Original subtitles

Please don't touch me.

The Keli Lane case is like no other.

NEWSREADER: A murder mystery.

MAN: She's a murderer.

The golden girl who ended up a baby killer.

MAN: There's no way she'd kill a baby.

REPORTER: Baby Tegan was never seen again.

MAN: Nothing was found. Not anything.

It doesn't add up.

REPORTER: Lane told more than 95 lies...

WOMAN: She hadn't told a single solitary person in her life.

MAN: There is only really one person

who can tell what happened,

and that's Keli Lane.

(DIAL TONE BEEPS)

WOMAN: (ON PHONE) You are about to receive a phone call from an inmate

at the Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre.

Your conversation will be recorded and may be monitored.

If you do not wish to receive this call, please hang up now.

Go ahead, please.

KELI LANE: Hello? Hello.

Hi, Caro. How are you?

Well, today, these are going to be hard conversations, but it's time.

We need to talk about the day you handed over Tegan.

Yeah, yeah. OK?

What was that like then, Keli, those final moments with Tegan,

just mother and daughter alone?

(TEARFULLY) It was awful...

..because I'd been there before and I knew how much it hurt.

It was just so difficult to make this decision again and...

..basically to write myself out of it.

And I was kicking myself too, "Why am I here again?"

(CRIES) "Why am I here again?"

Yep.

Were you thinking... were you thinking rationally?

I think...I knew the steps I had to take,

I just don't know that I wanted to do it so much, you know?

It was really hard.

All I kept just thinking was, "It's the best choice for everybody."

It's... You know?

I just knew there's no way that I could take her home

and...be the parent I wanted to be.

Did you want to take her home?

Of course. (WEEPS)

Of course.

(BEEP) (PHONE HANGS UP)

She was clearly a mess.

Whether she thinks she was thinking rationally or not, she wasn't.

(PHONE RINGS)

Go ahead, please.

Hello? Hi.

Hi.

You said before, Keli, you didn't wanna give her away

but you couldn't take her home... Yeah.

And I've gotta ask you this,

is there any way that you could have done something to Tegan?

You could have harmed her... There is no way...

..without you knowing or intending... There is no way.

I would have just left her there.

If Andrew didn't turn up... He told me he was going to turn up

and if he didn't turn up, I would have just left her there,

or I would have just gone down the exact same path as before.

I would have asked for some help,

I would have asked to see an adoption agency

and I would have done the exact same thing I did 18 months earlier.

Do you trust your memories of that day?

I remember that day clearer than anything else.

I've replayed it and thought about it and...

I know a lot of people think I'm cold and callous,

but those children were very important to me and I loved them.

I thought I was doing the right thing by them.

(BEEP) (PHONE HANGS UP)

(SIGHS)

When you referred this matter to police, John, what did you suspect?

I suspected foul play.

Something happened with Tegan...

..which wasn't good.

So from the beginning, this wasn't just a missing persons case?

No.

What did you stress to them?

That they follow through.

And that they investigate it fully.

And it didn't happen.

I was at work and Detective Matthew Kehoe rang me

and told me that he was assigned the case.

Coincidentally, Detective Kehoe knew Keli Lane's father quite well.

In fact, Keli Lane's father had been a police officer

at the Manly police station

several years earlier.

He should have been taken off the case.

It should have been sent to another police station

'cause there's a conflict of interest.

It was undesirable.

A couple of weeks later, he rings me up and says,

"Keli's gone overseas with a friend.

"I'll let you know what's happening when she comes back."

Did you hear from Detective Kehoe again?

No. No. That was it.

That was it.

The initial investigation by Senior Constable Kehoe was...

..perfunctory.

He went through some of the ropes.

He did some of the things that he should have done

but not all of them.

A parlously bad investigation by Manly detectives.

It was really ordinary.

What was going on then, do you think, in those early days?

I don't know. I don't know and I'm not going to speculate.

I don't know why the police initial investigation was a rough one.

You'd have to talk to them.

They probably don't want to talk to you.

So Detective Matthew Kehoe won't speak to me on camera.

Absolutely not. And he did tell me one thing,

he really made it clear that his relationship

with Robert Lane, Keli's father,

did not impact on his work at all.

He was investigating this case without fear or favour,

and he wasn't biased.

He said there were other things going on

at Manly police station at the time.

He said it was the worst period of his life

and that he still hasn't recovered.

So if it's not the relationship with Keli's dad that was the issue,

then what was going on at Manly police station?

Hello. I understand you've got something for me?

