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Chapter 1: What happened to Elisabeth Membrey on December 7, 1994?
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For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. It was getting late on the afternoon of Wednesday December 7 1994, and married couple Joy and Roger Membry were seriously starting to worry.
Their daughter, 22-year-old Elizabeth, had been scheduled to attend an important doctor's appointment earlier that day and they'd been eagerly waiting to hear how it went. For the past year, Elizabeth had been experiencing bouts of severe abdominal pain and she'd been hoping that this specialist appointment might finally explain why.
When Roger called Elizabeth earlier that day to ask how it went, she didn't answer her phone. He left a message on her answering machine, but by 6pm she still hadn't returned his call. Joy tried Elizabeth again. Still no answer. The members' worry only increased after receiving a phone call from Elizabeth's boyfriend, Jason, asking if Elizabeth was with them.
Jason said he too had been trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with Elizabeth all day. They'd had dinner plans the previous night that Elizabeth cancelled at the last minute after being asked to work overtime. She worked as a bartender at the Manhattan Hotel, a pub in the outer Melbourne suburb of Ringwood, which was just a short drive from her home.
Their anxiety spiking, Roger and Joy Membry drove past the pub to check if Elizabeth's car was in the car park. Upon seeing it wasn't there, they continued on to Elizabeth's flat in Ringwood East, which was an eight-minute drive away. By the time they arrived, it was nearing 10pm.
All the lights were off inside, but they were relieved to see Elizabeth's car, a red Mazda hatchback, parked in its usual spot in the driveway. They knocked on the flat's front door. There was no answer. This caused genuine concern for the doting parents.
Elizabeth adored her car, she considered it her ticket to independence, and if she planned on going somewhere, there was no way she'd leave it behind without telling anyone her plans. The only explanation the Membries could think of was that Elizabeth must be sick or injured inside the flat. At that moment, Jason pulled up.
The trio examined the property and discovered that one of the windows was slightly ajar. Unsure of what else to do, Jason agreed to break in. With Roger and Joy's help, he slowly managed to shimmy his way inside. The memories waited anxiously outside while Jason looked around. Then, they heard his howls. At first glance, Elizabeth's flat looked like it always did.
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Chapter 2: How did Elisabeth's parents react to her disappearance?
But the police also noticed some things that the memories had missed. Inside the flat was a bucket filled with wet rags. The toilet paper holder was also missing and there was no toilet paper anywhere in the house. It was obvious that someone had tried to clean up the scene. Some portions of the hallway wall had been wiped down, but not thoroughly.
Down low, just above the skirting boards, several small spatters of blood remained. Despite the blood, there was no evidence of forced entry or signs of a struggle and the police weren't able to ascertain what had happened inside the flat. Elizabeth's case was handed to the missing persons unit who wanted to learn more about the 22-year-old.
As far as Roger and Joy Membry were concerned, Elizabeth was everything they'd ever wanted in a daughter. As the only girl and youngest in a family of three children, Elizabeth had grown up to be an independent, sociable, and friendly young woman. She had a joyful laugh and curly dark hair, and people naturally gravitated to her.
That was what made her such a good fit at the Manhattan Hotel, where she was liked by customers and co-workers alike. But the bartender gig was just temporary. Elizabeth had recently graduated from La Trobe University with a degree in politics and was pursuing a career in journalism.
Passionate and idealistic about current affairs, she often wrote to the Age newspaper to express her views on a range of topics. So the Japanese aren't playing it fair in trade relations with the US, she'd written to the editor earlier that year. Surely it's time someone started playing the Americans at their own dirty game.
In another, she voiced her disappointment in the lack of services available for people with mental illness, stating, It is about time that the issue of mental health is properly addressed in this country. Elizabeth dreamed of one day being a broadcast journalist and was taking steps to make that happen, having recently applied for a position with commercial television network Channel 10.
Not only was her future looking bright, but she had great relationships with her parents and her boyfriend and a solid network of close friends. The memories assured investigators that Elizabeth had no enemies, wasn't involved in anything nefarious, and there was no one who could possibly wish her harm.
Hoping to piece together Elizabeth's last known movements, the police began door-knocking homes in the area. They also set up a caravan opposite Elizabeth's flat where people could report anything they thought might be helpful.
The street that Elizabeth lived on, Bedford Road, was a busy thoroughfare, and because the night she went missing had been such a hot one, police were hopeful that more people might have been out than usual. Maybe someone had witnessed something significant.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found in Elisabeth's apartment?
He said he didn't recall what he had been doing on the night of Tuesday December 6, but denied being at the Manhattan Hotel. Bond said he only drank there on Saturdays during the football season, which had ended months prior, and that although he'd seen Elizabeth working there before, he didn't know her and they'd never spoken.
While the police were speaking to Bond, they couldn't help but notice that despite his limp and strong build, he didn't match the description of the man seen arguing with Elizabeth on the day she went missing. He also had deep acne scars on his face, a distinctive feature that none of the witnesses had noted. Police therefore ruled Bond out as a suspect and continued with their investigation.
They were interested in speaking to the younger brother of Elizabeth's housemate Justine, 19-year-old Andrew Crump. He still lived with his parents, who were among the few people who knew that Justine was staying with her boyfriend at the time Elizabeth went missing.
But when police reached out to Crump in late December, they were told that he and a friend had made the impromptu decision to move to Queensland on Saturday December 17, just ten days after Elizabeth went missing. Police tracked Andrew Crump down and spoke to him on the phone. He said the last time he'd been at the Bedford Road unit was a week or two before Elizabeth went missing.
According to Crump, he'd stopped in to visit his sister but she wasn't at home so Elizabeth had let him in to use the toilet and make a phone call. He didn't have anything useful to add to the investigation. As the weeks ticked by, the list of persons of interest grew, but the police were no closer to finding Elizabeth or her killer.
