Original subtitles

Please don't touch me.

The Keli Lane case is like no other.

NEWSREADER: A murder mystery.

MAN: She's a murderer.

NEWSREADER: 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.

WOMAN: You know, dead sure. Two o'clock, two o'clock.

Lots of things can go wrong with this call.

And we're at the very beginning.

Waiting.

Wasn't it, like, yesterday, they said around two?

Half-past.

(SIGHS)

(PHONE BEEPS)

ELECTRONIC VOICE: 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.

WOMAN: (ON PHONE) Hello, Caro.

Hi, Keli. How are you? How are you?

I'm...I'm well. Thanks for calling.

Oh, thank you.

I got caught up at work. I've only just got out.

So, it's a little bit noisy on the wing, but...

OK. So good to talk to you, finally.

Yeah.

And I know we've got limited time, we've got six minutes.

So... Yeah.

I guess what I'm interested to know

is, you know, why did you write to ME?

What do you hope will come of this?

KELI: (ON PHONE) Well, obviously, the biggest hope for me

is that someone comes forward with my daughter.

She'd be an adult now.

She's, 20, 21, so she obviously has had a whole life

perhaps not knowing that she's my child.

I don't want to interrupt her life.

I don't even necessarily need to meet her.

But, obviously, for my own family, for myself,

I want to show that I did not harm her

and I certainly did not kill her.

NEWSREADER: It was a shock verdict.

REPORTER: Keli Lane was found guilty

of murdering newborn daughter Tegan.

REPORTER: She let out a primal scream,

she threw herself to the floor of the dock.

A paramedic was rushed to the courtroom.

REPORTER 2: Her mother, Sandra, remains sedated.

REPORTER 3: Keli Lane is one of the state's

most notorious child killers.

She had insisted she gave Tegan to her natural father -

a man called Andrew Morris or Andrew Norris.

REPORTER 4: Detectives searched for a man named Andrew Morris or Norris,

but concluded he never existed.

(SLOW FOOTSTEPS)

WOMAN: She claims that she gave Tegan

to Andrew Morris...Norris and his mother

in the hospital.

But those people have never come forward.

There was also a description of this man's partner -

a woman...supposedly called Mel,

who was ever so willing to take on this child.

No, it was Andrew Norris, or was it Morris,

and his girlfriend, Mel, and her mother.

Do you know what I mean? Like, it's just bizarre.

Like, how can you...?

There were so many incredulities

that made it inherently unbelievable.

Yes. "I gave the baby away."

You know? No.

MAN: There was a big hunt into where that child was -

big hunt because of the versions she gave.

And nothing was... nothing was found.

Not...not...not anything.

Not Norris.

Nothing...nothing worked for her.

Nothing.

"Why don't people believe me?"

'Cause you're full of shit.

KELI: Although it may seem very unusual to everybody else,

21 years ago, they're the steps I took,

and I safely gave her to her father.

And I want to show... I want to clear my name.

I want to show the public that that's exactly what happened.

CARO: Well, I need to... I'm gonna lose you very soon,

but I want to ask you, you know,

part of making those choices

and what you've been harshly criticised for...

Mm-hm. ..was telling lies.

Yeah. ..and telling lots of lies

over many years.

Yeah. You know, you were lying then.

Will you be truthful with me through this?

Oh, 100... (BEEP!)

I wouldn't have sought you out

and I wouldn't have been pushing for seven years

and have my life dug into and exposed

and my family and my friends, my partner.

I... (BEEP!)

I would never do that to them. It's such a huge responsibility.

And I could sit here, Caro, and do my time.

I'm halfway through. But, nuh. No way.

I'm happy for you to go to the ends...ends.

I want you to go to the ends.

OK. I look forward to it.

OK, well, it's gonna take us to some...to some tough...

(CALL DISCONNECTS)

(SIGHS)

Whoa.

She accepts she lied.

But we're dealing with a serial liar.

(SIGHS)

But we're down the tube.

OK.

Baby Tegan has never been found.

Where is she?

Her mother claims she's alive.

Investigators say she's dead,

but where is the evidence of that?

And, really, too, I mean, growing up, for me,

the Keli Lane case here in Sydney, it was massive.

REPORTER: The New South Wales Coroner...

CARO: What this woman had done, all these secret pregnancies,

how promiscuous she was, the lies she told...

REPORTER: ..to charge a known person with her homicide...

But through all of that,

I didn't then, and I still don't now,

have a picture and a full understanding of who Keli Lane is,

and there is always a story behind the story.

I guess looking at the next kind of six months or so

is just completely daunting and overwhelming

because there's so much to do

and there's so many challenges with this story.

