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Casefile Narrator (23:16)

Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support casefile to continue to deliver quality content. Investigators were aware that it wasn't unusual for hit run offenders to give themselves up in the days following crashes. Sometimes they needed to come to grips with what had happened or sober up from stimulants they had taken. Hit run offenders almost always told someone what they'd done, if not the damage to their vehicle raised questions and they'd be dobbed in. The police knew in this circumstance that there was no way the truck driver hadn't realised the damage they'd caused. As a spokesperson stated, it is obvious to us the driver knew he had been in a very serious collision and he showed considerable skill to get back on the road. A 12 year old boy deserves more than to be left by the side of the Hume highway for dead truckers. Shared news of Nikki Fleming's death over their vehicle's CB radios. Calling the person responsible a mongrel, they urged him to come forward and stop giving them all a bad rap. Rival truck drivers accused each other of being responsible crime stoppers also received a deluge of tip offs from individuals with personal vendettas against particular truckies, from former partners to neighbours who were sick of seeing rigs parked in their street. Investigators followed up each lead and interviewed many drivers, ruling them out one by one. As time wore on, it became clear that Ian Fleming's impassioned plea had fallen on deaf ears. With no one coming forward to claim responsibility, detectives were facing the worst case scenario. The driver seemingly hadn't told a soul and the damage to their truck had either gone unnoticed or was discreetly repaired before it raised any questions. Investigators suspected they were looking for an owner driver rather than a company driver, as the collision damage would be easier to hide if the truckie wasn't answerable to anyone. Back at their Melbourne office, the Major Collision Investigation Unit got back to work. Not being trucking experts, they were about to take a steep learning curve. If the truck driver was heading north along the Hume highway just before Easter, he had to be going home. Because most truck depots would be closed over the long weekend, it was unlikely he would sit outside a closed depot and wait four days for them to open again. Enquiries at the State Motor Registration Board revealed that there were 160,000 trucks registered on Australian roads. Finding the one responsible was going to be a massive undertaking. In the meantime, forensic analysts examined the evidence from the crime scene. The truck had left smears of red paint on the Mazda and caravan under a microscope. The paint was shown to have an iron based undercoat with an epoxy primer and a topcoat. The topcoat was made from an organic red pigment. Most people see a red car or truck, but can't differentiate between different shades and colour bases. This was purplish red. Paint samples were requested from companies that had red branded trucks, including Australia Post and Mack trucks, as well as from the paint manufacturers themselves. None matched the paint from the collision. A gantry on the New South Wales border photographed all trucks that crossed from Victoria, 30 kilometres further up the road. The trucks were photographed again and their speed was calculated from the time between the photos. Infringement notices were issued to truckies who were found to be speeding. 50 black and white photos of trucks were taken in the period between 10:30pm on April 9 and 6am on April 10. None of the vehicles featured damage consistent with the Collision. When the Mazda Bravo and the caravan were forensically examined, photographs of the damage were sent to the Major Collision Investigation Unit. They arranged to get a blown up picture of the caravan's rear right hand panel where the truck had made initial contact. Upon studying the images closely, investigators deduced the letter V or A impressions were the wrong size to be lettering from a license plate. The shapes had to have been made by something on the front of the truck's bull bar. They could now see there was a rectangular shape with the inverted V as well as some circles and a rectangular tear. Trucks had all sorts of signage on their fronts. Investigators knew if they could identify what imagery caused the strange impression, they might be able to identify the truck. However, by the eighth week of the investigation, the case had stalled. After a massive interstate search, all possible leads had reached dead ends. By now, Nicky Fleming had been laid to rest in a moving service attended by 350 family members and friends. Despite the outpouring of love and grief, the culprit continued to show no remorse by refusing to come forward. No one was more invested in finding the person responsible than Senior Constable Carsten Schultz of the Major Collision Investigation Unit. The case preoccupied his mind at