Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Wives & Knives. We hope you are all keeping safe & well out there.
This week we have a full case for you, and it is a huge one today I’ve got for you the story of Keli Lane and her baby Tegan Lane.
This was a listener suggestion - thank you Laura - and one that we both had some knowledge of or at least thought we did.
Please remember that we mean no disrespect to anyone mentioned in this episode, or across any of the wives and knives platforms.
We have an interest in true crime and related topics and whilst we may offer our own personal views on certain items it is meant to be educational and as light-hearted as possible. The information we present is collated from research gathered from the internet and we reference and credit our sources wherever possible.
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(By D)
You see when I started digging into this case and reading/watching more about it the more I realised that I didn’t know the case at all. Throughout this episode I will refer to a documentary made by ABC called: Exposed the Keli Lane case that really opened my eyes to the complexities within this case.
If you want to watch the documentary it is available on Amazon to buy but not on prime currently, and there's lots of clips taken from it available on YouTube. Although I must admit it has been criticised by some, in particular trial lawyer Simon Davies who has spoken publicly against the documentary, I would still encourage you to watch it as it is the most in-depth look at the case I have managed to find from a single source.
Like I said, before my research I was familiar with the case, but I thought that it was a case about the girl who killed her baby, a baby that she had managed to hide from everybody, but I promise that this case is so much more than that and I’m now unsure of what I believe.
Keli was pregnant regularly from the age of 17, the first 2 pregnancies were terminated, and 3 were carried to full-term. The third and fifth pregnancy resulted in adoption, but nobody knows what happened to the child that was the result of the fourth pregnancy. It is the unknown location of this child known as baby Tegan that has led to Keli being imprisoned for the murder of her 2-day old baby.
So I'm going to try to collate everything that I've read, watched, and listened to and tell you the most complete version that I can. There is a huge wealth of information on this case, plenty of podcasts have covered it, there are forums dissecting every aspect of the investigation and reports from the trial that are available freely online.
Our sources are in the usual place - check them out for some riveting in depth reading. I am super excited that you are covering this case, it’s a corker, huge so let's dive in.
Keli Lane was born March 21, 1975, making her 46 years old today, she is a former water polo player, surfer, student, and teacher. She is from a close family which includes, mother Sandra, Father Robert, and brother Morgan. her mother was a former hospital worker and water polo coach and her dad, had once been a semi famous champion surfer, former police officer, rugby player & coach.
Keli was popular and Sporty, particularly talented at water polo, she attended the Australian College of physical education whilst working part time as a coach. She wasn't just good at the sport she was an elite water polo player at national and international level, she was part of the 1995 Australian junior women's team at the world championships. So she was well known in her field, almost a little bit famous in the area of Manley.
Keli was born and grew up in the small suburb of Sydney Australia, often described as the insular peninsular; it is a small close-knit community where everybody knows everybody else's business.
Manley is quite a wealthy, beautiful area that's known for perfect beaches and a community passion for sport, particularly rugby. The Lanes were a well-known and respected family of high achievers, it was obvious that the parents had high expectations for their daughter, but they needn't have worried because Keli excelled at everything she did.
so overall Keli has a decent relationship with her parents. In particular she is very close to her dad, ‘a daddy’s girl’. I’ve read that Sandra & Robert were traditional in their parenting but rather strict piling on the pressure to achieve on both of their children. Whilst close and sharing similar interests they perhaps didn’t often share their true feelings with each other, so they didn’t really talk about problems. which I don't find to be too strange lots of people don't share things with their parents, it’s just easier sometimes.
Outside of family relationships Keli had loads of friends and no shortage of guys who wanted to date her, and I don’t blame them, she was tall, blonde, and athletic, described as funny and as having a ‘sexual energy’ which I take to mean she was flirty and up for a good time but read into that what you will. With so many people in her life, friends, and family it is an absolute miracle that she managed to conceal five pregnancies over the space of seven years.
Some might say unbelievable.
I'm going to break it down into a timeline for you being as chronological as I can, in November 1992 at just 17 Keli falls pregnant with her first boyfriend Aaron Tyack.