(DISTORTED MALE VOICE) Two USBs.

Um, you'll need to recover the data on it, however.

The data has been deleted.

Are you worried, handing over this sort of stuff?

Absolutely. It's a matter of trust but it's also transparency.

If you're going to tell the story, tell it properly.

In its entirety.

Where's the software?

Far out, I can't remember where this...

Applications?

Data recovery. Found it. Here you go.

Do we need to do a deep scan? Yep, yep.

OK, what type of files do we want to recover?

All file types.

Photos, audio, video, emails, documents, others.

OK.

Oh, off it goes.

We'll see.

WORTHINGTON: On the USB,

there's a series of police statements

and internal police documents

including integrity commission files.

At the time of the Keli Lane investigation,

there was this massive corruption probe going on

at Manly police office.

Now, it says Matthew Kehoe isn't suspected of being corrupt

but he's just surrounded by chaos.

Six officers have been charged and found guilty

of offences including drug trafficking, bribery and theft

at the Manly and Northern Beaches commands.

And now, this is another statement from Detective Matthew Kehoe.

He says the entire Manly Detectives Office

gets shut down as part of the probe.

"I remember returning to the office

"to find a pile of computers had been disconnected

"together with briefs of evidence and case files

"all in a massive pile in the middle of the room."

And then...comes this.

"I am aware that several documents and videotapes were removed

"from the case files and briefs

"but am unable to say if the Keli Lane brief was tampered with."

How did your parents respond?

I'm told your dad was a bit upset.

KELI: (ON PHONE) Oh, 'upset' is a bit of a strong word,

but I think he was shocked

because in his eyes, I was still very young.

But, of course, imagine what it felt like telling him,

"We're pregnant, we're having a child",

knowing that I already had three.

That was such a massive burden. I felt terrible, tricking them.

I'm wondering what your attitude was to, say, pregnancy before marriage?

Well, I would have been shocked, not shocked that she was pregnant,

but shocked that it had happened to her.

And the first thing I would have said to her is,

"Didn't you use...er, safe sex as far as pregnancy?"

Contraception's the word you're looking for.

Or contraception, yeah.

But it's done and we'll have to get on with it, you know?

That's a father's attitude.

But I would have come round, because we were pretty close.

Oh, it's here.

We're going to see Dr James Ferry.

He was Keli Lane's obstetrician for the daughter that she's kept.

Hello. Hello.

Are you Caro? I am. You're Dr Ferry.

Yeah, hello. How are you? Hey, nice to meet you.

Have a seat, Caro.

Do you remember Keli?

I do have a memory of this girl.

I remember her as being blonde

and just a typical chirpy, happy Northern Beaches mum.

How many times did she come to see me?

10.

That is a very compliant, very good patient.

She came regular as clockwork.

It's very different to her previous history

with her pregnancies, Dr Ferry.

This is a printout,

a spreadsheet, essentially, of all of her Medicare doctor's appointments.

Have a look at what she did when she was pregnant

for these three times beforehand, OK?

OK, OK.

This first child, right, she falls pregnant in 1994.

Yeah. She doesn't see a doctor at all...

..until after she's given birth, and it's now March, 1995.

That's totally unusual.

She does it again with Tegan.

The whole pregnancy, she hasn't seen a doctor.

She does it again.

In 1999, she falls pregnant, she doesn't see a doctor.

No medical appoint... nothing during these pregnancies.

I'm a bit blown away by that. Um...

..the one word that comes to mind is denial.

Is this the same person? No.

No, I don't think so.

I don't think so. It can't be.

Not emotionally, not psychologically.

That's a different species from the one I saw.

Very different.

This is an electronically recorded interview

between Detective Senior Constable Mathew James Kehoe and Keli Lane.

Miss Lane, will you please state your full name

and spell your surname?

Keli Lane, L-A-N-E.

Why was she there? Why was she being questioned by police?

She's being questioned because the child's whereabouts

was reported to the police

as, I think, a missing child, a missing person,

and she was there as the mother to clear that up.

In your words, can you just explain to us

when the child was born and what happened subsequent to that?

After a brief affair with, ah, the father of the child, I gave birth.

We made an arrangement that he would come and take custody of Tegan

um, as I was unable to take care of her myself,

and, um, he dropped me home, um, and then took Tegan with him

into his care.

OK, and you told me that the person that you...

Or is the natural father of the child is Andrew Morris.

Is that correct? That's correct.

To your knowledge, is there any reason why Andrew wanted to adopt

or care for Tegan?

