Approache production.

The next morning, I got up and I made a cuppa.

I think I had five SIPs out of my cuppa and walked out to the back table, pulled the chair out, sat down, and then Michaelas called me.

And I'm pretty confident that would have been very close to that seven o'clock mark.

And she called me, and the sound of her voice didn't concern me.

She said, I found him very calm and wasn't hysterical and like wasn't crying or anything like that.

And I said, well, where is he?

He's just laying there.

I said, well, kick him up the bar.

No, I've been beeping the horn and he's not moving.

And I didn't know at this stage it was at the park.

So I started getting my cuppa and walking towards the front, thinking that she's out the front here somewhere close.

She says, no, no, I'm at the park, and I said, hmm, okay, cool.

And I think it was at that point that I started to feel like something's not right, But again, wasn't rushing to the park to think what we were going to find.

So we drove down that progress road pretty confident that he would have propped, my husband would have been doing at least one hundred kilomes an hour, if not more, because I was in the passenger street saying just go fast and go faster.

So and then I hung up from Mikayla at that point, and then we sort of cruised in and as I could see Mikayla the whole way going down progress road, I could see her walking around her car, and my husband sort of pulled up to the.

Where the mound was.

He didn't go over the mound, he just pulled up prior to the mound.

And my door was already half open, and I was already out.

Of the car.

We'd obviously already seen him at that stage, and I was running towards him, and Mikayla was just literally just walking in circles.

I don't know what the hell she was doing.

It was like she was in shock at that point because she Yeah.

I went to roll him on his side, thinking I'm gonna have to do first aid here, trying to remember the first aid.

What you've got to do That was kind of gone through my head.

This is it, and I have to do first AYE for the first time.

Are you okay?

But when you when you touch someone that's gone, you know, then you know they're gone.

It's a feeling that I don't think i'll ever get over.

He was he'd been gone for a while, and I remember looking up at my husband and and I said to him, he's he's gone.

He's dead.

My husband's screaming at me to call an ambulance.

And I got on the phone with the ambulance and called the ambulance and they wanted me.

To do a polse check, and I said there's no point in doing a pulse check.

Because he was already cold and hard, so he had been there for a while.

They asked me to do a one to walk around him and tell me exactly what they saw what I saw, and I did, and he was laying in a very comfortable position.

And he had a big pool of blood underneath his head.

And my husband said, someone's hit him.

Send the police.

Throw about an ambulance and the police, someone's hurt him.

That's Katie, and the person she's talking about is her nephew, Caine, who was just eighteen years old.

To Caine, she was Auntie Katie.

And Untie Katie found Caine dead in a park near his home in twenty twenty three.

She wasn't alone that morning.

Cane's system Mikayla was also there.

As we started looking into this case back in twenty twenty three, there always seemed to be more to the story.

I want answers, and I do believe that it would help me heal just a little bit, but really nothing's going to bring him back.

But it's still just been nice for a bit of justice for him.

Yeah, a bit of justice can Alice Riverman Caine Moore eighteen was found dead in a park with a number of injuries after a party with friends.

But sometimes I don't know if I am sometimes just to let it go, but I don't want to regret that later that I did nothing.

So at this stage I can.

I can say that I haven't got anything to regret at all, and that I have done a fair bit in the search for answers.

When my auntie got there, she ran over to him and sort of.

Grabbed him, and.

Yet I'd realized at that point that he was gone.

And will definitely bring me some closure.

Just knowing what happened and just someone coming forward and getting it off their chest, making things right.

I thought it would be solved by now.

But now you don't run someone over and not feel it.

Our criminal investigation was launched.

Someone out there you know something, and they're keeping quiet.

They're not coming forward and it would be eating at them.

I just want justice from my boy.

I want to find out.

I just need some justice, for instant closure for our family, just anything at all.

Please, someone out there knows something.

Welcome to.

Something outside twenty eight degrees, don't yours ebel bus, and to keeping the island exit clear.

Remember.

Townsville is the tropical gateway in northern Queensland.

It's nestled between the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef, and it's known for its sun soak esplanades and has a.

Rich military history.

