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Casefile Narrator (0:57)

Limited time, price, participation and selection may vary. Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre for suggested phone numbers, for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings. Please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. This episode was originally released on Casefile's Patreon, Apple Premium and Spotify Premium feeds. As an early bonus for our paid subscribers, these episodes are designed to be slightly shorter, allowing us to cover a broader range of cases. To receive these episodes early and ad free, you can support Casefile on your preferred platform. On the evening of Tuesday, May 10, 1994, staff had a home on Grano street in the regional Victorian town of Ararat. Served up dinner at the usual time of 6pm the home was a residential care unit for people with disabilities. The unit's five inhabitants were cared for round the clock by live in staff from the Department of Health and Community Services. It was their job to support and empower the residents to live as independently as possible. But as the staff and residents gathered around the dining table to eat their dinner together, one chair remained empty. The cheerful and gentle fifth resident of the unit, 41 year old Lindsay Jellet, was nowhere to be seen. Lindsay Jellett was a creature of habit. Shortly before 4:00 that afternoon, he asked the staff at Grano street for permission to go for his daily walk. This was Lindsey's favourite part of the day. The only time he was free and unrestricted. Although it was rare for Lindsey to be late, he loved food and his carers were sure he'd be back before long. They put his plate in the microwave so they could reheat his dinner as soon as he showed up. But by 6:30, there was still no sign of Lindsey. His carers checked his bedroom and the backyard in case he'd returned without them noticing. One of the staff drove around the streets on the lookout but had no luck finding him. By 7:00, they were really worried. It was dark and cold outside and Lindsey had never come home this late. The police were promptly called. Lindsey was last seen by Grano street staff at 3:45pm as he set off for his afternoon walk. While a traumatic head injury at the age of two had left Lindsay with cognitive disability and developmental delays, he was more than capable of navigating his daily routine. He could shower, feed and dress himself. He couldn't read or write, but he could communicate coherently, count to 30 and knew the value of money to $10. Lindsey particularly loved walking to a nearby golf course, where he'd collect lost golf balls and bring them home to clean and give to his friends. His other favourite walk was to the main street of town. Lindsey had a sweet tooth and he'd spend his $5 daily allowance on cigarettes, coffee, Coca Cola and biscuits. One of his legs was shorter than the other, so he tended to shuffle along slowly, often stopping to talk to people in the streets. In the first few months of living at Granaux Street, Lindsey walked so much that he wore out several pairs of shoes. He walked for hours each day but was always home in time for dinner. With Lindsey now failing to return home, time was of the essence. It was a frosty, rainy night and he was ill prepared for the weather, having left home in just a pair of trousers and a blue fleece top. Adding to the urgency was the fact that at 8 o'clock each night, Lindsey took the drug Tegretol to treat his epilepsy. A missed dose could put him at risk of a seizure. As luck would have it, the Ararat branch of the State Emergency Service were in the middle of a training session and could be deployed immediately to help police with the search. They were advised that Lindsey was timid and there was a possibility he might hide if approached by someone he didn't know. Search units scoured the town by car and on foot with the SES truck, driving slowly along the back roads, using a searchlight to Sweep. The surrounding paddocks and farms. Sheds and outbuildings were checked in case Lindsey was seeking shelter from the bad weather. But he was nowhere to be found. The following morning of Wednesday, May 11, police narrowed in on Lindsey's home. They rechecked the residence and the surrounding area just in case he'd returned and was too frightened to come inside because he knew he was late. Yet there was still no sign of him. All available crews from police stations in neighbouring towns joined the search, with the air wing dispatched to search overhead. With no reports coming in about a lost or disorientated man, police contacted all the local radio stations to broadcast Lindsey's details so the entire community would know to keep a lookout. A local farmer heard the reports and set on a drive around the roads that bordered his property. As he made his way along down road, a dirt stretch roughly 2 kilometres north east of Lindseygellett's home, the farmer saw what looked like a white running shoe on the grassy verge at the side of the