0:01

Due. To the graphic nature of

0:03

this murder case, listener discretion is

0:05

advised. This episode includes discussions of

0:08

implied murder and sexual harassment. We

0:10

advise extreme caution for children under

0:12

thirteen. Across

0:18

the globe, New Year's Eve is

0:20

a time to party. The celebrations

0:23

take many forms, but they typically

0:25

have a few things in common:

0:27

music, drinking, and a whole lot

0:29

of people. To most, it's a

0:32

beautiful tradition, a way to celebrate

0:34

the past year and set the

0:36

tone for a new one. But

0:38

it can't all be fun and

0:41

games. Even during a party, somebody

0:43

has to take responsibility. That's why

0:45

we have designated drivers, bouncers, and

0:47

chaperones. When inhibitions are

0:50

low, danger is high. Back

0:52

in Nineteen Ninety Eight, the

0:54

people of New Zealand gotta

0:57

painful reminder of this that

0:59

New Year's The disappearances of

1:02

two young revellers, Olivia Hope

1:04

and Ben Smart captured the

1:07

nation's attention and have thousands

1:09

demanding justice. Eventually the case

1:11

was closed, but whether or

1:14

not the victims ever received

1:16

justice is still. In

1:18

question. I'm

1:20

Vanessa Richardson and this is Serial

1:22

Killers a spotify podcast. You can

1:24

find us here every Monday. Be

1:26

sure to check us out on

1:28

Instagram at Serial Killers Podcast and

1:30

we'd love to hear from you. So

1:33

if you're listening on the spot,

1:35

if I app swipe up and

1:37

give us your thoughts. This

1:46

episode is brought to you by

1:48

Ab Sees hit drama Will Trent

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Special Agent Will trend strength as

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observing what others don't see the

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crucial clues that make or break

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Casino. Was. On.

