I Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin podcast: How NSW Police solved Barbara Saunders murder

Barbara Saunders was shot dead after shopping with friends in Sydney in the year 2000. In his new podcast I Catch Killers, former NSW detective Gary Jubelin reveals his regret over the tough interrogation he put her husband through after they discovered a thief was responsible for her homicide.

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Two weeks before Christmas in 2000, and the festive shopping rush was on.

It was Friday, December 15, and at 5.06pm at Normanhurst train station in Sydney’s north, 53-year-old Barbara Saunders stepped off a train from the city, fresh from lunch with her girlfriends in town.

Nine minutes later, she lay dying of a gunshot wound. A passer-by found Mrs Saunders in a driveway just metres from the station and called an ambulance, which rushed her to Hornsby Hospital, where she died.

Her grieving husband, Keith, wept as he told The Daily Telegraph: “`She did not have an enemy in the world. You have heard that statement so many times but this was true of my wife. She offended nobody in the world and so the only motivation could be robbery. The only motivation that occurs to me could be robbery.

Normanhurst railway station security video still of murder victim Barbara Saunders after disembarking the train.

“We are very ordinary people, I doubt if she had more than $50 in her wallet. I’m told she may have had a Christmas gift for me that she bought shortly before she got on the train. She may have had a gift or two in her bags, I can’t imagine they were enormously expensive.

“There was certainly no expensive jewellery, nothing that would outwardly imply she was a target worth even assaulting let alone shooting for God’s sake.’’

Murder victim Barbara Saunders who was fatally shot.

But behind the scenes Mr Saunders was being put through the most intense pressure test of his life: a close interrogation by young detectives Gary Jubelin and Jason Evers, whose first instinct was to start eliminating suspects, including Mr Saunders himself.

Today the retired policemen reveals the story for the first time in the debut episode of new podcast I Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin.

Keith Saunders with his late wife Barbara Saunders.

Evers, a 20-year policeman who spent nine years as Jubelin’s homicide partner – one of the longest partnerships in the squad – details how he and Jubelin put Mr Saunders through a tough interrogation. His dignity and fortitude would teach them both a lesson they’d never forget.

“That (murder) shocked me in a lot of different ways and taught me about sliding-doors moments in investigations,” Evers says.

“It was the horrific death of just your or my mum on her way home after Christmas shopping. Everyone’s a suspect.

“Keith Saunders turned up to the scene, he was quite bewildered, he was looking for his wife. I was given the job to find out Keith’s whereabouts and I investigated him and interviewed him with passion and vigour.

“Keith wasn’t involved in any way shape or form in the murder of Barbara.”

The detectives quickly ruled Mr Saunders out as a suspect, and four weeks later they charged a 19-year-old thief, Nicholas Jonathon Grayson, who would go on to plead guilty to murdering Mrs Saunders for her handbag.

Nicholas Grayson being walked to court by police in Sydney in 2001.

Shortly after the murder Grayson had used Mrs Saunders’ credit card to buy cigarettes.

Jubelin recalls the investigation shaped his future career.

“We can make things uncomfortable for people and we deliberately made things uncomfortable for Keith,” Jubelin says.

“When we found the person responsible for the murder I spoke to Keith and I apologised to him for the way we treated him after the murder.

“He said – and it was something I carried for a long time – he was happy the way we went after him because he knew the right people were looking for the murder of his wife.

Ex detective Gary Jubelin (right) pictured with his old partner Jason Evers. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“I’ve carried that throughout my whole career and I tell young detectives that. People want us to do our job, and our job is to find the killer.”

Evers also apologised to Mr Saunders as they came out of Grayson’s sentencing hearing, where he was jailed for a minimum of 12 years.

“We came out the front and I apologised to Keith, we’re so sorry, we felt the sentence was a bit light,” Evers says.

“He just looked with a steely gaze and said: ‘It doesn’t matter what years he gets. Nothing’s bringing Barbara back’.”

I Catch Killers, a new book with Gary Jubelin.

Listen, subscribe or follow I Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin at truecrimeaustralia.com.au, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast

Preorder his book here.

Originally published as I Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin podcast: How NSW Police solved Barbara Saunders murder