In the ABC documentary he speaks of her fondly saying how much he loved her and how much she loved him. When they fell pregnant it was a shock to them both as Keli had been taking contraception. Just a note Keli say she's taking contraception throughout the whole seven years, it is clear she is either taking it incorrectly or is exceedingly unlucky; however this is never addressed.
The couple agreed to get a termination, although Aaron says that Keli was not happy about this but felt she had no other choice. He speaks of how devastated Keli was after the termination. They didn't tell anyone, and she managed to hide everything and carry on with her life.
Two years later, in 1994 Keli falls pregnant again but this time she doesn't tell Aaron. they're still together but on the verge of splitting up as she has also been seeing someone else, and older married man. Keli gets this second termination alone.
In order to keep everything secret she goes to a different clinic, but this clinic refused to do the termination because Keli is much further along than she thought. She is forced to return to the clinic in which she'd had the first termination two years earlier - not ideal when you don’t want to be remembered.
To cover her tracks she lies about everything, giving them incorrect contact information, and a fictional back story.
As the pregnancy is further along the procedure is a lot more invasive and in turn a very traumatic experience. Especially if you are facing it entirely alone.
Very traumatic, and controversial - however Keli is choosing to do this and she’s choosing to do this alone. When she recounts this in the documentary, she says that she wasn't offered any counselling and sites that this experience as the start of her extreme secrecy, saying that afterwards she didn’t want to go through another abortion again.
But like many things she says it only makes half sense - I think we need to be clear she gave no legitimate contact details so, if she was to be offered any sort of counselling at a later date, they will not have being able to contact her anyway.
Throughout both of these pregnancies and the ones we will talk about shortly, she was playing water polo which is a fucking aggressive sport. You are being kicked pulled and punched under the water not to mention the physical exhaustion that you would feel playing such an intense sport. I've actually found it really interesting learning a little more about water polo it's not a sport I have ever seen played, I guess it may be played more in Australia than it is in the UK but from what I have learnt you obviously have to be very fit to play.
I’ve played it on holiday when I was a kid, it can get rough. It is played in the UK; our local teams are Chorley Marlins or Preston Aquatics club. Go team! surprised Leyland barracudas haven’t got one.
Wow, why don’t I know about the secret world of water polo.
clearly not moving in the right aquatic circles mate.
maybe I need too. All the girls that played water polo with Keli were athletically gifted full of grit and determination and they all happen to be gorgeous. The way the water polo girls are talked about is how the cheerleaders are talked about in classic American high school movies they were popular girls who dated popular boys, and they had a reputation for being fun.
When the water polo players that that would have been Keli's teammates were contacted to be in the ABC documentary most of them didn’t want to talk and I don't really blame them everyone is entitled to privacy, and they've probably been through these scenarios and situations multiple times it's now 20 years on and if they want to move on and forget about the situation then I can't say I'd be any different. However some of the coaches and players from the time have spoken up have some very interesting things to say and it seems that Keli’s pregnancies weren’t 100% concealed to the degree you may have believed.
The women who played with Keli speak of a ‘work hard, play hard’ culture, the girls were all drinkers who partied hard together and would've had a fair amount of secrets and things they didn't want coming out.
Former coach Ann Bain speaks of a competitive mentality, the girls were proud to be able to scare the opposition both in and out of the pool. Ann seems to be one of the few that suspected Keli was pregnant, she took her concerns to one of the other coaches who said they'd spoken to Keli, and she had denied this.
Nothing further was done. Part of me finds this fucking ridiculous from a H&S point of view but although I keep referring to the team as girls, they are all in their late teens so maybe that negates the level of responsibility that the coaches have for them?
Yeah, I was just thinking about that. If we are talking both pregnancies so far, she is seventeen at the youngest I’m not sure if that would present an official safeguarding concern, but it would no doubt contravene Health & Safety regulations, there would also be insurance issues no doubt. It would be easier for them to ignore the rumours and suspicions at that level, but I feel like no one wanted to be the ones who brought that up with her parents.
So it’s now 1995 and Keli is pregnant for the 3rd time she goes on to play throughout all of her pregnancy. Although it’s said that some people had noticed that she was pregnant there’s countless others including her parents, close friends, and boyfriends who, to this day, insist they never noticed. Do you think you could spot someone who was pregnant?
