Police Life: The Experts podcast - Season 3 Episode 2: Catching Lorelle’s killer - transcript

The Victorian community was shocked and outraged by the brutal rape and murder of real estate agent Lorelle Makin in 2005 at a house she was trying to sell.

A mother of two targeted by a calculated killer simply for how she looked. For the first time, Homicide Squad detectives tell their story of locking up Lorelle’s killer.

Listen to this episode and other episodes of Victoria Police's official podcast, Police Life: The Experts.

Transcript of Police Life: The Experts podcast, Season 3 Episode 2: Catching Lorelle’s killer

Voiceover: You’re listening to Police Life: The Experts, a Victoria Police podcast shining a light on our people and their extraordinary skills.

Voiceover: This episode contains graphic references to murder and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: The brutal murder of 48-year-old real estate agent Lorelle Makin in September 2005 shocked Victoria. It struck at perceptions of safety in the community.

A mother of two going about her daily business in Melbourne’s outer west was chosen simply for how she looked. Murders without apparent motive are the hardest to solve, but Victoria Police Homicide Squad detectives found and arrested the killer just 24 hours after the murder.

For the first time, the investigators on the case tell their story of locking up Lorelle’s killer.

[Suspenseful music continues]

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: We set up a command post and the on-call pathologist had come out. A very experienced pathologist. And he came out and he examined the bathroom.

And he was kneeling down doing what he was doing. And he looked up at me and he just said to me, “Stephen, if you don't catch who's done this, it'll happen again”. And his eyes were welled. And he looked like he was overcome.

My name is Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan, currently the officer in charge of the Knox Crime Investigation Unit. In 2005, I was working in the crime department. Just coming out of the Purana Task Force and I went onto the floor at Homicide.

I've been in Victoria Police, I'm in my 31st year.

Superintendent Stephen White: Her being in that bath was probably one of the most vivid memories I'll ever have. I might have gone to 50 scenes in my time at Homicide, both as a senior constable and sergeant, but there's probably only 10 jobs that I can really remember and that's at the top of the list.

Being confronted with a woman wrapped in plastic, wet in a bath, that was the most confronting thing. I'd seen plenty of dead people over my time, whether it was at Homicide or in general duties policing, but I'll never forget seeing her in that bath.

My name’s Steve White, I'm a superintendent. I'm currently working at Knox, which is out in the outer east, managing 660 people. Back in 2005, I was a detective sergeant at the Homicide Squad.

Been in Victoria Police for 38 years this year, so born in ‘67, joined when I was 20.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: Steve White was Steve Sheahan’s sergeant at the time and for the next two days the pair would work around the clock applying their unique individual skills to this case.

Superintendent Stephen White: He was new to Homicide. So I was a sergeant and I'd previously been a detective at Homicide. So my role was to teach, coach, guide, and mentor. I took that role seriously and have throughout my career.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: I think my main skill is about being able to talk to people, whether they're victims, witnesses, offenders. It's just something I've been able to build over a long period of time. I could go to anywhere and start a conversation because that's what my craft has taught me.

And being part of a team, that's another big strength of mine. And I still operate that way today, even though I run an office of detectives. I consider myself part of that team.

Superintendent Stephen White: My strengths as a homicide detective were not patience. Unlike Sheo, I was, and still am, can be impatient by nature.

But I think I had a compassionate side to me, and still do, in terms of victims and victims' families. I felt like I could relate to people pretty well, whether they were the crooks or the victims.

And I had work ethic, still believe I do, and I felt I was going to be reasonably well suited.

You know, it takes a whole team to win a game, so to speak. So whilst I might not have had the patience and anyone that listens to this will go, “Yeah, you're right, you don't, or you didn't”. I had other skills which were, you know, been described as doggedness or persistence, whatever you want to call it, and a work ethic to get the job done.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover:These investigators were on Homicide crew seven under the leadership of Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles. Steve Sheahan was on his way home from work when he got the call from Iddles, four hours after the murder.

Being new to the Homicide Squad, this would be Steve’s first time as a lead detective on a murder investigation.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: He said, “Sheo, we've got a job”. I'm thinking, “Geez, I've just not even got home”. And I just had to go and pick Ron up and ring my wife and tell her I won't be home for tea.

And he, you know, when I picked Ron up and we drove out to Milverton Street in Melton. And he briefed me up whilst we were going out there.

We were just told that someone had located Lorelle. She had been missing because she hadn't got home after work. Her diary was on her desk, she, it just said 30 Milverton Street. It didn't say what she was going to do there.

