The Woman in the Red Plastic Raincoat

By Pauline Lovitt

Samantha Goodall has gone missing in Cowra, New South Wales. A group of locals, who are friends are perplexed when they stumble on a sleuth site sleuthersontheinternet [https://www.sleuthersontheinternet.com/].com, with posts about Samantha's disappearance. The fictitious character making the posts seems to be Bruce Antonio. They have already been reporting him to the police about disturbing information on his own blogsites. They are certain that Antonio has to be connected to a number of missing people cases in Queensland, he has talked about on his blog site spiritualitypsychics.com. Through extensive research, they discover multiple cases Antonio looks to be sleuthing about. How can they convince the police that there could be a serial killer talking about his crimes on sleuth sites?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Sep 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781398403055

Pauline Lovitt

Pauline Lovitt has a background in librarianship, drama and singing teaching, interactive performance and mentoring and training disadvantaged groups. She has written songs and scripts for children. As an academic researcher in the area of Values Education, Pauline created “Earthic - Us We Care” a quirky values education story with songs as an online video. She has written An Amazing Discovery and Sorry Ranga as short affirmative values-based narratives. Pauline has for many years been interested in following missing person’s cases in Australia. The Woman in the Red Plastic Raincoat is an outcome of years of research.

Book preview

About the Author

Pauline Lovitt has a background in librarianship, drama and singing teaching, interactive performance and mentoring and training disadvantaged groups. She has written songs and scripts for children. As an academic researcher in the area of Values Education, Pauline created Earthic - Us We Care a quirky values education story with songs as an online video. She has written An Amazing Discovery and Sorry Ranga as short affirmative values-based narratives. Pauline has for many years been interested in following missing person’s cases in Australia. The Woman in the Red Plastic Raincoat is an outcome of years of research.

Dedication

For Adrian and Penny, thank you for supporting my concern about missing people cases, from an early age.

Copyright Information ©

Pauline Lovitt (2021)

The right of Pauline Lovitt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398402225 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398403055 (ePub e-book)

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First Published (2021)

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Chapter 1

I am gobsmacked. No, what’s going on? I ask. I can’t believe it. You must be joking. This guy who approached Peter about upgrading the Cowra Thespians website and Facebook page, is posting on his ‘Cowrainfo’ blogsite that you and Peter are drug dealers? Why is he doing that?

Peter blocked him from posting anti-Semitic posts on the Cowra Thespians Facebook page. Now he’s posting debauched things accusing me and Peter of being drug dealers on his news blogsite, Cowrainfo.org. It looks like a community information newspaper. It’s online. He links the posts to Google and www.jewshishworldchangingorder.org blogsite, which is his. He is anti-Semitic, Sheryl replied despondently.

I am having trouble getting my head around this, I respond in utter amazement.

He has another blogsite where he defames the police as well, naming and shaming them. If you Google Sheryl and Peter Sheargold, we are all over it. Defamed and shamed in the public domain as drug dealers. That’s us, our reputations and good names are ruined, Sheryl replied, her eyes filling up with tears, showing me the Google posts on her iPad.

I put down my coffee cup and look at her in disbelief. Who is this creep? I said. My voice is becoming agitated and high pitched. Sheryl and Peter Sheargold have been friends since Raymond and I moved to Cowra. We met at the Cowra Thespians Theatre Group. Lately we had other things happening, so haven’t been for a while. I had no idea this was going on.

He’s been in Cowra for about a year. He lives in the same street as the Ratcliffs on Lygon Street near the road to Canowindra. He bought that place by private sale. Peter calls it the clandestine drug dealer’s place because it has shutters on all the windows and no trees around it, Sheryl said. He’s posting that Catherine and Henry are illegal gun dealers.

Why is he doing that to Catherine and Henry? I know that place is a bit strange. I must say, I have thought that myself. What’s he doing in Cowra? This is bizarre. A man moves into town and the next thing you and Peter are all over the Internet, accused of being drug dealers? He’s also doing it to his neighbours, Catherine and Henry, calling them gun dealers? I respond feeling very disturbed.

