A Perth father and husband who went missing 13 years ago is this week the subject of a coronial inquest, with police believing he took his own life after being accused of sexually abusing children.
Alfred Keith Crozier was reported missing by his wife on March 30, 2013, the day after she confronted him with information she had received from a family member.
She told police that when she returned to their Canning Vale home that evening, Crozier had left a note saying: “Please forgive me. I’ll give you some space. I’ve always loved you.”
The following day, Crozier called his wife from Melbourne and admitted he was guilty of what she had accused him of, later returning to their family home and leaving her a signed enduring power of attorney document giving her full power over his affairs.
He also left his car, mobile phone, computers and passport, along with keys to their home.
A month later, Crozier called his wife again. He told her he was “roaming down south” but police later traced the call to Tasmania.
“I told him I got rid of all his things and that the house was on the market,” his wife told police in a statement read out in Perth’s Coroners Court on Wednesday.
“He asked what I would do with his bit. I said what bit? For the last 36 years of having a sham of a marriage and being married to a liar … he doesn’t deserve a penny. Any money he had would be used to pay compensation to all the victims.
“[I said to him] How do you think I feel? I have lost everything, and I am an innocent victim.”
Crozier’s wife told police he said he was sorry before she told him she had told someone at his work about his alleged offending, which is when he abruptly hung up the phone.
In a later phone call he told her, “I’m ready to come home now”, to which his wife replied, “After what you have done I don’t ever want to see you again.”
He told her he wanted half the house money, “I said, ‘you must be joking’,” his wife told police at the time.
A warrant was put out for his arrest a month later.
“These [abuse allegations] are of a serious nature and, if convicted, would likely result in a significant jail term being imposed,” Senior Constable Craig Robertson told the coroner on Wednesday.
It’s for this reason that Crozier’s now ex-wife believes he took his own life and has been dead for some time.
The then-59-year-old had unsuccessfully tried to die by suicide a few weeks before he went missing when the allegations the subject of his arrest warrant were first being aired.
The inquest was also told Crozier was in remission from leukemia and had undergone a trial procedure to cure his condition which had made him very sick, telling his wife that he would not seek treatment again if the cancer returned.
After extensive inquiries by police to try and find Crozier, two separate people came forward in 2018 to say they had seen him in person.
“Tasmanian Police agreed to use their social media platform to circulate a release seeking the public’s assistance,” Robertson told the inquest.
“This release included images of Mr Crozier and stated that he is missing or living under a new identity.
“This generated a response from an anonymous informant who stated that they had seen someone similar to Mr Crozier at a cafe in Hobart. Unfortunately, police were unable to secure CCTV footage from the cafe due to the time that had passed.
“The strategy was repeated in November 2018 and this time an anonymous informant stated that they had seen the person in the photo three times over several months at a shopping centre located approximately 6 kilometres away from the initial possible sighting.
“The shopping centre is some 20 kilometres from the phone box used by Mr Crozier to call Linda in 2013.”
However, Coroner Robyn Hartley said supposed sightings were “notoriously unreliable”.
“The human eye is notoriously imaginative,” she said, after the inquest’s only witness, Detective Senior Constable Ellie Wold, told her that despite those sightings, no proof of life for Crozier could be established since his wife last heard from him in 2013.
“We all understand the dangers of relying on uncorroborated sightings.”
Wold told the inquest that, after her extensive investigations last year, that she believed it was “highly unlikely” Crozier was still alive.
“In this day and age, to be able to avoid detection, I don’t know how you’d do it,” the coroner said.
She will prepare her findings to be delivered at a later date.
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636.
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