How CCTV proved crucial in solving the mystery of Jill’s disappearance

When CCTV footage emerged showing Jill Meagher alive in the early hours of last Saturday, it briefly raised her family’s hopes she was still alive.

The 29-year-old Drogheda native could clearly be seen alive and unharmed, and talking to a man.

However, their hope was extinguished when Adrian Ernest Bayley, believed by police to be the man on the tape, was arrested yesterday.

He is accused of raping and murdering her shortly after the footage was captured. He then dumped her body in a shallow grave beside a dirt road about 50km from the home she shared with her Irish husband Tom in Melbourne city.

It was Bayley who led police, at 1.45am Australian time, to the mound of dirt which concealed her body.

Police sources have said they believe it was a random and opportunistic crime, and that Bayley did not know her prior to the attack.

While CCTV footage from a bridal store security camera had raised her family’s hopes, it had provided crucial evidence to Melbourne police of what happened in the early hours of last Saturday, minutes after Ms Meagher had left a bar where she had been drinking with friends.

The footage was the last sighting of her alive.

Bayley was arrested at his home in Coburg, Melbourne, at 2.30pm Australian time yesterday. He led officers to the body at 1.45am and by 3am was appearing before an “out of sessions” court hearing in a police station.

There, during a 90-second hearing, he was charged with the murder and rape of Ms Meagher. He was due to appear before Melbourne Mag-istrates Court later.

Since her husband reported her missing at midday last Saturday, Melbourne police have led a highly public campaign in an attempt to trace the ABC news employee. They were helped by a prolific social media campaign, particularly a Facebook page.

The first concrete indication that Ms Meagher might have been the victim of a serious crime came when her handbag was discovered in a laneway close to her home on Monday. Police had searched the lane on the day she went missing and there was no sign of the bag. When it appeared two days later, still containing her bank cards but no mobile phone, it prompted detectives to believe it had been planted there.

Media attention turned to her husband on Tuesday when police spent five hours searching the couple’s home before removing bags of evidence. Detectives said the searches were routine and that Mr Meagher was not a suspect.

On Wednesday, the CCTV footage emerged. It showed a man in a blue hoodie passing the camera in the shop twice shortly after 1.30am. He then passed again, this time with Ms Meagher. She was clutching her mobile phone and carrying her handbag. It is believed she rang her brother after the footage was recorded, to check on the condition of her father, who had recently suffered a stroke.

While her husband was being comforted by relatives in Australia yesterday, in Drogheda her uncle Michael McKeon read a statement to reporters on behalf of family members there.

“We are devastated. We are heartbroken. She was the first grandchild my mother had, and her aunts, uncles, and cousins are powerless to describe their loss,” he said.

“There are no words to describe how we feel at what has happened. We had hope yesterday when there was no evidence of foul play but when the man in the CCTV footage was arrested we feared the worst.

“We acknowledge the role that social media has played in the search for her. We believe that it has helped us to reach a conclusion although it is not the one we had hoped and prayed for.

“We thank the people around the world who have supported us. Both the McKeon family and Meagher family will have to plan now to grieve for Jillian and this is going to be one of the hardest things given that only three years ago we came together for the marriage of this lovely couple.”