He told Peter that he had inherited a substantial amount of money from his parents who were from Griffith. He wanted to get back to a country lifestyle. He said he had been living at Vaucluse in Sydney for years. His wife died of cancer and they didn’t have children, said Sheryl.

How do you end up being a target on his blogsite then? I said. There’s something amiss here.

He seemed okay, very charming. He’s Italian, a good-looking man, well-spoken, educated and has a sense of humour. He shared with us about his faith in Jesus. He wears Giorgio Armani clothes and drives the latest model BMW 4-wheel drive, said Sheryl.

That all sounds plausible. You would be taken in by that. Why would you mistrust him? You and Peter treat people on face value, I said.

He went to university in Sydney and studied IT. Now he is a web designer. Peter thought it was a good idea to get the website upgraded for the theatre group. He offered a good price and said it would be easier if we had a Word Press website, so we can make the changes ourselves. He thought we needed to improve our Facebook image and a Twitter account, Sheryl continued.

I don’t get it that he is posting that you and Peter are drug dealers and Catherine and Henry are illegal gun dealers on his community information blogsite Cowrainfo and links it to Google, I reply. It doesn’t make any sense. I am deeply troubled.

We are distraught about this as you can imagine. Everything was fine with him and the website until it was finished. Then these odd anti-Semitic posts on the Facebook page from the Reverend Bruce Antonio appeared. He was accusing Jewish Rabbis of being deviates and paedophiles and accusing the Cowra Thespians of being Jewish, Sheryl replied.

How weird is that? I said. Didn’t you say he shared his faith about Jesus? I responded.

At the bottom of the posts on the Facebook page, he signed himself as the Reverend Bruce Antonio and put a link to an anti-Semitic site, Sheryl replied.

You just said he improved the Thespians Facebook page and redid the website? This is creepy as to why he would do that, I said.

He’s into the Jews-control-the-world propaganda, we have now discovered. Peter naturally blocked him from posting on the Thespians Facebook page. He informed him we won’t be needing his services anymore. He was paid for the work he did. The website has had to be done again and we have had to take down the Facebook page. The group wants nothing to do with him or his work, Sheryl responds in a shaky teary voice.

Reverend Bruce Antonio? This man calls himself a reverend? How sinister that he was posting anti-Semitic posts on the Cowra Thespians Facebook Page. Then he accuses you of being drug dealers on his own community information blogsite. Catherine and Henry are gun dealers?

It’s spooky. He hasn’t just done it to us and Catherine and Henry. He has been posting about other people in the community as well on his www.cowrainfo.org blogsite. Sheryl opens her iPad and types in the address. Look at this, he has countless headings, she said. I look at the long list of accusations he has made about people.

How did you find out about his posts about you on this weird Cowrainfo site? I ask in utter amazement.

We found out about Cowrainfo because he told a guy at the pub about it who works with Peter at JJs Hardware. It’s set up as though it’s a community newsletter, but online, Sheryl replied.

I gasp. You and Peter have your own heading ‘DRUG BARONS OF COWRA’. There are 75 posts about you. What’s with this NAME AND SHAME section with other community members accused of being drug dealers, gun runners, corrupt, shop lifters, arsonists and everything you can think of? I respond.

It has come from so left field. Our lives have turned into a total nightmare, said Sheryl.

I don’t get it. Why put all those unconscionable posts about councillors, real estate agents, people at the dog park and have a police corruption section in a community information blogsite? Henry and Sheryl are ‘THE TERRORISTS OF LYGON STREET’. It’s unbelievable, I said, shaking my head and blinking my eyes at what I am seeing.

We have contacted everyone he has maligned to let them know what he has done to their good names. We have all been to see the police. Superintendent Simon King just doesn’t want to know about it. He treats us as though we are the criminals. They told us that they can’t do anything about it, because he is not contacting us directly. He hasn’t made phone calls to us or been harassing us with emails.

