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Chapter 1: What were the circumstances leading to Sharon Fulton's disappearance?
Tammy Shipley believed someone was out to hurt her. I thought someone was after me and I wanted to just be safe. She's put under 24-hour surveillance.
I tried to get in contact multiple times.
And then something strange happens. She just drank and drank and had something like 20 litres of pure water.
Ambulance emergency. I've got a woman unconscious.
Tammy's story. Search Background Briefing on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more.
The day before Sharon Fulton went missing, she fought with her husband. She then caught up with a friend who offered her a place to stay, but Sharon never made it there. I'm Stephen Stockwell. This is episode two of the case of Sharon's disappearance.
Special Crime Squad detectives extradited Reddington back to Perth.
They were experiencing marriage difficulties and Reddington thought he would suffer financially if she left him.
I'm instructed to assert that he protests his innocence.
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Chapter 2: What evidence suggests Robert Fulton had a motive for murder?
So she stays at her home. The next day she goes missing. Was there any accounting for Robert Fulton's movements on that day, the day that Sharon Fulton disappeared?
There was evidence that there was going to be a face-to-face meeting between the two on the day that she disappeared, Robert Fulton and Sharon Fulton. He worked out at the RAF base and we heard from an officer who said that Robert Fulton had called him, said he needed to leave and he said, quote, probably said something about a domestic issue. I need to go home, he said.
And then later said something about police had located his wife in New South Wales.
Right. I mean, we do know the police never found Sharon in New South Wales. Did we hear much from other friends about where she may have gone?
So we heard from Pat LaFrance, who was a friend of hers. They knew each other from postings in Malaysia, RAF wives, husbands being posted there for the RAF, and also knew each other through 10-pin bowling at Mirabuka in a group that they called the Shady Ladies. We did hear that Sharon Fulton really liked 10-pin bowling. She was good at it.
And she told the court that she hadn't turned up to bowling as expected. Sharon was meant to drive that day, and this is after she disappeared, so she'd learned that she had... disappeared. Pat LaFrance said that she had not been contacted by Robert Fulton and then Pat LaFrance was asked, did you see Robert Fulton after the disappearance?
She said at a RAF event and he was there with another woman and he had said to her, Sharon's in Queensland.
Okay. The changing stories is something we spoke a bit about in our last episode. One of the reasons the prosecution says that Raymond Reddington should be found guilty of killing his wife are the different versions of his disappearance that he told to police. There was also a confrontation with police at the time.
Raymond Reddington going to talk to them and there being some kind of blow up, I guess. Who did we hear that from?
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Chapter 3: Who were the last people to see Sharon Fulton before she went missing?
David, Raymond Reddington and the family, outside of Sharon, obviously, make the move to Queensland following all of this. What did Raymond Reddington tell the courts about Sharon's disappearance when he was making claims over there?
Well, he had to go to court to have her officially declared deceased and the court was presented or was shown documents that were referred to as to what he did in Queensland. And this is in 1993. This is a statement. I say on the 18th of March, 1986, my wife of 19 years, Sharon Elizabeth Fulton, went missing and I've not seen her since that date. At the relevant time, I was a shift worker.
I returned home as I did not commence work until 4.30. It was her intention to return home no later than 3.30 so she could pick up the youngest children. I spent a couple of days ringing around friends. My efforts brought me no joy whatsoever. I wondered whether she may have needed some time on her own.
And then we heard that in 1993, an update from detectives in Perth, there has been no new information in relation to the case that the missing person's file for Mrs Fulton remains open. And we also heard that Raymond Reddington was saying at the time, or Robert Fulton, I telephoned every hospital, every mental institution in every state. That's a lot of mental institutions, I'd suggest.
There was no evidence, of course, as I mentioned before, of phone records being presented from that period of time. And in 1990, Sharon Fulton's disappearance formed part of an episode of Australia's Most Wanted, a TV show at the time, and there was no response whatsoever.
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Chapter 4: What did Narelle Harrison reveal about Sharon's state of mind?
