Case 353: Jaidyn Leskie

For early access and dad-free episodes, check out our Patreon, Apple Premium and Spotify subscription memberships. Our episodes deal with serious and often-distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. 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. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all listeners. It was just after five o'clock on the morning of Sunday June 15, 1997, when the doors swung open at the Maui Police Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Once a thriving blue collar hub, in recent years, the town had been devastated by the rapid privatisation and dismantling of the state's electricity supply industry and was in the grips of a severe socio-economic crisis. The sudden lack of industrial jobs left a massive portion of Maui's population unemployed or relying on low-paying jobs and over half of the households lived on incomes below the state average. Despite the poor job prospects, single parents and low income earners were drawn to the area due to its cheaper government housing. Drug use, alcohol abuse and crime rates were high and many households struggled with domestic violence. Senior Constable Farnham Mollsworth looked up from his position at the front counter to see a familiar face standing before him. It was 28-year-old Greg Dommacevich, an unemployed mechanic who lived in town. With him was his girlfriend, 21-year-old Belinda Murphy, who also lived nearby. Belinda was in tears and appeared intoxicated. "We have a kidnapping," Greg said. Senior Constable Mollsworth was incredulous. He had crossed paths with Greg just a couple of hours earlier while out patrolling the streets and had pulled him over for driving too fast. Mollsworth had checked to Greg's license and had given him a breath test, which returned to zero blood alcohol reading. Nothing about him had been out of the ordinary and he hadn't mentioned anything about an abduction. "Who has been kidnapped?" he asked. Greg replied, "Belinda's baby." The couple explained that Belinda had gone out for the night with her sister and left her son, 14-month-old Jaden Lasky, in Greg's care. When Greg had gone to pick Belinda up at around 2am, he admitted to the Constable that he'd left to Jaden asleep on the couch while he made the roughly 45-minute round trip, not wanting to wake him up and put him into his car seat, which had gotten wet earlier in the day after it was accidentally left out in the rain. Greg lived alone in a small weather-bought home on Narrowkin Drive, a prominent roadway directly west of Maui's Town Centre, that spanned a mix of residential properties and large parcels of land. By the time the couple returned there, it was around 3am, and Jaden was no longer on the couch where Greg claimed to have left him. He told Senior Constable Molesworth, "When I got home, someone had smashed all my windows, and there is a pig's head outside the window." Senior Constable Molesworth wasn't sure what to make of the story that Greg Domosevich and Belinda Murphy were telling him. He notified his supervisor, who immediately separated a couple into two different interview rooms to hear their individual takes. The Maui police station was only small, so the officers closed the door to each room and switched on the exhaust fan to prevent the couple from overhearing each other. Belinda was visibly destroyed. She told the officer that Greg had stopped by her place late on Saturday morning to ask if he could look after Jaden for the day. Although Greg and Belinda had only been romantically involved for a little over six months, Greg had taken a real shine to Jaden, and the two had formed a bond of sorts. Greg liked having Jaden around so that he could teach him about what he viewed as some of the more masculine things in life, cars, fishing, and action movies. While Belinda had been a little unsure about leaving Jaden alone with Greg to begin with, over the past couple of months, Greg had looked after the toddler 10 or so times and proven himself to be a reliable caregiver. She therefore agreed that Greg could take Jaden for a few hours, as long as he dropped him off at her sister Katie's house later that evening. Belinda and Katie had been invited to a friend's birthday party in the neighboring town of Chirogan, and they'd organised a babysitter to watch all four of their children at Katie's house, which was just over a kilometre away from Belinda's. Greg happily agreed. At around 1.30pm, he drove over to Belinda's place and dropped her and her other child, a two-year-old daughter, at Katie's. Greg then took Jaden to his house on Narrowkin Drive for the afternoon, like he'd done several times before, with the plan being for Jaden to play with Greg's three dogs in the backyard and watch Greg as he worked on his car in the garage. At around 4pm, it started to rain, so Belinda called Greg from Katie's house to see if Jaden needed any more clothes. Greg told her not to worry. He said he was about to shower and would drop Jaden off at Katie's soon. He also told her that a friend of his had just called to say that Katie had been making up rumors about him, which sparked an argument between the two sisters, and Belinda decided she no longer wanted to go out. She walked home with her daughter, calling Greg's house to tell him to drop Jaden at her place instead of her sisters. But there was no answer. She called him numerous times over the next couple of hours, but still there was no response. Belinda wasn't too worried. She knew that Greg couldn't hear his phone ringing when he was out working on the car and that he often lost track of time. In the meantime, she made up with Katie and decided to go out after all. By the time Katie and her boyfriend picked Belinda up, it was around 8pm and she still hadn't managed to get in touch with Greg. Certain that he'd either drop Jaden off at Katie's house as planned or keep him for the evening, she focused on enjoying the night. The group went for drinks at a trans place in Teraugan before moving on to the nearby pub. At around 11pm, Belinda called Greg from a pay phone. Finally, he answered. "Shit happened," he said. Greg told Belinda that Jaden had burned his bare bottom on the heater and that he had taken him to Maui casualty for treatment. This satisfied with the level of care the staff had provided, Greg said he'd then taken Jaden to Maryvale Hospital instead. He told Belinda not to worry. She should stay and have a good time and then ring him later and he'd come pick her up. Belinda was thrown by the call and wanted to go home, but Katie told her not to. Greg was known to be a practical joker and she was convinced there was some kind of twisted prank. Katie called Greg herself and he admitted he was just kidding, saying that Jaden was really asleep on the couch, safe and sound. Reassured by this, Belinda carried on with her night and was eventually cut off at the bar for being too intoxicated. At around 2am, she called Greg and asked him to come pick her up. He arrived about 20 minutes later with the stubby of bourbon and coke for her to drink on the drive home. Belinda looked into the back seat. "Where's Jaden?" she asked. Greg admitted he hadn't been joking on the phone after all. Jaden really was in Maryvale Hospital getting treatment for his burn. What Belinda didn't realise was that Maryvale Hospital was under construction and wasn't even open at the time. She insisted that they go to see him, but Greg refused. He said Belinda was too drunk and he didn't want the staff to think she was an unfit parent. Belinda reluctantly told herself that at least Jaden was in good hands and she agreed to go back to Greg's house. Bye. But as they pulled into his driveway at around 3am, they noticed that all of his front windows had been smashed in. They checked inside, but nothing appeared to have been touched. Alinda told Greg to call the police, but he said he wasn't a rat. Besides, he was pretty sure he knew who was responsible. He's ex-girlfriend Yvonne Penfold. They decided to go back to Belinda's house for the night, and Greg would deal with the damage in the morning. But as they were leaving, they noticed something on the ground in front of the smashed living room window. It was the severed head of a black and white pig. For Greg, this was further confirmation that the person behind the vandalism was Yvonne Penfold. He and Yvonne had been in a toxic, on-an-off relationship, and things had an ended well. Since breaking up, they'd both accused one another of ongoing harassment in the form of escalating pranks, which had involved maliciously damaging one another's property. One of Yvonne's so-called pranks had allegedly involved her taking Greg's beloved pet pig Stimpy to be slaughtered, and then returning him to Greg as pork chops. As far as Greg was concerned, this second incident involving a pig had Yvonne's name all over it. Greg called Yvonne and asked if this was one of her sick games. He and Belinda then drove back to Belinda's house, stopping past Yvonne's house on the way. Yvonne's car was in the driveway, and the lights were on, but they didn't stop. By the time they got to Belinda's house, it was around 3.20am. Greg said he was going out to find out who damaged his house, while Belinda called the babysitter at Katie's to check that everything was okay there. She then fell straight to sleep in front of the lounge room heater. Belinda told the police that about an hour and a half later, she awoke to Greg shaking her in a clear state of distress. "Jaden's not in the hospital," he said, "I lied to you. We have to go to the police. He's been abducted." Belinda almost started to laugh, thinking it was another one of Greg's twisted jokes. But when Greg started crying and apologising, she realised he wasn't kidding. Greg said that Jaden really had been asleep on the couch, and he'd only made up the story about him being in hospital because he didn't want Belinda to know that he'd left him home alone while he picked her up from Tarralgan. He thought everything would be okay once they got back to his place and Belinda saw that Jaden was safe and sound. But that all changed once he realised that his house had been vandalised, and Jaden was no longer on the couch. Greg said he'd tried to find Jaden before telling Belinda the truth, but failing to find any side of him, it was time to go to the police. After speaking with Belinda Murphy at the Maui police station, the officers went to the interview room next door to speak to Greg Thomas Savage. They found that the door opened a crack and the exhaust fans switched off, giving them the impression that Greg had been trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. Just for his side of the story, Greg said the afternoon had gone relatively smoothly. He'd mostly just worked on his car while Jaden potted around, wandering between the garage and the backyard to play with Greg's dogs. They went inside at around 6pm and Greg gave Jaden a wash, dressed him in fresh clothes, and then had a shower himself. He decided he might as well keep Jaden with him until it was time to pick Belinda up, and rather than drop him a cadet's house with the babysitter. They watched TV for a few hours, and Jaden eventually fell asleep on the couch. When Belinda called at around 2am wanting to be picked up from the pub in Tarrougan, Greg said he'd been playing