Mothers Who Murder

by Xanthe Mallett

  Lane changed her story when she spoke to Fung, telling her that the baby’s father had abandoned her when he learnt of the pregnancy, and that she intended to return to London soon. Lane was reassured that the adoption process was discreet. She left hospital without the baby, again quietly, without telling anyone she was going. Lane had given her address as the one belonging to Gillies in Gladesville, and this time did not contact the hospital to cancel the post-partum checks. Consequently, when the nurse went to Gillies’ residence in search of Lane she was informed that not only had Lane never lived there, but Gillies had sold the house over eighteen months earlier. The lies were beginning to unravel.

  From then on Lane made sure she was hard to track down and didn’t answer her phone. When Fung did finally find her, Lane changed her story again, this time claiming that Gillies was cold and distant. Lane’s son was initially fostered for one month but by the end of June his long-term future had to be settled. However, Lane remained elusive to social services, so the baby became officially an abandoned child, with no real legal status. This was unwise of Lane, as it created exactly the kind of attention and scrutiny she was trying to avoid.

  Things were going to get worse for Lane though, as Fung was as yet unaware of Tegan’s existence. But when Fung could not reach Lane, she tried instead to contact the father – Duncan Gillies, according to Lane – to satisfy herself that he consented to the adoption. When Fung spoke to Gillies he was confused, as he and Lane had not been together for some time, he did not live with her, had never been in London with her, and he was engaged to be married to someone else. After this conversation, Fung did some more digging and realised that some of the faxes that had been provided had actually come from Ravenswood School, in Sydney, and not London as Lane had claimed. Fung then knew that Lane had lied about being in London and that Gillies was not the father. What else had she lied about? This raised some serious concerns.

  Due to all this, Lane was deemed unfit to continue with the adoption process and was advised to seek professional psychological help. Fung persevered in her search for the truth and a suitable resolution for the baby. In a conversation with Lane in mid-1999 Lane told Fung that the father’s name was actually Aaron Williams, a London banker with whom she had no contact. Lane was asked if she had any more children; Lane said that the boy was her first child. She also requested a visitation with him, which went well. If this was a set of circumstances devised by Lane to put Fung’s mind at rest then it worked – the adoption procedures were resumed.

  In July 1999, Virginia Fung contacted the Department of Community Services in Katoomba as she was concerned over continuing the adoption and the legal status of Lane’s new baby. The initial month-long foster care agreement signed by Lane was going to expire soon, and Fung had been unable to get hold of Keli to extend it. John Borovnik was assigned as the baby’s caseworker, for the purpose of obtaining a care order and processing the child’s care needs. Before placing baby Aaron, however, Borovnik did some investigations of his own and came across Lane’s medical records from Ryde Hospital, which showed clear evidence that she had been pregnant and attended the hospital in 1996. As a result, he found out about Tegan’s birth at Auburn Hospital that same year. So this was not Keli’s first child as she claimed. More was to come; a little additional digging uncovered the fact that Lane had actually had two children before the son she now offered for adoption, both formally listed as being fathered by Gillies (unbeknown to him).

  On 18 October 1999 Borovnik contacted Lane and asked her about Tegan’s birth. Lane denied that she had had a child in 1996, but admitted her first child’s birth in 1995. She also denied that she had been at Ryde Hospital for pre-natal care in 1996, even though he had found the records that clearly showed she was lying. Lane’s denials did not convince the astute social worker that Keli had not had a baby, and he told her he would have to pass the information to the police for further investigation. The child born in 1996 had to be found. True to his word, on 4 November Borovnik contacted the local police in Katoomba, which is the nearest policing area to Auburn Hospital where Tegan had been born, alerting them to the circumstances of the missing child.

  Fung, armed with the information from Borovnik, challenged Lane about the existence of the previous children. Lane said she felt she had to lie otherwise she feared no one would help her. Keli still tried to convince Fung that she had only had two children: the first born in 1995 and the most recent birth in 1999. Official documents showed that her first child had been adopted, but one question now remained – where was Tegan? This question remains unanswered even today, almost twenty years later.

  Social services were still working towards permanently homing Lane’s latest child, and now focused on finding the alleged father, the banker from London, but all their efforts failed to locate him. They also tried to trace the homebirth midwife Lane had named on admittance to hospital, Julie Melville. Now a further link, and lie, was ripe for the finding. All social services had to do was contact Julie Melville, aka Julie Gillies – Duncan Gillies’ mother – and the fact that Lane lied about her midwife would be confirmed.