Well, he's the natural father

and I, um, was, um...unable to,

to take custody of her myself.

I think as you've explained it,

you don't have an address for... for Andrew.

Is that right? No. I don't know where he is.

Why was Keli Lane unrepresented?

WOMAN: I don't know whether she was advised to bring a lawyer,

but initially it was,

"We will need to talk to you about this child you gave birth to.

"We just want to know what happened."

I noticed you were unrepresented in the interview.

KELI: Yeah. I wondered why?

Um, I didn't understand the seriousness of it.

Um, when he called me, it sounded just very casual.

He made it out to be like a custody issue.

Before we finish, is there any questions you wanted to ask of me?

No. No?

I think she was hoping to turn up

and convince police that Tegan was still alive.

The interview is suspended.

KELI: (ON PHONE) I was very, very happy to have her.

She was mine and I really prided myself

on putting in as much as I could to make her a happy little baby.

Best time of my life. Loved it.

And once she arrived that's when I really realised,

wow, you should have just been honest from the start.

When a little baby arrives, no-one really cares, in the end.

I think everybody is happy.

So it was not until it got to Detective Gaut

that a really thorough investigation commenced.

Yes, it's Richard Gaut from Manly detectives, in Sydney.

And he was an outsider. He came in to Manly?

He was an outsider, yes.

So he contacts Keli Lane

and she was formally interviewed by Detective Gaut.

Now, there was such a long period of time

between her questioning by Detective Kehoe

and her questioning by Detective Gaut,

that I think she had forgotten

exactly what she told Detective Kehoe.

In a previous interview

with Detective Kehoe... Mm-hm.

..you'd mentioned the...

You had said the father of the child was an Andrew Morris, with an 'M'.

Do you agree with that?

That I told Detective Kehoe it was Morris?

Morris. That's right. Sorry, I'm confused.

OK. Sorry.

And she says, "No, no, no, it's Norris. With an 'N'."

Well, firstly, do you, do you agree that you...

I made a mistake, yes, I told Detective Kehoe one name

and I told you a different name.

Alright. Yeah. Sorry.

So she realised that she'd got it wrong.

Do you know the father of the child's name?

Yes, I do. What is it?

Andrew Norris. Norris?

Yes. OK. So... Alright.

So, at this stage, you believe it to be Andrew Norris?

Yes. OK.

BECROFT: It was just the way she said it

and it's like, "No, no, no, it's not Morris, it's Norris."

Now, it's your opportunity now, if you've been telling us lies,

for whatever reason,

if you know where the child is or what happened to the child,

it's your opportunity to tell us now.

Do you want to tell me anything?

No.

Did you kill the child?

No, I did not! I did not do anything like that!

Did someone else?

No! No!

Alright, Keli. Like I said,

I'm going to have to make a lot of inquiries now,

I'm going to have to go... Please, don't!

This is going to go through the Coroners Court,

there'll be a Coroners Court hearing in relation to it, right?

That's why I say to you now,

if there's something you're not telling us,

now is the time to tell us.

(SIGHS)

I don't understand how... Can you...can we stop the tape?

Can I speak without...the tape on?

I'd rather you do it on the tape. OK.

I don't understand how you're gonna...

..go and speak with my parents, or people like that

who have no idea what you're going to be talking about.

This is between me and Andrew.

But he said it would be a great idea.

He told me not to connect him.

Have you watched those police interview videos?

No. It'd only be distressing to see her under the cosh.

No doubt the police were in a terrific position,

because if I found out, I would've said to her, "Don't say anything.

"Don't say anything more. Go to a solicitor."

Do you understand, the information you've given me, alright..

I'm very open-minded and very reasonable,

but the information you've given me, right,

makes me highly suspicious that something has happened to the child.

Nothing happened to her. Nothing has happened to her.

He said he would contact me if there was an emergency,

I have not heard cooee from them, not one word.

Detective Gaut had made it very clear to Keli Lane

that he didn't believe her story

of handing over the child to the natural father

and having changed his name from Andrew Morris to Andrew Norris.

So let's go back to the beginning.

KELI: (ON PHONE) OK yep.

Which pub did you meet Andrew Norris? At the Town Hall Hotel.

We drank, we played some pool,

just like a normal first meeting, you know, just chatting away

and, you know, flirting.

Did he have any friends there? Was he in a group?

Yeah, he often had, like, two or three people around him.

And, I mean, I think there were a lot of nicknames.

There was one name that was tossing around, 'Dipper'.

Dipper? Like, D-I-P-P... D-I-P-P-E-R.

