Chapman Homicide
Media Conference, Perry and Titheradge streets in Chapman
Detective Superintendent Leanne Close
22 December 2005 (1.20pm)
Leanne Close: ACT Policing responded to a Triple 000 call from a premises in Titheradge Place in Chapman, where we found a deceased lady on the premises. We've identified the person as a 50-year-old woman, her name's Mrs Nanette Porritt, she's also known as "Sandi" Porritt. Inquiries to date, I mean, looking at the crime scene and assessing the situation, we've identified that this is a murder investigation and so we've now enclosed the crime scene and treating it as a homicide investigation.
Journalist: Who made the Triple 000 call?
Leanne Close: It was a family member.
Journalist: Have you got suspects at this stage?
Leanne Close: I can't talk about the investigation at this stage, it's still very early in the investigation as you can imagine; we still have forensics examining the crime scene as well.
Journalist: What kind of injuries has Mrs Porritt suffered?
Leanne Close: I can't go into the injuries, they are quite severe, and that's again as much as we can say. We're acting now on behalf of the coroner and a post mortem will be performed in relation to Mrs Porritt.
Journalist: Is the likelyhood [inaudible] murder weapon?
Leanne Close: Again, I just can't go into the actual circumstances of what we've located so far.
Journalist: Police were searching backyards last night, what were they looking for?
Leanne Close: We were looking for any evidence.
Journalist: When was she last seen?
Leanne Close: She was seen about 4:30pm by a family member.
Journalist: At this stage can you say whether it looks like a bungled burglary or what was it?
Leanne Close: It's really too early to speculate about any motives or evidence of crime being committed.
Journalist: Is there any evidence of forced entry?
Leanne Close: Again, that's part of the investigation that we're looking at, at this point.
Journalist: You've identified this as a murder investigation much more quickly than say the body that was found the other day. Why is that, why is there a difference there?
Leanne Close: I guess the differences when we announce whether it's an investigation or not really come down to the individual circumstances, looking at injuries, looking at whole circumstances surrounding location of the body, other things like that, and from other information that we've uncovered, we've also overnight conducted extensive inquiries, taken statements and doorknocked in this area.
Journalist: How and where was she found?
Leanne Close: Again, she was located in the house, but that's as much information as I can give you at this point.
Journalist: Where is the husband, is he having anything to do with the investigation?
Leanne Close: The family members are co-operating with the investigation at this point.
Journalist: Where was she employed?
Leanne Close: For privacy reasons we've discussed with the family and they prefer not to release any more details that we have other than the name of the victim.
Journalist: We've had quite a number of murder investigations this year, compared with other years. I mean, is there a trend or is there any reason why this might be the case?
Leanne Close: Each investigation is very individual, at this stage there's nothing linking this crime to any other, it's always dependent entirely upon the circumstances.
Journalist: Are you confident of an arrest?
Leanne Close: It's just too early to say at this stage of the investigation.
Journalist: Was anything stolen from the house?
Leanne Close: Again, that's fairly early in the investigation, because as soon as emergency services identified that the lady was deceased, we then closed the premises down as crime scene, and that's basically it at this point.
Journalist: And I guess at this time of the year it's you know, it's a horrible time of year for the family, but I suppose also for the police to investigate.
Leanne Close: Yes, it's always difficult for the family members in particular obviously, it's horrific for them. But for police members it's been a fairly busy year and they're doing the most work that they can possibly, to identify who may have committed this offence.
Journalist: Who called police?
Leanne Close: It was a family member, as I said earlier.
Journalist: Was it one of the daughters?
Leanne Close: I can't say who it was.
Journalist: She was a mother of how many children?
Leanne Close: She's a mother, she's married with three children.
Journalist: Are they under a certain age?
Leanne Close: Again, the family's asked us to just respect their privacy.
Journalist: And how long will the street be closed off?
Leanne Close: It could take several days in fact for our forensics investigators to complete the work that they're doing; it will just depend on the advice we get from them as to when we can actually open up the street.
Journalist: And do you have any more information about the body that was found on Kambah oval, and the post-mortem that was performed?
Leanne Close: I can't reveal anything about the post mortem at this point because we're still waiting on additional information about all the pathological testing that was done, all of the different forensic tests that have been undertaken. We won't have any reports on that for at least another week.
Journalist: Can you reveal whether you're treating it as suspicious?
Leanne Close: We're still treating it as suspicious, we're still doing all the same inquiries that we need to do, but again we're acting on behalf of the coroner and conducting all the inquiries that we can to then put forward a brief to the coroner in relation to our findings.
Journalist: Do you think you'll have the street open before Christmas, because it is a pretty you know, sombre picture at Christmas time.
Leanne Close: I honestly have no information at this point about how long we'll have to keep the street closed.
Ends//