all times and he agonised over the evidence, trying to uncover something they had missed. He even bought every trucking magazine he could find in the hopes they featured an image of the truck they were desperately looking for. Having a son of his own only amplified Constable Schultz's drive to find Nikki Fleming's killer. Constable Schultz worked the case full time. After one shift, he drove to a local industrial estate where several trucking yards were located. He drove by each site before coming across a red truck parked up the road. What caught his eye were two small canvas covers on the left and right hand sides of the bull bar under the headlights. The insignia on the covers was a big white W with a red star in the middle. It was the logo for Western Star, an international truck manufacturer. Schulz had examined pictures of the Fleming's caravan panel thousands of times and all of a sudden, the it clicked. The inverted V was in fact the centre of a W. The truck at the centre of the collision was a Western Star. Heller Australia, the company that fitted the truck's amber glass indicator light, had a contract with Western Star. Finally, the case was moving forward. Constable Schultz got out of his car to take a closer look at the red truck. It showed no sign of damage or repair consistent with the Violettown collision. The truck's driver was nevertheless tracked down and ruled out. Constable Schultz had found the right type of truck, just not the one he was looking for. The major collision team could now further narrow down their search by finding out which Western Star trucks were fitted with the model of Heller Light. Fragments found at the crime scene records indicated that 1,732 trucks built since 1993 had the Hellaramba light. As it turned out, the measurements of the indentations left by the truck's bull bar weren't standard. The vertical sections were 75mm wide, while most vertical uprights on bullbars were between 90 and 100mm wide. There were only a few manufacturers who made 75mm uprights. One of them was King Bars in Queensland. Western Star trucks were manufactured in Queensland so it stood to reason that King Bars might be their supplier of choice. According to King bars manager, only one bull bar fit the measurements of the suspect truck. A 4964F heavy duty road train bar. A wooden mock up made to the King Bar's specifications was placed against the Fleming's caravan panel. It fit like a glove. Same with the Mazda panel. The King Bar's manager sent his receipt books to Melbourne. His records revealed that 679 Western Star trucks had the heavy duty road train bullbar. Of these, 206 were fitted with the bullbar and the Western Star canvas covers. For an investigation that had begun with 160,000 possible trucks, police were now down to 206. Each of these trucks had to be located and checked. This proved difficult as the trucks travelled the entire country. A four page questionnaire was distributed to police and was to be filled out each time a Western Star truck was pulled over. Listing make, model, colour and most importantly any damage to its exterior. This meant the hit run driver would have every traffic cop looking for him. The plan also compelled every innocent truck driver to be on the lookout for the culprit in order to take the heat off them. Forensic officer Ted Kennedy Rippon had been assisting detectives with the case. But in mid September he temporarily stepped away to go on personal leave. During his break, Ted and his family holidayed with his in laws in the northern Victorian town of Echuca. At around Lunchtime on Saturday, September 12, Ted and his father in law went for a drive and pulled into a service station to get some petrol. When Ted exited the car he noticed a red truck parked on the other side of the station. As his father in law filled the tank, Ted walked over to the truck for a better look. With no sign of the truck's driver, Ted approached cautiously from the side, the vehicle's big silver logo caught his eye. It read Western Star. Right sort of truck, Ted thought. After examining paint samples for months. He also knew it was exactly the right purplish red colour. Ted looked at the bullbar to see if there was any signs of damage. It was then that he spotted a crack in the bottom rung on the right hand side, consistent with the Violet Town collision. He also saw a damaged indicator light that someone had tried to repair. The truck had Western Star canvas covers on the front and the eye bolt was in the correct position to have made the tear in the caravan pan. With growing excitement, Ted realised his stroke of luck. He walked around the truck to see if there was any damage to the paintwork and found a scrape the size of a 10 cent coin close to the Heller light. Everything was consistent with Violettown. As Ted leaned in to inspect the scraped paintwork, the truck driver stepped down from the truck's cabin. Tad hadn't noticed him there and nearly jumped out of his skin. Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's Sponsors