road. He kept going, but the image of the shoe worried him. He did a U turn and drove back towards it. As he approached, he realised there were actually two shoes. The farmer pulled over on the opposite side of the road and got out of his car. Lying on the grassy verge was the body of Lindsay Gellett. Lindsey's blue fleecy top was pulled up, exposing his thin white torso which was stained with a liver coloured patch of congealed blood under the skin. His eyes and mouth were half open, his left cheek grazed and his nose unnaturally bent. While his belt was still buckled, it had been melted apart on the left hand side. His white running shoes were still on his feet, but the right one was crushed, its sole bursting from torn stitching. Three packets of cigarettes and a cigarette tin lay next to his body with a $5 bill discarded at his right elbow. Nearby was an empty beer can. It appeared as though Lindsay Jelot had been struck by a car. Not only were there obvious crush injuries to his legs and torso, tire tracks in the dirt road led straight to his body. But as soon as the crash investigators arrived from Melbourne, they knew this wasn't a standard hit and run. There are six elements that correlate with this type of impact. The first three are injuries to the shins, hip and head as the victim strikes the vehicle's bumper, bar, bonnet and windscreen or roof. Then there's the scene itself. Blood from the victim, as well as some trace of the car involved, such as broken glass or paint flakes, are expected to be found. The Sixth element is that the victim is usually shoeless. It is a little known phenomenon, but when people are hit by cars, they are generally knocked clean out of their footwear. In fact, the crash investigators had never attended a hit and run where the victim was still wearing shoes. A cursory examination of the scene showed that none of these six elements were present. Furthermore, Lindsey's body was arranged too neatly by the side of the road. If he'd been hit by a car while walking, his body would have been flung and landed awkwardly. His top being pulled up also indicated that someone had gripped him under the arms and dragged him along. This was supported by marks in the road with two parallel lines appearing to have been made by the heels of Lindsey's shoes. Lindsey might not have been hit by a car, but from his injuries, it was obvious that he had indeed been run over. He had abdominal bruising consistent with a car tire and the lower parts of his legs had severe crush injuries. There were smears of grease on his body and clothing, as well as burn marks where he'd come into contact with the hot exhaust section underneath a vehicle. Yet the lack of blood at the crime scene intrigued investigators. This indicated that Lindsey was already dead when his body was run over. A lack of bleeding confirmed this theory. Marks in the dirt showed that Lindsey had most likely been dumped from a vehicle before being dragged to the side of the road and then run over on the verge. Fibres consistent with his trousers were found near the drag marks and there were acceleration scuff marks alongside his body. The resulting spray of gravel, coupled with the tyre tracks, indicated that a vehicle had reversed to where Lindsey's body lay and then backed right over him twice. After running over Lindsey, the car then turned around and headed in the direction of Ararat. The pathologist conducting Lindsay's autopsy couldn't determine what had caused his death. Given Lindsay's history of epilepsy, she considered a syndrome known as sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, or sudep. This is where an otherwise healthy person with epilepsy dies prematurely, typically in their sleep. In cases of sudep, a post mortem examination shows no cause of death. Sometimes there are signs that a seizure has occurred, such as the individual losing control of their bladder. But Lindsey's autopsy showed that his bladder was full. Furthermore, if Lindsey had died from sudep, it didn't explain why someone would drag him to the side of the road and run him over with a car crash. Investigators sought to identify the type of car that had run Lindsey over. The owner of a local tyre shop agreed to accompany police to the scene. Upon seeing the tracks, he he was certain they'd been made by Bridgestone eager S340 tyres. Smears of red fluid on Lindsey's white running shoes were suspected by one investigator to be automatic transmission fluid. If he was correct, this meant police were looking for an automatic car, probably an older model, which would be more likely to leak. Leaking transmission fluid didn't necessarily drip out. Instead it formed a film over the car's transmission pan located in its undercarriage. The fluid could have been transferred to Lindsey's shoes when the car ran over him. The fact that Lindsey's body was smeared with black grease also suggested an older car. Slowly but surely, a picture of the wanted vehicle emerged. An automatic older style car with Bridgestone eager S340 tyres. If the vehicle