David, the thing that sticks out with me about that version of events is there were other phone calls that Raymond Reddington, then Robert Fulton, made to Sharon's friends. Because is that what we heard from them?
The friends that gave evidence said that they did not hear from him. There was no reaching out to them as such, including Narelle Harrison, who's considered herself to be her best friend. There was some slightly conflicting evidence that the fellow from the Uniting Church said that she had arrived at the house.
at some stage, but it would seem there was very limited contact, which is passing strange if you are looking for your wife, especially someone who is closely connected to people she was bowling with. There didn't seem to be much contact with them at all from him. So ringing around friends is contrary to what they said in court.
Right. So again, the kind of changing stories of Raymond Reddington that the prosecution really kind of focused on in their case against him. The defense had another line that they ran, though, that while Sharon Fulton may have been killed, it wasn't by her husband. In fact, she could have been the victim of serial killers who were active in Perth in the late 80s, a couple called the Burnies.
Who were they?
So David and Catherine Burney, they abducted five women and girls aged from mid-teens to 31. The first victim was detained and murdered. She had actually gone to the home. She was after some tyres and he said, oh, I've got some at my house. She went there and she was murdered and then others were abducted. and murdered and one 17-year-old girl, she managed to escape.
So there were five victims and after the 17-year-old escaped, her name was Kate Moyer, police arrested David Burney and he was confronted during questioning with some of the evidence that they had against him and he basically told them everything and then Catherine Burney ultimately made some I think she started making admissions out at one of the grave sites.
The women were left out in bush graves and quite horrible circumstances for all of those victims. They were tortured before they were murdered. And the impression that the community was left with was that Catherine Burney was doing this at the behest or to please or to keep David Burney happy. But it was David Burney that gave up the accounts of what had actually happened to all of these women.
So this is later in 1986. Yeah.
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Chapter 5: How did Robert Fulton explain Sharon's disappearance?
Yeah, it put that case into the minds of the jury, something that they probably didn't expect when they turned up for jury duty, that they'd have this almost history lesson of these serial killers, because that's what David and Catherine Burney were.
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, probably not something the jury saw coming either, that history lesson. But I mean, talking about the Bernies and this version from Raymond Reddington's defence team, if this lands, what does that mean for the jury?
Well, the jury would have had to find that Roman Reddington could not have been found guilty of murder beyond reasonable doubt because by creating reasonable doubt, which is, you know, David and Catherine Burney might have done it. Now, David and Catherine Burney being active in the later part of 1986, even though it was months after Sharon Fulton had gone missing...
Police would have looked at other possibilities, other possible victims, even though David Burney was quite forthcoming about the four murders. And of course, he couldn't deny what had happened with the 17-year-old that escaped the clutches. So while he was forthcoming about what happened to Susanna Candy, Noelene Patterson, Denise Brown and Mary Nielsen, he didn't mention Sharon Fulton.
So why not? I mean, if you're going to talk about everything that you'd done with Catherine Burney, Catherine Burney was apparently not as forthcoming initially, but ultimately the evidence was mounting. So why didn't Catherine Burney talk about Sharon Fulton? To the extent that she may have been part of the investigation into the Burneys, it didn't lead anywhere.
Yeah. And is this a, I mean, in your reading of it as a court reporter, was that a serious line or was it something that the defense has probably looked at and gone, oh, hang on, we can exploit this. There's an avenue here to put a bit of doubt in the jury's mind.
We heard that Raymond Reddington had said to a subsequent partner, she asked him, you know, what happened? Because we'd heard evidence from the kids that, you know, it wasn't something that was talked about. But certainly a subsequent partner wanted to know and asked him and he said, oh, the Bernies killed her.
Yeah, right.
So this is... late 80s, early 90s, around the turn of 1990 when he'd said that. And so I suspect that's the kernel of the defence case. It's not something that I would suggest, it's not something that the defence lawyer came up with. There's something, there's a starting point there.
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