Rachel Barber
1983 -1999
Official Memorial Website
Administered by Rachel's parents Michael and Elizabeth Barber
1983 -1999
Official Memorial Website
Administered by Rachel's parents Michael and Elizabeth Barber
ELIZABETH SOUTHALL is the pen-name of (myself) Elizabeth Barber. She was born in Victoria in 1959, one of four children of Ivan Southall, a distinguished Australian writer of children's literature. Elizabeth herself is known for her work as a children's book specialist.
The disappearance and murder of Elizabeth and Michael's eldest daughter Rachel first made headlines around Australia in the first weeks of March 1999. Elizabeth kept a journal from that time on, including letters she'd written to Rachel. Perfect Victim stems from those writings.
Elizabeth lives in country Victoria, with her husband Michael who was once a toy maker and designer. Their two younger daughters, Ashleigh-Rose and Heather, now adults, live away from home.
(I might like to add here that I wrote independently of Megan Norris. I was not ghost written. It has been said to me that some people have thought that Megan wrote my story as told by me to Megan. This is not the case. I feel most strongly about this. Megan and I are both independent authors of Perfect Victim. Intellectual property is most important to me.)
The disappearance and murder of Elizabeth and Michael's eldest daughter Rachel first made headlines around Australia in the first weeks of March 1999. Elizabeth kept a journal from that time on, including letters she'd written to Rachel. Perfect Victim stems from those writings.
Elizabeth lives in country Victoria, with her husband Michael who was once a toy maker and designer. Their two younger daughters, Ashleigh-Rose and Heather, now adults, live away from home.
(I might like to add here that I wrote independently of Megan Norris. I was not ghost written. It has been said to me that some people have thought that Megan wrote my story as told by me to Megan. This is not the case. I feel most strongly about this. Megan and I are both independent authors of Perfect Victim. Intellectual property is most important to me.)
MEGAN NORRIS is a UK-born journalist experienced in the criminal justice system. Her career in journalism began in 1976 as a reporter in the UK covering courts, police rounds and general news. Later, specialising in court coverage, she wrote about the impact of crime on victims and their families. she has covered stories including the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre and some of Australia's most high-profile serial killers and stalkers.
Her fist contact with Elizabeth came when she was preparing a story about the Barber family for Australian Consolidated Press. Elizabeth and Megan became friends and a collaboration began. Megan's following of the Rachel Barber case and her research for Perfect Victim occupied her life for over three years.
Her fist contact with Elizabeth came when she was preparing a story about the Barber family for Australian Consolidated Press. Elizabeth and Megan became friends and a collaboration began. Megan's following of the Rachel Barber case and her research for Perfect Victim occupied her life for over three years.
Some time in the first week of March 1999, the body of Rachel Elizabeth Barber was unceremoniously dumped in the wardrobe of a second-floor flat in Trinian Street, Prahran, an inner suburb of Melbourne. A black, old-fashioned telecommunications cable was still tight around her neck.
In another room were all sorts of scribblings: hate lists, catalogues, notes about Rachel, her family, her personality, her likes and dislikes - and one note in particular with the ominous words, 'All things come to pass'.
In another room were all sorts of scribblings: hate lists, catalogues, notes about Rachel, her family, her personality, her likes and dislikes - and one note in particular with the ominous words, 'All things come to pass'.
PERFECT VICTIM
A short excerpt from Chapter 1
An Autumn Evening
Monday, 1 March
A short excerpt from Chapter 1
An Autumn Evening
Monday, 1 March
"An uneasy thought occurred to me while I gave the two younger children their evening meal. It was only 7.15 but Mike and Rachel should have come, exhausted, through the door about 6.45 pm...
I looked at the clock again: 7.17. I picked at my food and thought back over the day. An easy day. An ordinary day beginning with an ordinary morning"
I looked at the clock again: 7.17. I picked at my food and thought back over the day. An easy day. An ordinary day beginning with an ordinary morning"
Polish Cover
Buy or order from your bookshop:
paperback $19.99 isbn 9780143001027
ebook $12.99
isbn 9781742286938
paperback $19.99 isbn 9780143001027
ebook $12.99
isbn 9781742286938
The following instructions are direct copy from Penguin Books Australia. It gives information for purchasing eBooks.
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If you’re purchasing these from penguin.com.au, you’ll need to use Adobe's Digital Editions software to view the files on your ereading device. You can download and register your Adobe Digital Editions software here."
"Follow the instructions from your device manufacturer to transfer or import eBooks from your computer to your device. You can buy our eBooks from Amazon.com, Apple iBookstore, Google Play, Kobo, Readcloud and booki.sh.
We also sell eBooks directly from our website. Please read our step by step guide to downloading eBooks here. Please note Penguin's eBooks are not compatible with Kindle devices, nor e-reading apps on Android devices. For customers wishing to purchase Penguin eBooks for these devices they can do so via the Kindle store at Amazon.com.
If you’re purchasing these from penguin.com.au, you’ll need to use Adobe's Digital Editions software to view the files on your ereading device. You can download and register your Adobe Digital Editions software here."
Link to an ebook site where there are sample chapters. You will need to go through a couple of google search pages.
Amazon Look Inside ebook Perfect Victim
Amazon Look Inside ebook Perfect Victim
Further Excerpts from Perfect Victim
Perfect Victim excerpt by Elizabeth Southall
Chapter 13 Front Page News
Day 9: Wednesday 10 March
Nine days after Rachel had waved happily from the door her disappearance made front-page news.
