Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax, and think about work. You really, really want it all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that peace of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow wherever you are. Tap the banner to go to Monday.com.
All right, you guys, we are jumping into an ad and I wanted to let you know that listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception, along with popular podcasts and exclusive Audible Originals. All-in-one, easy app.
app. Enjoy Audible anytime while doing other things, household chores, exercising, on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. You guys, since becoming an Audible member, I've found it so easy to fit more stories into my day. Recently, I've actually been listening to Twilight on audiobook and it's been a game changer during my daily walks.
So there's more to imagine when you listen. New members can try Audible now for free for 30 days with your first audiobook included. Visit audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500. That's audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days.
Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Just a reminder to everyone that our Patreon is ad-free and it's a great way to support the show. And we have some really fun additions coming to our Patreon in February that we're really excited about. So make sure you check that out. It's patreon.com slash murderwithmyhusband. All right, Garrett, your 10 seconds. Well, I feel like I've just been taking care of Peyton this entire week because she's been sick.
True. But she's slowly getting better, kind of. She all of a sudden has like a cough now, so. Yeah. But she's getting better. My throat feels better, though. Yeah, so that's good. So I'm not sure how many of you know this, but I do love, I love cars. Everything about cars. And I traded in my truck and got another truck, so.
That could be my 10 seconds. He was very, very excited about it. If I could get a new car like every month, I totally would. You want to be Kylie Jenner? Yes. If I had the money Kylie Jenner had, I would buy a new car every week. Other than that, just been driving around in my new car and taking care of Peyton. Yeah, we have gone on a lot of drives this week. We've gone on a ton of drives.
When you're just staying home because I'm sick. So we've just been staying home and it's like, that's all you can do. I know, just go on drives. Last thing is I saw a comment on YouTube the other day that said, asked why Peyton and I don't wear our rings. So we are wearing our rings today for anyone that is curious. I don't like to wear my ring when I go to sleep. And so I take it off and then sometimes we'll just get up and record right away. And so I'll just forget to put it on. So if you've seen me without it, that's why. We actually go out quite a bit without our rings. I feel like we're always just like,
Peyton and I are always running around. Right. Like everywhere we go, we're just always running around with our heads cut off. Yes. Literally, I can't explain anything better than the last two years of our life is just us running around with our heads cut off. Yes. Honestly, it's exactly what it is. Okay, let's get into this. There's a lot of case sources for this week. So if you want to skippy skippy, you can do that now while I list them. Forensicsandflorals.com, Wikipedia, theculturtrip.com.
DanielMoorcombe.com.au, Murderpedia, ABC.net, BrisbaneTimes.com, Case File Podcast, TheWest.com, TheAustralian.com, www.news.com.au, ALRC.gov.au.
Our case this week begins on December 19th, 1989 when Daniel James Morecum is born. Daniel was actually born with a twin brother named Bradley and Bradley and Daniel have an older brother named Dean. Daniel's parents are Denise and Bruce who met through work friends and began dating back in 1980. They eventually got married on September 3rd, 1983 and together they purchased and managed a mowing franchise that was actually pretty successful.
By 2003, they scaled back their business by selling some of the franchises because at this point they just wanted to work from home and spend time together raising their three boys.
The Morecambe family lived in Queensland in Australia, and they had ponies, ducks, chickens, and geese that lived on their property along with a lot of fruit trees. So they had a lot of acreage. All three Morecambe sons loved the outdoors and playing with their animals. Daniel's pony was named Bullet. Daniel was pretty shy, but on the same note, he was kind and patient.
He really did love animals and there are several pictures of him with all different kinds of animals from when he was younger.
Daniel dreamed of eventually one day becoming a veterinarian when he was older. So that's just kind of the family lifestyle that's going on for this family. By December of 2003, young Daniel is now 13 years old, but he is still that kind, animal-loving kid. And because of this sweet soul that he had, on December 7th, Daniel was planning to get a haircut and shop for Christmas presents for his parents.
He was going to be able to do this on his own at 13 by taking the public transit Sunbus. Now, before you are like, like what the freak, Daniel and Bradley often rode on the Sunbus together to get places.
Think of it being like New York or somewhere where public transit is more popular. Like young kids ride the subway to school all the time in New York. So I don't think it's that abnormal that at 13 years old, Daniel and Bradley would take the public bus to go into town. You know, when I was in Europe for a couple of years, I mean, everybody rode the bus, the subway. Didn't really matter your age. Yep.
So this specific day, Bradley and Daniel were supposed to go Christmas shopping for Christmas gifts together at the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Center. Their parents were actually going to a work Christmas party, so this would be like the perfect time for them to go and get back into the house without, like with the gifts without their parents noticing. But when the time came for Bradley and Daniel to leave to catch the bus, it was raining outside in the Sunshine Coast.
