0:06

Who are

0:09

you?

0:13

I'm not sure. I

0:15

know who I was when I woke up this morning,

0:18

but I've changed so many times since

0:20

then.

0:22

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice

0:24

grows bigger and smaller throughout the whole day,

0:27

depending on the situation. When

0:29

it comes to Samantha Razapardi, she also changes.

0:34

One minute she's a poor wife in

0:36

the street,

0:38

then she's a young girl, all

0:40

pretty and pink. And

0:43

then next minute she's descended from a European

0:45

family of aristocratic lineage,

0:48

and it goes on from there.

0:51

Samantha Razapardi creates her own Wonderland. Her

0:54

whole world, which she presents to you, is a total

0:56

fabrication. You're

0:59

smelling a mouse when you should be smelling a rat. She's

1:02

extremely intelligent. But

1:04

this is my dream. I'll decide

1:06

where it goes from here. You seem to

1:08

diverge from the path. I make

1:12

the path. From

1:15

RTE Documentary in One, I'm Nicoleen

1:17

Greer. And I'm Sharon

1:19

Davis. This

1:22

is Finding Samantha. I

1:25

don't need to be saved. I

1:27

need to be found. Episode 5,

1:34

The One That Got Away. When

1:37

we last left Sharon, she

1:39

was preparing for a meeting with someone

1:41

called Sam as a party. They'd

1:43

been talking online, and this woman

1:46

claimed that the Samantha Razapardi we've

1:48

been looking into, the conwoman, has

1:50

been wrongly accused. I'm

1:52

talking about evidence and information that

1:54

was provided that supports wrongful arrest.

1:57

I would prefer to meet up in person.

1:59

I would love to show you everything I have. But

2:02

Sharon is wondering what she's getting herself

2:04

into. Who is this person she's

2:07

agreed to meet? And what is her real

2:09

agenda?

2:10

Hey Nick, it's a strange

2:12

little world that I feel caught up in at the moment.

2:15

And

2:17

I don't really know where it's going and

2:21

where I'm going in it as

2:23

well. It's just a couple of hours

2:26

before the meeting and Sharon

2:28

sends me another voice note. Hi

2:30

Nick, I've just received a message

2:33

from Sam as a party saying,

2:36

I was advised not

2:38

to talk to you. I need to

2:40

do what is

2:42

best to keep my family and myself

2:45

safe. The meeting has

2:47

been canceled. I'm

2:49

not surprised. I'm

2:52

disappointed.

2:52

We believe that

2:54

Samantha as a party is aware of

2:57

our production and that all of these

2:59

messages only ever came from her.

3:03

It's Samantha playing yet another game,

3:06

this time with us trying to sow

3:08

confusion. And now she's

3:10

slipped away again, elusive as ever

3:13

but she's not finished playing with us yet.

3:15

Let's pick up where we left

3:18

Samantha. It was August, 2015. And

3:22

she was convicted on charges related

3:24

to the fraudulently obtained passport

3:27

in the name of Georgia McAuliffe. She

3:30

spent some time in jail and was

3:32

then released on a bond on

3:34

the condition that she stayed out of trouble

3:36

for two years.

3:38

Well, Samantha didn't comply with that

3:41

two year good behaviour bond. In

3:43

fact, very soon she had latched

3:45

on to some new people in Sydney. Detective

3:48

Sargent, have you ever seen

3:51

anyone with a profile

3:53

like Samantha? Never. In

3:55

regards to her ability to

3:58

have one scheme properly. up another

4:00

scam which props up another scam, it becomes

4:03

like a number of spider webs superimposed

4:06

upon each other.

4:07

This is Aaron Power. He's a

4:09

New South Wales detective with 33 years

4:11

in the force. He's

4:13

worked on homicides, been an undercover

4:16

cop, you name it, very experienced.

4:19

The particular web that Samantha was going

4:22

to spin was in Marrickville,

4:24

Sydney.

4:25

More specifically, the audacious

4:27

scam that Aaron Power uncovered

4:30

was at a school called the Good Shepherd

4:32

School.