had left traces on Lindsey, then he'd likely left traces on the vehicle. The only problem was that the evidence would largely be underneath the car rather than obvious visible damage to the car's exterior. Detectives began looking into Lindsey's life for clues as to who could be responsible. By all accounts, Lindsay Jelot was a harmless and friendly man who was well known and well liked in his community. The more the detectives learnt about Lindsey, the harder it was to imagine why anyone would want to kill him. They did a door knock of the houses surrounding Lindsey's, many of which housed residents with disabilities. But no one had a bad thing to say about him. On the afternoon that Lindsey's body was discovered, a roadblock was organised on Grano street for the same period of time that Lindsay went missing, with detectives stopping all cars to ask if anyone had seen Lindsey walking the previous day. Grenaux street is one thoroughfare through Ararat and 4pm is a change of shift time for workers for the local prison and railway as well as health and community services staff. One man stopped at the roadblock knew Lindsey by sight. He told detectives that at around 4pm the day before, he'd seen Lindsey climbing into a car that was parallel parked to the curb a short distance away from his house. It was an older model brown coloured sedan with a red LPG gas sticker on its number plate. The man had caught a glimpse of the driver. It was a middle aged woman with dark hair who he didn't recognise. This description immediately gave investigators pause. Foreign casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. If you're a renter, it's time to start taking advantage of bilt. You earn points on groceries, travel and nearly everything else you buy. So why shouldn't you earn points on rent, one of your biggest monthly expenses? 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By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. In 1955, when Lindsay Jeller was two and a half years old, his mother was pushing him and his twin sister along in a pram. As she edged the pram out between two parked cars, a truck suddenly struck the front of it. The force of the collision threw Lindsey heavily onto the road, while his twin sister Judith was unhurt. Lindsay suffered severe brain damage and was in a coma for nine weeks by the time he was finally allowed to return home from the hospital, his behaviour had changed significantly and his parents struggled to control him. He was eventually diagnosed with epilepsy and an intellectual disability. When Lindsay was 7, his parents made the difficult decision to place him in a live in care facility. They visited him often and he was occasionally allowed home. In time, Lindsay grew into a gentle and loving man. He'd pick flowers from the garden to give to visitors and was always quick with a hug and a joke. When Lindsay's parents passed away, his twin sister Judith became his closest living relative. Even though she had her own health problems and priorities in life, Judith always made time to visit her brother. She'd often take her four children with her, making the four hour round trip to Ararat. From their home in the suburb of Melton, they take Lindsey out to lunch or to visit a museum or park. Judith bought Lindsey clothes and anything else he needed, treating him to chocolate lollies and sweet drinks while the drive there and back with a car full of kids was gruelling. It was never a chore. A friend of Judith's said she had more patience, love and understanding for Lindsey than she did for her own children. In late 1993, the facility that Lindsay had lived in for 20 years was shut down as part of the Victorian government's commitment to move residents from institutions into the community. Lindsey made the move to the Grenau street residential unit where Judith continued to visit every month or so. On Tuesday, May 10, 1994, Judith scheduled a 1:00 meeting with Grenaux street staff, followed by a 3:00 meeting with support staff from a nearby organisation that ran a day program Lindsey attended. She did this every so often to check how her brother was doing. Judith picked Lindsay up at 11:30am, then took him to the Ararat RSL to play the Pokies. After having lunch together, they headed to Lindsay's Grano street unit for their 1 o'clock meeting. The staff told Judith that her brother's epilepsy was under control, but that he should avoid beer in case it triggered a seizure. Beer wasn't really an issue with Lindsay. He mainly drank coffee or Coke. With an hour to kill before their next appointment, Judith took Lindsay to the shops to buy him a couple of things. Then they attended their 3pm meeting, after which Judith dropped Lindsay back at Grano street. At around 3:40, she bid Lindsey goodbye just as he was preparing for his afternoon walk. Before leaving, Judith left some treats in her brother's bedroom for him to enjoy. Later When Lindsay was reported missing later that evening, his carers attempted to call Judith at her home in Melton, but there was