[Suspenseful music plays]

She was located in the house face down in the bath, wrapped in plastic and tape, and her head was bound. Her lower garments were removed and as Stephen said before she was quite damp. She was wearing a vest, from what I remember, a navy blue vest, a company sort of vest.

And we later learned that that was the offender washing her down to get rid of evidence.

The initial action at any scene, it doesn't matter what offence you're investigating, it's critical and young detectives are taught today that that's your starting point. It's vital because you don't want to be going to a scene and having to try and catch up.

As a homicide detective, you want to be going to a scene that's been locked down, people have been removed, if there are people in the scene, and one entry, one exit point. A log is commenced, and exhibits are preserved, and forensic procedures are followed.

Superintendent Stephen White: A motiveless murder is one of the hardest crimes to solve. You know, Steve talks about that first period of time when you're investigating. It's really a information-gathering exercise to find out as much as you can about the scene, the deceased, connections, whether they're a crook themselves or not.

So this particular job was, early days, probably gonna be one of those long-winded investigations because we're looking at it going, “Well, how did this happen? Who's done this? This is gonna be a difficult one to solve”. And if not for the ex-partner of the accused, we may never have solved that job. That's the reality.

[Sound of ticking clock]

Voiceover: But that vital information was still twelve hours ahead of the investigators. In the meantime, they processed the scene for clues to Lorelle’s final moments. It was believed she had gone to Milverton Street to show a prospective buyer a house for sale.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: It's not a scene you'd visit every day. It's not something, even at Homicide. Some scenes you go to can be very ghastly, a lot of blood.

But this particular scene. There wasn't a lot of blood or anything like that.

There was evidence of an assault on the carpet area outside of the bathroom.

There was evidence that she was fighting. She was fighting for her life.

When I looked at that scene, I naturally thought, you know, something done by a pathological killer, you know.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: In layman’s terms, a pathological killer is an individual who cannot control their behaviour. And they’re likely to continue their compulsive offending until caught. Their crimes bear the hallmarks of specific fantasies or obsessions. However, there were other persons of interest to eliminate in those first hours. Lorelle’s marriage to husband Terry had broken down.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: From what I understand, their marriage breakdown was quite bitter, but as most are.

You know, Terry had flown out of Victoria, he'd gone to Queensland, so he couldn't be responsible for that death. So he was ruled out very, very quickly.

Superintendent Stephen White: If you can imagine with some of the more high profile murders you get lots of information coming in and you just have to methodically work through, and often it's about alibing people, and so you've got to get phone records so there can be a lot of detailed investigation going into just one person nominated that may have had nothing to do with the crime. And that's the unseen stuff that detectives often do in Homicide.

[Sound of crickets chirping]

Voiceover: As evening fell on that September night, investigators received their first serious lead from the local general duties police.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: It was cold, dark, we were in this van, a command post, and the night shift members had rolled up and we were in there trying to come up with a plan and discussing what we knew then as an investigation team and I remember they come in in their big jackets, they come in and they said, “Oh, have you looked at this bloke?”.

And they mentioned the entity who had an infatuation with real estate agents. And they were the ones that put us onto him. And then when we'd done some checks and found that he had a prior for rape, we started to focus on him.

And then when we went to his house and found what we found in the bedroom, I think we found the newspaper with Lorelle's photo, and it might have even been her card, we thought, “God, we've got our man”.

And at that point in time, we knew that Lorelle had been raped before she was murdered. So he’s someone we locked onto very, very quickly, and that's where our vision went to.

Superintendent Stephen White: They say not to get tunnel vision, but I think we got tunnel vision that day, didn't we?

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: Well, we got tunnel vision. We thought we’re on a winner.

He's a local bloke. We obviously got some information together to get a warrant and went around and knocked on his door. And he was off over the fence in his pyjamas.

So he went missing for several hours and he was found by the local van riding his push bike in his pyjamas. And he was arrested and taken back to Melton Police Station. And then we went and we spoke to him individually, the team, one on one, built the rapport with him and get an understanding of him.

He had an interest in football. He was a very good footballer locally, very talented.

So, you know, when I spoke to him we focused on football and then he told me a bit about his mum. He lived with his mother. He loved her dearly.

He more or less said, “I”, you know, “I haven't done this”, and honestly, I believed him.

And I'm thinking, “Well I don't think this is our bloke”.

