The baffling mystery of how four people linked to an apocalyptic cult vanished from the face of the earth could be solved by a group of prisoners who made a gruesome discovery.
Chantelle McDougall was last seen alive with cult leader Gary Felton, his six-year-old daughter Leela and friend Tony Popic in a remote area of Western Australia in July 2007.
McDougall, 27, had fallen under the spell of Felton, 45, a British-born spiritualist who had assumed the identity of an English co-worker named Simon Kadwell in 1986.
At the time of her disappearance, McDougall and Leela were living with Felton on a derelict farm in Nannup, about 280 kilometers south of Perth, with 42-year-old Popic.
A forensic investigation into the quartet’s disappearance in December 2017 ended without finding that the missing cult members were dead, let alone how they could have lost their lives.
A retired police officer is on a mission to solve one of Australia’s most baffling missing persons cases. Barry McIntosh’s niece Chantelle McDougall (above) disappeared with her daughter Leela, Leela’s father Gary Felton and her friend Tony Popic in July 2007.
Chantelle McDougall, 27, had fallen under the spell of Gary Felton, 45, a British-born spiritualist who had assumed the identity of an English co-worker named Simon Kadwell in 1986. Felton appears with Leela in her second birthday.
Now Ms McDougall’s uncle Barry McIntosh, who served 35 years in Victoria Police, is conducting his own investigations into the fate of the four and is appealing to the public for help.
McIntosh wants to locate witnesses who can shed light on what happened to his niece, his daughter, Mr. Popic and Felton, and in particular to a group of prisoners who were never interviewed by the police.
Those prisoners found clothing near where McIntosh believes McDougall and at least some of the others might be buried, and also reported smelling what might have been human remains.
The charismatic Felton (‘Si’ to his acolytes) was the founder of Truth Fellowship and had 40 online followers of what has been described as an international apocalyptic cult.
Felton called his followers The Forecourt and spoke with them through a chat room known as The Gateway, where they would discuss the teachings of his book, Servants of the Divine Plan.
That book warned of the Earth’s imminent ruin, but promised a new world of higher consciousness once a 75,000-year “cycle” had run its course.
Chantelle McDougall (left), her daughter Leela (front), Leela’s father Gary Felton (centre) and friend Tony Popic (right) were last seen in Busselton on the coast of Western Australia.
At the time of her disappearance, McDougall and her daughter were living with Gary Felton and Tony Popic in a run-down house in Nannup, about 280 kilometers south of Perth.
Felton told members of The Forecourt that he was planning a suicide pact with Ms. McDougall and Mr. Popic that would involve the murder of his daughter.
He had also talked about moving to Brazil with his Nannup ‘servants’ to live an alternative lifestyle in an Amazonian commune.
Felton was last seen on 13 July 2007 with McDougall, Leela and Popic in Busselton, a coastal town about 60 kilometers northwest of Nannup.
Barry McIntosh (above) has reviewed the investigation into the disappearances of his niece, daughter and Tony Popic
They sold a car to a dealer for $4,000 and left in a waiting vehicle.
Three days after the group left her home, homeowner Elizabeth Crouch found a note on her front door that said, “I’m gone to Brazil.”
Crouch said Felton and McDougall sold their two dachshunds, gave away their chickens and left the property spotless. They had taken all their clothes but left their credit cards, furniture and electronic devices.
Police initially suspected the four had fled to New Zealand before heading to South America.
But immigration records show no sign that any of the four have left the country and their bank accounts remain intact.
The 2017 investigation found evidence that recent phone calls from the Nannup address and Mr Popic’s mobile were used to book trains and buses to Kalgoorlie and Northcliffe.
Kalgoorlie is 790 kilometers north east of Nannup and Northcliffe about 100 kilometers south.
Three months after the group disappeared, prison workers found clothes strewn near Northcliffe and, fearing something sinister might have happened, informed the authorities.
Barry McIntosh, uncle of missing mother Chantelle McDougall, has served 35 years with Victoria Police and hopes to search a remote area of the Western Australian bush with cadaver dogs. Pictured is Mrs McDougall’s daughter Leela.
The inmates, from Pardelup prison camp, had been working near the railway tracks and said they had also noticed a “dead meat” smell in the surrounding bushes.
Police responding to the scene found a woman’s red T-shirt that was lost before it was subjected to forensic testing.
McIntosh plans to visit Northcliffe bushland with cadaver dogs and undertake a new search.
“I fear the Western Australian police who were present may not have traveled to the correct location indicated by the prisoners at the time,” he said.
‘Since I think they went to the wrong place, I don’t think the loss of the shirt is a big deal. Incompetent yes, but it won’t have any impact on the final result.’
By the time detectives followed up on prisoners’ information again in 2015, large wildfires had ravaged the area.
McIntosh had since located the correctional officer who was supervising the inmates on the day they made their discovery and provided him with GPS coordinates that did not match whether police had conducted a search.
Felton, who did not work and relied on financial support from Ms. McDougall and Mr. Popic, slept during the day and stayed up all night in front of his computer in his rented house (above).
The former police officer also said that police had told the coroner that they had been unable to locate the prisoners who found the clothes.
“This is difficult for me to understand,” he said.
As part of his public appeal, Mr McIntosh has set up a freephone number (1800 489 819) for witnesses such as prisoners to leave a message.
McIntosh believed that “there are only one or two people who really know what happened and where our loved ones are.”
“I’m afraid I’ll look for a burial place,” he said.
Mrs. McDougall’s parents, Jim and Cathy, initially thought their daughter was hiding somewhere under the control of her spirit guide.
“I think he probably has them hidden somewhere while he goes up to his usual tricks of getting money out of people by scamming them over the Internet with this cult material,” McDougall said in 2010.
Seven years later, Detective Sergeant Greg Balfour told the inquest into the quartet’s disappearance that he had been stumped by the investigation.
“Chantelle was a loving mother and would not have taken the life of her daughter Leela,” Ms. McDougall’s uncle wrote in a GoFundMe appeal. Leela appears in the photo with Gary Felton
“It’s such a strange story and we have as little idea of their whereabouts today as we did in 2007 when they disappeared,” Senior Sergeant Balfour said.
“There is no evidence to suggest they are dead, just as there is no evidence to suggest they are alive.”
In May 2018, coroner Barry King said he could not establish beyond reasonable doubt that any of the missing four were dead.
King said investigative opportunities, such as examining the T-shirt found near Northcliffe and surrounding bushland, had not been taken advantage of.
McIntosh, who worked in Victoria’s major crime teams, including homicide, was given a copy of the investigation file after conducting the investigation and conducted a review of those documents.
He has launched an appeal on GoFundMe to raise $5,000 to travel to Western Australia to conduct further research, particularly around Northcliffe.
McIntosh said her niece was presumed dead and buried somewhere with her daughter and Mr. Popic.
“I will attempt to use cadaver dogs to search a particular area of bush that Western Australian Police were unable to adequately identify,” he wrote in his appeal.
McIntosh is asking for $5,000 to pay for travel, vehicle rental and trailer park accommodations.