Daniel didn't care. They could still get their shopping done. A little rain wasn't going to stop him. But Bradley wasn't feeling it. He opted to stay home instead. Their older brother, Dean, was going to a friend's house that night, so Bradley would actually have the house to himself. As things were decided, Bradley said goodbye as Daniel left for his haircut and Christmas shopping.
Daniel leaves and begins the 15 to 20 minute walk from his home on Wumbi Palmwoods Road to the unofficial bus stop under the Keele Mountain overpass in the Wumbi District of the Sunshine Coast. Random note, but apparently the bus stop that Daniel is walking to is only about 1.2 miles away from Australia's noted Big Bang.
Now, I know you have no idea what I just said. No idea what that is. But apparently in Australia, like they have a thing about big things. Like they have a big banana. Like Texas? Yes, yes. They have like a big banana, a big pineapple.
a big lobster, a big barrel, like the list goes on and on. And you can literally take a road trip across Australia and visit all of their big things. - Okay, I didn't know that. - And like the big pineapple is actually like a huge fake pineapple that sits on land where previous pineapple farms have been. So this bus stop he's going to is near a landmark we could say.
If anyone from Australia is listening, I want to see a picture of you next to this big pineapple. Ooh, that's a good one. That's a good one.
Also, the Australia Zoo that was founded by the late Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter, is located on the Sunshine Coast where this story is taking place as well. I just wanted to give you a little background of where we are. Okay, so anyways, Denise and Bruce, Daniel's parents, arrive home from their Christmas party that evening around 4.30 p.m. And when they get home, they ask Bradley where Daniel is.
And he doesn't know. He wasn't home yet. He had gone out shopping, but he hadn't gotten home yet. But Daniel's parents are slightly worried. There was no reason that Daniel shouldn't be home by now if all he had to do was make that quick walk to the bus, go into town, get a haircut, get some gifts, and come home. He should have beat them home. And he's still 13 at this point, correct? Right. So, I mean, he's old enough to like...
you know, go out on his own, but he's not old enough to go out on his own. You know what I mean? When I think about it, I mean, I would walk to like Wendy's and all these food places with my friends that was probably a mile and a half away. So no difference. Right.
Um, so his parents immediately call the bus company and try to figure out which bus Daniel had taken that day. Maybe they could figure out where he was. Maybe he had gone somewhere else. This conversation with the sun bus company is when Denise and Bruce's feelings go from worry to straight up panic real quick.
Apparently, Daniel was planning on catching the 1.30 p.m. bus earlier that day. And earlier, I called the bus stop that he went to an unofficial bus stop because this wasn't actually on the stop list. But locals in the area had waited under the overpass for the bus so often that now the bus just kind of stopped.
there. So a stranger couldn't just be like, I'm going to go catch the bus at that bus stop because it didn't exist. The locals would wait under the overpass for the bus and it would always stop for them. Around 1 p.m., Daniel actually walked by a small service station where Jenny, the attendant working, saw him. So we know that he was seen walking to the bus stop.
As Daniel arrives at the bus stop under the overpass, a bus drives by but doesn't stop for Daniel. Apparently, the original bus that drives this route that day had broken down. And so the bus that was now driving by Daniel was the replacement express bus. Oh, man. You know, it's just...
It's always like this, like so many unfortunate events. Right. Like what are the chances? I don't know what happens in the story yet, but what are the chances that that day, that bus is the one that's broken down where at his exact quote unquote stop where he's at. That's just. And that his brother, his twin brother, Bradley had just decided not to go. Right. So now Daniel's alone as well. So it's just so many things that are innocent things. They're innocent things. They mean nothing. But then when they're all together, it's just like,
How? How the crap is this happening? So a passenger on the replacement bus actually scolds the driver for not stopping and just letting Daniel on, but it doesn't do anything. The driver passes him by and actually radios the depot for another bus to come pick up Daniel under the overpass instead. So everyone on the bus sees Daniel. The driver sees Daniel. They keep driving, and he radios for another bus to come get him instead. Okay.
The replacement bus drives away from the underpass, leaving 13-year-old Daniel to wait around for the next bus that was supposedly coming. Around 45 minutes later, the other bus finally shows up to the unofficial stop, but by that time, Daniel was gone. No way.
And his parents are just now learning all of this on the phone with the bus company. They say that they never actually picked Daniel up that day. There had been so much confusion. By the time they sent someone out there, he was gone. They assumed that he had just opted not to take the bus.
Denise and Bruce immediately get in their car and slowly drive along the route, thinking that they would find Daniel stranded somewhere. But they were unsuccessful. They then decided to try and search their own and nearby properties. Maybe he was just somewhere else, but they still couldn't find him. When it got dark, they defeatedly called the police to report their son missing.