the Nintendo and had left the TV and heater on, the dogs outside, and the doors locked. After returning home to find his house vandalized and to Jaden missing, he dropped Belinda home without saying a word about the boys' abduction. Given that she believed Jaden was safe in the hospital, he thought he had time to try to find him before Belinda discovered what really happened. After Belinda fell asleep, Greg claimed that he went home for about 10-20 minutes to look for Jaden before driving past the home of his ex-girlfriend Ivan Panfold for a second time. The lights were on inside, and her car was in the driveway, but when Greg got out and peered under the curtains, he said he couldn't see anyone or anything inside. He continued to looking for Jaden for about an hour and a half before waking Belinda up and telling her the truth. Greg told the police that he was home all evening, was completely sober, and didn't have any visitors. He repeatedly insisted that he had nothing to do with Jaden's disappearance and that he had no idea where the toddler could be. But they weren't convinced. Senior Constable Farnham Molesworth and his partner had pulled Greg over at 3.35am as he headed down Lloyd Street in the direction away from Maui. Although he had only left Belinda's house moments before this interaction, he didn't mention anything about the missing toddler or his house having been vandalised. In the eyes of the Senior Constable, who had several interactions with Greg in the past, Greg hadn't quite been his usual self. He typically found Greg to be very cocky, but on this occasion he seemed more reserved and cautious. Asked where he'd been, Greg had simply replied, "No where." Immediately suspicious of this story, the Maui police notified the homicides squad and a detective came to formally interview Greg Domesevich while a crime scene investigator was sent to check out his house on Narrican Drive. Outside was just as Greg and Belinda had described it. All of the front windows were smashed and a severed pig's head sat ominously in the front garden bed. Inside, Greg's house was dank, messy and sparsely furnished with posters of musicians, animals, and aliens on the walls. In the lounge room, the Nintendo was still on and there was smashed glass all over the floor along with several rocks from the nearby train line. The glass didn't appear to have been stepped on, indicating that no one had climbed in through the broken windows. The rest of the windows were secured shut with pieces of wood. All of the doors were locked and there were no signs of forced entry. When Greg's bedroom, stacks of dirty laundry sat near his unmade bed and when the crime scene examiner lifted up his mattress, he found $600 in scrunched up cash. He unraveled the notes and discovered they were wet. In the lounge room, there were several small particles of skin tissue and hair fibers on the space heater. To suggest it was possible that Greg had been telling the truth when he said Jaden had burned himself the previous evening. A wheelie bin at the front of the house also contained several blood stained tissues. Belinda told the police that when she'd handed Jaden over to Greg for the afternoon, he'd been dressed in grey traxute pants, a green long-sleeved top, a blue jumper and red jacket. She had pinned it dummy to his clothes and put a few supplies into a blue plastic bag, including a change of clothes, four disposable nappies, a bottle, an apple, a musely bar and a lollipop. None of these items were found at Greg's house. The house was cordoned off as a crime scene while the examiner made the five-minute drive to Belinda's house. In stark contrast to Greg's place, Belinda's was neat, tidy and well-organized. As of her two children were displayed proudly throughout, their bedrooms filled with toys and the kitchen stocked with fresh fruit. Nothing at the address suggested anything other than a loving and supporting environment for the young family, and there was nothing to indicate where Jaden might be. The police put Belinda's house under surveillance while the search for Jaden commenced. She spoke to Greg's ex, Yvonne Penfold, who admitted to being involved with the vandalism. She said she'd been at a party on Saturday night with her brother Kenny Penfold and their friend Darren Wilson, and that they had all been drinking and smoking cannabis. Kenny had an extensive criminal record that included everything from burglary and assault to amphetamine charges. As the group had drove home after midnight, they started discussing Greg Damacevich's recent treatment of Yvonne. which, according to Avon, involved ongoing abusive phone calls, her car being refeeded, and even a homemade bomb being left on her doorstep. Kenny was protective of his younger sister and wanted to give Greg a big enough scare that he'd leave Ivona alone. The previous day, Kenny and a couple of his mates had slaughtered a pig, and Kenny still had it hanging up in his shower. He suggested they get the pig's head and throw it through Greg's window as a warning. The group picked up another friend, a man named Dean Ross, and then swung past Kenny's house to get the pig's head. They then made their way to Narik and Drive, where Ivon dropped Kenny and Darren on a dirt road that ran parallel to the railway line opposite Greg's house. Ivan and Dean took off, arranging to meet up with Kenny and Darren in about 10 minutes time once the deed was done. Kenny Penfold told the police that he and Darren Wilson had hit in the bushes near the train line, armed with the pig's head, several rocks, and an axe handle. They watched Greg's house, waiting for the right moment to strike. The lights were on inside, and Greg's car had been reversed up the driveway, which struck Kenny as odd as he'd never seen him do this before. Eventually, the front door opened, and Greg came outside, put something into the wheelie bin at the front of his house, and went back in. A couple of minutes later, Greg came back out, got into his car, and drove off. As soon as Greg's car disappeared down the road, Kenny and Darren made their move. Kenny said he threw the pig's head at one of the front windows, but it bounced off twice before finally smashing the glass. They threw rocks at the rest of the windows, ditched the axe handle in a nearby bush, and made a run for it, meeting the others near the Narik and Creek bridge. Kenny said Greg's dogs had started barking, but they hadn't heard a child crying at any point. They never entered Greg's home, and they certainly hadn't taken Jaden Leskey. The police spoke to each of the individuals involved in the pig's head planned, and their stories more or less aligned. While the timings they gave varied, each of them said they had stopped into the BP petrol station on Narik and Drive minutes before going to Greg's house. A customer buying cigarettes had seen them there, and verified the time as being 2.25am, which confirmed that the vandalism took place while Greg was out picking Belinda up from Teralgan. Belinda told the police that when she had called Greg from Katie's house at around 4pm to see if Jaden needed extra clothes, she had heard Jaden in the background. He had gotten on the phone and said the word "dog". One of the three words he knew how to say, the others being mum and dad. This confirmed that the toddler had still been alive at around 4pm. Belinda estimated that she had then unsuccessfully tried calling Greg's house about 15 to 20 times between 5.30pm and 7.45pm. When Greg was asked about this period of non-contact, he had no explanation for why he had an answer to the calls. One of Greg's neighbours, a woman called Mary Ann, told the police that after being out all afternoon, she had tried calling Greg a couple of times at around 8pm. He had an answer, but had then called her back at around 10pm, asking if she had any spare nappies because he had run out of clean ones. Mary Ann didn't have any, but she advised Greg he could use a towel or alternatively that they sold nappies at the petrol station down the road. She thought she heard a small child laughing in the background. Belinda finally got a hold of Greg at around 11pm, which is when he first told her that Jaden had burned himself and was in hospital. Police started to suspect that something must have happened to Jaden in this period of non-contact between 5.30pm and 11pm. Perhaps there had been an accident while Jaden was unsupervised, or Greg had lost his tamper and struck Jaden harder than he intended, before panicking and disposing of the toddler's body. While the police continued to interview Greg about the events of that evening, searches were conducted of the paddock surrounding his home on Narrowkin Drive. The crime scene examiner also searched Greg's car, a green Falcon X-C sedan. The boot was filled to the brim with random items such as fishing gear, tools and old car parts. In the front seat, a wet wallet sat underneath the accelerator pedal. The incontinent appointment card inside the wallet had run, giving the crime scene examiner the impression that the wallet had been fully immersed in water. The surrounding carpet was also wet, but not wet enough to explain how wet the wallet had become. A wet jacket also sat on the back seat. After hours of intense questioning, Greg was free to go. The police put him under surveillance hoping that he might lead them to Jaden, but instead he went straight to Belinda's house to provide her with comfort and assure her he had nothing to do with her son's disappearance. Jaden's father, Brett Lasky, had recently moved to Western Australia and as soon as he was informed that his son was missing, he boarded the next plane home. Up until late 1996, Brett had been living in Maui with Belinda Murphy and their two young children, where he'd run a car repair business with Greg Domosevich. Brett and Belinda were engaged at the time, and Belinda felt that Brett could earn better money to support their family if he got a job working in the mines in Western Australia. Brett did just that, but he hadn't been gone long before Belinda told him she wanted a separation. She had been spending a lot of time with Greg, and they had developed a relationship of their own. Belinda's new relationship added another layer to her and Brett's already complicated history. Brett had initially been married to Belinda's older sister, Katie, with whom he had a child. That was until Brett broke up with Katie to be with Belinda instead. With this second relationship falling apart, Brett stayed in Western Australia, agreeing that the children were better off with their mother. Now told that Jaden was missing, his mind immediately started to race, but he reassured himself that no one could possibly kill his beautiful little boy. By the time Brett made it to Maui on Tuesday, June 17, the town was already crawling with reporters. News of a potential child abduction involving a severed pig's head had immediately caught the interest of journalists from Melbourne. Reporters from the major media outlets quickly made the journey 136 km east of the city, attracted by the bizarre circumstances of the crime and the unconventional relationships of the individuals involved. The police appealed to the public to come forward with any information that could help the investigation while the search for Jaden intensified. The media were particularly interested