The bones in the suitcase.

Part one.

Dead silent.

My husband came home from a night out with his mates. I heard him walk through the door. I heard him rummaging around in the kitchen. I could hear him open a plastic rubbish bag. He put something in it and then went and had a shower. I could smell the scent of cigarettes from our bedroom down the hall.

He didn't come to bed he slept on the couch. I just figured that he would come to bed later. He usually felt sick after drinking so much. Him and his friends would chug down a carton of beer and a carton of fruitielexia when they were strapped for cash.

I looked at my clock and it was midnight. I had only had two hours of sleep. I decided to look in the trash. In the household rubbish bin there was nothing. So, I looked in the big bin outside being careful not to wake him. I opened the lid and there was a fresh bag on top.

I untied it and there were his clothes reeking of alcohol and smothered in blood. He must have been in a bar fight I thought to myself. My heart was racing as I tip-toed back into our room.

Thoughts were running through my head. How bad was the bar fight the fight must've been pretty bad for him to stain his clothes with blood. I thought about it the whole night. I had such a restless nights sleep.

My alarm started to go off I got out of bed and went to have a shower. Scrubbed my body and washed my hair got out and did my daily skin care routine. I walked out and found John making breakfast in the kitchen for me and for him.

He had his shirt off and was in his boxers. I was so exhausted from worrying about him all night. I put a load of washing in and gave him the silent treatment. Even though he was all happy and smiling.

"Why didn't you come to bed last night?" I asked.

"I didn't want to wake you." He replied.

"I heard you rummaging around in the kitchen and I heard you put something in the bin." I explained.

"Angel, I was putting the cans in the bin so that we could recycle them." He answered.

"Okay." I replied.

So, he was lying about his blood stained clothes. Why? I wondered. He didn't look to have bruisers on his face or body that I could see. He was hiding something. I could see it in his eyes. He had a slight twitch in his right eye when he was lying. I went to check the recycling bin playing along with his games. There were no cans.

"How come there are no new cans out here?" I questioned.

"What?" He asked.

He obviously forgot his lie.

"Oh, umm I." He said.

Trying to think of a new lie to tell me. I had to leave for work. I left without saying anything. I sat in my car for a moment. I wanted to cry but I held in my tears. I drove to work that morning thinking what he could have possibly done to lie to me that hard.

The whole day at work I couldn't focus. I just had a bad inkling in my stomach. It was five o'clock finally finishing time. I did a 7-5 shift that day. When I got home I was exhausted. John cleaned the whole house and brought me flowers as an apology for last night.

I walked out to the bin and the clothes were gone. Even though the bins hadn't been emptied yet. My phone started to buzz it was raining a male voice was on the other end of the phone.

"I know what your husband did, I've been watching though your window." It said.

No name just a voice on the other end that seemed serious. I raced back inside. I didn't say anything I glanced out the windows that were shut. I couldn't see anyone. I looked at John. Then my phone buzzed again this time it was a message a video.

We had a creek that backed on to our house. It was John from a far distance. With a suitcase in his hands throwing it into the lake. I could see him walking back up to the house acting like nothing wrong.

It seemed like the video was recorded from our cctv cameras. It couldn't be because they had run out of batteries several days ago. I could see that John was pacing around the house trying to focus on cooking dinner.

I was expecting a knock on the door from the police about the missing suitcase. That whole night I worried and I never slept. I never told John about the message. I was waiting for him to tell me the truth.

I lasted two days and I finally got the guts to show him the message but I sent it through to his phone. While he was at the pub with his mates. I knew that he saw it he never replied. That night he didn't come home.

I panicked my heart was racing. I was so tired. I knew the police couldn't do anything just yet. I would file a missing person’s report after he had been missing for twenty-four hours.

I waited at home, I paced around the house. I waited for a message to say that he was okay. It had been twenty-four hours I called the police. They filed a report. His face was on the news that night. A whole sixty thousand people viewed the broadcast. John was a popular man he had real morals and manners. I kept wondering what was in that suitcase?

We had been married for almost twenty years we were both forty years old. I had never seen this behaviour before. Scared, worried and panicking. I wondered if something happened when I sent him the message. What if someone else saw him like that man on the phone.

He has a deep voice he sounded serious. The police came out to check the house and its surroundings. The only thing they found was cctv footage.Off our cameras out the back which were always on and monitoring. They saw him put his clothes in the bin.