But that's the avenue we had at the time, you know, like you've got to follow the evidence as an investigator. If you follow the evidence, you'll get to the right person.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: The following morning brought a new suspect and new momentum in the investigation.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: I remember we’re all at Melton Police Station and then obviously Ron had got a call that Crime Stoppers had received information which come from a male and then we were off and running from there because it steered us in the right direction. Things were starting to fall into place now.

Voiceover: The information to Crime Stoppers had come from a man named Trevor, whose ex-wife Marie Swan lived in Perth. Marie said that in the hours after Lorelle’s murder she had received two disturbing calls from another ex-partner named Shaoyi Liu.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: Shaoyi and Marie Swan had been in a relationship in Western Australia, and they'd had a daughter together.

Shaoyi spoke to Marie and told her that he'd done something bad and it involved a real estate agent. He didn't elaborate on what that was.

Voiceover: Liu had also told Marie that the real estate agent reminded him of her. Three hours later Shaoyi Liu called Swan again.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: I think he’d indicated to Marie that he wanted to give things to their daughter because he had done something wrong and he wasn't going to see her and there was, I think there was gold, trinkets, and money that he withdrew from an ATM to go and give that to Marie Swan's ex-husband who had a business in Queens Road in Albert Park, and then he was going to go and hand himself in.

And then that call ended, and Marie spoke to her ex-husband that same night and said I've just had an unusual call with Shaoyi and he indicated he'd done something wrong to a real estate agent.

[Suspenseful music plays]

And that didn't mean anything to Marie Swan's ex-husband at that time. It wasn't until the next morning when he was going to work and he heard it on the radio.

[Audio – 7 News report]

Newsreader: Police don’t believe 48-year-old Lorelle Makin knew her killer. The mother of two was found in the bathroom of a vacant home she was trying to sell, face down and strangled.

[Suspenseful rise in music]

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: And he put two and two together. And he thought that's strange, and he rang Crime Stoppers.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: Later, investigators discovered through an emergency phone tap that Shaoyi had also called his mother in China to say that he was coming home.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: Ron Iddles had rung Shaoyi's mobile and left a message. And at that time, Shaoyi was at the Melbourne Airport looking to get out on a one-way ticket. And I think when he heard that message, he changed his plans to one of wanting to hand himself in because he knew he couldn't get out of the country.

We didn't know he was at the airport, but we'd found his car in a car park in the city. That was a vital scene because we found clothing in rubbish bins that he was possibly wearing at the time of the offence.

He'd packed all his belongings up and put it into his car, which indicated he wasn't coming back too soon.

And we actually had surveillance teams out looking for him. We'd been able to locate him by his phone, and the bank had put an alert on his bank cards. And then we got a hit in Collins Street in Melbourne. He withdrew, I think, $2000 at an ATM and that, but we were 20 minutes behind him.

So by the time we got that information, he was gone. But the surveillance police had saturated the area and they'd actually locked onto him in the back of a taxi and took him down to I think it was 78 Queen Street, opposite Albert Park Lake, and that's where Marie Swan's ex-husband had a business, and that's where he went to, and that’s where he was followed to. And that's how we knew where he was and were able to arrest him.

Superintendent Stephen White: So obviously the surveillance had put Shaoyi to this address in Queens Road. I specifically remember racing down there, and there was some other colleagues with me, and we got up to the floor that he was on and quickly locked eyes on him and it was essentially hands-on, “You're under arrest”.

He was a big boy. I remember that he was muscle-bound, so he definitely had been working out.

And when I sort of put hands onto him to arrest him, he sort of tensed up, so I thought “Oh, we might be in for a bit of a fight here”.

But in the end, myself and a couple of other colleagues were able to handcuff him and sort of take him to the ground, because you don't know what sort of weapons he's got on him, so it's best to get him handcuffed and get him on the ground and search him and...

You know, looking back sometimes it's a bit surreal when you actually think back through it and at the time, really I was just wanting to make sure that we were safe. Get him handcuffed, get him to the ground, but my lasting memory of that arrest was how strong he was.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: Steve White would later discover that Shaoyi Liu was a martial arts expert and instructor.

Superintendent Stephen White: And so I then think to myself, you know, you're a monster. You overpowered this poor woman who was simply going about her job, and you did what you did.

I know we're supposed to be objective and all that, but it's hard not to feel absolute disdain for that person at that time, in that moment, for what he did.

When he was arrested, I was pretty clear with him, and that's the matter-of-fact way that I would speak to someone, so he seemed surprised when I told him that the real estate agent was dead, he played a ruse in my view, that “Oh, she's dead”. He knew full well that he’d killed her.