4:33

The Good Shepherd motto

4:36

is all about service starting from Sister

4:38

Mary of Frasier's belief that every

4:40

person is of value, but

4:42

also especially to create gender

4:45

equality in the world so that girls and women

4:47

are

4:47

in... Back in 2016, the

4:49

staff at the Good Shepherd went out of their

4:51

way to help their newest arrival. But

4:54

they couldn't have known then what was in store for

4:56

them with the new student known as

4:58

Harper Hart. This school

5:00

was actually a school for people

5:03

who were disadvantaged in some way, and

5:05

this girl allegedly had a

5:07

problem in reading and writing. The school

5:09

said, well, if you want to become enrolled, you've got to provide

5:12

identification. And this girl,

5:15

who went by the name of Harper Hart, absensed

5:17

herself from the school for a period of time

5:20

and then returned with a United States birth certificate

5:22

from the state of California and

5:26

also obtained a doctor certificate

5:29

from Sydney Hospital, which basically

5:31

gave the cause for her absence.

5:34

This young girl was living with a local family.

5:37

Incredibly, this family had just met

5:39

Harper on the street,

5:41

listened to her story, felt sorry for

5:43

her, and brought her into their home to live

5:45

with them and become part of their family.

5:49

They believed she was 13 and

5:51

in trouble, but the details they and

5:54

Harper Hart gave the school didn't

5:56

add up. There was no information

5:59

or evidence on file. that this foster family

6:01

had permission to take her in as a foster child. Her

6:03

version of events was that she

6:05

was from California, from San Francisco,

6:09

and she was on the United States Witness Protection

6:11

Program.

6:12

A Witness Protection Program? And

6:15

the girl had some other worrying

6:17

stories to tell. She stated that

6:20

she'd been subject to being sexually assaulted. She

6:22

stated that she'd been raped by a New South Wales

6:24

police officer. But her stories

6:26

had convinced the family who had taken

6:28

her in. The foster family seemed to

6:30

believe that she was, in fact, a victim of sexual assault.

6:33

Because they

6:35

were concerned for Harper's welfare, the

6:38

family told the school about these allegations,

6:41

and the school then contacted the authorities.

6:44

And that's when Detective Aaron Power

6:46

and his team were called in to solve this

6:48

mystery. Soon even the FBI

6:50

in the United States was involved. So

6:53

I contacted the FBI liaison officer

6:55

at the United States Cine Consular

6:57

General, and I gave him a copy of the birth

6:59

certificate showing that Harper Hart was

7:01

born in the American city

7:03

of San Francisco in the state of California.

7:06

When you're starting to do all the false birth certificates,

7:09

you're dealing with United States Homeland Security,

7:11

they're thinking terrorists, and that's a

7:13

priority.

7:15

Virtually overnight it was examined

7:18

and it was revealed to be a forgery.

7:21

The other document we had was

7:23

the medical certificate. It

7:26

was issued by a hospital. Enquiries with the hospital

7:28

showed that the

7:30

medical certificate was a forgery. So

7:33

what you need to do is find out who she really is. She

7:36

was not known on any police system in Australia. She

7:38

was not known by the

7:40

New South Wales birth deaths and marriages.

7:42

She was a living question mark. All

7:45

avenues of inquiry led nowhere

7:48

until a casual conversation at the police

7:50

station in Sydney where Detective

7:52

Power worked. One

7:55

of his colleagues had heard about an Australian

7:57

girl who'd become known as

7:59

the GPO. The

8:02

photograph of Samantha as a party

8:04

from her Irish escapades was

8:07

on the internet. I got my field intelligence

8:09

officer to go out and take some contemporaneous

8:12

photographs of Harper Hart going to the Good Shepherd

8:14

School. And she certainly did look like

8:16

a 13-year-old girl.

8:18

Remember Samantha was 28 years

8:20

old at this time. With freckles and

8:23

short pants and the latest t-shirt

8:25

and braids and hair and all that.

