In Pursuit of Justice: The Disappearance of Tina Greer

Tina Greer was a much loved mother, sister and daughter.  She was also a victim of coercive control and domestic violence.   Tina's last known location was the property of her abusive ex-partner, a Finks Outlaw Motorcycle Gang member.  In this episode, I'm joined by Lili, Tina's daughter. 

Lili has been on a relentless quest for justice and we walk through the initial response from authorities,  the convoluted legal challenges, and the seemingly endless roadblocks. 

As we shine a light on the heartbreaking case of Tina Greer, Lili continues the search for her mother through The Tina Greer Project while simultaneously advocating for positive and systemic change to prevent other women meeting the same fate as Tina.

You can connect with Lili @thetinagreerproject on Insta or TikTok or Facebook or through The Tina Greer Project Website

www.thetinagreerproject.com

For a full list of sources including background music please click here

Transcript

Carla : 0:00

It's been over 10 years since Tina was taken, leaving her only daughter, Lili, without a mum at age 13. Tina was 32 when she went missing. She was young, vibrant and full of life, but she had also suffered greatly at the hands of her ex-partner. From bikie cover-ups to initial fumbled police investigations, the case of Tina Greer is heart-breaking. It has taken her courageous daughter, relentlessly searching for her mother, to bring the real story to light. This episode contains content related to domestic and family violence, assault and homicide. Please listen with caution. It's not suitable for children. Today, I'm delving into the missing person's case of Tina Greer. Last scene in Canungra, driving towards Clumber, located inland of the Gold Coast, Wueensland, on January 18, 2012. I'm Carla Morgan and this is BOLO, a podcast covering cold and active missing person's cases with the aim of helping families bring their loved ones home. Tina was youthful, energetic and adventurous, and she loved her family, her father and three brothers and, of course, her daughter.

Lili: 1:40

She was very fiery and enthusiastic. I say this a lot, but it's like a big part of our relationship I think. She was a young mum, so she had me when she was 19. So that comes with a lot of positives and negatives, but we were always just doing things like very active. She's always keen to jump on the trampoline with me and get her hands dirty, so that was like an amazing part of our relationship. She definitely had her ups and downs as a parent. I guess every young parent goes through all of those things, especially when you're going through custody battles. But she was super, as I said, energetic, and very bubbly and just very honest and upfront as well. So I was treated probably older than my age, but it's been a benefit.

Carla : 2:28

It was known by those close to Tina that the man she had been dating on and off for the last four years or so, was violent. He was a bikie, he was 22 years older than her and he was physically and verbally abusive. So abusive in fact that neighbours had reported to police that they had witnessed him trying to run Tina over in his car and had seen Tina running down the road covered in blood. Lili also reports some of her mother's injuries as including a broken arm, broken nose, broken cheekbone. Tina managed a feat many victims of domestic violence, struggle long and hard to achieve she had got away from him.

Lili: 3:16

So probably three years leading up to this. It was a very violent relationship Her and Les. He was very abusive so essentially we moved to go to where I was closer to the school, so I never actually lived with him and he obviously didn't like the separation. So she had left him and it was this kind of like push and pull they were together, they weren't together, making threats, all the typical things you see when people are trying to leave a relationship.

Carla : 3:48

She found a place just for her and for Lily. They were all set to begin the next chapter of their lives together and they were happy. Lurking beneath the surface and the happiness was a shadow. Tina was being stalked. Her car had been vandalised, someone had been watching them. Tina was afraid and, as a result, she was turning to her ex for help. Lili believes with certainty that this stalker was Tina's ex, that he was the one causing Tina to be fearful, whether it was because he wanted Tina to come back to him or he just wanted Tina to continue to live in fear. If it was true, and it was him, it was one of his final acts of control over her.