That is ridiculous, the man is a threat to community safety, I responded. Someone could punch his head in or take a gun to him for doing that.

The police simply refuse to look at the posts. It’s freedom of speech, said Sheryl. They won’t read anything. I think they can’t read, that’s the problem.

So, this guy can put any negative disgusting thought that comes into his head about community members and it’s okay because it’s freedom of speech? I don’t get it, I replied.

Peter and Henry Ratcliff had a lengthy meeting with Superintendent King after a lot of hassling. It is too much trouble for them to research the posts. Superintendent King is useless. He has treated us as though we are all a load of idiots, said Sheryl. He’s a bully. We are the nuisance factor.

Why can’t they do anything about it? I don’t understand the reason why they are refusing to look at the sites, when Peter and Henry and all the others went in there to complain? I responded. Why would they not want to investigate someone who is posting hate comments about people in the community on the Internet?

You can’t believe the opposition we have had from the local constabulary, said Sheryl.

He is a threat to safety, not to mention the decimation of your reputations in the public domain. Someone could well and truly retaliate on him, I added. My head is spinning.

They keep saying that people put things on the Internet and it is not a police matter. There are nutters on the Internet. It’s a civil matter. We can sue him for defamation but that costs a lot of money. There are no criminal consequences. He has far more money than any of us. The info on his Cowra.info blogsite is more than slanderous. The man is debauched, Sheryl replied.

Why would the police not be concerned about your safety and community safety? I am feeling my blood boiling.

We have no idea. He’s even emailed my manager at work and Peter’s manager, signing himself the Reverend Bruce Antonio, to inform them that we are drug dealers. It has been so stressful. Fortunately, our managers have stood beside us and have expressed their concerns too to the police, said Sheryl.

What? He emailed your managers and told them, that you and Peter are drug dealers and signed the email the Reverend Bruce Antonio? Thank God your employers have stood by you, I replied. The police’s attitude is that if he wants to send an email, it’s okay, said Sheryl.

OKAY? My God, what standards have the police got these days? I responded. I am really angry. Typical bloody police to be supercilious in their responses.

We didn’t know he calls himself a Reverend, until we saw his signature on his Cowra.info blogsite and on the Facebook page for Cowra Thespians when he posted the anti-Semitic posts. He has a photo of himself with a brief description of himself on his signature. Since he has been putting these unconscionable posts in the public domain on the Internet, about us, Henry, Sheryl and other people, he has been driving around with a Minister Parking sticker on his car.

No, that’s disgraceful. That’s means that he can park anywhere, because people can think he is doing pastoral care, I said.

The man is a total fraud. He’s been seen at the dog park with his black French Poodle Fifi, wearing a clerical collar. He always goes there just at the time that the school bus arrives in the afternoon, said Sheryl.

Far out. This self-proclaimed reverend, not only has a minister parking sticker on his car, he wears a clerical collar? What sort of reverend is this? I’m looking at his signature at the bottom of his posts on his www.cowrainfo.org site.

He’s not the sort of reverend we are familiar with, said Sheryl. There’s nothing Christ-like about this reverend.

This is a worry him turning up at the dog park, at the time the school bus lets children off. I bet that qualification, is from one of those online guru hoochie moochie courses in America, where you can call yourself a Reverend. God is anything you want him to be, I said.

If you look at his signature description, he references, www.spiritualitycourseonline.com. It’s one of those dummy qualifications. Catherine Ratcliff has researched his spirit guide Ramtha, he claims to follow on his signature graphic. There is quite a lot about Ramtha on the Internet. It’s one of those beliefs where you are God and murder isn’t evil because you are reincarnated, Sheryl replied.

What the? You mean this bloody creep who calls himself a Reverend, has a spirit guide Ramtha? Ramtha’s followers believe that they are God and in reincarnation, so murder isn’t evil? Reverends are Christian ministers, I respond, shaking my head. I did a bit of study on alternative beliefs at university.

