and a few hours later headed down to the beach, about 350 metres away, stopping to get some takeaway beers along the way.
They planned drinks and some romance at the water’s edge. It was Tuesday, August 16.
Local police officer Wayan Sudarsa, a 30-year veteran of Bali’s police force, was rostered to work the 8pm-8am shift that night. His area was around the Pullman Hotel.
He parked his motorbike across the road from the hotel and decided to go for a walk around. Perhaps patrolling. Perhaps to get a snack or have a drink. It was a normal night for the father of two, who was loved by many in Bali.
Enjoying the humid evening, Connor and Taylor decided to wander down to the water’s edge, leaving their beers and her handbag on the beach. They kissed and cuddled.
It was a relatively new relationship. The couple had only been dating about three months and indeed many back home in Byron Bay were not even aware Connor, the 45-year-old mother of two young sons, was loved up with the younger David Taylor.
Taylor worked at local radio station Bay FM on Thursday nights in Byron Bay and hung out at the Beach Hotel on the promenade.
Originally from the UK, Taylor had been travelling for years and after an extended time in New Zealand settled in Byron. On his blog he tells of “years of playing the drums in a Baptist church”, moving to the free party scene and playing in North London bars and clubs and onto New Zealand. “Nutzo has always had a remarkable taste in music,” he says of himself.
Connor too had loved travelling. Originally from Italy, she is said to have met Anthony Connor, known by his nickname “Twig” in London. The couple married and had two children, boys who are now nine and 11.
According to friends, the marriage started to crumble and the pair split up. An enterprising businesswoman, Connor set up her own business at home, Byron Bay Fresh Pasta while working at the reception desk of the Nomad Arts Factory Lodge in Byron. The pasta business was her passion and, according to friends, she had been successful in marketing and selling her products throughout the northern rivers. Her two boys were the biggest love of her life.
On August 12 Taylor made a coy reference to Connor, posting a photo of a pasta dish on his Facebook page, writing: “Perfect dinner made with love!”
With his visa expiring Taylor needed to leave the country and the pair planned a romantic getaway to Bali. Connor’s two boys were with their dad in Byron.
A late-night rendesvouz on the beach was the perfect way to end her first day in Bali.
Wayan Sudarsa’s shift was only a few hours old. He would be on duty until 8am the next day.
Suddenly Connor realised the handbag she had left on the beach was missing. She panicked. Her ATM card, driver’s licence, wallet and about $300 were inside.
Sudarsa, on patrol, was at the beach gate. She approached the officer, asking if he was police and if he knew anything about her lost bag. Taylor came over and, according to police, started accusing the police officer of stealing the bag and of being a fake officer.
A scuffle ensued. Taylor tried to frisk the officer who, offended, pushes Taylor to the sand. According to Denpasar Police chief, Hadi Purnomo, it is alleged, based on the couple’s own statements, that all three end up on the sand, fighting during which Connor’s hand and thigh are bitten by the victim.
Police allege that Taylor viciously bashed the officer about the head with a beer bottle, until it smashed, with the officer’s own binoculars and with a mobile phone. It is further alleged that as the officer lay dying on the sand one of them took his wallet.
Failing to find Connor’s handbag, the couple left Wayan Sudarsa on the beach. His walkie talkie, which he never had a chance to use to call for help, was lying next to the body. His police cap was about 20 metres away. His police shirt was undone and his head was bloody. The beating had left him with 17 head wounds and 42 wounds to his body in total. He died on the sand that night of blunt force trauma to the head.
As they fled, lawyers say that Taylor told his girlfriend: “He is only passed out, not dead.”
With blood on their clothes, the couple tried to get a local motorbike taxi driver, known as an ojek, to take them to a police station to report the bag stolen. But they decided it would take too long to process and abandoned the idea. The driver, scared at seeing all the blood, refused to take them. So the couple went back to their hotel, showered and slept.
As Connor and Taylor slept in room three at the Kubu Kauh Beach Inn, down at the beach Wayan Sudarsa was found dead on the sand at 3.30am. So too was Connor’s NSW driver’s licence and ATM card.
Four hours later Connor and Taylor woke. They are alleged to have then cut up the cards, including the police ID, his driver’s licence and other ID cards belonging to the police officer and put them into a plastic bag. About 1pm the couple went to Jimbaran where the plastic bag was dumped by the road. They say they had no idea the officer was dead and headed to the beaches of Jimbaran, where according to one of their lawyers, they “enjoyed the beach”. It was Independence Day, a national celebration marked by a holiday and ceremonies and flag raising and beach games.