3:18

December Thirtieth. Nineteen Ninety Seven, seventeen

3:21

year old Be Zealander Olivia Hope

3:23

boarded a chartered yacht called Tamarack

3:25

with her older sister Amelia Us

3:27

and a group of Amelia his

3:29

friends from University. The yard was

3:32

set to tour the Marlborough Sounds

3:34

before ringing in the New Year

3:36

on the western side of the

3:38

Sounds in an area called Endeavor

3:40

Inlet. Olivia had a lot

3:43

to celebrate. After years of hard work

3:45

and practice, she'd officially been certified as

3:47

a musician and performer. She was heading

3:50

to college the next year to refine

3:52

her skills and take the next step

3:54

in her career. Despite

3:58

partying the day. Olivia

4:01

woke up early that New Year's Eve. She

4:03

gave her parents a call around 7.30 a.m. and

4:06

assured her mom and dad that she wouldn't

4:08

get too out of control that night. The

4:12

Tamarack dropped anchor in the inlet by

4:14

the early evening. Olivia,

4:16

Amelia, and the rest of their friends headed ashore to

4:18

the beach. The real party

4:20

was on land. Right

4:22

by the beach was Furno Lodge, a

4:25

large hotel, restaurant, and bar owned by

4:27

a local tour company. The

4:29

lodge expected over a thousand people

4:31

to join their New Year's celebration. As

4:35

afternoon turned to early evening,

4:37

the party really got started. Olivia

4:39

threw on a black top and jeans and

4:42

split off from her sister and their friends

4:44

on a yacht. She found

4:46

a group of classmates from Marlborough Girls

4:48

College. Together, they made a

4:50

beeline for the dance floor, which was located

4:52

down by the water. Olivia

4:55

only came back to the lodge every once in

4:57

a while to top off her drink. Amelia

4:59

only caught a few glimpses of her younger

5:02

sister as the night wore on. But

5:04

at some point, she noticed Olivia hanging

5:06

out with a familiar face, 21-year-old Hamish

5:09

Rose. Hamish

5:12

was an old family friend, and Olivia

5:14

had recently done some part-time work at

5:16

a vineyard his father owned. Olivia

5:18

stuck by Hamish's side for several

5:20

hours, and he was a little

5:23

surprised by the attention. The

5:25

two hiked over to Hamish's campsite,

5:27

which was by the lodge. The pair watched

5:30

the sun sink behind the hills. They

5:33

talked, exchanged some drunken jokes, and took

5:35

a walk on the beach. At

5:38

some point, Olivia turned to Hamish,

5:40

and they exchanged a kiss, the

5:43

first fireworks of the night. Not

5:46

long after, though, the two went their separate

5:48

ways. It was sometime around 11 p.m.,

5:51

and Hamish had wanted to go back to his

5:53

friends before the night was over. Before

5:56

they parted ways, Hamish mentioned that he'd

5:58

run into someone they both had. knew,

6:00

a guy named Ben

6:02

Smart. Olivia and

6:04

Ben had some history. They weren't

6:06

ever an item exactly but they

6:08

were good friends and occasionally something

6:10

more. According to a

6:13

mutual acquaintance, Olivia and Ben had

6:15

a few one-night stands with no

6:17

strings attached. Sometime

6:19

around midnight Olivia had left Hamish

6:21

and met up with Ben. Ben

6:27

had been in the area just a day longer

6:29

than Olivia, arriving in the sounds on December 29,

6:32

1997. The 21-year-old was staying at

6:34

a nearby lake house with a

6:36

group of friends. He'd

6:39

spent the last two days floating across

6:41

the sounds, drinking and playing guitar. Like

6:44

Olivia, Ben planned to go all out on

6:46

New Year's Eve. According to a witness who

6:48

saw Ben around 11.45pm,

6:51

he seemed pretty drunk. He'd been drinking for

6:54

more than 12 hours by

6:56

that point. Olivia

6:58

was celebrating a new chapter in her

7:00

life but Ben was looking to blow

7:02

off some steam. He had to be

7:04

back home by January 5 so he

7:06

could return to work at his father's

7:08

engineering company. These days

7:11

at the lake house felt like

7:13

an alternate reality, one where adulthood

7:15

hadn't started yet and anything was

7:17

possible. When Ben saw

7:19

Olivia, it was late. But

7:21

the party wasn't over yet. By

7:27

midnight there were over 1,600 people still packed

7:30

into the lodge. One of them was

7:32

Ben's older sister Rebecca. She

7:35

warned her brother to slow down but

7:37

wasn't overly concerned about his safety. Half

7:40

an hour after midnight she remembered her

7:42

brother hanging out with a young blonde

7:44

woman. She thought it was Olivia but

7:47

couldn't be sure. The three had a

7:49

brief exchange then Rebecca turned in for

7:51

the night. Around 1am

7:53

she caught a water taxi back to where

7:55

she was staying but Ben

7:57

and Olivia continued dancing in the night.

8:00

and drinking, even after the

8:02

band and DJ finished their sets

8:04

around 1.30. Around

8:07

2 o'clock, a friend of Olivia

8:09

and Ben ran into Olivia's friend

8:11

Kirsty Sutherland. Kirsty said

8:13

she was heading back to the lake house that Ben

8:15

was staying at along with some of his friends. She

8:18

invited Olivia and Ben to come along as

8:20

well. Tired

8:22

and running out of stamina, they decided it was

8:24

probably for the best, but Olivia

8:26

wanted to stop by the Tamarack to grab

8:28

a change of clothes first, so

8:31

they jumped in a water taxi that drove

8:33

them to the yacht, which was moored not

8:35

too far from shore. The

8:37

driver of the taxi, a guy named Marco, promised

8:39

to come right back and give them a ride

8:41

to the lake house, but they

8:44

waited on the yacht for more than

8:46

an hour and Marco never returned. They

8:50

were stranded on the Tamarack. Which

8:55

wouldn't have been a problem, they could

8:57

have just crashed on the boat, but

8:59

Olivia paced around the deck trying to

9:01

find an open bed and all of

9:03

them were taken by random partiers. Ben

9:06

was drunk enough to pass out anywhere. He

9:08

fell asleep right there on the boat, but

9:11

Olivia couldn't follow suit. She

9:13

was still hoping Marco would come back or that

9:16

they'd find another way to get to the lake

9:18

house. Olivia and Kirsty

9:20

talked for a while, trying to figure out what to

9:22

do. It was almost 4am

9:25

and they must have been getting more frustrated

9:27

by the minute. Meanwhile,

9:29

Olivia's older sister Amelia was in

9:31

a similar situation at the Ferno

9:34

Lodge. The party had finally

9:36

wound down and she was one of

9:38

the last stragglers trying to leave. The

9:40

regular water taxi drivers had all

9:42

finished their shifts, so she needed to

9:45

get creative. Luckily, she

9:47

found a bartender named Guy Wallace

9:49

who'd just gotten off work. He

9:51

owned his own water taxi and agreed to

9:54

drop Amelia and a few friends off somewhere.

9:56

The lake house was out of the question, so

9:59

Amelia had him dropped them off on the

10:01

Tamarack. She didn't know how crowded it would

10:03

be until she arrived and saw her little

10:05

sister on the deck. Olivia

10:08

brought Amelia up to speed and begged

10:10

Guy for a ride back to dry

10:12

land and offered him money. Guy

10:15

refused her offer, but agreed to

10:17

drive her and Ben back to Ferno.

