Extraordinary new questions have emerged following the mysterious and tragic death of a schoolgirl who is believed to have taken her own life, with her family insisting she had faced foul play.
The body of 15-year-old Eden Westbrook was found hanging in Fisherman’s Memorial Park in the seaside town of St Helens in northeastern Tasmania on February 18, 2015.
The teenager had run away from home the night before after an argument with her parents over the use of her cell phone.
Her frantic family scoured the streets for hours looking for Eden before her body was found hanging from a tree in a park on the main street early the next morning.
The following year, a coroner ruled that Eden had died by suicide.
Nine years later, Jason and Amanda Westbrook are convinced that their daughter did not commit suicide and believe that something sinister must have happened to her.
Many challenging questions were asked at that time Channel Nine is under investigation program investigated Eden’s death on Tuesday evening, including why CCTV footage had not been made available as part of the police investigation and inquest.
The body of Eden Westbrook, 15, was found hanging in Fisherman’s Memorial Park in the seaside town of St Helens in Tasmania’s northeast on February 18, 2015.
The issue of the missing CCTV footage is deeply troubling for Eden’s parents, who claim there were many cameras in the area that could have captured their teenager’s last movements.
There was CCTV footage of the route Eden is said to have taken to Fisherman’s Memorial Park, including the local skate park.
There were also cameras along the St Helens waterfront and at the police station less than 50 meters from where Eden’s body was discovered.
“The BP gas station, you have the dock,” Mr. Westbrook said.
‘There are companies that have their surveillance cameras on at night.
“You know, it just doesn’t make sense.”
The coroner’s report made no mention of CCTV or whether police had provided footage.
The program also revealed that Eden’s parents had been informed that a local police officer knew the teenager had been captured on CCTV the morning of her death.
Eden’s father Jason Westbrook said there were many CCTV cameras in the area which could have captured his daughter’s last movements. A recreation shown on Under Investigation is shown
The issue of the missing CCTV footage is deeply troubling for Eden’s parents Jason and Amanda Westbrook (pictured)
Mr Westbrook also said the police officer told him the CCTV cameras at the skate park revealed Eden was with an older woman.
“When I heard that Liz, I almost fell to the floor,” Mr. Westbrook told host Liz Hayes.
“Because I’m thinking, who is this older woman with my daughter at 2 a.m.?
“We’ve never seen that footage… they’ve denied that footage,” Mr Westbrook said.
The program showed that a later review of the police operation showed that there were camera images, but that the images were not clearly visible due to the poor quality.
Another police officer allegedly aware of the existence of CCTV footage was Eden’s parents’ police contact, Senior Sergeant Paul Reynolds, who reportedly failed to pass any available CCTV footage to the coroner.
Senior Sergeant Reynolds had a 40-year career in Tasmania Police but took his own life in 2018 after a brief investigation into allegations of child grooming and sexual abuse.
The program also reported that police have not spoken to the woman believed to have been captured on the CCTV footage.
Tasmania Police have rejected claims of failures in the police investigation, including the decision not to interview the woman believed to be in the CCTV footage.
“We just want answers as a family… I’m an expert on Eden, she was my daughter. And I can assure you that she did not leave my house that night to kill herself,” Mr. Westbrook said.
Unanswered questions surrounding the mysterious death of Eden Westbrook (photo)