Capital One Advertiser (36:46)

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Casefile Narrator (37:57)

Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality. When Ted Kennedy Rippon came face to face with the truck driver who could be the man they'd been hunting for six months, the first thing he thought to say was how Big's your engine Playing it cool. Ted pretended he was a trucking enthusiast. The truck driver's initial suspicion relaxed as the two men started talking trucks. Do you own it? Ted asked. The driver replied nonchalantly with a laugh. Nah, the bank owns it. This meant he was an owner driver, just the type investigators suspected was responsible for the hit and run. Ted returned to his father in law and wrote down the truck's details. He then contacted the Major Collision Investigation Unit and provided a detailed description of the truck. What Ted didn't know was that an officer in Victoria had pulled over the same truck three days earlier and filled out the questionnaire provided by case investigators. The driver's name was Brett Kilmore. He was from Queensland and was a 30 year old father of two. Two hits on Kilmore's truck in five days pushed it to the top of the investigation. Investigators worked to determine if they could place Brett Kilmore on the Hume highway on the night of Thursday, April 8, 1998. They checked Kilmore's mobile phone records and discovered that his device had been travelling north along the Hume highway that very night. At 10:09pm he placed a call near the town of Nagambi. Violet Town was a further 60 kilometres away. Travel timings aligned for him to have been involved in the collision. Kilmore's mobile had no further activity until 1:49 the following morning, almost two hours after the crash. Call towers pinpointed his location around the regional city of Shepparton, less than an hour's drive northwest of Violettown, indicating that Kilmore exited the Hume shortly after Violettown and continued along the Newell Highway. This was not a typical route truck drivers used when travelling north and explained why Kilmore went unnoticed after the crash. This data also showed that Kilmore had stopped his truck for quite some time in the middle of the night before continuing on. It turned out Brett Kilmore was the focus of three other investigations pertaining to car collisions that took place after Violettown. Two occurred in South Australia and another was in New South Wales. In fact, at the time investigators were honing in on Kilmore, his red Western Star truck was in for repairs. If damage on the truck was being repaired, then possible evidence from the Violet Town collision could be lost. It was imperative that the truck be impounded and forensically examined without delay. Members of the Major Collision Investigation Unit travelled to Queensland and immediately swooped on Brett Kilmore's truck. Inside, investigators found a strange device wired to the engine and hidden in a compartment in the sleeper cabin, known as a whizzer. This was used to override speed limiters on trucks. Prior to the Violet Town crash, the offending truck was travelling at 106 kilometres per hour. Western Star trucks were speed limited to 100 kilometres per hour. That meant the suspect used a device to override the speed limiter. And here it was. There were three huge round fuel tanks on the right hand side of Kilmore's truck under the driver's door. One of the fuel tanks had a huge dent in it, but had been turned around so the dent faced inwards and couldn't be seen. This was definite evidence of Violet Town. The cracked bull bar was also consistent with the crime scene. Furthermore, a tiny patch of canvas found embedded into a screw from the caravan's rear right panel was a perfect match for the hole in the Western Star Road train cover. On Tuesday, October 7, 1998, almost six months to the day since the Violet Town collision, a tall, lanky man walked into a Nala police station in Queensland. It was Brett Kilmore. He explained that a New South Wales police officer had asked him to report to the station in regards to a collision he'd been involved in. Victoria's Major Collision Team was waiting out the back of the station. Kilmore's arrival had been a trap they'd arranged with their Interstate colleagues. After being informed that Kilmore was present, they ushered him into an interview room. Kilmore didn't appear nervous until the officers introduced themselves. We're from the Victoria Police and we would like to ask you some questions about a collision at Violet Town on April 9 this year. Kilmore was immediately rattled and replied, what Victorian collision? I thought I was here about a New South Wales collision. Then Kilmore began to shake. After a moment of anxious silence, he asked, should I ring a solicitor? Investigators told Kilmore that it was up to him, but cautioned that anything he said would be used as evidence. Kilmore stared at the floor