in the pig's head angle and started circulating stories that Jaden could have fallen victim to a satanic cult. But those involved with the vandalism continued to deny any involvement in Jaden's disappearance and the police believed them. If the group had been responsible for the kidnapping, it made sense that they would have tried to lay low, but their actions were quite the opposite. The police had found witnesses who had seen Kenny Penfold and Darren Wilson walking in the direction away from Greg Dumbersevich's house in the early morning hours, and they did not have a baby with them. Kenny told the police that after he and Darren fled the scene of the vandalism, they had thrown rocks at a couple of passing teenagers and jumped out at another youth and screamed "Boo!" All three of these individuals verified Kenny's story, saying they had seen Kenny and Darren walking in the direction away from Greg's house without Jaden. Kenny also had a less conventional way to prove his story. He told the police that when they'd been casing Greg's house, he'd gotten so nervous that he needed to go to the toilet. He'd run onto the nearby railway tracks and emptied his bells, but because he didn't have any toilet paper, he'd ripped the pocket of the jacket he was wearing and used that to wipe himself. Kenny took the police to the location in question, gleefully holding up the piece of fabric and waving it for a photograph. He was all too happy to regale the media throngs with this latest development, telling reporters, "I did a shit on the railway lines and tore off my shirt pocket to wipe my bum. The coppers have just had me out there to find it. And you know, what they've taken the pile into custody as evidence. Made me do the scooping up though. By Thursday June 19, Jaden Leskey had been missing for five days. Grid searches have been conducted of the area surrounding Narrowkin Drive, as well as Lake Narrowkin and Mundaura Dam, but not a single piece of evidence had emerged to suggest where the little boy could be. With police holding grave concerns for Jaden's safety, Greg Doma Savage was summoned to the station for his second formal interview with detectives from the homicide squad. Over seven hours, Greg was asked over 1,200 questions to which he gave a series of rambling stilted and sometimes near inarticulate answers. He repeated his story that he and Jaden had a relatively uneventful day together on Saturday June 14, with the Jaden mostly playing with the dogs sent in the dirt while Greg worked on his car. When they went inside for the night, Greg said that Jaden had gotten too close to the heater and his skin had gotten a bit red, but not burnt, which is what gave him the idea to tell Belinda he was in hospital. Greg admitted he had a habit of making bad jokes of this nature, telling the detectives. I'm just an idiot with things like that. Greg said his decision to leave Jaden asleep on the couch while he went to pick Belinda up was a first, insisting he had never left the toddler alone while looking after him before. Given that the boy was sound asleep and the house was locked, he said he didn't think it would be an issue. After discovering Jaden was missing, Greg said he looked behind the couch and in a cupboard, trying to be discreet so that Belinda wouldn't suspect anything. He had called a Von Penfold, but didn't mention Jaden specifically because Belinda was with him and he didn't want her to panic. Greg reasoned that he didn't say anything to the police when they pulled him over at 3.35 am because they often treated him poorly and he didn't have much faith in law enforcement. It also heard rumors that he Von was romantically involved with a Maui police sergeant and this made him even more hesitant to say anything. Greg said he was convinced that a Von had taken Jaden and that he had intended to figure it out himself, telling the police about a horrible prank she'd once played on Belinda. One night, a Von had apparently called Belinda and told her to go and check on her children. When Belinda looked in on them, she found that they'd been switched in their beds without her having heard a thing. The police asked Greg what he now believed had happened to Jaden. Somebody's grabbed him out of the house, I'd say. I don't know. It's just a big mess to me. Up until this point, Greg had made no mention of the bloody tissues found in his front wheelie bin or of Jaden having heard himself. Testing had since confirmed the blood of his Jaden's. When the police asked Greg about the tissues directly, he said, "Jaden fell over and done something. I just wiped his nose or lip or something." That was it. Yeah. Didn't touch him. Maybe his nose or chin or something. It was his lip, his tooth, I think, went into his lip. I don't know, but it was just something like it was minor. Greg maintained that he hadn't left the house at any point, except when going to pick up Belinda from Teraogan at around 2am, at which point Jaden was alive and well. As for his wet wallet, Greg thought he might have left it on the roof of his car earlier that day while it was raining. Either that, or it had dislodged from his pocket as he moved in and out from under the car while he was working on it. Greg had recently sold his boat and he said that the cash from the sale was still in his wallet. When he realized the money was wet, he said he went inside and hid the money under his mattress. This was at odds with what the crime scene examiner had observed. He believed the level of wetness indicated the wallet had been in someone's pocket while they were completely immersed in water, not just while they were out in the rain. There were other unexplained inconsistencies, too. Belinda said she had packed a plastic bag full of Jaden's things, including four disposable nappies. Greg told his neighbour, Mary Ann, he had run out of nappies at around 10pm, yet not a single used nappy had been found during a search of his property. He also told the police that Jaden hadn't had much to wait, which Belinda said would be unusual as Jaden had a large appetite and cried when he was hungry. Greg denied that anything had happened to make him lose his temper towards the boy, saying Jaden was his friend and calling him "good." The detectives put multiple scenarios to him, had something happened while Greg was in the shower, had there been a medical issue, was it possible that an accident had occurred that resulted in Jaden's death and Greg had to cover it up in a state of panic? Greg denied each one. The detectives told him they had grave concerns for Jaden's whereabouts, saying, "This is your chance to tell us, tell us everything you know." Greg responded, "I've told you's and told you's and told you's, yeah, that's all I know, that's it." The detectives were getting fed up. One of them asked Greg directly, "What have you done to Jaden?" Greg replied, "I haven't done anything to Jaden." Case file 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 Case file to continue to deliver quality content. With Greg Dumbersevich's second police interview failing to generate any new leads or answers, the search for Jaden Leskey continued. Local waterways, including Lake Narrowkan and the swamp in Edward Hunter Reserve, were drained while 140 police and SES volunteers searched 54 hectares of surrounding bushland. On June 25, 10 days into Jaden's disappearance, search parties began combing the local rubbish tip, wearing masks to shield themselves from the rancid odors that permeated around them. Police helicopters equipped with thermal imaging equipment circled overhead and spotted a garbage bag the size of a small body floating in Lake Narrowkan. What looked like a breakthrough turned out to be a cruel hoax when it was found that the bag was filled with raw chicken garkers. Days later, someone also left a cardboard cut out of a baby on the shores of the lake. After eight stomach-turning days, the fruitless search of the dump was called off. In no sign of Jaden had surfaced by July 5, the police conceded there was very little hope of finding him alive, and that it was time to accept that the toddler had likely been murdered. Brett Leskey refused to accept this, telling reporters he would never lose hope of finding his son alive. By this point, $1 million had already been spent trying to find the little boy, making at the biggest search in Australia since the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt in 1967. After 20 days, the search for Jaden was officially called off. From his front door, Greg Dommacevich spoke to reporters for the first time. Asked how he felt, Greg said, "How do you think I feel? The little boy is still missing and all the focus is on me." The pressure on me has just been enormous. It's been one of the worst things I've ever had to go through, and he's still missing. That's the thing. I've got my family here now to support me, and I wouldn't mind being left alone with them. Thanks. Meanwhile, tongues had been wagging about the nature of Greg into Jaden's relationship, with many questioning why a grown man would want to spend so much time alone with a baby who wasn't his own. Even Jaden's paternal grandmother said she had always found this strange about Greg. But those who knew Greg didn't think there was anything nefarious about it, noting that Greg seemed to find Jaden entertaining more than anything. For the most part, those who had spent time at Greg's house when he'd been caring for J. Don't know. on previous occasions said the two got along well, and that Greg seemed to cope fine and take good care of Jaden. However, one friend noted that Greg sometimes got annoyed with Jaden, and in those moments gave him a gentle smack. Jaden was also prone to crying for prolonged periods, especially if he was hungry, and one of Greg's friends described to Jaden as a "suk". When Jaden wouldn't stop crying, Greg apparently handled it by turning up the stereo to drown out the sound of his cries. If he continued to cry, Greg would put him out in the backyard with the dogs. At one point, he left him out there crying alone for around 10 minutes. A friend recalled an incident when he and Greg had taken Jaden on a fishing trip to Blue Rock Dam, which was one of Greg's favorite fishing spots. Greg had apparently dropped to Jaden while lifting him over a fence, leaving him with some scratches and bruising to his face. When Belinda later asked what happened, Greg apparently said that Jaden had hurt himself while playing with the dogs and some sticks. While she accepted this explanation, an incident that occurred about a month before Jaden went missing, left her wary. Jaden had spent the night at Greg's house, and when he was dropped home, Belinda noticed he had a bruise on his face which looked like an adult's hand. Greg allegedly told her that Jaden had hit his head on the car door and wouldn't stop crying. Greg had taken him inside, but Jaden wouldn't calm down, so Greg lost it. He offered to tell the authorities about what had happened in case they tried to take Jaden away from Belinda, and although she declined out of this shared fear, she became nervous about leaving Jaden alone with Greg after this. But although Belinda's movements on the night Jaden went missing had been verified by numerous others, suspicions still lingered on Belinda too. Belinda's had looked into her medical history and discovered