He knew his niece didn’t have any friends in Melbourne. She wasn’t interested in boys and her closest friends lived in Tasmania. She was a bit of a loner and he was at a complete loss as to where she could be.
He couldn’t see her at the Frankston railway station nor at the bus stop, so he drove once again around the main streets of Frankston before heading home. Perhaps he would find her at home and she would have some reasonable explanation for her lateness and he could breathe easy again.
But it was not to be.
As soon as her husband arrived home alone, Rita wanted to ring the police but was torn between her fears and not wanting to over-react. Paul headed off once again in his car to shine a torch in the darker areas all the way to the TAFE college and then to the railway station. Driving past Ballam Park, he stopped the car and illuminated the barbecue area and the children’s playground with his torch beam. When he saw no sign of the missing teenager, he came home and finally agreed to call the Frankston police.
He told the officer who answered the phone that his niece Elizabeth was missing and that she was a very reliable girl. After taking a description, the police officer said that he would pass on the information to Cranbourne because the Webster’s house was in the Cranbourne police district.
Around 1.10am, the Websters were visited by Sergeant Steve Lewis and Senior Constable Alan Robinson who had received the missing person call through D-24 about twenty minutes earlier. The two officers had been making a routine patrol of their district in a marked police car. The weather was shocking and the night had been quiet.
Sergeant Steve Lewis, with seventeen years experience in the police force, usually knew what to expect with a missing persons call. In the first couple of questions, the person making the report usually admitted to some sort of domestic fight or family trouble and the missing person invariably returned home. Hurrying through the heavy rain to the shelter of the Webster’s carport, Lewis stepped up to the front door and knocked.
Paul Webster answered the door and invited the two officers inside, leading them through the kitchen to a dining area where they all sat down at a wooden dining table. Rita offered them coffee but the officers refused – these reports usually didn’t take very long.
Paul and Rita Webster began by explaining that Elizabeth had gone to the library to study and had been expected home at 8pm. Lewis sensed that they were worried yet trying to keep their fears in check. Her disappearance was totally out of character, they said. Paul explained how he had driven around Frankston but he couldn’t find Liz.
Lewis asked the customary question, ‘Could she have gone off with a friend or boyfriend?’
The Websters explained that while Liz was free to do as she chose, she was a homebody with no friends that they knew of since she had only moved from Tasmania at the beginning of the year and had been living with them since mid-January.
Steve Lewis got the impression that Elizabeth Stevens was a nice young woman who loved her school work and while being friendly to everyone, had yet to find close friends in Melbourne.
Lewis asked if there had been any domestic difficulties but the Websters couldn’t think of anything that could have upset their niece. The only fight they’d had was when Liz had ridden a pushbike home from Frankston after dark without lights a couple of weeks earlier. Rita had been angry at the risk her niece had taken.
‘But I could see all the cars,’ Liz had said.
‘Well, you might have been able to see them but they couldn’t see you!’ Rita had cried, exasperated.
Liz didn’t always show common sense but she always saw reason and wouldn’t repeat her mistakes.
When Lewis asked if Elizabeth had any money on her, Rita Webster told him that she had just received her Austudy cheque. A possibility that occurred to the sergeant, although he didn’t share it with the concerned couple, was that Elizabeth Stevens had been robbed for her meagre student allowance.
There was something about the Websters and their story that gave the sergeant a strong gut feeling that something was terribly wrong. Elizabeth didn’t drink or take drugs and she always let them know where she was and what time she would be home. To illustrate the point, Paul showed the police officers the note that Liz had written.
As soon as Steve Lewis read it, he became really concerned about the safety of Elizabeth Stevens. He thought that any kid who left such a detailed note was unlikely to change plans without phoning to let her uncle and aunt know. According to the Websters, they didn’t exercise strict control over their niece. She had chosen from the outset to leave notes regarding her plans and she had always let them know where she was. It sounded to the officers as if it were as much for Elizabeth’s own security as her uncle and aunt’s peace of mind.
The sergeant asked to see Liz’s room on the off chance that it could contain clues to her whereabouts, perhaps a diary or an address book. The Websters showed the officers into a neat bedroom with a double bed which made the room look smaller. Next to the bed was a free-standing wardrobe and chest of drawers. The room was sparse and confirmed the Websters’ description of their niece. It seemed to be the bedroom of a neat, conscientious young adult. Lewis had a quick look around but he couldn’t find a diary or address book or anything else that might suggest what had become of the missing teenager.
Lewis obtained a full description of the young woman and filled out a missing persons report form. Neither Paul nor Rita knew what Liz had been wearing when she left that morning; in fact neither had seen her since the night before when she had gone to bed after watching a movie. They guessed that she would be carrying her school books in her navy and white sports bag.
Rita checked Liz’s wardrobe and found her white runners were missing as well as a new grey top that Liz had recently bought. She also guessed that Liz could have been wearing her favourite grey tracksuit pants. The Websters found her passport and showed the officers her photo.
As they left, Lewis gave the Websters his card, telling them to call the police station immediately if Elizabeth turned up. Offering a parting gesture of reassurance, he told the couple that she may have met up with a friend they didn’t know and simply forgotten to telephone. There were many possibilities – not all of them bad. Despite his unvoiced concerns in this case, Steve Lewis had never taken a missing persons report where the person hadn’t eventually turned up again.
Paul Webster asked if it was okay for him to drive around Frankston again to see if he could find his niece and, when Steve Lewis encouraged it, the worried man headed straight for his car. He gave the officers a parting look which did little to quell their own concerns.
Driving away from the home in Langwarrin, Lewis hoped that Elizabeth Stevens had done something totally out of character and gone to visit a friend, or gone down the pub – anything as long as she came home.
Back at Cranbourne, the police officers treated the matter seriously. People went missing all the time but this was different. Lewis’s gut feeling grew stronger. He telephoned through a description of Elizabeth Stevens to be broadcast via D-24 for all units in the Cranbourne and Frankston areas to keep a lookout for her. He then telephoned the shift supervisor to inform him of the missing teenager and faxed a copy of the report to the Hallam community policing squad.
Out on patrol again at 3.30am, Sergeant Lewis and his partner duplicated the route taken earlier by Paul Webster, checking the TAFE college and the railway station. He also kept an eye out for her school bag in case she had dropped it in a struggle or left it somewhere. The most frustrating aspect for the two officers was the early hour of the morning. There was no one they could call; the library was shut and so was the bus company. There was little else to do besides cruise around and hope to find the missing young woman. Two of the more remote possibilities were that she had been robbed and assaulted or that she had been abducted.
While Steve Lewis was aware that the Websters had only contacted police in desperation as the evening had worn on, valuable hours had elapsed before the report, and Elizabeth had now been missing for eight hours. But he also knew that it was a catch-22