I think everyone carries differently and for some people I can believe they get away with it, but Keli, particularly in a swimsuit a lot of the time, no way. Even when you see footage of her covering herself in a towel, I find it hard to believe that parents and boyfriends didn’t realise.
I feel like I wouldn’t notice in the first couple of months as I'm not very observant and I know some people carry pregnancy differently, but I have had quite a few friends who have had babies recently and there is no fucking way that they didn't look pregnant by six months they definitely did. Saying that, I don't think it is something that you ask people, and it is certainly something you don't accuse somebody of lying about. So I'm really not surprised that people didn't push the issue, especially if these people thought that Keli was more valuable to them in the pool, if you get what I mean.
Yeah, I question peoples motives too there. I think it is interesting to note that Keli’s mother, Sandra Lane, was the water polo team manager at the time all these rumours about Keli were flying round.
She insists that she never noticed any changes to her daughter’s body, and she never heard these rumours. Despite seeing her in a swimming costume regularly and coaching a team that where gossiping about her daughter being pregnant.
Definitely, it’s hard to believe.
So like I said Keli continues to play water polo even playing in the grand finale of a very big competition and then quietly and secretly sneaking off to give birth for the first time at a hospital in Camperdown the very same day.
That’s pretty impressive to be fair.
Her boyfriend at the time Duncan Gillies is named as the father, although he has no idea of the baby's existence.
Keli was brought into hospital by a man who pushed her in a wheelchair - she told the doctors that that was her boyfriend, but it wasn’t; and that person has never been found.
Perhaps they were a taxi driver or just a good Samaritan, I guess we just don't know.
Obviously, labour isn’t always quick nor easy and 2 days after the birth Keli is missing: recovering from the birth in secret. However it is also her birthday, Keli is turning 20 and none of her friends or family know where she is.
When her parents are asked about this in 2018, they just say that they can't remember her 20th birthday at all. In truth Keli was still in hospital but she did manage to sneak out for a few hours to celebrate her birthday with some friends before returning to the hospital that evening. This is just one of many deceptions that surround this birth.
Keli once again gave the hospital completely incorrect information about where she lived who she was in a relationship with, and the support network or lack of that she had at home. Pretty much the only truthful thing she told them was her name. The baby is put up for adoption and whilst the adoption is being arranged Keli does have contact with the child. she has a small input in finding the adoptive parents and seems to find the whole situation very sad and she must have felt very alone.
But I'm not ignoring the elephant in the room, she chose to keep these secrets and I don't want to excuse her behaviour at all. Playing water polo throughout her pregnancy shows a huge disregard for the babies' safety as well as her own but is this because Keli really doesn't care about the baby? Is it because of the huge disconnect she feels? Is she more focused on her water polo career and maintaining her reputation? Or is she scared to tell the truth because of her “perfect family”? these are the questions that are asked retrospectively looking back at this time.
And they are valid points, I’m not convinced she wanted to harm the children by playing the sport, I think more she felt a greater need to protect the lie. She states herself that she felt she couldn't go to anybody. She didn't understand what she was feeling, this might sound a little naïve, and messed up but it is believable to me.
I mean all the emotional drama and upheaval, all the lies and the pregnancy hormones. Despite being in a situation of her own creation I do feel for her.
So this child, is adopted, and Keli moves on with her life, she is 20 now and begins her career as a teacher at a private school whilst also representing Australia at the world Championships in Canada for water polo, in which she receives a silver medal.
But it isn’t long before she is carrying another baby, 1996 just one year after she gave birth for the first time it is her 21st birthday party, she is surrounded by family and friends, they are drinking, having a great time and photos are being taken.
Her mum who in my opinion comes across a little strange in the documentary, talks about how amazing Keli is carrying the baby weight so well and hiding the pregnancy under loose clothes as was the fashion at the time.
You can’t tell she’s pregnant in the photos shown, and yes, her clothes aren’t particularly tight fitting, and she would wear baggy tracksuits but not in the pool for fucks sake. Lots of people saw her, people thought she was pregnant, her teammates are talking about it, but they didn't say anything to Keli.
