Jaidyn Leskie

The disappearance of a child would kick off one of Australia's most scandalous chapters.

The date was June 14th, 1997. Australia was in the middle of its winter season, and 22-year-old Bilynda Murphy - who lived in Moe, about 130 kilometers east of Melbourne - was planning to enjoy a night off from her traditional motherly duties. You see, Bilynda had two children: Breehanna, who was about two-and-a-half; and Jaidyn, who was a little over one year old. Bilynda had separated from the childrens father about six months prior, and had finally started to settle into a fresh routine with her new boyfriend.

Greg Domascewicz, Bilynda's new boyfriend, had actually previously offered to babysit for Bilynda so that she could take a night off from being a mother. That Saturday morning, 28-year-old Greg drove over to Bilynda's house on his motorbike and repeated his offer, asking if she'd trust him to watch over one or both of the kids. Despite already making plans with her sister to have a babysitter watch both of their kids that evening, Bilynda gives in and says that she's happy to let Greg watch over one of her children: baby Jaidyn, who at this point, is just about 13 months old. Greg has already watched over the kids on a short-term basis, and seemed to have a certain fondness for the baby boy, so what was the harm?

The two arrange for Greg to babysit Jaidyn for a few hours alone, and then drive him over to Bilynda's sister's house - where a babysitter was already going to be watching Jaidyn's older sister and cousins. This was an easy enough arrangement, which was understood by everyone involved. Greg immediately headed home on his motorbike and returned just a short time later with his car, so that he could transport Bilynda and the children.

While she waits for Greg to return, Bilynda sees on the news that rain was expected that evening, and she makes sure to dress Jaidyn in an appropriate outfit: grey tracksuit pants with a green trim on the bottom (which have the words "Baby Games" engraved on it), a green long-sleeved shirt, a blue-grey windbreaker, and a red jacket. The toddler carries with him a pacifier, which is attached to his clothes with a small little pin so that it won't be lost when it inevitably falls out of his mouth. Bilynda also makes sure to pack additional clothes, bibs, nappies, bottles, and snacks in a small bag; everything that Jaidyn might need over the next few hours.

About half-an-hour after leaving, Greg returns with his car. Bilynda and he load up Jaidyn's car seat in the vehicle, and then themselves. Greg is dropping off Bilynda and her daughter, 2-year-old Breehanna, at her sister Kadee's house... the same house that he's supposed to drop off Jaidyn later that afternoon.

The four make it to Kadee's house at around 1:30 that afternoon, and there, Bilynda says goodbye to her boyfriend and her son. She watches the car as it leaves, waving goodbye to both Greg and Jaidyn - who both wave back. However, unbeknownst to Bilynda, this would be the last time that she would see the boy alive.

This is the story of Jaidyn Leskie.

Bilynda and Kadee Murphy were both born in the 1970's, and grew incredibly close as sisters of a similar age. Kadee was three years older than Bilynda, but the two would remain friends throughout their childhood and teenage years. It wasn't until their early adulthood that the two sisters began to be at-odds with one another.

In the early 1990's, Kadee - the older sister - became pregnant with her first child. During that pregnancy, she met a young man named Brett Leskie - with whom she would become smitten with. In October of 1992 - right after she had given birth to her daughter, Harley - Kadee and Brett get married. Shortly thereafter, Kadee becomes pregnant again; this time, with Brett's child. That child - another daughter, named Shannan - is born in 1993.

Shortly thereafter, Kadee and Brett separate and file for divorce. The rationale for many in their social circle isn't readily evident, but it soon comes to light that Kadee suspects Brett of cheating on her. And not just with anyone, but Kadee's younger sister, Bilynda. That is all but confirmed a short time later when Brett and 17-year-old Bilynda officially start dating.

Despite the inherent drama in the origins of their relationship, Brett and Bilynda live together quite happily for the next couple of years. They are quickly engaged, and have their first child in January of 1995: a daughter named Breehanna. Their second child, a son named Jaidyn Raymond Leskie, is born a little over a year later, on April 30th, 1996.

Unfortunately, the relationship between Jaidyn's parents - Brett and Bilynda - would begin to deteriorate over the next year or so. Brett had previously owned and operated a auto shop with his best friend, Greg Domaszewicz. At some point after Jaidyn's birth, Bilynda and Greg would strike up an affair, which they managed to keep private for some time. But in April of 1997, news of their relationship would reach Brett's ears, who decides to break off his engagement to Bilynda. He promptly moves to the other side of the country, and leaves behind the three children he has fathered with the two Murphy sisters.

Bilynda, who is still in her early 20's, is now left alone with her two children: Breehanna and Jaidyn. She decides to continue seeing Greg - the man she had been seeing behind her fiance's back - but remains unaware that he has a secret of his own. In addition to dating Bilynda, he also continues to sleep with his ex-girlfriend, Yvonne - who would become a figure in this scandalous saga later on.

For the most part, Greg and Bilynda seemed to have a good relationship. Despite them having come together in what amounts to infidelity, they seem to have made each other happy. Greg was unemployed at the time, but found the odd job here and there, and filled his days with car repair for friends and others. He lived in his own house on the other side of town, where he lived with his three dogs.