They tell police they know that something is wrong now because Daniel was actually afraid of the dark. And if he was out on his own and okay, he would have made it a priority to be home by now. Oh, this is horrible.
Police begin their investigation into 13-year-old Daniel's disappearance. According to forensicsandflorals.com, it would go on to infamously become the biggest police investigation in Queensland history. So if you're from Australia, you most likely know this case. And if you're from America, you might have heard of it. And if you're Garrett, you've never heard of this your entire life.
Daniel was last seen wearing a red billabong t-shirt, navy blue shorts, and gray globe sneakers.
Police begin canvassing the route that Daniel was last seen walking, and they are calling out for him. While searching for Daniel, witnesses confirmed that they did see a child matching Daniel's description underneath the overpass that day, drawing in the mud with a stick. How long was it from when the first bus came to the next bus? 45 minutes. 45, that's a long time. Yes.
The bus driver of the shuttle confirmed that no one was at the underpass stop when he had arrived, the second bus. And he had actually spent his whole shift driving along the route and picking up passengers along the way who were stranded by the earlier bus that broke down. So when I read this, something kind of clicked for me.
I think that the first bus just passed him by because there was already another bus whose job it was to drive and pick up these people because they were behind schedule. So they were just going to keep all the other buses on schedule and send one bus to go pick up everyone who was affected by this broken down bus.
Yeah, that makes sense to me. So that's what I think happened. The website, again, forensicsandflorals.com, provides a very detailed mapping of the distance walked by Daniel that day and the surrounding landmarks that can be helpful to understand. So we will put that graphic up on our YouTube and social channels for people to check out as well.
With nothing coming from the foot searches being done, police decide to reenact Daniel's last steps to see if they just missed anything. This is done on the morning of December 14th, seven days after Daniel vanished. At the same time this is happening, police are also immediately looking into known convicted sex offenders in the surrounding area. This is pretty standard in a suspicious child disappearance that they immediately look into that.
They discovered that there were several known convicted pedophiles in the area and so one by one police began interviewing all of them to solidify their whereabouts during the time that Daniel went missing.
You know, we've talked about this before, but it's just, it would be so hard to be a detective, a cop, all of this. Like, where do you start? Right. Like, where do you start with a case like this? He just went missing. So it's like, all right, here we go. We're going to canvas the area. We're going to ask questions. Yeah. Police also noticed a consistent story across the board from witnesses describing a suspicious blue sedan and suspicious white vehicle in the area that day.
The case file episode on this case mentions that one witness tells police she too had noticed the suspicious blue sedan in the area and had actually attempted to write down the license plate number just in case. But her pen that she grabbed wasn't working at the time, so she couldn't get it in time as the driver drove away. See, this is what I mean. How many things are going to happen? Ugh.
Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your...
I made that up. I went off the ad. Let me go back to the ad read. The best way is to uproot your entire life. Drop your... Oh. You literally followed the ad. I didn't read the rest of that. Drop yourself in the middle of a new country and figure it out from there. I just want to let everyone know that's what I did. But... That's what I did. It worked. If you're not ready for that, you can still learn a new language the next best way. And that is with Babbel. See you.
Because talking is the key to really knowing any language.
Designed by real people for having real conversation, Babbel gets you talking. You guys, I actually use Babbel to brush up on Spanish when we travel. I love it. It is so easy. And then I can actually kind of keep up with what's going on. And with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. So there's no pressure. Buy Babbel and travel.
Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash husband. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash husband spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash husband. Rules and restrictions may apply.
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms.
and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. Peyton and I love Shopify. We have been using it for, I mean, I've been using it for six years now, so many years, and it's amazing. It just keeps getting better and better with more updates. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.
Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband.
Many also described a tattooed adult male and younger male near the underpass that day. When these details were given to the public, there was a lot of criticism lobbed at the Queensland government for the timing of the release of a convicted pedophile named Douglas Jackway a month prior. He was dark haired. He had a large shoulder tattoo and a goatee and happened to own a blue sedan.
So when this is released, the public is like, you guys just let out a convicted sex offender who matches the description and drives a blue sedan. He actually happened to be in the Sunshine Coast the day after Daniel disappeared.
So he was interrogated. But the Queensland police announced that he didn't, he had no involvement and they eventually let him go. And after that, all of the requests for the real adult, like tattooed male, like to come forward did not yield any leads. And so police began suspecting that if he was unwilling to come forward, maybe this tattooed guy had something to do with the disappearance.
