A couple cleared of killing a teenager in order to abduct their baby.
An intellectually handicapped teenage girl vanished from the Riverina region of New South Wales on a chilly winter's day in June 2002.
Since then, the shocking accusation that the 19-year-old was slain by her five-month-old baby's father and his wife so they might require her child has gripped the wide Australian rural region: Amber Haigh was killed.
Twenty years later, 64-year-old Robert and Anne Geeves were accused with her murder; but, on Monday, following a well-publicized trial, they were found not guilty. Judge Julia Lonergan declared, "Cases are not decided on rumor, speculation, or suspicion," after concluding that the prosecution had not shown their purported motivation.
The last persons who are known to have seen Amber alive are the Geeveses. They have long maintained that on June 5, they left her off at a rail station 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Kingsvale, where the three of them had been residing at the time, so she could see her ailing father.
Her body has never been located despite protracted police searches, a coroner's inquiries, and a million dollar prize for info. In order to prove their theory—that the Geeveses "manipulated" Amber into carrying Robert's baby and then eliminated her "from the equation" when she refused to give up custody—prosecutors used witness evidence and hundreds of papers.
The court heard that although the pair had a son who is older who had dated Amber before, they still "desperately" wished a child in the early 2000s after suffering many miscarriages and a stillbirth. The defense, however, contended that the investigation into the two, who have been imprisoned for two years while awaiting trial, was defective from the beginning and that the accusation that they murdered Amber in order to take her baby was unfounded.
They informed the court that Robert's past, involving his acquittals for the murder of an ex-partner who was discovered shot in the face on his own property and the sex abuse of two schoolgirls, had cast a "haze of mistrust" over the Geeveses' reputation in the neighborhood.
The Geeveses' attorneys said that because of this past, there was a "presumption of guilt" that lingered for decades and eventually "blinded" police in their search for Amber. Numerous witnesses testified over the course of nine weeks regarding the last few months of the adolescent's life, portraying her as a "vulnerable" but "kind-hearted" young woman who found it difficult to distinguish between "love and exploitation." Two remembered Amber telling them stories of mistreatment, of Robert Geeves reportedly tying her up, spitting on her, and having sex with her.
Robbie, the son of the married couple, also testified in court that his mother had called his former girlfriend a "surrogate" and that the two of his parents had unexpectedly shown up at his house in the middle of the night and asked him to adopt Amber's child as his "little brother."
The defense also produced a will that Amber had written specifying that her aunt would have possession of the kid in the event of her passing away, as well as a contract she had made Robert sign agreeing not to steal the child. Justice Lonergan stated that it is "beyond any reasonable doubt" that Amber is died and that "there was minimal signal, in the sea of proof in the present instance, that she was ever shown the love she required or earned."
However, the judge finally identified a significant "issue" with the prosecution's case: there was "no acceptable proof" that, at the time of Amber's pregnancy, Anne and Robert still desired additional children. She questioned the prosecution eyewitnesses' testimony, claiming that instead of looking into Amber's disappearance's cause, the investigation had concentrated on "disproving the Geeveses version of events".
Justice Lonergan gave the order to let go the pair from custody right away while he was observing them sitting in the dock. After screaming, one person in the public gallery stormed out of the courtroom. Amber's family members also appeared shook, and a few of them later sobbed silently in front of the judge.
"Seeking for love and solace," an adolescent.
After being arrested two years ago, Robert and Anne Geeves have been incarcerated.
Throughout the trial, there was little agreement between the prosecution and defense other than the fact that Amber's life had been extraordinarily tough and that her death was untimely.
"In search of comfort and affection, Amber visited many locations and people back and forth. She was never able to locate it. Justice Lonergan concluded, "She was still looking for it when she vanished."
The court observed that Amber had fled a "dysfunctional" childhood in Sydney, one marked by epilepsy, learning disabilities, and an abusive alcoholic father, and had moved to Kingsvale, an isolated area close to the provincial town of Young, in the 1990s where she resided with her great aunt Stella Nealon.
Ms Nealon had resided across the street to the Geeveses, who were also in their 40s at that point and were first acquainted with Amber by their 17-year-old child Robbie. Amber's childhood at her great aunt's home was chaotic and even violent, the court was told.
Amber's friendship with one of her cousins, which had led to an abortion when she was fourteen, was a major source of friction. The Geeveses testified in court during police interviews that Amber accepted their assurance of safety and that she soon started seeing Robert for sex.
The Geeveses told investigators that Amber considered Anne as a mother figure, despite the fact that their relationship with the girl may have appeared "weird" or confrontational to strangers. The three of them "got along very well." Robbie's connection with his parents was broken when it was revealed in 2001 that Amber had become pregnant with Robert's child.
This distance was evident in court on Monday. It also produced a rift in the neighborhood. Although Amber was said to have "adored" her kid, friends and social service providers testified that she had also found it difficult to keep up with the never-ending duties of parenthood.
The Geeveses have insisted that they helped Amber overcome those obstacles as best they could, acting impartially. In addition, Justice Lonergan concluded that their "provision of assistance" for Amber and her child—whose privacy is still fully protected by law—had "nothing sinister" about it. She went on to say that the Geeveses' "consistent" testimony, according to which they last saw Amber walking towards the station after bidding her son farewell, was not "inherently implausible."
She went over the case's specifics, pointing out that although it was obvious Amber had been "attacked, abused and made to feel unsafe" since she was a young girl, the prosecution had not been able to prove how she died. She acknowledged that the decision leaves open some of the "factual matters" in the case, which has tormented countless people in the vicinity for decades.
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