In the weeks before she disappeared, Amber Haigh wrote how lonely and lost she felt.
Documents tendered to court suggest the new mother was ringed by chaos and confusion, being pushed and pulled between three houses, and feeling she belonged nowhere.
Reports from police and health workers show they believed Haigh was vulnerable, that there was no place suitable for her and her infant son – but interventions failed to help her.
In a notebook found after Haigh disappeared, she had written in careful printing: “When will I get someone to love me. I feel so lonely.”
‘I miss them and it hurts me’
Haigh, who had an intellectual disability, vanished from the New South Wales Riverina in June 2002, leaving behind her five-month-old son.
More than two decades later the father of Haigh’s child, Robert Geeves, and his wife, Anne Geeves, both 64, are on trial for her alleged murder. They have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have alleged the Geeveses used Haigh as a “surrogate” to have another baby but that once Haigh had given birth to Robert Geeves’s child they “removed her from the equation” by killing her.
The couple have consistently denied ever harming Haigh. They told police they had last seen her on the evening of 5 June 2002, when they drove her from their home in Kingsvale to Campbelltown railway station, from where Haigh was to catch a train to visit her dying father in hospital. She never arrived. No trace of her has been found.
The last independent sighting of Haigh was three days earlier, in the company of Robert Geeves in the town of Young.
The nine-week murder trial is set to conclude with closing submissions beginning on Monday morning.
Among more than 130 exhibits tendered to the court are letters Haigh wrote in the days and weeks before she disappeared.
In those final weeks, she was being shunted between three homes: the Geeveses’ rural property “Huntleigh” in Kingsvale; her great-aunt Stella’s neighbouring property; and a small bedsit flat in Young. She occasionally caught a train to Sydney to visit family there.
In one reflective letter she expressed her feelings of not belonging.
“I feel like I can’t go to town, if I do, I got (sic) to be here within 2 hours or Anne [Geeves] will get the shits. I can’t go to [cousin] Jackie or Stella’s because they both get the shits.
“I can’t go to Sydney because they don’t want me to go. I can’t stay at my own home with [my child] because they get upset.”
In another undated note she mourned the loss of her grandmother and an earlier lost child: the court has been told Haigh was impregnated by a cousin at age 14 and the pregnancy was terminated.
“I miss them and it hurts me to think of them.”
Haigh wrote that she feels alone in the world: “When will I get someone to love me. I feel so lonely.”
One letter dated 31 May 2002 – days before she disappeared – is written in red ink, addressed to her infant son. The court has heard previously that after her son was born, Haigh was known as “mummy” and Anne Geeves as “mum”.
“I see you asleep, you look like your daddy. You [were] laying with your mum. I know you love your mum, sometimes I think you love her more then [sic] me and I feel like I’m your sister not your mummy.
“I know [that] your mum loves you like her real son, not her step son. We all love you my son of mine. Love, Mummy.”
Police concerns and family disputes
Police and community services workers consistently raised concerns about Haigh’s living arrangements.
In a police file dated 3 February 2002 – when Haigh’s baby was just over a week old – her great-aunt raised concern that Haigh had failed to return from a visit to the Geeveses’ home.
“Geeves lives down the road,” the file tendered in court says, “and has been extremely violent to Haigh in the past … has also threatened to take the baby from Haigh.”
The file records that police went to the Geeveses’ home.
“The house and yard appeared rundown and not maintained … the house was in a disgusting, filthy and unkept state. Anne Geeves was seated at the kitchen table which was piled up with rubbish. Everywhere within sight was a disgusting mess.”
Police spoke to Haigh. The file says she was “awkwardly” carrying her baby, who was dressed only in a disposable nappy. Police instructed Robert Geeves to return Haigh to her great-aunt’s home, to which he agreed.
The file states: “Police are of the opinion that the premises and environment are certainly not suitable for Amber Haigh or her child” but recorded there was “no immediate danger” if they stayed with her great-aunt.
