The Night Driver podcast: ‘I can’t put murderer and Brad in the same sentence’

Janeen Hosemans is used to delivering bad news — from fatal bushfires to devastating floods and everything in between.

Journalist Janeen Hosemans, general manager for Bathurst 2BS, is the sister of former policeman and deputy mayor Brad Hosemans. Picture: Jane Dempster

Janeen Hosemans is used to delivering bad news — from fatal bushfires to devastating floods and everything in between.

As a journalist and now the general manager at Bathurst’s leading radio stations, Janeen has dedicated much of her life to keeping her local community informed about big stories.

Yet nothing could prepare her for the day she had to reveal that her brother — the town’s lead detective and deputy mayor — was being investigated over the abduction and almost certain murder of local menswear store manager Jan­ine Vaughan.

“I remember reading the news bulletin saying Brad Hosemans, deputy mayor, is a person of interest in the disappearance of Janine Vaughan,” she tells The Night Driver podcast series re-examining the mystery. “I was doing a news and current affairs program at the time — five days a week, three hours a day —and I remember doing that.

Janine Vaughan, 31, who went missing from Bathurst on Friday December 7, 2001. Picture: NSW Police

“It was devastating in a whole heap of ways because somebody that I love is being accused of being a murderer. I grew up with this person. I’ve known this person all my life, and I just can’t put murderer and Brad Hosemans in the same sentence, but clearly a lot of other people could.”

Janine Vaughan had gone missing following a late night out with some friends in Bathurst, three hours’ drive west of Sydney, on Friday, December 7, 2001.

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The 31-year-old was last seen getting in a small red car after leaving the rural university town’s Metro Tavern shortly before 4am.

Successive investigations have concluded she was abducted and murdered but failed to shed light on the identity of the person driving the small red car that night. Her body has never been found.

In the months after she vanished, speculation spread through the town that Brad Hosemans had been behind the wheel, and that he had snapped and taken Janine after she rebuffed his advances, only for his crime to be covered up by mates on the police force.

The rumour and innuendo were driven, in part, by the revelation that Hosemans had asked a mutual friend about Janine’s relationship status in the months before she vanished.
■ READ MORE: The Night Driver — the new podcast from the investigative journalist who brought you The Teacher’s Pet

Hosemans has always fiercely rejected having any involvement in Jan­ine’s disappearance and he was later absolved by both a public Police Integrity Commission inquiry and a high-profile coronial inquest into Janine’s death that found there was no evidence they had ever met.

Still, many in the town remain fixated with the notion that the former detective is somehow responsible for Janine’s death.

It is still stated as fact in some circles that the small red car used to abduct Janine had belonged to Anne Hosemans — Brad and Janeen’s mother — even though independent investigations confirmed she has never owned a red car.

As hurtful as the baseless allegations against Hosemans are, the journalist in his sister understands the obsession. “People love a scandal and, God, what could be juicier than a detective sergeant and deputy mayor caught up in an abduction, presumed murder. I mean, it doesn’t get any better, it really doesn’t,” she says.

“But the impact it has had on my brother’s life, and on my mum who has also had to deal with this, is tough. It’s really awful.”

Janeen bristles at the suggestion she is naturally guarded against rumours about her family.

“It’s got nothing to do with being protective,” she says.

“I just think there’s a difference between the truth and bullshit. That’s just who I am as a journalist.

“We’re actually all really strong people, and we’re capable of fighting our own fights, but there are comments on the Help Find Janine Vaughan Facebook Page like ‘Hosemans is a c..t and his mother should’ve swallowed’ and ‘Brad Hosemans did it. He definitely did it. His mum’s bullshitting. She did have a red car.’

“The comments go on and on and they’re all hurtful and they’re all defamatory. If you wanted to test them in a court of law, I suspect that they wouldn’t come off very well at all.

“It’s hard for my mum more than anything because she’s 81. She’s not in great health. She’s had to live with this for 20 years.

“She’s had people up questioning her in the past as to when was Brad there, what was he doing.

“I just find it extraordinary that somebody who walks past a shop and says in another shop, ‘Hey, so who’s that girl? Is she single?’ and next minute he’s a murder suspect — I don’t know how that works.”

Outside of Janine Vaughan’s family, Janeen Hosemans says there is no one who wants to see the young blonde’s killer caught more than her family — it is the only way that any of them might achieve some sense of justice.

Pragmatically, though, Janeen despairs there is probably little that will ever persuade many of her fellow townspeople of her brother’s innocence.

“Even if there is a confessor, a perpetrator standing over a body and it’s been identified that it’s Jan­ine, there will be people still saying ‘Brad Hosemans did it, and there’s been some deal that’s gone on in the background’,” she says.

Not that Janeen thinks there is much chance of that happening.

Like everyone in Bathurst, she has a theory on what happened and who was responsible and, this time, the bad news is she fears ­Janine Vaughan’s murder is one mystery that will never be solved.

“I’d be very, very surprised,” she says. “I think the person responsible is probably already dead.”