Missing Gary Tweddle Book Part 20 – CHAPTER 7: DISCOVERY LATER BY FLUKE
As we’ve previously stated, NSW Police ‘Riot Squad’ Senior Constable De Jong on Monday 12th August 2013 had announced to the media that the official NSW Police search for Gary Tweddle (alive or dead) was being called off altogether.
However, exactly three weeks later to the day, on Monday 2nd September 2013, an unrelated helicopter training flight of the NSW Ambulance Special Casualty Accident Team (SCAT) through the Jamison Valley was diverting and, by fluke found Gary’s body; but not realising it was him at the time.
This is how that chance discovery played out in the media reporting. We have corrected the many media errors and guesstimates, rather than repeat them and then labouriously correct them – what would be the point?
Police Helicopter despatched to the escarpment site. [Picture: AAP Dean Lewins, AAP]
‘The (late) afternoon sun shone brightly on the escarpment of a Blue Mountains valley. It beamed over the shoulder of the Three Sisters rock formation, as it came in from the west, then flickered off the sandstone cliff face.
Just below the cliff end of West Street Leura, about 23 metres down the renowned rockclimbing cliff-wall dubbed ironically ‘ Sweet Dreams’
It was Monday and a team of NSW Ambulance Special Casualty Accident Team (SCAT) paramedics were on the final leg of a training flight. They had been flying low around Wentworth Falls, familiarising themselves with rock-climbing and abseiling accident spots and, at the last minute, tacked on a trip to Sublime Point.
As the chopper hovered above the valley, paramedic Aaron Davidson and the five-person crew were running through possible rescue scenarios.
“This area wasn’t on the original training plan, but we added it on because there’s been a few calls to it lately, a popular rock-climbing spot called Sweet Dreams,” Mr Davidson said. “So we were pretty much going through possible situations, discussing aircraft capabilities, that sort of thing,” Mr Davidson said.
[COMMENT: So if this rescue helicopter crew had chosen to inspect popular ‘Sweet Dreams’ cliff wall climbing site as a potential new place to conduct a future rescue of an injured climber. then why was this same location not thoroughly examined during the official search for Gary?]
To maintain the hover as they ran through hypothetical rescue missions, the pilot had to pick a reference point on the cliff as a marker. The sun flickered on something slumped backwards over a fallen tree branch that caught the pilot’s eye. Mr Davidson spotted the same thing. It was slumped backwards over a fallen tree branch, clothed in dark blue jeans or pants, and a tattered shirt partially covering what appeared to be a bare torso. Two legs could be clearly made out and, the way the object was lying, just one arm was visible.
“We pretty much said ‘Is that a body?’,” Mr Davidson said. He quickly instructed the pilot to turn the chopper around and move it forward. “We went in as close to the cliff as we could, about 40 or 50 metres from it, so pretty close,” Mr Davidson said. “We knew straight away that the person was deceased, otherwise we would have gone straight into performing a rescue operation, but we could tell that wasn’t necessary.”
The pilot used the on-board GPS system to track the exact location of the body – the latitude and longitude – and then phoned police.
The body had been spotted in a tree growing from a crevice in the cliff face about 25m down a cliff edge in dense bushland off the end of West Street at Sublime Point Escarpment’s western side. The site of the body was inaccessible by foot.
“We landed on the oval at Leura and waited for the police. It was a funny feeling … it’s not every day you go on a training exercise and find a body,” Mr Davidson said.
Mr Davidson was already familiar with the high-profile disappearance of IT salesman Gary Tweddle, who had gone missing in the early hours of July 16 while staying at the Fairmont Resort for a work conference.
As the crow flies, it would only be about 2 km from the resort to where the body lay.
“I was fairly sure it was him (Gary Tweddle), from the clothing and the location. But you always want to hear it from police, before you know for sure,” Mr Davidson said.
Sublime Point Road, Leura, was the last place Gary Tweddle was seen alive by a passing motorist and then during the phone call to his work colleagues to say he was lost.
By now it was nudging 5pm and the westerly sun that had earlier beamed on the escarpment had dropped into the valley.
“When Polair flew over, even though we’d given them the exact co-ordinates of where the body was, they couldn’t find it,” Mr Davidson said. “They came back … one of our guys got in with them and took them back to the spot. The sun had gone, so you couldn’t see it (the body). Without the sun, you wouldn’t have found him.”
Mr Tweddle came to rest on a ledge, a reported 23 metres down a cliff face.
Mr Tweddle, an Oracle Corporation employee, had left the resort in a hurry without his glasses or a warm jacket – despite the 8C temperature – telling colleagues he would be “back soon”. (Ed: No, it was sub-freezing – more media guesswork).
Police said there was a good chance the body was Mr Tweddle but could not be certain until tomorrow. “The area can only be reached by abseiling down the rock face,” Inspector Bostock said. “The body appears as though its wearing clothing,” he said.
“It’s too dangerous, they are going to have to wait to retrieve the body tomorrow,’’ Inspector Bostock said. ”It’s very likely it is Gary but we will have to wait and see,” he said. “The area can only be reached by abseiling down the rock face.The body appears as though its wearing clothing,” he said.
West Street, Leura
Leura’s Kevin McDonald, who volunteered in the search for Mr Tweddle, said it staggered him how someone could plunge from that cliff, given the edge was several hundred metres from the roadway: “It’s not like you come to the end of Sublime Point Road and bang, you drop off the cliff,” Mr McDonald said.
“You’ve got to walk for a good way through seriously rugged bush, before you fall off.”
Police insist it was an accidental death but would not speculate on Mr Tweddle’s state of mind until results of a post-mortem and toxicology report were received.
“Until we get all the results of the post-mortem and the toxicology report, we can’t speculate on what his state of mind was,” a senior police source said.
Typically that report was never made public, only that he had been formally identified as Gary Tweddle.
The discovery gave Mr Tweddle’s family the closure they have longed for over the past near seven weeks.
“We thank the air ambulance helicopter crew and police, and all the volunteer organisations that were involved in bringing you out,” his mum Carol Streatfield wrote on Facebook.
Superintendent Darryl Jobson:
“I can confirm we have found a deceased male … in what’s described as a slot in the cliff line.The police have been in close contact with Mr Tweddle’s family members.
The family have been very strong and stoic throughout. It’s absolutely amazing to see the strength they’ve been able to garner from each other.
They have gone through a rollercoaster of emotions, as you can well appreciate. They are really after a sense of closure.”
“Please know that nothing has been confirmed at this stage but I hope in a few hours we will have an answer either way.“One thing I know for certain is that Gary will come home one day – his fight, determination & ‘never give up’ attitude that we all loved so much about him will guide him. Your time of hide & seek needs to end now though please. Time to come home where you belong. I love you.”
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