Former teammate Stacey Garyland says that she regrets not asking Keli and not checking she was okay she also talks about how obvious it was to the coaches and managers. Rather than jumping in the pool like she usually would she would walk to the edge of the pool with a towel and slide off the side.
It baffles me how everybody ignored what was going on.
On the 12th of September of that year Keli gives birth to her Second daughter Tegan at Auburn Hospital in western Sydney. Keli leaves the hospital two days later with Tegan and arrives home shortly afterwards alone. That night she attends a wedding with her boyfriend as if nothing has happened. And once again she carries on with her Life.
Now the Boyfriend, that she was dating at this time, is a guy called Duncan Gillies and he was quite a famous rugby player, and they dated throughout her pregnancy in fact she was pregnant twice whilst they were together, and he says he never suspected a thing. When asked about times he saw her naked he said they tended to have sex in positions where he didn't see her stomach and that they only saw each other a few times a week.
In May 1999 Keli gives birth to her third child a Baby boy, and like her first she decides to give him up for adoption. During the adoption process Keli said that this was the first time she had given birth, and she once again gave false contact information which was a huge mistake. It made the process particularly difficult for the adoption agency and they started digging into the background of Keli Lane. The more inaccuracies they found the more suspicious they became of Keli, she had given false addresses reaching as far as the UK, her stories were so tangled that they barely made any sense.
Struggling To contact Keli the child was handed over to the Department of Child services, in particular a man called John Brovenik a child protection officer. It was John that started to make enquiries about Keli, he wondered why she was so difficult to contact. Whilst making these enquiries he spoke to the hospital and they informed him that Keli had been there in 1996, pregnant at the time.
This contradicted what Keli has told them about having her first child in 1999 and John was instantly concerned that there was no record of another child in 1996.
He contacted adoption agencies to see if a child belonging to Keli had been adopted in 1996, but to his surprise there was no record of such a baby, but an altogether different child being adopted the year before in 1995.
So he now knew that she had given birth three times the first and third child being accounted for but the second seem to have disappeared. He learnt that this child had been named Tegan.
It was confirmed that Keli had left the hospital in 1996 with a perfectly healthy baby girl but the baby’s birth had never been registered and she had never been seen since.
At this point Tegan has been missing for three years.
John eventually manages to contact Keli who denies ever having a baby in 1996, she then immediately goes on holiday to Venice.
nothing more suspicious than booking a last-minute holiday to Venice when you know the social services want to talk to you.
The case is handed to the police and a preliminary investigation is carried out.
Now what we must remember is that Keli's father, a well-respected and popular man was also a former police officer, one who still had friends on the force. I can't prove this had any impact on the case, but I think it's interesting to keep this in mind.
This is not a quick investigation if anything it is drawn out and comes in fits and starts as you will see. So behind-the-scenes investigations are continuing just very slowly and in 2000 at the age of 25, Keli falls pregnant again. She decides to keep the baby and for the first time tells her boyfriend her friends and family about her first pregnancy.
This time Keli sees an obstetrician regularly which is something she hadn't done with her previous pregnancies. She doesn’t cover anything up there are no deceptions.
As the investigation into missing Tegan ramps up Keli is questioned again by the police, and this time she admits to all five previous pregnancies. She says that Tegan's father was an older man with whom she had been having a secret relationship with. She says that this man took Tegan into his care on the 14th of September 1996.
She names the man as Andrew Morris. However she is unable to provide an address or any contact information for this mysterious man. When Keli is being interviewed, she is actually seven months pregnant and just an aside but none of the police notice.
Now you would think that the police would be desperate to locate this man bought why could the rest of the investigation they take their time and seem to be doing at best only half job. Just two months later Keli gives birth to a little girl, and the investigation it seems go’s quiet. That is until, a new detective, Richard Gaurt takes over the case and reignites the investigation into the missing baby.
Like I said 17 months had passed since she had last been interviewed so when she was brought back to the station to retell her version of events. She retold the story of the baby being given to the biological father; however a small detail had changed she referred to the man known as Andrew Morris as Andrew Norris with a N.
When she’s pulled up on this, she giggles nervously saying she is confused. She now insists he is called Norris and states that she had initially got the name incorrect.
