Missing Gary Tweddle Book Part 19 – CHAPTER 6: OUR OWN ‘GROUND-TRUTHING’

There were a number of clues in the media as to the reason for Gary’s departure and subsequent disappearance and to where he went and to what likely happened, before the massive search even began.  We have raised many of these already in the above chapters in this article.  And that’s before we apply investigative insight and analysis.  It’s not just the benefit of hindsight, but much evidence was readily available to the search co-ordinators on Day 1 – the morning of 17th July 2013.

Of course, we at Nature Trail are not trained police detectives, nor experienced search and rescue experts.  The police did not disclose their investigative report, nor at the time provide public updates to the enquiring media reporters, who basically sought updates by simply asking the basic questions of police in charge of the search.  So we rely upon media reporting at the time.
However, senior police would have interviewed each of Gary’s colleagues, his family (who turned up in the Blue Mountains, his girlfriend, as well as all associates – the restaurant owner, taxi driver, hotel staff, local residents along Sublime Point Road such as the driver who last saw Gary (through a public police appeal), and later the drug dealer.
The Fairmont Resort’s CCTV footage clarified what Gary was wearing, yet the media reports are contradictory about whether he was wearing a black jacket.  The CCTV would have verified this, so the police and media have conflicting accounts.
Police wrongly stated that he was wearing dark jeans, which contradicts Gary’s girlfriend’s poster that stated blue jeans.  It would seem that the police wrongly restricted their description of Gary to the resort’s CCTV camera, which at night would rely upon its infrared camera, that shows images in black and white, not in colour as during daylight hours.  This author can attest to this since he has four infrared cameras at his home 24/7.
Police would have known the many places where NOT to search, such as by replaying the video recordings from midnight of known CCTV locations in Leura Mall, Leura Railway Station and (much further away around adjoining  Katoomba and along the Great Western Highway).
As a side, one recalls a separate missing person search that was undertaken more recently in 2016 for an 80-year-old man with dementia around Katoomba, who around 6:30pm on Saturday 1st October had gone missing from the Anita Villa nursing home (now named Katoomba Views).
The following day, Sunday, the police helicopter flew low over our house more than 1 km away and had a loud speaker manual broadcast asking residents to look out for the old man missing. It flew over bushland and locals were asked to search bushland to assist officers from Blue Mountains Local Area (police) Command, and volunteers with the State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Service.
That seemed misguided at the time, rather more likely the missing man was much closer by Anita Villa in someone’s nearby backyard seeking a place to sleep, not wandering in the cold exposed bushland ‘woop woop’.  It seemed logical.  We suggested this to a searching volunteer at the time.
Sure enough, later on that Sunday, the missing man was located in a nearby back yard by the home owner around 8.35am and was treated for scratches and bruises.
Hopefully, in 2025 search and rescue approaches, standards, skills and technology has become the specialised profession it warrants, especially in places like the Blue Mountains.
Continuing on…

Gary’s mobile phone would have had a GPS record held by the telecommunications company to identify the route Gary had taken.
Nature Trail undertook subsequent ground-truthing of Gary’s route in 2020 following Steve’s conversations with Sublime Point locals who had generously provided insight into Gary’s demise and show us Gary’s memorial plaque on the escarpment.
We also followed up again very recently this month (May 2025) based upon all the evidence that we had gathered that had been reported in the media.  We are now semi-retired and have time on our hands to complete the research and to compile this article.  It’s a way of us giving back to the local community as one approaches one’s 61st birthday.
We’ve logically used the last conversation that Gary had had on his mobile phone with his colleagues around midnight, who had had their mobile phone on speaker (so that many  of them could hear and contribute to helping Gary’s desperate predicament).
Along with the local driver’s eyewitness sighting of Gary around 12:15 am, the evidence confirms that Gary’s location would have narrowed down the search area to being on the Sublime Point headland – a dead end cul-de-sac either still on Sublime Point Road, else nearby just 15 minutes later at 12:30 am when his phone cut out as he had said he was scrambling through scrub.
We have driven and walked the route recently from the Fairmont Resort along Sublime Point Road south to the intersection with tiny Orchard Lane and then beyond to Sublime Point Lookout itself.
We have done this both by day and again at night-time (in hi-vis with two torches and no cars present throughout), to best appreciate what Gary experienced and what he would have seen at night as to why he did what he did.
[An aside:  ‘Ground-truthing‘ is a research data-collection methodology of physically collecting empirical information in the field/on site by direct observation, photography, measurement, retracing evidence on the ground as it were to verify the reported statement and claims in order to verify those as factually and legally true.
This is our interpretative definition anyways, and we have applied it previously, and  we didn’t come down in the last shower.]