no answer. They left her a message and she called them back at 8pm they informed Judith that Lindsey hadn't returned home after his walk. She shared their concerns, but offered a simple explanation. She'd given Lindsay $25 that afternoon. It might have been possible that he was spending it in town. Fifteen minutes later, Judith called back, having just remembered a significant incident years prior. Lindsey had run away and was found wandering down a highway into Melbourne en route to Judith's home. She recommended that the search party keep an eye out for him on the outskirts of town and along the railway lines before asking if it was raining. Her voice was tinged with worry when she remarked, he doesn't have his coat with him. When Lindsay was found dead, detectives paid Judith a visit in Melton. Having already been delivered the news. She was visibly upset, but she managed to tell the detectives about her final encounter with her brother the afternoon prior. She detailed their lunch errands and meetings before recalling one notable moment while in town. Judith ducked into a pharmacy, leaving Lindsay waiting outside. When she came out, Lindsay was talking to a woman parked in a battered old van. He told her that he'd just won money at the Pokies. To the detectives, this was a solid lead. Could Lindsey have been targeted by someone who thought he might be in possession of some winnings? Wondering whether drugs or alcohol could have also played a role in Lindsay's death, the detectives asked Judith about the medications her brother had been taking. As far as Judith knew, the only thing Lindsey took was his anti seizure medication, Tegretol. In regards to the beer can found near Lindsay's body, Judith said she didn't think her brother really drank beer. He had done so on occasion, but it left him sleepy. But there was one incident that raised Judith's concerns. A few months earlier, Lindsay had been visiting Judith when she ducked across the road to visit a neighbour. When she came back, Lindsey said he was tired and didn't feel well. He went to lay down, telling his sister he was having a fit. She took his pulse, but it was normal. Judith called one of Lindsey's carers, who advised her to roll him onto his side. But by this time, Lindsay appeared to be sleeping. The carer assured Judith he was probably fine, but when he wouldn't wake up after 20 minutes, Judith called an ambulance. After the paramedics took him away, Judith noticed a drawer had been opened in her bedroom and she wondered if Lindsay had taken Some of her medication. Judith suffered from chronic back pain and a litany of other health problems for which she kept a wide assortment of medication in her home. Detectives had noticed this for themselves as hundreds of bottles of medicine lined her shelves. Judith said she'd rang the hospital and shared her suspicion that Lindsay might have taken Valium or painkillers. The doctors gave him an antidote for Valium, after which he was fine. For detectives, this was another interesting lead. They wondered if Lindsay had a habit of taking medication that didn't belong to him. Judith told the detectives that on Tuesday, May 10, she left Grenaux street just as Lindsey set off for his afternoon walk. And she didn't see him again after that. But detectives were curious about this. The witness who claimed to have seen Lindsay climbing into a car at 4pm a short distance from his house, had described the driver as looking exactly like Judith. The car they'd described, an older model brown coloured sedan with a red LPG sticker on its number plate, also looked just like her vehicle. Detectives had given Judith's car a once over when they saw it parked in her driveway. It was a two tone brown 1982 Ford Fairmont Ghia sedan with a red sticker on the number plate to show that the car had been converted to gas. It also had Bridgestone eager S340 tyres, the same type identified at the crime scene. A cursory look over the vehicle revealed no obvious fresh dents or signs of recent damage. Judith told the detectives that on the drive home from visiting Lindsey, her car overheated and she had to park by the side of the road for 30 or 40 minutes while the engine cooled down. She arrived back in Melton at 7.20pm after collecting her young children from the babysitter, Judith drove to the local petrol station, filled her car and took it through a car wash. She said she always did this after visiting Lindsey. This was another red flag for detectives. The trip that should have taken just over two hours had taken Judith 3 hours and 20 minutes. Not only was Judith the last person to have seen her brother alive, but there was an unaccounted for period of time in her journey home. Police impounded Judith's car and took it to the Forensic Science Centre for a thorough examination. As was expected of a car that age, the undercarriage was covered in dirt, grease and oil. Plenty of sources that could have caused the smears on Lindsey's body. The automatic pan was also leaking and covered in a film of automatic transmission