Sarah Lavis

Yes.

But because that DNA was in the Victorian system, it wasn't until they did the national joining that then it came up straight away.

In the beginning, I was just so numb.

Like even in my counselling sessions, I've got like the first year that says I pretty much said nothing for the whole year.

Like I think I took a really long time to kind of understand what had happened and, you know, to get out of that numb phase.

Was that when they joined the databases?

Yeah.

I still remember I was at work.

I was working in the mines then and I got a phone call to say we found him.

Yeah, it was shocking because I kind of got like to that point where I was like, well, it's never going to happen.

I don't need to stress about court now.

Like, yeah, it was kind of a bit of a bombshell.

They didn't really ask me to go back over it.

And there's a, like I did say, there was a lot kind of missing in my statement because when you first go in, like it's very like bits and pieces and they even noted that in the statement.

But then going back, I was like, well, it's six years later.

I don't want to put stuff in now and seem like I'm trying to throw it.

And I think that's a big mistake that a lot of us make is you think, oh, if you put it in retrospectively, are they then going to question?

And they do.

Legitimacy of it.

Yeah.