By December 19th, 2003, 12 days after Daniel had disappeared, he had still not been found. And although police had received a lot of cooperation on the investigation, they still had no idea what to do. And the arrival of December 19th came with tremendous heartache to the Morcombe family because it would have been Daniel and Bradley's 14th birthday together. Oh my gosh. And for the first time since they were born,
Bradley spent his birthday without his other half, his twin. Denise and Bruce were continuing to follow up on any tips they were getting and continued the search for Daniel. Because the case was receiving such attention in Australia, this came with extra headache for Daniel's parents.
false confessions that led nowhere, people prank calling and saying nasty things about Daniel. And we always see this happen. Society as a whole can be so disturbing, especially to a family that is going through what could possibly be one of the worst pains. It was around this time that Bruce and Denise began publicly referring to Daniel's disappearance as an abduction.
they knew someone had taken their son. Christmas 2003 came and went without any news about Daniel. By April 20th, 2004, four months after Daniel vanished, the first day for Daniel was held in Brisbane. Bruce and Denise released 1,000 red balloons into the air as part of a campaign to increase awareness for Daniel's abduction in hopes for more leads.
Over 1 million missing person posters had been distributed by this point. Holy crap. By October 2nd, 2004, a reward was posted by the Queensland government for information leading to an arrest or conviction in this case. This amount was noted as the biggest reward in Queensland at the time. The announcement led to over 8,000 calls to Crimestoppers. How do you even filter all of those?
You just follow up every lead. There has to be so many people like volunteers wanting to work and filter through all those. There was just hundreds of police who have worked this case over the years because with 8,000 tips coming in, it's the biggest investigation in Queensland history. And 98% of them are going to be just... Lead you nowhere. Yeah. Yeah.
Hmm.
On December 7th, 2004, the one year anniversary of Daniel's abduction, about 1000 people attend a service to remember the anniversary and a memorial is constructed at the bus stop that Daniel was last seen. By February 2005, Bruce and Denise launched the Daniel McCorm Foundation. The goal was to educate children on personal safety and to ensure that Daniel would never be forgotten.
By this point, the family had been completely overwhelmed by emails and letters in which they all followed up on but never got anywhere. All of this probably caused the family more anxiety and grief, but like, what are you supposed to do in this situation? Give up, not follow them, not listen to every email? Another two years goes by in the investigation with no movement released to the public or the family.
By December 2007, the Morcombe family sell their family home and finally pack up Daniel's old room and belongings that they had left untouched for all of those years. And just a year later, on December 1st, 2008, the amount of the reward for information is increased to $1 million. Oh my gosh. So they are still, they're working hard at this. Yes. I don't know how else to explain it. Yeah. Yeah.
They're still looking into it. They're still working. This donation was for $750,000 and it was via a private donor. That's so awesome. And it was set to expire in May of 2009. Okay. So this tactic was basically forcing anybody who might know anything to come forward before then if they want the reward money. This is really not a bad tactic if you believe that someone out there knows something but is protecting someone else's
So they won't come forward, like a girlfriend, a cousin, a family member. But it's hard to deny a million dollars. Right, right. So the remaining $250,000 would stay forever. Only the $750,000 from the private donor would expire. Okay.
This was obviously the largest sum of reward money set, like it set a record in Queensland. And Daniel's case was reported on the news every year on his anniversary. But six years after the abduction, July 5th, 2009, with no one providing information worthy of the $1 million, the $750,000 is pulled and Daniel's parents are beginning to feel guilty.
as though their son's case is coming to a standstill. Gosh, it's horrible. I know someone knows something. Right, right. They decide to call for a coronial inquest into their son's disappearance.
Now, a coronial inquest is a judicial inquiry held to establish the facts that led to an incident like a cause of death. While not all deaths require an inquest or investigation, the information is reviewed to determine what the next steps are. This is like obtaining a medical examiner's report on the cause of death in the USA, determining if the manner of death was homicide and would lead to an arrest or conviction.
It takes some time, but by October 13th, 2010, a coronial inquest led by state coroner Michael Barnes begins.
The inquest is held in Brisbane and it adjourns on April 6, 2011. The results are a 71-page document outlining the findings. This is basically just a step in the right direction for the McComb family and their feelings on Daniel's investigation. Like, they're getting somewhere. Their finding is, you know, are we going to say it was a homicide? Is he still missing? Like, what's going on?
It had now been eight years since Daniel disappeared. That is such a long time. So long. That is almost a decade. It would have been 21. Right. Almost 22, I think. Right. His family was still hurting for answers and justice. Bradley without his twin for eight years. And it really feels like not much physical movement on this case investigation wise. Like they've never even really had a strong suspect. Right.
That was until August 13th, 2011, when police announced that they have arrested 41-year-old Brett Peter Cohen for the abduction and murder of Daniel Marcombe. Out of nowhere? Out of nowhere. Like, did the family even know this was happening? I...
It doesn't say whether or not the family knew, but the family definitely didn't know details. They just might have known before everyone else that there was an arrest. They had no idea how or why. But the news sources and all of them probably didn't know. Or taken aback. Had no idea. Especially because it's been nine years. Which I feel like usually is the best or smartest way to do it because obviously...