Looking back, though, it's easy to see that there were flaws in Greg and their relationship that Bilynda might have overlooked. In particular, Greg seemed to show some concerning signs of attachment to Jaidyn, Bilynda's young son. He often told Bilynda that he didn't like the babysitter she had hired to watch over the kids, and constantly offered to watch over Jaidyn in the sitter's absence. He never really expressed the same concern or interest in Bilynda's other child, 2-year-old Breehanna, nor their cousins, Harley and Shannan (who were constantly around and being watched by the same sitter).

Greg's particular interest in Jaidyn continued to culminate into the Australian winter, and he repeated his offers to babysit for Bilynda whenever she needed it. In June of 1997 - just days before Bilynda finally agreed to let him watch over Jaidyn for a few hours - Greg had given the one-year-old an unusual-looking haircut that resembled his own receding hairline. He had also cut small triangles into the back of Jaidyn's hair, in what can only be described as a terrible fashion choice. Bilynda confronted him about the haircut, and Greg jokingly told her that he simply wanted Jaidyn to look more like him.

You see, with Greg, you never knew when he was being serious or if he was just taking the piss: he had a weird, sardonic sense of humor that expressed itself in the weirdest moments. Moments like Jaidyn's haircut, or the times that he joked about he and his dogs having been abducted by aliens... you weren't ever quite sure when he was having a laugh at your expense.

This leads us to the afternoon of June 14th, 1997, when Greg drives away with one-year-old Jaidyn Leskie in the backseat of his car, as 22-year-old Bilynda prepares to enjoy her first night out in months. Before they leave, Greg hands Bilynda an extra $70 in cash and tells her to have a good time. Bilynda later recalled:

"I then gave Jaidyn, who was still in the car seat, a kiss. Greg then drove off."

After saying goodbye to Greg and Jaidyn, Bilynda began to set her sights on the evening's festivities. That night, she and her sister were planning to head to a friend's birthday party in Traralgon - a small town about 30 kilometers east of Moe - and were planning on leaving their children in the care of a babysitter for a few hours. Obviously, Jaidyn was with Greg, so that would ease the burden on the sitter, who'd watch after the other three kids until the sisters returned home that night.

Since they weren't planning for a bit, Bilynda and Kadee peacefully hang out at the latter's home for the next couple of hours, along with their daughters.

Meanwhile, Greg - who now has Jaidyn - returns to his small home on the southeast corner of Moe, making it there a short time after departing Kadee's house. Once home, Greg begins working on his car, and lets Jaidyn play with his three dogs for the next several minutes - until it starts to rain, and Jaidyn is forced into the cover of Greg's garage. At around this point Greg is interrupted by his ringing telephone inside. He runs in and grabs the phone, and discovers that it's an old friend of his; who surprisingly sounds upset. This friend tells Greg that he has heard rumors about Greg wanting to kill him, an allegation that is hard to take lightly. The conversation between the two meanders over the next hour or so, with the two arguing about who had said what and when.

It is around 3:00 when Greg finally manages to get off of the phone, telling his friend that someone had just pulled up into his driveway. It is unknown if anyone actually had pulled up, as this might have just been a useful excuse. But Greg states that after this call, he continues working on this car for a few minutes, until Jaidyn - who has apparently been hanging out in the garage and playing with Greg's dogs for the past hour - falls down and needs to be cleaned up. Greg takes Jaidyn inside and cleans him up, and then gets him a snack. At this point, he notices that Jaidyn has cut his lip, and he decides to give Bilynda a call to check in.

Bilynda and her sister are still hanging out with the kids, and she is there to receive Greg's phone call. He tells her about the previous call he had just had with his friend - which surprises Bilynda, who assumed that the two were still good friends - and then follows that up by saying that Jaidyn is doing well. Greg describes the fall that Jaidyn had taken outside - and the cut lip - but promises that they are doing fine and that he is going to give the boy a bath before bringing him home.

Bilynda is assured that Jaidyn is just fine because as she speaks to Greg on the phone, she can hear Jaidyn in the background, playing with the dogs. He had just learned to walk and could only say a few words at this point - such as "Mum" and "Dad" - but "dog" was among them.

Over the next several hours, Bilynda - and others - would attempt to get ahold of Greg, but would be unsuccessful in doing so. By Bilynda's recollection, she attempted to call Greg 15 to 20 times that evening, but was unable to reach him.

Likewise, a friend of Greg's had planned to drop by his home at around 7:30 that evening to pick up some Nintendo controllers, but continued driving when they saw that Greg's vehicle wasn't home. This friend would plan to call back later and reschedule.

At around 8:00 PM, Bilynda and Kadee set off for the birthday party, along with Kadee's boyfriend. Bilynda had still not been able to get in-touch with Greg, and was starting to grow concerned over the welfare of her one-year-old son, whom she had left in Greg's custody. That concern would continue to fester as they left, driving by Greg's house on their way out of town. Just like Greg's friend, they didn't see Greg's car in his driveway, and took that as a sign that he was not home.

When Bilynda arrived at the party a short time later, she would continue trying to call Greg, but these calls continued to ring or go to voicemail. It had now been hours since she last saw or heard from Greg, and she had no idea where he - or her son - were.

At around 8:00 PM, Greg's neighbor, Mariann McKinnon - who lived next door to him, on the other side of a vacant lot - tried calling Greg. She had loaned some of his friends some money, and he was supposed to have paid her back earlier that day. So she first tried calling at around 8:00, and - as you would expect - Greg did not answer her call. He didn't answer any of her subsequent calls that evening, and would not return her calls for a couple of hours.

