A police officer involved in the search for Gordon Copeland, a Gomeroi man who drowned in the Gwydir river, has told an inquest that she overheard a fellow officer tell other officers he had heard someone “go into the river” after the first search of the area on the night Copeland went missing.
Constable Alice Schmidt-Gearing’s evidence is at odds with earlier statements given by the officers who conducted the initial search for Copeland.
Copeland, a 22-year-old father of three, drowned in the swollen river in the early hours of 10 July 2021, after police followed the vehicle in which he was a passenger, mistakenly thinking it was stolen.
Schmidt-Gearing told the court that she stood by her statement that she saw and heard Constable Kobe Russell tell the constable in charge of the operation that “they thought they could hear someone down there” after they returned from the scene at a little after 3:30am.
“That kind of perked (sic) my interest,” Schmidt-Gearing said in her statement. “And I heard Crystal [Manusu] say like, ‘Well what kind of noises’, or ‘What were they saying?’ Russell goes ‘No, they were just murmuring’.”
Schmidt-Gearing said she then heard Manusu tell the two officers, Russell and Constable Nick Murray: “Go straight back out there. Just yell out and say, ‘Look, if anyone’s down there, let us know. Are you OK? Do you need help?’”
Manusu, Russell and Murray previously told the court they did not think there was anyone in the river at that point, nor was it the reason they returned to the scene.
Russell and Murray said they returned to the scene on Manusu’s instruction to collect a pair of shoes for DNA evidence. It was at that point, they said, that they heard “moaning and groaning” sounds coming from the river.
Earlier on Friday, Russell was asked to consider concerns about “discrepancies” in police evidence.
The officers first on the scene, Murray and Russell, earlier told the court they walked “probably 30 to 40 metres” along the river, didn’t see anyone and believed Copeland was no longer in the river.
They later returned to the scene to collect evidence after a conversation with the senior officer at the station, at which time Russell said he heard “murmuring” near the river.
The court was told this version of events was different to those described by Schmidt-Gearing.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, asked Russell if he understood he was being asked about “some discrepancies in the evidence” given by different officers involved in the events of that night.
Dwyer said: “What I think you can understand, officer, is the family are trying to piece together the information that the police had at the time. And I think you could appreciate why they might be concerned about some discrepancies in the evidence.”
“Yes,” Russell replied.
Dwyer: “And am I right that you can appreciate that they might want to know whether that’s a mistake, that police have different recollections but they’re being genuine, or whether they’re actually not telling the truth about something to try and cover it up?”
“I understand that,” Russell said.
Dwyer then read to the court from Schmidt-Gearing’s statement: “So everyone came back to the station. And then at that point, I wasn’t involved in the conversation, but I kind of just heard that it was Constable Russell who said, ‘Oh, I thought I could hear someone down there.’ And then that kind of piqued my interest.”
Dwyer then asked Russell: “Is it possible that when you were back at the station you were talking to everybody about what you’d heard?”
Russell replied: “I don’t believe so. No.”
Dwyer continued: “Is it possible that when you were back at the station, you were just chatting about what you’d seen out there the first time around, and you were saying, ‘Well, I called out to someone and they didn’t answer?’”
Russell: “That’s incorrect.”
Russell agreed under questioning that he did not turn on body-worn video, or take contemporaneous notes on the night. The first time he recorded the events of the evening was on 12 July, two days later.
Later on Friday, Crystal Manusu, leading constable in charge of the operation, was recalled to respond to the evidence provided by Schmitt-Gearing.
Manusu said she thought Schmidt-Gearing may have been “confused” about the timing of certain events.
“I am of the opinion, with the utmost respect for Alice [Schmidt-Gearing], that she might be confused about the timeframes or the conversations, and the times that those conversations may have occurred. I’m not saying that a similar conversation didn’t occur, but I think she might have confused it,” Manusu told the court.
Later, she said she “did not agree” that Schmidt-Gearing’s evidence was an accurate account of a conversation she had with Constable Russell.
“I think she got it wrong. I’m not saying in any way that she’s dishonest. I just think she’s mixed it up.”
The inquest continues next week.