Getting people to talk to us,

it's something that happened 20 years ago, so long ago,

that even finding original documents and things from the time

is going to be really difficult.

It's not like you can just google it and get things to come up.

Um, so it's going to be really challenging.

Caro can be a very exacting person to work with.

But she's wonderful at getting to the bottom of things

and she will not let things go.

CARO: Right, so, where do we begin?

We need to retrace and rebuild her life.

Who knew what, who saw what and when.

(WHISTLE BLOWS) (PLAYFUL SHOUTING)

MAN: Keli was, like, more Manly than anyone.

She epitomised what Manly was.

WOMAN: When I was growing up, it was like a little country town.

Everyone knew each other.

CARO: Upsides to that, everyone knows each other.

Mmm. Downsides?

Everyone knows each other. (LAUGHS)

Yeah, I mean, there's lots of gossiping.

It's a very ins...like, the 'Insular Peninsula' as they call it.

(CHILDREN SCREAM)

CARO: If you were all growing up

in a close-knit but gossipy sort of a community...

Mm.

..what do you learn from that, growing up?

You learn to keep secrets.

Absolutely. You absolutely learn to keep secrets.

Manly's quite a small place, really.

And you've got a lot of...

..you had a lot of profiled people there at the time.

You know you've got Olympic swimmers.

COMMENTATOR: A very happy Johanna Griggs there.

COMMENTATOR 2: Scott Miller here.

And you had kayak paddlers and you had ironmen

and you had rugby league players.

COMMENTATOR: Chance for Manly!

WOMAN: She had a big group of friends.

She was very popular. She knew everyone in Manly.

She was a really sporty girl.

Keli was...she was cool. She was a star.

Here I am, doing cartwheels in a regional athletics carnival,

she's in fourth grade,

running with sixth graders and whipping our pants,

back then, you know?

She just had gifted natural talent.

CORY HUTCHINGS: She was a real strong, robust competitor

and I think that's probably what helped her in water polo.

NATALIE MCCAULEY: Mr. and Mrs. Lane had very high expectations

and they had very high expectations of their kids,

and that sort of pressure can be a good and bad thing.

So, Keli would have done what she was told to do.

Oh, everyone knew the Lanes. I mean, everyone knew who they were.

I mean, I'd heard about them before I knew them.

Very well respected. Very well respected.

So, they were involved in Manly Surf Lifesaving

and he was a really good surfer.

At the rugby club, Robert used to coach

and they were there all the time, supporting, helping,

whatever it was.

(CHEERING)

CARO: How did Robert see Keli?

She was the apple of his eye.

Yeah. They were close. They had a great relationship.

She had a great relationship with her mum as well.

I think she wanted to impress them

and wanted to... to represent them well.

Yeah.

And a little bit scared, too, of her parents.

In terms of dating Keli Lane,

is that something that guys would aspire to?

Yeah, probably. I mean, she was a hottie.

VIRGINIA TIMMINS: There wouldn't have been a bar that she was in

without someone talking to her.

People were attracted to her. She was fun.

Keli was out to have a good time.

You know, she came out, she had a good time,

and...I don't know if that just goes along with sport.

There was definitely a lot of sexual energy everywhere.

NATALIE MCCAULEY: Mostly she was a serial monogamist.

Like, she would go in relationship after relationship.

She was someone that liked being in a relationship.

When it came to dating, say, Keli Lane, what was that like?

The daughter of the local copper. (CHUCKLES)

It was funny because...

Yeah, a couple of the boys, you know, they said to me...

"..If you go out on a date with her, be careful.

"Don't... You know, her old man might get you."

Were you scared of Mr. Lane, the policeman?

I was more scared of Mrs. Lane.

(CHUCKLES) Sorry, Sandy.

It's true.

Mrs. Lane can be a bit tough and can come across that way.

Yeah. Tread lightly.

So, the communication skills within the family unit

were probably a little bit behind.

So if... Where did talking come, then, in the list of...?

Yeah, yeah. Way down. Way down.

The talking was not, you know,

at any level beyond the first layer of the onion.

How did her parents strike you? Sandy and Robert.

They were protective of Keli.

Obviously it's their daughter.

Which makes it so bizarre that Keli would be living under their roof

and not be aware that she was pregnant.

Her body was changing.

MAN: Here's a perfectly educated woman from a very good family

who for reasons that are hard to understand

has got pregnant five times in the course of about seven years.

Now, in the first two cases

she successfully had those pregnancies terminated.

There were then three live births - one before Tegan

who was the alleged victim, and one after.