To add insult to injury for the Membry family, as December came to a close, Elizabeth received the dream job offer from Channel 10 that she'd been hoping for, serving as a painful reminder of the potential that had been ripped from her. By May 1995, there still hadn't been any major breakthroughs in the case and searches had revealed no sign of Elizabeth's body.
Police announced a $100,000 reward for any information that led to an arrest, the largest ever reward in Victorian history at that time. And with that, the tips started trickling in.
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As the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Manbury continued to put residents of Melbourne on edge, the rumour mill swung into overdrive. One woman came forward to report that a man she knew had threatened her with the warning that he would, quote, "...do exactly the same to you that I did to Elizabeth Manbury."
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Chapter 4: Who were the initial suspects in Elisabeth's case?
Bond apparently said that the police were interested in him because he'd been drinking at the Manhattan on the night Elizabeth was last seen alive. Kevin said that Bond told him that Elizabeth had been bashed and while he made it clear he had nothing to do with it, the conversation left Kevin feeling a little shaken.
He was struck by the way Bond seemed to remember the incident like it was yesterday. And there was one comment in particular that he couldn't get out of his mind. Bond had apparently told him. It doesn't matter anyway, they will never find the body. With so many contrasting stories, it was difficult for the police to know which ones held weight.
They placed a tap on Bond's phone, hoping that the increased heat would encourage him to say something incriminating. A friend of Bond's called to let him know that the police had been to see him about Elizabeth's case. He said that he'd provided the police with a statement in which he said that Bond drank at the Manhattan Hotel in 1994 and would have known Elizabeth.
This wasn't welcome news to Bond, who snapped, You shouldn't have said anything about her. Fucking hell. The friend reassured Bond that he had nothing to worry about, but this did little to quell the panic in Bond's voice. I know, but fucking hell, he said. All because of fucking rumours, mate. It shits me up the wall.
On Wednesday January 16 2008, detectives summoned 41-year-old Shane Bond to the Kalgoorlie police station for a formal interview. He was casually dressed in a black singlet with a pair of sunglasses on his head as he sat down and was asked to tell the detectives everything he knew about the Elizabeth Membry case, no matter how insignificant it might seem.
Speaking calmly, Bond said all he knew was what he'd heard on the news. He said that he used to drink at the Manhattan Hotel, mostly on the weekends, and that he might have met Elizabeth once, but he wasn't there on the night she was last seen alive. He also admitted to owning a white Datsun at the time. One of the detectives then asked Bond point-blank whether he had murdered Elizabeth.
No, I didn't, Bond replied defensively. Asked why they should believe him, he responded, One, because I didn't do it. Two, I might have known her as a barmaid once or twice, but that's it. Bond denied that he'd ever come home covered in blood or that he'd fled Melbourne in the days after Elizabeth's disappearance.
Asked about the claims that he'd been hassling Elizabeth at work before she went missing, Bond became visibly exasperated. This is getting beyond a joke, he mumbled. I didn't do it. After 56 minutes of questioning, Bond was released without charge. But the police were not ready to give up.
Casefile will be back shortly Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors Thank you for listening to this episode's ads By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content While Shane Bond remained the police's number one suspect, they still weren't ready to arrest him
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Chapter 5: What were the police's investigative actions following Elisabeth's disappearance?
Joy agreed, saying, There needs to be change. We felt like we were in a horror movie." By 2014, the Membries weren't any closer to the answers they'd been waiting 20 years for. Since Shane Bond's trial, changes had been made to Victoria's double jeopardy laws, which meant that he could be tried for Elizabeth's murder again if new and compelling evidence emerged.
However, nothing had yet been forthcoming. Even though Bond was acquitted, because someone had been charged and put to trial, the investigation was no longer considered active. Unless a breakthrough piece of evidence emerged, it was likely that Elizabeth's murder would languish in the cold case files alongside roughly 280 other unsolved homicide cases in Victoria.
To mark the 20-year anniversary of Elizabeth's disappearance, Roger and Joy spoke to the ABC about their experience. We're left up in the air, Joy said. We've got no body. We don't know why, how or where. So the anxiety is extreme all the time. The not knowing. But the Membries made it very clear that they'd never give up their quest for the truth. You can't, Rogers said.
It's a hole in your heart you can't just paper over. It's our beloved daughter. The Membries urged anyone with information to contact Crimestoppers, reiterating that it wasn't too late.
Wanting at least one positive thing to emerge from their ordeal, the Membries joined a 2014 inquiry to investigate whether victims of crime and their families should be allowed to be more involved with the criminal process. Roger and Joy detailed their negative experience at Bond's trial for the Victorian Law Reform Commission.
Along with submissions from 40 other relevant parties, it became part of a 328-page report released in 2016 titled The Role of Victims of Crime in the Criminal Trial Process. This aimed to transform Australia's justice system by strengthening victim rights and fostering a more respectful, inclusive culture.
By this point, the Membries were in their 70s and the clock was ticking on their desire to obtain answers for their daughter before it was too late. Speaking to The Age about their push to get the case re-investigated, Roger said, "'I am 76 years old and we desperately want to find the truth for Elizabeth. We will not be on this earth forever. There is a sense that we have failed her.'
We are caught in this sort of half-life. In 2017, the police agreed to review the evidence in Elizabeth's case one more time, and they noticed that there were several lines of inquiry that hadn't been fully investigated when it came to one particular person of interest. Andrew Crump, the brother of Elizabeth's housemate, had come up early in the investigation.
There were certain factors that made him suspicious, such as the fact that he'd unexpectedly left Melbourne ten days after Elizabeth went missing and that he'd mentioned having to fill in a hole for his boss before he left the state.
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