that about seven weeks before Jaden went missing, she had visited a general practitioner because Jaden was crying constantly and she was having difficulty coping. The GP referred Belinda to a pediatrician who found that Jaden was in good health and there was nothing wrong to explain the crying. With the media frenzy swinging into overdrive, once the case was officially declared a murder investigation, members of the public were quick to cast a judgement on what they saw as Belinda's questionable parenting decisions. Not only her decision to leave Jaden in Greg's care, but also her choice to go out and drink heavily with two young children at home. Some reporters focused on Belinda's unconventional relationship with Bratlaski, as well as Greg Domesevich's volatile relationship with the Von Penfold. They continued to exploit the pig's head story and the characters involved, casting Maui as a rural wasteland full of unemployed anti-social adults who lived immorally and behaved more like teenagers. Some reporters were so eager to broadcast colorful comments from the pig's head leader Kenny Penfold that a police officer in Queensland recognised him on TV and Kenny was extradited into state on an outstanding assault warrant. As the daily telegraph later stated, "The sequence of events and the complicated relationships of the people involved have clouded the circumstances surrounding the disappearance. As police have attempted to understand the interconnected relations of Jaden's carers, the focus on the little boy has been almost shunted aside." Bratlaski and his family further called Belinda's parenting into question when it was revealed that in January 1997, Belinda apparently told Brat that she had "lost the plot" and "kicked Jaden" and had also shaken him on a previous occasion. Bratlaski became concerned for the safety of his children and took them to stay with his parents. Belinda disputed this entirely, saying she had never shaken Jaden and had only shoved him with her foot. While the children had indeed spent about a week and a half with Brat's parents, Belinda claimed this had nothing to do with her treatment of the kids, but because Bratlaski was due to return to Western Australia and wanted to spend some quality time with them before he left. Many were astonished to find that Belinda continued to stand by Greg, despite him being the prime suspect in her son's presumed murder. But she maintained that she thought Greg was innocent and that she held hopes that Jaden would be returned alive. Belinda bought a teddy bear which he gave to her daughter, saying it was for her to give to Jaden when he finally came home. But there was something unusual that had been playing on her mind. When Belinda had returned home from the police station after reporting Jaden missing, she noticed that Jaden's cot was not in the same neatly-made state that she had left it in before going out on Saturday night. Instead, the cot mattress was on the floor and the bedding was hanging over the edge. Belinda had no explanation for this, but when she told the police about it, it supported their developing theory of what they believed happened to Jaden. Investigators believed that something had happened to Jaden between Greg's first phone call with Belinda at 4 p.m. and their subsequent call at 11 p.m. when he first told her that Jaden had burned himself. This explained why Greg had never dropped to Jaden off at Katie's to be babysit with the other children as planned. Although they didn't know whether Jaden's death had been intentional or accidental, the theory was that Greg planned to make it look like Belinda had actually been the one who killed him. Although Greg maintained that he hadn't left his house at any point while he was babysitting Jaden except for when he went to pick Belinda up from Teraogan, various witnesses called this into question. A friend of Greg said he'd driven past Greg's house just after 7 p.m. and his car hadn't been in the driveway. One of Belinda's neighbors told the police that at around 12 p.m. on Sunday June 15, she had heard an engine revving. She looked outside and saw a green car which resembled Greg's green sedan parked across the road from Belinda's house. This evidence, combined with the Jaden's cot sheets later being found in disarray, let investigators to suspect that after Jaden died, Greg had driven Jaden's body back to Belinda's house and placed him in his cot in the hopes that Belinda would find him there the next morning and think she had killed him during a drunken blackout. Even if Belinda didn't believe she had done it, Greg could have reasoned that the cops likely would. When Greg picked Belinda up at around 2 a.m., the police believed he took the stubby of bourbon and coke with him to ensure she was well and truly intoxicated beyond function. The lie about Jaden being in hospital was to buy him some time before Jaden's body was discovered. However, when they drove past Greg's house and saw that it had been vandalised, the police believed that Greg recognised an opportunity. Thinking that pig's head crew would come across as more suspicious than Belinda, he waited until Belinda was asleep and then returned to Jaden's cot and retrieved his body, forgetting to make the bed again afterwards. He then dumped the body somewhere, likely in a body of water, which explained why his wallet, money and jacket were wet, before waking Belinda up and telling her that Jaden wasn't really in hospital, but had been taken. Greg hadn't been wet when the police pulled him over at 3.35 a.m., mere minutes after he left Belinda's house. Going by the police theory, this meant that Jaden's body had to have been in Greg's car while he was talking to the police. The problem was, forensic testing of the car, including the messy boot, had not revealed any of Jaden's blood, hair or any other sign that the toddler had ever been there. By the time Jaden had been missing for a month, the pressure was on for the police to make an arrest. Those associated with the pig's head incident had been ruled out as having any involvement in the toddler's disappearance, and to no other suspects had emerged. While there was still nothing but circumstantial evidence to implicate Greg Domosevich, police remained convinced he was responsible. On July 16, 1997, 31 days after Jaden went missing, they placed a Greg under arrest for Jaden's murder. The media went into overdrive. According to escape the attention, Belinda went into state for a few weeks, leaving a set of house keys with the police as well as a mutual friend of hers and Greg's. When she returned to Maui, she saw something on her wall unit that had not been there before before she left. It was the dummy she thought she had pinned to Jaden's jumper on the day he went missing, as well as a toy phone she had packed with his belongings. She checked Jaden's cupboards and noticed that some of his clothing also appeared to be missing. Brat Lasky had been wanting to collect some of his belongings from Belinda's place, but had been unable to get in contact with her to make the suitable arrangements. By September, he decided to break in. As he gathered up some of his tools and clothing, Brat noticed a photograph of Jaden in which he looked invisibly with the drawn and appeared to have a bruised chin and cheekbone. Brat took the photo with him along with a notepad which he believed to be Belinda's. In it, there were several notes that started with the words "Dear Brag." One of them continued, "Tell your mates to shut their mouths because they're telling their mates what you have done." There was also a drawing of a child with a barrage of slurs written on it in handwriting that Brat didn't recognize. He held the drawing up to the light and thought he could see Jaden's name underneath. Brat handed these items over to the police, as well as to the social worker who had since been assigned to Brat and Belinda's daughter. When Belinda was questioned about the photo of Jaden, she said it had been taken after he went on a fishing trip with Greg Doma Savage. As for the picture containing derogatory insults, a friend of Greg's told the police that Greg sometimes called Jaden by these names. Belinda continued to support Greg, sending letters back and forth, giving out to visit him every weekend and tattooing his nickname in a love heart on her back. Greg wrote to Belinda about how alone and hopeless he felt as he was left wondering what happened to Jaden. He prayed that they would all be reunited as a family again, saying, "I lay here at night praying for something to happen that will end all of this. I just don't understand. I just think why didn't I still put him in the car? Why did I leave him alone? Why did they come to my house? How did they know I was going? I should have just trusted the police to do something for me earlier. But as they have treated me so unfairly in the past and have never done anything to help me, I just thought I could find him without asking for help from them, as they've never helped me ever before. Only if we could go back in time, like in the movies. I love you, my princess. Take care." By January 1, 1998, the New Year commenced with no answers for Jaden's loved ones. That afternoon, a teenage boy was picnicking with his family on the banks of Blue Rock Dam, roughly 18 kilometers northwest of Maui, when he noticed something bubbling gently in the water. At first, it looked like a doll or a pillow, but as he watched it float in the dam roughly 12 meters from the water's edge, it quickly became clear that it was the body of a young child. The police were immediately summoned and officers from Gipsland Water Police sent the dam to retrieve the body. After six and a half agonizing months, Jaden Lasky had been found. The small boy was dressed in a dark green traxuit, a blue top, white socks, and a disposable nappy. The cold waters of the dam had preserved his body relatively well. There was an injury to the base of his skull and his left arm appeared to be broken. It was wrapped in a crew-dolastic bandage from the elbow to the wrist, which had then been taped to a small piece of wood to create a makeshift splint. On the floor of the dam, divers also found a child sleeping bag with a 180cm crowbar attached to it with a rope. Nearby was a plastic bag containing many of the items Blinder Murphy had packed for Jaden's day with Greg Damacevich, including clothing, a bottle, and an apple. Given the lack of silt or mud on the plastic bag, the police believed that both the Jaden's body and the bag of his belongings had been wrapped in the sleeping bag and then thrown into the dam weighed down by the crowbar. Over time, the zip on the sleeping bag had eroded and a hole had appeared, allowing Jaden's body and the bag to emerge. An autopsy confirmed that Jaden had a severe fracture to the base of his skull, which had most likely caused a brain injury that resulted in death. His left arm had also been significantly fractured in two places. Microscopic examination of the bones showed no evidence of callous formation, which indicated that the fractures had occurred around at the same time that Jaden died. But what exactly caused these injuries couldn't be determined? Given the side of the skull fracture, which was tucked beneath the back of a Jaden's head in an area protected by muscle, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy