Amber Haigh told her cousin bruises across her wrists were injuries caused by being tied up by the father of her baby, the man now accused of her murder, a court has heard.
Haigh’s cousin testified she warned her “naive” relative to stay away from the man, Robert Geeves, because of his previous alleged incidents at his property. In one she said that she had heard, two girls were “kidnapped”, tied up and put in a silo. In another, a woman was allegedly fatally shot in the face.
Haigh was a 19-year-old mother when she vanished from the New South Wales Riverina in July 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.
Now, 22 years since her disappearance, the father of her child, 64-year-old Robert Geeves, and his wife, Anne Geeves, are on trial for her murder. Both have pleaded not guilty.
On Monday in the NSW supreme court, Haigh’s second cousin Jackie Winn testified that Haigh was visiting her family’s property in 2001 when she held up her arms to show her wrists. “She was telling me how Robert tied her up,” Winn said. Haigh was pregnant to Robert Geeves at the time – her son would be born in January 2002.
“[Amber] showed me her wrists … I could see a mark on both … they weren’t fresh, they were just like brownish marks … around her wrists.”
Winn told the court she urged Amber to tell police.
“I said to her, ‘Are you going to report it?’ She said she was scared.”
Winn also testified that Haigh told her that Robert Geeves would come to her bedroom window during the night to talk to her.
“I said ‘don’t talk to him’.”
Haigh later moved to live with Robert and Anne Geeves, but would regularly return to her relatives’ home to get something to eat.
“She did say she was not happy … at the Geeveses’. She was wanting to leave.”
Under cross-examination, Winn conceded her relationship with Haigh was occasionally rocky, and on at least two occasions arguments became physical, but that she was concerned for her cousin’s safety.
Winn said she warned Haigh against seeing Robert Geeves, saying she disapproved of the 22-year age difference between the pair, and that she was worried for Haigh’s safety, because of Geeves’ reputation.
She told the court she had heard of two previous alleged incidents at the Geeveses’ property.
“I knew of incidents that happened years ago, two things: about the young girls, they were kidnapped and put in a silo, tied up.
“And Janelle … it was in the paper that she had shot herself through the face.”
Winn was asked: “Did that cause you to be worried about Robert Geeves?”
“Yes … people would talk about it.”
Haigh’s unresolved disappearance has been an enduring mystery in NSW’s Riverina, where she was last seen alive more than two decades ago. She left behind a five-month-old son who the court has heard she “adored” and “never let out of her sight”.
Haigh’s body has never been found, but a coroner has ruled she died from “homicide or misadventure”.
The prosecution has alleged in court that Haigh – described in court as “very easily misled” – was used by Robert and Anne Geeves as a “surrogate mother” because they wanted another baby.
It alleges that once Haigh’s baby was born, they sought to have her “removed from the equation” by killing her.
Haigh was last seen on 5 June 2002. The Geeveses say they drove her that evening from Kingsvale to Campbelltown railway station so she could visit her dying father in hospital, and have not heard from her since.
They told police Haigh willingly left her infant son in their custody.
The Geeveses reported Haigh missing a fortnight later, on 19 June 2002.
The court has previously heard the Geeveses had had one child together – a son the same age as Haigh, who had previously dated her – but the couple wanted more children, having subsequently endured three miscarriages and a stillbirth.
“The crown case theory is that it was always the intention of the Geeveses to assume the custody and care of [the child] from Amber, but they knew that to do that, Amber had to be removed from the equation … so, the crown asserts, they killed her.”
The crown case is circumstantial, the court has heard, but in the absence of forensic evidence over Haigh’s disappearance will rely on witness testimony from people who knew Haigh, and were concerned she was being exploited and abused by Robert and Anne Geeves.
Lawyers for Robert and Anne Geeves have argued the case against the couple – now more than two decades old – was deeply flawed, arguing that “community distaste” at Robert Geeves’ relationship with “a much younger woman with intellectual disabilities” fuelled “gossip and innuendo”.
“Everything they did was viewed through a haze of mistrust and suspicion,” the court has heard.
The judge-alone trial continues in Wagga Wagga.