8:28

Despite all of this information, the

8:30

Foster family were still refusing

8:32

to cooperate, as was Harper Hart.

8:36

So we went to the Good Shepherd School where the

8:38

teachers gave

8:40

us a sample of her homework. And

8:42

sure enough, the fingerprints

8:44

of Samantha as a party were all over Harper Hart's

8:47

homework.

8:48

And at that stage, she'd been placed into another

8:51

Foster home. She was now, we

8:53

know, a 28-year-old woman living

8:56

with little kids. And on

8:58

that basis, the situation had to be resolved

9:00

quickly.

9:02

When we arrested her, we noticed

9:05

that

9:05

the freckles she had on her face making her look like a little

9:08

13-year-old girl were actually fake. They were actually drawn

9:10

in by her. They were makeup. What

9:13

was

9:14

her response when she was arrested?

9:17

She knew who we were. It was like she could smell police. She

9:19

was very cool and calculated.

9:22

She seemed very disciplined. She had no emotional

9:25

response. I wouldn't cooperate with the police,

9:27

wouldn't answer any questions, and maintained

9:30

her right to silence. And

9:32

immediately, she put her back to the camera,

9:34

which is in the charge room, put her hoodie

9:37

up and, like a boxer

9:39

on the ropes, put her hands over her face. And

9:41

we believe she was avoiding being

9:44

photographed by the closed-circuit TV in the charge

9:46

room.

9:47

If you're a fraudster, one thing you don't want to do is get

9:49

your photograph or your face name

9:51

out in the community. And just like many

9:53

other times, the people who had tried to

9:55

care for Samantha as a party were left

9:58

feeling betrayed. Two

10:00

people affected her, I know, I know

10:02

that her social worker, who'd

10:04

been, who actually believed that she was the victim

10:06

of child sexual assault,

10:08

when we went in, she broke down

10:11

and she was, she was crying and she was beside

10:13

herself. And what about the other

10:15

teachers that had had contact? There was one young

10:17

Vietnamese Australian chappy who

10:20

for the past year had put

10:22

his heart and soul in trying to teach

10:24

this poor abused girl how

10:26

to read and write and all of the time

10:28

she was totally literate.

10:31

The feedback I got, he felt betrayed

10:34

and felt humiliated like a fool.

10:36

He'd been taken for a ride.

10:38

Samantha had developed her abilities

10:41

to such an extent that not only

10:43

had she passed herself off as a person

10:45

over half her age, it seems

10:47

she had convinced her foster family beyond

10:50

any doubt.

10:51

They are a mystery within a mystery here.

10:53

Yeah, how do we understand that? The

10:55

foster parents were people who

10:58

were loyal to her to the end. They still

11:00

would not assist police or cooperate with police.

11:03

They seem to be

11:04

firm believers, true believers of

11:08

her version of events.

11:10

When Samantha went on trial in July 2017,

11:13

she

11:14

had been living with the foster family for

11:16

at least 12 months.

11:18

By now, Samantha's actions over the previous 10

11:21

years across three continents

11:23

had cost governments and charities an

11:25

estimated 1 million euros. In

11:28

this latest trial with the Harper Heart Escapade,

11:31

Samantha pleaded guilty to four charges

11:34

of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage

11:36

by deception, costing the Australian

11:39

state about $155,000. The

11:42

legal system has always faced a

11:44

dilemma with Samantha. How

11:47

do you deal with someone who's so skilled

11:49

at lying and who seems oblivious

11:51

to the consequences of her actions?

11:54

For 10 years, after weighing

11:57

up her offenses and her mental health,

12:00

The courts had been giving Samantha many

12:02

second chances. Good

12:05

behaviour bonds, suspended

12:07

prison sentences, but everyone's

12:09

patience was beginning to wear thin.

12:12

Nothing appeared to deter Samantha

12:15

from her repeated acts of fraud

12:17

and deception.

12:19

This time was different. Samantha

12:21

was sentenced to two twelve months in jail.

12:24

Her mother had actually attended that trial

12:26

in 2017.