  Late in 1999, over three years after Tegan’s birth, the police investigation was transferred from Katoomba Police Station to Manly Police Station where it came under the supervision of Detective Matthew Kehoe. Although a good detective, it took Kehoe over eighteen months to interview Lane. I wonder if this was because Lane simply does not fit the picture of a woman anyone would think would harm her child. Perhaps Kehoe saw this as an unresolved missing person’s case and that ultimately the toddler would be found safe and well somewhere. Warning signs were in place, however, and lies in evidence, as Kehoe did seek out and interview Julie Melville (nee Gillies). This obviously led to Duncan Gillies learning of Tegan’s birth in 1996, but mother and son were as confused as each other as neither knew anything about a baby girl, born to Keli and apparently fathered by Duncan.

  In 2000 Keli became pregnant for the sixth time, this time to a house-guest of the Lanes. While pregnant, and now in a new relationship, in February 2001 Lane was eventually interviewed by the police about Tegan’s location. Lane told Kehoe that Tegan was with her biological father, a man named Andrew Morris, who lived in Balmain, but with whom she had lost contact years before. She maintained that she had handed Tegan over safe and well. However, when formally interviewed at Manly a few days later, it was discovered that Lane still had Tegan’s Medicare card in her possession. This was later used to undermine Lane’s claim that she had given the child to her biological father, the question being why would she hand over the baby but keep the Medicare card, as the baby would surely need it. Kehoe then searched for Tegan’s birth certificate, but as Lane had never returned the paperwork it didn’t exist, meaning Tegan had no official legal status. Momentum was lost and for months the case was left stagnating.

  Detective Richard Gaut took over the Lane case in October 2001, and at first was focused on rectifying Tegan’s apparent lack of legal status by ensuring that her birth was registered properly. To do this, he had to find her father, Andrew Morris. Again, the search proved fruitless, as this name was – according to the Crown at trial – fictitious. Gaut re-interviewed Lane, and this time she gave the name of Andrew Norris, and again told the police that she had been visited by the biological father in hospital, together with his partner, known to Keli only as Mel, and his mother and that the couple had agreed to take the baby once Keli left hospital. Lane gave eight different versions of events during the course of the investigation, the final one being that the exchange took place in the hospital car park. Gaut now contacted Medicare and found that no claims had been made for medical treatment for Tegan at any point. It would be remarkable for a five-year-old toddler to have never been sick or require any medical intervention of any sort. Gaut also wanted to confirm that Lane had actually been pregnant, as she had initially denied Tegan’s existence, so he checked with her water polo teammates who corroborated that they believed Lan
e had been pregnant in 1996. The police investigation now focused on determining whether Tegan was alive or not.

  Lane was not interviewed about the matter again until May 2003. Rental records for the Balmain area in which Lane said Tegan’s biological father had lived with his partner had been searched, but no trace could be found of either an Andrew Morris or Norris. At interview she admitted that she had lied on several occasions, to both nursing staff and social workers, regarding her personal circumstances. Lane claimed that she felt she had to keep her various pregnancies and births secret from her family and friends as she feared their reaction, saying during numerous interviews that she felt she had no choice.

  Gaut at this time still classed it as a missing child case, and decided to forward the matter to the coroner for further inquiries as there seemed to be no hope of solving it without additional intervention. And baby Tegan needed to be found and her safety verified.

  However, Lane was now under some suspicion, and on 4 January 2004, Gaut received permission to tap her telephone. Lane was formally interviewed again on 8 January, and by this time was frightened as she knew the coronial inquiry would be public. It was now inevitable that her family would find out about all three of the babies and the abortions. Lane and her fiancé planned to get married in February 2004, and as it was going to come out anyway, Lane elected to tell him, as well as her mother, about Tegan.

  Shortly afterwards, on 14 March 2004, Tegan’s case was referred to the New South Wales Coroner as one of possible murder. More police interviews followed in November 2004, which Lane found very traumatic. She was scared, and quite unlike the normally calm and collected woman people had come to know – a veneer that remained intact even under the most emotional circumstances such as having just given birth. Dr Thompson, the general practitioner treating Lane at this time, described her as being distraught, and she confided in him about how unhappy she had been. But she strenuously denied hurting Tegan.

  Lane’s family, contrary to her fears, were supportive, both emotionally and financially. They hired a QC6 to represent her at the coronial inquest, an expense which was far beyond their means. As is her legal right, Lane was advised to say as little as possible. Her refusal to contribute, together with the amount of time since the birth had occurred as well as the slow police response, served to undermine the success of the proceedings. Up until this point, the Coroner’s Court had kept the case quiet as the media had been restricted by a non-publication order, but that changed when the court decided to open the case to public scrutiny via the media. The aim was twofold: to find out what had happened to baby Tegan and to find her biological father.

  The coroner had made a brave choice. By opening the case up for public attention, it was hoped that information would be forthcoming that would help solve the mystery of Tegan’s whereabouts. Perhaps the family with whom Tegan was living would themselves contact police. Throughout the proceedings the coroner repeatedly asked the public, via the media, to help with the investigation. In fact, if the coroner’s appeal for someone to come forward did not make it into the stories the press ran he occasionally berated the reporters for the omission.

