A police investigator has told a coronial inquest that he considers Peter "PJ" Jenkinson from Gunbower, Victoria, to be the main suspect in the 2009 disappearance of Pyramid Hill woman Krystal Fraser.
The 23-year-old had an intellectual disability and was due to give birth in a matter of days when she disappeared on the night of June 20, 2009.
That day she discharged herself from Bendigo Base Hospital's medi-hotel to go to a birthday party in Pyramid Hill.
Her sister Chantel Fraser told the inquest this week that she believed the father of the child was Mr Jenkinson, because "he was always in the picture".
On Thursday Detective Inspector Wayne Woltsche told the court in Melbourne that regular calls between Mr Jenkinson's phones and Ms Fraser's mobile stopped on May 13.
Ms Fraser then started receiving regular calls from a payphone until June 16.
"On that particular day [June 16] she received a phone call from the Leitchville phone box that goes for a period of time," Inspector Woltsche told the inquest.
"It's my belief that the 19 calls that get made to Krystal from that phone box were made by Mr Jenkinson.
"My personal belief is that perhaps Ms Fraser has decided that Peter Jenkinson may be the father of her child, and it is the motive for her disappearing on that night.
"Krystal herself is a fairly identifiable person, speaking to family and friends, she may be able to relocate somewhere else, but I just don't see that she'd be able to curb her personality and blend in."
Mr Jenkinson, who is being represented in court, is scheduled to appear at the inquest next week.
Rumour and innuendo
Inspector Woltsche told the inquest that the rumour and innuendo swirling in the small country town of Pyramid Hill in the weeks and months after Ms Fraser's disappearance continued to this day.
Three men have been identified as the potential fathers of Ms Fraser's unborn baby — Mr Jenkinson, Tony Gatt and Gareth David.
Counsel for the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Andrew Imrie, questioned Inspector Woltsche about whether a local police officer named Ray Stone had improper relations with Ms Fraser.
Mr Woltsche said the suggestion had been looked into and nothing was found to substantiate it.
Under questioning by Mr Imrie, Inspector Woltsche told the inquest he was shocked after eight years of investigating Ms Fraser's disappearance to learn that the woman's former flatmate, Robert Glennie, saw her get into a red station wagon the night she disappeared.
"I nearly fell over — yes, I was very surprised," Inspector Woltsche said.
"He never mentioned a car. This is news."
This morning Krystal's best friend Jason MacPherson told the inquest he remembered "Glennie" telling him about the car.
"What do you think happened to Krystal?" counsel assisting the coroner, Fiona Batten, asked Mr MacPherson.
"Glennie heard the car door slam," Mr MacPherson said.
"When did he tell you this?" Ms Batten said.
"He told me he heard it a few weeks after, I guess," Mr MacPherson said.
The inquest into Ms Fraser’s death has also heard conflicting stories this week from family and friends who said she could not handle alcohol and, according to her sister, could not smoke a joint.
But the inquest heard Ms Fraser was known to run cannabis between Bendigo and Pyramid Hill and people taking advantage of her would slip her a $20 note for a silver foil of cannabis.
Blood-stained clothes
In a statement made to police this year, witness Susan McGillvray said Steven Jones, a friend of Mr Jenkinson's, had shown her a bag of clothing that appeared to contain something that looked like a stained shirt with stab holes in it.
The inquest heard that he told Ms McGillvray that it was Ms Fraser's dried-up blood.
Mr Jones has since died and the whereabouts of the clothing remains unknown.
"Clearly if he produced something that was believed to be blood on clothing, that would have been taken and seized, obviously, because at this point Mr Jenkinson was well and truly a suspect of ours," Inspector Woltsche told the court.
Mr MacPherson and Ms Fraser would regularly head to Mr Glennie’s house to drink alcohol and smoke bongs, the court heard.
On the night of her disappearance Mr MacPherson – a computer technician in Kerang – was supposed to head to Ms Fraser's house to fix her computer but he forgot, which reportedly made Ms Fraser angry.
According to Mr Glennie’s testimony, she was angry at the Bendigo Hospital where she discharged herself earlier that day, angry at Mr MacPherson for not showing up to fix her computer, and angry that a friend named Bandy "didn’t do what he was meant to do".
The inquest heard this morning that two bakery workers had identified Mr MacPherson as the man Ms Fraser was seen with at the bakery around 8.45pm.
"I used to speak to her all the time," Mr MacPherson told the inquest.
Ms Batten asked Mr MacPherson if he knew what happened to Ms Fraser.
"Don’t we all want to know? Put the family at rest," Mr MacPherson said.
Mr MacPherson told the inquest he travelled to Bendigo "heaps" of times in the weeks after June 20 to see if he could find his "good mate".
"In the weeks after I was going to Bendigo looking," he told the court.
"There were write-ups in the paper saying people had sighted her.
The inquest heard that Mr MacPherson's de facto partner said he was at home the night Ms Fraser disappeared, and phone records show he answered a call at home from Ms Fraser later that night when she was at Mr Glennie's house in Pyramid Hill.
The inquest before Coroner Katherine Lorenz continues tomorrow.