12:28

One of the very few times she publicly

12:30

supported her daughter. Outside

12:33

the court, Samantha's mother described Samantha's

12:35

situation as heart-breaking. That

12:38

she wanted to get help for her and spoke

12:40

of her daughter as a sweet, adventurous

12:43

and independent child growing up.

12:46

Five months into her jail term, Samantha

12:48

appealed her sentence. Yeah,

12:51

poor Conlon, judge of the district court in New South Wales.

12:54

2017, I was the presiding

12:57

judge over what they call the list court. She

12:59

appeared before me on the

13:02

30th of October 2017. In

13:05

respect of four charges, identical,

13:07

dishonestly obtaining financial advance by deception.

13:10

The magistrate imposed what we call an aggregate

13:12

term of imprisonment, one of twelve months

13:14

with a non-prol period of six months. So

13:17

it came before me because she appealed

13:19

against the severity of those

13:22

sentences. The court was provided

13:24

with a background history of

13:28

consistent or habitual identity fraud

13:30

offences.

13:31

To help in his deliberations, Judge

13:34

Conlon was provided with a report

13:36

from a psychiatrist who'd met

13:38

with Samantha, which we've been granted

13:41

access to. His words

13:43

are read by an actor.

13:45

I stressed to her that my responsibility

13:48

was to the court and that what

13:50

we discussed would not be confidential.

13:53

In my opinion, Ms Azapardi

13:55

understood the warning and allowed the assessment

13:57

to proceed.

13:59

I just went and provided

14:02

background history, but it was fairly

14:06

instructive in my view.

14:09

From the very beginning of this interview, Ms.

14:12

Azapati proved a difficult historian.

14:15

She laughed off my attempts to clarify

14:17

her first name as Samantha,

14:19

and eventually told me it was Lindsay. She

14:22

claimed she is now 29 years old. Ms.

14:26

Azapati presented as a slim young

14:28

woman who appeared in her mid-20s with long,

14:32

partly dyed blonde hair pulled up

14:34

into a ponytail.

14:36

She was wearing rudimentary jewellery and

14:39

long sleeves and clean prison

14:41

greens. Her hands were

14:43

clean and her nails were short.

14:45

She appeared emotionally regressed,

14:48

often childlike and frequently on

14:50

the verge of tears, or was openly

14:53

crying. She was an

14:55

extremely guarded historian who

14:57

often dismissed questions with

15:00

a shrug of the shoulder and silence.

15:03

As the interview progressed, she made revealing

15:05

remarks that she'd like to see a psychologist...

15:08

To fix myself. What Judge

15:10

Conlon was looking at was whether Samantha

15:13

was legally viewed as having a mental health

15:15

disorder that would affect her criminal

15:17

behaviour and in turn her sentencing

15:19

before the court. She admitted

15:21

she's often experienced prolonged

15:23

episodes of symptoms suggestive

15:26

of dissociation.

15:28

She told me at these times she feels like

15:30

she's in a dream state, still

15:33

able to function and do things, but afterwards

15:36

unable to recall her behaviour. Ms.

15:39

Azapati's account of her personal history

15:42

was an unreliable one. She

15:44

said she has considerable difficulties

15:46

with literacy and numeracy.

15:49

The report stated that Samantha's

15:51

claimed deficits in memory, literacy

15:54

and numeracy were also inconsistent

15:56

and implausible.

15:59

diagnosed mental health disorder

16:02

in order to be able to ameliorate the objective

16:04

seriousness of her criminal offending, then

16:06

it was not to be found in the psychiatrist

16:09

report, but of

16:11

more significance in

16:13

this recensing exercise was

16:16

the fact that he went on to say that there was no

16:18

indication on his assessment of

16:20

Miss Azapardi that she was suffering from

16:22

a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia

16:25

or from a major depressive illness or

16:27

other severe mood disorder.