As day breaks I walk across to the petrol station to buy the papers. I am numb. The newspaper and media attention emphasises our loss; will I ever see her again? You read the headlines ‘Family Fear on Missing Teen’, you read the story and make your judgement. Bad feeling about that girl. She’s dead. And you realise that the thing that always happens to someone else is happening to Rachel, to Mike and Elizabeth, to Ashleigh-Rose and Heather. Not strangers. Me. Us. Our family. The paper tells your own story. The paper makes it final ... and life goes on.
More phone calls. More sorrys. More help offered. More food left. Radio calling. Television calling. Attention plus.
Drew drives to Healesville to pick up more recent photographs and a Christmas video.
Victorian Police Media Liaison arranges for all the television stations and press to visit our house together so that we need only tell our story once. 'Australia's Most Wanted' will be coming after the news media. All other inquiries can be directed to Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Waddell at the Missing Persons Unit. There is a sense of protection. I vaguely remember the presence of a kindly policewoman.
Furniture is rearranged. Lights are glaring. Television cameras. Fluffy microphones. Sound technicians. Reporters. Our living room is transformed. It is a long morning. A blur. There is a video fiasco. Competition between channels or programs from the same channel, with Drew caught in the middle. Apologies given. Apologies accepted. I remember thinking, why is this happening to our family? Will they help us find our beautiful daughter?
Perfect Victim excerpt by Megan Norris
Chapter 28
An New Persona - Total Revhead
'Jem Southall - 16 years - Total revhead' ran a note presented to evidence at the Supreme Court on the first day of Caroline Reed Robertson's plea hearing on Wednesday, 25 October 2000.
The handwritten documents had not made much sense to detectives originally studying them. But this note, combined with the application for a copy of Rachel's birth certificate, raised a new suspicion. and at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, on a miserable October morning, what already promised to be an exceedingly strange murder case began to take on a new dimension.
An incredibly bizarre twist seemed to be emerging from the investigations, and it gave the Crown a possible motive for murder. Robertson, it appeared, had not just planned to kill Rachel Barber, she had wanted to become her. Or at least somebody closely resembling Rachel Barber, with all the admirable qualities and physical characteristics she perceived in the young dancer. Somebody far removed from the 'nobody' Caroline Reed Robertson considered herself to be.
'It seems from the prisoner's handwritten notes, that she intended to adopt the name "Jem Southall",' stated Mr Jeremy Rapke, QC, opening the Crown's case at the two-day plea hearing. 'She even constructed a short personal history of Jem Southall which contained fictitious details of the parents of the new persona,' he said.
Robertson described her new alter ego as sixteen years old and a 'total revhead'. She was going to reinvent herself as someone younger, more dynamic, different. A real go-getter.
Another document confirms the existence of this extraordinary identity-swap scheme. In this one, Robertson begins scribbling Rachel's name in capital letters,slowly renaming her Rachel Southall as she goes down the page. Then Rachel's name disappears and a new signature emerges - Jem Southall. She doodles the new name repeatedly as if this new identity is slowly evolving from her imagination, the new person subtly replacing Rachel Barber,whose name has vanished. 'Jem, Jem, Jemmy', she scribbles. Then, 'Oh Baby, baby, how was I supposed to know'. She signs off with 'Cool Bananas', punctuated with a heart.
Chapter 28
An New Persona - Total Revhead
'Jem Southall - 16 years - Total revhead' ran a note presented to evidence at the Supreme Court on the first day of Caroline Reed Robertson's plea hearing on Wednesday, 25 October 2000.
The handwritten documents had not made much sense to detectives originally studying them. But this note, combined with the application for a copy of Rachel's birth certificate, raised a new suspicion. and at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, on a miserable October morning, what already promised to be an exceedingly strange murder case began to take on a new dimension.
An incredibly bizarre twist seemed to be emerging from the investigations, and it gave the Crown a possible motive for murder. Robertson, it appeared, had not just planned to kill Rachel Barber, she had wanted to become her. Or at least somebody closely resembling Rachel Barber, with all the admirable qualities and physical characteristics she perceived in the young dancer. Somebody far removed from the 'nobody' Caroline Reed Robertson considered herself to be.
'It seems from the prisoner's handwritten notes, that she intended to adopt the name "Jem Southall",' stated Mr Jeremy Rapke, QC, opening the Crown's case at the two-day plea hearing. 'She even constructed a short personal history of Jem Southall which contained fictitious details of the parents of the new persona,' he said.
Robertson described her new alter ego as sixteen years old and a 'total revhead'. She was going to reinvent herself as someone younger, more dynamic, different. A real go-getter.
Another document confirms the existence of this extraordinary identity-swap scheme. In this one, Robertson begins scribbling Rachel's name in capital letters,slowly renaming her Rachel Southall as she goes down the page. Then Rachel's name disappears and a new signature emerges - Jem Southall. She doodles the new name repeatedly as if this new identity is slowly evolving from her imagination, the new person subtly replacing Rachel Barber,whose name has vanished. 'Jem, Jem, Jemmy', she scribbles. Then, 'Oh Baby, baby, how was I supposed to know'. She signs off with 'Cool Bananas', punctuated with a heart.
This is sadly the real murder weapon that Caroline murdered Rachel with.
In the top photo on the Polish cover Rachel is dancing in her Granddad Ivan's garden; aged 12. The photo in the bottom left hand side of this jacket , was taken by Manni at his parents' house, a couple of weeks before her murder. She is holding, among other toys, Wally the whale, which my cousin Jamie gave her when she was born. It was her favourite baby present and not long before this photo was taken Rachel gave this to Manni; as a token of her love.
From front page in book, excepting bracketed words.
From front page in book.