Puzzling Mother of a Mystery
By Frank Walker
The conviction of Keli Lane, sentenced to 18 years in prison on Friday for the murder of her baby Tegan, is one of the most perplexing cases in Australian criminal history. There was no body, no physical evidence, no apparent motive and no background of abuse or aggressive behaviour.
Yet in December last year, Keli Lane, water polo champion and a well-known figure in Sydney’s northern beaches blonde, buff, sporty in-crowd, was convicted of the murder of two day old Tegan.
After a four month trial and a week of deliberations, the jury decided that on September 14, 1996, Lane walked out of Auburn Hospital with Tegan. Somehow, somewhere, she then killed the baby, disposed of the body and four hours later happily attended a wedding with friends as though nothing had happened. The jury rejected Lane’s story that outside the hospital she handed Tegan to the baby’s biological father, a man she named as Andrew Morris or Norris.
Despite one of the biggest manhunts in Australian history, police could find no trace of the supposed father or Tegan. They did find an Andrew Morris she’s had a one-night stand with two years earlier but he hadn’t seen her since.
Rachael Jane Chin, a qualified solicitor turned journalist, attended court every day of the long trial and has written the first book recording all the evidence in the bizarre case.
Chin records the shock felt by Lane’s family and friends as it was revealed that she’d secretly had two other babies that she’d put up for adoption, as well as two abortions that she’d covered up, in a tangled web of lies and deceit.
The public was surprised to hear her rugby-playing boyfriend didn’t even know she was pregnant when he slept with her. Her girlfriends in the sporty clique noticed he had put on weight and guessed that she was pregnant but said nothing to Lane or her family.
Keli Lane invented disturbing excuses for her lies. She told police she was afraid her family would throw her out if they knew she’d had a baby out of wedlock. This was obviously false – she had a close, loving family who supported her. Despite the shocking revelations, they stuck with her throughout the trial.
Prosecutors argued that Lane’s real reason for killing her baby was simply selfish ambition – she desperately wanted a spot on the Sydney Olympic water polo team and to keep her place in Manly’s sporty social clique.
Chin says that as the trial unfolded, court observers at first found it hard to believe Lane was the sort of person who would kill her baby. The supposed motive seemed weak. But as details emerged of the other babies and abortions, the lies she told family and friends, Chin noticed a shift in sympathies in the courtroom, particularly among the women.
As Keli Lane’s double life was laid bare, her demeanour in court changed from polite interest to a stoic lack of expression.
Perhaps for legal reasons, because the book would come out before the sentencing, Chin does not venture far from the courtroom material. The book doesn’t contain much behind-the-scenes reporting, apart from what she observed in court. Chin has been very careful not to deliver her own verdict on the case. Despite the obvious parallels with Lindy Chamberlin, whose baby was taken by a dingo, Chin doesn’t mention it.
She also doesn’t venture an opinion about whether Lane’s defence team made the right call not to put her on the stand to speak for herself. Lane said only two words in the entire trial: “Not guilty.”
Perhaps Chin was saving all that for a later edition of Nice Girl after Lane was sentenced. She might also include later developments such as Channel Seven broadcasting Lane speaking from remand prison insisting she is innocent and saying police hadn’t done enough to find Tegan. Seven has offered a $500,000 reward for anyone who can find Tegan or her supposed father.
This story is far from over.