by Police have accused Robert and Anne Geeves of murdering teenager Amber Haigh to raise their child and then disposing of her body by feeding it to pigs, the New South Wales supreme court has heard.
In the seventh week of the Geeves murder trial extraordinary evidence was heard about the arrest of Robert and Anne Geeves in May 2022, two decades after Haigh disappeared without a trace.
Haigh, who had an intellectual disability, was 19 when she disappeared from the NSW Riverina in June 2002, leaving her five-month-old son behind.
The father of Haigh’s child, Robert Geeves, 64, and his wife, Anne Geeves, also 64, are on trial for her alleged murder. Both pleaded not guilty.
Related: Court hears Amber Haigh’s crying baby was told by Anne Geeves during police interview
Police arrested the Geeveses on 4 May 2022.
About 10.30am, in the cells at Young police station, Anne Geeves refused to be interviewed by police. But the court heard she had a conversation with Det Sen Const Amanda Cary, which Cary recorded in her police notebook.
In court on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Paul Kerr asked Cary about that 2022 conversation, where the detective accused Anne Geeves of murdering Haigh “on or about June 5, 2002”.
Anne Geeves denied the allegation.
In court, Kerr asked Cary: “Did you make the allegation that she disposed of Amber Haigh’s body?”
“Yes,” replied Cary.
“Did she deny that?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her ‘I believe you are equally involved in her murder’?”
“Yes.”
“When you say fair, whose?”
Cary replied: “By Robert Geeves.”
“Did you allege to her that the police believed Amber Haigh was murdered because the Geeves wanted custody [her] baby?” Kerr continued.
“Yes,” replied Cary.
“Did she deny that?” Kerr asked.
“Yes.”
The court also heard evidence that on the evening of 2 July 2002, Robert Geeves called eight neighboring rural properties within 90 minutes seeking permission to access people’s land – inquiring after farm equipment or if he could gather firewood .
Recalling the alleged conversation at Young police station, the court heard evidence Cary told Anne Geeves: “I believe you went on that land driving the Suzuki and I believe you disposed of Amber’s body. I believe you have helped Robert every time and I believe you are equally involved.”
Anne Geeves replied: “No.”
Cary said: “I don’t believe you actually killed Amber, but I do believe you were present, and you knew it was going to happen and you helped dispose of her body to pigs. What can you tell me about that?”
Anne Geeves replied: “No. Pigs? No.”
The court also heard evidence from police investigations into a chainsaw bought by the Geeveses – paid for by cheque, the origin of which investigators found – on 13 June 2002.
On Thursday, the court heard evidence about the arrest of Robert and Anne Geeves on May 4, 2022, at their property on the edge of Harden.
While driving the Geeveses to Young’s police station, Cary said she asked Anne Geeves if she wanted to know “what’s new” in the 20-year-old case.
Cary told Anne Geeves that a new witness, who had not previously spoken to the police, came forward saying he saw Anne and Robert Geeves, with Haigh and their child, on the evening of 5 June 2002 at their property in Boorowa. The Geeveses said they were traveling with Haigh and their child to Sydney.
But the witness told the police that he saw Anne, Robert and the baby at a nearby petrol station an hour later, but Haigh was not present.
Anne Geeves replied to Cary that she did not know anyone in Boorowa.
James Arber, of Boorowa, testified earlier in the trial that he had seen the Geeveses and Haigh that evening. But under cross-examination he admitted that he may have guessed the date he saw her after watching a news item when she went missing.
Related: Amber Haigh and Robert Geeves signed an agreement not to take their child a day before birth, the court heard
5 June 2002 is a fateful day in the police investigation. That day, the Geeveses told police they drove Haigh from her home to Campbelltown train station, in Sydney’s southern suburbs, where she planned to catch a train to visit her dying father in a hospital.
Haigh did not come to the nearby Mt Druitt hospital to see her father. She has not been seen since.
Haigh was last seen independently three days earlier, on June 2, when she was seen with Robert Geeves at his one bedroom flat in Young.
On Thursday evening, the court began hearing hours of wiretapping from the Geeveses’ home, which the police entered after Haigh’s disappearance.
The recordings are of low quality and sometimes unintelligible. Among them, Robert and Anne Geeves discuss the allegations against them, and their anger at the ongoing police investigation as well as people they believe are conspiring against them.
The interviews also record the couple playfully talking to Haigh’s five-month-old son, who was in their custody at the time.
Haigh’s unsolved disappearance is an enduring mystery in the Riverina. The court heard that she “loved” her son and “never let him out of her sight”.
Haig’s body was never found, but a coroner ruled she died of “homicide or misadventure”.
The prosecution alleged in court that Robert and Anne Geeves used Haigh as a “surrogate mother” because they wanted another child.
Amber Haigh ‘taken out of the equation’, the court said
The prosecution alleged that when Haigh’s baby was born, they tried to “take her out of the equation” by killing her.
The court previously heard that the Geeveses had one child together – a son the same age as Haigh, who went before – but the couple wanted more children, having suffered three miscarriages and a stillbirth. After that.
“The theory of the crown’s case is that the Geeveses always intended to take custody and care [the child] from Amber, but they knew that to do that Amber had to be removed from the equation … so – the crown asserts – they killed her.”
Lawyers for Robert and Anne Geeves argued that the case against the couple is very flawed.
Related: Couple accused of murdering Amber Haigh gave differing accounts of last car ride with her, court hears
Michael King, acting for Anne Geeves, said his client did not kill Haigh, and had “no intention of killing Amber, or even wanting her dead”.
King said others in the community – who were unhappy with the Geeves’ relationship with Haigh – were “too quick to point the finger” at the couple when she disappeared.
“Everything they did was viewed through a shadow of mistrust and suspicion,” he told the court.
Paul Coady, Robert Geeves’ defense counsel, told the court that his client denied having anything to do with her disappearance or murder. He said Robert Geeves’ relationship with a “much younger woman with an intellectual disability” fueled “gossip and innuendo”.
“Many witnesses came forward with complaints or suspicions, particularly against Mr Geeves.”
The single judge trial, before justice Julia Lonergan, continues in Wagga Wagga.
