The Shed and the Alley

The police team that arrived at the Smith family residence in Craigmore comprised four officers: Detective Kelly Ann Muscat, Senior Constable Mia Chen, Constable Aaron James Hughs, and Constable Jack Ridley. They had been assembled and dispatched under the direction of Detective David Santos, acting on intelligence relayed that afternoon by Detective Karl Jenkins of the Tasmania Police. Jenkins had been investigating a series of disappearances in Hobart and had identified Luke Nathaniel Smith as his primary suspect. His call to Santos carried a single operational warning: Luke Smith had been sighted at Adelaide Airport that morning, was believed to be heading for his parents' home, and should be treated as armed and dangerous.

Luke Smith was at the property when the officers arrived, but not for the reasons Jenkins believed. He and his younger brother Charles were at the rear of the house, midway through moving the fifth of six large white barrels of rice from the garage through a Portal opened against the glass sliding door. The Portal connected the house to Clivilius — a fact no officer on the scene had any framework to suspect. When someone hammered on the garage roller door and announced themselves as police, Luke closed the Portal and pulled Charles toward the back of the property. They positioned themselves behind the garden shed, out of every sightline the officers would use over the next several minutes.

Kelly Muscat directed the search. Hughs and Chen entered through the front while Ridley began working the street, knocking on neighbouring doors for any report of Luke Smith's movements. Inside, the house presented a contradiction the officers had not been briefed to expect. The rooms were furnished and lived-in — family photographs on the walls, beds made, dishes in the kitchen. But no one was home. One bedroom had been converted to bulk food storage, with floor-to-ceiling shelving that was now largely empty, and a trolley stacked with toilet paper stood in the hallway. A large white barrel sat on the patio near the rear sliding door, unexplained but unremarkable against the broader picture of a household that appeared to buy in volume.

The overall impression was domestic eccentricity, not danger. One officer remarked that the family appeared to be preppers. Kelly Muscat noted the assessment without challenging it. There was no sign of violence, no sign of distress, and no sign of Luke Smith. The intelligence from Jenkins had painted a picture of imminent threat. The house did not match it.

The assessment was close enough to true that it would have held. Had the officers left on the strength of it, Luke and Charles could have resumed the barrel work within the hour. They did not leave.

Behind the shed, Charles used his phone to photograph each officer as they moved through the property and sent the images to Chloe Baker — his closest friend from their Playford Ward congregation, monitoring from her family's home in Smithfield under the Operation Phoenix protocol the two had shared since childhood. The photographs included the face of every officer present, captured without any of them knowing they were being observed.

Mia Chen moved along the side of the garden shed and found blood. The trace was fresh, smeared at a height consistent with an adult's arm — Luke's, from a small cut near his left elbow sustained during the barrel work, though Chen had no way of knowing whose it was or how it had got there. What she knew was that fresh blood at a property linked to a suspected serial killer changed the nature of the call entirely. She reported the find to Kelly Muscat, who contacted Santos. Santos confirmed he was en route and ordered the scene preserved. Forensics were requested.

Luke watched Chen's discovery from the other side of the shed wall and understood what it meant. A prepper household could be dismissed. A prepper household with unexplained fresh blood could not. He did not speak. He mimed the escape route to Charles using a system of gestures the brothers had developed in childhood — a private charades language that required no translation between them. Charles confirmed he understood.

Luke held up three fingers and counted down. On zero, both brothers vaulted the back fence.

Aaron Hughs saw them go. Two males, neither of whom had been visible at any point during the search, clearing the rear fence at speed. He gave chase on foot without hesitation.

The brothers cut through a reserve of gum trees that backed onto the property, crossed a busy Yorktown Road without stopping, and reached the rear service area of the Craigmore Shopping Centre. Hughs followed the same route, closing ground through the reserve but losing sight as they moved behind the commercial buildings. Luke led Charles into a narrow alley between two structures — a passage with no through-access and no visible exit.

Luke activated the Portal Key. The aperture opened against the alley wall and both brothers stepped through to Clivilius. The Portal closed behind them.

When Hughs reached the alley, it was empty. Two men had entered a dead-end passage and were not there. No doors. No fire escapes. No gaps in the fencing wide enough for a person to pass through. He searched the full length and found nothing — no evidence that anyone had been there at all. He reported the loss to Muscat, who relayed it to Santos.

What remained at the Craigmore property was a lived-in house with no occupants, a half-cleared food storage room, a barrel of rice on the patio, and Luke Smith's blood on the garden shed. Detective Santos arrived to a scene that confirmed every element of Karl Jenkins's warning and explained none of it.