It's quiet and beautiful and it's not often you hear of a young man being found dead in a park just down the road, a fifteen minute walk from his family home.

I've been to Townsville before a few times, but mostly it's to the tourist hotspots like the Strand and at Banic Island, but I've never really been out to the suburbs.

And that's where Cain lived, in a place he stayed with his dad and his sister.

Literally just down the road, there's the park where Kaine was found back in twenty twenty three.

It's called Rupertswood Park.

Cain was found in this park on Saturday, the twenty second of May, April twenty twenty three, at seven thirty am.

It's always hard to gain a sense of a crime scene from Google Maps and photos, so me and the team decided to stop by the park to get a better idea of the scene.

So at the end of the street we're going to reach Rupert's Wood Park.

As we're driving down this road in our high car, a few things really stood out.

It's like a fire brigate there for a community hall.

We've got security campals just let down there.

Oh let's see Curry camera up there.

So that's your only entry and accident to the park is just.

Rived driving away from that park towards a family home which is just literally minutes away.

I couldn't help thinking about my own upbringing and how many times at night, as a teenager or young adult that I pop down the park or to a mate's place to catch up and maybe sneak a few drinks.

My mum and dad were never really worried because I was just down the road, but that night, so was Kane.

As we pull up to the front of Kane's dad's house where Caine lived, It's a normal suburban house in Townsville, I thank yeah, yeah, it had big palm trees out the front, a modest, single story, clean looking home, and within seconds, Cane's mom pops out to say Hi.

I don't know how to explain it, but Sarah had that sort of mum feeling, if I can put it that way.

We'd barely put our recording gear down when she asked us if we want a slice of cake and some coffee.

As we settled in the kitchen and Sarah put the kettle on, I'm looking out the back door of the house and we're getting the backstory of how this was sort of like caine sanctuary for him and his mates.

So Gary Camee's dad's away work at the moment, and whilst still be here, short lived, but this is very worn here.

That's the other river there.

Yeah, he was.

Always on the down the river with.

His mate, and so that's why I've got to be nice to comping up.

And there's the campaign now on the back there with his mates and him voice hung out.

Mikayla was one when we moved here, and Kane was born here, so secret and more special.

I'm glad.

I'm glad my husband's still saying he and keeping it because yeah, I'd never had to sell it and lose it and not be able to come here anymore.

I always find this part a little awkward.

How do you go from talking about whether you want a cookie or coffee and then sitting down and asking about how you found your brother dead in a park.

It's in those uncomfortable moments where you really have to emphathize with the person you're talking to.

All Right, we are rolling on audio, and in this case it's Mikayla, Caine's oldest sister.

Oh he was.

Larakan, always made you laugh.

He's just if I could describe him in one word, I'd say goofy.

That was his whole personality, never serious about anything, and if it was, it was when he was being told to clean his room.

There's only three and a half years between Cain and Mikayla, and like all siblings, they had that classic annoying brother sister relationship.

We used to have a few fights, not serious, but you know, just annoying little brother, you know, always coming into my room.

He'd come into my room and lay on my bed in his dirty work clothes, just annoy me.

But he was a really good brother, always made me laugh.

Caine seemed like a good Aussie bloke, a lovely larrikin, a big goofy, annoying to his sister, but loved by his family and his mates.

Cain also loved his haircut, a classic amongst most eight eight year olds in Townsville.

He was a good, good kid, but he'd talk a lot in class and get in trouble for his haircuts because he went to Calvary Christian College and you couldn't have a mullet there, and he wasn't very impressed about that.

Tried to convince him to cut it off a few times, but yeah, no, you couldn't convince him to do that.

As we moved from happy memories to laughs, it's harder to imagine that we're talking about her brother that was found dead in a park just down the road just over three years ago.

That day for them was a normal Friday like any other.

Yeah, so I actually had the day off work and he wasn't working that day either, so it was like, and I sometimes think back to this, like that we both had that same day off and we hung out together, you know, just briefly on the couch, and then he went outside to clean his car and you know, things like that.

But like that was the last day that I had with him.

So yeah, but yeah, I went in town to get my car service and I've come back and he was here and he'd cleaned his car and you know, and then I left to go out to my friend's party.