fluid near the front and rear driver's side. Wheels examiners found spots of blood. Caught in a screw head. And in various other sections of the undercarriage were fabric fibres. Several fabric impressions were also visible in the grease and dirt from the front end to the rear. And a burn mark on the engine pipe was consistent with the melting of Lindsey's belt. Police had no doubt about it. This was the car used to run over Lindsay Gellett. Although this was concrete evidence that tied Judith to the crime scene, Lindsay's autopsy revealed he'd already been dead at the time he was run over. Therefore, it didn't necessarily mean that Judith had killed him. Detectives began examining Judith's timeline from the day her brother had died, starting with the pharmacy in Ararat. She already told them she'd visited. Inquiries revealed Judith had filled a prescription for Rohypnol, a powerful sedative only offered to those with severe insomnia. With the post mortem proving that Lindsay was dead before he was run over, detectives wondered whether his sister could have poisoned him with an overdose. The contents of Lindsay's stomach showed that he was killed within 60 to 90 minutes of eating a substantial meal. Due to digestion, it wasn't possible to tell what he'd eaten. Judith said she'd taken Lindsey to lunch around midday and then for ice cream around 2pm however, the food in his stomach could only have been consumed after leaving for his walk. Police canvassed eateries in town, but no one remembered seeing Lindsey at that time. It was possible Judith had given him some food herself. Had she done so as soon as Lindsey got in the car, his time of death could have been as early as 5:30pm when the results of Lindsey's toxicology tests came back, they showed two drugs were found in his system. The first was his anti seizure medication, Tegretol, which was as expected. But surprisingly, the other wasn't Rohypnol. It was Noctec. Noctec is the commercial name given to Chloral hydrate, a powerful hypnotic prescribed by doctors to treat insomnia or calm patients before a surgical procedure. It can be dangerous because the treatment dose is close to the toxic dose. The problem was that the amount found in Lindsay's system was listed as a therapeutic dose. In other words, there was not enough in his system to kill him. The detectives wondered if the Noctec could have reacted with the Tegretol Lindsay was taking for his epilepsy. Medical advice suggested that these two drugs should not be taken together. Small traces of alcohol were also found in Lindsay's system. Another substance that shouldn't be mixed with these medications. Detectives wondered whether the combination of Tegretol, alcohol and Noctec could have been toxic. And if Judith was responsible, did she give her brother alcohol on purpose only hours after his carers told her it could cause a seizure. To make things more complicated, it couldn't be said with certainty that Lindsey had consumed alcohol. When bodies begin to decompose, they produce alcohol as part of the natural decomposition process. The empty beer can found near Lindsey's body was tested, but it revealed no traces of Noctek or any other drugs. Inquiries at Grenaux street showed no residents were prescribed Noctech, meaning Lindsay couldn't have accessed the drug at home. Detectives asked local pharmacists to go back through their records, but there had been no prescriptions written for Noktec in the last two years. There was little chance Lindsay could have come upon the drug by accident. Police confiscated hundreds of bottles of medication from Judith's home, but found no sign of Noktec. They drove across town and visited medical clinics near where Judith used to live. One doctor recalled prescribing Noktec to one of Judith's children five years earlier, when they were having trouble sleeping. The police visited local pharmacies and found the chemist who had dispensed the Noktec prescription to Judith. It was the break they were looking for. Now they had the proof that Judith filled a prescription for Noktec. And even though it wasn't found in her house, it was clear from the volume of medication scattered all around that she didn't throw anything away. The detectives theorised that Judith could have given her brother food or drink laced with Noktec and waited until he passed out. She could have then smothered him with something soft, like a pillow or. Which would have left no trace. An eminent forensic pathologist also said that the Noctec, combined with Lindsay's Tegretol, could have stopped him breathing. Then, either to make it look like an accident or to make sure she'd finished the job, she ran him over twice. Although this seemed like a solid theory, without hard evidence, detectives knew they'd have a hard time proceeding with charges against Judith. Yet one major question still remained. Judith appeared to be a loving sister who had always been there for her twin brother. What reason could she have to want Lindsay dead? Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors.