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Supreme Court of New South Wales<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nOn a cold winter\u2019s day in June 2002, an intellectually disabled teenage girl disappeared from the New South Wales Riverina without a trace.<\/p>\n Since then, the mystery of what happened to Amber Haigh has captivated the vast Australian farming region, due to a stunning allegation: that the 19-year-old was killed by the father of her five-month-old baby and his wife, so that they could take her child.<\/p>\n Two decades on, Robert and Anne Geeves – both 64 – were charged with her murder, but on Monday were acquitted after a high-profile trial.<\/p>\n Justice Julia Lonergan found that prosecutors had failed to prove their alleged motive, saying: “Cases are not decided on rumour, speculation or suspicion.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Geeveses are the last known people to have seen Amber alive. They have long said they dropped her at a train station 300km (186 miles) from their home in Kingsvale – where the three had been living at the time – so that she could visit her dying father on 5 June.<\/p>\n Despite extensive police investigations, a coronial inquiry, and a million-dollar reward for information, her body has never been found.<\/p>\n Prosecutors relied on witness testimony and hundreds of documents to support their theory – that the Geeveses had \u201cmanipulated\u201d Amber into having Robert\u2019s baby, and then \u201cremoved\u201d her \u201cfrom the equation\u201d when she wouldn\u2019t relinquish custody.<\/p>\n The court heard the couple had an adult son – who had previously dated Amber – but in the early 2000s still \u201cdesperately\u201d wanted another child, having endured several miscarriages and a stillbirth.<\/p>\n However, the defence said the allegation they killed Amber to steal her baby was baseless, and that the investigation into the pair – who have spent two years in prison awaiting trial – was flawed from the start.<\/p>\n They told the court a \u201chaze of mistrust\u201d had clouded the local community\u2019s view of the Geeveses due to Robert\u2019s history – which included acquittals for the murder of an ex-partner who was found shot in the face on his property, and sexual assault charges involving two schoolgirls.<\/p>\n That past, the Geeveses’ lawyers said, had created a \u201cpresumption of guilt\u201d that persisted for decades, and ultimately \u201cblinded\u201d police as they looked for Amber.<\/p>\n Over nine weeks, dozens of witnesses gave evidence about the final months of the teen’s life \u2013 describing a “kind hearted” yet \u201cvulnerable\u201d young woman who struggled to discern between \u201clove and exploitation\u201d.<\/p>\n Two recalled how Amber had shared stories of abuse with them – including instances where Robert Geeves had allegedly plied her with alcohol, tied her up, and had sex with her.<\/p>\n And the couple\u2019s son Robbie told the court that his mother had referred to his ex-girlfriend as a \u201csurrogate\u201d and that both parents had turned up at his home in the dead of night asking him to accept Amber\u2019s child as his “little brother\u201d.<\/p>\n The prosecution also tendered an agreement Amber made Robert sign, promising not to take her child, as well as a will she\u2019d created stipulating her aunt be given custody of the baby in the event of her death.<\/p>\n “There was little sign, in the sea of evidence in this case, that Amber was ever shown the love she needed or deserved,” Justice Lonergan said, adding that it is clear \u201cbeyond a reasonable doubt” that she is dead.<\/p>\n But the judge ultimately found a critical \u201cproblem\u201d with the prosecution\u2019s case – there was \u201cno satisfactory evidence\u201d that Anne and Robert still held a desire for more children when Amber became pregnant.<\/p>\n She criticised the accounts of prosecution witnesses and said the investigation had focussed on “disproving the Geeveses version of events” rather than investigating the cause of Amber\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n Looking at the couple as they sat in the dock, Justice Lonergan ordered that they be released from custody immediately.<\/p>\n One member of the public gallery stormed out of the courtroom to scream. Amber\u2019s relatives, too, were visibly shaken, with some later quietly breaking down in tears outside court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The prosecution and defence agreed on little throughout the trial – other than that Amber\u2019s life had been exceptionally difficult, and that her death came prematurely.<\/p>\n \u201cAmber went back and forth between places and people looking for love and solace. She never found it.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was still looking for it when she disappeared,\u201d Justice Lonergan concluded.<\/p>\n The court heard that Amber had come to Kingsvale – an isolated suburb near the regional town of Young – in the 1990s to live with her great aunt Stella Nealon, after fleeing a \u201cdysfunctional\u201d childhood in Sydney marred by epilepsy, learning difficulties, and a violent alcoholic father.<\/p>\n Ms Nealon had lived next door to the Geeveses, who were both in their 40s at the time and were introduced to Amber by their 19-year-old son Robbie.<\/p>\n The court heard that Amber\u2019s life at her great aunt\u2019s house was volatile, and at times physically violent. Much of the tension stemmed from Amber\u2019s relationship with one of her cousins, which had resulted in an abortion at age 14.<\/p>\n In police interviews played to the court, the Geeveses said they had offered Amber refuge and that she had entered a sexual relationship with Robert shortly after.<\/p>\n The Geeveses said that although their relationship with the teen may have seemed \u201cweird\u201d or confronting to outsiders, the three of them \u201cgot along very well\u201d, with Anne telling police that Amber saw her as a maternal figure.<\/p>\n When it became clear in 2001 that Amber had fallen pregnant with Robert\u2019s child, it caused a rupture within the local community, and ultimately severed Robbie\u2019s relationship with his parents – an estrangement still apparent in court on Monday.<\/p>\n By all accounts, Amber \u201cadored\u201d her son, but social workers and friends testified that she\u2019d also struggled to keep up with the ceaseless demands of motherhood.<\/p>\n The Geeveses have maintained that they did their best to help Amber navigate those challenges, and that they did so without vested interest.<\/p>\n And in her ruling, Justice Lonergan found \u201cnothing sinister\u201d in their \u201cprovision of assistance\u201d for Amber and her child – whose privacy is still subject to strict legal protections.<\/p>\n Further, she said the \u201cconsistent\u201d account given by the Geeveses – that they last saw Amber as she walked towards the station after kissing her son goodbye – was not \u201cinherently implausible\u201d.<\/p>\n Listing the details of the case, she noted that while it was clear Amber was \u201cattacked, abused and made to feel unsafe\u201d since childhood, the prosecution had failed to establish how she met her end.<\/p>\n She conceded it is an outcome which leaves some of the \u201cfactual matters\u201d in the case – which has tortured so many close to it for decades – unresolved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA teenager \u2018looking for love and solace\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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ABC News\/Sharon Gordon<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n