  And scrutinise the public did. As with any case of this nature where a mother is accused of harming their child, media and public interest will be significant. The case was described in the media as ‘bizarre’ and a ‘mystery’. The image of Lane and Gillies together at the wedding, just hours after Lane left hospital and Tegan disappeared, was plastered across the papers.

  No family came forward, however, and in June 2005, the coroner, John Abernethy (State Coroner from 2000 to 2007), began the official inquiry. It was the coroner’s duty to determine if Tegan was in fact likely to be dead, and if so he had to indicate to the police who they should pursue for her murder. Key witnesses were heard, including Fung and Borovnik, as well as Gaut. Also to give evidence to the coroner were Duncan Gillies and his mother, Julie, as well as other friends of the couple. When Duncan gave evidence it was revealed that a DNA test of Keli’s first baby revealed he was not the father, even though they were in a relationship at the time; it was also revealed to Gillies that he was named as the father for all three of Lane’s secret births. He gave evidence that he had no suspicions about either the affair or the pregnancies; being named as a father three times came as a shock to him. The mystery continued, but it was clear that Duncan had no knowledge of Keli’s pregnancy with Tegan and that he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

  Robert Lane, Keli’s father, also took the stand and gave evidence that he at no time had any idea his daughter was pregnant, but that he could not believe Keli would ever harm a child regardless of the surrounding circumstances. Lane’s mother, Sandra, did not attend the court throughout the proceedings, but was summoned and asked to comment on her views of abortion and ex-nuptial births. She said she would have supported her daughter regardless of local negative opinion. (Remember, the Lanes were a prominent, successful family in a small close-knit community – which may have fuelled Lane’s fears of rejection by her family.) This appears true, as they did hire a high-powered barrister to defend her, so perhaps Keli’s fears were all imagined.

  Keli herself did not initially want to give evidence in her defence, and she could not legally be compelled to do so. The coroner and Lane’s QC discussed that Lane might have been concerned that she might incriminate herself while under oath. After some discourse, Lane did reluctantly take the stand, but Abernethy reminded her that she was not obliged to answer any questions that she felt might incriminate her. This was especially relevant as by this stage it was clear that, as Tegan Lane could not be found, Keli was going to remain the focus of a police investigation into Tegan’s disappearance. Therefore it was important as she did not want anything she may say at the coronial inquiry to be used against her in the future should the case progress to criminal proceedings. Obviously, Lane believed the circumstances surrounding Tegan’s birth might do just that, as when she did finally take the stand, on the last day of the coronial inquest, she would only confirm that she did not wish to answer the question posed to her – what happened to Tegan when she left hospital with her. This sent the media into a frenzy and from then onwards Keli and Tegan Lane were headline news.

  Over a year after the whole process began the hearing was coming towards its conclusion, but Abernethy was really no closer to finding Tegan Lane. After various breaks in proceedings to allow evidence and witnesses to be sourced and after the months taken to search all the records and contact all the witnesses, Coroner Abernethy released his report on 15 February 2006. It raised several key points: 1) no body had ever been found (that remains the case to this day); 2) Lane had put her first and third children up for adoption; and 3) baby Tegan could have been given to the biological father. However, he also concluded damningly that in his opinion Tegan was dead, although there was currently insufficient evidence to charge anyone. He recorded an open finding, meaning the case would remain undecided, and ordered that all of the information be forwarded to the homicide section of New South Wales Police.

  Ten years after Tegan’s birth, the New South Wales homicide squad assembled a task force to investigate and hopefully solve the strange case of the missing child. The task force included two detectives, as well as fifteen other intelligence and police staff. They had a mammoth job in front of them – including re-checking all the birth records for the relevant period, as well as all school records nationwide of ten-year-old female children. All details were again meticulously cross-referenced, and DNA samples were collected from over 1000 children. All of the 86,430 female babies born in New South Wales between 1996 and September 1997 were checked, and none could be Tegan Lane. Glebe morgue investigated the death records of unidentified deceased children, but again none could be the missing child. The police determined that there were no ‘foundlings’ in New South Wales in 1996, the term used by the Department of Health for babies abandoned at police stations, hospitals or other places where som
eone is likely to find them. Forty-one men were found across Australia with the name Andrew Norris, all of whom were investigated and discounted as possibly being Tegan’s father, following a search of the following records:7

  electoral rolls for a person of those names living in the Balmain/Rozelle area in 1996

  University of Sydney (as Lane thought he may have studied there) records for persons of that name enrolled in the last twenty years with birth dates between 1960 and 1970

  New South Wales Water Polo Association, and various water polo clubs, records

  Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) records

  Centrelink records

  Australia Post records

  Department of Fair Trading records regarding the lodgement of rental bonds

  police records concerning reports of missing persons by the name Andrew Norris