When asked out right if she killed her baby, she says no of course not and seems upset, angry, and distressed by the notion. She then asks for the tapes to be switched off, which of course they aren’t, then goes on to say that what happened to Tegan is between her and Andrew and she doesn't want anyone else, particularly her parents to be informed of what is going on.
She’s clearly bothered about the impact this is going to have on everyone’s life, not just her own. She says how can you go and ask them questions when they have no idea. She is as distressed by that as she is by the accusation that she killed Tegan.
Yeah, the interviews are worth watching for sure. This is a hell of a lengthy investigation and in 2003 Keli's phone is tapped and hundreds of phone calls are listened to. it was apparent that Keli had not told anybody in her life about the first three children she had given birth to or about the investigation. And just to put this into context she was engaged and planning her wedding with the father of her fourth child but still keeping these massive secrets. It was only in late 2003 that encouraged by a psychiatrist and the ever-growing police investigation, Keli told her parents about the baby she had had in 1996 - Tegan. She told them just like she had the police that she had given the baby to Andrew Norris.
Her parents do question this but seem to accept the explanation and you can listen to the calls online.
Yes do, because it’s clear life is going on for Keli, and she is still managing the situation, saying she is going for a dress fitting when in fact she is going to be interviewed by the police, In Early 2004 she gets married to the father of her child.
Tegan would have been 7 1/2 years old at this point but again no one can locate her, the police refer the case to the coroner. He looks at the case and Keli is offered a plea deal which would greatly reduce if not completely eradicate her sentence if she admitted to the murder of Tegan and led them to her body. Keli attended a hearing but didn’t come forward with any information, she refused the notion that she had killed Tegan, but she had nothing further to prove she was telling the truth.
Prior to this hearing the media had been kept in the dark about what was going on, due to a non-publication order but after Keli refused the plea deal the embargo on media coverage was lifted.
The coroner offers her immunity, she can tell the truth and go free. The media will not know what happened the situation will be controlled. This would be the best option for her that I can see, better than where she is now; yet she doesn’t change her story? There’s no keeping these pregnancies and lies secret anymore, it was a huge story, and the Australian media were relentless. With the extra media coverage, the pressure on the police to provide an answer intensified. They have been actively investigating haven’t they but perhaps not as focussed as they could be?
Yeah, in fact officers who were on the case from the beginning talk about an inadequate investigation when looking for Norris in particular, so they begin to try and locate this man again.
They look to gain access to Keli’s phone records from the time, however because it was 1996 phones weren’t commonplace and she didn't actually have a phone until the very end of that year: three months after the birth of Tegan.
this shouldn't matter though as Keli says she was in regular contact with Andrew Norris for the 1st year after she handed Tegan over and that they had communicated via a mobile phone for this time. But it Seems that the police never bothered to get the records for this time period. I mean how fucking ridiculous is that?
Yeah, there are lots of issues in the investigation.
The investigation continues with inquest after inquest, coroners' investigations and new people being put on the case. In Aug 2006 highly regarded detective Sharon Rhodes is put onto the case and is asked to reinvestigate the whole thing. She organises searches in hopes of finding Tegan's body.
They search a property connected to Duncan Gillies, Keli's ex-boyfriend, but find nothing. They start to gather DNA from every one that had a connection to Keli so that if they found Tegan's body, they could find out who the father was, if it wasn't Andrew Norris. The search continues for two years, Keli never admitted that she had anything to do with the alleged murder of Tegan saying as far as she is concerned Tegan is still alive.
Then in 2008 Keli is charged with the murder of Tegan and 3 counts of purgery, the three counts of purgery allow the prosecution to bring up the other pregnancies, the concealment, and the stacks of lies that Keli had told. This clearly puts doubt on her character and discredits anything else she might say. Keli's defence team haven’t spoken publicly about the trail.
I'm not surprised, her defence team aren’t great. They make some questionable decisions.
I don’t want to get into this hugely as it’s another deep rabbit hole but there are a few issues with her defence, one being a man called Ben Archbold, who was part of Keli's team and was also a former big brother contestant. Make of that what you will.
