Mystery Death Not Accidental

Another victim was found naked in long grass by Meadowbrook TAFE students last night. It comes after a thirty-five-year-old woman was hanged by her own camera’s strap near a bridge last month. A third, yet-to-be-identified body, was discovered by joggers near a water storage facility north of Brisbane — one common link being that all three deaths occurred during nights of thunderstorms.

Nina de Jong’s death is a turning point. Her body isn’t found in a public place. She is located in a suburban backyard. There are glass shards surrounding her muddied body, and police claim she may have even been raped before she died. There’s no certainty. Evidence is destroyed after a night of torrential downpours.

We realise there’s a change in the method of this murder. Her killing is much more personal. It’s a clue the media overlooks as it charges forward with a sensationalised version of the story. It skews the official investigation, delays it, and misleads a fearful public eager to see a villain arrested and removed from society.

The previous murders weren’t so dramatic or as intimate. There was a certain distance between them and their killer. Linking the ladies by their height, shape, hair colour, or ethnicity is impossible. There are no similarities between them, and neither knew of the other. The link isn’t easy to find. It could be buried in history.

Sarah Foley wasn’t always a Foley. A long time ago, she was a little girl who went by her parents’ name. Long-forgotten childhood sweethearts rarely look recognisable after marriage, children and twenty more years. Samantha should’ve listened to her husband when he suspected something. The killings could’ve stopped right then and there.

Maxine’s demise was explained in other ways. She was doing something irresponsible in a precarious place at a dangerous time. Investigators labelled her death a misadventure. Anyone would’ve thought the same. There was nothing about her death to connect them to the others.

But then there was Nina, a sweet blonde and single mother trying to rebuild her life after a messy and violent divorce. She wanted her affair to remain a secret so as not to spoil it.

Her friends and family knew nothing of her new relationship. She’d barely told herself. It was an exhilarating escape from the disaster of her previous life. The attention she received was welcomed. She felt that if the affair was to be brief, then let it be fabulous. She deserved it. There was nothing wrong with feeling the warmth of the sunshine.

Our murderer, the mysterious lover, and Nina become conscious of each other at a juncture. She is the key. Unfortunately, no one in her neighbourhood heard her glass doors shatter. Like her life, her screams were lost to the storm. According to those who were interviewed, she was a loner who kept to herself.

We discover in SEETHINGS that, for some killers, murder is an escape too.

It’s not about revenge.

Revenge is yet to come.

–Michael Forman (Author of SEETHINGS, free for a limited time)