It isn't until 10:00 PM that Greg finally reaches out to Mariann over the phone. He tells her that he doesn't have the money, but asks if she has any diapers he could borrow for Jaidyn, whom Greg alludes is still awake. Mariann says that she does not, but a gas station/convenience store just down the road likely does. The two chat for several minutes, before saying goodbye to one another. It is not known if Greg did buy more diapers that evening, but there is no evidence to suggest that he did.

At around 11:00 PM, Bilynda calls Greg's home phone yet again, and after hours of being unable to reach him, finally gets through. During this phone call, though, it becomes evident that everything is not all right. Greg tells Bilynda that "shit's happened," and that Jaidyn had burned his bottom by standing too close to a heater in Greg's house. Because of that, he had taken Jaidyn into a nearby hospital to receive treatment for the burn, and they had applied some kind of cream to the burn mark. This, however, wasn't enough of a treatment for Greg, so he alleges that he had taken Jaidyn to another nearby hospital afterwards to get a second opinion. That is where Jaidyn was as the two were talking over the phone, allegedly; at the second hospital, before overseen by staff.

As you can imagine, this causes Bilynda to start to panic. She is still celebrating with her friends and family at a birthday party a town over, but tells her sister Kadee that she is going to head out and figure out what's going on with Jaidyn. However, Kadee assures her that Greg was most likely just joking or exaggerating, and a follow-up phone call with Greg confirms that: he says that Jaidyn did have a small red mark on his bottom, but was doing fine. Bilynda, in her inebriated state, accepts that and continues to trust in her boyfriend.

The two chat for a bit longer, seeming to laugh off Greg's prior comments, and their conversation ends on an almost-uncertain note.

Over the next hour or so, things are quiet around Greg's home. As far as anyone knows, he is still watching over Jaidyn at this point, and has been home for at least a couple of hours - following his mysterious multi-hour absence in the late afternoon and early evening.

But at some point between midnight and 1:00 AM, the neighbor that Greg had called earlier that night - Mariann McKinnon - hears what sounds like Greg's car starting up. She recognized it because it had a very distinct starting sound, and she remembers it happening between midnight and 1:00; not at around 2:00 AM, which was when Greg later said he got a call from Bilynda to pick him up at the pub she was at, named Ryan's Hotel.

Greg does arrive at the pub to pick up Bilynda some time between 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning, and she is clearly inebriated. When she gets into the car, though, she is surprised to see that Jaidyn is not in the car with Greg. The back seat is empty, and Jaidyn is nowhere to be found. Almost immediately, Bilynda asks Greg where her son is, and he seems to stick to his prior story: telling her that Jaidyn was currently at Maryvale Hospital and was being overseen by nurses and doctors, due to the burn on his bottom.

Bilynda demands to be driven to the hospital immediately, but Greg refuses. He tells Bilynda that showing up in such a state of inebriation would not look good, and he alludes to dropping off Bilynda at home and returning for Jaidyn. Conveniently, Greg had an open bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey in the car with him, and he encourages Bilynda to take a few sips as they drive home. Over the next several minutes, Bilynda continues to pepper Greg with questions in her inebriated state, but he continues to evade them with vague and noncommittal answers.

The two make it home to Greg's home a few minutes later, and immediately notice that one of Greg's windows has been shattered. The two rush inside, and Greg begins looking around to see if anything had been stolen. Bilynda encourages him to call the police, but he refrains - telling her that he knows the likely culprit of the broken window, and he doesn't want to get anyone in legal trouble. Moments later, Greg is on the phone with his ex-girlfriend Yvonne (who, if you recall, he had been continuously sleeping with on-and-off since their breakup). Greg yells at her for no more than a few seconds, asking her if this is one of her sick games, before hanging up in a huff.

Greg and Bilynda then begin heading outside, so that he can drive her home, and on their way to the car, they notice a severed pig's head in the yard (that's right: a severed pig's head). While this sounds like the end of a long and complicated story, it's actually pretty simple: Greg and his ex-girlfriend Yvonne had once owned a pig together, and Greg long alleged that Yvonne had the pig slaughtered against his wishes. So this basically confirmed that either Yvonne or her loved ones were behind the broken window, and had likely left behind the pig's head as a kind of warning or prank against him.

While this all sounds very odd and somewhat-chaotic, I promise you that these details are important. Much of this information would become relevant later on, including the details such as Greg's ex-girlfriend Yvonne potentially having a grudge against him and the pig's head. It's all pertinent, I promise.

After making this bizarre discovery at Greg's home, he and Bilynda drive off, heading back toward's her house on the other side of town. He drops her off at around 3:20 AM, and tells her that he is going to go figure out who broke his window. Within minutes, Bilynda is asleep inside, after making a few phone calls: one to the babysitter, as well as one to a guy she met at the birthday party earlier that night. She also calls Greg once before drifting off to sleep, asking him to return when he finishes up whatever he's doing, along with Jaidyn.

After 15 minutes after leaving Bilynda's house, Greg is pulled over by a police officer for speeding. The officer gives Greg a breathalyzer test to make sure that he's not under-the-influence, and is able to determine that he is not. Greg is let go without incident, but during the entire stop, he never once mentions his vandalized home or Jaidyn Leskie: the one-year-old boy he had been tasked with overseeing more than 12 hours beforehand... who no one else had seen since.