The first live birth and the third live birth

resulted in adoptions.

Her parents seemed oblivious

or tried to appear that they were oblivious

to all of this occurring under their roof.

(CAR HORNS BLARE)

How are you feeling? MAN: A bit toey as usual, you know?

A bit toey. Yeah.

We just want to do the best we can for our daughter.

Mmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Sandy's OK...

How are you feeling? I asked...

Well, I get the coughs every now and then, so...

If that's too tight...

Is that alright?

And we wouldn't do it,

only that we hope we can give Keli a chance to get out before her time.

You wouldn't put yourself under this sort of pressure otherwise.

But it's solely to help her get out of the place.

Well, I've said this before and I'll say it again,

I'm not here to make any promises.

I'm not making promises. I can't.

No-one can.

What I'm here for and what we're here for is to understand.

To try and understand her.

(COUGHS)

What sort of values did you instill for Keli, say?

Oh, well, I think respect for others for a start.

Yeah. Honesty. Honesty.

And the people would probably say,

"How didn't they know that Keli was pregnant three times?"

Well, we didn't know.

No-one knew.

She was able to disguise, hide, whatever.

But she played water polo in her condition.

And, so...

..you know, we feel dopey that we didn't pick it up, but...

Well, I don't feel dopey because... I do.

..I would say just about everybody who knew her didn't know.

You don't feel dopey?

I don't feel dopey at all.

All I know is... (PHONE RINGS)

Excuse me.

The fashion at the time, nobody wore tight clothing.

Nobody. It was all baggy.

She was in a tracksuit most of the bloody time

because of, you know, different training sessions

and the lifestyle that she led.

It happens. And life is stranger than fiction.

When she was growing up, brought a lot of prestige to our family.

Besides the...other things.

But she was great, you know?

She's got boxfuls of medals and so forth,

and we...never took them out, we always kept them...

We never never hung them up anywhere or anything.

They're all in there.

There's that much stuff that's... It's all in there.

So, she never hung these up?

BOTH: No. Never wore them.

Just popped them in a box.

Primary school.

So, there's your murderer.

Why do you say that, Rob?

It's an unusual scenario, isn't it?

Yes.

Last question. Where do you think Tegan is?

I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know.

She could be overseas.

She could be anywhere. I don't know. Don't know.

What do you remember of the day, then,

when you found out Keli was in trouble?

I felt very sorry for her.

She carried the load on herself. She could have shared it with us.

And I do remember saying, "Why didn't you tell us?

"We could have helped you."

And she said, "But I wanted..."

She wanted to protect us.

Alright?

Yeah, well, just settle down, darl.

You've got to go and get another Kleenex.

Go on, you can go.

Oh, dear.

I told myself not to get upset.

But it is upsetting. It's still upsetting.

Alright, let's wrap it up, guys.

He's had enough. He's had enough. Wrap it up.

So, we're on the way to see Keli Lane's first serious boyfriend.

His name's Aaron Tyack.

And they dated for quite some time back in the early '90s.

And Aaron has a really interesting and a unique perspective

into Keli Lane

because she fell pregnant with Aaron

when they were together - she was a schoolgirl.

We're here. Here he is.

There's Aaron Tyack.

Hi, Aaron. How are you going?

I'm good. Hey, nice to meet you. You too.

How are you feeling? A bit nervous.

What are you nervous about?

I don't know. I just don't want to create any more dramas, I suppose.

Let's go inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We'll go inside. At least there's a fan going in there.

This is a world away out here from Manly,

from the insular peninsula. (CHUCKLES)

Yeah, it is. It's good.

Do you remember the first time you ever saw Keli Lane?

Pretty much from the day I saw her, I'm like, "Oh, who's that?"

You know, she had the golden-blond hair

and the nice brown skin and she was fit.

And, you know.

Like, Keli could have...

She could have had anyone she wanted, really.

Do you think she was your first true love?

Yeah. I'd had girlfriends in the past, but...

Yeah. Yeah, she definitely was.

Yeah.

It was young love.

But it was definitely something that I hadn't sort of felt before.

I loved hanging out with her.

I loved who she was and what she stood for.

And I reckon she loved me too.

Now, something significant happened

during your relationship with Keli.

Mmm.

Oh... Yeah. God.

Fuckin' hell. Um...

Yeah, well, one day we were sitting in her room

and she mentioned that we needed to have a chat.

And, yeah, she said she was pregnant.

Pretty much matter-of-fact, just like that.

And my first thing was, "Well, you're on the pill.

"How did this happen?"

Oh, instantly it's like, whoa.

This...

Yeah. We were...we were too young.

