It’s just after 2am on an icy, winter morning in 2017. Frost glistens on the paddocks of Pandora, a sprawling property in country NSW owned by local grazier Mathew Dunbar.

The old homestead on the outskirts of the town of Walcha, five hours drive north of Sydney, sits on 1200 acres on Thunderbolts Way.

On this Wednesday morning, Mathew’s girlfriend Natasha Darcy is leaning over him in the bedroom, panicked, as a triple-zero operator guides her through chest compressions.

Distressed, Natasha tells the operator: “He’s warm.”

“Is he awake?” They ask.

“No.”

“Is he breathing?”

“No.”

“And you found him like that?”

“Yes.”

Blue and red lights flash through the windows as paramedics arrive, rush into the bedroom, and take over CPR.

By 2:44am, 42-year-old Mathew is declared dead. And it doesn’t take long for police to declare the homestead a crime scene.

CREDITS

Guest: Journalist Emma Partridge, author of The Widow Of Walcha

Host: Gemma Bath

Executive Producer: Gia Moylan

Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney

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Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

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