It was her birthday the following day, so yeah, we went out to town and stuff.

And that's when I remember Katie ringing me or texting me to say, like, have you heard from Caine?

Can you try and ring Cain.

I tried ringing him a couple of times, but yeah, there was no answer.

And this was probably about maybe midnight, and I remember thinking, you know.

Oh, he'll be right.

But then I had that bit of worry in the back of my mind, like, you know, what if stomach's happened.

What if he's you know, like sick somewhere off like over and because I knew he had been at the park, and I just you know had that bit of worry, but then I thought, maybe he's just left and gone to a mate's house.

We're talking about a park, but really what we're describing isn't the normal park you see in suburban cities.

I'd call it more a recreational land or a semi rural park.

It's spare land on several acres.

It's well established, has some beautiful trees, has a dirt driveway that leads to a circle where cars can loop around, and off to the right is a playground, community center.

The scouts, and a toilet block.

Yeah such as.

I see playground off to the right, it's like toilets on a toilet cap com.

There's a few lights around the tennis court.

And as I said, it's in the middle of semi rural suburbia with residential properties sharing their back fence with a park.

It's not isolated, but there's also not lots of houses around.

It seems like a safe place to hang out with friends.

I left it for a bit and then I think Katie called me again or something, and I said that I hadn't been able to contact him, and that's when I went on to find my iPhone app and it's said that he was in the horse like so this is the park and then over here is like a horse arena, like a horse club, and it said that his location was in the middle of the thing.

So that's why I thought, oh, that's a bit weird.

So I've rung Katie and told her that that's where his location's coming up.

But yeah, they couldn't find him because it was very dark that night.

Mikayla remembers that Friday was a normal day, nothing out of the ordinary.

Caine was happy and a little bit annoyed because he had to stay home that night to look after a dog, but they were busy planning their weekend.

Honestly, I think he was saying something.

So he was saying something about, you know, oh, we're going to have a party to and I meet at the park.

And I've actually told him, no, you have to stay home because we had a dog that had just had surgery and she had to be like monitored so that she didn't so that she didn't like chew her stitches.

And I was like, no, you have to stay home.

And this was like, remember the conversation because I was sitting there and he was sitting here, and he was like, no, I'm an eighteen year old boy, I'm going out.

To have fun.

And I was like, right out, I couldn't tell him, so yeah, And I always think like if he did stay home with the dog like I asked him to, that he would still be alive today.

But though, yeah, those were his exact words, like, I'm an eighteen year old boy, I'm going out to have fun with my friends.

And I was like, okay.

This park we're talking about is about fifteen minutes walk from the house where Caine lived.

We drove to it in about two minutes.

The kids, that is, Kan and his mates and cousins used to go to this park because their parents in the area were sick of being woken up with parties and houses in the area.

I think because majority of the parents were probably getting sick of it and being like no, no more so that I think that's why they moved to the park as their little hangout area.

This is no parents they're telling them.

What to do.

So this park was the place that came and his mates went to listen to music and hang out and maybe have some drinks.

On that Friday night, there were about ten to fifteen people in the park.

We'll talk to two of them later in this podcast.

So I had been drinking, so I really wanted to get my car and drive home to go and look at the park.

But i'd been drinking and I don't drink drive, So I went to sleep, and I actually set an alarm for six am because I hadn't really drunk that much, so I knew i'd be fine to drive by six am.

And I remember that night like, I just didn't sleep like as good as I normally do, Like it was sort of like a I was conscious and like worrying.

But yeah, I woke up the next morning and left my friend's house in bird El, got a coffee, and then drove home.

Thinking that, you know, I was going.

To pull up at the park and I'd find him somewhere asleep.

But yeah, that's when I did.

I drove down the park road, and I've then driven around the building, the community hall so like that, and then come back like over here to probably like twenty fifteen meters away maybe from him, and I've noticed, yeah, that he was laying there on the ground, and I've thought, oh, yeah, he's asleep, you know.

