killed Mr. and Mrs. Martin”. Martin was nowhere in the area at 11.45, and Andrew Simmons' witness statement places the gun shots at 10.40 am, not 11.45-12.45.
Chris confirms that Martin drove his distinctive yellow Volvo into the petrol station between 10.30 and 10.45 am. He paid cash - notes - for $15.00 in petrol, then drove off "in the direction of Port Arthur". For those who aren't familiar with the area, here's a map of the peninsula:
Now, Martin left home shortly after Petra - about 9.00 am, arriving at Taranna about an hour and a half later. So the timeline so far is consistent. Can you see how, at 10.40 am, when Martin was allegedly several kilometres further south, making the gun shots that Andrew Simmons heard, he wasn't even at the petrol station at Taranna yet.
As you can see, I've used Google Maps to helpfully notate the times and distances involved. Zoom in on Taranna:
The Taranna petrol station is north of the turnoff to Nubeena and Roaring Beach. So from the petrol station, both Port Arthur and Nubeena are the same direction (south). All Chris is saying is, Martin continued south, not necessarily that he went directly to Port Arthur. So far, Chris' witness statement confirms Martin's alibi and destroys the prosecution case on the timing.
Martin then makes a right hand turn into Nubeena Road, toward Roaring Beach. Another 30 minutes or so, it's now 11.00 - 11.15am. Martin says in the police prison interview that he went swimming "when it warmed up, about 11" so this is about right also. The water was cold, and he didn't spend long in it. Call it 30 minutes to walk to the water, have a swim, dry off, spot two men in short wet-suits further down the beach, then get back to the car, he is leaving the beach about 11.45 - the time the prosecution alleges he was shooting David & Sally Martin.
From the beach, back to Nubeena it's almost 20 minutes, so call it before 12.30.
I can't determine if the owners were ever interviewed by police, but if so, their statements have never been submitted to the court. The take-away isn't there any more, and the only names I have are Dave or David Doherty-Popello and someone named Barrie or Bernie. I'm not sure if these are the people who ran the take-away, but if you have any information, anything at all, please set up a free, encrypted email account at www.protonmail.com and send me an email at o_zim@protonmail.com - total anonymity assured. Your information, no matter how small, could join several other pieces together and break this case wide open.
Giving Martin 10 minutes to eat the sandwich and coffee, it's now just after 12.30 - an hour before the shots were fired at the Broad Arrow Cafe. He then drives counter-clockwise around the peninsula. It's only a ten minute drive to Port Arthur but in between, Martin's heart beats faster.
As he drives east, he thinks about Marian Larner, an older woman he was infatuated with, who lived with her husband Roger just south of Port Arthur. Martin had wanted his father to buy the farm next door, so he could be closer to her, but David & Sally Martin bought it instead. This was used later as a "motive" for Martin to kill David and Sally, but there is no evidence that he did. All we know is that he was hot for Marian, and wary of what Roger might say or do.
Thinking about Marian but afraid of her husband, he keeps going, driving past the Port Arthur Historic Site. He slows down as he drives past, but he remembers that the new government operator has installed a toll booth and entry fee. This is how Martin describes it, I strongly recommend that you read the interview transcript for yourself.
"I didn't go, definitely didn't go to Port Arthur. I wouldn't pay the money to go in. I would've (gone in) if I didn't have to pay."
"The only place I stopped was Nubeena and I drove right round..."
"I drove straight past that place (the Corolla in the forecourt of the PAHS turnoff) and I just drove past there"
After he drives north, past Seascape and arrives at the Fortescue Bay turnoff, just south of Taranna again, his memory begins to fail about 12.45 - almost an hour before the shootings happened. This is consistent with Rohypnol poisoning, and it's likely that Martin was drugged, his car was taken and he was left to die in the fire. It's important to note several questions about the BMW:
1. Martin always maintained that BMW was at Fortescue Bay, not the petrol station near Port Arthur.
2. There was a man, a woman and a young child in the BMW. Martin describes them and Jamie also refers to the wife and child while on the phone to Terry McCarthy the police negotiator. What happened to the woman and child - this was NOT Zoe Hall in the Corolla.
3. How did the BMW move from Seascape just after 12.45 to the Port Arthur toll booth, now containing Rose Nixon, Jim Pollard and Robert & Helene Salzmann?
4. How did Martin's Volvo move from where he abandoned it at Fortescue Bay, to Port Arthur, pay the entry fee with money Martin didn't have?
These are not conspiracy theories. They are valid questions, supported by evidence the police presented to court and convicted Martin on. They deserve to be examined, because if there was a miscarriage of justice, then the real perpetrators are walking around free.
The victims and their families deserve the truth. Anyone with information about the old take-away in Nubeena is strongly encouraged to make contact. If Martin is guilty, he is in the right place and he can stay there. But if he didn't act alone, or if he was set up, then the real perpetrators are still walking around free.
After Lindy Chamberlain and Sue Neil Fraser, its appropriate to examine all the evidence - all of it. yet the Port Arthur information is all locked away for another 75 years - 100 years in total. Why? Ivan Milat and Chopper Read both had media interviews, Chopper even published a book. Yet Martin and all his evidence is locked away from scrutiny as if it's something to be ashamed of.
The people deserve transparency from their government. That's part of the social contract.
And the only thing to be ashamed of is a miscarriage of justice.
***
The 2nd Empty Chair is a fiction novel, based on the witness statements and court documents. Using poetic licence, it links the facts that we know into a plausible, possible narrative that 'pokes more holes in the official story than a Pastafarian's colander.'