Casefile True Crime - Case 14: Helen Munnings

Episode Date: April 9, 2016

On the 23rd of July 2008 young mother, Helen Munnings disappeared from the port city of Burnie, on the North West Coast of Tasmania, Australia. She was last seen by the father of her child Adam Taylor, who picked her up for a drive that afternoon. His actions later that night were described as “interesting”. Extensive searches have been conducted, but no trace of Helen has ever been found… For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-14-helen-munnings

On the 23rd of July 2008, young mother Helen Munnings disappeared from the port city of Burney on the northwest coast of Tasmania, Australia. She was last seen by the father of her child, Adam Taylor, who picked her up for a drive that afternoon. His actions later that night were described as interesting. Extensive searches have been conducted but no trace of Helen has ever been found. A few different theories were raised that the coronial inquest held into the case. Did Helen run away? Did she commit suicide? Or was she murdered? Helen Munnings was born on the 15th of March 1988. Little is known about Helen's father,

she had no contact with him during her life. She was raised by her mother Carol Munnings. Helen has an older brother Mark and two younger sisters Linda and Catherine. Helen lived in Burney her entire life. Burney is a port city on the northwest coast of Tasmania. It has a population of about 20,000 people. The Burney port along with the forestry industry provide the main source of revenue for the city. It is Tasmania's largest general cargo port. In 2004 Helen met Adam Taylor. Helen was 16 at the time and Adam was 30. They had a sexual encounter the night they met. Adam tried to pass off the blame for this encounter by saying he was heavily affected by alcohol and it was Helen who came onto him. He really

didn't know what he was doing or couldn't even remember really what happened. Helen instantly fell in love with Adam and thought of him as her soulmate. They remained friends after this initial encounter but when Helen turned 17 Adam says she started pressuring him to commence a full blown relationship. Adam says he only agreed to a sexual relationship with Helen because she threatened to go to the police about their initial encounter when she was only 16. Adam says you were scared so he agreed to Helen's wishes. The age of consent in Tasmania is 17 years of age. Not long after Helen fell pregnant and in 2006 she gave birth to her son Tom. Tom is not her son's real name that has been changed for this story.

Helen was 18 years old at the time. Adam was 32. Adam at first denied that he was the father but a paternity test said otherwise. This presented a problem for Adam. He was already in a long-term de facto relationship with his partner Carolina and they had two children together. He told Carolina that Tom had been conceived with Helen whilst they were on a break in their relationship. A man who had a child with missing Bernie woman Helen Munnings has told an inquest she blackmailed him into having sex. Adam Taylor admitted first having sex with Ms Munnings when she was 16 years old. Helen Munnings disappeared in July 2008 when she was 20 years old.

She had a two year old son with Adam Taylor, a man 15 years her senior. The inquest has heard about Mr Taylor's sexual history with Ms Munnings. Mr Taylor told the court he had sex with her once before she was 17 and then about a dozen times between 2004 and 2007. Mr Taylor said after Ms Munnings 17th birthday she threatened to tell police about their sexual encounter when she was underage if he didn't leave his partner. When she turned 17 that's when she started getting all crazy about it. Mr Taylor said he slept with Ms Munnings after that to keep her happy because he was scared he'd go to jail for having sex with a minor. The counsel assisting the coroner Simon Brown asked Mr Taylor you had sex with her because you were scared? Mr Taylor replied yes. Mr Taylor

said he was not attracted to Ms Munnings and had contemplated suicide after sleeping with her. He said Ms Munnings had also threatened to harm his partner who was pregnant to Mr Taylor. Given they now had a son together the relationship between Helen and Adam had to continue on some level. Carolina was of the understanding that there would be no ongoing physical relationship between them and they would only remain in contact over issues concerning Tom. But the evidence suggests Adam lied to Carolina and continued his relationship with Helen. Adam described Helen's behaviour towards him as at times demeaning, unpredictable, aggressive and antagonistic. Helen constantly sent text messages and made

phone calls to Adam about Tom. This obviously created difficulties in Adam's long-term relationship with Carolina. There were already difficulties due to what had happened but now Helen wasn't making it any easier. It led to a deal being made whereby all contact from Helen was to be sent to Adam's mother Judy Taylor. Carolina was of the belief that there would be no personal contact between Adam and Helen at all. But despite professing his wish to maintain his relationship with Carolina he continued his relationship with Helen. He took active steps to try and keep it quiet such as buying a second phone. Adam tried to deny that he maintained an intimate relationship with Helen but text messages between them revealed otherwise.