Lili: 4:40

During that time there was a lot of threatening. He would just come to the house, rock up and we were being stalked. At the time we didn't know who it was, but looking back it is likely and I believe it was him. Every night, between maybe 10 and 2 am, someone was outside the house like rattling the windows and it got like progressively more aggressive and, I guess, violent. So it got to the point where her car was vandalised and, yeah, we weren't leaving the house, we were sleeping in the daytime. This is a very fearful time in both of our lives, paired with him threatening her, saying like I'll ruin your life, you won't get a job anywhere, all of those types of things, as well as physical violence. It was very explicit his motives and the police were called, but they didn't believe that it was happening.

Carla : 5:37

On the day Tina disappeared, she and Lili had been shopping for school things. Lili was about to start grade 8 in a few weeks time. After this outing, she dropped Lili off to have a sleepover with some friends. Tina kissed Lili goodbye and said she'd be back the following day to pick her up. But when Tina was too late to come and get her the next day, Lili knew something was very wrong. Her mum was never late.

Lili: 6:05

Even if she was going to be five minutes late, she would always call. She dropped me off about 2 pm in Canungra so she went to his property. The plan was to fix the car because it had been vandalised, so she didn't want it to rust and we didn't have much, so car was very important and to do our washing the next day. She was supposed to come around 5-ish and that just never happened.

Carla : 6:31

What we know is that after Tina dropped off Lili, she continued driving towards Clumber, which is roughly 100 kilometres west. She arrived at her ex-boyfriend's place, Les Sharman, who was a patched member of the Fink's Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. Tina stayed the night while she did some washing as her and Lili didn't yet have a washing machine in their new place and she left the following day. Tina's family reported her missing to police a few days later, when she never returned.

Lili: 7:08

I didn't know that she was dead or I didn't want to believe that she was dead straight away or had been murdered. Technically we don't know if he murdered her, but the Coroner believes that and the police believe that. Probably three days, four days, up to a week. I thought maybe she's like got away and she's hiding in the bushlands near his property and it was raining a lot at the time. So I thought I'm gonna hope she's like dry and safe. Those were like my kid thoughts about it at the time and I like was holding on to all of her clothes and things like that in case she came back. But it was pretty naive to think that I guess at that point in time you're hoping for anything. I immediately had like this gut feeling. I was like this is very bad.

Carla : 7:55

Here's a timeline of what occurred next. Three days after Tina went missing, her car was found on a dirt road near Governor's Chair Lookout, near Cunningham's Gap. This is about six kilometres or so from Sharman's property. It was locked and abandoned, but all of her possessions were inside. The discovery of the car immediately sparked police searches in the vicinity. Sharman denied knowing her whereabouts, saying he was unable to shed any light on where she was.

Carla : 8:26

This guy had multiple drug offence charges and in 2002 was convicted for possessing dangerous drugs and restricted items. He was fined $500. He also stood trial again in 2004 for the same charges. So we have someone who has a significant criminal history, reports of domestic violence, is a member of a bikie gang who is now the closest person to a woman and mother who was missing. It goes without question to say this would make him a very good suspect. As we know, when someone goes missing, the first person who is looked at is their intimate partner because statistically they are the most likely to be culpable. Then the investigation moves slowly outwards to other people in the inner circle, including family. When all those people are cleared, it moves out wider, as the last person to see Tina and a recent ex Sharman was the logical place to start the investigation.

Lili: 9:30

He also goes and buys a new queen-size mattress the next day after she goes missing and that mattress is taken to a dump. His friend dumps that. There's a lot of suspicious behaviour. Her phone goes off within his property lines. He says that she leaves at 9am but she was supposed to come back at 5, it's only a two-hour drive. She was supposed to turn right out of his property, which is the way back to where I was, but the car goes left to a dead end. So there's a lot of things where for me, just reading it all, you just think what, as an investigating officer, you think surely you can hold him for something? He was never interviewed, even that never even happened. So I don't think they did their due diligence in the early days.

