After her brother mysteriously died this woman uncovered clues that unmasked his killer. Just weeks earlier one of her brother phil nesbitt passed away having seemingly take his own life but now leanne notices that something’s wrong and with her startling realization comes another shock not only was phil murdered but the culprit is there with her in the room the youngest of four leanne spent her
Childhood in the suburbs of christchurch new zealand with her brothers andrew roger and phil the oldest of the bunch phil was also known as the least rebellious member of the family he didn’t go to a pub until he was 21 she told the bbc in august 2018
Leanne even recalls phil having used his motorbike to take her to the girls brigade while she was little when the rest of the family eventually decided to move to australia though phil opted to remain in new zealand there he married a woman named karen and the couple had a son called ben
Meanwhile leanne grew up and started a life of her own ultimately going on to have four kids yet although phil was hundreds of miles away the siblings maintained a close relationship then in 2004 something changed you see during that year phil got himself a new partner a woman named helen milner
From the time of their very first encounter leanne was unsure about helen i initially met her in 2004 and she just seemed your average housewife type person she explained to the bbc but the next time i met her i sort of realized that she wasn’t totally stable in fact
Helen appeared to be suicidal during one of leanne’s trips to see her brother she arrived at the couple’s house to find phil in a state of panic it seemed that helen had taken an intentional overdose of insulin with the aim of killing herself and when leanne then tried to speak to
Her sister-in-law helen apparently told her that she may as well die concerned leanne began to suspect that helen may have threatened suicide before then in 2006 the situation grew more troubling at the time leanne’s son lance was in new zealand staying with his uncle and his wife and one day he called his
Mother with an unsettling story to tell according to lance he and phil had been chatting in a bar when his uncle made a strange request could lance make arrangements to have his first wife killed phil actually asked lance if he could find a hitman to take out karen
Leanne claimed something like a house fire so it looked like an accident distressed lance called his mother to tell her about the conversation but at the time leanne seems to have found the threat too extreme to take seriously instead she advised her son to ignore the conversation that same year however helen apparently
Got upset with lance while he was staying in the couple’s home so helen reportedly contacted leanne in protest only for the two women to start arguing themselves sadly too it was the start of a rift that would force a wedge between leanne and her brother and for three years the once close pair
Didn’t see each other at all eventually in 2009 leanne was reunited with phil when he came to australia for a family visit however any hope that she may have had of fully reconciling with her brother was cut short that may when she answered the phone to take a heartbreaking call
It was leanne’s father ringing to tell her that phil had been found dead at the time the 47 year old phil had been living in christchurch where he was working as a truck driver and according to the first phone call he’d been found inside the vehicle having apparently
Taken his own life devastated leanne found herself having to share the news with one of her brothers i broke the news to andrew and that was the worst leanne recalled when i finally got hold of him and told him to make sure that his son was in another room he just shrieked
But although she was heartbroken leanne was also left wondering as to what might have led her brother to take his own life it was so strange she explained i hadn’t had anything to do with phil for a couple of years so i didn’t really know
What was going on in his life and i was just thinking what the heck’s happened yet after an autopsy revealed fenergin a substance that phil was allergic to in his system she adjusted to the idea that he really had committed suicide still trying to come to terms with the
Loss leanne arrived in new zealand for phil’s funeral but there she found herself confronted with the very woman who had effectively kept her brother away from her over the years what’s more leanne claims that helen prevented her from having any time alone with phil’s body it’s really hard to say goodbye when
You’ve got these things you really want to say because we lost those couple of years when the woman who’d caused the rift between us is standing there leanne explained yet despite the tension between the two women she maintained a relationship with helen after her brother’s death then during one conversation helen let
Slip a very confusing piece of information apparently she told leanne that phil’s body had been found at home not inside his vehicle and soon afterwards helen claimed that she discovered a suicide note a note that contained some shocking notions about his son ben according to helen the note explained
That ben was not in fact phil’s biological son and having learned this truth the note apparently claimed the truck driver had felt unable to cope with the situation it seems that these were not idle claims either helen told leanne that a dna sample extracted from phil’s body had confirmed the truth
Not long after helen’s disclosures leanne returned to new zealand where lance was set to be hosting a party for his 21st birthday and during her visit she spent the night at helen’s home which gave her the opportunity to view phil’s purported suicide note as soon as leanne saw it though she knew
That something was terribly wrong i opened the note and it’s typed leanne recalled so that’s my neck shock and i don’t overly read it but i look to the bottom and there’s phil’s signature and it wasn’t phil’s handwriting suddenly she found herself overwhelmed with the conviction that helen had murdered phil
And the realization that she was now trapped in the killer’s home according to leanne phil’s handwriting was noticeably firm whereas the signature on the note had been written in soft light strokes but even though she was sure that her brother had not written the note leanne couldn’t let on