Carol Munnings, Helen's mother, strongly disapproved of Adam Taylor, her main concern being the big age difference between them. But she had concerns about Adam's treatment of Helen and his motives for continuing the relationship. She did everything in her power to prevent the relationship from continuing. She made several complaints to the police, adamant that Adam had broken the law. Helen Munnings mother Carol has been representing her family in court. During her questioning of Mr Taylor Ms Munnings made heated accusations about him controlling her daughter. She said you were the cause of Helen's problems, you were the adult, Helen was the child. Mr Taylor said Carol Munnings had made threats and allegations against him over the years they'd known each other.

But Helen only had eyes for Adam and Carol's actions were the cause of some conflict between them. They had numerous arguments and had actually got so bad that at one point they each had restraining orders out against each other. At the time of her disappearance Helen was living in a block of units owned by her mother Carol in Bernie. Helen lived in unit three and Carol lived upstairs in unit one. Helen and Tom had only been living there for a few weeks having stayed at various other places prior to that. Tom was being cared for on a split week by week basis. Helen would have him for one week then Adam would have him for the following week and so on. Helen owned a car but didn't have a driver's license so she usually walked wherever she wanted

to go or relied on lifts by family and friends. On the 8th of July 2008 only a few weeks before she disappeared Helen dropped the bombshell on Adam. She told him she was pregnant again. Together they went to a local pharmacy in Bernie where Helen purchased a pregnancy test. She took the test and then showed Adam the result. Adam strongly denies he was the father and says Helen told him that she was pregnant as a result of a drunk and one night stand with a male that she didn't name. But Helen's friends and family said there was nobody else that Helen had eyes for and that Adam definitely would have been the father. The coroner later found Adam's story about the drunk and one night stand with an unnamed male

to be untrue and said he was most likely the father. After initially being anxious and uncertain about the second child Helen made the decision to keep it. Adam didn't support this. The reason he gave was that a second child would place additional demands on Helen's already tight financial situation and it would compromise her ability to adequately look after Tom. That's the reason he says he was against it but it's doubtful there would have been a way to keep it quiet that Helen was pregnant. Even if he wasn't the father as he claims Helen was going to name him the father. This wouldn't be good news. Remember his mother and his current partner Carolina were of the belief Adam wasn't even speaking to Helen on the phone at this point.

On Wednesday the 23rd of July 2008 Helen spent her day at home. Most of her time was actually spent up in Carol's unit. Tom was in the care of Adam at the time. In the early to mid afternoon that day Helen left and walked into the center of town. She left the keys to her unit with Carol and she didn't take a handbag with her either. She left that in her unit. Her handbag contained her mobile phone, her purse and her medication. Her purse contained her bank cards and her Medicare card. Her mobile phone was left at home but the SIM card had been removed. Due to problems she was having with her phone it was common for Helen to remove her SIM card and use other people's phones. When she left the unit Helen told Carol that she had a doctor's appointment.

But checks with the medical center revealed that she didn't have an appointment. She also left her Medicare card at home. She didn't go to the medical center at all. Instead she met up with Adam Taylor. Adam had been at work all day and arrived home at about 2.45pm. Tom was at home being cared for by his partner Carolina. When he arrived home he swapped cars. He left his car at home and got into his mother's holding ute. He left home about 3.30pm. Carolina says she thinks Adam put a saw into the rear of his ute before he left. Adam says he and Helen had arranged to meet up during the day. He picked her up in his mother's ute near the Centrelink building about 4.20pm. This was

actually captured on security camera footage so it could be verified. But as for what happened next we only have Adam's version. He says they went for a drive and talked for a while. They drove around until about 6pm. During the trip he says that he and Helen talked about matters concerning their relationship that were distressing for Helen. He says Helen became upset and started crying. However by the time he dropped her off he says she appeared to have calmed down. Helen mostly talked about her pregnancy and said she didn't want to have an abortion. After they were finished Adam says he dropped Helen off on the southern side of the Bass Highway in Burnie near the Old Papermill. He says he dropped Helen off here as she said she wanted