If the police arrested him, they obviously knew something that they had been keeping, quote unquote, secret from the public. If police don't need the public's help in solving a case, there's no reason they need to release the information. Yep. His official charges, Brett's, were murder, deprivation of liberty, child stealing, indecent treatment of a child under 16, and interfering with a corpse. It's like first degree murder. Right. So when this is released, people are like,
Oh, crap. Like they for sure know that Daniel was murdered. So what do they have? What do police know that everyone else doesn't know? Well, then obviously the family has to know something at this point. Something at this point. But they don't know exactly what happened, right? Or they don't know where his body is yet at this point? Yes, yes. Okay. So this is one of the biggest cases in Australia and they've made an arrest.
I would assume for people who had been following this case, it felt similar to how most of us felt when they announced they had made an arrest for the Golden State Killer. Like monumental, but where did this come from? Like none of us even knew that they were even close to this. And then all of a sudden they're like, hey, we've solved one of the most infamous cases in the United States.
Back on December 14th, 2003, literally just a week after Daniel was taken, when police were interviewing local known predators, they interviewed Brett Cohen. Interesting. Okay. During his initial interview with police, Brett even admitted to traveling along the road that Daniel was last seen just the day before.
He put himself there at the time that Daniel was taken, but told police he was running an errand and did not see anything. Again, according to the case file episode, there were 39 known pedophiles in the area at the time of Daniel's disappearance. And after talking to most of them, police narrowed down a list of seven possible suspects.
Brett Cohen was person seven on that initial list in the month after Daniel went missing.
I include this not to frown upon the police investigation, but to speak once again to offender case management and the ability of tracking criminals after they've been released. Obviously, this depends on the type of legal system and what country you are in. But in most countries, sexual offenders register in the area that they live for public safety. Even then, I feel like the tracking system isn't...
That's what I'm talking about. There's a lot to it. Despite this system that is in place and the fact that the police did immediately interview Brett Cohen, he evaded arrest for almost a decade. Like, how is this possible? And it gets worse. In September of 2006, two and a half years after police had initially interviewed Brett and put him on their suspect list,
They re-interviewed him in hopes of making headway in the case. They refer to his first interview and try to verify his original alibi of running errands. But Brett simply tells them this time around that he had lied about it. This time, he admits to buying marijuana from his dealer, Sandra Drummond, at the time of the disappearance and
And he had originally lied because he didn't want to get her in trouble. Police turned to Sandra Drummond and she confirms that Brett was purchasing marijuana from her at that time, but couldn't confirm if it was December 7th. She was like, well, yeah, he was buying drugs for me around that time, but I can't like say for sure that it was that day that he was at my house. Yeah.
But police dig deeper and they discover that in 2003, Sandra and her partner Kevin Fitzgerald regularly played poker at the machines of a nearby bar on Sundays.
December 7th, 2003 was a Sunday. Of course it was. So police further proved Brett Cohen couldn't have been with his drug dealer, Sandra, that day because Sandra and Kevin used loyalty cards that were timestamped during the time Brett said he was at Sandra's house.
So they literally have cards saying that she wasn't at her house when he's saying, no, she was my alibi. So where is all this coming from? Did a new detective come in? Did a new officer come in and like go through it all? Or like, how's all this just popping up? Correct. So it's been what? Nine years? Yeah. Eight years, nine years. Yeah. And so, and I said over like hundreds of detectives worked this case. And so what normally happens is they interview them, they put it away.
someone else is assigned to the case. They come in, they pull everything out and they're like, well, maybe we should re-interview this guy. So that's how these like interviews keep happening over time. But despite this, despite them literally proving Brett's alibi wrong and the fact that he had lied, police do not arrest Brett.
Now, this is so frustrating, but hindsight is 20-20. I mean, it seems so obvious to us, and it is very easy to talk about true crime and say, but what about this? Why didn't they do this? We just don't know all of the details at the time, though. They probably really didn't have enough information to... Correct. I mean, by this point, they had received...
so many false confessions and there was so much attention on this case. It was a huge investigation and maybe that was the problem. Maybe there was so many details that they couldn't actually narrow in on the ones that mattered.
But in April of 2011, police decided to once again have another go at Brett Cohen. So this is now the third group of police detectives who are like, we're going to look at him again. On a flight back to Perth, Brett meets Joe Emery. That's his name. And they talk their whole entire flight.
Brett was very impressed by Joe's criminal background and they exchanged phone numbers to stay in contact. Now, yes, I just said Brett was impressed because Joe was also had a criminal past. Like he was a criminal. Oh, you meant criminal. I thought you meant police. Yes, he was a detective or something. No, he was a bad guy and Brett was impressed by him. Oh my gosh. So they share numbers and they stay in contact. Now, unbeknownst to Brett...