So yeah, then it was just a matter of getting him back and trying to tie him down to a story, which we were able to.

[Audio – 7 News report]

[7 News opening music plays]

Newsreader: Live from Melbourne, this is Seven News.

Good evening. Homicide detectives are questioning a man over the strangling murder of a Melbourne real estate agent. The mother of two was found dead at a house she was trying to sell.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Superintendent Stephen White: The first interview with Shaoyi Liu was conducted by myself and Sheo, and I preferred to get a story as quickly as I could.

I don't think he had a lawyer back at that time, so we arranged for a lawyer for him to speak to, as is his right.

[Suspenseful music continues to play with faster beat added]

He knew he was under arrest for murder. I'd told him that very clearly, so there was no surprises at the scene.

He knew why he was in the interview room, so as an opportunity to press record and actually see if we can tie him to a story pretty quickly, and we got some good conversation out of him in that interview.

Voiceover: Steve White tied Liu to a story that he had not gone to the home ready to rape and kill Lorelle.

[Audio of Shaoyi Liu from 7 News archive footage]

Shaoyi Liu: “This sudden anger just burst out from me. I just exploded.”

Voiceover: Liu admitted that Lorelle had shown him another house at an earlier date.

[Audio of Supt Steve White speaking with Shaoyi Liu from 7 News archive footage]

Superintendent Stephen White: “Did anything happen that time when she showed you through the house?”

Shaoyi Liu: “No, no, that’s why it was very strange because I was fine. I was happy what she had shown me, and we left happily. I don’t know, this last time I don’t know what happened.”

Voiceover: Through the interview Steve White maintained eye contact and asked short direct questions. Steve Sheahan sat alongside taking notes, leaving the questions to his colleague.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: Do you want my honest thoughts? I was shitting myself because it essentially was my first homicide interview where I was the informant. Stephen was the lead in the interview, but I'm in there learning, you know, and thinking to myself, “God, I don't want to say something wrong”.

But I was learning from the master because he was my mentor. He's the one I gravitated to. He's one I learned from whilst he was in the team.

I always say a homicide interview is no different to, because I'm more experienced now, an interview for theft. It's just about rapport building and getting an understanding of what has happened.

Some people will talk to you, some won't. And that's where it was vital, with Stephen's experience, to lock him into a story.

He was never going to tell us what he did, but he told us he was there. He said he couldn't get an erection – well, what's his old fella doing out in the first place? You know, so then he's sort of, you know, involving himself in the offence without giving you a full admission.

Superintendent Stephen White: Well his story was, you know, somewhat of a watered-down version to what the crime scene might look like.

He tried to tell us that his erection wasn't able to be sustained whilst he was raping Lorelle but I don't believe that for one minute. You know, here's a woman that's washed down in a bath. It's odd to find a victim wet. When you get there hours later after they've been located. So to me, he was definitely trying to, you know, conceal evidence.

So he tiptoed around the motivation, I would suggest, for a bit, but I felt like we got sufficient enough out of him in terms of the fact that he was there. He tried to rape her. He'd strangled her, tried to play it all down, but in my mind, that was enough. We were gonna charge him with murder.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: With him, whenever we directed towards the assault, he just indicated he blacked out, he can't remember.

And as Stephen said, the fact he put himself there is vital. The fact that he said that he had an erection is vital towards the rape charge. He says he didn't rape her, but that was a lie because we could prove different.

So we found him to be a liar, in some sense, and he showed a consciousness of guilt which we were satisfied we had the right bloke.

[Audio – 7 News report]

Newsreader: Forensic scientists will conduct DNA tests on a man charged with killing a Melton real estate agent. Thirty-three-year-old Shaoyi Liu of Sydenham appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with the rape and murder of 48-year-old Lorelle Makin in a house she was trying to sell. His lawyer told the court Liu has severe psychological problems and has not made a plea.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: The investigators then set about building a profile of their suspect to demonstrate his motive for killing Lorelle. And the image of a calculating, premeditated killer.

[Zooming sound effect]

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: When he separated from Marie, he came to Melbourne and he was very much a isolated person, didn't have a lot of friends.

He was importing china, he had a business, but every business he tended to start failed, it was no different with this particular business he had running.

But what I did learn about him, he had sexual fetishes. And he was just a bizarre character, to be honest.

So when we went to his house and did a search warrant there, we were able to locate things relevant to what we found. In his car, a backpack containing ties, cable ties, masking tape that we found on her body. They're all items we found in his house as well.