It's actually detective Sharon Rhodes that eventually gets this case to trial but it's important to note that she left the police quickly after, when she was contacted to speak for the exposed documentary, she reveals how underprepared the investigation into Keli Lane had been, how it was full of holes and how she felt pressured to get a conviction.
When the trial finally arrives, Keli is accused of killing her baby and disposing of the body somewhere in between leaving the hospital and arriving home meaning that her story about giving the child to its biological father was pure fantasy.
seventy-five plus witnesses were called to the stand for the prosecution and zero witnesses were called to the stand for the defence. The jury deliberated for eight days, Keli was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years.
Rightly or wrongly it is clear that the police put a lot of effort into persuading everybody that Keli had murdered Tegan, but they do not appear to put much effort into trying to confirm anything she has said is true.
It was as if they had decided that she was guilty before investigating the crime fully, so intentionally or not worked with confirmation bias.
They focussed heavily on the name of Andrew Morris Norris, instead of where he lived or what he looked like; No photo fit was made until the documentary was filmed.
The documentary is certainly worth a watch because it tries to validate some of Keli's claims, something that I’ve not seen done before. It just keeps raising more issues and more questions.
During the recording of the ABC documentary an anonymous source gave the investigators access to previously never before seen police documents files and recordings.
These files revealed that at the time of the Keli Lane investigation a huge internal investigation regarding police corruption was happening in Manly. Six officers were being charged with drug trafficking, corruption, and theft. Detective Matthew Kehoe, who was a friend of Robert Lane, and was working on the Keli Lane case, before Gaurt, was not suspected of being corrupt but says that during one of many probes into the task force evidence and statements could have been compromised.
Keli has been very vocal in telling everybody how she is innocent she speaks with consistency; she is adamant that Teagan is being looked after by a man she knows as Andrew Norris and maybe she is?
Keli said that she met him in the bar, he has friends, one that was referred to as Dipper.
She had been to his place, although she couldn't remember exactly where it was apart from it being in Balmain. When she was taken to the area by police, she identified a block of flats and became certain that it was the home of Andrew Norris, however when police
interviewed everybody available in the apartments, no Andrew Norris or Morris was found.
I said everybody available and that's the point. It could be argued that the investigation into the apartment complex was not carried out meticulously. There was a lot of room for error, apartments could have been sublet, people could've given false names, and nothing was cross-referenced.
But most interestingly apartment 10, which happens to be the apartment that Keli identified as belonging to Andrew Norris, is the one apartment where they cannot find the name of the tenant who lived there for most of 1995.
The information around the apartment is fascinating because as well as supposedly checking past tenants the police reportedly showed the residents a photo of Keli and noted that nobody had recognised her or seen her there at the time. As part of the Documentary’s investigation it comes to light that – shocker! not everybody was questioned, and a resident called Daryl, who ABC questioned, says that he does indeed recognise Keli and remembers her from being around the apartment block at that time.
But after all of this time how accurate can people’s memories be?
He seems sure but I’m not sure how credible he is, I’m also not sure what other motive he has except for two mins exposure on a documentary? He says he saw her regularly and he is willing to testify to that. He corroborates Keli’s story and validates Andrew Norris/Morris.
Yeah. Exactly, and there are more inconsistencies also. Questions are raised surrounding the very small-time frame in which Keli would have to kill her child and dispose of the body.
Notes written by a nurse at the hospital show that she was discharged with the baby at 2pm, her family say she arrived at 3 PM. I don't know what I think about this because it is a very small timeframe in which to kill a Child but it's also a very small timeframe in which to handover a child. But then even this timeframe has been called into question. The nurse who gave this initial timeframe changes her statement before the trial and says that perhaps Keli was discharged closer to 11 AM. That nurse has made no further statements. The time she actually left the hospital is still disputed because of this.
That’s very strange, I know there are other members of staff who corroborate the 2pm theory, the discharging doctor in particular. I have written in patient notes before and you write the time you make the notation. So for me, how her notes are written Kelly was told she could leave at 2pm, If she were writing it retrospectively it would be written differently. Also maternity wards are very different from usual wards, higher security, etc. For me, it’s raising a lot of issues what is her motive for killing this child? Why her and none of the others?