Neither of us could really offer a baby anything.

So I had my view. And what was that?

Oh, well, to have...have...

..you know, have a termination, have an abortion,

which wasn't ideal either, you know, but...

What was Keli's view?

Yeah, she didn't want to.

But what choice did we have?

I remember driving her to the ferry at Manly...

..knowing what was, you know, going to happen that day.

And I just waited for her to come back.

I remember being there, though, when she got off.

And, yeah...it was pretty sad.

She was devoed.

And she didn't even say anything.

And she walked up and she just grabbed me and started crying.

It was, it was horrible.

Who was that girl?

What did you see, that girl getting off that ferry?

A shattered girl.

Yep.

Now, something happened in that year,

in that final year of high school for Keli.

She fell pregnant.

Oh...

Yeah. Well, I didn't know.

Are we hashing over every single, little detail?

I thought I'd ask because

in terms of the forces that shaped her

and where it led to with this case...

..this may be a starting point.

Oh, I would say obviously now.

But I didn't know.

Um...so I haven't then gone back and gone, "Oh, what about 1992?"

No, I haven't.

Keli Lane had a second termination,

around the time you would have broken up.

Did you know about that?

No. I didn't know.

You know, we were breaking up.

Why would she tell me?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah, it's... Mate.

Fuckin' just...

..shocking.

Horrible.

So, these medical records,

they speak to a turning point here from Keli Lane

because this time around, with this pregnancy, she tells no-one.

And this is a very different procedure

to the last one she had.

This is a late-term abortion. She was 20 weeks pregnant.

It was a two-stage procedure.

So, she's written here in her handwriting

she doesn't remember having any counselling...

..after the procedure. No counselling.

(BEEP! BEEP!)

ELECTRONIC VOICE: Go ahead, please.

Hi, Caro. It's Kel. Hi, Keli. Hello.

How are you? Hello. How are you?

It's been a long time since we've spoken.

I know. I know.

What happened, then, in '94?

Yeah. I...

It was a very late termination and I was quite sick.

Physically I was quite sick.

It was quite a traumatic event.

They didn't really offer me any counselling.

You know, there was the usual questions, "Are you sure?"

But there was no follow-up counselling

and I didn't seek any follow-up counselling.

I just got on with things.

And I think that was really I guess part of the start of that secrecy

around, you know,

being in a position where I really should have asked for help.

Is it something that you wanted to avoid doing again?

Oh, of course. Of course.

I'm not sure what the psychology is behind it,

but I guess being an adult now looking back

perhaps that's why, you know, the going right to full term occurred.

Were you very focused on water polo? What was your life situation then?

Oh, of course, in 1994,

I didn't know what was ahead for me with water polo.

You know, I was just sort of starting out

and had a few... (BEEP!)

I'd been on a few trips and it was fun

and I'd made all these new friends.

So, I wasn't as... You know, I loved it.

(BEEP!) (CALL DISCONNECTS)

(WATER SPLASHES, SHOUTING)

(CHEERING)

STACEY GAYLARD: Water polo is a rough sport.

Above the water, yeah, it looks fine.

Underneath the water - kicking,

pulling past each other, swimming over each other.

Yeah, it's rough.

Keli talked me into playing once.

And I went through three pairs of swimmers,

four pairs of swimmers, in two games

because they would rip them off you.

I had scratches across this breast

right down here to my hip.

And they went, "Yeah, it's nothing."

I went, "Uh, hello. That is a lot. I'm not playing that.

"No, thank you."

What was Keli like as a player?

She wasn't the most skillful player, alright -

far from it, actually - but she had grit and determination.

(MAN CHUCKLES)

Well, that depicts Keli pretty well.

Mischievous smile.

I was fortunate enough to coach the Balmain girls,

and Keli was in the girls' team.

Played her heart out.

Yeah, she loved that team. The team loved her.

The girls could do no wrong.

VIRGINIA TIMMINS: The water polo girls were very good-looking,

very blonde, very attractive.

Tough, strong.

One of them was dating a Wallaby.

That's the kind of relationships they had.

CARO: What was that world like? The water polo world?

Look, I think it can be very cliquey,

you're either in or you're out.

And I think they're an interesting organism in of themselves,

you know?

They have their own little world going on.

Did you used to play water polo? WOMAN: Yes.

Oh, great. OK. My name's Caro Meldrum-Hanna.

I'm ringing from the ABC

and I'm hoping that I can have a bit of a chat with you

on, I think a particular person really.

We're looking at the incredible...

(RINGING TONE)

I've had a couple of chats with some girls who were keen to talk to me

and they say now they don't want to

and that other people have told them not to.