And obviously with his computers, and then we interrogated them and found a lot more about him, which sort of went to the heart of why he did what he did.

I think there were six and a half thousand pornographic files. We'd found that he had deleted particular websites and rape sites, he'd actually gone in and deleted and we were able to retrieve them back. So as Stephen indicated earlier, he's gone at lengths to do things to, you know, lessen us tying him into the investigation.

When I look at the content, and I had to look at content because it mirrored what I saw in the crime scene, women, blonde middle-aged women in these pornographic sites.

So it was quite confronting, but it sort of honed in on his motivation.

A lot of the pornographic material was in bathrooms, which was significant. It was like he was role-playing.

And it all stemmed I think, from when you look at Marie Swan. She was a blonde middle-aged woman. And I think that's where the connection was. He saw these women as inclusive of Lorelle.

And, you know, when you look at Marie Swan and you compare her to Lorelle Makin is very, very similar in appearance.

Lorelle was not supposed to go and do that house inspection. It was supposed to be one of the other staff members who was on a rest day.

[Suspenseful music plays]

And Lorelle took that inspection. So that was very difficult for that particular colleague.

And I think at trial she had a better understanding of that, you know, that could have been her instead of Lorelle.

She was blonde, middle-aged lady as well. So we had found emails. After we processed Shaoyi Liu, we had found emails on a work computer at the real estate agency where that particular female colleague had been emailing Shaoyi to arrange for an inspection.

[Suspenseful music increases in volume and intensity]

Voiceover: From his interview, it seemed that Liu was setting up a defence that he hadn’t gone to the crime scene with the intention of raping and murdering Lorelle.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: We located Lorelle’s car. He stole Lorelle’s car after the event. And he'd parked his car a few kilometres away at a golf club in the car park and he'd actually walked from there to the address. So you got to ask the question, “Why didn't he drive?”.

He didn't want to be caught, simply, so he stole her car and drove it back to the golf club where he got into his own car and was able to get away.

Voiceover: Liu claimed he parked his car away from the inspection because he was feeling unwell, and thought the walk would help him. He told investigators that the walk took 10 minutes, but Steve Sheahan discovered it was more than double that, at 24 minutes.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: So that became crucial in the trial where the Crown Prosecutor wanted me to go and re-walk the distance.

Yeah, I did the walk. It was, you know, approximately 3.3 kilometres. And it was about a 20-minute walk. So that become crucial at trial and just discounted his lies. And further indicated that, you know, he was trying to cover up what he'd done.

I think it was a phone box on ... I can't remember the road now. I do remember visiting that phone box and getting the actual number off the phone box so I could do some CCRs on it. Call charge records to see what numbers it contacted.

Superintendent Stephen White: Which by extension shows a guilty mind, doesn't it, that you would make a phone call from a phone box when you already own a mobile phone. And it also goes to the fact that he's parking his car 20 minutes away. He knew exactly what he was going to do. He had those sexual fantasies and fetishes, and he was absolutely going to rape a woman. And it turned out it was a rape and a murder.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: And I honestly believe he was always gonna kill her. For the simple reason, when you commit a very serious offence like a rape, she could identify him. So, which I think made him go to the next step to eliminate that.

[Suspenseful music plays]

Voiceover: While dealing with the confronting evidence of Lorelle’s murder, Steve Sheahan was in regular contact with her family, including her daughter Samantha. This created a bond that continues to this day.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: I had a lot of interaction with Sam and her brother at the start. I found her to be an absolutely beautiful girl. She probably mirrors her mum in a lot ways, and she even looks like her mum. She's got a beautiful personality, and she was so brave, that's what touched me.

You know she's lost her mum but she's trying to decipher a lot of information as to how this came about and why it's happened and, you know, so early you can't provide those answers because you don't have them. And quite often in homicides you can’t give the answers to the family because you just don’t get them.

Even with the jobs you solve, you, you don’t have all the answers.

[Suspenseful music changes to a louder and faster beat]

Voiceover: Shaoyi Liu pled not guilty to the murder charge, relying on a defence of manslaughter. This would go to trial so this rapport with Lorelle’s family was crucial as they dealt with the harrowing experience of hearing the heartbreaking evidence of their mum’s last moments.

[Another layer of suspenseful music is added]

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: Obviously you're there to nurture the family and you're on a rollercoaster ride. You're in the front carriage with the family of a deceased person. You’re riding up and down through the investigation and then when you take someone into custody and charge them.