thought it was extremely unlikely that Jaden could have fallen onto a hard surface or had accidentally come into contact with the blunt object. She thought it was much more likely that he had been hidden the skull with the direct blow from a fairly solid instrument, such as a crowbar. The lack of injury to the surrounding skin could be explained by a pillow or something similar being used as protection. The fractures to Jaden's arm were equally difficult to pinpoint. While the pathologist thought it was possible that the fractures could be associated with a fall or a crush injury, they were much more commonly seen as a result of a direct blow from a blunt object. It couldn't be determined exactly when Jaden had died. Based on the appearance of his body at the autopsy, the forensic pathologist believed he had likely been in the water for six months. While she considered it possible that he could have been there for less time, a senior forensicodontologist examined Jaden's dental remains and concluded that the amount of teeth he had was consistent with the average 14-month-old. Given that Jaden was within the normal pattern of development for a child of his age, it therefore stood to reason that he had died at the same time he went missing. Ultimately, without knowing the exact cause of his injuries, the pathologist could not say whether Jaden's death was accidental or deliberate. But the implications became clear once toxicology testing revealed that the 14-month-old had traces of Ben's hexol in his system. Ben's hexol, also commonly known as Arthane, is anti-traumatic medication used to treat Parkinson's disease as well as the side effects of certain anti-psychotic medications. It is not typically prescribed to children, if ever, and certainly not to Jaden Lasky. While the pathologist could not conclusively rule out Ben's hexol was causing Jaden's death, expert toxicologists didn't think that was the case. Very few fatalities had ever been linked to the drug, and those that had, related to adults, and involved other factors, such as the presence of other drugs. This left the question of how Jaden came to have it in his system, and why? Belinda Murphy had been holding onto hope that her son had simply gone away somewhere and would make it back to her in time. The news that his body had been found, in a cold dam of all places, was difficult for her to accept. Shortly after Jaden had gone missing, one of Belinda's first thoughts had been, "I don't care where he is, as long as he's warm." She told the age she planned on burying her son with heaps and heaps of blankets to keep him warm. Belinda's sister, Katie, said they wanted to give Jaden the flashest funeral possible, remarking, "He didn't have much in life, and he had a terrible death. He deserves the best we can do for him now." Jaden's father, Brat Lasky, was heartbroken. He struggled to forgive Belinda for Jaden going missing while under her care and couldn't bring himself to talk to her to make the funeral arrangements. While Belinda hoped that the discovery of Jaden's body would prove once and for all that she had nothing to do with his death, she too blamed herself. Asked by the age what she would say to Jaden if she had the chance, Belinda said, "I would tell him I love him, and I'm sorry for letting him go. Yeah, I blame myself. Every night, all the time. I hope he would forgive me." For the people of Maui, the discovery of Jaden's body came as both a tragedy and brought a sense of relief. The case had put their town on the map for all the wrong reasons, turning them into the part of nationwide jokes. A spokeswoman for the Maui development group told reporters that the case had triggered a resurgence in community pride and had sparked local growth. "We have picked up the pieces and gone forward," she said. "But it has taken the death of a beautiful boy to do it." When Greg Dombacevich heard that Jayden's body had been found, he collapsed. He later called Belinda from jail, but she didn't want to speak to him, so Katie took the call instead. Greg was in tears, saying, "We've got to get the bastards who did this." With Greg already behind bars, the discovery of Jayden's body left the police feeling confident that they'd secure a conviction, or at the very least, proceed to trial. That he'd been found, which explained injuries, supported their initial belief that something had happened to the toddler while in Greg's care. Perhaps something had happened involving the car Greg was working on, or perhaps Jayden had broken his arm, either by accident or at Greg's doing, and Greg had panicked. Instead of seeking medical help and risking exposing himself to child abuse allegations, he had attempted to fix it himself by bandaging Jayden's arm and giving him the band's sex hole in a misguided attempt to pacify him. When this didn't work and Jayden became inconsolable, perhaps Greg couldn't contain his frustration and to lashed out by hitting the toddler in the head. Whatever the truth, the case remained purely circumstantial. Belinda said that the clothes Jayden was wearing when his body was found were not the ones she addressed him in when she handed him over to Greg for the day, but the ones she later realized were missing from Jayden's cupboards. She also confirmed the sleeping bag Jayden's body had been wrapped in belonged to her sister, and that she had once taken it to Greg's place, but she couldn't remember if she had left it there. She thought it was more likely to have been at her place. Investigators believed the most significant discovery linking Greg to the crime was the plastic bag filled with the things that Belinda had packed to Jayden for the day. In their view, if someone had broken in and taken Jayden during the vandalism like a Greg claimed, they wouldn't have known what had been packed with him for the day, and therefore wouldn't have known to remove these items from the house. Blue Rock Dam was also known to be one of Greg's favorite fishing spots and he knew the area well. Being a roughly 40 minute round trip from Belinda's house, going by the police theory, it meant that Greg would have had just enough time to drop Belinda home, dispose of Jayden's body, and then return home to tell Belinda that her son was missing. To strengthen their case against Greg, investigators conducted multiple tests to try and determine how Jayden's body had gotten into the water. The water levels were more or less the same as they had been at the time Jayden went missing, and bundles of items of similar weight to Jayden's body, belongings, and the crowbar were thrown and pushed from the banks of the dam to see if they could reach the spot 12.7 meters in, where they were found. None of them did. Investigators ultimately determined that for the items to end up at the distance they hid, a person would have had to enter the water to at least waste height, fully submerging their bottom half. In their view, this could explain why Greg's wallet had been soaked through, and why he had put the wet money under his mattress to dry. When a photo of the crowbar used to weigh down Jayden's body was published by the media, a friend of Greg's named Paul Lethal recognised it as one that he had to lent to Greg a few days before Jayden went missing. Paul had been doing some gardening work at Greg's house and had left the crowbar there along with some tree loppers. When he asked for these items back a few days later, Greg apparently told him they had been in his car when the police confiscated it for forensic testing. He later changed his story, saying they were at his friend Darren's place. Paul went to Darren's house to look for it, but couldn't find it anywhere. While all of this was damning, a big question mark loomed over the presence of Benz Hexall found in Jayden's system. A check of Greg's health records revealed that he'd never been prescribed this drug, nor had anyone involved with the vandalism, and a search of Greg's property turned up no trace of it. While there had been some reports of the drug being used recreationally overseas, it wasn't commonly known to be used illegally in Australia, where it had come from, remained a mystery. In March 1998, a committal hearing was held at the Maui Magistrates Court, during which the police presented all of the evidence they gathered against Greg Duma Savage so far. Despite the largely circumstantial case, Greg was committed to stand trial. But as words started to get out about the prosecution's case, many started to question whether the police had succumbed to tunnel vision. Given that they didn't think anyone had entered Greg's house after the pig's head and rocks were thrown through his front windows, the inside of Greg's house was never checked for fingerprints. A cigarette butt was also sitting in the astray in Greg's living room, but this was never taken for testing, despite the fact that Greg didn't smoke. Ultimately, not a single piece of forensic evidence had been found to link Greg to Jaden's body. Searches of his house and car had failed to uncover any of the materials that had been used to bandage Jaden's arm, and there was nothing that matched the cord that had been used to tie the crowbar to the sleeping bag. Some of the knots that had been used were fairly professional, but Greg had no knowledge of advanced knot tying. Furthermore, the police had an established exactly what clothing Greg was wearing on the night that Jaden went missing, nor had they seized or tested any of his clothing after Jaden was first reported missing. This meant they couldn't definitively match his clothing to the wet wallets or money. The clothing that they did test later on didn't contain any of Jaden's blood or DNA. Early on, Greg had also mentioned that one of the reasons he didn't go straight to the police to report Jaden missing was because he'd heard rumors that his ex-girlfriend, Avon Penfold, was romantically involved with the Maui police sergeant. Some viewed this alleged relationship as the reason that the individuals associated with the vandalism were ruled out as suspects so quickly. Theories started to circulate that Jaden could have been accidentally injured by the vandals who were ignorant to his presence, and that they panicked and covered it up by taking him and disposing of his body. Alternatively, they could have decided to kidnap Jaden as part of their revenge plot against Greg, but panicked once the police and media got involved. After they or someone else held him captive for a period of time, they killed him and dumped him in the dam, knowing it was a favourite spot of Greg's. In the eyes of some, it seemed absurd that Greg would conceal Jaden's body in a location so closely linked to him. Others argued that if he was under severe stress and in a state of panic, he could have chosen the dam as it was a familiar and disillated spot. The possibility that Jaden had been held somewhere before his death gained momentum when it was revealed that the forensic pathologist who performed his autopsy had described Jaden as wearing "piltres" over his nappy. Belinda said she hadn't packed any piltres for Jaden when she handed him over to Greg that day. Furthermore, just two days before Jaden went missing, Greg had cut Jaden's hair in a crude attempt to replicate his own bald spot. It had left the toddler with hair that was short at the front and patchy