16:29

So it was a personality disorder

16:32

and what was clear

16:35

to me is that she had, well

16:37

her lies and her deception over

16:40

a long period of time were

16:42

of an extraordinary magnitude. The

16:44

forensic psychiatric report on Samantha

16:47

also noted, she also remarked

16:49

upon her many aliases, she

16:52

then told me, I must have made them up. Having

16:55

spoken of these experiences she then

16:57

abruptly asked me if the interview was

16:59

finished and asked to leave.

17:01

And the report concluded, I consider

17:04

her presentation as most consistent with

17:06

a personality disorder with

17:09

borderline features, including

17:11

a remarkably unstable sense of

17:13

self or sense of identity,

17:16

a tendency to dissociate when exposed

17:19

to stress or anxiety and

17:21

an inability to manage even mild

17:24

anxiety with resorting to maladaptive

17:27

coping strategies.

17:30

Samantha's diagnosis in this case was

17:32

of a borderline personality disorder

17:35

and we'll be diving deeper into what this

17:37

and other diagnoses mean later

17:40

on in the series. With

17:42

this information at his fingertips,

17:44

Judge Conlon had to make a difficult

17:47

decision. Was the magistrate

17:49

who sentenced Samantha correct or

17:51

being too harsh? Was

17:53

prison the right place for someone

17:56

with her mental condition?

18:00

On my reading of all of this and

18:02

taking into account what was put in the psychiatric

18:04

report, clearly

18:07

there was no inability on her part

18:10

to recognise the difference between right and wrong.

18:16

Clearly she knew that her conduct

18:19

was wrong, but nevertheless

18:23

she had this propensity to

18:26

be able to deceive and

18:28

lie and do it in a

18:30

quite extraordinary way. She

18:33

was able to bring people into her confidence

18:35

to be able to produce

18:39

stories which she was able

18:41

to back up with fabricated

18:44

documentation. So

18:46

it was really behaviour

18:49

which had an incredible

18:51

intent and I would say malevolence behind

18:54

it. You look at the psychological

18:56

impact on those people who were bending over

18:59

backwards to help her so

19:01

well-intentioned and people

19:04

who were no doubt probably a little

19:06

distraught at the horrible tales

19:08

of woe that she was able to

19:10

spin them, that she was a victim

19:12

of human trafficking and sexual assaults

19:15

which never ever occurred. There comes

19:17

a time when the courts have to say, well enough

19:20

is enough, you want to continue to commit

19:23

this type of fraud, well

19:25

then is there any punishment

19:27

other than imprisonment that is appropriate? The

19:29

magistrate held there wasn't and

19:32

I was also of that view given all the

19:34

circumstances and given the background

19:36

history.

19:37

In his written judgment on Samantha's appeal,

19:40

Judge Conlon concluded, It

19:43

is disturbing in the extreme that

19:45

at 29 years of age she still

19:47

attempts to pass herself off as an

19:49

adolescent.

19:52

Samantha lost her appeal and remained

19:54

in jail until December of 2017.

19:59

It's clear now that that Samantha puts much

20:01

time, effort, and intelligence

20:03

into her modus operandi, or MO.

20:06

No one knows this better than Detective Aaron

20:09

Power. He's noticed that Samantha's

20:11

tactics are similar to those used by

20:13

undercover police and spies.

20:16

She remembers the lies she's told. She

20:18

remembers her backstory. She studies her backstory. She's

20:21

a method actor. She'll have the props that are painted on freckles

20:24

and what have you. So she will look

20:26

the part, and that

20:28

tells her.

20:29

Detective Power also believes that

20:32

Samantha creates conditions that allow her

20:34

to deflect from doing things she doesn't

20:36

want to do.

20:38

If you want to control an environment, you create

20:40

a handicap. This is something she does.

20:43

So as soon as she was in custody, she asked for a meal.

20:46

She was provided with a meal, and then she went into

20:48

a spasm, alleging she had

20:50

an allergic reaction. That allows

20:52

her to be taken to the hospital and not photographed and

20:54

not fingerprinted, thereby

20:57

evading any other further attempts of

20:59

police to speak to her. I

21:01

think her ability

21:04

to use one witness or victim from one offense

21:06

to prop up her bona fides for another offense is

21:08

quite ingenious. Her

21:11

ability to be nonplussed

21:13

when she's confronted. Her ability to

21:15

maintain discipline and not ever make an admission. When

21:18

you put all that together, there's a

21:20

great amount of resilience

21:23

there, a great amount of forethought

21:25

and direction, and a great amount of discipline.

