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#truecrime + #history Exploring the unsolved & unexplained at the heart of a nation. Season 1 - Keren Rowland: The 50-year mystery. Over half a century, within the orbit of the Australian capital, Canberra, there have been multiple mysterious disappearances and murders specifically of young women. Each remains unsolved. Many of them bear chillingly similar hallmarks to each other, heightening the gnawing dread: could any of them be linked in the most insidious manner? This podcast is an original, in-depth investigation into all of the cases. Someone out there knows the truth. This is the chance to discover it.
Keren Rowland: the 50 year mystery
Case File Fragment I - What if it were you?
Created & hosted by journalist, history investigator & author, Nichole Overall.
A small experiment: drive along a dark, semi-rural road, absent of houses or occupied offices, street lights or even moon to talk of, at around 65 kilometres per hour, that’s close to 40mph - perhaps even drop your speed to 40k’s or 25mph.
See how much detail you can take in about another car or maybe even a person that you spot unexpectedly as you go by.
It can be difficult to absorb a great deal in such circumstances and to be able to recall much when it comes to the specifics.
I’m Nichole Overall, creator and host of the Capital Crime Files podcast.
While undertaking my investigation into the 50 year mystery of what happened to 20-year-old Keren Rowland one night in 1971 in the national capital of Australia, Canberra, I had the opportunity to test my own powers of observation in a similar scenario.
Taking an after-hours look at one of the Canberra locations relevant to the investigation - the outcrop known as Mt Ainslie, about six or so kilometres from the centre of the city along a secondary thoroughfare that leads on to the Airport to the east.
Marginally remote, though a popular spot for the panoramic views it offers of the metropolis laid out below and the picturesque mountain ranges that encircle it.
A single, winding road up and back down, the hill is decently wooded. While no lighting, on this occasion, there was a full moon with numerous other vehicles passing by.
Around half way up, I was startled to see two young women, girls really as they looked to be teenagers, walking along the unpaved edge of the road to the left of my car.
I instinctively slowed, but they just as quickly disappeared from my view as I drove by, even in the rearview mirror.
Their presence in that location at maybe somewhere around 9.30pm surprised me because it’s not a safe place for night-time wandering in relation to the geography alone. It also wasn’t the sort of spot I could stop to ask if everything was okay.
When I made the return trip along the same thoroughfare probably less than 10 minutes later, I was actually looking for them this time. I saw both further down towards the base of the hill and then on the opposite side of the road.
In the face of those two sightings, the most I could tell you of what I thought I saw? And perhaps three weeks after it happened because I can’t remember the precise night?
One girl was slightly smaller than the other, both height and weight. One girl definitely had long, dark hair - which of the pair it was though, I can’t be sure. I think one was wearing a red cap, one was wearing a pink t-shirt and one was wearing denim shorts. I think. And which of the two was wearing either or all, I absolutely could not say with any certainty.
The relevance of all this?
As part of the next episode in the case of Keren Rowland, along with what happens after her car was found abandoned though locked alongside Lake Burley Griffin, I’m exploring what people thought they saw and knew on the night she was last seen alive, the distortion of events and facts, and the inevitable urban myths that have arisen to further cloud the situation over five decades.
Sorting the jigsaw puzzle pieces in an effort to discover the truth and perhaps even, unravel the mystery.
Since the release of Episode 1, I’ve already been contacted by people with additional information, further recollections and stories and I’ve been conducting more interviews with relevant parties.
All of this will be incorporated in forthcoming episodes and in follow-up podcasts at the conclusion of the first Season.
Episode 2 is now currently in production to be released as soon as possible.
In the meantime, you might want to take a drive under the cover of darkness to see what I’m on about.
©Nichole Overall 2021