22-year-old Bilynda Murphy, who had drunkenly passed out in front of a heater, is woken up by Greg approximately an hour-and-a-half after falling asleep. It's almost 5:00 in the morning, and Greg - having shaken Bilynda awake - finally tells her that he has been lying to her for hours.

Greg admits that Jaidyn was not in the hospital. In fact, Greg didn't know where Jaidyn was. He tells Bilynda that the boy has likely been abducted, and they need to report him missing with the police.

Unlike the other times that Greg's odd sense of humor expressed itself, Bilynda could tell that Greg was being serious this time. He hugs Bilynda and tells her that he is so sorry, and apologizes for having lied to her repeatedly over the past few hours. When asked why he had done so, he tells Bilynda that he didn't want her to worry.

According to Greg, he had left Jaidyn at home on his couch when he went to go pick up Bilynda from the pub earlier that evening. When they returned to his house and the broken window a short time later, he presumed that Jaidyn had been kidnapped... but for some reason, didn't think to immediately report the incident, or even warn the child's mother (who was with him at the potential crime scene).

The two briskly make their way to the closest police station, where they report Jaidyn missing at around 5:15 AM. Greg tells the police officer at the time of filing:

"Her baby's been kidnapped. My windows have been smashed and they've left a pig's head there."

During their initial conversation with police, Bilynda struggles to keep herself composed, recounting her side of the story through tears. However, it is quickly noted that her version of events seems to differ at points from Greg's, so the officer filing the police report decides to separate the two into different rooms for official interviews.

Over the next eight or so hours, it becomes clear that Greg's version of events isn't quite adding up to a cohesive story. He struggles between various versions of events, and police find him so suspicious that they decide to take him into custody and search both his home and his vehicle for any sign of Jaidyn. They are ultimately unable to find anything incriminating, and are forced to release Greg from custody a short time later. He is then placed on active surveillance, and police continue to monitor him for the next several days; hoping that he might slip up and potentially lead them to the now-missing Jaidyn Leskie... who was nowhere to be found.

On June 15th, 1997, Bilynda Murphy dropped into a police station in Moe, Victoria, to report her 14-month-old son Jaidyn Leskie missing. She had done so alongside her then-boyfriend, Greg Domaszewicz, whom she had been dating for several months - and who was also the person responsible for watching over Jaidyn at the time he disappeared.

Following the filing of Jaidyn's missing persons report, Bilynda was free to go, and she began making efforts to track down her missing child alongside her family and friends, who refused to leave her side. After returning home, though, Bilynda noticed that many of Jaidyn's toys and things seemed to be out-of-order... even beyond his regular messiness. It almost seemed like someone had pilfered through his stuff when she was gone, but she knew that the police had searched the home for Jaidyn, and - for the time being - that was enough to explain away the mess.

Meanwhile, Greg continued to be held in police custody, until he was finally released due to lack of evidence. Following his release, Greg headed straight over to Bilynda's home. She would later recount in an unpublished book, which she shared with reporters at the Herald Sun:

"As soon as [Greg] was released from the police station he headed for me. Inside I wanted to kill him. I didn't know if he was lying or not. 'Had he done something to Jaidyn?', I kept asking myself. I wanted a gun. I wanted to shoot him in the foot and if he didn't tell me I'd shoot him in the other foot. But when it really came down to it, I doubt I could have shot anyone.

"To my surprise, Greg walked in and hugged me, in front of everyone that was there. Greg had never done that before - shown me affection in front of people. Now he was telling the police I was his girlfriend as well as showing his affection in public. I never really thought about the way he treated me back then until now. He didn't want a soul to know about us and as soon as Jaidyn disappeared it seemed to be OK."

This was unfortunately a big break in their relationship, but it came one tragedy too late. You see, Greg and Bilynda had been dating for the better part of a year (both privately and publicly), but throughout that entire time, Greg had seemingly tried to distance himself from Bilynda in front of friends and family. He often introduced her as "Leskie's ex-missus" (referencing his old friend, Brett, who had once been Bilynda's fiancee), and never showed her any public signs of affection until after Jaidyn had disappeared.

This seemed very reminiscent of Greg's prior relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Yvonne Penfold: whom he had continued sleeping with during his relationship with Bilynda. According to Yvonne and her loved ones, Greg had been a neglectful and even abusive boyfriend towards Yvonne, and a forensic sweep of Greg's home would later find Yvonne's blood in an upstairs bathroom.

It was that abusive nature that had eventually earned Greg the broken window and severed pig's head in his front yard. Both acts had been perpetrated by Yvonne's brother and friends in a drunken bout of intimidation. This group had gathered outside of Greg's house on the night Jaidyn went missing, and waited for Greg to leave just after midnight before committing the act of vandalism. According to them, they threw the pig's head against the window twice, and when it failed to shatter the glass, they decided to pelt the window with rocks before leaving. They would later describe it as an idiotic act of revenge, which only muddied up an already-confusing crime scene.

However, in the process, the group of guys that had vandalized Greg's home inadvertently made themselves witnesses to a potential crime. They would testify over the next several weeks, and pin down certain elements of the story: such as the time that Greg had left his house (somewhere between midnight and 1:00 AM), and providing an explanation for the broken window and pig's head.

Surprising no one, though, the young men denied having any involvement in Jaidyn Leskie's disappearance.