We point out that since 2013, where Gary went missing has not changed much in terms of streetscape in the Sublime Point precinct nor in the surrounding natural scrub bushland atop the escarpment, nor below in the adjacent Jamison Valley.

Choosing to depart suddenly near midnight in dark freezing conditions with rather light clothing and choosing to walk in an area he had no familiarity with and no glasses to even attempt to use a map on his phone or take a taxi, confirmed that Gary’s state of mind was not compos mentis.   This was a key factor in his disappearance – he was unprepared, desperate and lost in a outdoors environment he had no knowledge of.   This meant that he was prone to make uninformed illogical decisions as to where he was going, of what to expect and what not to expect.   He chose not to book another taxi for instance, despite him being completely unfamiliar with where he was.

Evidence showed that he was clearly under the influence of substance abuse (likely cocaine as it later turned out) and as his taxi driver from the restaurant accounted for to the media less and than an hour prior:

“He was wasted, seriously wasted.” 

So, retracing Gary’s movements that night, the route on foot that Gary must have taken was left outside the Fairmont Resort’s main entrance (image again below).  It was approachng midnight, very dark and Gary was seen running hurriedly out of the Fairmont Resort’s main entrance here and turn left toward the resort property’s exit.

 

Human “running” speed is typically and conservatively 15kph, certainly not an Olympic pace of course.   But Gary presumable on a cocaine drug high and if keeping up such a pace, would be consistent and quite feasible with Gary being able to travel by running in 10 minutes about 2.5 km along a road.

That distance happens to be beyond the distance between the Fairmont Resort and the southerly dead end of Sublime Point Road car park, just before track to the lookout to overlook the chasm of the Jamison Valley 650 metres below.

Why did police not to these known maths?

The initial distance on foot between the hotel building main entrance and the intersection of Sublime Point Road is just 400 metres.   We offer sequential Google Maps street level photos of Fairmont Place leading eastward at this stage to the property entrance at Sublime Point Road as follows:

It is a this intersection at Sublime Point Road that Gary would have turned left to exit the Fairmont Resort property.

As stated above, the foot distance between the hotel building main entrance and the intersection of Sublime Point Road and Watkins Road (shown below) is about 400 metres.
We offer an imagined image (daytime of course) of an imagined Gary on mobile phone exiting the Fairmont Resort.
It is at this intersection that Gary made an incorrect decision to walk straight ahead in the direction of the yellow arrow we add.

Yes, this road looks rather substantial to a stranger to the area, so seems worth following as if it is a major road.  Note, that to Gary around midnight it was pitch black.  Also, note our compass bearing insert – he’s heading southward.
Whereas Leura railway station is situated north-west of the Fairmont Resort where Gary was staying.  So to get to Leura railway station, Gary would have had to turn right at this intersection and then navigate all the criss-crossing backstreets.  But it was pitch black, and he didn’t have his glasses.  
Instead, Gary continued ahead in the direction of this ‘main’ road heading south.
Recall the last sighting of Gary had been by a motorist at reportedly 12:15 am (just after midnight) on Wednesday 17th July 2013 walking along on Sublime Point Road.  This would have confirmed placing Gary on Sublime Point Road heading southward just past Orchard Lane.  [See maps below]

Later evidence would reveal that Gary was trying to walk to Leura Railway Station. But it was pitch black along Sublime Point Road. There is no directional signage and he was headed in the wrong direction.

Same location, zooming in…

We include a distance scale and a compass bearing.  We also here circle three critical locations based upon evidence received.  Note that Sublime Point Road comes ultimately to a dead end at Sublime Point Lookout (over the chasm of the Jamison Valley below).  

The intersection of Sublime Point Road and Orchard Lane is shown below, we presume roughly the location where a local driver last reported witnessing Gary walking along Sublime Point Road just after midnight with his mobile phone in the blackness.  Clearly the driver at midnight in this dead end road was a local.

Orchard Lane intersection veering left off Sublime Point Road (daytime), barely visible at night. 

