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There are some stories, as a journalist, you don’t want to face.
I never met Stephanie Scott, but it is clear she was a loving, caring, adoring fiancée.
Today, she should be waking up as a married woman, gathering with all of her favourite people in the world for a “recovery brunch.”
Her partner, Aaron Leeson-Woolley, should be doing the same.
Instead, he is simply trying to exist.
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He doesn’t know why his bride was killed, or how. All he knows is this – another man is accused of murdering Stephanie, burning her body and dumping it in a National Park. The rest is left to the darkest corners of his imagination.
Then there are Stephanie’s devoted parents. They watched her find herself a man they loved and trusted to take their daughter’s hand for the rest of what should have been her long, fruitful life.
They, too, will never see their girl walk down the aisle or bask in the love of her own children. Their family is wrecked.
I often hear the word “closure” in the course of doing my job. It’s a nice concept. But I ask myself how the Scott’s, how Aaron, can possibly get over this – ever.
For four days, Stephanie Scott was possibly a “runaway bride”. Those who knew her just would not accept this. Stephanie was meticulous when it came to her special day. She was organised. She had just about finished the last minute touches, writing guests’ names on terracotta pots, planning a reception. Planning a life.
Those who loved Stephanie were right.
The man police allege proved them so tragically right is Vincent Stanford, a cleaner at Leeton High School where Stephanie Scott was a popular English and drama teacher.
It seems Vincent Stanford knew Stephanie in some capacity. Stephanie was the type of young woman who gave everyone the time of day. Friends and family say she was approachable and warm. People gravitated towards her.
On Easter Sunday, on one of the most sacred days on the holy calendar, when Stephanie was alone in a school classroom preparing lessons, police allege he attacked her.
Police say he will not reveal how or why.
As a newlywed journalist, this story stings. It is gut-wrenching that after their five years together – planning their special day for the last year of it – Stephanie and Aaron were robbed. Deliberately, selfishly, violently, inexplicably.
When the national media rolled into the Riverina town of Leeton, the investigation took a sinister turn. Very quickly, police had a result, an outcome Stephanie’s family never wanted to entertain. Nobody wanted to entertain it.
Police reporter Dimity Clancey.
What happened to Stephanie Scott diminishes us all as a society.
Standing before a camera delivering heart-breaking news is something journalists have to do quite often. It’s part of my job as a police reporter.
And as I sit here six months pregnant with my first child, I start to realise just how protective I will be as a mother.
The world can be a beautiful place, you don’t ever want your children to be afraid of it, but sometimes it’s just true – sometimes, there really is a monster in the closet.