at the back. When Belinda was shown the photographs of Jaden during his autopsy, she thought his hair was considerably longer than it was on the day he went missing. Then, a defense lawyer was reviewing the photos of Greg's house after it had been declared a crime scene and saw something leaning against the back fence that left him scratching his head. Although the image was a little unclear, it looked like a 1.8 meter long crowbar, the same crowbar belonging to Paul Litzhauer that investigators alleged Greg had used to weigh Jaden Leskey's body down before throwing him into blue rock down. Case file will be back shortly. Despite the many unanswered questions, surrounding Jaden Leskey's death, by the time Greg Domesevich's trial commenced in Melbourne's Supreme Court on October 12, 1998, many in the Court of Public Opinion were already convinced of his guilt. With the jury told they could find Greg guilty of either murder or manslaughter, the prosecution stood by the theory that something had happened to Jaden Leskey during the roughly seven-hour window in which Greg didn't answer Belinda Murphy's phone calls. In their view, Greg lacked the skills needed to care for Jaden and had caused his death by lashing out in a moment of frustration or anger. When he returned home from picking up Belinda to find that his house had been vandalized, he seized the opportunity to blame their death on someone else. After Belinda was asleep, he got rid of any evidence and disposed of Jaden's body by wrapping him up in a sleeping bag weighed down by a crowbar and waiting out into blue rock down. But the defence came in strong, arguing that the case against Greg Domesevich was purely circumstantial and that the police had conducted a sub-power investigation due to their immediate belief that Greg was guilty. Greg's lawyer Colin Lovett, QC, was one of Australia's most experienced defence barristers and he'd agreed to take on the case pro bono. As he explained to the age, the case against Domesevich was terribly weak, but I thought there was every chance he would be convicted because of the pretrial publicity. Everyone seemed to think he was guilty as sin, but if you asked them why, they didn't have a clue. The crux of Lovett's case was that there wasn't a single piece of forensic evidence linking Greg Domesevich to Jaden's death and that there were multiple other people who could have just as easily been responsible. He warned the jury, "We're dealing with unusual people, people who don't think and act in the same way we expect to most people to think and act." Lovett stuck by the story that Greg had given to the police from the very beginning, maintaining that Greg had left to Jaden asleep on the couch while he went to pick Belinda up and that he was no longer there upon his return. Lovett acknowledged that Greg's story about Jaden being in hospital was in poor taste, calling his client a stupid practical joker who tends to say silly things. However, Lovett added, "I am defending him for murder, not for being an idiot." As far as Lovett was concerned, the suggestion that Greg's initial plan had been to put Jaden in his cot and lead Belinda to think that she killed him in a drunken stupor was ludicrous. The wet money found under Greg's mattress had been presented by the prosecution as damning evidence, but Lovett said nothing about this act indicated Greg was a murderer. He didn't think there was anything suspicious about the bloody tissues that were found in Greg's wheelie being either. If there was, he argued. Why didn't Greg just flush them down the toilet? Also, if he had killed Jaden during the window of time that the prosecution was suggesting, then why, when he spoke to his neighbour Mary Ann at around 10pm, did he say he had run out of nappies and ask where he could buy some more? Lovett also told the jury there was evidence to suggest that Jaden was alive for a considerable amount of time after he disappeared, including the fact that he'd been found wearing pilches and that his hair was longer than when he went missing. Without a shred of evidence to tie Greg to the Benzhaxole found in Jaden's system, Lovett suggested this could have been administered to Jaden by someone else at a later time. He accused the police of failing to properly investigate the so-called pig's head team, when, in his view, they were the obvious suspects. He theorised that they could have accidentally injured Jaden while vandalising Greg's house and have taken him in a moment of panic. Unable to quieten him down, they killed him. Lovett, who said Greg had a great bond with Jaden, asked the jury, "Who is more likely to have gratuitously injured Jaden Lesky or panicked when they found that he had been accidentally injured? Who is more likely to find that child is being just an inconvenience and nuisance, something that we've got to do something about?" At the end of the day, Lovett said the lack of forensic evidence tying Greg to a savage to Jaden's body meant it would be unsafe to convict him for murder, and he labelled the police investigation a complete disgrace. After the jury was driven out to Maui to see some of the key locations for themselves, Belinda Murphy was one of the first witnesses to take the stand. She testified that Greg had formed a close relationship with Jaden and had been loving and caring towards him, saying she would never have left Jaden in Greg's care otherwise. But as the questioning wore on, she admitted that hadn't always been the case, describing how Greg had once lost it when Jaden wouldn't stop crying and had hit him in the face. She started to cry as she explained how Greg had cut Jaden's hair without her consent in an attempt to replicate his own bald patches. Through tears, Belinda admitted how hurt she had been by rumors that she was involved in her son's death. She admitted that she'd been slack with her babysitting arrangements on the night Jaden went missing, and that she should have confirmed where Jaden was before she went out drinking. Belinda explained to Lovett that the reason she didn't raise the alarm after they discovered Greg's house had been vandalized was because she thought a Von Panfold was behind it, and that Jaden was safe in hospital. I don't care if I look silly, Belinda stated. I didn't know Jaden was missing. Multiple witnesses testified that Greg had acted aggressively towards Jaden in the past. The general consensus seemed to be that Greg viewed Jaden as a form of entertainment, and that he lacked the skills needed to deal with an upset and crying toddler. Greg's ex-girlfriend, the Von Panfold, testified that Greg had been violent and possessive during their relationship, and had at one point threatened to set fire to her house. She rejected his allegation that she had once taken his beloved pet Pig Stimpy to be slaughtered as a nasty prank, later telling the herald son that the decision to have Stimpy killed was the decision they had reached mutually, because Stimpy had gotten too big to be kept as a pet. Each member of the Pig Stimpy was questioned extensively on the stand, as Colin Lovett attempted to put doubt into the jurors' mind about whether or not Greg really was involved in the toddler's death. He also implied that others outside of this group, including some friends of Greg's, could have been responsible. In particular, he cast suspicion on Kenny Panfold's housemate, a man named Raymond Tubby Hopkinson, who owns the Pig whose head was used to vandalise Greg's home. Tubby had an extensive criminal record and a reputation for drug abuse and violence. Lovett said that Tubby, who drove a motorcycle, wouldn't have wanted to miss out on what he called a bit of sport like the vandalism plan, and suggested that there could have been an arrangement for Tubby to meet the group that night. Tubby vehemently denied having anything to do with it, becoming enraged and hurling abuse at the lawyer whom he called a dickhead. Tubby said he didn't know Greg Domesevich and had never been to his house, spitting "Never even spoken to the fucking dog maggot can't. He's a kid killer. As far as I'm concerned, he's a fucking dog." Lovett said that a witness had placed Kenny and Tubby walking with a baby on June 17, 1997 in the New South Wales town of Holbrooke where Kenny's father lived. But Tubby said he'd never left Victoria and Kenny told the lawyer, "I'm suggesting you're tripping." The prosecution disproved at this sighting entirely, as both men could be indisputably placed in Maui at the time. Kenny Penfold came across poorly on the stand when he too became enraged and started swearing at Lovett. He denied that Tubby had anything to do with the pig's head plot, which he described as his own hair-brained scheme. Kenny became increasingly frustrated at the suggestion that he or his friends could have had anything to do with the Jayden's disappearance, stating, "I didn't do it. It's as simple as that. You're not going to twist the story. If you don't like hearing it too bad, I know I've been to jail and I haven't been the best of boys, but I didn't kill the kid, so get off my case." The Maui police officer, Sargent Russell Fraser, who Greg accused of being romantically involved with the von Penfold, was also put on the stand. He denied that he'd ever had a sexual relationship with the von, describing himself as a family friend. Lovett called this into question, putting it to Fraser that he's found. Fellow officers had failed to pursue a Vaughan and the Pigshead team in a bid to protect Fraser from the truth coming out about his and Vaughan's relationship. He suggested that Fraser could have been part of a cover-up by police to frame Greg for Jaden's death, and asked if anyone from the Penfault family had ever asked him to help with the disposal of Jaden's body. Sergeant Fraser was appalled by the suggestion, responding, "No, absolutely not, sir. That's ridiculous. Good evidence." At the advice of his lawyer, Greg chose not to testify in his own defence, but his police interviews were played to the court, during which he provided his version of events about the day Jaden went missing. The prosecution case was that Greg appeared highly agitated, erratic, and defensive, and that he gave inconsistent and confusing answers that further served to implicate himself in the top of his death. The defence countered that Greg's answers were the ramblings of a panicked, sleep deprived man whose house had just been vandalised, and who was breaking down under heavy pressure from seasoned, intellectually superior interrogators. Robert also described Greg as a natural waffler, who had a tendency to talk around the point and wander all over the place during normal conversations. While he acknowledged that Greg could be a frustrating person to speak to, he said that's just the way he was, and that he wasn't being intentionally evasive. There was another detail I love it found significant about Greg's police interviews. Whenever he spoke about Jaden, he used the present tense, as though he believed the toddler was still alive. The trial dragged on for weeks, with various experts and academic theorists called to provide their interpretations of the circumstantial and forensic evidence. Some of this testimony was considered to be so dull that reporters in the courtroom entertained themselves by joking about which member of the jury would fall asleep first. While