This book has been written without the use of footnotes, for the sake of uninterrupted reading. I do not propose to list of every source of information I have used during the more than three years I have been researching and writing this book. However, I do wish to list some key source material. A significant part of the book has been written from coverage of court proceedings, including Sef’s preliminary court hearings, the committal hearing, the murder trial, the sentencing, and the court proceedings regarding the estate. I covered these extensively for the Daily Telegraph, and have looked through reams of transcript material as well as court judgments. I have also viewed court records for the matter of Teddy’s immigration fraud charges, and accessed the Administrative Appeals Tribunal judgment regarding Gaculais and Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Lastly, I have cited findings from the Baguio court judgment regarding Peter Ng and Teddy Gonzales’ stabbing in 1978.
Much of the court evidence I have referred to is in the committal and trial chapters, and it is unnecessary to reiterate here the names of the witnesses involved. However, in some earlier sections of the book I have used evidence introduced at trial where the chronology calls for it. For example, when referring to the observations and thoughts of emergency uniformed personnel who first arrived at the murder scene, I have mostly used information obtained from their evidence at the trial. The mentions of the discovery of the poisons material on Sef’s computer and the post mortems by Dr Allan Cala are also good examples of where I have used trial evidence in earlier chapters of the book.
I have also relied on numerous police witness statements and police interviews. The statement of ‘Kathy Wu’ and her evidence at the committal hearing have formed the basis for the ‘Kathy Wu’ chapter. A police interview of ‘Linda Pham’ and her evidence at trial were key sources of information about her relationship with Sef, and Tawas police have helped me fill in the gaps. Information about Chris Fernstat’s experiences with Clodine came from his police statement. Statements from family members, including Emily Luna and Amelita Claridades, were also of use, as were Sef’s statements and transcripts of Sef’s police-recorded interviews. Other sources include the website Sef set up, supposedly by ‘Daisy Diaz’, and letters written by Sef to the Daily Telegraph and Mick Sheehy.
I have also conducted my own interviews — sometimes too many to count — with a number of people in both Sydney and Baguio. These form the basis for a large proportion of the book, in relation to both the family history and the investigation. In alphabetical order, those I interviewed are:
Attorney Bensheen Apolinar
Sue Atamian (John’s wife)
Paul Auglys (now out of the force)
Madeleine Azcona
Senior Sergeant Bob Betts
Father Janusz Bieniek
Father Paul Cahill
Attorney Rickson Chiong (Cordillera Regional Director, National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippines)
Father Rex Curry
Father Kevin Dadswell
Bernado David
Jess Diaz
Dr Amado Dizon
Freddie Gonzales
Sef Gonzales
Annie Gonzales-Tesoro
Shane Hanley
‘Jane’ (Loiva’s friend)
‘Jane’s’ daughter
Detective Inspector Geoff Leonard
Emily Luna
Dennis Miralis
Peter Ng (who stabbed Teddy in 1978)
Annie Paraan
‘Amanda Pedro’
‘Belinda Pedro’
Harry Potter
Mick Sheehy (now Detective Inspector)
Darren Sly (now Detective Sergeant)
Mark Tedeschi, QC
Winston Terracini, SC
As a last note, I must add that Mark Tedeschi, Winston Terracini and Dennis Miralis, as lawyers involved in Sef’s case, were restricted both professionally and legally in what they could divulge about it. However, they could and did advise me on matters of legislation and case law, their legal careers and backgrounds, and how they came to be involved in the case.