St Helens family devastated after police wrap up teen’s murder investigation

The grieving St Helens parents of Eden Westbrook, who died in 2015, are furious after hearing Tasmania Police has stopped looking into claims their daughter was murdered.

Tasmania Police has officially wrapped up inquiries into fresh claims a St Helens teenager did not die by suicide as ruled by a coroner, but was murdered.

In a letter last week sent to Eden Westbrook’s parents, Jason and Amanda, St Helens police said a recent investigation was carried out but “no evidence has been identified linking Eden’s death to any other person”.

The Westbrooks are furious with the response - saying they feel their concerns have simply been ignored and glazed over by Tasmania Police.

“This is not suicide. I would have accepted it if it was. It’s just not,” Eden’s mother Amanda said.

In 2015, 15-year-old Eden was found dead at Fishermen’s Memorial Park, by the foreshore of the East Coast town, with a coroner’s report the following year ruling she’d died by suicide.

But in May this year, the Mercury revealed an anonymous man had come forward to claim Eden’s death had in fact occurred at the hands of an adult man, with a younger female accomplice – and also revealed their identities.

The anonymous man said he’d also been told Eden’s murder was covered up, and staged to look like a suicide.

Jason and Amanda Westbrook. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The Westbrooks were also contacted by a different person who said their daughter was potentially being sexually groomed “by a powerful man” in the lead-up to her death.

In their letter, police said they had been notified about both the murder and grooming allegations after a referral from Tasmania’s currently-unfolding child sexual abuse commission of inquiry.

They said police had not been provided with the name of the anonymous source, so investigations about the murder claim had been “frustrated” as they could not meet with him.

“...however, a variety of inquiries have been made regarding the claim, and no other information supporting this has been verified,” police said.

Police said claims that Eden might have been drugged before her death weren’t backed up by autopsy findings - and also said no evidence was found related to claims Eden was being groomed.

Police said the inquiries were now “finalised”, with the force “confident that Eden’s death has been fully investigated” - but would conduct further inquiries if any new information came to light.

Mrs Westbrook said she and her family were “just totally disappointed and confused” by the letter - and said police had “not been interested” in talking to her or her family, or interviewing the alleged perpetrators.

“It’s like Alice in Wonderland, down the rabbit hole. It’s just one nonsensical event after another,” she said.

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