Again, along the length of Sublime Point Road from the Fairmont intersection at Watkins Road (an overall distance of 2.2 km) there are no footpaths at either side.

There are also very few street lights in this residential on the outskirts of Leura.  Our recent ground-truthing (by car and on foot at times) counted a total of just 12 street lights on timber electricity poles with most spaced over 300 meter apart and in two sections no lights at all.

One section was at the critical intersection of Sublime Point Road and Watkins Road just outside the Fairmont Resort property, where Gary made the wrong decision to go straight.

The second section was a 400 metre straight bushland section between Willoughby Road (heading westward) and West Street (also heading westward).   Now significantly in Gary’s situation from the first intersection at Willoughby Road, the distant town light of Katoomba toward the west are not visible.  Our ground-truthing shows Willoughby Road to have a right-hand bend in it with taller native vegetation blocking views beyond looking from Sublime Point Road.  So with no incentive to turn down a side street, Gary would have just kept continuing  southward along Sublime Point Road.

Then he reached West Street heading west – and quite a different sight of distant lights visible.

The precinct here is predominantly residential on the outskirts of Leura village surrounded by natural bushland all around.  It is exclusive residential real estate with many multi-million dollar homes on large block holdings with million dollar views above the majestic Jamison Valley.  So, at night only local residents would use Sublime Point Road and its five small side streets to access their homes.  And there are few of them, since about 1 in 4 dwellings in this exclusive area are second homes as weekend retreats for some of Sydney’s elite.

We tried taking photos at night, but they came out black, so we waited to dawn.  The following photos serve to provide samples of the road Gary took that night.

Whereas by day and especially at weekends, many day-tripping tourists mostly driving up from Sydney find the Sublime Point lookout very appealing.   The demographic of the property owners and tourists is immiscible.

So this is why Sublime Point Road is properly sealed and has centre double lines for heavy traffic safety.   It so gives the impression of being a highway, rather than a local dead-end road.

 

Whilst ground-truthing the area we took the follow photo of Sublime Point Road (looking northeast) between Orchard Lane and West Street, which is where Gary walked/ran just after midnight.  [Photo taken by Nature Trail at sunrise 6:08 am Wednesday 7th May 2025 – hasn’t changed since 2013].

This impression would have been a reason for Gary to use it thinking it went somewhere prominent, like to a town centre and a railway station.  Yet Gary was heading  the opposite direction.

In any case, the Blue Mountains rail timetable showed that the last train to Sydney had departed Leura station that weekday night at 22:19 hrs (10:19 pm).  He had missed the train by nearly two hours.

This shows that the last train departing from Leura to Sydney had been at 22:19 (10:19 pm), so two hours prior.  [SOURCE: ^https://transportnsw.info/routes/details/intercity-trains-network/bmt/02bmt]

The walking experience once Gary exited the Fairmont Resort premises, one confirms that there are no footpaths either side of the road since this is a local countryside location, not in a city.  So, yes one is mostly forced to walk on the road, as Gary had to, particularly at night.
Yes, Sublime Point Road is a sealed road and it takes on the appearance of being a main road, so going somewhere.  However, this is misleading since it was fully sealed to cater for regular tourist traffic visiting the popular Sublime Point lookout, situated about 2 km south of the Fairmont Resort.
Sublime Point Road is also very poorly lit at night.  Frankly, this is not a bad thing because tourist visitation is only during daylight hours, whereas the few local residents on this dead end road have no wish for bright lights be lit at night.
At night Sublime Point Road is a quiet and secluded residential street.  The road is so dark at night that Gary would have had to use his smartphone torch feature to navigate walking along the road in such pitch black darkness.  This would have contributed to his mobile phone battery being drained faster than usual.
Sublime Point Road leads southward ultimately to residential cul-de-sac and dead end in just 2 km on this plateau surrounded by 600+ metre sheer cliff drops down into the Jamison Valley below.

Sublime Point Road from the Fairmont Resort heading southward.  It appears to be a major road given the double lines.  But note no footpaths.  At night road is pitch black with no street light at this section and there’s no directional signage.  It is mostly residential.   So this is what Gary faced thinking he was on a major road to Leura to get his imagined train to Sydney, though it was after midnight midweek on a Wednesday.

