Non-human ‘meat suits’: Trains’ delusions, Wieambilla inquest hears
The wife and brother of domineering Gareth Train embraced his psychotic delusions about the end of the world before they murdered two police and a neighbour, an inquest has heard.
The wife and brother of domineering Gareth Train embraced his psychotic delusions about the end of the world before they murdered two police and a neighbour at their lonely property in southern Queensland, an inquest has heard.
The ambush at Wieambilla in December 2022 capped the Trains’ long descent into paranoia and madness, as the trio counted down to what they believed was the “salvation day” of Christ’s second coming.
After combing through emails, phone texts, recorded conversations and diary entries left by the Trains – who perished in the massacre they precipitated – forensic psychiatrist Andrew Aboud provided insight into how Gareth Train drew wife Stacey and brother Nathaniel into a fantasy world where Covid vaccines had turned people into non-human “meat suits” and they were being hunted by the “agents of evil”.
Dr Aboud said the trio had resolved to die rather than be taken in when four police arrived at their property and “crossed the Rubicon” of the locked gate. Until they fell under Gareth’s spell, the primary mover in what became a rare shared psychotic disorder, both Stacey and Nathaniel had been “impressive” individuals.
Gareth was nothing of the sort.
Describing him as narcissistic and angry, Dr Aboud believes his “traumatic” premature birth after his mother was in a car accident may have led to a mild acquired brain injury that set him on his path. As a boy, he had trouble controlling his behaviour and emotions, which made learning difficult.
Gareth’s younger brother Nathaniel was everything he wasn’t. He was gifted and empathetic, and Gareth latched on to him from a young age to become “quite attached”.
By his early 20s, the rude and arrogant Gareth was still failing to keep up with his siblings. He took up bodybuilding and guns as a way of overcompensating his inadequacies and both of his relationships with women fell apart after they were scared off by his discussions of suicide pacts.
It was also when he began to dabble with conspiracy theories, an interest that festered and morphed with age as he slipped further into his own mind.
“I believe he had developed a paranoid personality disorder, and there were also some narcissistic traits that went with it,” the forensic psychologist said.
The path forged by Gareth was entirely different from the one Nathaniel had travelled. The younger man married his teen sweetheart, Stacey, in 1995 when they were barely adults and had two children, Aidan and Madelyn, in quick succession.
Stacey was supported by her family, particularly her father, who would have rather she’d focused more on her studies to become a teacher. By all accounts, the couple was happy after moving out with their young family to live on their own.
Gareth moved around 1998 or 1999, and people started to notice the “intensive” amount of time he spent with Stacey when Nathaniel was studying for his own teaching degree. “I suspect that Gareth was struggling emotionally and psychologically at that time, and Nathaniel … was trying to help his brother,” Dr Aboud told the inquest.
“But then there seems to have been a shift where Gareth, in fact, came to be in an intimate relationship with Stacey, and I believe they continued to live together.”
Nathaniel and Stacey split in 2000 and she married Gareth the following year.
Despite her dependent personality, Stacey was “highly intelligent” and not afraid to stand her ground against her second husband’s controlling nature.
In the 1990s, the brothers made allegations about being sexually abused by people known to them, claiming to have been drugged and forced to engage in sexual acts. When asked for proof, Gareth Train said “God told me”.
“(The allegations are) not credible and, to be honest, frankly bizarre,” Dr Aboud said, suggesting Gareth may have created a delusional memory as a result of a mental break.
By 2016, Gareth and Stacey had moved to Wieambilla, a remote area 311km west of Brisbane. While his delusions grew, she was still seemingly well. That was until the onset of the pandemic when Gareth’s delusions took hold. He believed it was an example of biological warfare, and the vaccine was part of a government plan to mass-vaccinate the population and turn people into non-human beings that could never have salvation.
Stacey quit her teaching job in 2021 over vaccine mandates. Nathaniel joined them in December 2022 four months after having a major heart attack, and the trio prepared for the coming of Christ in April 2023.
Dr Aboud said the Trains perceived the officers who jumped their gate had ambushed them. After killing constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow and neighbour Alan Dare, arrest was not an option. In fact, being captured by “beings of evil” was “worse than death”.
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