That evening Connor and Taylor walked along a street in Jimbaran, looking for a place to stay. In front of a local restaurant they met Ni Luh Sandewi and asked if she knew of any homestays (local hotels) in the area. The family’s home was across the road and they had a room the couple could rent. It was agreed — 300,000 Rupiah or $30 a night for three nights.
Unknown to them, just 500 metres away mourners were gathering at the home of Wayan Sudarsa, to comfort his wife Ketut Arsini and their two children, Putu, 30 and Kadek, 21. Connor and Taylor returned to Kuta, checked out of the Kubu Kauh and stayed the night in Jimbaran.
Wayan Kodil, the homeowner, gave them coffee, tea and bread the next morning for breakfast. To him they appeared like normal tourists. There was nothing suspicious or edgy about them and they went out for the day. It seems they returned again to Kubu Kauh to collect some bags left there and spent the day around Jimbaran.
That night, Thursday, the story was breaking that an Australian woman called Sara Connor from Byron Bay, and another foreign man, were wanted for questioning over the police officer’s death. There had been rumours ever since his body was discovered that foreigners were involved.
There were also rumours that the officer had been “peeping” on the couple as they canoodled on the beach. Police denied this. But Denpasar Police chief, Hadi Purnomo, was moved to warn his officers against so-called peeping on couples. “Better if you buy a blue (movie) and watch it yourself.”
In a series of chaotic, confused and almost farcical events, a police wanted poster went out, featuring Connor’s name and photo along with the name and photo of another man. That man had nothing to do with it, was not even in Bali. He was a friend of Connor’s from years back and his image appears to have been gleaned from Connor’s Facebook. Police later claimed there was confusion because, like Taylor, he had dreadlocks.
Connor’s friends in Australia woke on Friday to the news that she was wanted in Bali for murder. At 9am she took a call from a friend who told her she was on the news.
Police allege that it was Connor’s idea to burn the bloodied clothes they had been wearing.
At 1pm on Friday Connor and Taylor went to a small motorbike rental outlet, about 1.5km from their homestay. A staff member, Nengah Pecut, says they told him they needed to rent a bike to go to the Australian Consulate because Connor’s passport was gone.
Taylor handed over his own ID and they paid $6 for a day’s rental. Mr Pecut saw many wounds on Taylor’s hands. And Connor was holding her stomach, saying she was in pain and asked where to find medicine.
Ketut Surpa was also working in the bike rental outlet. He says that after they were arrested many locals in the area remembered seeing them around, at the beach, near the homestay. The bike shop was only 1km from the home of the dead police officer.
The couple did indeed go to the Australian Consulate that afternoon. Connor went in but Taylor, a British citizen, was not allowed in. Police were waiting for them and pounced, arresting both.
Bali’s police chief spoke to a dishevelled and distressed Connor soon after her arrest. He said she told him she was too drunk to remember what had happened on the beach that night. He urged her to remember.
Within 24 hours they were declared suspects in the murder, assault and battery of the police officer and detained.
One of Taylor’s lawyers said that he told them that as the couple searched for the lost bag Connor was attacked by a police officer who was “not good” and that three or four other unknown men had come to her aid and she had slipped away. Taylor, coming across the officer lying on the sand, claimed that he had put his finger in the officer’s mouth, to see if he was alive, when the officer bit him, so he left. And there were claims that the officer had tried to sexually assault Connor.
By Sunday afternoon it was all taking on the aura of a bad soap opera. Taylor’s lawyers visited him in the police jail, urging him to tell the truth. This was serious, they told him.
The next day Taylor was interrogated for 12 hours and Connor for nine during which their versions of the tragic night changed again. There had been a fight with the officer, sparked by a belief the officer had stolen then handbag. There was no attempted sexual assault.
Connor insists she is not guilty and had nothing to do with killing Wayan Sudarsa. She had tried to separate her boyfriend and the officer as they fought and during the scuffle was bitten on her thigh and arm. When they left him on the beach that night she believed he was just knocked out, not dead. She is remorseful.
According to her lawyer, Erwin Siregar, she has told police: “In this case I am not guilty, I am innocent because my position in this case is try to separate between David and the victim and tried to help the victim.” She told police Taylor had told her the victim was not dead but bashed up.
“She is very sad because in the end she knows that the victim (has) died.”
Taylor’s lawyer says he too is remorseful and wants to apologise to the officer’s family.
Ketut Arsini, meanwhile, worries how she will pay for her children’s university educations now the family’s breadwinner is gone.
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