Why are you sorry? I don't...

OK, bye.

We're having a lot of trouble

speaking to New South Wales water polo players from this period.

They're closing ranks.

That surprise you? WOMAN: No.

GPS: The destination is on your right.

They're protecting themselves.

Obviously there's things that they don't want you to find out.

Christmas Creek Road.

Goes back to that culture.

What was going on there in New South Wales?

It was, you know, play hard, drink hard.

That was the way it went.

They were a team a lot of girls feared.

They played hard, but they also played dirty.

Not everyone, but there was a majority of girls

and probably the posse,

they took delight in being able to...

..scare the opposition.

Whether it came from the coaching, I don't know.

So, it was, um...

..yeah, it was an interesting culture, I guess.

REPORTER: But New South Wales began to overpower WA.

I want you to take me to Perth, in January, 1995.

Mm-hm. Paint me a picture.

I was the team manager for the Australian squad

and they were having a practice session

and I was just observing,

watching play, just watching them...the girls play,

and Keli came onto deck.

Which, when I thought back,

I thought, "Yeah, I'd seen her with a towel around her a few times."

And the girls had said to me they thought Keli Lane was pregnant.

What, girls from your team?

Yes, and other teams.

And other coaches had said they thought she was pregnant.

Talk was everywhere. "Keli Lane's pregnant. Keli Lane's pregnant."

Normally she would sit down on the side of the pool

with a towel around her.

She stood up, took the towel off and she was side-on to me.

And I'm...I'm a mum,

I said, "She's pregnant. She's definitely pregnant."

And... No doubt about it.

Nup. My estimation, maybe six months.

This girl should not be playing.

As soon as training had finished

I went straight up to Bruce Falson, who was the coach,

and I just said to him, "Keli Lane is pregnant."

And he said to me,

"I've spoken to Keli about this and she said no, she wasn't."

I just sort of shook my head, and nothing...nothing was done.

If there was so much talk,

is there any way that, say, a team manager could not have heard?

No. Unless you were deaf.

(LAUGHS) No.

Well, at that time, Sandy Lane, Keli's mother,

was the team manager.

For New South Wales. Yeah, yep.

Look at this.

Oh, my goodness me.

Did you ever get an inkling, Sandy, because you were the team manager,

did you ever notice Keli's body changing?

No.

And once again, people will go, "How could you not?"

Well, I didn't stand talking to her while she was in the shower,

for instance, so I wouldn't see her in the nude.

Um...

And at other times, she'd have clothes on that didn't cling,

so I wouldn't notice anything there.

But Keli was in a swimming costume.

Mm.

How could you not see that a girl in a swimming costume is pregnant?

Because she didn't look differently.

Like, she's one that carried a pregnancy extremely well.

She was never one of those tummy out here jobs.

That pregnancy you saw in January 1995,

Keli Lane was playing the grand final in March.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's... Yeah.

Gosh. Yeah.

I mean, as a mother, that really... It does, it hits home.

Yeah.

What's upsetting you? I don't know. (SNIFFLES)

I just can't imagine anyone doing that. I really can't.

If someone had stepped in and done something back then...

..would she be where she is today?

There's a lot of people have got a lot to answer for.

Um...

It's terrible.

(CHEERING)

She was playing in the water polo

competition finals

where her team Balmain was playing I think Sydney University.

I mean, you talk reckless, so she goes and plays water polo,

which we know is a violent, well, not violent,

it's a very physical game.

How stressful was that 1995 grand final?

Were you worried playing? KELI: Of course.

Of course. I was worried all the time about different things.

Highly stressed, worried about my health, about the baby's health,

about what I was doing, "Is this OK?

"Should I stop? What am I going to do?"

I mean, I wasn't feeling very well.

Obviously I didn't know at the time that that's what happens before...

You know, I obviously knew I was pregnant.

It was going to happen at some stage,

but I didn't know really what the lead-up would be like.

And I was very tired and, yeah, of course I had huge concerns.

But I didn't know how to manage my relationships with people,

I didn't know how to ask for help because people had never shown me

that they were open to me coming to them.

MARK TEDESCHI: That night after the game, which they lost,

they went to a pub at Balmain to have a drink.

At about 9pm they noticed that Keli had disappeared.

But in fact what had happened is she'd gone into labour at the pub.

She then presented to the Balmain Hospital.

MAN: From the notes that I have in front of me

from Balmain Hospital casualty,

in March, at 9:40 in the evening,

I read that a 19-year-old woman, Keli Lane,

was brought into casualty by her boyfriend

who then turned around and left.

Wasn't seen again.

