Runway 27 - Tullamarine Airport
Both Nicola and Sharon were able to provide some details of their abductor and his detention premises upon their release from the masked man but it was Nicola who briefed the police in high-level of detail. Sharon recalled being carried from her home for a short way to a car, then placed on the front passenger side floor. During the car ride, Mr. Cruel asked her if she could see and Sharon told him she could, so he taped her eyes shut. When they reached the detention house, Mr. Cruel carried her from the car to the entry. She remembers the bedroom being directly to the right of the front door. Sharon was then secured to the bed by some sort of neck shackle. At some point during her ordeal, Sharon was given a glass of milk and a stale vegemite sandwich and left alone in the house, so she lifted her blindfold to take a peek. She was able to provide a description of the bedroom to the police, a peach bedhead, peach curtains, beige carpet, bedside tables, and peach lamp bases with white and yellow striped shades and a tripod at the foot of the bed with possibly a camera or video attached. The police later released the image to the public. The sketch of the tripod described by the victim appears to be similar to an antique dumpy level that would be used by civil engineers. Sharon also recalled hearing aircraft noise.
After forcing Nicola into the family car in the driveway, he drove for a short time before stopping the car and then walking her to his planted getaway vehicle. The exchange of cars on Chaucer Ave. was swift. He parked the Berlina he had stolen from the Lynas driveway then walked a short way with Nicola to his getaway car. Mr. Cruel forced her under the dash and pulled a blanket over her head for the entire 45-minute drive to the detention premises. During this time there was a lot of conversation between them before reaching their destination. Nicola recalls exiting the car and feeling concrete under her feet, she told police she walked a short distance (2-3 steps) from the car to a set of stairs, counting about 2-3 steps up to the front door of the house. Nicola really stepping in a direct line from the car to the house, indicating the driveway to the left of the house. Nicola told police she was moved from room to room and that she had been bound and gagged for the duration of her 50-hour ordeal.
Nicola also told police that the offender had pretended to be married to her, flirted and flattered her with compliments. He snuggled with her and said to her “Do what I tell you and I will let you go.” He was keen to read and discuss newspaper articles detailing his crimes, telling Nicola he was not in Victoria at the time of Sharon’s abduction. Organised serial offenders have been found to be particularly interested in following their crimes in newspapers and it is not uncommon for them to provide information about their crimes to the police. Nicola also heard planes overhead, so low that she counted them as they passed. Nicola recalled in detail, that she listened to the 10’ o’clock news, and the next news was 11 o’clock and that during this hour she counted 11 planes flying overhead, 9 commercial planes, and 2 lighter aircraft. She said the aircraft were all flying in the same direction, at various times in the hour, descending on a flight path across her body. But the aircraft eventually change its course, banking 90 degrees, then flying in line from her head to her toe before fading away (McLaren,2011).
As a result of Nilcola’s disclosure, Detectives approached air traffic controllers at Melbourne Airport. From the information provided it was determined that it was definitely Melbourne Airport and traffic controllers were confident the aircraft described matched flights coming in from the North Eastern suburbs, turning right and descending on runway 27. This was key information that provided an avenue for police to undertake a massive search of 30, 000 homes with a focus on the Reservoir and surrounding areas (O’Connor, 2023). This was an impressive undertaking but police had identified a possible 500,000 houses - The number of houses searched was just the tip of the iceberg. Coincidentally, Alfred Gay had a relative living on Carrington Rd, Reservoir. The end of the street is the same location that a witness described hearing a gunshot and a man wielding a gun the night Karmein was abducted.