Case File

August 2, 2018 AD

Case 2018-08-02/14387: The Disappearance of Detective Karl Jenkins

Detective Karl Jenkins, forty-two, vanished from a shed at Jeffries Manor on 2 August 2018 whilst arresting suspect Luke Smith. His partner heard a motorcycle. Two minutes later, the shed was empty — of everything. Within ten days, his partner was dead, his primary witness was murdered, his home was stripped by an unidentified woman, and his police dog was taken from a locked kennel. Every witness to his disappearance is now dead or missing.

March 27, 2016 AD

Case File 016-011: The Three Pines Abduction Recovery

On 27 March 2016, six-year-old Adele Norring was abducted during a family bushwalk in Three Pines National Forest, triggering the largest search operation Southern Division had mounted in over a decade. Tracker dog Milo covered eleven kilometres of forested terrain overnight, locating the child alive thirty-one hours later beneath a logging bridge. The operation validated Rokeby's experimental K9 programme and rewrote national protocols for remote child abduction response.

July 28, 2018 AD

Case File 016-035: The Greyson Search

Aged care nurse Jamie Greyson, thirty-four, stopped answering his sister's calls sometime in late July 2018. His partner Luke Smith claimed Jamie had gone to Melbourne. Jamie's car sat in the driveway of a house whose occupant said he was interstate. A large unexplained cash withdrawal marked his final days on record. His dogs vanished. His car vanished. The house burned down. The precise date he disappeared has never been established.

May 22, 2018 AD

Case File 018-027: The Bywater Creek Disappearance

On 22 May 2018, 24-year-old seasonal worker Isaac Fairburn was reported missing from a rural property near Bywater Creek, south of Franklin, Tasmania. The case triggered a multi-day land search involving the Tasmania Police Major Crimes Unit and K9 tracking support from the Rokeby Centre. Despite initial signs of a voluntary departure, inconsistencies in witness statements and disturbed ground near the creek edge suggested potential foul play. Though the investigation was formally suspended in June 2018 due to lack of evidence, the case remains unsolved. It is remembered as one of the early joint deployments of Senior Detective Karl Jenkins and his K9 partner, Jargus.

Case File 018-062: The Owen Investigation

Conservationists Karen and Chris Owen, aged fifty-seven and forty-five, vanished from their remote Collinsvale cottage around 27 July 2018. A neighbour's 000 call three days later brought police to an open front door, daisies on the verandah, and a blood trail belonging to no one the investigation could identify. Their vehicle disappeared. Their geese fell silent. A witness described activity she was geographically incapable of observing. The case offered everything except an explanation.

July 28, 2018 AD

Case File 019-054: Fences and Missing Links

Fencing contractor Nial Triffett, thirty-two, left his Fern Tree home on 28 July 2018 to meet a prospective client and never returned. A text from his phone that evening — "Don't wait up" — convinced attending officers nothing was wrong. His wife disagreed. Phone records linked the morning's client call to Luke Smith, connecting the case to three other disappearances. Eight days later, his wife and son vanished from the same house. The entire family is missing.

July 30, 2018 AD

Case File 021-073: Pafistis Construction

Master builder Adrian Pafistis, forty-two, left Battery Point on 30 July 2018 to meet client Luke Smith in Collinsvale. That afternoon, a ute matching his vehicle was pursued by police and Air Wing into a sealed car park at Myrtle Forest. During seven seconds of rain, the vehicle vanished — no exit, no trace, no thermal signature. His wife named Luke Smith as the client. The same name connected every disappearance on the detectives' desks. His family later left Tasmania.

July 28, 2018 AD

Case File 022-067: The Search for Kain Jeffries

On 26 July 2018, twenty-three-year-old construction apprentice Kain Jeffries left Jeffries Manor to check on his uncle at a Berriedale address and was never seen again. His phone stopped at 9:40 AM, resurfaced intermittently for days, then went permanently silent after 2 August. His vehicle was never found. His pregnant fiancée vanished from the same property where the lead detective disappeared. The case remains open. The silence remains complete.

August 2, 2018 AD

Case File 029-092: The Jennings Murder Scene

The remains of Cody Brian Jennings — missing from South Australia since 1997 — were discovered at Luke Smith's Berriedale residence on 2 August 2018. Killed days earlier, his body had been ravaged beyond recognition by an unidentifiable animal. The scene yielded blood from a serving detective, fingerprints from fugitives, and a wounded man with no explanation. The house burned down the next night. The case was pinned on a dead suspect and closed. The body was stolen from the morgue and never recovered.