to go for a walk along the beach to clear her head. The coroner later made comment at the inquest that this was an unusual thing to do. Drop a young girl off at that location when it was getting dark. And it was some distance away from her home. It was roughly just over a 20 minute walk. After dropping Helen off Adam says he headed home which was about a 10 minute drive away from that location. But before getting home he pulled over to have a think about what he and Helen had just discussed. He then sent a text message to Helen. The message was sent at 6.08pm. The message said keep your chin up. There was no response but remember Helen didn't have a phone with her. She just had a SIM card. Adam returned home shortly after sending the text

message to Helen. When he got home he commented that he thought someone had tried to steal the small boat that they kept in their yard. The boat belonged to Caroline's brother. Adam said somebody had dragged the boat from the yard where it is usually kept down to the water's edge. He told Caroline that he was going down to drag the boat back up. But he first put it in the water, started motor up and drove it out a short distance before turning around and bringing it back in. By now it was dark. Adam then spent some time out in his back shed. But Caroline said that wasn't unusual and he would often do that at night on. The water's edge that Adam lived on at the time was actually the Bass Strait. The large stretch of ocean that separates Tasmania from the rest

of Australia. That next morning Adam loaded the boat onto a trailer and took it back to Caroline's brother's house. Carol became concerned as the evening went on that Helen hadn't returned home. She used Helen's keys to let herself into Helen's unit but there was no sign of her. Carol remained worried but when Helen didn't come back the next day the worry turned into full blame panic. That next day the 24th of July just after lunch Carol reported her concern to the police and when Helen still hadn't returned home by that night Carol went back to the police station to make a formal statement. Helen was scheduled to pick Tom up on Friday the 25th of July but she failed to turn up. On the 28th and 29th of July police commenced a sea land and air search.

The searching area was expanded the next month. A helicopter, divers and a ground search crew were used. Despite an extensive search no trace of Helen was ever found. The information about Adam's movements with the boat the night Helen disappeared didn't become known until sometime much later and the search of the ocean outside his home wasn't done until June 2009 nearly a full year after Helen had disappeared. The only thing of interest they found out in the water was a nine-layer bucket filled with concrete embedded in the concrete at the top was a small wire loop and a length of synthetic rope was attached. Adam admitted that it was his bucket. The coroner said he couldn't draw any conclusions from the bucket. It was found in a location which meant it was

covered by only about half a meter of water at low tide. Adam said the bucket was there as he used it to secure the boat at times. However police divers have said that it was found in an area where it would not have had a purpose for being a boat mooring. The rope was tested for human fibres but none were found but given it had been in the ocean for nearly a year if there was anything to find it could have been washed away long ago. Likewise if there was any other evidence to find out there that too could have been washed away long ago. It was almost one year after Helen's disappearance that the search was done and the Bass Strait Ocean is notoriously rough and known for strong currents. The boat was forensically tested but that also returned no result.

There is no evidence that Helen Munning's made contact with anyone after being dropped off by Adam Taylor about 6 p.m. the 23rd of July 2008. Adam is the last known person to see her alive. There is no evidence to tell us what happened to Helen exactly but there are only a few possibilities. The first being that she ran away and is still alive and living somewhere else. This was the scenario presented by Adam at the coronial inquest. Helen was young and had lived her entire life in Bernie. All her friends were in Bernie and most of her family. She had limited education, limited income and no savings. She left her purse and all of her cards at home. She didn't take any clothing or personal belongings with her at all.

She had never mentioned to anyone about ever wanting to leave or to run away. Extensive checks were conducted around the country and there is no record of her showing up anywhere. Her bank accounts haven't been accessed since the day she disappeared. Plus Helen was pregnant at the time. She would have required some kind of medical treatment and there is no record of that ever happening. Not to mention it would also mean she would have had to have abandoned her son Tom whom she was extremely devoted to. Helen didn't run away and the coroner actually rejected the suggestion that she ran away. The possibility that Helen may have committed suicide was also raised.