But two days later, on 5 February, a child and family health nurse, Sue Powell, raised a “concern for welfare” note with NSW police because Haigh and her baby had failed to keep an appointment.
“I believe she is at the home of a Robert Geeves in Kingsvale and that he will not let her leave to return to her aunty’s place,” she wrote.
The police file records Powell was “concerned that Amber Haigh and her son were being held there against their will”.
Haigh had not been returned to her great-aunt’s home as promised by Robert Geeves, so police went again to the Geeveses’ home. They drove Haigh and her son back to her great-aunt’s.
Powell visited Haigh at her great-aunt’s house later that afternoon. She said she had walked into an erupting family dispute.
“She was confronted by a very loud and angry verbal argument between two other family members … Amber Haigh was obviously in distress at the situation,” Powell’s notes read.
So Powell took Haigh to her bedsit flat in Young. The next day, according to Powell’s tendered notes, Robert Geeves arrived, “trying to entice her [Haigh] to return with him to his property”.
The police file records: “Powell was of the opinion that Robert and Anne Geeves will make every effort to gain custody of the [child] as he is the father.
“As Amber Haigh is mentally challenged, she is confused and does not understand the gravity of the situation.”
The court has heard Powell had sought to expedite the intervention of the Department of Community Services in Haigh’s case. She said she had concerns about Haigh’s ability to parent independently because she lacked fundamental baby care skills.
Under cross-examination from defence counsel, Powell agreed that Haigh’s bedsit flat was “chaotic”, with clothes strewn everywhere and an untidy kitchen, and that she needed significant “assistance” parenting her infant. Robert Geeves had brought “basic food items” to Haigh’s flat, her cross-examination heard.
‘Who looks after the baby?’
Robert and Anne Geeves walked into Young police station on the evening of 19 June 2002 to report Haigh missing. They had not seen her for two weeks, they told police, since they dropped her at Campbelltown.
The missing person’s file recorded the bare details: that Robert Geeves “is concerned as the missing person [Haigh] has not contacted him or his wife as to the wellbeing of their five-month-old baby.
“The missing person did not tell Geeves and his wife where she was going from the Campbelltown railway station and did not leave any contact details as to where she was going to stay. Geeves stated this was not unusual for the missing person.”
But a contemporaneous handwritten note, written by Const Belinda Durham, recorded the conversation in greater detail.
She wrote that the Geeves said they had dropped Haigh off at the station, staying “about five minutes” before driving the three hours straight back home. Haigh willingly left her five-month-old son in their custody, the Geeveses said.
The note says: “I asked Mr and Mrs Geeves if they had any conversation with Amber on the way to Campbelltown railway station. I asked ‘did she say where she was going to stay?’
“Geeves stated ‘no’. When I asked ‘isn’t it a bit unusual not to say or ask her where she was going?’, Geeves stated ‘no, Amber is, what can I say, an unusual person, not normal’.”
In interviews played to the court, the Geeveses told police that Haigh may have gone to stay with her uncle or mother in Sydney, but that they did not know their surnames, or have addresses or contact numbers for them.
“When I asked Mr and Mrs Geeves ‘why has it taken you two weeks to report Amber missing?’ Robert Geeves stated: ‘It’s not unusual for Amber not to contact us. She has gone to Sydney before she had the baby and did not contact us for a month’.”
Police asked the Geeveses: “Who looks after the baby?” The Geeveses replied: “Anne.”
‘Gossip and innuendo’
Haigh’s disappearance has been an enduring mystery in the Riverina. 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 had been used by Robert and Anne Geeves as a “surrogate mother” because they wanted another baby.
The court has previously heard that 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,” said the crown prosecutor, Paul Kerr. “But they knew that to do that, Amber had to be removed from the equation … so, the crown asserts, they killed her.”
Lawyers for Robert and Anne Geeves have argued that 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” had fuelled “gossip and innuendo”.
“Everything they did was viewed through a haze of mistrust and suspicion,” the court has been told.
The judge-alone trial, before Justice Julia Lonergan, continues in Wagga Wagga.