We didn’t know anything about his reverend qualification when we took him on to do the website. Of course, Peter told him we are Christians and he is an elder at the Uniting Church. We figure he didn’t want us to suspect he is a fraud, because he wanted to get his anti-Semitic messages onto the Cowra Thespians Facebook page. There were 12 posts with the most graphic cartoons and pictures of Rabbis making them look like they are total deviates, Sheryl said.

I am totally dumfounded. How does this figure that someone like this would be living in our quiet community? I replied.

Sheryl went on, We haven’t told Charlie and Libby yet, as they will be more than distraught. We are doing everything we can to get the police to charge him under current cyber bullying laws and get those sites down, along with the Google links. He should be charged with stalking me anyway. I am totally freaked out.

He stalked you? Why would he stalk you? This story gets creepier and creepier, I said feeling very uneasy.

One night on July 6th, he was waiting outside my work at 10.30 parked right next to my car, with his lights on, staring at me. I jumped in the car and went to Coles. I thought I was imagining it and being a bit paranoid. When I came out of Coles, there he was again. I rang Peter and I rang the police, Sheryl responded.

I paused to hear what Sheryl would say next, but she started crying again. I am giving her a hug and she continues in a shaky voice, wiping her eyes with a tissue. The police just thought it was a coincidence and treated me like a neurotic female.

I can’t believe this. You called the police when he stalked you and they passed it off, that you were just a hysterical female? But you work 10 kms away at the Lazy Days Country Club. He lives at least 10kms on the other side of town. Why would he follow you to Coles and then be sitting there staring at you? I ask continuing to be gob smacked.

Antonio, is very slick. He told the police it was a coincidence and they believed it. This is so scary. I am listening to what Sheryl is saying in utter horror as she continues her story. We had found out about his blog sites posts by this stage and have been following what he has been putting about us and Catherine and Henry on there. We already were reporting him to the police. The next day he posted debauched posts about me. He called me an ugly slut and that I should go on one of those kinky sex chat sites.

Far out, he posted a debauched post about you the next day on his cowrainfo.org calling you an ugly slut? He refers you to sex chat line. This is like something out of a horror story. I keep listening.

He’s totally vile. He just posts all this stuff about people, with no conscience whatsoever, said Sheryl.

This is cyber bullying. The guy is confident and convincing. People could read these posts and believe it. They could think you have been leading a double life, I said.

That’s what we and Henry and Catherine and others who he posts about, on his Cowrainfo.org blogsite are worried about, Sheryl replied.

He should be charged with stalking. Is this guy a police informer? The police are certainly not onto him, I said.

We all think there has to be some reason and that’s the only one we can think of. The Griffith connection is a concern. That’s where a lot of Italian Mafia were operating. The disappearance of Donald McKay in 1977, is still not solved. They always felt he knew too much about the drug scene. He was a professing Christian. Bruce Antonio would have been a small child, but who knows what his parents were into, said Sheryl.

What a load of fuck wits. How do the police just pass this off as nothing? What web designer stalks a client to their workplace and waits outside at 10.30pm at night? This should be ringing alarm bells, especially with all the complaints about his unconscionable blog posts. Peter and you are practicing Christians and go to church. It beggars belief, I said.

The other people he has blogged about including the Ratcliffs, are all well respected people in the community. Why are the police protecting a self-proclaimed reverend who is anti-Semitic? said Sheryl. It is morbid. We think there is more to Antonio, than we know about.

I am hearing all this and thinking that there is more to this fucking unconscionable creep, the Reverend Bruce Antonio. Why the police are being so negligent is beyond me, I responded.

It’s all totally bizarre. Catherine Ratcliff being a researcher, has found out a lot about him from the Internet. She has screenshot loads of information and given it to the police, but they are being totally obstructive, said Sheryl.

I don’t get it. Why are the police being so obstructive and not taking this seriously? I replied. I am becoming more and more unnerved about this. Catherine is an academic. You would think they would respect her input and investigate him.