In the days and weeks after Jaidyn went missing while supposedly being looked after by Greg Domaszewicz, police began to suspect foul-play more and more. By July, officials had declared this a murder investigation, with them no longer believing that Jaidyn was alive.

In interviews with police, the prime suspect - Greg Domaszewicz - continued to point the finger at other potential suspects. This would become a primary strategy for his pending legal defense, and he made sure to point suspicion in the direction of his ex-girlfriend, Yvonne Penfold (whose brother and friends had vandalized his house).

Then, on July 16th, 1997 - roughly one month after the disappearance of Jaidyn Leskie - Greg Domaszewicz was officially charged with the toddler's murder. He would spend the next year or so behind bars, awaiting trial, while his lawyer Colin Lovitt prepared an insurmountable legal defense. In the meantime, though, the search for Jaidyn Leskie would continue to unfold... and would come to an end just months later.

Roughly six months after Jaidyn Leskie went missing - on January 1st, 1998 (New Year's Day) - a family was celebrating the summer weather with a picnic at Blue Rock Lake. It was here that the body of Jaidyn Leskie was found, just down-river from the Blue Rock Dam, about 18 kilometers north of the town he had gone missing from.

According to the police reports filed at the time, Jaidyn was found in some of the same clothing from when he disappeared and his body had been weighed down in the water with a crowbar. He had an elastic-type bandage on his left arm, which covered his skin from elbow to wrist. An autopsy would later reveal that the boy's arm had been broken no more than a day or two prior to his death, due to there being no signs of healing. The bandage appeared to have been haphazardly placed on Jaidyn's arm, and it was theorized that it might have been applied after his death (due to the severe pain it would have caused the child).

Just a few meters away from Jaidyn's body, police would find the bag his mother had prepared for him (full of snacks, toys, etc.) and a water-logged child's sleeping bag. Curiously, the sleeping bag seemed to have belonged to Bilynda's sister, Kadee; who had a similar-looking sleeping bag that Bilynda had borrowed months prior. Despite the sleeping bag being unaccounted for, it had somehow ended up at the location of Jaidyn's body near the Blue Rock Dam.

Jaidyn's body would be taken away for an autopsy, which only created more questions than answers. In addition to the broken arm, it was determined that Jaidyn had sustained blunt force trauma to the back of his head - which might have been his cause-of-death. Jaidyn also had what looked like a rib fracture; but it was speculated that this fracture have been caused days or weeks prior to his death, and he had been living with it for a short time.

Because Jaidyn's body was so well-preserved at the time of his discovery, it was speculated that he had been thrown into the water during the winter months, and the cold water had kept his remains mostly-intact. However, partial decomposition had started to take place, and officials were unable to confirm the wound to the back of Jaidyn's head as his official cause-of-death. For that reason, they were unable to rule out other potential causes, such as strangulation or drowning.

The most surprising thing to come out of the autopsy was the finding of a drug called Benzhexol in Jaidyn's blood, which is usually found in medication for Parkinson's disease. Jaidyn had been drugged with this substance several hours before his death, but it was impossible to establish a firm time-table for its consumption. It is possible that he had accidentally ingested Benzhexol (being a child and all), but the side effects of the drug range from minute to severe (everything from dizziness and nausea to hallucinations).

Bilynda and Kadee Murphy - who each looked at photos of Jaidyn's body afterwards - would state that his hair appeared to be longer than it had been when they last saw him. However, skeptics somewhat brush this aside, as the skin around your hair and fingernails tends to recede after your death, so this might have just been an misattribution.

Following the discovery of Jaidyn's death, it became official that foul-play had been involved in his death. And with a suspect already in-custody, police began moving forward to confirm their long-held suspicions, and continue investigating the mysterious circumstances surrounding poor Jaidyn Leskie's death.

Greg Domaszewicz remained the primary suspect for police over the next several months, as prosecutors and investigators continue to zero in on him as the potential culprit of this heinous crime. There were multiple aspects of his story - his series of events - that continued to befuddle officials looking into Jaidyn's mysterious death, and those questions would remain unanswered over the next several months.

After driving away with Jaidyn in the early afternoon of June 14th, 1997, nobody had seen either Greg or Jaidyn for approximately 12 hours. Greg had made a handful of phone calls to his girlfriend, Bilynda (who was in the next town over at a birthday party); his neighbor, Mariann McKinnon (who had tried repeatedly to call Greg that night, but only spoke to him after 10:00 PM); and at least one friend (who had argued with Greg over rumors that Greg wanted to have him killed). These phone calls all took place from Greg's home phone, but there were several hours between the calls that were unaccounted for: time that Greg had originally told Bilynda was consumed with hospital visits.

The original story - that Greg had taken Jaidyn to the hospital to get treatment for a minor burn to his bottom - turned out to be a total fabrication. That never happened, at all. There was no evidence that any hospital in the region had treated Jaidyn Leskie that evening, and Greg had clearly fabricated the entire incident. Yet he had stuck by that story until the morning of June 15th, when he finally admitted as much to Jaidyn's mother, Bilynda.

For these several hours - in which Jaidyn and he were unaccounted for - Greg claimed that he had been at home, working on his car and simply hanging about. However, numerous eyewitnesses had driven by Greg's home on the evening of June 14th, who had each noted that his car was gone and no one appeared to be home. This included Jaidyn's mother, Bilynda (who had driven by with her sister and sister's boyfriend on their way out of town); as well as a friend of Greg's, who had driven by at around 7:30 to try and pick up some video game controllers.