Meeting Joe on the airplane was not chance at all. Undercover cop. Let's go. The police had started an undercover police operation. Another officer was posing as a crime boss named Paul Fitzsimmons, who people referred to as Fitzy. And over the following months, the police end up recruiting Brett...
into a fake criminal gang using this undercover operation. No freaking way. Yeah, so they had Brett partake in like initiatory activities like staking out arrival gates at the airport looking for a specific person, bribing custom officers, and illegal phishing. Okay.
All of this was leading up to trying to obtain a confession for Daniel's murder. They did this by telling Brett that they had a big job for him, but the gang had found out that he was being subpoenaed for the ongoing investigation into Daniel's case. So basically all these undercover cops are in a gang and Fitzy's the boss and he's still an undercover cop. And he tells Brett, Hey, I have a big job for you coming up, but I just found out that police have are interrogating you for this kid's disappearance. Yeah.
And Fitzy, the boss, told Brett that he needed to confess to him anything that happened so the gang knew the entire story and...
They could go back and fix any mistakes he had made. Okay. So basically. That's so smart. Yes. They go at it like saying, we don't care what you did, but we can't have this in our gang. We have your back. You need to tell us. You need to tell us. So we can help you. So we can cover up. Where's the body? What? Like we need to burn the car. What happened? That's insane. We need to make sure that you covered your tracks. That's how they go about it. Okay. You guys shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall can be a challenge, but I'm telling you right now.
My quince products that I have, my quince clothing items are my go-to staples in the fall. They make it so easy. They have timeless high quality items. I use their silk skirts. I literally wear them in so many ways with boots, with tights, with a sweater, with a crop top.
They have cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, so much more. And the best part is that they are priced so well because they partner directly with top factories. So they cut out the cost of the middleman and then they pass the savings onto you. So you are literally getting cashmere sweaters for $50.
I just got a cashmere sweater from Quince that I am going to be wearing. I also have a pair of their linen pants. I'm actually just going to pair them together. I will post it on my social media and you will see it. So make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash husband.com.
for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns you guys if you want free shipping make sure to do quince.com husband that's q u i n c e dot com slash husband to get free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com husband they have the cutest clothes you need to go check it out okay let me guess your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work
You still aren't sleeping, you still hurt, and you're stressed out. That's how it was for me, so I cleared out my cabinet and reset my health with CBD from CB Distillery. CBD Distillery's targeted formulations are made from the highest quality clean ingredients, no fluff, no fillers, just pure effective CBD solutions designed to help support your health.
In two non-clinical surveys, 81% of customers experienced more calm, 80% said CBD helped with pain after physical activity, and an impressive 90% actually said they slept better with CBD. I have personally used CBD before to help me sleep. I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping and I couldn't figure out what to do to help. And honestly, CBD did help. And if that's something you're struggling with, yeah.
Give it a try. Check it out. If you struggle with a health concern and haven't found relief, make the change like I did to CBD Distillery. And with over 2 million customers and a solid 100% money back guarantee, CBD Distillery is the source to trust. You guys, we have a 20% discount to get you started. So if you've ever wanted to do CBD, now is the time. Visit CBDistillery.com and use code husband for 20% off. That's CBDistillery.com.
Dot com code husband. CB distillery dot com code husband. Now they record like this conversation between Fitzy and Brett. This is like recorded. You can watch it. It's video recorded. It's audio recorded. Brett talks, but it's grainy and it's kind of difficult to hear. I mean, remember that it's captured in 2011 with hidden camera technology. Yeah. But you can hear Brett very clearly tell Fitzy. Yeah, you know, I did it.
You know, yeah, I do. All right, so, okay, so you did it, but like I said, I'm not judging you, all right? Yeah. Well, I never got to molest him or anything like that. He panicked and I panicked and grabbed him around the throat and just thought I knew he was dead. All right. How long did it take you to strangle him out, you know? You probably don't think about it like that at the time. So what you were looking at... Didn't see him long. All right.
The confession takes place at the Perth Hyatt Hotel, where Brett admits that he saw Daniel that day waiting at the bus stop and offered him a ride to the shopping center. He says that once Daniel was in his car, he drove him to an abandoned house about 30 minutes away and strangled him. Oh my gosh. He admitted during the confession to Fitzy where Daniel's remains were and...
And once like this is all done and Fitzy's like, Hey, we're going to take care of you. I mean, I watched the whole video and Fitzy does a pretty good job. Like of being like, I don't care. Just tell me, I need to know every detail. I need to know if we need, where did he sit in the car? Where's the car now? Like they got every detail. Yeah.
