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Boys in the bridge: The NSW disappearance that baffled a nation

Matthew Kelly and Jaymie Egner were 15 years old when the mystery of their disappearance made national headlines.

It was just before Christmas in 1989 when the teenage boys, who were on school holidays, asked their mums if they could go to a local swimming hole.

Forensic investigator Esther McKay walks through her investigation of the case at Pheasants Nest Bridge on the Crime Insiders podcast:

The boys were last seen walking through the bushland behind their homes. By nightfall, they hadn’t returned, and police began scouring the area in search of them.

The national media frenzy speculated on whether a paedophile ring, drug dealers, or a weed farm had anything to do with their disappearance.

Where were the boys found?

Forensic investigator Esther McKay said the boys’ remains were found in Pheasants Nest Bridge, after a roads inspector noticed a foul smell coming from inside one of the pylons of the bridge.

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“He could see the blow flies going in and out this access hole. So he had a bit of a look at these torch, and you could see that there was two bodies 35m below,” she said.

“It was in that little part of the access where I saw the five finger death grip in the concrete, where obviously one of the boys had tried to grab hold as he’d gone in, and there was a black scuff mark on there as well, from a from a running shoe, and both the boys had black soled running shoes on.”

A Coroner’s Inquiry asked the question: did the boys fall in a tragic accident, or was something more sinister at play? Find out on this episode of Crime Insiders.

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