Apparently helen was eyeing her carefully and she had to be sure to hide her suspicions i was just screaming on the inside and sort of paralyzed as well thinking i can’t let her see that i know leanne exclaimed i’m just sitting there going what do i do what do i do
So afraid that she was in danger leanne then apparently shot herself in the bedroom and wedged a suitcase in front of the door luckily the night passed without incident but the next day leanne was forced to continue as normal even taking helen to lance’s birthday party
I felt like i was betraying my son by taking her there she confessed he had always been so close to phil growing up and i took his uncle’s murderer to his 21st but i could not somehow leanne managed to keep up the pretense and shortly afterwards she had
The opportunity to speak to the police about her suspicions however even though the officer present agreed that the notion of a type suicide note was unlikely nothing came of the encounter instead leanne had returned to australia convinced then that helen was guilty leanne began a one-woman campaign to see
Her brought to justice for her crime first she contacted the funeral director who’d been responsible for phil’s body and asked him about the dna sample that helen had mentioned he denied that any such tests had taken place next leanne shelled out for a proper dna analysis and using samples taken from her parents
She was able to confirm that ben is phil’s biological son after all then the story took another strange turn apparently leanne reached out to helen’s colleagues who told her all about the nickname that her sister-in-law had earned at work they’d call her the black widow behind her back leanne explained
She’d asked them about rat poison she said to one who’d done some work around the house don’t worry about phil he won’t be around for long but in spite of her ever-growing suspicions leanne seemingly managed to remain on polite terms with the woman she believed had killed her brother
Then however something in leanne snapped overwhelmed she sent a text message to helen blaming her for phil’s death so helen then apparently responded by contacting the police who gave leanne a warning she thought she was playing me and i was her little gopher leanne told the new zealand herald in 2017.
Meanwhile another bizarre story began playing out back in new zealand in april 2010 helen contacted the police to tell them that her son adam kearns had been sending her death threats and not only this but she claimed that he had done the same to his ex-partner casey woodstock
Police initially took adam into custody however after two weeks they discovered that helen had sent the abusive messages to herself in an apparent attempt to frame her son outraged adam decided to take legal action against his mother accusing her of having caused him both emotional and financial harm
Meanwhile back in australia leanne had gathered enough evidence against helen to go to the police but frustratingly they took no official step against her eventually though leanne realized that she could ask the coroner’s office to hold an inquest and when helen showed up with a different version of the suicide note
This time without a signature leanne was able to question her in a formal setting for six months leanne and her family were subsequently in limbo then in may 2011 the coroner finally issued a report i considered that on the facts as established by the evidence before me i’m unable to reach the
Threshold required for a finding of a suicide it read and with that the case was reopened again leanne approached the police with her evidence and this time they acted upon it then october officers arrested helen on suspicion of murder they also charged her with two separate counts of attempted murder believing
That she’d tried unsuccessfully to take phil’s life on previous occasions then before helen had even gone on trial for phil’s murder she was dealt another blow in august 2012 she was sentenced to two years plus eight months behind bars punishment for her earlier attempt to frame her own son
And at the end of 2013 leanne finally got to see her sister-in-law stand trial by this time the story had become a media circus and leanne faced several cross-examinations well in the dock however justice ultimately prevailed and helen was deemed guilty of murder in addition she was pronounced guilty on
One count of attempted murder while leanne cried her son lance celebrated the verdict in a different way taking out his phone he played a track that had been a favorite of phil’s the meatloaf classic two out of three ain’t bad it was just such a relief that after
Such a long fight we got what we needed the truth leanne told the bbc helen was ultimately given a life sentence although she’d be eligible for parole in 17 years apparently leanne believes her sister-in-law had phil’s 250 000 life insurance policy in her sites prompting her to plan his murder
And had leanne not been so dogged in her detective work helen might have gotten away with it that said the financial and emotional cost of the investigation had taken its toll on leanne and her family for one thing constantly flying between australia and new zealand had caused her to rack up huge debts
And the time that she’d spent away from her own children precipitated something of a rift that is seemingly still not healed since helen’s trial leanne has at least received compensation from the police although the officers involved in the initial investigation are yet to issue an apology meanwhile helen has lodged multiple
Appeals against her conviction and she’s currently attempting to secure samples from phil’s body in an effort to prove that an undetected heart defect was the underlying cause of his death in 2016 leanne published a book catching the black widow about her experiences of investigating her brother’s murder then the following year the movie
Adaptation aired on new zealand television and today leanne is working towards a degree in criminology hoping to help victims like herself navigate the criminal justice system hopefully without having to turn detective themselves
