This week Monique and Jess analyse the importance of the first 24 hours of a murder investigation.
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00:00When Alison Seeley's boyfriend Stan Benson tried to call her on August 1, 2003, there
00:08was no answer.
00:09Stan lived in Hamilton, which is an hour north of Warrnambool, where Alison lived.
00:16On that day, he tried several times without any luck.
00:21The two had spoken the night before, about 9pm.
00:25Alison had been at dinner with friends, but she left early because she had a sore throat.
00:33The two chatted for about 40 minutes and said they would talk again the next day.
00:39So when Alison didn't answer her phone, he became worried.
00:43He asked their mutual friend Hannah Robbins, who had a key to Alison's unit, to go to her
00:47home.
00:48About 5pm, she found the front door locked.
00:51She used her key and was shocked by the horrific scene she found inside.
00:57Her dear friend was partly naked in bed and she'd been smashed over the head with a blunt
01:03object.
01:04There was no sign of forced entry and her killer had covered her with a doona, the classic
01:09sign that the killer knew the victim.
01:15Last week we launched our investigation into the murder of Alison Seeley in her Warrnambool
01:19home.
01:21The 35-year-old was found in her Warnstead Street home on August 1, 2003.
01:27My name's Monique Patterson and I, together with my colleague Jess Howard, hope to find
01:32answers for Alison's family.
01:34This week we actually went into Alison's unit and we went into where her poor friend found
01:40her, a body that was a bit of a sort of a surreal experience given what we've been looking
01:46into in the past couple of weeks.
01:48It was certainly surreal, Mon.
01:50And it was interesting to note the bedroom faced directly onto Raglan Parade, which is
01:55a main thoroughfare here in Warnambool.
01:58What did you think about that?
01:59When you drive there, you don't realise that her bedroom window looks out onto a back fence.
02:00It's not a big yard, so it looks like there's a metre or two before the fence.
02:01And then over the fence, there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said, is a main
02:02thoroughfare.
02:03When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:04is a main thoroughfare.
02:05When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:06is a main thoroughfare.
02:07When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:08is a main thoroughfare.
02:09When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:10is a main thoroughfare.
02:11When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:12is a main thoroughfare.
02:13When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:14is a main thoroughfare.
02:15When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:16is a main thoroughfare.
02:17When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:18is a main thoroughfare.
02:19When you're driving there, it looks like there's a footpath and the highway, which as you said,
02:20is a main thoroughfare.
02:22So that was interesting because it does look like that could be potentially an easy entry
02:28point for an offender, but then we do know that there wasn't actually any signs of forced
02:33entry.
02:34But it was certainly interesting to see that there was that the proximity to the highway
02:40just made you think, didn't it?
02:42We spoke to a few neighbours and the neighbours that did live there at the time, it's very
02:46clear that they want answers and they just talk about the fact that it would be so hard
02:51on Alison's family after all this time that no one has been held accountable for taking
02:56her life at such a young age of 35.
03:00Absolutely.
03:01I think a lot of people who live on that street and Alison's family absolutely want answers.
03:05Jess, you obviously had a chat to Charlie Bazzina.
03:08Tell me how that went.
03:09That's right, Monique.
03:10So Charlie Bazzina is one of Victoria's most successful and longest serving homicide squad
03:16detectives and while he didn't actually personally investigate Alison's case, he was involved
03:21in more than 150 homicide cases before his retirement in 2009.
03:26He spoke to me about the importance of time in murder cases.
03:31He says time is the enemy and the importance of people coming forward with information,
03:36even in the decades after a suspicious death and even if they think that information is not important.
03:41Responding to a homicide or suspicious death in the first instance is so crucial and time
03:47is always against you.
03:48Time is your enemy on a number of facets because you need to get to the crime scene.
03:53The preservation of the crime scene is so important because the crime scene will tell
03:57you a story and you need to have the experience to be able to interpret what the crime scene
04:01is telling you and then ultimately interpret what the deceased is telling you once you
04:05go to the post-mortem.
04:06So all of these things are a factor and then identifying your evidence trail and then following
04:12your evidence of where that takes you because that's so significant and more so with witnesses
04:17because of the freshness of their minds and what they've seen or heard and then secondly
04:22possibly identifying an accused person or persons of interest and because of that importance
04:28of time is you will not hopefully then lose any incriminating evidence.
04:32As time goes on, the trail gets cold, people disappear, they've got the ability to flee
04:38the country.
04:39Time is always the enemy.
04:40How different would you say an investigation of this kind would be today compared to 21
04:46years ago?
04:47Would there have been challenges faced back then that might not be faced today?
04:51The challenge you've got today is certainly memory of witnesses and people that knew her.
04:56The difficulties you've got now is the passage of time of you've lost any evidentiary evidence
05:01which might be through DNA and the likes of it.
05:03You might try and identify witnesses' memories, witnesses that have died and try and resurrect
05:08what we call now a cold case as opposed to when it was actually attended to back when
05:13it happened.
05:14So you have more chance of solving it then because everything is so fresh.
05:17You never lose hope because people may be carrying that guilt, that consciousness of having some
05:23knowledge of it and either ridding themselves of that guilt and then contacting the police.
05:28I think the important thing is, and like you're doing, is keeping it in the public arena because
05:32people just lose track of it and say, oh, I wonder if it happened to that case.
05:36And when they see something in the media, they can say, oh, look at that, I'm going
05:39to go forward and I'm going to give some information.
05:41And police investigators will always look for that little piece of information that
05:45could fill the puzzle that they might have, which might well identify the culprit and
05:51give them enough evidence to charge somebody.
05:54And Mon, we also spoke to former Warrnambool detective Colin Ryan this week about, I guess,
05:59the atmosphere in Warrnambool as it happened.
06:02What did he say about that?
06:04As we've heard from neighbours, how big of a shock it was to the community.
06:07Obviously, murder is a rarity in a city like Warrnambool, especially back then, 21 years ago.
06:13He also spoke about how important it is to get as much information you can as soon as
06:18possible after an incident like this.
06:21And he also implored anyone with information to come forward.
06:26Tell us, back then, how big of a shock was it that a seemingly innocent woman who was
06:32a hard worker, much loved, was murdered in her own home?
06:36Back then, a murder in Warrnambool was a rarity.
06:40It certainly was a great shock for the community.
06:44You hear a lot that the first 48 hours are the most important in these types of investigations.
06:49Would you believe that in your experience?
06:51Yes, well, the first 24 hours, the closest time to the event is the important time,
06:57when the crime scene is still fresh and the clues are obtained.
07:01The great hope of all investigators is that the unknown person's out there with that
07:06little bit of information that can solve cases comes forward.
07:11Thank you for listening.
07:14That was Answers for Allison.
07:16Make sure you're subscribed to the Warrnambool Standard to keep up to date with the investigation.
07:21The Standard is available online or through our newsletters and app.
07:25If you have information about the case, please email answersforallison at gmail.com.
07:32That's Allison with two L's.
07:34A-L-L-I-S-O-N.
07:38Thank you again for listening and we'll see you in the next episode.