Carla : 10:15

He was not formally interviewed, he was never investigated, he was never charged, and police determined that they couldn't really get anywhere with him, so they turned to the public for assistance. A mobile van was established on the Cunningham Highway in an attempt to glean more information. Water ways and dams on the private property off Spicer's Gap Road, which is where her car was found, were also searched, and an aerial search was conducted. In 2013, just one year after Tina's disappearance. All leads had been exhausted and the case went cold. In 2014, police received a mysterious phone call saying that there were two people involved in Tina's murder and in disposing of her remains, but again, despite this lead, no arrests were made. Then, in 2018, Sharman died in a car accident on the Gold Coast hinterland. He was aged 60 and all hope of finding answers from this man were dashed. Fast forward to 2020, and Lili, now 21 years old, wanted answers.

Lili: 11:38

Yeah. So I had it reached out to the homicide police officer saying like I need to give another interview, like I was the closest person to my mum I know both of these people and I was there. Like it just blew my mind how I couldn't have been interviewed more because I know the case so well I suppose. So I reached out, I had a second interview, and then they put out the reward, which is when I started getting involved. But at the time I was hopeful and I didn't know the extent of the I'm going to say alleged negligence of the police in the early days. So I wasn't aware of that. And then obviously they do your property search or that kind of leads to nowhere. We still haven't found her. So then it goes to the Coroner's Court. In the Coroner's Court I get the report and then I'm reading all of these things and I'm just seeing like all of the it literally says like missed opportunities, in black and white.

Carla : 12:40

So just one day before the eight year anniversary of Tina's disappearance, Lili fronted the media with police. She joined with police to appeal to the public for fresh information, and a reward of $250,000 was offered. In August of the same year, police raided and searched a property looking for Tina's body in the Gold Coast hinterland. Chief Inspector Damien Hansen announced publicly for the first time that Les Sharman was not just a person of interest but was now the prime suspect. They believed he murdered Tina and that he had helped to dispose of her remains and cover up what happened. They were trying to track down any information about the identities of anyone who allegedly helped him. He said the $250,000 reward had an indemnity from prosecution for those involved. With Sharman being a bikie member and a feared man, people were understandably reluctant to come forward, but now that he had died, police were hoping that more people would talk, but no one did. No fresh leads came through. Nothing was found after the property was searched and the case was basically closed and passed on to the Coroner's Court.

Carla : 14:02

In 2022, Queensland Coroner Christine Roney determined that Tina had died, that Sharman was involved or had caused her death, and it was also revealed that there were 20 lethality risk factors in their relationship. Some of these risk factors included previously assaulting Tina with a weapon, holding her hostage, controlling her activities and isolating her. The other piece of information that came out was that a person, who is described as Mr X, had disposed of items belonging to Tina, as well as a mattress, on Sharman's request, just days after she went missing. Despite these determinations, the Coroner ruled that there would be no inquest into Tina's death because quote 'it was not in the public interest and there was no evidence her death could have been prevented'. Lili continued her relentless pursuit for justice for her mother, and she did not accept this ruling. She organised a change. org petition to hold the inquest, which was signed by over 22,000 people, agreeing that, indeed, Tina's death was a matter of public interest. She also applied to have the Coroner's decision reviewed. She did it.

Lili: 15:49

I was feeling very hopeful when I got the inquest and slowly we'd been going through the pre-inquest meetings and I've looked through all the evidence and just getting that lots of pushback. I think personally that it is just a ticking of the boxes and they said in court three weeks ago that finding her body is not a priority of this inquest and that, paired with the literal Coroner's Act, is to find out who, what, when, where, how. That's hard to do without a body, but they refuse to make that a priority. The most traumatic experience, it will be the most traumatic experience of my life. It's going to be very traumatising and I'm putting in a lot of time and effort, obviously because I want to find my mum.

