(iii) The Scene at Marieville Esplanade
Monday, November 7th, 2011
Note: This is the third in a series based on the Susan Blythe Neill-Fraser murder case. The version submitted to UTAS and The Age Investigations team was not well written and thus like all good snippets of my head… it has been rewritten and is published here. I hope you enjoy the series: part 3 is 585 words long.
The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania and the Derwent Sailing Squadron share the harbour-side of Sandy Bay’s prestigious Marieville Esplanade. They stand alongside the Federal Casino as pennants of Hobart’s high society. Marieville Esplanade spans from the bottom of Queen Street away from the foreshore and spills onto a bustling Sandy Bay Road that links Taroona (driving south) to the Hobart central business district.
Across the road from Marieville Esplanade are the green ovals of the University of Tasmania with sprinklers beading circular sheets of crystal liquid under a mid-Summer sky; they tick-tick-tack their way toward the next alumni cricket match in concert with small white-sailed yachts that smatter the harbour in increments of dancing glitter. Along the foreshore, blonde middle-aged women throw sticks to untrained munchkins named Poppit and Sam and cyclists in orange and black spandex perch on one leg to replenish in the water views.
Police investigators took in the fresh salt air on Marieville Esplanade. They glanced along the waterfront, then out to the stricken Four Winds moored off Battery Point where Bob Chappell had vanished during the night. They filtered impressions of onlookers, parked vehicles and innocuous items around the crime scene that could provide vital clues for their investigation. A grey station wagon had been parked overnight.
Susan Blythe Neill-Fraser was contacted by police early on that first day with news of the Four Winds and questions about her missing partner. She presented with a bandaged hand and they described her as distraught but aloof. From that first day she was medicated and sometime that day she tried to see Dr Ian Sale, an eminent Tasmanian forensic psychiatrist who regularly testifies in criminal matters. She also presented to investigators as intelligent, a grandmother, a romantic fiction writer; she came from old money in a town that respects old money and belaboured an appropriate arrogance.
Because apart from her breeding, Neill-Fraser’s independent wealth, valued at over $1 million, included 80 hectares of farmland at Bagdad, 250 hectares at Old Beach, a home on the prestigious Marieville Esplanade and $90,000 in savings. The couple, who kept their finances separate, also co-owned the Four Winds and Bob provided a modest weekly salary to keep her in an appropriate lifestyle. The couple lived in a West Hobart residence within two miles from the crime scene.