And so police know where to start looking for a body. That is great. So do they arrest him, though, like right at this point? Yes. Like they just go, hey, we're undercover cops? No, not in the video. Oh, okay. Not in the video. But they do take all of this and then eventually arrest him. Oh, like you said, he was arrested for the murder. The murder, right. Yes. And now we're back to August 13th, 2011, when police have just announced that they've arrested Brett Cohen for the murder of Daniel. Yes.
And now I usually don't go into details about these killers because they don't need any more coverage in these stories than they get. But sometimes the past involves more crimes that I feel are necessary to the story.
So Brett Peter Cohen was born in Western Australia and was the third of four boys in his family. He had a strict upbringing, attending a Catholic school, which he eventually dropped out of his junior year and took on odd jobs to support himself instead. He began dabbling in drugs and alcohol, which eventually led to full-on excessive use of both. Trigger warning here, we're going to be talking about sexual assault on children. Okay.
At 18 years old, he committed his first documented crime when he molested a seven-year-old in the public toilets of a playground. I can't even. I can't. He was sentenced to only two to three years in prison for this. What?
That's ridiculous. I know. I don't understand. On September 28th, 1993, at the age of 24, Brett Cohen lured a six-year-old child to an abandoned car outside of the BP Palms Caravan Park in Darwin, where he lived. When the young child came with him, Brett went on to sexually assault the child and leave.
Ugh.
Brett basically left this six-year-old to die after experiencing the worst of the worst. And how long was he in jail for this or prison for this? So this case went to trial and the victim like actually testified that he was scared that he was going to die after Brett left and that he didn't think he was going to make it.
Brett pled guilty only after being told by police that they had physical semen DNA evidence to convict him. They were like, listen, we've collected evidence. There's no way you're getting out of this. So he pleads guilty. He was convicted and given seven years in prison for gross indecency, grievous bodily harm and deprivation of liberty. But not attempted murder or. Right. Per usual. He pled guilty to get out of the attempted murder charge.
Oh, which is hard, though, because he only went to jail for seven years. And of course he was going to go do something again. Well, and he didn't even go to jail for seven years. Per usual, Brett Cohen was paroled after serving only four and a half years, to which he admitted, quote, he has a problem and needs help. He agreed to participate in a sex offender treatment program upon his release.
The law in Australia outlines the punishment for crimes towards children and most carry just a couple of years with the maximum of five to seven, which personally to me is far too low, far too low. Like all I'm saying is crimes against children should carry a harsher punishment. - Anywhere in the world. - Anywhere in the world. It's also worth noting that especially because he was 24, he was a full grown adult committing this crime.
And it is also worth noting that Australia has abolished capital punishment with the last hanging taking place in 1967. Anyone sentenced to death between 1967 and 1984 had their sentences commuted to a life sentence. I just wanted to clarify that as we're talking.
It was at this point in Brett's life that he then moved after getting out of prison for basically leaving a six-year-old to die, that he moved to the Sunshine Coast where he allegedly became a reformed Christian attending church and living with his pastor, Uncle Keith and Aunt Jenny. He claimed that he had given his heart to God and was no longer taking drugs.
That Suncoast church was only 100 yards away from the Keel Mountain overpass where he would go on to kidnap and kill Daniel. By 1999, Brett meets Tracy through the Christian Outreach Church, and they get married. Tracy knew about Brett's past, but says that being a good Christian means that she would forgive him for his sins.
Now, I think I'm a little puzzled by this, but we won't even go into that one. Together, Tracy and Brett have three sons, but after five years of marriage in 2004, after Daniel's disappearance, they get divorced and she gets custody of their sons. No credible sources stated whether the divorce had something to do with maybe her knowledge of his involvement in Daniel's disappearance because it was a year after this happened, but
But Daniel was Brett's third documented crime against children. But reporting speculates that he most likely had more victims. I was just going to say third documented. Correct. Like, give me a break. Because his first one was like full on taking a child into a bathroom. And I feel like molestation starts a little less aggressive than that. And then he took a kid and almost killed him in the park. Right. And then eventually killed a kid. Yes. So.
Friends who grew up with Brett have since come forward and claimed that Brett would torture animals when he was younger. And as we know, this is one factor of the McDonald Triad, which is also known as the homicidal triad. According to Wikipedia, the McDonald Triad is a set of three factors.
The presence of any two of which are considered to be predictive of or associated with violent tendencies, particularly with relation to serial offenses, which is where we say the triad equals serial killer. That's where we get that. The triad links cruelty to animals, uh,
obsession with fire setting and persistent bedwetting past a certain age to violent behaviors, particularly homicidal behavior and sexually predatory behavior. Now we're not saying that if your kid is wetting the bed that he's going to go on and become a serial killer, he or she, but they, this is just a study that has been done after police arrested Brett for Daniel's murder. They begin searching Bushland in the sunshine coast.
But the search was impacted by bad weather that made it particularly difficult. Australian bushland is like American forest land, so similar, except that the Australian bushland contains more steep and rugged terrain than most American forests.