OK. Dipper. Yeah, yeah.

But it was obviously a nickname, but, yeah.

OK, good.

So when you decided to spend more time with Andrew that night,

where did Andrew tell you that he was taking you?

To his place. OK.

He just put it on me, really.

He just sort of said, "Do you wanna come back to mine?"

I remember we went out onto the street

and there was sort of a few people hanging around.

I think there was a bottle shop just outside the door.

I just remember walking along past the two pubs that are down there.

And then was literally less than two minutes then into his place.

(BEEP) (PHONE HANGS UP)

TEDESCHI: Keli Lane claimed to have had an affair with this man

for several months at a unit in Balmain.

Detective Gaut kept pressing her, "Well, show us which unit."

Eventually, she went around with the police

and pointed out a block of home units

and pointed out one particular unit in this block.

Are you absolutely 100% that that's the right apartment block?

KELI: (ON PHONE) Yeah, I am.

And actually, over time, I'm more sure now than ever.

ABERNETHY: The police went back to and spoke to tenants and owners.

They couldn't find a Norris or a Morris

that had anything to do with that little block of flats in Balmain.

We're able to prove that nobody of that name

had lived in that unit or in that building at the time...

During the right period when the affair...

At the time when the affair was occurring, yes.

When was the first time you went with Andrew Norris

to Wisbeach Street?

Can you remember the month?

KELI: (ON PHONE) It would have been either the tail end of September,

early October.

OK. Of 1995?

Of 1995, yep.

We have a rental list that begins from late December...

Yeah, OK.

These are the six units that are of interest to us.

Unit 2, unit 3.

Unit 10, unit 11.

19...

..and unit 20.

Now, at this point in time,

we're stuck because of the rental records,

they don't go back far enough.

Have you got a few minutes? Yes.

So I'm making contact with everyone I can find

that used to live at 24 Wisbeach Street.

Yeah.

Have police ever tried to get in touch with you?

MAN: (ON PHONE) No.

So what I'm trying to figure out

is who is living in all the two-bedroom ones.

WOMAN: (ON PHONE) Yeah, upstairs there a Marilyn,

can't even think of her surname.

Ah, OK, understood.

I'm so sorry. Thank you for your help.

Passed away.

A long time ago.

RECORDED MESSAGE: Please check the number and try again.

WOMAN: (OH PHONE) Well, I'm pleased to be able to inform you

we were living there then.

We can rule out now unit 19, the brother and sister.

Unit 3 where a man called Bill lived, definitely wasn't him.

Two brothers in Unit 11, it's not them.

Unit 20, it was a couple of girls.

Unit 10, this bloke moved in at end of December 1995.

Unit 10, that's the one that Keli Lane pointed out.

Who was there before him? It's a mystery.

How thorough was that canvassing was of Wisbeach Street in Balmain?

I believe it was thorough and I think it was done twice.

I thought that Gaut did it,

and then I think the Homicide people went back there.

WOMAN: We investigate cases of miscarriages of justice.

We believe that Keli Lane is one of those cases.

The police got a history of the previous tenants,

but there's an amazing assumption that any tenancy or lease agreement

must have been in the name of Andrew Norris.

Like, I know any number of people who are subletting.

And then there was a witness who remembered seeing mail

addressed to an Andrew Norris.

So the police only had a name to go on in the rental records,

they didn't have a photo of him, obviously,

but they had a photo of...Keli Lane

and the police say that they showed this photo

to all of the tenants at Wisbeach Street and no-one recognised her,

but did they get to every single person?

Because if someone did see her at this building

that would change everything.

There is a Darryl Henson.

Darryl has never been found.

OK, so I think I've just found Darryl Henson on Facebook.

WORTHINGTON: What does he look like now?

Oh, yeah, that's him for sure.

"Hi, Darryl.

"Did you used to live in Balmain, Sydney?"

Sent.

Here he is, here he is, here he is!

"Yep, sure did."

DARRYL: (ON COMPUTER) Hello. Hi!

See that face?

Yeah. I do remember seeing her.

I just... I didn't know her name, though.

So this person here?

Yeah, that's the one I remember seeing, the sandy-haired girl.

You remember seeing this person in the flat, in the building?

Yeah, I remember that blonde girl, yeah.

Are you sure...

..you saw this girl or is it something you've seen now

and you think, "Oh, yeah, maybe" having a bit of a guess?

No, no, I definitely saw her. That's the person I remember.

She looked just like that too.

Darryl, thank you so much for speaking with me.

