TRUE CRIME
It’s 13 December 2019 and not only are police on high alert, but after weeks of Friday night arson attacks, residents in small farming communities outside Bendigo are living in fear. At 3pm, Detective Leading Senior Constable Andy Heazlewood starts his shift at Bendigo Crime Investigation Unit (CIU), wondering if the pattern of deliberately lit bushfires will continue. On three of the past five Friday nights, a serial arsonist had lit several roadside fires along the quiet Elmore-Barnadown Road and surrounding back roads between Bendigo and Shepparton, all around 11.30pm. A Country Fire Authority (CFA) fire investigator and some of Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood’s Bendigo CIU colleagues had investigated the arson attacks and were beginning to look at a number of persons of interest. Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood had barely gotten his feet under the desk when a report of a fire on the Elmore-Barnadown Road came through on the police radio about 3.30pm. “I knew that around late Friday night there could be a fire, but I wasn't ready for it to happen in the afternoon,” Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood said. As he and his partner, Det Ldg Sen Const Jessie Uren, were driving out to the scene, reports of more fires came through over the radio. The two detectives were stunned when they arrived at one of the fires at Avonmore. 6
POLICE LIFE |
AUTUMN/WINTER 2022
While most of the arsonist’s previous attacks had resulted in small roadside fires, this fire had run rampant. Dozens of CFA trucks and even two firefighting helicopters were needed to control the 180-acre fire. The fire threatened a home and farm machinery, and destroyed $64,500 of farm fencing and hay, as well as a hayshed. “It was pretty confronting to see a huge expanse of blackened farmland,” Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood said. After gathering as much evidence as possible, Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood returned home for the night about 10.30pm. He hadn’t been asleep for long when he was called back into work. The late-night fire-lighting spree had hit again, but this time it had ramped up with nine new fires. “At the end of the afternoon session, I was thinking, 'Well, if it's some kids or someone just mucking around, hopefully they've realised how bad things can get with that huge fire and they'll pull their head in and stop’,” Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood said. “But they didn't. They actually escalated.” Specialised chemists from Victoria Police’s Arson Squad meticulously investigated the fire scenes and, on the following Monday, the local police bosses, investigators and CFA discussed next steps.
“A lot of people, especially those living on the ElmoreBarnadown Road, were petrified when Friday nights came around.” “Obviously we were in the middle of an investigation, but it had quickly also become a conversation around people's safety,” Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood said. “A lot of people, especially those living on the Elmore-Barnadown Road, were petrified when Friday nights came around.” For the next four Friday nights, police flooded the area. The suppression strategy – which involved up to 30 police doing high-visibility patrols – was successful, with the pattern of arson offending coming to a halt. Det Ldg Sen Const Heazlewood was still furiously pursuing the case, investigating other new fires throughout the region and looking into several persons of interest. But the investigation was difficult, due to the remote and quiet locations and lack of witnesses.