before announcing, I've been waiting for you blokes to come around for six months. With that, the floodgates opened. Kilmore denied driving erratically that night, but admitted to taking no dose caffeine tablets that can restore mental alertness and wakefulness in moments of fatigue. Despite knowing that driving while fatigued was dangerous, Kilmore blamed the pressures placed on truck drivers, especially owner operators. He said he often drove for excessive hours to make ends meet, as he had once been sacked for running late. Kilmore said that he hadn't seen the Fleming's caravan until it was too late to avoid it. But he tried to blame bright lights on a vehicle behind his truck for distracting him. But this didn't add up. Investigators had interviewed multiple witnesses and none reported seeing a car with bright lights or high beams behind the truck. Kilmore admitted that he had collided with the Flemings caravan and car. He then veered off the Violettown exit before stopping up the road. From there, he could see cars on the Hume highway screeching to a halt. In the aftermath of the collision, Kilmore claimed to have seen other cars navigate around the crash and keep driving, which led him to believe it mustn't have been that serious. A mix of fear and panic propelled him to drive on and not go back. A week later, Kilmore paid a repairer in Queensland $100 to fix his damaged bullbar. Checking Kilmore's mobile phone records for the week after, Violettown investigators rang every number with the Queensland prefix 07. Eventually, they located the repairman. The major collision detective introduced himself over the phone and said, I'm making enquiries about a hit run in Victoria where a young child was killed. I believe you may have repaired a truck that was involved in the collision. There was a pause at the other end of the phone before the man replied. You're not going to tell me that the bloke who came in here killed that kid at Violet Town? I had a feeling about that bloke. I even told my mate in the factory next door that it might be him. The repairer's voice shook as he spoke. It was clear he was upset that he hadn't trusted his instincts and contacted authorities earlier on. There was nothing that could be done to prove or disprove whether Kilmore had taken any illegal substances in the lead up to to the collision. Investigators suspected Kilmore had deliberately collided with the other vehicles in the six months after the event. This would give him a legitimate reason for claiming repairs to his truck while concealing the damage that occurred outside Violettown. Brett Kilmore faced 10 charges, including culpable driving, failing to stop at an accident, failing to render assistance and a string of other offences relating to the injuries to the Fleming family. He made no formal plea and faced trial in March 2000, nearly two years after the devastating collision. Kilmore maintained that it was a horrific accident and not gross negligence. After two days of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts. Brett Kilmore was impassive as the judge read out his sentence of five years in prison with a three year minimum sentence. Nicky's mother was angry that the three year suspension of Kilmore's driver's licence would coincide with his prison sentence. Instead of being instituted following his release, relatives and friends met to celebrate what would have been Nikki Fleming's 14th birthday the same week Brett Kilmore was found guilty. In a victim impact statement, Nicky's brother told the court that he had lost his brother and his best friend in the collision. Nicky's mother said both of her surviving children were traumatised by what had happened. Outside the court, she told reporters of her pain every day I don't have my son. Every day I have that loss. When asked about Brett Kilmore, she simply said, I hope that every day he's in jail he thinks about driving carefully when he comes. Following the closing of the case, Ted Kennedy Rippon, who had stumbled upon Brett Kilmore's truck, received commendations from the Chief Commissioner of Police. For a long time thereafter, he was known as Truck Stop Ted. Senior Constable Carsten Schultz of Victoria Police's Major Collision Investigation Unit spoke out about why he and his team were so dogged in their pursuit of the Violettown offender. He it's an affront that somebody could just not come forward. It goes against honour and standing up for yourself and taking responsibility for what you did. You have to be held accountable.

Capital One Advertiser (51:06)

With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking. With Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends it's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. What's in your wallet terms apply. See capitalone.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC

Casefile Narrator (51:36)

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