Then we have the disputed period-of-time in which Greg had supposedly left his house to pick up Bilynda at Ryan's Hotel (the pub she had been at over in Traralgon). Greg says that he left his home at around 2:00 AM on June 15th, which is disputed by his neighbor, Mariann McKinnon, who claims that she had heard Greg's vehicle start up at around midnight.

This account is somewhat verified by Kenny Penfold and Darrin Wilson - who were, respectively, the brother and friend of Yvonne Penfold (Greg's ex-girlfriend). These two had arrived at Greg's house just before he left that evening, and were responsible for breaking his window and leaving the severed pig's head in his yard. They saw Greg leave at around midnight and throw some garbage in a can outside of his house, but did not see him with Jaidyn. Likewise, both would later testify that they had not entered Greg's house on the night-in-question, and did not see, hear from, or attempt to kidnap Jaidyn; in fact, they didn't even fathom that the boy might have been left inside Greg's home at the time of their vandalism. Police would later state their belief that the men were being genuine, due to statements from Greg's neighbors that witnessed this act of vandalism.

This left several hours in which Greg and Jaidyn's whereabouts were unknown, and his statements to police didn't help fill in those gaps. Greg often spoke in circles, and struggled to explain - in detail - just what had unfolded that night. He admitted that the hospital story was false, and he had been lying to Jaidyn's mother for several hours on the night her son disappeared. Yet, when asked about what actually unfolded that night, he struggled to explain these long gaps of silence, when he had failed to answer his phone and he appeared to be gone.

Greg even struggled to explain the time period after he had picked up Bilynda from the pub and dropped her off at her house in the early morning hours of June 15th. He had dropped off Bilynda at her house at around 3:00 AM, but wouldn't return to her house to tell the truth and report Jaidyn missing until 5:00 AM. We do know that he was stopped by police for speeding at around 3:30, but the other hour-and-a-half gap is unexplained. We don't know what Greg was doing in that time period, or where he had gone.

In the trial itself, prosecutor Bill Morgan-Payler would tell the court about Greg's inability to explain himself on the morning that Jaidyn was reported missing:

"His actions on that morning are the clearest evidence there was no missing child - only an unfortunate dead one."

However, as I hinted at earlier, this all became a part of Greg's legal strategy. His goal wasn't to make himself seem innocent, per se; but rather, punch holes in the overall story itself. His lawyer, Colin Lovitt, wanted to implant doubt into the minds of the jurors. If they could make just one of the jurors believe that someone else might have committed this crime, then Greg could walk away scot-free...

The trial of Greg Domaszewicz would become a media circus throughout Victoria, dominating many of the headlines that year. The event - which took place over 34 days in November and December of 1998 - was one of the region's major stories that year, and brought to light many of the details you've heard in this episode.

In many ways, it was like a real-life soap opera. The public was given all of the details about Greg and Bilynda's relationship; the affair that Greg had carried on with his ex-girlfriend, Yvonne; the "Pig's Head Gang" (as they became known) that was responsible for vandalizing Greg's home; Jaidyn's mother's complicated love life; etc. It was a public airing of dirty laundry that was as every bit as titillating as the OJ Simpson saga here in America, and ultimately ended with a similar ruling.

In the trial, it was revealed that blood found on Jaidyn's bib and pants matched an unknown woman - who was not any of the women tentatively linked to the case. Unfortunately, years later, a coroner's inquest would discover that evidence in Jaidyn's case had been contaminated with evidence from an unrelated rape case. The coroner's inquest, released in 2004, stated:

"Following this discovery, on 27th May 2003, [forensic scientist Mr. Maxwell Jones] tried to extract a fresh DNA sample from the bib and pants. Apparently, although human biological material was discovered on both the bib and pants, the DNA failed to give rise to any detectable DNA profile. Mr. Jones considered that this was likely to be due to [the] presence of degraded biological material."

Another major point of contention would arise in the trial, when the defense argued that evidence pointed to Jaidyn living for weeks - if not months - after he had gone missing in June of 1997. Their evidence was the length of Jaidyn's hair appeared to be longer than it had been when he went missing, but - again - this could have been due to the skin around his hair follicles receding, and his hair simply appearing longer than it had been. Dental records - on the other hand - would suggest otherwise, and pointing to Jaidyn having died at around 14 months old (which was his age at the time he went missing).

The prosecution pointed towards Greg Domaszewicz' history of abusive behavior, directed towards not only his ex-girlfriend Yvonne, but even Bilynda Murphy and Jaidyn himself. I've already noted Greg's dismissive behavior of his and Bilynda's relationship, but this carried itself on in his relationship with Jaidyn. On multiple occasions, Greg was noted by friends and family as having locked Jaidyn outside with his dogs and ignoring him when he cried, and on the rare occasion that he was left alone with him, Jaidyn would come back to his mother's house with unexplained bumps and bruises. Bilynda had overlooked these incidents at the time (because toddlers are notorious for falling down and getting into trouble), but they appeared incredibly troubling in retrospect.

The prosecution would reveal that in the early days of the case, they discovered evidence that seemed suspicious. This included some of Greg's clothing at the time of his arrest, as well as his wallet - both of which were soaking wet, and seemed to implicate him having deposited Jaidyn's remains in a body of water. A search of his home would reveal wet bank notes, and bloody tissues found in Greg's garbage can seemed to match up with Jaidyn's blood-type. However, despite these pieces of evidence pointing towards suspicion, they weren't really incriminating in any way.