21:28

I've never come across someone like her, no. No,

21:32

not at all. Samantha

21:34

seems to operate mainly by herself,

21:37

but occasionally she needs to bring in supporting

21:39

actors, and it turned out that's exactly

21:42

what she had been doing during the Good Shepherd

21:44

School scam.

21:46

At the same time as she was pretending to be Harper

21:48

Hart, she was also online,

21:50

making friends with a French backpacker.

21:53

Yeah, well, we call her French Lucy, and

21:55

this French backpacker met her girl in

21:58

the Bondi area, and she had a big impact on her life. friend

22:00

of the day and this French

22:02

Lucy had been approached by this

22:06

girl and asked to do a favour for

22:08

it. French Lucy is calling

22:10

up the foster father and pretending

22:13

to be from the United States Supreme Court saying

22:15

that there's an immunity for Harper

22:17

Heart which is about to run out but we're

22:20

going to extend it and the foster father

22:22

actually believes that.

22:23

When in fact he's talking to

22:25

French Lucy who's also being

22:28

used by Samantha and then

22:30

Samantha got French Lucy to pose

22:32

as a doctor and give some

22:35

unusual information to a teacher

22:37

at the Good Shepherd School about

22:39

a student called, you guessed it,

22:41

Harper Heart. She

22:44

made the phone call allegedly calling

22:46

the principal stating she

22:48

was a doctor and that Harper

22:51

Heart's been examined. In fact she is a 13 year

22:53

old girl her skeletal structure shows she's 13 she's

22:56

not 28. That

22:58

phone call was traced and went back to French Lucy

23:01

so she was using this innocent agent

23:04

to prop up

23:06

one of her deception offences.

23:08

The last Lucy heard of her new friend

23:11

was she had contracted tuberculosis

23:13

and had gone into quarantine.

23:16

Samantha as a party has this ability

23:18

to draw people in.

23:20

Innocent agents as Detective Aaron Power

23:22

calls them

23:23

and she gets them to do wild things

23:25

for her that they would never ordinarily do

23:28

bringing them into her very own wonderland.

23:32

But for the real people left behind like

23:35

French Lucy like Emily Bamberger

23:37

it's damaging

23:38

and we're about to get a real insight

23:41

into how these supporting actors are

23:43

used.

23:45

At the beginning of this episode you'll remember

23:48

how Sharon had been invited to a meeting with someone

23:50

at the end of a Facebook Messenger conversation

23:52

and

23:53

that it never happened. And

23:55

all was quiet until a few days later

23:58

in early 2023. When

24:00

Sharon got a call from an unknown

24:02

woman on an unknown number, and

24:05

things began to get a little bit wild.

24:08

I've just received a very strange call.

24:11

She wanted

24:13

to know whether I was in

24:15

the city and whether I could meet

24:17

her because

24:20

she had some important documents

24:22

she wanted to give me. So

24:25

Sharon called the woman back and

24:27

began recording everything, partially for her own

24:29

safety. Hello?

24:34

Hello, can I speak to d- Yeah,

24:37

this is her. Could you just give me

24:39

a bit more information about why

24:41

you're contacting me?

24:43

Um, I

24:45

can't really give you much more information.

24:49

I, um... Well,

24:51

how do you know my

24:53

name is the question? Um,

24:58

I can't tell you that. I

25:01

can't tell you how I got your name or your number, but, uh, you're

25:03

very hard to find. When

25:05

Sharon had been in contact with Sam as a party on Facebook, they

25:09

had exchanged phone numbers. We

25:12

believe that's how this unknown

25:13

woman got Sharon's number. What I need

25:15

to give you is quite important that

25:18

I don't know. It's quite important that I don't,

25:20

uh, the information I go through comes through

25:22

when you're talking to them.