On August 17th, 2011, while searching, police find one of Daniel's shoes that he was last seeing wearing. Wow, his shoe was still there? Still there. It's dirty and old. Oh, man. I mean, the picture's really sad. It sat out there in the weather for eight years.
Three days later on August 20th, 2011, the second shoe was found along with the first human bone. - Okay. - DNA confirms that both the shoes and the bone belong to Daniel. After which an estimated 17 bones were found during the search of Glass House Mountains.
A rib, a hip, an arm, leg bone, and vertebrae. I want to note here that the scenic landscape of the Glasshouse Mountains, like where pieces of Daniel's body was found, is very beautiful. It has a lot of old volcanic craters and plenty of rock climbing, and it is actually a National Heritage Site.
and was a meeting place for the indigenous people. The terrain is beautiful, but dangerous as many rock climbers have actually died trying to climb this mountain. It would have been hard to search eight years ago, dangerous to do unless you were sure that something might be out there. And I'm only prefacing that because you might be like, why haven't they searched this already? Well, unless you're for sure, it's very dangerous to search.
On October 14, 2011, Bruce, Denise, 21-year-old Bradley, and 23-year-old Dean visit the site where Daniel was found in the Glass House Mountains and hold a private ceremony with a priest. On November 26, 2012, Brett Cohen's committal hearing begins in the Brisbane Magistrates' Court.
On December 7th, 2012, exactly nine years after Daniel was murdered, a funeral is held for Daniel at the St. Catherine of Siena Church on the Sunshine Coast. That's so heartbreaking, honestly. I know. He was laid to rest at the Wombai Cemetery. Two years later, on February 10th, 2014, Brett Cohen's trial starts. Two years is what it took to make this trial work.
And it starts in the Supreme Court of Queensland. He is publicly presented as a serial pedophile. On March 13th, 2014, the Supreme Court jury finds Brett Cohen guilty of murder, indecent treatment of a child, and interfering with a corpse.
The next day, he's sentenced to life in jail with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years for the murder of Daniel Marcombe. Why would they even give him an option to get parole? You have to in Australia. Oh, okay. Didn't know that. As we've been taught, this basically means life...
It's just kind of how they do it. Oh, I think I've seen that on some Instagram comments. Yes. So it actually is a lot of other countries that do this. A lot of other countries don't necessarily have life sentences like we do here in America. So for us, we're like, what the heck? But they say, rest assured, these people stay in there for life. They never actually get paroled. It's just that's how they have to do it. Okay.
In 2016, after two years in jail, Brett Cohen is burned with boiling hot water by another inmate named Adam Paul Davidson. Wow. Adam told police, Wow.
Good. I don't feel bad at all. On May 4th, 2018, another two years has gone by when Brett Cohen is stabbed with a sharpened toothbrush, but was only left with superficial injuries. He was then placed in a secure cell to be kept
safe from other inmates because he was essentially hated for what he had done. I bet. In America, this would be considered solitary confinement or private custody. Usually it has to do with the nature of the crime like famous criminals, crimes against children or elderly, or formal police officers are often put in this.
Brett Cohen has never apologized or even said he did it since the confession to his fake gang member, Fitzy. That makes me so mad. He has tried to overturn his sentencing multiple times, but all have failed. Oh, get out of here. I know. On October 30th, 2020...
Bruce and Denise welcomed their granddaughter into the world. Her name is Elise, and she just so happened to be born on the 15th annual Day for Daniel. She was born the last Friday of October. That's crazy. Just recently in 2021, the sign that promotes the Walk for Daniel event was vandalized. Oh, what? Yeah, what is wrong with people today?
Daniel's twin would later express that he dealt with a lot of survivor's guilt for not going shopping with his brother that day. Poor guy. Not his fault. I know. I do want to note here that survivor's guilt is very real and often faced by individuals that survive like a terrible event like this. I think it doesn't help that Bradley and Daniel were twins. We
We are obviously aware that it's nobody's fault besides the attackers. Yes. The Daniel Marcombe Foundation still exists today and has done some amazing things in Australia. His parents have spread awareness to child safety, and I think it just really hurts
that such an amazing thing came from something so tragic. But like most of the living victims from our stories, they never cease to amaze me with their light, with their ability to fight and oftentimes start these foundations. It's truly admirable, and today we will keep the Marcom family in our thoughts. And you can visit the Daniel Marcom Foundation at the link in our episode notes.
And that is the story of Daniel Marcom. I always just feel for these victims so much. And especially as time goes on and we do more cases, I just want...
all of the victims of these stories and all of their families to know how much we love them. All of our listeners love them. Yeah. And that's why I'm getting emotional about this. No, a hundred percent. I want us to think about Daniel today and all the victims of all of our stories. And we will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.