Lake Mungo

I feel like something bad is gonna happen to me.

I feel like something bad has happened.

It hasn't reached me yet, but it's on its way.

I don't know why it's important.

It's like how it helps people, like, dealing with her loss,

like making up stories about ghosts or whatever.

Alice kept secrets.

She kept the fact she kept secrets a secret.

It's hard for some people to understand,

but you have to believe you're to blame

or else there's nothing to hold on to.

Police and emergency service.

My daughter, Alice, has gone missing. We need some...

How long ago did you last...

She was in the dam... Looked everywhere.

Do you know where you are?

We're on the other side of the dam. She's been missing for quite a few...

Okay.

Please send someone now.

I need you to talk to me for a second.

We don't know where she is.

Hello, June, can you hear me?

The normally tranquil setting

of Ararat's Norval Dam was shattered yesterday

with the disappearance of 16-year-old Alice Palmer

while picnicking with her family.

We received a call around 6:00 p.m. tonight of a missing girl,

and on discovering the nature of the situation

we called in the search-and-rescue divers from Melbourne.

Police divers entered the water around 10:00 with SES volunteers

joining a fruitless search...

Matt and Ali had swum out to the middle of the dam.

I could see them from where I was sitting at the picnic area.

I think we'd been in the water for about 15 minutes,

and I said that I was gonna get out. It was cold.

So, I started swimming back and she didn't come out with me,

so I thought she's gonna stay in there.

I remember Matty got out,

and a few minutes later, I heard him ask where was Alice.

So, I stood up and looked out across the dam,

and the water was completely still.

So I called out.

I looked out over the water to see if I could see her.

And both the boys had kind of checked,

you know, the bush land behind.

I could see Alice's towel, she'd left it on the ground,

and she clearly hadn't got out of the water

because then, you know, she would have picked up her towel, so...

Yeah, that was the last time that I saw her.

Police continue to hold grave fears for 16-year-old Alice Palmer

who disappeared while picnicking with her family.

Police search-and-rescue divers...

We were told to go home,

and if the search-and-rescue divers found anything

then they'd let us know immediately.

It felt very strange in the car on the way home

because there was one empty seat.

One minute she was there and then gone.

I went back to stay with the Palmers that night.

We were just mostly waiting, mostly waiting for news.

For bad news. There was that expectation.

We got a call from Russell on his mobile about 9:00 at night.

And he said there'd been an accident at the weir,

and Alice had gone missing.

So, we thought that we better go to Ararat.

I remember June was a bit funny about seeing Iris,

there was a strange feeling between them.

It felt a little strange having my mother there.

Mum and I, there for Alice,

just didn't feel like the right order of things.

It was an awful, awful night.

Worst night of our lives.

Mmm-hmm.

I went into Alice's room later that night

and her phone went off a couple of times, but I didn't answer it.

I remember, the bed was made.

I remember thinking how neat everything looked.

I got a call from Alice's mum, June.

She'd said that Alice is missing

and presumed, like, she drowned

and I didn't not believe her,

but, I don't know, it was kind of hard to take,

so I actually called Alice's mobile.

I just...

Maybe wanted to see if...

Hope it was a joke or something, I don't know.

It was just a real shock.

Just didn't really feel like it was real.

Everything was the same as always,

but people were saying Alice had drowned.

Are there any memories from that night that stand out for you?

I remember we had the porch light on.

Still do, actually, just in case.

And why is that?

Just in case she comes home, I guess.

All right, get in.

The SES divers located Alice's body at approximately 9:25 p.m.

They used sonar to locate her. And she'd drifted some way

and come to rest on a shelf at the bottom of the storm water system in the dam.

Obviously contacted the family immediately.

As soon as we were told that they'd found the body,

June and I went down to the dam.

Georgie'd come over to keep Matt company.

It was all very official and formal,

and they asked me to sign a statement

of identification.

June stayed in the car.

And, you know, on reflection, I think that was a mistake

because she didn't have any closure.

I just couldn't bring myself to identify Alice's body.

She'd been underwater all that time and it...

I guess it's not how I...

I didn't want to remember her in that way.

I thought that was my responsibility as Ali's dad, you know.

That's what a father does.

The car stalled on the way back from the dam.

But the only gear I could get it into was reverse.

So, we drove back into town in reverse.

Which was either that or walk.

And given everything that had happened,

seemed like the better option, really.

The autopsy was performed on the Monday, the 27th.

Then the coroner released the body on Tuesday, the 28th.

It was very strange spending Christmas Day with the family up there

while Alice lay alone in the morgue.

I don't know, it was just like I hadn't seen her for a week or anything, like...

Yeah, it didn't feel real.

Death takes everything eventually.

It's the meanest, dumbest machine there is, and it just keeps coming

and it doesn't care.

There's nothing else to know about it, really.

It was a somber day for the family and friends of Alice Palmer

who gathered to pay their final respects to a young woman taken too soon.

She was a great person. Very popular, clever, lovely.

She was... I don't... Yeah.

Alice is remembered as a happy,

fun-loving girl with a zest for life.

Described as always putting others...

The Palmers were really doing it tough at that time.

And when I think of how bad it was back then,

it's hard to imagine how much worse they would get.

Ten days after Ali's funeral, so that makes it the 15th of January,

stuff started happening around the house. Noises in the roof,

and sounds coming from outside the window

and other movements that seemed to come from Ali's old room.

So, we re-hung the door to Ali's room,

and we got a pest controller to come in and check for termites.

But it didn't help at all,

the door kept slamming and we still kept getting the noises from her room.

There was just something weird about that house.

It had a really strange feeling about it.

I really can't explain to you what it was exactly,

but you'd go in there

and just have this bad feeling, like, in your gut.

I started having these nightmares,

and they were so distressing

that sometimes I just wouldn't want to open my eyes.

I'd woken up, but I didn't want to open my eyes.

There was one particular one, it was quite vivid and recurring.

Alice would come down the hall still dripping from the dam

and just stand at the foot of our bed, just staring at us.

It was quite terrifying, as I said, I didn't want to open my eyes.

By early February my nightmares were getting so bad

that I began to go for walks at night,

sometimes for hours at a time,

just so that I didn't have to go to bed at night

and close my eyes and go to sleep.

Sometimes I would actually go into people's houses.

I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong.

I guess I really just wanted to be inside someone else's life for a while.

Georgie, do you remember how Russell was doing at that time?

Yeah, Russell was... He was working a lot at that point.

I think that might have helped him with his grief.

Send it through without any explanation.

Russell and I met

actually on the Gippsland Catchment project in '98

and worked together on that.

So, you guys have known each other for a few years?

Yeah, a good few years, yeah.

Do you remember how he was affected after Alice's death?

What changed?

It was work as normal, and that was troubling actually.

I didn't really know what to say to him about that.

You never spoke about it?

Not really. Everyone grieves in their own way.

And it wasn't really my place to be telling him how to feel.

But I certainly... I certainly was concerned.

I was really grateful that I had my work.

And, I mean, I felt really guilty about that at the time.

But, you know, I just wanted to get on with it.

Then one night, in late February,

I came home from work, and I was sitting in the kitchen

and I heard a noise coming from Ali's room.

So, I went into Ali's room, and I don't really know why,

but I sort of found myself sitting down

in the chair in front of the dresser.

And before I could kind of work out what I was doing there,

Ali walked in and she went over to her desk

and started sharpening a pencil,

and then she looked like she was checking for a text message on her phone.