10:20

Olivia may have asked Amelia and friends

10:22

if they wanted to come, but they'd

10:24

just come from Ferno. So in the

10:26

end, her and Ben were the only

10:28

ones from the yacht who climbed back

10:30

into the water taxi. But

10:32

that didn't mean they were the only passengers.

10:35

Guy still had a few other people from the

10:37

lodge, a couple who were bound for a nearby

10:39

jetty and a man who needed to get back

10:42

to his own boat. Olivia

10:44

was still pretty wound up, concerned about where

10:46

she and Ben were gonna stay for the

10:48

night. She hardly glanced

10:50

up as Amelia waved goodbye

10:52

and watched the water taxi

10:54

drift away. On

10:59

board the taxi, Olivia turned to the

11:01

other passengers, inquiring about places for her

11:04

and Ben to stay. The

11:06

couple didn't talk much, but the other

11:08

guy, the scruffy one, suddenly came to

11:10

life when Olivia turned to him. He

11:13

said Olivia could sleep on his boat,

11:16

but Ben wouldn't be allowed. It

11:19

seemed like a bad drunken joke. The

11:22

mystery man was scruffy with shoulder length

11:24

hair. Guy Wallace would

11:26

later recall that he was about five

11:29

foot eight inches and in his early

11:31

thirties. It was hard to tell in

11:33

the dark, but it looked like he had a bit

11:35

of a beard and was wearing either a khaki or

11:37

a light green shirt. According to

11:40

Amelia Hope, he had a widow's peak

11:42

too. And like

11:44

nearly everyone else, he seemed incredibly

11:46

intoxicated, but was able to give

11:48

Guy Wallace clear enough directions to

11:50

get to his boat. It

11:53

was nice enough. Ben wasn't too

11:55

picky by that point and Olivia was more

11:57

than happy to have a bed. Guy

12:00

Wallace had some reservations about letting Olivia

12:02

and Ben go, but the

12:04

teens insisted they were all right. So

12:07

Guy let the couple off, along with

12:09

the mystery man. They

12:11

wished each other well, and Guy

12:14

drove off with his final two

12:16

passengers. It was the

12:18

last time anyone saw Ben Smart

12:21

or Olivia Hope. TaxAct

12:27

knows you don't look forward to taxes. TaxAct

12:30

doesn't even look forward to taxes, and

12:32

TaxAct is a tax software company. It's

12:35

basically TaxAct's whole thing. If

12:37

TaxAct did things over, maybe TaxAct

12:39

would end up teaching kindergarten or

12:41

leading fly-fishing tours. But that's

12:43

a different story for a different ad, so

12:45

why don't we just agree that taxes aren't

12:47

fun, but you still have to do them?

12:50

TaxAct's filing software can help you do that.

12:53

TaxAct. Let's get them over with.

12:58

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13:29

New Year's Day, 1998, Olivia

13:32

Hope's friends on the Tamarack awoke

13:34

to a mess. Spilled

13:36

cups, empty bottles, discarded

13:38

life jackets. They

13:40

cleaned up as best they could and then took

13:43

stock of the situation. They'd

13:45

rented the yacht and needed to drop it off

13:47

within a few hours. Olivia was

13:49

the only one unaccounted for.

13:53

Amelia last saw her younger sister with

13:56

Ben, but she had no idea where

13:58

the couple ended up. Amelia

14:00

said the others from the Tamarack made it

14:02

to shore around 9am and

14:04

started searching. No one

14:06

they spoke to knew where Olivia and Ben

14:08

were, and as time wore on,

14:11

the group became frustrated. As

14:14

far as Amelia, Olivia was planning on

14:16

taking the water taxi back to the

14:18

lodge. She figured Olivia and Ben might

14:20

have made their way from there to

14:22

a nearby campsite. That was where

14:24

she'd spent time with Hamish the previous night and

14:27

where some of her other friends were staying. If

14:29

she wasn't there, maybe she'd made it back

14:32

to the lake house somehow. As

14:34

it turned out, they were wrong on

14:36

both counts. Hamish hadn't seen

14:39

Olivia since just before midnight the

14:41

night before. Like everyone

14:43

else, he figured she and Ben had found

14:45

a secluded place to sleep. The

14:49

yacht had a schedule to keep, so

14:52

around 1030, the Tamarack crew headed back

14:54

to the boat. They stopped at Ben's

14:56

lake house on the way to their

14:58

next destination, but once again,

15:00

Ben and Olivia were nowhere to

15:02

be found. So the

15:05

Tamarack headed back the way it came.

15:07

Its next stop was what Amango Bay,

15:10

where some of the people on board planned

15:12

to disembark and end their New Year's holiday.