Lili: 16:42

It feels like that if her body is not a priority, it's not pointless, but it feels like a waste of time in the sense that the only things that will most likely come out of it will be future recommendations in regards to domestic violence and the way the police conduct themselves, the way different rehabilitation centres conduct themselves in terms of recommendations and advice to people that are going through domestic violence, and child services is also involved, so there's a lot of big players involved. I was very hopeful, as I said before, with the inquest, and then you just see like we're all reading the same evidence and you see how differently people look at it and the priorities and it just makes you very, very jaded towards it all. It's very unjust and it's not victim focused, it's not trauma informed, it's none of those things. So it's very hard to hope for anything positive, excluding those recommendations that will help prevent future deaths.

Carla : 17:50

So we'll release an update once we know more from the inquest. Lili has made it her life's work to help people like her mum. She started an organisation called the Tina Greer Project, which, from the website says, 'is a space where educational and productive conversations take place that provoke change concerning domestic violence, homicide and missing persons'.

Lili: 18:16

So I started the Tina Greer Project after reading the coroner's report and reading that it is not in the public interest to hold an inquest, reading that her death could not have been prevented, just reading so many incorrect and non-factual statements about my mum and about these broader topics, and I found that you need public interest to get an inquest.

Lili: 18:44

So I thought the best way to get public interest is to start the Tina Greer Project, start a social media advocacy, essentially on all of that, to gain traction and public awareness and to get those signatures was obviously my first priority, so I could get an inquest. And then, broadly speaking, the goal of it is to provoke conversations, or so conversations that provoke change concerning domestic violence, missing persons and homicide, because I've had lived experience with all of those three things and they're all very far reaching and so many people do experience them. But it's such a negative experience and there's not a lot of help or even just online awareness about a lot of those things. It's also about education. So that's the purpose and the mission of the . So it's kind of those three things in tandem with my mum's case.

Carla : 19:49

Queensland has one of the highest rates of intimate partner homicide out of every state in Australia. Queensland Police attend a domestic violence incident every five minutes. We know that it's unfathomably difficult and risky for a woman to leave an abuser because she fears for her life and that of her children. Figuring out how to support oneself and any dependents and start over is another hurdle that victims must overcome. It's made more challenging because most violent perpetrators will almost always have control over finances as well. We know that the most dangerous time for women who are in domestic violent situations is after they have left the relationship. This statistic is from an article in the Guardian in 2014 and I'll leave a link in the show notes for you. 75% of domestic violence homicides happen at the point of separation or after the victim has left the abuser. Tina was at her most vulnerable because she had just left. She left a violent man and an abusive relationship, so it's questionable that the coroner could determine that her death was not avoidable. What could she have done to avoid her own death? Why is the onus on her to protect her life? Why isn't it on the perpetrators of domestic violence and coercive control to stop their abuse. In all of the reporting about Tina's case from the early years, there was no mention of domestic violence or that Sharman was violent towards her. Now, thanks to Lili, it's part of the narrative, and it needs to be, because it provides context to Tina's unique circumstances at the time. According to missionaustralia. com. au, today's stats are that one in six women suffer physical or sexual violence by a current or former partner and on average, one woman every nine days is killed by a current or former partner, and the numbers are higher in Aboriginal communities or for people living with disability. The police say they know who is responsible and what happened to Tina. We just need to find her and the $250,000 reward is still on offer for anyone who can help locate her or her remains. If you or anyone you know know anything at all that can help Lili find her mum, please contact Police Link on 131-444 or call Crime Stoppers on 1800-333-000.

Carla : 22:37

Thanks for listening to BOLO. If this episode has brought up feelings for you and you need support, please reach out to Lifeline on 1311-14 or RESPECT on 1800 RESPECT. You can connect with me on Insta or TikTok at Bolo. pod or email me Bolo. pod@ icloud. com If you're experiencing abuse or violence it's not your fault. There are support services that can help you If your life is in danger call 000. The 24-7 Domestic Violence Counselling call the National Sexual Assault, family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line on 1800. Respect that's 1800 737 732. Thank you.