Chapter 1: What is the focus of this bonus episode?
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Hi there, I'm Dominique Bayens. This bonus episode of Expanse The Nanop 4 is going to be a little bit different to what you've heard so far. As the podcast has been rolling out, we've had a bunch of people get in touch. So today I'm going to bring you an update of what's come to light in the past few weeks. And a big one. For the first time ever, Tony Popich's family are going to talk.
Do you need me sitting with this near my face?
Yeah, so perhaps if we angle you. Yeah, and... We've had hundreds of comments on the YouTube episodes, and one of them was wondering where Tony's family are. Well, I've actually been in touch sporadically with Tony's brother Joe for months, but he's been really reluctant to speak, which I totally get. They must be really hard memories to revisit.
You know what you're doing.
Like, maybe just bring yourself a little... Like there, about there, yeah. But after hearing me give an interview on the radio about the podcast, he got in touch and said he was ready to talk.
I wrestled with the idea on and off for a lot of times and most of the time it came that I wasn't going to talk to you.
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Chapter 2: What new information has emerged about Tony Popic?
How would you describe Tony's personality as a kid?
As a kid, easy going, fun, light, very light energy, you know, like just a good fun kid to be around. As he got older, he sort of progressed around, you know, a bit of painting and stuff like that. Bit arty that way, went down that field for a little bit. He was quite talented, but didn't really do much with it. He just did it as a hobby. He liked his garden a lot.
Wherever he sort of moved to, he always made a bit of a garden or some pot plants or something of some sort.
This makes me think of Tony as an adult, taking on handyman jobs and working at the nursery where he sold Jodie that bronze horse statue.
We eventually moved to Northam, I think. I left there in about, I think it was 92.
To move into Perth?
To move to Perth, yeah. And I literally needed the road map to find Main Street, which was just over the hill.
And what about Tony? How did he adjust to city life?
Yeah, I think he loved it.
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Chapter 3: How did Joe describe his childhood with Tony?
We're just here to do, to serve and to do what we're doing. And then I'd sort of try and put some reality and say, well, you know, how can Simon tell you that he's serving? You can't really do too much if you don't get off your backside at all, you know, and you've got other people running. What serving is he actually doing, you know?
But, you know, he's quite adamant Simon's way was the way, and whatever Simon said, that was gospel, and that's the direction he was going to head. I just thought, you know, he's certainly not in a good state, really, you know, mentally he's... He's not quite right. Without sounding rude or disrespectful, his thought pattern wasn't as healthy as it probably could have been.
A month before he vanished with the others, Tony spoke to Joe about starting up a new lawn mowing business. He even outlaid precious cash to buy a ute for it. But then, without explanation, he sold the ute and, as we know, disappeared.
He was all excited about it and to get it up and running and obviously they just decided to leave.
The last time Joe spoke to Tony, he got a call from his mum just days before his brother vanished. Tony was at their house and told them he was leaving, but he wouldn't say where he was going.
I sort of said, where are you going? He said, oh, I can't really tell you, you know. I said, when are you going? I can't tell you. He just kind of said that, you know, they're going to go away for a while.
how did he sound? Was he excited or?
No, pretty subdued sort of a conversation. Um, sounded like it was not what's official, it's not the word, but it was a definite, it was like a definite that they were going, there was no doubt about it. He was going somewhere, they were going somewhere, you know. I said, yeah, that's okay, just sort of touch base and let us know how you're going.
Just give us a call or touch base with someone so we know you're okay, you know. He goes, yeah, I might do, I might not. I said, well, You know, if you don't, you're a bit selfish. But it sounded like he wasn't going to and he obviously never did. And that was unfortunately the last time I spoke to him.
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Chapter 4: What was Tony's personality like as a child?
Previously he said, we may go to Brazil, there's some people there, Simon's got some people he knows there. I think it was just a big decoy for people to send them on a wild goose chase.
Tony's last known movements are just as confusing to Joe as they are to me. One theory is that on the 15th of July 2007, Tony caught a train up to Perth under a false name and his driver's licence was used to check into a backpacker's in the inner city suburb of Northbridge. Later that evening, he ordered a pizza from King's Park. a popular tourist spot which overlooks the city.
And even though Joe was living in Perth, his brother didn't contact him during that visit. But what Joe does confirm is the next day he received a package in the mail with power of attorney forms, Tony's bank statements and superannuation policy details.
I just hung on to them because I didn't really know what to do with them. You know, I thought, well, maybe one day he'll come back. And then time just dragged out and dragged out and dragged down. We never heard anything. It just got to the point where, you know, you haven't heard for a while. And then you kind of...
Your concerns kicked in and we thought, well, shit, you know, do we go to the police and report it as missing persons? I don't know how it ended up getting to the media. I don't know how that happened, but I just know I was swamped from...
All sorts of media in the space of about 24 hours from people at the door to cars at the front to the phone not stopping and from the Who magazine to the Women's Day to the TV stations and radio stations and everything, I just found it very overwhelming. It was like magpies flying onto a chip, you know, it was a frenzy.
Joe doesn't know if Tony knew Simon Cadwell's true identity was actually Gary Felton, but he does believe his brother was under his control.
To find out that Simon Cadwell was really Gary Felton and he was here on a false passport... My initial reaction to that was, well, you know, if someone's got a false passport, either they've done something bad in the past they're running away from or they're about to do something and they're going to run away from it, why else would you have a false passport?
One of the things that came out in the inquest was Simon had told one of his followers of plans for a suicide pact. How do you reconcile that?
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