25:23

Yes, but... Okay, I guess the

25:25

question is, why me? That's- I'd

25:28

really like to know that before I kind of

25:30

meet someone I don't even know.

25:33

Um, you'll know- you'll know when to receive

25:36

what I need to give to you. Right.

25:39

Has it got anything to do with something

25:42

that I might be working on at the moment? Um,

25:46

I'm not

25:47

really sure. I don't have, uh, corruption. I

25:49

can't really give you any other information. Well,

25:52

is it corruption- local corruption,

25:54

or is it- to when you say, I've got to

25:56

trust you, I don't even know who I'm trusting?

25:58

Yeah.

26:00

I understand, I'm scared as well, it's the same

26:03

for me. Corruption, documents,

26:06

furtive meetings, it's all gone

26:08

a bit Hollywood. But it's

26:10

an insight into how Samantha can

26:12

create a very unnerving situation.

26:15

Sharon arranges to meet the caller at

26:17

a public location. I have arranged

26:20

to meet her tomorrow at the

26:22

fish markets in Woy Woy at midday.

26:27

Again, I don't know whether she'll be there

26:29

or not. Very strange, I asked

26:31

her what her identifiers would be

26:34

if I met her tomorrow and

26:36

she said she'd be wearing a white

26:39

top, she had dark brown hair.

26:42

And so the following day Sharon

26:44

makes her way to the Woy Woy fish market,

26:47

meeting someone who we believe Samantha has sent

26:49

to us.

26:50

One of Samantha's innocent agents, as

26:53

Detective Power calls them, supporting

26:55

actors. So

26:59

I'm driving through the bush at the moment

27:01

on my way to Woy

27:04

Woy, the fishermen's co-op. I

27:07

have no idea what to expect

27:10

and indeed

27:12

whether she'll ever turn up. But

27:16

I guess we'll find out when we get there.

27:18

The

27:21

fish co-op at Woy Woy is a favourite

27:24

for locals and tourists alike. It's

27:27

right on the water and the fish is freshly

27:29

caught. And on Sundays

27:31

it's crowded, which is why I've chosen

27:34

it, because there's comfort in

27:36

crowds. And I'm a little on edge.

27:39

I just don't know what to expect or

27:42

who might be coming. And

27:45

then there she is, looking

27:48

just as she'd described, walking

27:50

quickly towards

27:51

me. I

27:54

have my mobile phone recording in

27:56

my bag.

29:59

a fish story, doesn't it? The

30:05

one that got away. What

30:09

story had Samantha spawn this young

30:11

woman that persuaded her to travel

30:13

over an hour outside Sydney to

30:15

hand over what she seems to believe are

30:18

sensitive documents about international

30:20

corruption

30:21

to a stranger in a fish co-op? And

30:24

outside the co-op, I get another

30:26

call from her, less than 10 minutes

30:29

after the meeting.

30:30

I just wanted to explain it a bit more. What

30:33

I was given to you was very sensitive.

30:35

I might have looked a bit worried,

30:38

only because I don't trust you, but you'll understand

30:41

once you see it. So, yeah, I just wanted

30:43

to say that to you.

30:46

I was just trying to say to you, I hope

30:48

that you're not getting caught up in something that

30:51

you don't entirely understand.

30:53

That's all. Don't

30:56

worry about me. That's all fine. I just want to

30:58

tell you that you'll understand when you see what

31:01

I gave to you. Over the next few days,

31:03

Sharon continues getting calls from

31:06

this number. Just a quick

31:08

update. I had a series

31:10

of strange phone calls

31:12

from Mystery Woman today

31:14

with lots

31:18

of noise and stuff in the background,

31:21

and I couldn't hear it properly. And I

31:23

got a little concerned that maybe

31:25

they were trying to hack into my

31:28

location. I'm

31:30

probably going to stop taking these calls

31:32

until I can get another

31:35

phone operating, because

31:37

I'm really worried about compromising

31:40

my own phone and my

31:43

security. So that's

31:45

where we're at at the moment.