the plastic pilches Jaden had been wearing when his body was found, was presented by the defences further proof that he'd been alive for longer than the prosecution presented, this turned out to be a red herring. It was revealed that what the forensic pathologist initially thought was a pilcher, had actually just been the outer plastic lining from a disposable nappy. While the time-closing arguments had been delivered and the jury was left to deliberate, the trial had been running for almost eight weeks, with testimony presented by 58 witnesses, and everyone involved was exhausted. After three long days, the jury announced that it had reached its verdict. Not guilty on all possible charges. Greg Doma Savage was free to go. Greg threw his arms around his lawyer and said, "I love you, as three cheers were called from his supporters." Greg walked from the court hugging his mother and telling reporters, "I just can't express how happy I am." Belinda Murphy was not in the court to hear the verdict. She released a statement via her lawyer, which said, "The past 18 months have destroyed my life. The pain, agony and suffering I have experienced, I would not wish on anybody else. I am a victim of my own mistakes and continue to live with them for the rest of my life." Brett Leskey's family told reporters they had been expecting they're not guilty verdict because the prosecution's case hadn't been strong enough and the defense had done a good job at creating reasonable doubt. A spokesperson for the town of Maui said the community was looking forward to regaining a sense of normality and that even though there would be differing opinions, the mere fact that it is over will be a relief. Victoria Police announced they would be closing the case, saying the homicide squad had conducted an exhaustive inquiry into Jaden's disappearance and that, quote, "All available evidence was put before the court and Victoria Police accepts the jury's verdict." But one person who refused to accept the verdict was Belinda Murphy. Shortly after Greg was acquitted, she revealed that she had believed he was guilty from the very start and that she'd only maintained a relationship with him so that she could trick him into telling her the truth. When Belinda was later shown the videotape of Greg's police interview for the first time, she became even more convinced of his guilt. She sought an intervention order against him, claiming that he'd shown up at her house and allegedly said, "Even if I had killed Jaden, I couldn't be tried again due to double JAPIDI and her then allegedly tried to strangle her." Though Greg denied doing any such thing, the alleged comments about double JAPIDI were accurate. Under Victorian law, Greg couldn't be tried for Jaden's murder again, even if compelling evidence emerged. With the police closing the case, the mystery of who killed Jaden Lesky remained unsolved. Four years after Greg's acquittal, there were hopes that some answers would emerge as part of an upcoming coronal inquest into the case. Lawyers working on behalf of Brett Lesky had been working on this request since 1998, with support from Greg, who hoped an inquest would clear his name once and for all. Since his release from jail, he claimed he hadn't been able to hold down a job because prospective employers viewed him as a baby killer. He had no money and ongoing health issues. But in June 2002, the deputy state coroner announced his decision not to hold a public inquest into Jaden's death, releasing a one-page report that simply stated that Jaden had died at an unknown location on or around June 14, 1997, from head injuries. Greg told the age it was "a bullshit finding" and said that he was pissed off. His disappointment was shared by Jaden's loved ones, who hoped the inquest would have held someone responsible for the toddler's death. Belinda had since remarried and moved out of Maui, hoping to put the past behind her, but the decision not to hold a public inquest left her outraged, even more so when she realized the deputy coroner hadn't even gotten Jaden's date of birthright. She told reporters, "I didn't need a piece of paper to tell me my son's cause of death was head injuries. I was well aware of that, but Jaden didn't break and then bandage his own arm." Jaden didn't bang his head and take his own life. Nor did he fill his body with the drug band's hex hole, tie himself to a crowbar and throw himself into blue rock dam. Someone else did, and it's hard to sleep at night knowing that person walks in our community each and every day. Belinda began campaigning for a public inquest, writing letters to the attorney general and state coroner asking for the decision to be overturned. Get us all back in the witness box, put us all on trial, she wrote, "Please, live mine and my daughter's life for just one day. I had a son and she had a brother. Now, we don't, and we don't know why. I think we deserve an explanation and a chance to ask questions. After I buried my little boy, I promised him justice. You are my last hope of not breaking that promise to my son. I hope and pray with everything I have left that you will help me. But if you won't do it for me, at least do it for Jaden." In July 2003, Belinda's phone rang. It was the attorney general. He wanted to let her know that the state coroner, Graham Johnston, would be holding a full inquest later that year. But what the public didn't yet know was that preliminary investigations had already gotten underway and they'd revealed something troubling. When Jaden's body was recovered from Blue Rock Dam, his clothing had been sent to the Victoria Police Forensic Science Center for Testing and to DNA from an unknown female was found on his tracksuit pants and a bib. When this DNA profile was run through the database again in May 2003, it returned a match. The DNA belonged to a young intellectually disabled woman who had been raped in mid-June 1997 in the Melbourne suburb of Altoona. Extensive investigations were conducted to see of this woman who had been 17 at the time of her assault could be linked to Jaden Leske's disappearance. But the woman had never been to the Latrobe Valley region and didn't know anyone from that area, particularly any of the individuals named in the Jaden Leske investigation. The police stance was that the link between the DNA profiles was what's known. as an advantitious match, meaning that the DNA could be linked back to more than one individual, the other of which had not yet been identified. This highly controversial issue added further complexity to the already convoluted inquest when it commenced in November 2003. While the mean purpose of the inquest was to determine exactly how and when Jaden Laskie had died, a massive portion of the inquest was dedicated to untangling this forensic dilemma. The DNA link was heavily scrutinized and it was conclusively determined that the rape case was entirely unrelated to Jaden's disappearance. Various experts testified that it was more or less statistically impossible for the DNA to be an advantitious match. Jaden's clothing had been examined in the same lab on the same day as the condom taken from the rape case, and although no conclusive evidence could be found to determine how exactly it had happened, it was agreed that the DNA match had come about due to accidental cross-contamination. Not only was this a bad look for the Victorian police, it effectively ruined any chance of Jaden's clothing providing clean, usable DNA that could help find alternative suspects and, in short, the physical evidence could not be fully trusted. The DNA blunder ultimately turned the Jaden Laskie case into a textbook example of the fallibility of forensic science and continues to be referenced in law circles internationally. The inquest was derailed again when a witness came forward claiming that he'd been returning from a hunting trip on the weekend that Jaden Laskie went missing, and had seen a green sedan in the vicinity of Blue Rock Dam in the early morning hours. He later told his wife about it and took note of the start of the number plate, which started with the letter's IRS. Suggestions were made that this car belonged to Greg Doma Savage, who drove a green Falcon XC sedan with the registration number IRS 680. The witness said he later recognized the car when watching a new story about Jaden's disappearance, but didn't notify the police of his sighting because he didn't think it would be helpful. Various inquiries and tests were done to see if this witness account held any weight, but nothing could be proven. With the witness only coming forward for the first time, six and a half years after the fact, very little weight was placed on this supposed sighting, but it did leave someone wondering what other new evidence might emerge. In late 2004, Greg Doma Savage used a legal technicality to try and put an end to the inquest. His request was granted by the Supreme Court, and the inquest was temporarily put on hold until the legal issue was resolved. A second inquest resumed in July 2005, and over 26 days, testimony was presented from more than 50 witnesses, many of whom had also testified at Greg's trial. Testing was also done of Greg's wallet to see if it contained any biological matter that could prove it had been immersed in the waters of Blue Rock Dam, but no relevant samples were obtained. The inquest examined in detail the persisting claims that Jaden's body showed signs of being older than when he went missing, and therefore could have been abducted and kept alive for several weeks or even months after his disappearance. This included claims that he had more teeth, longer hair, and had grown in size since the day he went missing. Various experts provided medical and scientific evidence to prove that this was not the case, with each of those so-called suspicious factors explained by normal aspects of the decomposition process. In the years since Greg's acquittal, it had also emerged that three inmates who had served time with Greg while awaiting trial had separately come forward with claims that Greg had confessed to them about killing Jaden. Their accounts differed, with one claiming that Greg had admitted to having broken Jaden's arm after the toddler interrupted him playing Nintendo. These claims were examined at length during the inquest, but only one of the men gave evidence, with the others refusing to do so out of what one claimed was fears for their safety, and the other said was memory loss. The one former prisoner who did testify said that Greg told him that the car he'd been working on fell off the jack and landed on Jaden's arm. When Jaden started screaming, Greg panicked and tried to calm him down by giving him some drugs, but it didn't work, so Greg allegedly put a pillow over his head and hit him with a crowbar. Colin Lovett, QC, who was once again defending Greg at the inquest, fiercely disputed this claim. He highlighted the unreliability of jailhouse confessions and the prison has proven criminal history and pointed out that everything this prisoner claimed could be gleaned from following the widely publicized news about the case. This information had also been available at Greg's trial, but it had not been presented in court due to it being deemed unreliable. In his final submission to the inquest, the council assisting the coroner said there was enough evidence to find that Greg Dumasavitch had killed Jaden Leskey. He excluded all other suspects and cast doubt on Greg's account of the 12-hour period during which Jaden went missing, reiterating that there wasn't a single witness who could corroborate his claims. He pointed out that Greg was the last one to have seen Jaden alive, that no one could attest to his whereabouts during that period, and that he gave a variety of different accounts to Belinda about Jaden's well-being. It was his belief that Jaden had been bashed to death with a blunt object shortly after his arm was broken, and that Greg had then disposed of his body in Blue Rock Dam, either between 10pm and 2am, or during the later 2-hour period after he dropped Belinda home. His wet wallet and wet money played a significant role in supporting this proposed scenario. All of this was fiercely disputed by Colin Lovett, who labelled the inquest a witch hunt run by people wanting to implicate his client. Again, Lovett pointed to the sheer lack of forensic evidence to support any of these allegations, and accused the council assisting of simply summing up the evidence that had been presented at Greg's 1998 trial, and inviting the coroner to come to a different conclusion from the jury. It was the job of State Coroner Graham Johnson to review all of the evidence presented at the inquest alongside the existing evidence book forward in the coronal brief, which included the trial transcript, police statements, records of interview, and forensic findings. He was set to hand his findings down on July 31, 2006, but at the very last minute, Greg Domosevich launched a bid in the Supreme Court to put a permanent stay on the inquest. He eventually abandoned this bid, and the findings were handed down in a 101-page report on October 4, 2006. Coroner Johnston stated, "At the time of his death, Jaden Leskey was a vulnerable 14-month-old infant child who was totally reliant on his adult carers for protection, support, and sustenance. It must be remembered that he was a toddler who could mention but three words and had only just started to walk." While Johnston said it was Belinda's responsibility to make sure that Jaden was taken care of, and condemned her for leaving Jaden with someone who had been violent towards him in the past, it was during Greg Domosevich's period of care that Jaden died. The cause of death is most probably from head injuries, Johnston found. Precisely how he died remains a matter of contention and conjecture, whether the circumstances leading to the death occurred by accident, by a mission, or otherwise. Precisely how he suffered the injuries to the arm also remains largely a matter of conjecture, other than the fact that it occurred shortly prior to death. However, as a hopeless 14-month-old infant requiring total support, care, and protection by an adult, ultimately, it was Mr. Domosevich who failed to provide that adequate and very necessary level of protective supervision, care, and support to look after the infant. Otherwise, he would not have received the injuries from which he died. Whatever happened to result in the injuries that were occasioned to Jaden occurred on Mr. Domosevich's temporary watch, thus he has contributed to the death. No satisfactory alternative explanation of the circumstances has been given by Mr. Domosevich. After Jaden's death, Mr. Domosevich disposed of his body in nearby Blue Rock Dam. Clearly, he had the opportunity and time to do so. The fact that the decision has been made that Mr. Domesevich, disposed of Jaden's body, does not enable any conclusion to be reached about precisely how the child died, whether by accident or otherwise. Neither of Jaden's parents made a public comment about the findings. The whole process had caused Belinda a great deal of stress. She'd previously accused the inquest of being a sham, saying it had focused on her parenting skills rather than getting justice for Jaden. After storming out of court one particularly emotional day, Belinda provided an apology and a statement that said, "My son is dead and all I want is two answers. Why and who?" Outside court, Jaden's paternal grandmother said she hoped the coroner's finding would finalize the case for good. A lawyer for Greg disagreed, telling reporters, "It will never be over until they find the real killers." As part of his findings, the coroner acknowledged how important it was for parents to select safe babysitters for their children, while also pointing out that very little information was available to show them how to do so. This decision relied on common sense, but coroner Johnson said that one person's common sense differs from another, and depends on various factors like upbringing, education, and life experience. He recommended that a guide be created to help parents select appropriate caregivers for their children. On the 10th anniversary of Jaden's death in 2007, this recommendation came to fruition in the form of a government-issued document known as the babysitters kit. It recommended that parents think about the maturity level of their chosen babysitters, and whether or not they have the experience and skills required to keep their children safe and well. The years continued to pass without any further answers, and in December 2011, changes were made to Victoria's double-jepity laws that allowed a person previously acquitted of a serious crime to be retried under specific exceptions, such as if that person makes a confession or refreshing compelling evidence emerges. These changes reignited some interest into Greg Domosevich's possible involvement in Jaden Lasky's death, but the police made it clear that a second charge against Greg was highly unlikely, as no new compelling evidence had become available. In April 2014, to mark what would have been Jaden's 18th birthday, Belinda wrote Greg a letter which was published in The Herald Sun. "In it," she wrote, "Please, before you die, write down what happened and store it somewhere. Please, if anything, for Jaden, let the truth be known to war." Jaden deserves that much. Greg had since had a son of his own. He told The Herald Sun that knowing Jaden would have been turning 18 had brought memories flooding back. Sticking with his story that Jaden went missing during his trip to pick Belinda up from the pub, Greg said, "It's upsetting, still, because ultimately there's a kid that died because of my stupidity. Ultimately, it was my fault. I was the one who got in the car and went to pick her up. I wish I had never left him at home that night." How many lives have changed from that one decision not to stay home? Jaden would have been a man now. Asked how he felt about the changes to the double jeopardy laws, Greg said he had nothing to fear. "There's a lot more evidence going away from me than towards me," he claimed. Since Greg's acquittal in 1998, there have been no other arrests or charges in relation to Jaden Leske's murder and to no other suspects have ever been identified by the police. Despite the coroner's findings in 2006, Greg Doma Savage continues to walk free. He maintains his innocence in Jaden's death and case file makes no suggestion otherwise. In March 2021, the case was re-examined by journalist Liz Hayes for her channel 9TV show Under Investigation, in which she was joined by a panel of experts, including one of the original homicide squad detectives who worked at Jaden's case. Although this detective has been criticized for his work on the case over the years, he said he continued to stand by the initial police theory. Greg Doma Savage was also interviewed for the show, marking his first television appearance in 20 years. The bottom of his face covered by a mask and wearing obedient glasses, Greg said the inquest findings that implicated him in Jaden's death had all been part of what he called "the corroboration squad." He stated, "All I can say is I promise that I did not kill Jaden." In the early days of the investigation, a lot of criticism was placed on Belinda Murphy, with many blaming her for Jaden's death. Some media outlets were quick to criticize her lifestyle choices and decision to go out drinking when she had two young children at home. People shouted at her and spat at her on the streets, with the age later describing how she was "cast as the trailer trash mum in a black soap opera." Over time, there has been a change in tone with Belinda's plight being met with much more sympathy. Speaking to Arthur Robin Bowles for her book about the case after Greg's acquittal, Belinda describes herself as "a good mum." She said, "I didn't have a job which you can measure in pay, but being a mum is a full-time job, and I think it pays very well." How can you put a price on your kids' arms around your neck, or hearing them say, "I love you, mummy." I wasn't the unemployed, irresponsible slag people made me out to be, you know? I loved my kids. Still do. The case has been the subject of a wide range of academic research that extends far beyond forensics and true crime, and explores deeper themes relating to media representations of motherhood and class. Jaden's case had a huge impact on mummy, with some media framing those involved, as well as the townspeople in general, as uncivilized and uneducated bogans who didn't seem worthy of compassion. As one academic has noted, the alliances and feuds between those involved were used as exotic exploitive entertainment, and the sensationalism of the story overshadowed the fact that the vast majority of Maui's residents were simply struggling families trying to survive an economic depression. As journalist Gary Tippett wrote in his article for the age in 1998, titled "Little Boy Lost." From the start, Jaden was lost behind the bizarre circumstances of his disappearance, of pigs heads and puerol feuds fought out with them. The neat coincidence and appalling humour of his babysitter's prank that he had burned himself and was in hospital. He was hidden in the entanglements of his own almost appellation family history, of two sisters and the young man who wed one and fathered children by both. His life was allowed to become a metaphor for social dysfunction and the effects of industry downsizing in the Latrobe Valley, and particularly Maui. The players in his story painted as a type of trailer trash underclass of single moms and shiftless fathers. Too often, he was ignored by a media and public captivated by these characters, and the salacious soap opera they were playing out. Perhaps this is cruel, but there have been times when he has seemed forgotten even by family members in the glow of their fifteen minutes of fame. But Jaden hasn't been forgotten. A plaque in his honour sits at Blue Rock Dam, which says, "This plaque is to commemorate the life of a wonderful little boy whose body was recovered from this sight." Belinda's love for her son has been immortalised in a poem published by the West Australian. It reads, "I carried you in my body, I carried you in my arms, I'll keep on carrying you, Jaden, forever carrying you in my heart. It broke my heart to pieces and smashed my soul to bits. I'll never forget the last time I softly kissed your lips." My angel up in heaven, sleep peacefully tonight. Be really good for mummy, try real hard not to cry. "I want to tell you something, so you'll never be in doubt. I love you and I miss you. You're so hard to live without." (upbeat music)