So I've pulled up and started beeping a horn like multiple times, like trying to wake him up, And then when he didn't sit up, I then started to like feel like something wasn't right, Like I couldn't approach him by myself because I had that worrying in the back of that my mind that if I walked up and checked and something had happened, that I like I would freak out if I was by myself.

So yeah, I remember getting out of the car and ringing Katie, my auntie she lived here at the time.

She basically just jumped straight in her car and was at the park within like two minutes, and she's yeah, then jumped out of the car and basically just ran over to him.

And even at that point, I even I still stood back, like I never went right up to him, Like I stood about, yeah, like probably five ten meters away and just.

Could not go up to him.

But as Katie just ran straight up and was like grabbing him, trying to be like, see if you know what was wrong with him.

But yeah, that was at the point that we realized that he was.

I was just in shock.

I just yeah, could not believe it.

I just stood back and just like remember just looking like the opposite way and just going like what the hell, and like my first thing that I could just the only thing I could think about was Mum and dad, Like Mum and Dad were finding out.

That was my only yeah concern at that point, Like even though I had no thoughts, they were my only thoughts as like oh my god, like is this really happening.

Yeah, it didn't feel real.

Sometimes I think about it, and it's like I feel as though I was the one that was meant to find him, because that night Katie and Caitlin and another friend were at the park looking for him after everyone had left, and they couldn't find him.

So that's when they thought that he had gone to someone's house or yet gone to a girl's house or something.

But yeah, and then the next morning, Yeah, I just had this like funny feeling, and then I tried to tell myself like, no, it's fine, like he's probably just he's probably fine, like don't overthink it.

And I remember driving home and I didn't feel like like on edge, like freaking out or anything, but it was like in the back of my mind, I was like, what if something has happened to him?

But if I'm being honest, I really thought that I was just going to find him asleep somewhere, and that's why when I pulled up, I like was beeping the horn.

And this was early in the morning too, but yeah, I was just holding the horn down like waiting for him to sit up.

So where he was was a little bit so probably about twenty meters away from where they were all partying that night, So I really was just in shock, so I wasn't really looking around.

I really don't remember much.

I just remember like just sitting there, like on the rock, probably about ten meters away from him, just facing the opposite way, just staring over at the playground at the park and just going like what the hell is happening?

And my first thought was that he had, you know, fallen and hit his head and then gotten up and then stumbled and then fell passed out, and then something had happened.

Like internally, it.

Was just the way he was laying looked so peaceful, as if he had laid down drunk and just gone to sleep.

Like he wasn't curled up, but he was like face down, like his face looking at this way and then one knee up, so like he looked pretty comfy, and that's why I originally thought that he was asleep when I pulled up, because it didn't look like, yeah, like horrific or gory or anything like that, but there was nothing.

It was just grass.

There was nothing that he would have hit his head on where he was laying, So that was my thought that maybe there was something like an internal injury or that he had been in a fight and then fell and then left there.

So we really had no idea at that point.

It did not look like he had been run over, so we really did not know.

So I sort of just stood there and I remember the ambulance rocking up, which they came down the road with no lights or sirens on, which I thought was really weird, but might have been just because he was already passed.

So they have pulled up, and then the first responder of police had turned up as well about a few minutes later, and I just remember the first thing that they said was just like get back, get back, as they were putting their tape up, But there was like no sympathy whatsoever that I had just found my brother dead.

Next time a more to the story.

So they were there walking around all the areas over to the horse club, and they couldn't find him.

And yet it turns out that where they were walking, he.

Was probably about like five six meters back from there.

And Cain around the same age me and Came always stuck at the kids table together when we used to go out to lunch or dinner.

So yeah, we were just always close.

He was like a brother to me.

We fought like siblings.

We had come home and I said to the girls, we're going to sit an alarm at five o'clock in the morning to look for him.

And then by the time that alarm went off, we were all just so buggered that, you know, I just thought his phone, like, he's going to be a Ki's probably just at a girlfriend's house.

We were there drinking, Cain was smoking weed along with the rest of his friends, his friends.

I went from being drunk and sick and you know, couldn't even move to jumping straight up and my stomach had dropped, and I was very, very like I used to always watch Overcame what he was doing and how much he had had, he had had he had had, he had had