15:15

By coincidence, Olivia and Amelia's parents,

15:17

Gerald and Jan Hope, were on

15:19

their own little vacation in the

15:21

bay. They ran into

15:23

Amelia when the Tamaracks stopped to let people

15:26

off and immediately noticed

15:28

Olivia's absence. Amelia

15:30

told her parents that she'd gone off with

15:32

Ben Smart, but they were

15:34

immediately alarmed. It had been around 12

15:37

hours since Olivia and Ben were

15:39

last seen. Gerald and

15:41

Jan ended their holiday early and

15:44

returned home. To their

15:46

dismay, Olivia wasn't waiting for them,

15:49

and a phone call never came.

15:52

The next morning was a flurry

15:54

of action, panicked whispers and false

15:56

leads. Gerald and Jan called

15:58

everyone they could think of to

16:00

check on Olivia. They contacted the

16:03

Ferno Lodge and Ben's lake house

16:05

several times. They promised to compensate

16:07

anyone willing to search the campgrounds

16:10

to find their daughter. They

16:12

also contacted Ben Smart's family. His mother,

16:14

Mary, didn't seem worried at first. Ben

16:16

wasn't scheduled to be back for a

16:19

couple of days. She figured he must

16:21

have gone back to the lake house

16:23

and the Tamarack crew just missed him.

16:26

Frustrated by Mary's reaction, Olivia's

16:28

parents hung up the phone.

16:33

Around 3.30 p.m., Gerald and Jan

16:35

Hope went down to the local station

16:37

to file a police report. According

16:40

to Gerald, the authorities didn't seem

16:42

overly concerned. It wasn't uncommon

16:44

for kids to take a while to respond

16:46

after a big party. They advised

16:49

the Hopes to stay calm and continue

16:51

making calls. They were sure Ben and

16:53

Olivia would show up soon. But

16:56

Olivia was supposed to resume a

16:58

part-time job on January 3rd. Her

17:00

parents knew she wouldn't miss her

17:02

first day of work without, at

17:04

the very least, calling ahead. Nothing

17:07

about the situation made sense. Olivia

17:09

had a bright future ahead and,

17:11

as far as anyone could tell,

17:13

no skeletons in her closet. So

17:16

around 5 p.m., just 90 minutes

17:19

after the authorities waved him off, Gerald

17:22

contacted the police again. He had

17:25

called everyone he could think

17:27

of and no one knew anything

17:29

about his daughter. He begged the

17:31

police to launch a full-scale investigation.

17:34

And his pleas actually worked.

17:37

Officers leapt into action. On

17:41

January 2nd, 1998, more than 24 hours since they

17:43

were last seen, police started investigating the

17:47

disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in earnest.

17:49

Their first significant lead came days later

17:53

when employees at Ferno Lodge remembered that one

17:56

of their best friends was a police officer.

18:00

bartenders, Guy Wallace, volunteered to

18:02

transport some party guests on

18:04

his water taxi. Guy

18:06

wasn't an officially licensed driver, so

18:08

he wasn't on the authority's initial

18:11

list of contacts. Luckily,

18:13

Guy remembered Ben and Olivia from

18:15

that night. He recalled them being

18:17

drunk, but said that they were

18:19

not, in his words, overly

18:21

intoxicated. Of note,

18:23

Guy told police about the mysterious man

18:26

who was also on the boat, and

18:28

offered the young adults a place

18:30

to stay, after making an off-handed and

18:33

inappropriate joke about Olivia. As

18:35

far as anyone knew, this mystery

18:37

man was the last person to

18:40

see Olivia and Ben alive. Guy

18:43

told police that the man didn't strike

18:45

him as malicious, but he was certainly

18:47

drunk and, in hindsight, maybe a little

18:50

too eager to help Olivia and Ben

18:52

out. Guy sketched a drawing

18:54

of the man's boat to help police track

18:56

him down, a two-masted sailboat

18:59

large enough to hold a few

19:01

people comfortably. It was bright

19:03

white, with a colored stripe running

19:05

around its hull. Guy

19:07

thought it might have been navy blue, but it was

19:09

too dark at the time to be sure. With

19:13

the drawing in hand, detectives reached

19:15

out to Christ Church Criminal Investigation

19:17

Branch, or CIB, for help in

19:20

their investigation. The odds seemed

19:22

to be against them. They didn't have much

19:24

to go on. They were looking for a

19:26

white male with access to a boat. Not

19:29

exactly a rarity for the sound. When

19:31

all was said and done, police

19:33

added 130 names to

19:35

their list of potential suspects. But

19:39

one in particular stood out.

