The 22-year-old Gomeroi man died in the early hours of July 10,2021,when he disappeared into the fast-moving Gwydir River at Moree in northern NSW,which was swollen from recent floods and full of debris.
Loved ones hold photos at the start of the inquest into Gordon Copeland’s death.Grace Quast
He had been a passenger in a car being followed by police and when the car got bogged on a dirt track about 2.30am its three occupants got out to run. An officer shouted out,“Police,don’t move” and Copeland jumped over a fence,falling down an embankment and into the river.
A two-week inquest at the NSW Coroner’s Court has heard police looked for him for about nine minutes but left when they believed he was not in the river and had managed to escape.
When two officers returned about 40 minutes later to collect some property,they heard a groaning noise and spotted him in the river. He vanished from view,and a large-scale search was launched.
Gordon Copeland,pictured with one of his children,died in July 2021.Supplied by Copeland Family
The search was called off at about 11.30am on July 10 because police incorrectly believed there had only been two people in the car and both were accounted for.
On Thursday,Copeland’s aunt Lesley Fernando said in emotional evidence to the inquest that her family never stopped searching in the three months between his disappearance and when his body was found by police divers on October 7.
She said her family waited at Moree police station all night after being told by the car’s occupants that Copeland fell into the river,but police said the search would not resume because they were satisfied there were only two people in the car.
Fernando said her family then started to search on their own,and she begged a senior officer:“ ‘Can you please give us something to help? We’re out here,knee-deep in mud and grass,we don’t know where to look.’
“He left the room ... and he came back out and he had a Post-it note,” Fernando said. “He handed the Post-it note to me and it said on it,’500 metres west of the bridge’. That was the resources we were given to look for our loved one:a Post-it note.
“So we went back to the river and we gave the Post-it note to our family.”
The official police search resumed later that day,on July 11,after another officer at Moree raised her concerns with senior police.
On July 13,as the search continued,Fernando said she was standing on the riverbank and becoming increasingly concerned at the “heartbreaking” situation when she was approached by a senior officer.
“[He] went on to tell a story about how he had been pigging a few weeks before in that area,down south of where Gordon was seen last,” Fernando said. “He said ... ‘I caught a pig,I came back the next day and the other pigs ate that pig,so you really want to hope Gordon is in the water and is not on land.’
“I was disgusted. My gut turned ... there was nothing to describe my feelings.”
She said Copeland’s death,and the response to it,“will stick with us for the rest of our lives”.
“The last 12 months is something we can never,ever get over,” she said. “We recall everything.”
Fernando said one of Copeland’s children recently pointed at her shirt,which had Copeland’s face on it,as her family prepared to head to the inquest. “He said ‘That’s my Dad,’ and he puts up his little hands and says,‘Where’s my Dad?’ ”
Many in the court began to cry at the anecdote,with tissues passed around. The family led a round of applause when Fernando stepped down at the end of her evidence.
In closing submissions,counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer said Copeland’s family should have had him for much longer than his 22 years.
Dwyer said it appeared one officer at the police station did not treat the family with empathy or respect when he said he was satisfied only two people were in the car.
She said the way the family was treated compounded the tragedy of Copeland’s death and would likely have a lasting impact on them.
Dwyer said recommendations the coroner might make include the provision of safety devices to police,including a floatation device or rope,training in how to use them,and potentially a recommendation that police receive critical thinking training.
The inquest continues.
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