Catherine has found an enormous amount about him on the Internet. He has targeted people in the past. There’s a man Richard Waters in Melbourne, he did this to in 2012. His name is all over Google too, being called a drug dealer with links to his www.jewwishworldchangingorder.org blogsite. When you look at that site, Antonio is totally anti-Semitic and claims to be anti-Christ. Those graphics of Jews are horrendous, said Sheryl.

That doesn’t add up. A reverend being anti-Christ and so malicious and revengeful, I said. I think Catherine will be finding lots of information. She works in the Faculty of History. Wasn’t she doing some research into the Italian Mafia in Griffith?

She has been doing research into that area in the past. Now she has made a visit to the local historian in Griffith, to find out about the Antonio family. It looks like his parents had an orchard and a market garden and were married in the Catholic Church in 1960. They were from Calabria, said Sheryl.

Calabria, that’s the centre for the Mafia. Wasn’t that dodgy character Robert Trimbole, who they thought was linked to the disappearance of Donald McKay, from Calabria? I asked.

Sheryl has filled me in a lot about the Mafia in Griffith, so who knows what his parents were into. He told us he is an only child. She has found that he has a host of alias names as well, but it looks like he is back to his birth name, Sheryl said. He’s about 45 but doesn’t look his age.

This guy is shaping up to be a total crim. His persona is resembling people I worked with at Bathurst Jail. There is no conscience about what he says about people. He thinks it’s his right. The man’s debauched and unconscionable. Why would you put this totally unfounded shit on the Internet? I replied.

Catherine also found his www.policecorruption.org site. There are posts about an incident. Antonio accused the police, of being anti-Semitic, when he was pulled over for a breath test, four years ago. He was wearing a Star of David Talisman around his neck at the time, said Sheryl.

If you are anti-Semitic why would you wear a Star of David Talisman around your neck? It’s a Jewish symbol. It must be a decoy of some sort to get the police off track, as to who he really is, I said.

That’s what Henry says, said Sheryl. When he was pulled over, he got out of the car to abuse them. Look, there is a photo. He dared to take a selfie with the police officer. You wouldn’t believe the things he has said about the local police he’s named and shamed on that site. They are all corrupt and linked to Google posts. Look, he’s even named a Superintendent Jo Marks, as being corrupt and anti-Semitic.

I am looking again in disbelief at what Sheryl is showing me on her iPad. He certainly is good at creating confusion. There must be police intelligence, on this guy. I can’t believe that the local police, are such a load of absolute fuck wits. Sorry for swearing. I keep saying sorry to God, for calling people fuck wits, because I shouldn’t be judgmental, but really. This is serious. Now you have your reputations slandered in the public domain. What happens if the children find out about this? I said.

Sheryl can’t stop crying. I am trying to console her but am at a loss to know what to say. Don’t cry. He’s debauched, he’s appalling, and I can’t believe the police are not onto him. Wow, he’s got a Guns and Weapons section, on his police-corruption hate site too. I’ve just opened it. Look, he has extensive details of how to make bombs and explosives. I don’t get it that he is not on the police radar. If he was a Muslim he’d be on their radar, I said.

He has a heavy Internet presence and gets away with what he does, because we haven’t caught up with legislation to police people like Antonio. We are still researching him. Peter and Henry have reported him to ASIO for those posts about the bombs and explosives and contacted the federal police months ago, said Sheryl.

It’s mind-boggling. I am horrified that someone can be doing this to people and there’s nothing that can be done about it, I responded.

Catherine has also found a short biography about Bruce Antonio on his own website www.bruceboy.com. He has a collection of European handguns. He’s also interested in rally driving, bush regeneration, bush walking and has a black belt in Judo, said Sheryl in a shaky voice.

That’s all you need, Sheryl, a crazed lunatic who has it in for you, with a collection of handguns. Bruceboy.com? He has a website called that? Is he gay? I looked up the site on Sheryl’s iPad. "My God, look