The media made a huge deal about Keli playing water polo and potentially ending up in the Olympics, they stated this is the reason why she had murdered her child. However people that knew Keli said that she didn't aspire to be in the Olympics, yes, she was good at water polo and was well-known for the sport, but her passion was in teaching, and she would never want to give up her party lifestyle to focus on being an athlete.
In the run-up to the trial the prosecution found an Andrew Norris who had visited the manly area at about the same time that Kelly became pregnant. This Andrew said that he had had sex with a girl whilst visiting the area and the police suggested that perhaps it could've been Keli. They showed him a picture and he agreed that she did look familiar. The ABC documentary manage to get hold of exclusive footage showing an interview with Andrew Morris, this interview was recorded by the police five months before the trial. In the police video this Andrew Morris claims that he had sex with Keli outdoors unprotected and offered to walk her home.
It turns out that the reason Andrew Morris never gave evidence at the trial is because of an agreement between the prosecution and the defence. The prosecution would get Andrew Morris off the stand if the defence removed their star witness, Keli's friend Natalie.
Natalie remembered the existence of Andrew Norris around the time that Keli claimed she was having a relationship with him. She would give credibility to Keli and her story, so they used Andrew as a bargaining tool. Now Andrew says he is not sure that it was Keli at all, he believes that police put pressure on him. Was he just part of the game played by the prosecution in order to secure the conviction that they so desperately wanted?
This whole case is a joke, the investigation is flawed as is the actual trial, I am surprised that they managed to secure a conviction to be fair. But like you’ve said Keli does lie so much, it doesn’t look good. So I found the psychiatric evaluation of Keli particularly interesting, as part of the exposed programme Keli agreed to be assessed for the first time. the psychologist that analysed Keli in a face-to-face assessment is a lady called Ann Buist and she specialises in the psychology of mothers who abuse and sometimes kill their children. After meeting Keli and speaking to her extensively she reported that in her expert opinion; Keli has no psychological diagnosis, she’s not a clinical pathological liar nor a narcissist, she acted because she was scared of bringing disgrace onto her family which is a belief she had developed during childhood.
And she then further claims that after her psychological assessment she believes it is unlikely that Keli killed her child, and it simply does not fit; and I agree with that part. What she does say is that Keli seemed uncomfortable when using the name Andrew Norris and this was at odds with her otherwise confidant re telling.
yeah, it was very interesting. What I found really interesting was how much this case has impacted all involved. After the trial, the judge quit, and not a while later, straight after the Keli Lane case. Speaking in 2018, he said if he was on the jury, he wouldn't have been able to say she was guilty.
Sharon Rhodes has been medically retired from the fast after suffering from PTSD she believes stems from the Keli Lane case.
It is clear that many people who were close to the case feel that it has not been solved, the outcome is unsatisfactory whether Keli took the life of Tegan or not; Tegan has never been found.
In 2018 Kelly admitted that she may have been lied to or perhaps didn’t remember the name Andrew Norris correctly; but she still stands by story.
Many people who knew her as a teenager and in her 20s say that she is incapable of killing her child, but we have to remember these are the same people that believed her lies for so long.
She is eligible for parole in 2023.
Before spending hours poring over this case, I had a simplistic version in my head I thought she hid a pregnancy and killed the baby, but it is so much more than that. I feel that as an outsider I still only know the very tip of the iceberg, there will be people in Manly that know much more than I ever possibly could, but it is clear that only one person or maybe three will know exactly what happened on that day.
Do I think that Kelly killed her daughter? I have to wonder why she would, given the adoption process had worked out so well for the times before, and if she did why is there no scientific evidence? and where is Tegan's body?
But I don't believe she's telling the truth I wonder if she even realises that she's lying and if she does then why and who is she trying to protect. From what I do know I don't think she was given a fair trial. Kelly what's your opinion on this case?
(By K)
I am a little bit obsessed with this case now to be fair. It’s a tough one for me. Firstly Keli, what the fuck were you doing love. abortions and adoptions as a form of birth control. No, there’s no excuse. if she had put as much effort into not becoming pregnant as she did into covering them up then she wouldn’t be in prison now. It’s just fucking ignorant and lazy.