Despite the state building a promising case against Greg Domaszewicz, they were ultimately unsuccessful in convicting him for the murder of Jaidyn Leskie. On December 4th, 1998, a jury acquitted Greg in the case, and he was set free after spending more than a year behind bars. Greg's legal team - headed by QC Colin Lovitt - had successfully planted a seed of doubt in the minds of jurors, and it paid off dividends with an acquittal.

Due to Australia's double-jeopardy laws, Greg would be unable to be retried for the same crime. Despite the evidence pointing towards him having played a part in Jaidyn's disappearance and/or death, he was - by all accounts - not guilty.

Despite Greg's acquittal in the murder trial of Jaidyn Leskie, he was far from innocent in the public's eyes. Many still blamed him for the toddler's death - either directly or indirectly - and he is now likened to Australia's version of Casey Anthony (a parental figure that likely played a part in a child's death, but was found not guilty in a court of law).

It would later be determined that while in-custody, Greg had allegedly confessed to a fellow inmate. In this confession, Greg allegedly told the inmate that Jaidyn's death had been accidental, and that while Greg was out working on his car, something had happened that caused the jacked-up vehicle to fall on Jaidyn. This would have explained Jaidyn's broken arm, as well as the painkillers that were later found in his bloodstream; which might have been an attempt to temporarily dull the pain or cause Jaidyn to lose consciousness. However, the testimony of this inmate was later found to be inadmissible, and this testimony wasn't allowed in the trial.

As if that wasn't enough, listen to this news segment, in which they report about Greg allegedly confessing to the crime to others; acquaintances of his tied to the Australian criminal underworld:

There would be multiple attempts in the Victorian legal system to try and resurrect the investigation into Jaidyn's death over the next few years, but they would all be unsuccessful in doing so. That is, until 2004, when an inquest was officially launched by Coroner Graeme Johnstone, who released his findings in 2006.

This 2006 coroner's report (which you can find on the podcast website) totalled in at 101 pages, and detailed the entirety of the case from start-to-finish. You can read the entire report yourself, but I will now read from Mr. Johnstone's "Conclusion and Contribution" section (pages 94 & 95):

"At the time of his death Jaidyn Leskie was a vulnerable, 14 month old infant child, who was totally reliant on his adult carers for protection, support and sustenance. It must be remembered that he was a ‘toddler’ who could mention but three words and had only just started to walk.

Ultimately, responsibility for his care and protection rested with his parents, Ms. Bylinda Williams (nee Leskie) and Mr. Brett Leskie who were then separated. But, because of the separation, day-to-day care and protection was in the hands of his mother, Ms. Williams.

On the days in question (14th and 15th June 1997) Ms. Williams had temporarily relinquished her responsibility to a friend, a Mr. Greg Domaszewicz, while she visited her sister in the afternoon, went to a party and then spent some considerable time during the evening and the morning of the next day drinking in one of the local hotels. Thus, Mr. Domaszewicz became the baby-sitter and temporarily had the responsibility for the care of Jaidyn.

It was during Mr. Domaszewicz’s period of caring for Jaidyn that he died. The cause of death is most probably from head injuries. Precisely how he died remains a matter of contention and conjecture – whether the circumstances leading to the death occurred by accident, by omission or otherwise. Precisely how he suffered the injuries to the arm also remains largely a matter of conjecture, other than the fact that it occurred shortly prior to death.

However, as a helpless 14 month old infant, requiring total support, care and protection by an adult, ultimately it was Mr. Domaszewicz who failed to provide that adequate and very necessary level of protective supervision, care and support to look after the infant – otherwise he would not have received the injuries from which he died. Whatever happened to result in the injuries that were occasioned to Jaidyn occurred on Mr. Domaszewicz’s temporary watch, thus he has contributed to the death.

No satisfactory alternative explanation of the circumstances has been given by Mr. Domaszewicz. After Jaidyn’s death Mr. Domaszewicz disposed of his body in nearby Blue Rock Dam. Clearly, he had the opportunity and time to do so. The indicators that lead to this conclusion and comfortable satisfaction are:

(a) The last known person to see Jaidyn alive was Mr. Domaszewicz;

(b) After the incident or incidents that eventually resulted in Jaidyn’s death, Mr. Domaszewicz had time to dispose of the body in the dam either before collecting Ms. Williams from the hotel or in the early hours of the morning of 15th June or after leaving her at her home and before they both went to the police to report that the child was missing;

(c) Mr. Domaszewicz gave false explanations to Ms. Williams about Jaidyn’s whereabouts and state of health both before and after she was picked up by him from the hotel;

(d) Ms. Williams was not shown Jaidyn when she returned to Mr. Domaszewicz’s house from the hotel (when Mr. Domaszewicz says that he realised the child was missing); and

(e) Mr. Domaszewicz’s wallet and money were wet (consistent with having entered the water in order to dispose of the body).

The fact that a decision has been made that Mr. Domaszewicz disposed of Jaidyn’s body does not enable any conclusion to be reached about precisely how the child died – whether by accident or otherwise."

The 2006 inquest seemed to put a lot of emphasis back on the Jaidyn Leskie case, and was particularly critical of both Greg Domaszewicz and the Victorian police; in particular, the forensic science unit, whose mishandling of evidence made it nearly impossible to re-examine all of these years later.