Bye. Bye.

What the what?

This can NOT be possible.

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Auckland, New Zealand,

waiting for Darryl Henson to come and meet me.

The police just said that their searches

of all the tenants at Wisbeach Street were exhaustive,

that basically they managed to get in touch with everyone.

Well, they didn't get in touch with me.

I'd be under the building, in the car park

and this lady would exit through that area

when I was working on my car.

I saw her so many times, actually, that I thought she lived there.

What time would it have been?

Oh, it was quite late.

Sometimes 1:00 at night.

'Cause I did used to work on my car

until the early hours of the morning.

She probably couldn't see me in the dark.

(CHUCKLES) But I remember her.

I used to think she was brave, leaving late at night.

You know, most people would be a bit frightened but she wasn't.

You see, it's incredible that you're saying you remember her.

Yeah.

Because police couldn't find anyone...

Oh. ..who remembered her there.

Well, there was no-one else down in the car park

working on the car, was there?

I mean, are you so sure as to be confident...

Would you sit, say, in a court of law and say, "I saw this girl?"

Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm confident 100% that I saw her.

I wish I could help more, that I knew who the other guy is, but no.

I just remember seeing her.

The prosecution and the police said that she was lying.

Oh. That no-one ever saw her there.

That she'd made it up.

Oh, no. She did go there, yeah.

So she wasn't lying about that.

Are you absolutely sure?

Yeah. I'm absolutely sure. That's her.

I remember her leaving. Yeah.

What if I told you that there is a tenant that the police never reached

that remembers seeing Keli Lane at Wisbeach Street?

That would be very...significant.

So if Keli Lane had been seen in the vicinity of Wisbeach Street,

in or without the company of Andrew Norris,

that immediately suggest that her story has an element to truth in it.

That would be very compelling evidence.

(PHONE RINGS)

MAN: Hello. KELI: Hello.

I've organised my hen's day invitations.

Oh, OK.

Can you, um, print off our wedding guest list for me, please?

Yep.

WOMAN: I was only thinking today it's your wedding next month.

I know!

She hadn't told a single solitary person in her life

about any of these children.

Not her parents, not her boyfriend, not any of her friends,

not a single person in her life knew that she'd had these three children.

(PHONE RINGS)

Hello?

MAN: Hello, Keli.

Hello?

Don't know what's wrong with our phone,

you can't hear anything and then... Hello, Keli.

(CALL DISCONNECTS) Hello?

(PHONE RINGS)

(RECORDED MESSAGE) Hi, this is Keli. Just leave a message, thanks.

Yeah, Keli, could you ring Richard Gaut please? Thanks.

Hi, it's Kel.

Um, tomorrow, Thursday,

I was wondering if you could play with (BLEEP) in the morning

from about 9:00-ish till about lunch time.

I've got and do a dress fitting.

MAN: Do you understand the way we're looking at this inquiry?

We've got a child who's missing, who we're presuming is not alive now.

The matter is obviously going to go before the coroner at this stage

because we have a missing child.

Well, it's just going to become a massive issue, isn't it?

Everybody's going to know,

and my mum and dad and (BLEEP)

they're not going to let me,

they're not going want to be near me, are they?

After everything they hear, I guess everything that you've looked into,

that's just going to become public fodder,

and who's going to let me stay with my daughter?

No-one's gonna stop you from staying with your daughter.

What really stood out for me is how concerned and stressed she was

about people finding out about this.

Do you think a counsellor would help?

We could put you in contact with someone

if you wanted to speak anonymously.

(PHONE RINGS)

Hello?

Keli, Denise Benfield from Queenscliff Health Centre.

Yep.

Richard Gaut's asked me to give you a call,

wanting to know if we could offer you a service.

Right, yeah.

I'm in the adult mental health section.

Yes. (DOORBELL RINGS)

Hi, Denise. Hi, Caro.

Thanks for having me. Welcome.

I'm so glad I found you.

Have you ever spoken publicly about Keli Lane or anything...

No, no, no.

I was working as a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatry.

A message came through from the crisis team at Manly Hospital.

The police were wanting an assessment for Keli Lane

and they had refused to do it.

They recommended that we didn't see her.

There was no mental health issues at the time.

And the impression was the police wanted her to be seen,

spill her guts,

and then they would subpoena the file.

What did you decide to do?

Well, my impression was that this was a person, a woman,

who was in need of support,

and that's the reason I chose to see her.

I don't believe she would have harmed a child.

I don't believe that was in her nature.