19:42

Apparently, a guy who said his name

19:44

was Scott was there at the Ferno

19:46

Lodge that night. He was drunk

19:48

and seemed to be hitting on every woman that

19:50

crossed his path. He also

19:53

seemed to have a bizarre attachment

19:55

to the drug Prozac. He apparently

19:57

kept offering women Prozac-branded t-shirts. inviting

20:00

them to his yacht and talking

20:02

loudly about sex. Scott's

20:05

friend, Ed Sundstrom, and his

20:07

girlfriend, Amanda Eggdon, told police

20:10

that this Scott guy cornered

20:12

them around 3am and made

20:14

them extremely uncomfortable. This

20:16

would have been about an hour before a

20:19

mystery man invited Olivia and Ben to crash

20:21

on his yacht. Moreover,

20:23

he seemed to match Guy Wallace's description

20:25

of the mystery man. He

20:27

was around 5'8", tattooed and

20:30

scruffy. After

20:32

some digging, investigators believed the

20:34

man's full name was Scott

20:36

Watson. He was 26 years

20:38

old and had a history of committing

20:40

petty crimes. Most were

20:42

minor, related to possession or use of

20:45

marijuana, but a few were for

20:47

assault or possession of a weapon. He

20:49

stole $350 from his mother to buy drugs. Police

20:55

also learned that Watson's yacht was

20:57

docked in the area Guy Wallace

20:59

remembered taking Olivia and Ben that

21:01

night. Police brought Watson

21:03

in for questioning. One officer,

21:05

Constable Mike Lawson, described his

21:08

attitude as smarmy. But

21:11

for the most part, he didn't seem like

21:13

he had anything to hide, and there was

21:15

one piece of evidence working in his favor.

21:18

The yacht he owned only had

21:20

one mast, not two, which didn't

21:22

match Guy Wallace's description of the

21:24

mystery man's yacht. So

21:27

officials set out to identify all the other

21:29

boats that were in the area for the

21:31

Ferno Party that night. All

21:33

told, there were at least 140 of them. And

21:38

thanks to logs, photos, and eyewitness

21:40

accounts, police were able to catalog

21:42

and map almost all of them.

21:46

But strangely enough, none seemed to

21:48

fit Guy Wallace's description of a

21:50

double-masted ship with a large,

21:52

dark-colored stripe running around its

21:54

hull, which

21:56

made some detectives begin to question

21:59

his memory. On

22:02

January 12th, more than a week

22:04

after Olivia and Ben were last

22:07

seen, authorities released two different sketches

22:09

to the media. One was

22:11

based on Guy Wallace's description of the

22:13

mystery man. The other was based

22:15

on witness descriptions of another man at

22:17

the party that night, a creepy

22:20

man skulking about the bar. He

22:23

sat alone, drank bourbon and coke,

22:25

didn't say much, and paid for

22:27

his bill with a ruddy ball

22:29

of disorganized bills. Coincidentally,

22:31

Guy Wallace also remembered this

22:34

man. Based on his clothes,

22:36

Guy thought he might be a fisherman.

22:39

Authorities weren't sure whether he was the

22:41

same person who'd cornered Ben's friends that

22:43

night and made them feel uncomfortable, or

22:45

whether they were two different people. The

22:49

unanswered questions were piling up.

22:51

By now, most of the boats they knew of

22:53

had been identified and cleared. Alibis

22:56

had eliminated scores of suspects.

22:59

Dozens of tips had been

23:01

investigated and dismissed. There was no

23:03

sign of Ben or Olivia's bodies,

23:05

nor any clues about where they

23:08

might have gone. The

23:10

operation was one of the biggest New

23:12

Zealand had seen in years. A

23:14

team of 44 officials were

23:16

assigned to investigate every possible

23:18

lead, and almost two weeks

23:20

later, the police still

23:23

had no hard evidence. But

23:25

one thing was certain. With

23:28

so much media attention on the case, failure

23:31

wasn't an option. Running

23:41

out of options and leads in mid-January

23:43

1998, investigators

23:45

working Olivia Hope and Ben

23:48

Smart's disappearance decided to re-interview

23:50

some persons of interest, including

23:53

Scott Watson. Police

23:55

couldn't get a good read on him. Watson

23:58

had been accused of harassing women the

24:00

night Olivia and Ben disappeared. Witnesses

24:03

said he invited some of them back to his yacht

24:05

for sex. But he didn't

24:07

match the description of the man who was seen

24:09

with Olivia and Ben. He owned

24:11

a single masted boat with a red

24:14

stripe and steel hull. And

24:16

when Guy Wallace saw Watson's boat, he

24:18

was pretty confident that it was not

24:20

the mystery man's. Watson

24:23

cooperated with the police during their second

24:25

round of questioning. According

24:27

to officials, he did so

24:29

reluctantly and at times acted

24:31

overconfident and dismissive. But

24:34

he gave a pretty straightforward account of the

24:36

night Olivia and Ben went missing. He

24:39

spent the afternoon before drinking with friends.

24:42

Around 7 or 8 pm, he met up with a

24:45

buddy on his boat. From there,

24:47

Watson said his memory got a bit hazy.

24:50

He was pretty drunk and told police

24:52

he might have smoked some marijuana as

24:54

well. He couldn't quite

24:56

recall. He remembered getting

24:58

into some kind of altercation at the

25:00

bar inside Ferno Lodge, but said it

25:03

wasn't anything serious. Just a bit

25:05

of shoving and punching before someone arrived to break

25:07

it up. Around

25:09

2 am, Watson claimed he caught a

25:11

water taxi back to his yacht. But

25:14

looking to have some more fun, he dropped in

25:16

on a boat docked next to him to see

25:18

if anyone else was partying. But the

25:20

passengers were all going to sleep and shooed

25:22

him away. So he says

25:25

he ate a late night snack and went

25:27

to bed. Friends

25:30

could corroborate many of Watson's claims. No

25:33

one could corroborate that he was in

25:35

fact sleeping around 4 to 4.30 am when Olivia and Ben

25:39

were last seen. But in

25:41

order for him to have been on Guy Wallace's

25:43

water taxi, he would have had to travel back

25:45

to shore sometime after 2 am. Which

25:49

would have been possible, but not

25:51

entirely logical. Why

25:53

go all the way back to land

25:55

just to ask for a ride home

25:57

when you're already there? Despite

26:00

their unanswered questions, detectives pegged

26:02

Watson as someone to watch.

26:05

They decided to search his boat, as well

26:07

as his parents' home, where he lived from

26:09

time to time. They also

26:11

began checking Watson's statements against

26:13

witness accounts of that night,

26:16

to see if, maybe, he

26:18

had anything to hide. They

26:22

found two possible contradictions. First,

26:25

Watson told authorities he'd returned to his

26:28

boat around 2 a.m. shortly

26:30

after he paid a visit to his

26:32

neighbor. However, the police

26:34

spoke to his neighbors and they

26:36

claimed that Watson dropped by around

26:39

4 or 5 a.m., which,

26:41

if true, meant he wasn't sleeping

26:43

when Guy Wallace dropped Ben and

26:45

Olivia off. Second, Watson

26:47

told police he'd left the area around

26:50

7 a.m. on New Year's Day,

26:52

but, based on

26:54

photographs, investigators estimated that he

26:56

actually left an hour or

26:58

more earlier, because his

27:00

boat was gone by 6 a.m. Regardless,

27:04

police couldn't be sure whether Watson

27:06

just misremembered after a drunken night

27:08

out, or intentionally lied,

27:11

and the property searches had

27:13

detectives just as confused. On

27:16

one hand, they didn't find anything strange

27:18

in his parents' home, and there were

27:20

no signs of Ben and Olivia being

27:22

on the boat, no clothes or personal

27:24

belongings, let alone any signs of struggle

27:26

or foul play, and the boat

27:29

was barely big enough to sleep three people.

27:32

On the other hand, detectives couldn't

27:34

find any of Watson's clothes from

27:36

that night, either. He told

27:38

authorities he was wearing a red and gray

27:40

jersey on New Year's Eve, but

27:42

photographs and multiple witness statements showed

27:45

he was wearing a denim shirt

27:47

instead. The shirt was

27:49

now missing, and for some reason, Watson

27:51

had given his boat a fresh coat

27:54

of paint since the party that night,

27:56

and certain areas seemed

27:59

uncharacteristically According

28:01

to investigator Rob Pope, the surfaces

28:03

most likely to have fingerprints on

28:05

them were spic and span, yet

28:08

the kitchen was a mess. Stranger

28:11

still, the radio on Watson's

28:13

boat had recently been removed from

28:15

its brackets and wiped down, and

28:18

there were scratches on the inside of the

28:21

boat's hatch, and one of

28:23

the seat cushions had holes cut into

28:25

it. Of

28:29

the 1,300 or so fiber

28:31

samples taken from Watson's boat,

28:33

400 were examined by police.

28:36

It took three and a half months to

28:38

complete, but after all was

28:40

said and done, police only found

28:42

one hair follicle that could possibly

28:44

be tested for DNA. Preliminary

28:47

results indicated there was a

28:49

chance the hair belonged to

28:51

Olivia Hope. A few

28:53

more rounds of testing produced mixed

28:56

results, but one test suggested the

28:58

hair was 28,000

29:00

times more likely to belong to

29:02

Olivia Hope rather than someone else.

29:06

Though it wasn't a definitive

29:08

result, investigators decided it was

29:10

enough to pursue formally charging

29:12

Scott Watson, but first

29:15

they wanted to consult their main witness,

29:17

Guy Wallace, to ensure his

29:19

cooperation at trial. When

29:21

they interviewed Guy again, he said

29:23

that pressure from the media was

29:25

stressing him out. He felt like

29:27

people didn't believe him and possibly

29:29

even suspected him of deliberately twisting

29:31

the facts, and though

29:34

that pressure was real, Guy's next move

29:36

didn't do much to help his situation

29:38

or reputation. He

29:42

lied to the police. Guy

29:45

told detectives that after New Year's, he

29:47

saw a boat that looked like the one

29:50

he'd seen on New Year's at a

29:52

different marina. He suggested

29:54

detectives go investigate. Then

29:56

the very next day, he retracted

29:58

his statement. He explained, quote,

30:01

I made up the story. I just wanted

30:03

somebody to believe me. And this seemed like

30:06

a good way of backing my story up.

30:09

It further undermined Guy's credibility. And

30:11

the next time an officer asked

30:14

Guy about that night, his

30:16

confidence wavered for the first

30:18

time. He said he

30:20

still had a strong image of the

30:22

mystery man's boat in his mind. It

30:24

was wooden and had two masts. But

30:27

considering no one else had corroborated

30:30

his account, he admitted that he

30:32

might have been mistaken, which

30:34

opened the door for police to

30:37

charge Scott Watson. After 126,000

30:39

hours of work and $3 million, the

30:45

investigation finally had someone in custody.

30:47

But it was just the beginning

30:49

of the quest to deliver justice

30:51

for the families. Hearings

30:53

began in June 1999, a year and a half

30:57

after Olivia and Ben's disappearance. The

31:00

prosecution constructed its argument based on the

31:02

scant pieces of evidence they had, the

31:05

biggest being the single hair follicle.

31:09

In his book, Silent Evidence,

31:11

journalist John Goldter quoted CIB

31:13

investigator Rob Pope as saying,

31:15

quote, really, it all comes

31:18

down to the hair, because

31:20

that is the one

31:22

incontrovertible, undeniable piece of

31:24

silent evidence. But

31:27

the case also hinged on Guy

31:29

Wallace's testimony. In

31:31

a deposition before the trial, Guy

31:33

described the mysterious stranger that led

31:35

Ben and Olivia onto his boat.

31:38

He described the man as

31:40

disheveled, sleazy, and unshaven, just

31:42

as he always had. Then

31:45

a lawyer for the defense showed him a

31:47

picture of Scott Watson, taken around 10 p.m.

31:50

on New Year's Eve. In

31:52

the photo, Watson looked clean shaven

31:54

and not really unkempt either. Guy

31:57

was taken off guard. In

31:59

the court, Of course, of the cross-examination,

32:01

he said that the man in

32:03

the photo, Scott Watson, couldn't have

32:05

been the mystery man. That

32:09

was during the deposition, but when the

32:11

trial came around, Guy gave a slightly

32:13

different response. This time,

32:16

he claimed that Scott Watson may

32:18

have actually been the mystery man.

32:21

He told the court that he hadn't gotten

32:23

a good look at the stranger's eyes, which

32:25

explained his initial confusion. But

32:27

when the prosecution asked him about the mystery

32:29

man's boat, Guy threw more

32:32

wrenches into their case. He

32:34

still clung to his initial description

32:36

of the stranger's boat and insisted

32:38

Watson's boat bore no resemblance to

32:40

the vessel Olivia and Ben boarded

32:42

that night. Nothing

32:44

could resolve the contradiction. All

32:47

the prosecution could do was try

32:49

and convince the jury that every

32:51

other reasonable possibility had been eliminated.