Calculating the likely location scenarios:

 

Upon further analysis, we revisit the three key pieces of known evidence at the time of Gary’s disappearance:

  1.  Gary’s running departure from the Fairmont entrance captured on CCTV – it is ABOUT midnight, but we are not told the accurate time, and the electric clock on the CCTV computer may not  have been accurately set  (one knows this from personal experience with one’s own setup)
  2.  The local car driver sighting Gary along Sublime Point Road at 12:15 am  (but this timing may not be exact either, and we are not told where exactly the driver saw Gary “standing on the road” (or more likely him actually running given the fair distance he managed to travel in such short durations)
  3.  Gary’s final words to his work colleagues on his mobile phone as he is heard running and jumping (in hindsight presumably in the scrub located off the end of West Street.

Also, recall the supplied evidence that Gary’s conversation with his colleagues lasted about “17 minutes”.

This would have been verifiable by Police investigation checking the call duration on that particular colleague’s mobile phone – so likely accurate.

Since Gary was sighted talking on his phone during this time, that would place him 17 minutes from his running and jumping through that dense scrub location at the end of West Street.

Given the time of night and the driver likely alone, it makes sense not to have stopped on that dark lonely isolated section of road for a young  male stranger.

Gary was not talking on his mobile phone when he ran out of the Fairmont entrance, rather only after he had become lost.  What along Sublime Point Road (which we know from hindsight that he was on) had triggered him to realise that he was lost and so call for navigation guidance to his colleagues?

The overall road distance between the Fairmont entrance and the western end of West Street is 1.8 km.  (See map below)

 

A steady walking pace along a footpath/road is about 4 kph, so at that pace if continuously maintained, to cover 1.8 km would take 27 minutes. [Algebra derived relationship for Speed = Distance / Time , which to solve for Time transposes to the formula:

Time = Distance / Speed

In this case, known are: S = 4kph, D = 1.8km

Calc:   4kph x 1.8km = 0.45 Hours, which converting that to more meaningful minutes is by 45/60 = 27 minutes.  Basic algebra is taught in Australia from Year 7 (aged 13 years), but to readers, as adults you must use it or lose it.

Here’s a handy alternative tool for evidence analysis:

This is the lazy way to do the same maths. [^SOURCE]

Ok, however evidence obtained is that Gary was not walking but running, as confirmed by the Fairmont’s CCTV at the start and then mobile phone audio feedback from his colleagues once he said he was lost.Re-doing the calculation, lets be conservative and say on average Gary was not able to run at 8 kph continuously over nearly 2 km at twice the pace of walking (especially given the road was so dark), but on average jogging at 6 kph.   Recall the eyewitness driver saw Gary “standing” on the road talking on his phone, not running at the eyewitness time of 12:15 am.This indicates that overall, it took Gary about 18 minutes to get from the Fairmont entrance the cover the 1.8km mostly level road distance to the end of West Street before rummaging in through the scrub.  This would seem to be a reasonable guesstimate, based on the supplied evidence in the media, our mapping and basic algebra.So, to then better calculate the location where Gary was sighted by the driver let’s backtrack (since that fact was not supplied by the police to the media).  We’re allowing a nominal extra 5 minutes of him struggling in the bushes at the end of that 17 minute conversation just before his phone battery went dead.  So, from the scrub at the end of West Street back to where the drive sighted Gary on Sublime Point Road:  Time is 17 minutes less 5 minutes = 12 minutes.Algebra Distance = Speed x Time  =  6 kph x 12 minutes, so Distance = 1.2 kmSo, 1.2 km from the end of West Street would place Gary 2/3 the distance of the overall 1.8km back toward the Fairmont.  Again, this is near the intersection of Orchard Lane as we had estimated.

Gary’s Fateful Decision at West Street:

This author, through research and from obtain local knowledge has subsequently managed to clarify what Gary meant by “light on the hill”.   His continued walking along Sublime Point Road southward for 1.7 km found him reach the junction of West Street, a short dead end street heading westward.
At night, distant residential lights can be seen way beyond westward from this road junction.

 

The following photo is a street view from Google Maps at the time of compiling this article.  It is taken at the intersection of Sublime Point Road and West Street facing westerly (a rather imaginary Council name for this street).