She was a young woman who came from a very strict upbringing

who made some poor decisions in her life.

She spoke about her father

and not wanting to bring shame to the family.

The fear of telling her parents was enormous.

My belief was

that she needed to tell her parents

before the police did.

WOMAN: It was one of those days that, sort of...

ROBERT LANE: You don't want to remember.

..don't want to remember.

What did she say?

She said, "Oh, Mom, something's happened..." Something like that.

"..a long time ago, and I have to tell you now because..."

I think that's when she said,

"The police are going to come and see you."

What do you remember her telling you?

That she'd had a baby.

That, um...

Oh. How did she put it?

Something like, "They think I've done something to it.

"But I haven't."

All of this has been a huge shock to me because...

..I always thought that I was on top of things in the family,

but obviously I wasn't.

And I do sincerely think that a lot of it was because

she was trying to protect her father and myself...

..because if you're known in the community,

you've got a certain...

..name, I guess, and, um...

..she would have been aware of that

from all of the things we were involved in.

And I guess that was her major thought is that, you know,

"I can't hurt Mum and Dad."

You know when Keli first told you the story about,

"I gave baby Tegan to Andrew Norris"...

Mmm.

..did you believe it straightaway?

Yeah, I did.

Because I wouldn't think she'd do anything else.

If she hadn't given it up for adoption

she certainly wouldn't have do anything else.

(PHONE RINGS)

Hello. KELI: Hi, Mum, it's me.

Hi. Hi. How are you?

You know, I mean, you told me that this young guy's

taken the baby to raise it?

Yeah.

Which is really unusual, you must admit yourself.

Yeah.

So was this child still alive up until three years ago?

Up until...?

Well, you said they first contacted you three years ago.

Yeah, I'm under the assumption she still is now.

And that he's just disappeared with the child?

Yeah.

Just so unlike a young bloke to want to raise a child.

It's just...

That's the thing I just can't sort of grip.

But obviously that's what you agreed.

Isn't it?

Well, I didn't really have too many options.

She would not kill a child, so...

You know, that's my belief, and I feel very firmly about that.

(WEDDING BELLS CHIME)

WOMAN: I can remember going to her wedding.

Any signs there that she was... Absolutely not.

I just don't remember there being any angst at that wedding.

It was a beautiful wedding.

There was no gossip going on.

MAN: The worst enemy for coronial inquests

in relation to missing persons is time.

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

When I read the brief of evidence I couldn't put it down.

It was like reading an Agatha Christie book.

I was hopeful.

I still had this hope in my mind

that the child was alive and we'll find her.

"I'll give you immunity.

"Come clean and tell us where the child is."

If she had come forward to the police and told them,

"Look, I was depressed at the time,

"I might've been suffering some postnatal depression, or...

"Couldn't keep this child for whatever reason.

"I did the wrong thing and I've disposed of the child."

And then maybe helped police find the body.

I had the power to grant her a certificate of immunity

in relation to any criminal offence,

except the criminal offence of murder.

(OVER RECORDING) I've convened this court today on the basis

that the proceedings are heard in camera, and this is a closed court.

I suppose the message I want to get through to Miss Lane

is that if there is any information that she can get to the police

that might find Tegan alive or dead,

now is the time to do it,

because after today the gloves will come off,

and I will use the media to try and get information in the community.

The media will turn this into a nightmare.

It will be a media event.

It was her get-out-of-jail free card here that was presenting itself?

Yeah, it was a get-out-of-jail card if she hadn't done anything wrong.

She came back to court in October knowing

that her world as she knew it was about to be blown apart.

"Tell us where Tegan is. Tell us."

What did she do?

She didn't come forward with anything.

So you never entertained taking that deal?

KELI: (OVER PHONE) No. No.

Wow.

Even when it meant you wouldn't have spent a day in jail?

No way. No.

Even if I sold her or gave her to unknown parties,

why would I say that if it's not correct?

I am not going to admit to something I didn't do.

I'm not going to put my hand up and say I hurt my own child

when I didn't.

No.

Excuse me, please. REPORTER: Mrs Lane?

Excuse me, please.

REPORTER: Keli, do you know where Tegan is?

NEWSREADER: A coroner has ordered an inquiry

into the suspected death of a baby girl.

We're hoping that with the assistance of the media

that we can find the baby alive and well and a healthy child today.

REPORTER: Keli Lane left the Coroners Court

but she'll be back for a full inquiry

into the suspected death of Tegan.

ABERNETHY: It was a case I wanted to get to the bottom of.

