The Squiz 

Robert and Anne Geeves are set to hear Justice Julia Lonergan’s verdict today after a 2-month murder trial over the alleged killing of 19yo Amber Haigh in 2002. The judge-only trial was held in Wagga more than 2 decades after Amber went missing in the state’s Riverina region – never to be seen or heard from again. Prosecutors allege the Geeveses murdered the intellectually disabled teenager after she gave birth to Robert’s child so they could claim custody, but they’ve pleaded not guilty. 

Back it up a bit…

Amber – who was described as a “warm, kind, loving soul” who was also “easily led” and “vulnerable” – lived next door to the couple in the Riverina village of Kingsvale. One witness said Robert would get her drunk, tie her up and have sex with her – and Amber gave birth to a boy in January 2002. Police, social workers and friends said she and her son then lived between 3 homes for the next few months, and there was plenty of concern about her ability to look after the child and of Robert and Anne’s control over her. In June 2002, the Geeveses told police they drove her to the Campbelltown railway station so she could visit her dying father. They reported her missing 14 days later and told police she’d left her son in their custody. During the trial, several grim theories about what happened to her were offered by police, including that her remains were fed to pigs by the couple.  

So how’d they end up on trial?

The case was cold for the best part of 2 decades despite a 2011 inquest finding Haigh was likely murdered and police long suspecting the Geeveses were involved. The couple was arrested in 2022 after the investigation was reopened, and witnesses said Anne likened Haigh to a “surrogate”. A former legal secretary also testified that Haigh feared that her life “would be taken” by “the father of the child”. But the couple’s lawyers say there’s been no evidence about Haigh’s murder, including “when it occurred, how it occurred, or where it occurred”. They say “the only rational verdict” for their clients is not guilty. We’ll find out whether or not Justice Lonergan agrees this morning.