That said it is also very hard to go through, I can’t imagine a termination is easy, I imagine an adoption could be even harder emotionally. I can’t understand her mind set, why put herself through all that.
I agree with you, why? There’s no motive for me, even if stressed and in an emotional state of mind, she has cared for these children, she has nursed them and been involved in the adoptions, all except Tegan; it just doesn’t fit for me. Why was this one so different? I do think there is some substance to what you said about what is she lying about and why, I think she is covering for someone, and I’m not fully convinced it’s herself. I don’t think it’s Andrew Norris/Morris either that’s just her name for him. There’s a few things she says in the interviews that make me think that this person could potentially be someone we have mentioned in the episode today or have a connection to an institution we’ve mentioned today? There has to be something or else why does she keep denying it?
It makes no sense. She’s not daft, our Keli. She has every opportunity to lie, to get herself out of the situation or into a better position than she were/is. In the interview, at the start of this shit show- Det. Gaurt gives her the chance to tell the truth and she pauses for 1min & 4 seconds before responding no! Very strange. Could have lawyered up. Could have lied again.
When she was offered immunity, she could have admitted to killing Tegan, she could have said she was suffering from post-natal depression she could have engineered a suitable believable situation where she would have got a lesser if not no sentence, or one she had already served if you get me. But no. She’s so confident, and you are only that confident if you know a) there is no chance in hell anyone is ever going to find your child or b) you are telling the truth and one day you are gonna get your moment of glory.
There have been a lot of cases similar to Keli’s, - Brooke Skylar Richardson springs to mind, in particular, and I see a lot of similarities in the relationship to the parents there too.
In the majority of these cases the defendant got a negligible sentence, for killing a new-born baby or for tampering with a corpse. Yet Keli is still in prison now.
I feel like Australia has form for this, Lindy chamberlain is another one, she was convicted of her baby daughters murder in 1982. Much like Keli there was no body, no evidence, an almost unbelievable story, and a relentless media barrage. But they were wrong and after new evidence was discovered that corroborated her story she was released and later pardoned along with her husband Michael.
There’s another case too, Susan Neill Fraser. Again Australia and again a severe sentence for murder despite no evidence and no body.
Has the Australian judicial system got it in for women?
And I feel these are all very similar to Keli’s case, and the key point is - if Keli can be convicted and put in prison with no evidence and no body, then any one of us can. And that is terrifying.
So I do hope for Keli’s sake that this is how her story ends, the bridge of hope innocence initiative at RMIT uni is involved with the case now. And hopefully Keli will be released to reunite with her daughter, who you can see she clearly loves and misses terribly.
I think there’s a message to in Keli’s story too, I really don’t think that her parents would have reacted that badly. I think they would have shouted and screamed for a bit but ultimately that would have been it, they’d have managed the situation. I wonder if after Keli’s first live birth, after the two terminations, if she had kept that child, gone through the agg with the parents and just been with the father or a single mum I wonder if she would have been happy. I think that sometimes when your young you think that it’s better or easier to lie about things when in reality if you had gone to your parents, it wouldn’t be that bad. I say that with a sense of entitlement, I know it isn’t like that for everyone, but I do think it would have been for Keli.
As usual do your own research and check out our sources, that was great Dani, thank you so much I’m really glad you covered it.
Dani, yes thank you again Laura for the suggestion if you have a case, you’d like us to cover then please get in touch.
We’ll be back next week with another mini - we’re going to cover two more cases for you. This time with the shared theme of pride, so they are lgbtq+ cases.
Sources.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-had-no-idea-keli-was-pregnant-20050625-gdlkrx.html
Red-handed - Episode 173 and 174
Exposed: the Keli Lane case
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2011/289.html
https://www.nowtolove.com.au/news/real-life/exclusise-keli-lane-investigation-about-what-happened-to-baby-tegan-9136
http://www.bohii.net/keli-lane
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCCA/2013/317.html%20
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/fb-6204159/KELI-LANE-TIMELINE-PREGNANCIES.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/fpqzbd/no_body_no_evidence_of_a_crime_why_is_keli_lane/
https://www.ruleoflaw.org.au/keli-lane-case-note/
https://www.nowtolove.com.au/news/local-news/keli-lane-harrasment-55785
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