There were lots and lots of questions begging to be answered.

Tell us more about Norris or Morris. What did he look like?

How old was he? You know, what was he like?

MAN: How many Andrew Norrises in NSW have you ruled out in trying

to find the father of this baby?

There's a lot of Andrew Norrises who we've looked into but...

It's a difficult task...

What had the police done and how far had they gone

in terms of this search

to try and find the biological father, Andrew Morris/Norris?

MAN: My position at the inquest on Keli's behalf

was that they hadn't done enough.

On reading the brief

there were great big gaping holes in the investigation.

BECROFT: The investigation wasn't complete.

So we came into it and we took it to another level.

We needed to make inquiries with the telecommunications company

in relation to phone records for Keli,

whether she had a mobile phone.

And that did reveal she had a mobile phone in '96

but not until December.

So there was no phones registered in her name

until December of '96,

so three months after Tegan was born.

What did that make those records?

Well, they weren't relevant.

And when was the last occasion that you spoke

with either Andrew or Melanie?

Either...January or February of '97.

OK.

The mobile phone number might be...

Still connected, do you think? Yeah, still connected so...

In the first video interview Keli Lane says...

.."I kept in contact with Andrew Norris after September.

"I stayed in touch with Andrew Norris on my mobile phone

"until even February of 1997."

Yeah.

OK. So, the relevancy is,

did we get those phone records to see whether, um...

If I can have a look at the brief contents

I might be able to tell you if we had records.

No, I'm not sure whether we got those checks. I'm not sure.

I just don't understand why...

Checks weren't done?

Mmm.

Yes.

If there were records available for a relevant time period

they should've been obtained,

and it's mystifying to me why anyone would be advised

that they weren't relevant.

Mmm. Well, you're right.

Today an inquest resumed in Sydney

to try and find the answers once and for all.

The key to the whole case - the girl's mother.

REPORTER: The first child of Keli Lane had a different father

and was secretly adopted out.

REPORTER: Keli Lane has given birth four times

but only three of her children can be accounted for.

The difficulty with the case was

it necessarily involved very personal matters to Keli.

The salaciousness of Keli's sex life and history of hidden pregnancies.

You know, she was in relationships, out of relationships.

She was in very short-term relationships.

Was she promiscuous?

Promiscuous in the fact that, yes, she was happy to start a new thing,

but she didn't often just have a one-night stand with someone.

It was usually more than that.

Who was Keli dating in the 1990s?

COMMENTATOR: Gillies for the corner!

Gillies with the pass!

Duncan Gillies.

He's been a star too. He's had a great year.

He was a jock at Manly Rugby Club, and people looked up to him,

because he was going to be the "next best thing" kind of thing,

and he had this funny, gorgeous girlfriend.

REPORTER: It seems that no-one noticed

that Keli Lane was pregnant in 1996,

not even her lover.

Duncan Gillies was her boyfriend at the time.

REPORTER: Even her boyfriend, Duncan Gillies,

who was sleeping with her at the time, was clueless.

ABERNETHY: Duncan, her partner, he didn't seem to suspect anything.

It was really strange. Really strange.

She insisted on having sex in a certain way with Gillies.

Her boyfriend described that during several months

she had insisted on a particular position during intimacy

of not facing him.

Spooning?

Yes. That was the term that was used.

Mr Gillies explained to the court

that at the time of her pregnancies

he only saw her a few times a week.

He also told the court she kept her back to him during sex

to conceal her stomach.

I think, um...

..it's almost unbelievable

that someone couldn't know that their girlfriend was pregnant.

(CAMERAS SNAP)

I asked her the question, "What happened to Tegan?"

And she refused to answer the question.

She exercised her right against self-incrimination,

and we stood her down.

(CAMERAS SNAP)

The objective was that she not be referred for charges.

It would have been very ill-advised for her to give evidence.

Whether she wanted to give evidence, I don't know.

I assume you could ask Keli.

Did you want to say anything?

KELI: Of course you think, "Oh, I should've said something,"

but at that stage I was completely guided by my legal team at...

(BLEEP!)

They didn't even entertain me speaking.

(BLEEP!)

REPORTER: Keli, do you want the truth to come out?

REPORTER: ..might not be the end of it?

WOMAN: The mystery over the disappearance of newborn Tegan Lane

is no closer to being solved.

MAN: One of Australia's greatest mysteries remains just that.

Keli, isn't it just time to tell the truth now?

Why won't you tell the truth, Keli?

Was that tiring, that inquest, for you?

Absolutely. Yeah.