To-date, nobody else has been charged with or even publicly suspected of Jaidyn's murder. However, there remains a slight possibility that justice may yet be served in this case. You see, over the past few years, Australia's double jeopardy laws have been "watered down," so-to-speak, and cases where suspects have been acquitted have been allowed to be re-tried years later. These exceptions are only allowed in cases where new and compelling evidence is found, and the case is a serious offense (such as murder or rape). Some states in Australia even require the possible sentence to be 25 years or more, such as life imprisonment.

Many continue to call for justice, including Jaidyn's mother, Bilynda. In the years since Jaidyn's death, she has separated from Greg, married another man, and gone on to have multiple children. More than two decades have passed since this horrifying saga played out, but Bilynda Williams (as she is now known) continues to call for Greg to step forward and reveal all that he knows about Jaidyn's case. In April of 2014, in fact - what would have been Jaidyn's 18th birthday - Bilynda published an open letter in the Herald Sun which read:

"Soon it should be Jaidyn’s 18th birthday.

I have been thinking about it for weeks: What would I do on the day he was born 18 years later without him here?

What would I do on this day to remember my son and do something in his memory?

What I wouldn’t give to have him here in the morning when he wakes up, spoil him with presents and be able to wish him a happy 18th birthday.

Instead, it will be a day of no presents and no presence.

Instead I write this letter to you, Greg Domaszewicz.

I have already pressed “delete” a million times while typing this because, really, what do I say to you?

There isn’t a day that passes in my life that I don’t say “good morning” or “good night” to Jaidyn.

I don’t always say it out loud and mostly keep my thoughts in my own head.

What I can’t understand is how you can look into that mirror each day and know what you did, to my whole entire family.

At first when all this happened, it was all a bit of a blur, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would ever wake up to the nightmare that this has been, and probably will be until my last breath.

I am now 38 years old. I still wake up every day and go to bed every night. I cry in silence, I think in silence, I am somewhat trapped in my own mind because I don’t want to burden anyone with what I feel or what I go through each and every single day.

I have lost friends and my entire family because of the bitter and untrusting person I have become today.

I take my children to school, and every single day a part of me is scared they won’t be there when I go to pick them up.

I rarely let them stay over at friends’ houses in case something happens and in a way I spoil them so they have everything they need at home and won’t want to go to friends’ houses.

I will be making my children’s school lunches in the morning and a part of me feels guilty that when I am buttering that bread that I’m not making his lunch for him.

I can be brushing my hair and wonder what his hair would be like, what he would look like, what he would smell like.

I will be in the laundry folding the washing and wondering what he would be wearing today. Where is his pile of clothes?

I pretend he is sitting on the end of my bed in the middle of the night and I stare at the end of the bed hoping that this could all just be a nightmare from which I will someway wake up from.

When Daniel Morcombe’s killer was sentenced recently, a part of me was happy to see that pig rot in jail for the rest of his life - yet a part of me was a little jealous that Jaidyn’s case is still a mystery.

You will never EVER even come to close to what a mother goes through when her child is taken from her.

When Jaidyn was missing I kept telling myself that he would turn 18 some day and find me, I honestly believed that.

But he will be turning 18 soon and I know there will be no knock on the door.

When Michael Roberts came up to the top of the hill at Blue Rock Dam that day he was found, and sat me in his car and explained to me that it was Jaidyn’s body that was found, I can’t even begin to explain what hearing those words were like to a parent.

When I lost Jaidyn, I lost myself.

I have no real friends, I have no family left.

I push people away because I find it extremely hard to trust anyone now near my children.

As soon as people get close to me I start panicking and find reasons to eliminate them from my life rather than them hurt me or my children.

I was asked recently how I would celebrate Jaidyn’s birthday.

Celebrate is used for happy times, happy memories, and I won’t celebrate Jaidyn’s birthday because I can’t.

Please, before you die, write down (what happened) and store it somewhere, but please, if anything, for Jaidyn, let the truth be known to all.

I know nothing that ever happens in the future, nothing will ever bring him back to me but we deserve to know what happened.

So please, before your own life ends, please just tell the truth.

Jaidyn deserves that much."

Until someone is convicted in this case, the story of Jaidyn Leskie remains unresolved.

Episode Information

Special thanks to Kristi Lee (Canadian True Crime) for lending her voice to this episode

Writing and research by Adam Payet

Hosted, produced, and additional research/writing by Micheal Whelan

Published on November 17th, 2019

Producers: Maggyjames, Ben Krokum, Roberta Janson, Matthew Brock, Quil Carter, Peggy Belarde, Evan White, Laura Hannan, Sam Obbard, Katherine Vatalaro, Damion Moore, Astrid Kneier, Amy Hampton (who I've heard, is now minus the Miller), Scott Meesey, Steven Wilson, Scott Patzold, Emily McMehen, Marie Vanglund, Lori Rodriguez, Jessica Yount, Aimee McGregor (times two), Danny Williams, Sue Kirk, Sara Moscaritolo, Brian Rollins, Lauren Harris, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, and Seth Morgan

This episode is brought to you in part by Detective Trapp, a brand-new podcast from Wondery and the LA Times (the same people that brought you Dirty John). To learn more, subscribe to Detective Trapp on your podcast app of choice, or click on the following link: https://Wondery.fm/TrappUnresolved