New evidence has come to light that could prove a 15-year-old St Helens girl did not die by suicide – as long held by Tasmanian authorities – but in fact was murdered. VIDEO >
Eden Westbrook, 15, was deemed to have died by suicide in the Tasmanian east coast township of St Helens during 2015. But new evidence has come to light that she may have in fact been murdered.
Eight years ago, schoolgirl Eden Westbrook was found dead in a tree at Fishermans Memorial Park, by the foreshore of the East Coast town.
In 2016, a coroner found Eden died by suicide. But an anonymous man has now come forward – with his words recorded in an audio recording heard by the Mercury – to repeat what he’d heard about Eden in fact being tied up in a tree with rope by an adult man with a younger female accomplice.
Eden Westbrook, 15, was deemed to have died by suicide in the Tasmanian east coast township of St Helens during 2015. But new evidence has come to light that she may have in fact been murdered. Picture: Supplied
The man also claims Eden’s murder was covered up, and staged to look like a suicide.
Eden’s parents, Jason and Amanda Westbrook, said they were watching television at home earlier this year when the man drove up their driveway.
The man told the Westbrooks he’d been drinking with a friend when Eden’s name came up.
The man’s friend said that the teenager didn’t die by suicide, and that a person had been “bragging” about “drugging Eden and stringing her up” after a party.
“I’d been with someone a few weeks beforehand … we were in Launceston,” the man says in the audio recording. “(My friend) heard there was more to the story and supposedly there were two people involved in putting her up that tree … a man and a woman.
Eden Westbrook, 15, was deemed to have died by suicide in the Tasmanian east coast township of St Helens during 2015. But new evidence has come to light that she may have in fact been murdered. Picture: Supplied
“They’d used a rope from off one of the boats … down at the wharf.
“(Someone who knew) the man who’d supposedly put Eden up the tree had passed this information on to the person I was talking to.”
The man said his friend said he “didn’t want to know” any more about what had happened to Eden.
“I said I probably don’t want to know, but now you’ve got to f—ing tell me,” he said.
“Not much really shocks me these days, but it’s more the fact that someone’s … gone to the point of trying to f—ing cover up something.”
The man also revealed the identities of the two people he claims were involved.
Jason and Amanda Westbrook parents of Eden. The death of Eden Westbrook was ruled a suicide at the time. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones
“(I was told) they’d used a rope, that they both put her up the tree, that (the girl) in particular had a lot to answer for … there was a lot on that girl’s shoulders,” he said.
He said Eden, who had stormed away from home earlier that night after an argument with her parents, left the party with the female accomplice, and was tied up three hours later.
The man also said the two suspects were “junkies”, that there had been talk about a “suicide pact”, and that Eden might have been given an overdose.
He said he had come forward because “it’s the right thing to do”.
The coroner’s suicide finding has never sat well with Eden’s family and friends, and particularly her parents Jason and Amanda, who have spent years fighting for a public inquest into their daughter’s death, arguing there were flaws in the police investigation.
They have always argued foul play should never have been ruled out, claiming serious mistakes were made after their daughter’s death – including that key CCTV footage of the night in question was not provided to the coroner.
They have also slammed police management of the death scene, with their daughter left uncovered in public view for hours, and witnessed by motorists, passers-by and schoolchildren on a bus.
Last year, Tasmania’s Chief Magistrate told the Westbrooks their request to reopen Eden’s case was refused.
It came after former Premier Peter Gutwein refused the family’s request for him to intervene in 2020, stating the police investigation had been “competently conducted”.
Former Tasmania Police Deputy Commissioner Scott Tilyard also denied any police wrongdoing in the investigation.
“I never believed Eden killed herself,” Mrs Westbrook said.
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“I went to bed every night thinking somebody had done this to her, and I woke up every day thinking someone has done this to her.
“I even said to Jason I am not going to throw my hands up in the air here. I just cannot continue my life until I get to the bottom of it.”
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