It was extremely draining.

I remember one night during the inquest

because it was getting so much attention,

and my daughter asked me as I was putting her to bed,

saying good night to her

and she goes, "Mummy, have you found baby Tegan yet?"

"No, Mummy hasn't found baby Tegan yet."

Tegan Lane was never found, she's never come forward,

Andrew Norris/Morris...

Never found, never come forward.

REPORTER: Coroner John Abernethy found:

The coroner wants Homicide called in.

I just thought it was crying out

for a really, really thorough reinvestigation.

They really needed to do a lot of gumshoe work.

They really needed to chase this Morris or Norris.

If I asked you to describe in a word or a phrase,

how thorough the search for Andrew Norris

or the biological father was...?

Fractured and incomplete.

The first thing they should've done

was get fairly complete instructions from Keli,

'cause she certainly described Andrew to the police,

what Andrew Norris would actually look like.

The general description of him was around 5 foot 10,

well-built, tanned complexion,

either mousey or blonde hair,

and Caucasian.

So this is how Keli described Andrew Norris to police

back when she was first interviewed.

Police focus has always been on the name, rather than the face.

So imagine if a COMFIT, a generated image, was created,

of what he apparently looks like.

See if anyone recognises him.

In relation to the description that Keli provided in the interview,

there wasn't a consideration to undertake a COMFIT.

The police, they never got a sketch or anything done.

And...

Certainly one of the first things that we thought of

when we took on the case

is, "OK, where's the COMFIT?"

Why didn't they...you know, the police put together a profile?

I would've thought it completely logical to get those details,

get a photo fit, and broadcast it to the world.

"Australia, have you seen this man?" Job done.

MAN: My name is Terry Dunnett.

I was a police sergeant in charge of head of the forensic imaging unit.

In my career I've done in excess of 3,000 composite sketches

and composite images.

I was the first Australian police officer

invited to the FBI Academy in the States

What I'm going to do is talk to her at length

when I initially meet her

to find out exactly where we are going on this,

how clear she is in her memory.

It very much depends on her.

Given the amount of time that has elapsed I've got little doubts.

We've got some images that we're going to use as tools

to put together a composite,

which are facial features.

Is it possible for someone to completely invent a face?

Yes.

They can sit there and they can construct a face of Mr Nobody.

Usually there will be a few warning signs if that's what they're doing.

What's your kind of bullshit detector like for people?

Ah, pretty good, pretty good.

When I'm putting together a picture

I will get a fair idea that they're lying to me.

And how quickly do you reckon you'll know

if you are going to get a good result?

Within half an hour.

Within half an hour we will often terminate

and say we're not going to get anything.

See how we go.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Okey dokey do.

Alright. I'll talk to you later. Alright, good luck.

ELISE: Hello. You're back! I'm back.

Hi, Terry. How'd you go?

OK. Come through to the end room there.

The inner sanctum!

What do you think of her memory compared to what you'd expect

of a memory this far forward in time?

It was very good.

Was Keli Lane manufacturing a face?

No, she wasn't. She certainly wasn't.

Did it pass your test of believability?

Yes.

Whatever I was drawing was clear in her mind.

She was consistent throughout

from the initial features that she selected

to what we finished up with.

She didn't sway at all.

OK. I can't wait any longer.

OK. We'll have a look.

Here we are. That's the original sketch,

That's the thumbnail.

Stocky build, fairly square sort of face.

Mousey brown hair, spiky, short squat nose with a little scar on it.

Steely blue eyes.

So you believe this Andrew Norris man exists?

Uh...who ever she describes to me exists.

Do you recognise this guy? Who is he?

Does this person exist?

WOMAN: Tegan wasn't under the house. She wasn't in the walls.

She wasn't in the backyard.

We were never going to find Tegan.

WOMAN: I just want your dad to know

that they can fucking dig to China, I don't give a shit.

Could Tegan be alive?

Yes.

What would you ask Keli if you could?

Was Tegan mine?

REPORTER: Keli, what do you have to say to charges?

Please don't touch me.

Was it a fair and proper murder trial?

REPORTER: Keli, Keli...

NEWSREADER: Stunning allegations have been made

at the Keli Lane murder trial.

Yes, I think you've raised a question that requires an answer.

But there are so many questions for the defence. You know?

What was their tactic at the trial?

ABERNETHY: Be very careful before you go convicting people

where there's no body.

MAN: It had been such a harrowing experience for me

that I no longer which to preside over any criminal trial

as a judge.

Captions by Red Bee Media

Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation