Timeline: Key moments leading up to Coen man being charged with murder Allison Bernard

Allison Bernard was travelling home to Kowanyama for her son’s birthday when she allegedly vanished into the night wearing only a towel in February 2013. Here’s what’s happened since.

Allison Bernard was travelling home to Kowanyama for her son’s birthday when she allegedly vanished into the night wearing only a towel in February 2013. Here’s what’s happened since.

2013 – Mother-of-two Allison Bernard, 23, from Kowanyama, vanishes after being last seen at Archer River Quarry on February 10, 2013 about 11pm. She was seen leaving Coen Hotel with Thomas Byrnes. Ms Bernard’s uncle Teddy Bernard said his niece was on her way home for her son’s birthday when she vanished.

2013 – Teddy Bernard says family reported Allison as missing three days after she was last seen. “She was loving, a caring mother for her two kids, always respected her grandmother … and we miss her,” he said.

2013 – Police and SES search in searing heat. Legendary Cape-based Aboriginal tracker Barry Port is called in to help. The army searches for a further fortnight without success.

Alison Bernard's mother and uncle Edwina Bernard and Teddy Bernard, pictured with a photo of Allison (left) with her grandmother and sister. The pair were in the Cairns Coroner's Court on the first day of the coronial inquest into Allison Bernard's disappearance. Picture: Brendan Radke

2019 – Former New South Wales police detective Greg Lamey has joins calls for an inquest into Ms Bernard’s suspected death. Mr Lamey was the lead investigator in the murder case of Theresa Binge, whose bashed body was dumped in a culvert in Boggabilla in northern NSW in 2003.

2019 – Police are asked by then Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson to conduct further inquiries and go to Cape York to speak with “relevant persons”.

2020 – Members of Ms Bernard’s family intensify calls for an inquest. Advocates who join the push for an inquest include Indigenous advocate and lawyer Debbie Kilroy; Bruce Morcombe, the father of murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe; and Vanessa Fowler, the sister of Allison Baden-Clay.

2020 – The sister of murdered woman Allison Baden-Clay issues a plea for an inquest. Vanessa Fowler, whose sister disappeared from her Brisbane home in April 2012, with her body found 10 days later and her husband Gerard Baden-Clay in April 2012 later convicted over her murder, says “closure is such an important step for families who are missing loved ones”.

Allison Bernard has been missing from Coen in Far North Queensland since 2013.

2021 – An inquest into Allison Bernard is announced. The terms of reference include whether or not Ms Bernard is in fact deceased and, if so, how, when and where she died and what caused her death, the circumstances surrounding her death, whether the actions of any other person contributed to her death, and the adequacy of the police investigation.

2021 – A pre-inquest hearing starts in February with counsel assisting the coroner Joseph Crawfoot telling the court Mr Byrnes was the last person to see her alive. The court heard the pair had met when Ms Bernard and four friends were travelling between Lockhart River and Coen on February 10, 2013, and stopped to break up the trip. Mr Crawford says Mr Byrnes, Ms Bernard and another man left the hotel about 7.45pm. Mr Byrnes dropped off the second man and reached the quarry about 90 minutes after leaving the hotel. The court hears Ms Bernard had a sexual encounter with Mr Byrnes, who told police she left his home.

2021 – Police reveal plans for a fresh search using “new methodology” including hi-tech drones and equipment which had not been available to them in 2013. Ms Bernard’s uncle Teddy Bernard hopes it may bring closure. “Traditionally Aboriginal people love to bury someone, if the unthinkable happens, so they can send their spirit away,” he says. The inquest is pushed back while the search is underway.

2021 – A Crimestoppers team visits Coen in April to talk to residents. Former Australian Federal Police officer and Crimestopper volunteer Mladen Bosnic says “it’s a last tilt at public information and anonymity of information and confidentiality is key”.

Missing woman Allison Bernard was captured on CCTV drinking with Archer River quarry caretaker Thomas Byrne on the evening she disappeared on February 10, 2013. Picture: supplied.

2021 – At a second pre-inquest conference, counsel assisting the Coroner Melia Benn tells the court Ms Bernard had arranged to stay with another woman in Coen but saw Mr Byrnes, who she had met that day, at Coen Hotel.

2021 – In December, Ms Benn tells the court the issue of whether there was institutional racism and conscious or unconscious bias playing any role in the investigation will be included at the inquest.

2021 – The inquest hears evidence from Coen resident and Archer River roadhouse worker David Port, who gave evidence of what Mr Byrnes said to him about Ms Bernard.

2021 – The final day of the first instalment of the inquest hears sensational evidence from Janene Mackay, a visitor to Coen who says Mr Byrnes made disparaging statements about her.

2022 – The inquest resumes and former officer in charge of Coen Police Station Matthew Maloney says when he first arrived at the quarry, one of the first things Mr Byrnes said was: “I haven’t done anything with her. I haven’t murdered her or anything else”. Directly addressing the family, he says “We did what we could with the resources we had”.

2022 – Senior Sergeant Jim Whitehead, who has been involved in an estimated 17,000 searches, says the case the reason nothing was found in the search “suggests there was nothing actually to be found” and states if Ms Bernard had run away, she had a high chance of survival.

CCTV footage from the Exchange Hotel in Coen of Archer River Quarry caretaker Thomas Byrnes and missing Kowanyama mother-of-two Allison Neridine Bernard. Picture: Supplied

2022 – Detective Inspector Geoffrey Marsh tells the court he treated the case as a missing persons case.

2022 – Barrister for Ms Bernard’s family Andrew Hoare takes Detective Senior Constable Byron Worth to task over a 10 minute phone call from the quarry to Ms Bernard’s stepmother’s phone on the night she disappeared – the last time she spoke to anyone aside from Mr Byrnes. The inquest hears there were two other people at the house that night – an adult and a child – and neither of them were interviewed about the phone call.

2022 – As the inquest continues, Detective Senior Constable Byron Worth says when he arrived at the quarry on the evening of February 13, Mr Byrnes was shirtless, with three small injuries on his forearm and on his chest, and Mr Byrne told him the injuries were from shards of stone that had struck him when he was trying to free his bogged ute.

2022 – Mr Byrnes gives evidence at the inquest and repeatedly denies involvement in her disappearance. In a phone call he made the next day that was played to the court, Mr Byrnes reported a car stolen and his belief that Ms Bernard had taken it. But 13 minutes later, Mr Byrnes phoned Policelink again to say he’d just forgotten where the car was.

A shack at The Bend on the Coen river understood to be the usual residence of the last person to see Allison Bernard alive. Picture: Peter Carruthers

2022 – The court hears from a Kowanyama police officer, who rang the quarry and spoke to Mr Byrnes on February 13 after Ms Bernard’s family reported her missing that he asked Mr Byrnes why he hadn’t called the police and Mr Byrnes told him he didn’t know who to call.

2022 – Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson tasks police to undertake fresh searches for Ms Bernard and to further search the property where Archer River Quarry caretaker Thomas Byrnes had previously lived, known as “The Bend”, as well as mine shafts. Ms Wilson also directed police to undertake a fresh excavation site at the Archer River Quarry dam closest to the quarry residence.

2023 – In April, a month before the inquest is set to resume, police announce a $500,000 reward for information.

2024 – With the inquest set to resume in Brisbane on February 19, police announce at 6.45pm on January 30 that a 62-year-old man is assisting them with their inquiries regarding the suspicious disappearance of Ms Bernard.

2024 – Police announce at 7am on January 31 that a man has been charged with murder and will appear in Cairns Magistrates Court the same day.

Originally published as Timeline: Key moments leading up to Coen man being charged with murder Allison Bernard