The news headline told of cold-blooded murder, but the face staring back at me was that of my childhood friend, writes Josh Robertson.
The news headline told of cold-blooded murder, but the face staring back at me was that of my childhood friend.A story had captured international attention. Two police and a neighbour had been murdered on a remote property at Wieambilla , three hours west of Brisbane. Their three killers died in a shootout with police.
"And unless you stick by the code or the morals … of the 'good book' … you'll be heading in the wrong direction … you are doomed … you're 'not one of us'."When someone pulled out one of my big brother's dirty magazines, everyone gawked and laughed, except Nathaniel, who said: "That's disgusting." He remembers discussing theology with Nathaniel, a "studier of the scriptures and very black and white — not much grey for Nathaniel".Ron says Gareth was "more aggressive, controlling" with a "short fuse" and a problem with authority.
He once asked his father to move a pistol hidden in the roof of the family home, after being detained by police on a buffalo hunting trip with friends.Ron says Nathaniel was earmarked as officer material, but Gareth "failed the psych test".By then, Nathaniel had given up on his tennis dreams, despite spending his mid-teens hovering around Queensland's top four for his age.
She was happy to challenge Ron as her pastor, telling him in Church one day, "I don't believe a word you said today".But it seemed "her ambition was to be married and to have children with Nathaniel", Ron says. Ron says he refused to support Stacey's push to have her parents admonished in church, or to reveal what he'd been told about the abuse "in confidence as a pastor".
Gareth joined Nathaniel, Stacey and their young family in north Queensland, where the married couple both became primary school teachers.Gareth replaced Nathaniel as Stacey's husband. He still played a role in his kids' lives, once taking a day off to march into his son's school with Gareth to face down teacher complaints about Aidan's behaviour.But having sold off their Atherton property and living apart from his brother and his ex-wife, Nathaniel’s career began to blossom.
Kylie McKenzie's son Xander is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, which put her constantly in touch with Nathaniel as his school principal. And Nathaniel's partner, who cannot be identified because of a suppression order ahead of the coronial inquest next week, saw other changes.The same month he had a heart attack, the NSW government announced a vaccine mandate for teachers.On December 16, 2021, Nathaniel and his partner had packed up their black LandCruiser 4WD to go camping together when he suddenly changed his mind.He revealed he'd stopped taking his heart medication.
What caught his eye were the firearms attached to Nathaniel's camouflage backpack, his crossbow and arrows, and the big "Rambo"-style knives on his hip. He was last seen lugging his weapons through floodwater towards a rendezvous point several kilometres away. And if those trusted sources were feeding him bad information, "that makes it very hard for him to hold on to a sense of what is true or not true".
In the COVID pandemic, Gareth had become a prolific poster online, spouting a patchwork of conspiracy theories about evil elites controlling the population with a hand in everything from the Port Arthur massacre to vaccines and the child protection system.He claimed to have been threatened by corrupt police who were complicit in child abuse when he was working in child protection for Queensland's Department of Communities.
Despite this, Nathaniel's partner reported him missing and NSW police issued a public appeal in December 2022. At 6.34pm, Gareth sent the trio's daughter, Madelyn, a final text message saying Nathaniel's partner "sent people to kill us".Stacey and Gareth Train in a video posted to YouTube on the night of the police shooting at Wieambilla, in rural Queensland."If you don't defend yourself against these devils and demons, you're a coward."Nathaniel was nowhere to be seen.
Gareth Train Police Killers Conspiracy Theory Christian Terrorists Stacey Train Wieambilla Police Siege Police Shooting Coronial Inquest
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