31:47

Talk to you soon. By now, it

31:49

has all the makings of a bad spy

31:51

drama, really. clandestine meetings,

31:54

the handover, secret parcels.

31:56

And though we cannot absolutely prove

31:58

it, we believe that all of these

32:01

strange events are controlled and designed

32:03

by Samantha as a party. I

32:06

cut all ties with the woman

32:08

whose real identity I

32:10

have no clue about.

32:12

What I was concerned about most of all

32:15

at this point was my security,

32:17

both personal and of my electronic

32:20

devices. There was no

32:22

way that SD card was going anywhere

32:24

near any of them. I

32:27

enlisted the help of an IT friend,

32:29

Stavros, who has deep knowledge

32:32

of all things cyber.

32:34

I feel I'm being pulled into

32:36

some kind of vortex, and

32:39

opening this card is the only way to find

32:41

out what's really going on. What

32:45

I got was this, what would I call

32:47

it? It's a memory card, a microSD

32:49

memory card.

32:50

Right, and what are these used

32:52

for? Well, typically

32:56

that is used for storing files on

32:58

cameras or

33:00

mobile phones or portable recorders.

33:02

It's just a very, very typical

33:05

memory card. You should be extremely

33:07

careful about putting

33:09

unknown disks into your computer.

33:12

So how do we work out what's on the because we

33:14

really want to see what's on this, hey? I

33:16

call Sharon while all of this is going on. We

33:19

want to keep this isolated

33:21

and quarantined

33:23

from any other system and from the internet, so it can't

33:25

call home, it can't activate

33:27

anything. So what we're going to do is we're going to

33:29

put this memory card in this

33:32

tiny computer, and

33:35

we're going to read it and see what's on it. And then

33:37

we have to be extremely careful how we get those files off

33:39

without infecting any other system. And

33:41

then we see what's inside that SD

33:44

card. I'm

33:46

leave. They're the system file, so it looks like

33:49

there's nothing on it. Nothing.

33:51

Hang on, let me double check I haven't marked this

33:53

up. I can't

33:55

see anything on this disk.

33:57

Okay, so. Let me try.

34:00

This is the complete hoax, is it? Really?

34:03

Wow. Is

34:05

it absolutely nothing on it? No,

34:08

I'm just double checking there's no hidden files. We

34:11

did think that there was a possibility this was

34:14

a total ruse and that these things

34:16

could be totally empty as

34:20

part of some sort of crazy game. Like

34:23

going down a rabbit hole, it's like Alice in

34:26

Wonderland or something, you know? Okay,

34:31

I'll scan the digital. But we don't find the

34:33

Queen of Hearts. But how

34:35

bizarre to go to the Cementa

34:37

trouble to give you an empty

34:39

card. It's just really strange.

34:50

Next time on Finding Cementa. Samantha

34:54

faces her most serious charges

34:56

to date. A serial fraudster

34:58

is in trouble with the law again, this time

35:00

charged with child stealing in Victoria.

35:03

We hear from a 12-year-old victim

35:05

of Cementa's. It's a bit scary

35:09

and the things that I was doing, I was a little

35:11

bit weirded out and I wanted to tell my parents, but

35:13

I wasn't allowed. And Samantha dangles

35:16

another hook in the water. When

35:18

she was talking about the black-mouthed stuff, I was very

35:21

against that and

35:21

I was very against doing the drug

35:24

smuggling and all those types of things.

35:29

Finding Cementa is written, recorded and

35:31

produced by Sharon Davis in Australia

35:33

and Tim Desmond and me, Nikoline

35:35

Greer in Ireland. Executive

35:37

producer, Liam O'Brien. Soundtrack

35:40

composed by Paddy Flynn. Sound

35:43

engineer is Damian Chanel. If

35:46

you have any information or tips

35:48

on this story, email us, documentaries

35:51

at rte.ie. For

35:54

further information on the series, visit

35:56

rte.ie.

35:59

Join us

36:01

again in Episode 6.

36:30

Join us again in

36:32

Episode 6.