This street is short at about 150 metres in length and is a ‘No Through Road’, which is consistent with Sublime Point and its short side streets off (dead-end) Sublime Point Road all being in a dead-end-cul-de sacs due to this small residential precinct being situated atop the surrounding cliff escarpment on a plateau peninsula above the Jamison Valley.

 

The junction of Sublime Point Road and West Street in 2025.  However, back in 2013 this was a new street and the vegetation at the dead end was not present, so the lights of Katoomba in the distance would have been noticeable from this spot – providing an illusion of a continuation of this street toward town.

We note that one media photo of Gary (probably from his Facebook page or his girlfriend’s) prior, during an Oracle work function showed Gary in corporate office attire wearing glasses (photo reproduced below).

Gary wearing glasses for non-reading needs

Instead, this confirms that Gary had short-sightedness (myopia) which is a physical condition where distant objects appear blurry, while nearby objects are seen clearly.  The glasses he is shown wearing here would have certainly been optometrist prescriptive glasses.

This is a significant factor in Gary’s disappearance, and we can’t find any publicised records that anyone in the police search investigation or the media picked up on this key evidence.  It is significant in this case because it was reported later on in the media:

“Security footage captures Tweddle running out of the Fairmont without his jacket or glasses”

[Source]

This confirms that his glasses were NOT for reading since he is wearing them not for close reading but to see in normal conversation and over distances. His work colleagues for starters could have attested to this to Police on the morning of Day 1 BEFORE the search commenced.    Without his glasses, Gary is sight handicapped and especially on foot in an area he has know familiarity with, alone, at midnight in almost pitch blackness.

 

Nature Trail, whilst ground-truthing the route of Gary’s disappearance, took this photo at dawn at the intersection of Sublime Point Road and West Street.

 

The street sign for West Street (left on photo above) includes a secondary sign beneath reading ‘No Through Road’, however it was dark and Gary was not wearing his glasses.  Gary did not know the area at all and he was not thinking straight due to his substance abuse at the time.
So despite his last comments on his mobile at about him seeing a ‘light on the hill”, he must have missed noticing the ‘No Through Road’ sign on the street corner.
Back in 2020 when we ground-truthed West Street both by day and then by night, from the Sublime Point Road intersection, the native vegetation at the western end was less grown than it is in 2025.   So at night in 2020 and likely moreso in 2013, a distant light on a hill could be readily seen from that spot.
On 7th May 2025, during out night ground-truthing lay investigation, we walked the short 150 metres westward to dead-end of West Street where the bushland starts and we took the following photo westward at around dawn (See bellow).
Yes, a light on a distant hill on the western horizon can be readily seen at a gap in the trees.   It is directly west of West Street but over two km away on a map, and there are other street lights visible there as well.  It is Katoomba, but with a blackened 650m deep chasm called the Jamison Valley in between.
This was Gary’s ‘light on the hill” that he saw that night.

This author in researching and compiling this article has taken more than a casual interest in this tragedy, as readers may have by now gathered.  It’s just about finally comprehending the unknown to all at the time of Gary’s bizarre disappearance from a corporate Sydney work function in the Blue Mountains where we live.  It’s about closure from research, ground-truthing and analysis (the latter being one’s career).  We gain no reward from this, rather it is a message of what ought to have been done properly by the coroner for Gary’s loved ones.  So, abrogating NSW Coroner(s), shove this up your jumper!

We aligned the direction of West Street, a short 150 metres long ‘No Through Road’ (due to a 650 metre drop chasm cliff edge located about 100 metres down slope through thick bushland further west.

Using a Google Maps aerial photo, We orientate from what was Gary’s “light of the hill” obviously westward, since it was many metres down off the cliff at the end of West Street. [See our explanatory illustration below).

Subsequent field research conducted by the author confirms that the lights would be those of the Katoomba High School which is perched on a hill back from the escarpment cliff top on the other side of this chasm on the northern side of the Jamison Valley and which is lit up and back in 2013 would have been very distinguishable from this West Street junction with Sublime Point Road.  The bushland at the western end of West Street has long since grown, so blocking the view.

We can categorically confirm this was Gary’s “light on the hill”, since six weeks after his comment of this on his mobile phone, Gary’s body was discovered slumped in a gum tree about 50 metres down a cliff face immediately below the western end of West Street.

He was walking towards the distant light through thick bushland with no more mobile phone torch light in total blackness unbeknownst of the chasm in between.

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