The Frankston Murders. Vikki Petraitis

of Debbie Fream’s de facto.

      Jeanette told police that she had met Garry Blair, and Debbie, when they all lived in Casterton, about 360 km west of Melbourne. Explaining about life in the country with its huge unemployment problems for young people, Jeanette confessed that they had all partied quite a bit and it wasn’t unusual for many of them to indulge not only in alcohol, but also marijuana. She described Garry as a moderate marijuana user but she assured detectives that she had never seen him violent. Not long after Jeanette met Garry, he had started dating Debbie Fream.

      Debbie and Jeanette had become close friends and confided in each other. Debbie would often tell Jeanette how much she loved Garry. When Jeanette moved to Frankston, Debbie followed soon afterwards.

      Debbie’s reasons were twofold: she wanted to find a job, and she also wanted to get Garry away from the group in Casterton whom she believed were a bad influence on him. Early in the pregnancy, Debbie and Garry experienced a rough patch in their relationship. Garry, it seemed, had been spending a lot of time with Debbie’s brother, Troy, who had temporarily moved into the Kananook Avenue house. Troy and Garry had spent a lot of nights out partying, leaving Debbie alone with the effects of her pregnancy sickness.

      Jeanette told detectives she had advised Debbie to tell Troy to move out, but it wasn’t until the eighth month of her pregnancy, that Debbie’s patience really ran out. Telling her brother to leave wasn’t easy. She told Jeanette that Troy had been really angry and that her brother’s anger had scared her. The decision, however was for the best. Garry started coming straight home from work and Debbie was a lot happier.

      Jeanette explained that, following Jake’s birth, Debbie had been over the moon about how supportive Garry was, and that everything had worked out well. Debbie even expressed milk so Garry could feed the baby at night.

      Jeanette again repeated the events of the day Debbie vanished. She added that while shopping, Debbie had mentioned she needed milk but the two women had spent their time looking at fabrics and Debbie hadn’t bought milk in the time they had been together.

      Jeanette told of minding the baby the night after Russell called her when Debbie had failed to return from the shops, and how Troy had arrived around 1.30am.

      The detectives asked Jeanette if she knew about the threatening telephone call. Jeanette told them that about three or four months before, Debbie had told her that someone had threatened her over the telephone. She had said the man had sounded drunk but had referred to her by name. At the time, Debbie couldn’t think of who she might have upset enough to have been threatened in such a way.

      Debbie’s brother Troy was also questioned by police. Troy told detectives that he had a close relationship with his sister and they spoke often, although he did admit that as they’d grown older, they tended to fight.

      ‘Probably because we’re both stubborn,’ he explained. He described Garry Blair as ‘pretty easy going and gets on well with everyone. I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about Garry.’

      On the subject of drugs, Troy said, ‘When Garry and Debbie were living in Casterton, they got into a bit of shit with the coppers over marijuana. Basically, growing and possession of the plants; but nothing big. Garry got done for having four or five plants but they were seedlings really and if mates rocked around and asked for a smoke then he’d give them one. He wasn’t selling if that’s what you want to know.

      ‘Around October, November 1992, Debbie got done by a copper from Casterton with a gram of marijuana.’

      Troy explained that the car that Debbie and Garry were passengers in was pulled over by police.

      ‘Garry had already been in the shit for drugs so, to keep him out of trouble, Debbie said it was hers. I think Garry had been to, or was going to, court for the other drug charges so he didn’t need this one as well. Since they’ve been down in Frankston, Debbie has really gone anti-drugs and gets right up Garry when he smokes. I think it was more the money side of it, cause Garry was spending too much on drugs and they had a kid on the way,’ Troy said.

      ‘I know that since Garry and Debbie have been in Frankston, Garry has bought marijuana from some seedy joints; and he said he’s been to some weird places to score. But he always kept Debbie out of it cause she just didn’t want to think about it and wanted nothing to do with it.’

      Troy also told police that, on the day she disappeared, Garry had told him at work that Debbie had gone to the shop and hadn’t come back. The first thing that had occurred to Troy was the threatening phone call that Debbie had received months earlier.

      The information regarding Garry Blair’s use of marijuana, presented another avenue of investigation to the detectives working on Debbie Fream’s disappearance. Could there be a drug connection? Even though Garry Blair was just a casual user and Debbie was against the use of marijuana, violence in the drug world was certainly common enough.

      Once the media got wind of the story of a missing young mother of a newborn baby, they flocked to Garry Blair. And he was grateful that his appeals for Debbie to return or be returned were spread to such a wide audience. A photograph of Garry holding baby Jake wrapped in a white blanket, was printed in newspapers and splashed across television screens nation-wide.

      As soon as she heard her cousin was missing, Sara Smith, who had grown up with Debbie in Casterton, told her boss she needed to take time off work. She packed a bag and – along with a number of other relatives and friends – moved into the little house on Kananook Avenue, to help care for the baby and to wait for news.

      In the days following Debbie’s disappearance, the house was kept perfectly clean by restless family members, unable to leave and unable to sit still. They carefully avoided any mention that anything terrible might have happened to Debbie; almost as if to say it might make it come true. The only possibility they discussed was that Debbie might have had an accident and could be wandering around in a daze.

      And that meant she would eventually come home.