She told me she'd had no problems up to date with the pregnancy.

She had an obstetrician in Perth

and she'd been in Sydney just for three weeks.

To me this presentation for the patient coming in, Keli Lane,

had a basic story that was not outlandish,

was taken on face value and we acted accordingly.

MARK TEDESCHI: On that night that she went into labour

she was transferred to the King George V Hospital

where she gave birth to a fully formed, perfectly healthy baby.

And then the rumours came back that she went missing

and the girls from water polo were ringing around the hospitals

to see if Keli Lane had had a baby,

and one of them said yes.

By this stage,

Keli Lane has been missing now from her life, from her parents,

her water polo team,

just gone, vanished.

Now, surely that would raise some suspicions.

To add even more unbelievable on top of unbelievable...

..it's Keli Lane's birthday.

She's 20.

So, where do her parents think she is, their daughter,

on her 20th birthday?

Two days after Keli gave birth, this first time, to a little girl,

it was Keli's birthday.

Mm. Her 20th birthday.

Yeah, it would have been. Yeah.

I'm just trying to get it all in my head. Yep.

Do you remember her 20th birthday? No.

Nup.

What Keli had done is she'd ducked out of hospital.

She was still in hospital, obviously,

she'd only had a baby 48 hours or less earlier.

Got a day visitation sort of pass out, a pass out...

..had a birthday...

..and then the next morning, early, went back to the hospital.

To me, it kind of shows a strength in a lot of ways

that, um... that she kept it to herself

and dealt with it how she saw fit to deal with it

without letting, you know, us know, for instance.

Um...all of this is news to me.

Even now? Yeah, I've never knew that.

Really? Nup.

I didn't know that she came out of hospital, came home,

had dinner and went back the next morning.

No.

I wasn't privy to any of that sort of stuff.

I'm sorry, Sandy, I didn't know you were in the dark

about lots of details, I really didn't.

That's alright.

I was shattered a very long time ago.

Oh, Sandy, I'm sorry.

KELI: I do remember at the hospital they had a cake for me.

And I remember I just burst into tears and just thought,

"What am I happy about? I can't be happy about anything."

She tells the hospital staff she had antenatal care in Perth,

that both of her parents are in Perth,

she's got no social support in Sydney

and that she's living at the wrong address.

And that's just the start of the lies.

And she's gone to great effort to do that, being so elaborate.

Because there's no way they can contact anyone.

I've been studying the medical records.

KELI: Uh-huh.

And you tell a story about Perth...

KELI: Perth. Perth. Yeah.

Right. That I was from Perth?

Exactly.

Do you remember that story you told? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Why did you... Why did you tell that story?

I think I picked Perth,

I'm thinking because I'd been there recently.

I'd been to Perth a few times in the early '90s

and it was the furthest place away.

So, it was just being young and frightened and telling these lies

to put distance between myself and my family finding out,

all my friends finding out.

MARK TEDESCHI: It had taken months to organise the adoption.

During that time she'd seen the child a number of times

and she'd met with the adoptive parents

and she'd found it very emotionally traumatic.

She had no-one to confide in, no-one to trust in,

no-one that she could talk to.

As a human being, carrying that burden

and having to go through an adoption process...

..it just...

From a human perspective, it's astounding.

INGE JONES: She's young, she's on her own.

That to me straightaway would go, "Hang on a minute."

How the fuck does a girl leave...

Sorry, take the swear word back.

How does society let a girl feel so alone?

Or how do we not pick up the signals?

How do we just miss them?

I was really interested to know... KELI: Yeah.

..what happens for you in your heart, I guess, and your head

after you give your first girl up?

Because to me if I try and place myself in your shoes,

I'm thinking I'd be doing anything to avoid being in that scenario again,

because it was just so hard.

Yeah, it was so hard.

I certainly didn't think, "I'm going to go out and do that again."

That would be, you know... I'd be crazy, literally.

But I just think it was carelessness

and a lack of self-protection

and then, you know, drinking a lot,

drinking and not using the pill correctly

or not asking my partner to use protection.

And not having control I think is the biggest thing -

is not having control of the situations I was in.

When it was done, it was done and she was safe

and she was happy, and they let me know,

you know, everything is good and so I could just move on.

You know, I could just put it out of my mind.

(BEEP!) (CALL DISCONNECTS)

Life went on.

Hmm.

Now, do you not remember what party this was?

It would be...

That's the 21st.

'Cause I recognise the clothes.

Good party? Terrific party.

Now, that girl standing in those photos there, your daughter...

Mm.

..at this time here she's pregnant with Tegan.

Oh, well, how could you tell?

