The Devil's Garden by Debi Marshall

Author:Debi Marshall [Debi Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781864712223
Publisher: Random House Australia

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The Dodd family emigrated to Western Australia from England in 1990. It was shortly after that they heard news that Margaret Dodd's niece had been savagely beaten to death by her husband, the murder weapon a piece of wood stuck with nails. The young woman's father, a paramedic, attended at the scene, unaware that the call-out was to his own daughter, who died in his arms. The murder was so violent that Margaret struggled for months to comprehend it. 'We didn't know at the time,' she says, 'that a few years later, we would be facing our own shocking situation.'

On 29 July 1999 Hayley Dodd, a shy, good-natured 17-year-old, was en route to a new farm job at Badji, 200 kilometres north of Perth. Last seen by a motorist walking toward the farm at 11.35 am on the same day, she didn't turn up. The following morning, Margaret called 000. The situation, she was told, was not an emergency. It was Margaret's first dealings with authority, the start of the nightmare that would continue for years. They treated Hayley as just another runaway. Margaret pleaded with the police to understand that her daughter would not do that to the family.

'We were very close. I wish she were a runaway. I wish she were. But I knew straightaway she were not.' It was to get worse. 'When we complained that nothing was being done, we were told that we were lucky it was being investigated at all.' Determined to keep her daughter's name in front of the police, Margaret embarked on an obsessive campaign, never letting up with phone calls and letters. It got their attention – and their backs up. Margaret shudders when she recalls the insensitive way she was informed that Hayley was most likely dead. On 24 August 1999 she rang a divisional inspector, begging that sniffer dogs be put in the area where Hayley was last seen. She was in tears, but he was adamant. 'There will be no dogs,' he told her. 'That is just not going to happen.' But this time the inspector went further, his voice dripping with uncontained exasperation. 'Look, Margaret, let's be frank. You don't seriously think that Hayley is walking around, do you? The fact is, Hayley may never be found.'

In shock at the blunt way in which the news had been delivered to her, Margaret gasped, cupping her hand over her mouth to stop the heaving sobs.

'Yes, I had wanted to hold onto the hope that she is still walking around,' she said, before hanging up the phone.

Margaret talks so quickly, and with so few pauses it is hard to keep pace with the conversation. Slightly built, her physical appearance belies her feisty Yorkshire spirit. She once appraised a police officer, whom she believed was not taking Hayley's case seriously, with a critical eye and a dash of her caustic wit. 'I can see a promotion coming your way very soon,' she told him. The officer, pleased with the compliment, grinned and asked her why.

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