Although there was some evidence that Helen had spoken about or sent some text messages to friends about suicide it was only in a very general and conversational way. There is no evidence at all that she had ever made an attempt or a serious threat of suicide. And again it would mean abandoning Tom. Although Helen had at times been down before there was evidence that she was actively making plans for her future. Suicide doesn't seem to make a lot of sense especially considering her body still hasn't been found which is unusual for cases of suicide. Also she would have had very limited means to commit suicide. She had nothing with her to harm herself with. The coroner though didn't rule it out entirely. He said it remains a possibility and the fact her body was never found

would be unusual if it was a case of suicide but it didn't remove the possibility entirely. One example the coroner cited would be that if Helen had swum out into the ocean so far that she couldn't return. But most believe Helen was murdered. There is no direct evidence to suggest another person is responsible for Helen's death. There is no direct evidence toying anyone to Helen's disappearance including Adam Taylor. Having said that there's also no evidence to corroborate Adam Taylor's version of what happened that afternoon we just have his word for it. The coroner found he wasn't telling the truth about his account of the nature of his relationship with Helen. Adam was trying to say it had finished and he wasn't seeing her any longer

but text messages found between them painted a very different picture. In fact he took active steps to conceal his relationship with Helen from Carolina and his mother. Helen's disappearance coincided with a time that Adam was trying to preserve his relationship with Carolina in circumstances that had been difficult for some time. The fact Helen was pregnant again would have impacted Adam in a number of ways. The obvious one would be the increased strain that it would put on his already strained relationship with Carolina. There are also concerns whether the journey he described to police would have taken the one hour and 40 minutes he says he was with Helen and his story of the route they

took during their drive changed. He gave two different versions of where exactly they went. The coroner commented that just because Adam had been untruthful about the extent of his relationship with Helen it didn't mean he was lying about his account of what happened that afternoon. Likewise the coroner said no conclusions could be made from the inconsistencies in his account of where exactly they drove to that afternoon and what way they went. The behavior with the boat was interesting but the coroner ruled Adam's version wasn't far-fetched and could quite likely be true. Carol and Helen's grandmother visited Adam a few days after Helen's disappearance.

Her grandmother alleges Adam made a statement to her which indicated he knew Helen was never coming back. Adam denies this happened. Carol claims that in October 2009 she approached Adam in a supermarket and asked him where Helen's body was. She alleges that Adam threatened her saying you'll get the same done to you that Helen did. Adam of course strongly denies ever saying that. The coroner had significant reservations about how true Carol and Helen's grandmother's allegations are given the amount of ill will Carol and the grandmother have towards Adam. The coroner doubted these comments were ever made. Effectively he was saying he believes Carol and Helen's grandmother made it up and he went on to say even if Adam had made these comments he

wouldn't regard either statement as an admission of guilt. The coronial inquest was held over nine separate days between the 29th of November 2011 and the 12th of January 2012. On the 14th of June 2012, coroner Robert Pierce made his official ruling. The coroner's found missing Bernie woman Helen Munnings is dead but he hasn't been able to say how she died. Her family maintains she was murdered and is seeking further legal advice on the case. Selena Bryan reports. 20-year-old Helen Munnings disappeared four years ago. Her body has never been found despite years of searching. Over nine days the coroner Robert Pierce heard evidence from more than 40 witnesses. Today he handed down his finding saying Helen Munnings died on or about the 23rd of July 2008 most likely in or around Bernie.

But the coroner said the evidence doesn't enable a finding of how her death occurred or the cause. The coroner said there was a possibility Ms Munnings took her own life but that was reduced because of her love for her young son. Ms Munnings was last seen going for a drive with Adam Taylor, the father of the boy. The coroner found it was likely that at the time of her disappearance Helen Munnings was pregnant and likely that Adam Taylor was the father. The council assisting told the inquest Mr Taylor had the motive and opportunity to kill Ms Munnings. Her mother hopes the findings allow police to further investigate how her daughter died. We're pretty pleased that it's acknowledged that Helen is dead and hoping that it gives the CIB more clout. The coroner said there

was no scientific or forensic evidence to find Mr Taylor contributed to the death. He said he found fanciful a suggestion by Mr Taylor's council that Ms Munnings is alive in Darwin. Her mother says she's seeking legal advice on what she believes was a police conflict of interest when the investigation began. I'm claiming that the case wasn't dealt with properly at the beginning because of the conflict. Police say the investigation has been reviewed several times with no adverse findings. The investigation into Helen Munnings death remains active and ongoing. Police still want to speak to anyone with information about how the young woman died. Selina Bryan, ABC News, Bernie. The case is still open. There is currently a $100,000 reward for any information regarding Helen's disappearance.