About four months pregnant.

Amazing.

You said "amazing". What did you mean when you said, "Amazing"?

Well, I mean, look how thin she is.

And we see women these days...

..because their dresses are too tight, for a start.

(LAUGHS) I'm a bitch.

No. It's just...it's society. It's how things have changed.

Mm.

But, I mean, you can see,

you know, the clothes weren't particularly tight on anybody.

Like, it was just...

REBBECCA BECROFT: She was living her life...

..as someone who wasn't pregnant -

drinking, partying, going out,

socialising, playing representative water polo.

It's just like this was one part

and then there's this totally other part of her actual life.

A double life. Yeah. Absolutely.

It has to be.

KELI: I was excellent at putting things into boxes and parking them

because I had been, from a very young age,

able to be different things for different people

and trying to please people.

And, you know, I trained from a very young age,

and so I was under coaches from a very young age

and taking direction

and being able to put my emotions aside when things hurt.

When you're training at 8, 9, 10 years old

and physically you're hurting, you put that aside

and your emotions really don't come into it.

So I was excellent at hiding how I felt and what was hurting me.

STACEY GAYLARD: So, we were training at the Olympic Park pool.

Normally we would just walk over to the pool, cap and goggles,

togs on, dive in and away we go.

Kel walked over and, very, very unusually,

she walked over to the edge of the pool and slid into the water.

What did it look like to you when you watched that?

That she was pregnant.

What did you do next? What did you think to do?

Um...

Well, when we were swimming...

..as we were swimming past each other, we had goggles on,

and it was just a look at her tummy under the water just to confirm...

..what we thought we had seen.

What did you see?

She was pregnant - heavily pregnant.

Yeah.

KELI: Like, wasn't I worth asking?

Like, why were people afraid? Or why did they not want to ask me?

Or I guess that's pushing the responsibility onto them.

But it's kind of sad to think that no-one reached out

and said, "You seem different,"

or, "You look different," or, "Are you OK?"

If you had your time over again...

I would ask. Absolutely.

Yeah.

Even though that wall was up...

..and Keli made it very clear

that...that it was her private business

and she didn't want anyone to know,

but in hindsight I would have asked, "Are you OK?"

You regret not asking?

Yes.

Yeah, I do.

You know, simple words,

simple words that could have made a huge difference to her life.

Yeah.

What about coaching staff?

How could they not have noticed?

The coaches,

the managers,

and all the adults involved...

..at that time in water polo should have done something.

They should have gone to Keli and said, "Are you OK?"

I don't believe for a second

that they didn't notice changes

like the girls did.

PHILLIP BOWER: I'm 100% sure

when she was in the state team she was not pregnant, OK?

That I would have noticed, alright?

Because they're probably training four times a week. You'd see them.

Have a look at this.

Now, what year is that?

1996 national championships.

Now, Keli Lane, in that team, state team you were coaching there,

she's pregnant.

Yep. And, well, OK, I'll take your word for that.

I mean, you just said before, "100% she wasn't pregnant

"when I was coaching her."

No. And I'm...

Can I look at that again just to see who is in that team?

Have a look at that date there.

Wasn't she supposed to...? When was she supposed to have had the baby?

September 1996.

(GASPS) My God, again?

That was Tegan. She's pregnant with Tegan.

Wow.

Do you know which baby

that Keli Lane was pregnant with here when you were coaching her?

I've got no idea.

It was Tegan. Right.

Yeah, I'm starting to feel a bit guilty that I didn't realise.

Maybe I was very naive.

After that day, I can't recall

Keli being...

..at a game pregnant.

It makes me think, you know, maybe that was very close to giving birth.

Yes. I think so too.

And it was probably two or three weeks later I saw her again.

And she was clearly not pregnant.

Where is this baby?

What happened to this baby?

And then to do it again the third time.

Who, what and why?

And that's how the whole thing started.

That is how it all unravelled.

How did Keli Lane come undone?

MARK TEDESCHI: During the adoption process

for the third child, a little boy...

..she repeatedly denied that she'd had any previous children.

She made it almost impossible for the adoption agency Anglicare

to make contact with her.

REBBECCA BECROFT: Extreme. It was lie here, deception there,

lie here, trying to cover her tracks continuously.

The amount of lies that she told, half-truths she told,

it was massive.

Absolutely massive.

MARK TEDESCHI: As a result, the initial fostering agreement

which she signed, lapsed.

And the agency was not able to get in touch with her to renew it.

So the adoption agency was obliged to hand the child over

into the care of DoCS, Department of Community Services.

The case eventually went to a Mr. John Borovnik,

who worked for DoCS.