32:55

Investigators had worked for months to track down 176

32:57

of the boats at Ferno that night. None

33:01

of them matched Guy's description. The

33:04

implication being, his memory

33:06

must be flawed. As

33:10

the proceedings continued, the public and

33:12

media didn't know what to think. Opinions

33:15

seemed to be split, but

33:17

then the prosecution introduced two

33:19

secret witnesses, both inmates,

33:22

who interacted with Watson while he

33:24

was being held under suspicion of

33:26

murdering Olivia and Ben. The

33:29

first witness claimed that Watson

33:31

had indirectly admitted to killing

33:33

Ben and Olivia on

33:36

more than one occasion. The

33:38

second witness claimed that Watson had

33:40

even physically acted out the murders

33:42

of Ben and Olivia right in front

33:44

of him. Their

33:47

testimonies seemed to seal the deal. All

33:50

that was left was for the jury to weigh

33:52

the evidence and come to a final decision. It

33:54

took them 22 hours to come

33:57

to a verdict, but in the end they

33:59

found Scott. Watson guilty and

34:01

a judge sentenced him to life

34:03

in prison with the possibility of

34:05

parole after 17 years

34:09

and that's where Scott Watson remains

34:11

today but a lot

34:14

has changed since that 1999 trial

34:19

most importantly some of the witnesses

34:21

in the initial trial have since

34:23

recanted their testimony Guy

34:25

Wallace has been among the most vocal

34:28

years after the verdict he said

34:30

that he believed Scott Watson is

34:32

innocent he claimed he

34:34

was manipulated into identifying Watson in

34:37

a photo lineup after

34:39

telling investigators that the mystery man

34:41

had hooded eyes detectives showed Guy

34:44

a picture of Watson caught mid-blink

34:46

with his eyes partially closed Guy

34:49

has stated that he tentatively identified

34:51

Watson as the mystery man at

34:54

the trial based on that one

34:56

misleading photo another witness

34:58

who was also shown the blinking

35:00

photo of Scott Watson recanted her

35:03

testimony as well moreover

35:05

one of the surprise prison

35:07

witnesses has since admitted that much

35:09

of what he presented at trial

35:12

was inaccurate saying Scott Watson

35:14

never actually showed him how

35:16

he'd allegedly killed Ben and Olivia

35:19

according to this witness he

35:21

was pressured by police into

35:23

testifying against Watson he

35:25

claimed investigators distorted his statements to

35:27

make them more inflammatory he didn't

35:30

put up a fight at the time because he worried it

35:32

would threaten his parole and since

35:37

the trial there have been questions

35:39

raised around the most pivotal piece

35:41

of evidence presented the single hair

35:43

follicle a consultant Sean

35:46

Doyle looked into the handling of

35:48

the microscopic hair samples by authorities

35:50

and found a number of issues

35:52

that might have impacted its results

35:55

he claimed if the same DNA

35:57

evidence were presented in court today

36:00

it would be strongly challenged.

36:03

Since these developments, Scott Watson

36:05

has attempted to appeal his

36:07

conviction multiple times. After

36:10

his first appeal, a court determined there

36:12

was no miscarriage of justice in his

36:14

conviction. But Scott is awaiting

36:16

a new appeals trial, which is set for

36:18

2024. When

36:21

the time comes, the Court of Appeal

36:23

has ruled that Watson's lawyers will be

36:25

able to present new expert evidence. In

36:28

2021, Guy Wallace died suddenly. This

36:32

came after he claimed to the New Zealand Herald in

36:35

2017 that he believed he knew who was

36:39

really responsible for Olivia and

36:41

Ben's deaths. He didn't

36:43

share a name at that time,

36:45

but described the culprit as someone

36:48

who was already incarcerated. Even

36:50

after more than 20 years and

36:52

a conviction in the case, the

36:55

mystery of what happened to Olivia

36:57

Hope and Ben Smart still

36:59

feels open-ended. In

37:01

a court of law, a lot hinges

37:03

on what people recall, but

37:06

memory can be a fickle thing,

37:08

especially when mixed with alcohol, large

37:10

crowds, and late nights. Without

37:13

hard evidence, certainty can be hard to

37:15

come by. Should

37:17

there be room for doubt in this case, or

37:20

did Olivia and Ben receive

37:22

the justice they deserve? We

37:25

all have our own biases and our own

37:27

ways of deciding who to trust. We'd

37:30

love to hear your thoughts. You can write

37:32

to us. Reach out on social media, but

37:34

at the end of the day, it's up to a

37:37

judge and jury to decide. They'll

37:39

dictate how history will

37:41

remember this case. Thanks

37:51

for tuning in to Serial Killers, a

37:54

Spotify podcast. We'll be back

37:56

Monday with another episode. For

37:58

more information on the Marlboro mystery... Amongst

38:00

the many sources we used, we

38:02

found Silent Evidence, Inside the Police

38:05

Search for Ben and Olivia, by

38:07

John Goldter, extremely helpful to our

38:09

research. Stay safe

38:12

out there. Serial

38:15

Killers is a Spotify podcast. We release

38:17

a new episode every Monday. This

38:20

episode was written by Terrell Wells,

38:22

edited by Kylie Harrington and Maggie

38:24

Admire, searched by

38:26

Mickey Taylor, fact-checked by Kevin

38:29

Johnson, and sound-designed by Alex

38:31

Button. Our head of programming

38:33

is Julian Bwarro. Our head

38:35

of production is Nick Johnson, and

38:37

Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor.

38:40

Serial Killers is hosted by me,

38:43

Vanessa Richardson.