Case 353: Jaidyn Leskie

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It was just after 5 o'clock on the morning of Sunday June 15 1997 when the door swung open at the Mowi police station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Once a thriving blue collar hub, in recent years the town had been devastated by the rapid privatisation and dismantling of the state's electricity supply industry and was in the grips of a severe socio-economic crisis. The sudden lack of industrial jobs left a massive portion of Mowi's population unemployed or relying on low-paying jobs and over half of the households lived on incomes below the state average. Despite the poor job prospects, single parents and low-income earners were drawn to the area due to its cheaper government housing. Drug use, alcohol abuse and crime rates were high and many households struggled with domestic violence.

Senior Constable Farnham Mulsworth looked up from his position at the front counter to see a familiar face standing before him. It was 28-year-old Greg Domaszewicz, an unemployed mechanic who lived in town. With him was his girlfriend, 21-year-old Belinda Murphy, who also lived nearby. Belinda was in tears and appeared intoxicated. We have a kidnapping, Greg said. Senior Constable Mulsworth was incredulous. He had crossed paths with Greg just a couple of hours earlier while out patrolling the streets and had pulled him over for driving too fast. Mulsworth had checked to Greg's license and given him a breath test, which returned a zero blood alcohol reading. Nothing about him had been out of the ordinary and he hadn't mentioned anything about an abduction. Who was being kidnapped, he asked. Greg replied, Belinda's baby. The couple explained that Belinda had gone out for the night with her sister and left her son, 14-month-old Jaidyn Leskie, in Greg's care. When Greg had gone to pick Belinda up at around 2am, he admitted to the constable that he'd left Jaidyn asleep on the couch while he made the roughly 45-minute round trip, not wanting to wake him up and put him into his car seat, which had gotten wet earlier in the day after it was accidentally left out in the rain. Greg lived alone in a small weatherboard home on Narraken Drive, a prominent roadway directly west of Mowys Town Centre that spanned a mix of residential properties and large parcels of land. By the time the couple returned there, it was around 3am, and Jaidyn was no longer on the couch where Greg claimed to have left him. He told Senior Constable Molesworth, when I got home, someone had smashed all my windows, and there is a pig's head outside the window.

Senior Constable Molesworth wasn't sure what to make of the story that Greg Domaszewicz and Belinda Murphy were telling him. He notified his supervisor, who immediately separated the couple into two different interview rooms to hear their individual takes. The Mowi police station was only small, so the officers closed the door to each room and switched on the exhaust fan to prevent the couple from overhearing each other. Belinda was visibly distraught. She told the officer that Greg had stopped by her place late on Saturday morning to ask if he could look after Jaidyn for the day. Although Greg and Belinda had only been romantically involved for a little over six months, Greg had taken a real shine to Jaidyn and the two had formed a bond of sorts. Greg liked having Jaidyn around so that he could teach him about what he viewed as some of the more masculine things in life– cars, fishing and action movies. While Belinda had been a little unsure about leaving Jaidyn alone with Greg to begin with, over the past couple of months, Greg had looked after the toddler ten or so times and proven himself to be a reliable caregiver. She therefore agreed that Greg could take Jaidyn for a few hours, as long as he dropped him off at her sister, Katie's house, later that evening. Belinda and Katie had been invited to a friend's birthday party in the neighbouring town of Churaugan, and they'd organised a babysitter to watch all four of their children at Katie's house, which was just over a kilometre away from Belinda's. Greg happily agreed. At around 1.30pm, he drove over to Belinda's place and dropped her and her other child, a two-year-old daughter, at Katie's. Greg then took Jaidyn to his house on Narrakan Drive for the afternoon, like he'd done several times before, with the plan being for Jaidyn to play with Greg's three dogs in the backyard and watch Greg as he worked on his car in the garage. At around 4pm, it started to rain, so Belinda called Greg from Katie's house to see if Jaidyn needed any more clothes. Greg told her not to worry. He said he was about to shower and would drop Jaidyn off at Katie's soon. He also told her that a friend of his had just called to say that Katie had been making up rumours about him, which sparked an argument between the two sisters, and Belinda decided she no longer wanted to go out. She walked home with her daughter, calling Greg's house to tell him to drop Jaidyn at her place instead of her sister's. But there was no answer. She called him numerous times over the next couple of hours, but still there was no response.