In my view, if it wasn't for John Borovnik,

the disappearance of Tegan Lane

would never have been noticed.

Who's Keli Lane to you? What is she?

JOHN BOROVNIK: She's a dangerous person. She's a psychopath.

In my opinion.

Narcissistic.

Everything revolves around her, plays the victim really well.

She's just a pathological liar and she believes those lies.

Like... Yeah.

Hello, John. Hi, Caro. How are you doing?

It was 1999 and I was on leave.

And I came back and they said,

"Oh, you know, Johno, here's an easy case for you."

Yeah, right. Um...

"We've got this child,

"its mum has put it up for adoption and she just took off."

He started to make inquiries about this mystery woman

who was so difficult to contact.

The first thing I had to do was ring Ryde Hospital.

I said, "I'm ringing up in relation to Keli Lane

"and trying to find her whereabouts."

She said, "Oh, John," she said "Did you know that she was here

"back in 1996,

"40 weeks pregnant?"

And I said, "No."

REBBECCA BECROFT: So, he's looked at the records

and went, "Hang on, you've told us that you've never had a baby before.

"So what happened to the baby that you were pregnant with in '96?"

I rang up our branch of adoptions

and I asked to speak to a caseworker

if they had any information regarding a baby back in 1996.

So, another bombshell comes along.

REBBECCA BECROFT: It was lucky that whoever was on the phone

went, "Oh, by the way..."

She said, "Are you talking about the baby in 1995?"

And I looked at my phone and I said...

..I said, "What baby in 1995?"

I said, "I'm talking about the baby in 1996."

And she said, "What baby in 1996?"

What is going on here? Like, what...?

Who? What? Where?

Her birth was never registered with the Registrar General's Office.

It had been some years that had gone by...

..without anybody realising that there was a baby missing.

Is she alive?

Is she with the father?

Is she in an illegal adoption with...through Keli?

Like, who knew? No-one knew.

So, had to keep plodding away.

And then got the information back from the Department of Health -

the fax, in letter form,

saying the baby girl by the name Tegan Lee Lane

was born at Auburn Hospital on 12 September 1996 by Keli Lane.

Wow. You know, like...

MARK TEDESCHI: She left the hospital with a perfectly healthy young baby

and arrived later at her home without the baby.

REBBECCA BECROFT: Keli was in an absolute conundrum

when she left the hospital.

She's got a wedding to go to.

The child was never seen again, has never been located.

And the mother went to a wedding on the peninsula, from memory.

REBBECCA BECROFT: I watched most of the wedding,

like, what was on the video.

I looked at her...

..at that wedding and went, "How could you?"

She appears happy and in the moment

and celebrating her friend's wedding,

yet a very short period before

she'd just discharged from hospital with a baby.

And...and she was in white.

Any woman that's given birth would understand

how unique...strange it would be

that you would wear an all-white outfit

two days after giving birth.

John Borovnik became quite determined

to find out what had happened to this child,

so he made contact with her.

He rang her at the school

where she was employed as a sports teacher.

That was one of the most bizarre phone calls I've ever had.

And I asked her, I said, "Look, I've got to ask you a few questions

"in regards to some information that I have."

And she said, "OK."

KELI: It was like I'd picked up the phone to my greatest nightmare.

And he just started peppering questions at me.

I said, "OK, Did you have a live-born baby girl

"on 12 September at Auburn Hospital?" And she says no.

I looked... You know, I looked at my phone and went, "What?"

KELI: I felt like I was being attacked.

"Attack" is probably a bit strong in that way,

but I felt like I was being made accountable.

And she says, "Nope.

"Don't know what you're talking about."

I went, "Well, I know what I'm talking about.

"I know what the truth is.

"I have it in front of me."

Then that was it,

that was the end of the phone call.

It was, like, bringing it all back to me in one hit.

It was, it was being exposed.

And I just put the phone down and said, "Gotcha."

"Yes. Got YOU for this."

Yeah.

Did you kill the child? No, I did not.

She said, "Oh, Mum, something's happened.

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

You have your faith in the police, that they're going to investigate it

and it didn't happen.

It was amazing how many records had been destroyed.

A parlously bad investigation.

I understand you've got something for me.

What type of files do we want to recover? All file types.

I mean, you told me that this young guy's taken the baby to raise it,

which is really unusual.

The gloves will be off and she'll have to suffer the consequences.

We needed to identify the fathers of Keli's children.

Have you ever spoken publicly about Keli Lane?

No.

Hi. I'm making a film

and I'm trying to understand the layout of the building.

KELI: I really realised, wow...

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