You've got to go through a trial, and the pendulum swings.

You can think you've got a fantastic, strong brief of evidence, but the pendulum will swing every day in a trial on different testimony. And it's not ‘til you get that final result from a jury.

You know, you're looking at a jury every day, you wonder whether they're switched on and listening, but this jury was six man and six women, and obviously when some of the evidence is brought across or come out of testimony you see some of the reactions.

You know, when the evidence, especially in the evidence of the pathologist who's describing how the victim has died, and that can be very confronting.

And when that verdict come down, you know, I think it was Lorelle’s brother got very emotional, and he turned to the accused in the dock and started to voice his opinion.

So things got very emotional. You know, he's lost a sister. The kids were there in the court, they've lost their mum.

[Audio – 7 News report]

Newsreader: A Sydenham man has been found guilty of raping and strangling Melton real estate agent Lorelle Makin while she tried to sell him a house. The jury taking only a day to reach a unanimous verdict.

[Samantha Makin within segment] We’re just pleased with the verdict and just ready to move on with our lives.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: He got 27 years on the top, with a 22 minimum sentence.

[Slow piano music plays]

Voiceover: Shaoyi Liu is eligible to apply for parole in 2027.

Superintendent Stephen White: In terms of sentencing, I didn't often get too concerned about the sentence, I was more concerned about that conviction, because in reality, if it was manifestly excessive there’d be an appeal, and if it was too low there’d be an appeal.

So my job was done when you got the conviction, so I didn't really get too concerned about it.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: I always sort of say to my members today, you can't control what happens in a courtroom. You put a brief of evidence together and if you can get it past committal, if you get it out of the Magistrates’ Court into the higher courts, you've done your job.

Voiceover: This was the start of a long career in Homicide for Steve Sheahan.

[Drumbeat added to slow piano music]

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: I think it put me on a pathway to achieving more success.

With every job, you pick up different techniques. But yeah, it put me on the pathway to achieving success.

And you know, I often think back to that time and the methods we used, we still use them today. Could we have done something differently? I don't think so in this case. I think what we did was the right thing and it got us a result very quickly.

So, yeah, look, I've always been fairly good at switching off.

I think as I get a bit older I'm finding myself a little bit more vulnerable. Maybe that's because of age, I'm not sure, but I've always been able to deal with, you know, I don't like to take my work home. Sometimes I do, but I get reminded very quickly that I'm spending a bit too much time in the study. (Laughs) And my wife pulls me into line, and I love her for that.

But I've got passions outside of the job that I find therapeutic. I love surfing, and I find when I go surfing I just forget about everything. I just look to the next wave and the waves just keep coming, don't they? The tide goes out, but it comes in.

And so I think you've got to have those, fundamentally you've gotta have those things in place to make you not think about it too much. But when you're in it, you engage yourself and you give it your all.

Superintendent Stephen White: Running was my thing, so I enjoyed sort of keeping fit and that was my sort of release.

So I think everyone's different, and that's the good thing about this job and my time at Homicide was, you know, the people that you work with, the personalities that you come across, the jobs that you attend, they’re memories that will last forever, even though my memory is not as sharp as this bloke next to me. I have very fond memories of my time at the Homicide Squad.

It's not all beer and skittles, you know. Like for that two days we probably didn't get a wink of sleep. But the satisfaction of solving a crime, whether it's a family violence crime at a local level or a Homicide Squad, you can't buy that.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Sheahan: It's a massive part of my career is making people accountable. I'm there to uphold the law. If you break it, I'll catch you and I'll make you accountable. That's a big part of why I joined is to keep the community safe and make those who break the law accountable.

Voiceover: You can make a report to Crime Stoppers by phoning 1800 333 000 or online at crimestoppersvic.com.au.  

Voiceover: And a reminder that if any of the themes in this episode have had an impact on you, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14. If life is in danger, call Triple Zero (000).  

Police Life: The Experts is a Victoria Police production.

Your host is Belinda Batty.

It was written by Adam Shand.

Additional research by Jesse Wray-McCann.

It was produced by Adam Shand, Jesse Wray-McCann, and Emily Wan.

The senior producer was Ros Jaguar.

Audio production and original music by Mat Dwyer.

Theme song by Veaceslav Draganov.

News content courtesy of the Seven Network.

Executive produced by Beck Angel.

This podcast was created by the Media, Communications and Engagement Department at Victoria Police.

To learn more about the work of Victoria Police, go to police.vic.gov.au.