They put them in an evidence bag and they saw the distant footage of him throwing the suitcase in the creek. The detectives searched the shallow waters. They couldn't find anything but they wanted to drain the creek. There was still no sign of John no messages at all it's like everything went dead silent.

Part two.

Lost and found.

It's been two weeks since Johns was gone. He just vanished into thin air. The police have ruled it as suspicious with foul play involved. His face was on every single newspaper article on the front page. A top broadcast was made to keep everyone up to date.

I was exhausted, frantic and helpless all in one go. I'd never felt pain like this before. Knowing that someone could have murdered my husband. A widow at forty if the police didn't find him.The detectives and the marine officers were searching and draining the deep waters in the creek for that suitcase. I have no family, no friends nothing to help me through this.

They haven't even called. I felt abandoned again like I was a child searching for a lost toy.I loved John so much to the point where I would do anything for him. I kept having dreams that he was abducted and taken to one of the most dangerous forests in the whole of Australia.

The Bangalow forest is the place where serial killer Ivan Milat murdered and buried his victims. He was now in jail so it couldn't have been him. John went that way to work. Maybe he broke down and got lost or his phone died. I was just repeating theories in my head. I went down to the creek.

It was filled with people from the community. I didn't want to show my face I was scared. My stomach was churning I felt like I was going to be sick I had no energy. The vomit was caught in my throat. I could feel it bubbling.

I reached the creek and I saw the marine officers pull something out of the water. It was stuck in between two rocks. It took two of them to pull it out. It was the suitcase. They brought it back to land and opened it in front of everyone.

I tried to focus then people's jaws dropped. I walked closer and it was human remains covered in maggots and leeches eating the flesh sucking the blood and guts out of the bones. I fainted.

The police rushed over to me and put water on my face. I opened my eyes and I felt dizzy I vomited. Now I knew for sure that he was either hiding a murder or was a murderer. There was no way out of this.

It was later found that the bones belonged to a man named Nick Williams. Forensics had tested the remains the man was tortured his bones were broken so that he would fit into the suitcase. You could only imagine how much trauma this bloke went through.

It was on the front page for weeks. The detectives searched the house repeatedly. I was exhausted I went to the doctors and they put me on anti psychotics medication and then diagnosed me with PTSD.

There were still no traces of John. My phone started to buzz again. I was at the house I read a text message that read "I'm watching you." I screamed. I looked out the windows and closed all the blinds. So it was dark it was broad daylight. It was mid day.

I checked every room of the house there was no body. I felt so lonely and scared. I wanted to tell the police but fear stopped me in my tracks. My hands were trembling.

"Who are you?" I replied to the message.

"None of your business " It replied.

What happened next will haunt me for ever.

The windows smashed intruders came through the house. They were dressed in black and were wearing hoodies there were two of them. I hid underneath my bed one of them saw me and dragged me out. I was screaming hoping that someone would call the police.

I went to grab my phone but the intruder threw it on to the ground.

"You're husband's dead." It was the same voice I heard over the phone.

"Where going to take you to him and soon you will be dead too." He said.

The alarm system for the house started going off. I heard police sirens roaring down the street. I could feel my heart rapidly racing. I was crying I was kicking I was screaming begging for them to let me. The police were too late.They shoved me in to the back of the car in the boot and put a gag in my mouth. So that I couldn't scream I couldn't breathe I was hyperventilating.

I had to collect myself I had to regulate my emotions. I was sweating. They shut the boot and I heard them get into the front seat of the car. I was so tired my head was hurting my body was aching. I peed myself I was that scared.

We came to a stop and my body rolled to the front of the boot. The intruders opened it still wearing black hoodies and black pants. They had a snake symbol on their jumpers front and back. They both grabbed my arms and took the gag out of my mouth.

"Scream no one can hear you." He said.

"I dare you!" Laughed the other.

They dragged me to the bush and it was in fact the bungalow forest. I saw the back Packers grave sites sitting among the trees. Covered in flowers from loved ones that couldn't have guessed their lost one’s fate. The atmosphere was unsettling I was almost passing out.

The sun was blistering hot even though it was covered by the trees. How the hell was I going to get out of this one. They were going to bury me. I thought to myself. They took me to this place it was secluded not a soul in sight. I had never felt so small. I saw shadows it was getting darker and darker as we walked further in. Then I saw a dug-out grave in the dirt. I started to shake even more than I already was.

Was this where I would spend the rest of my eternity? Was my husband in there laying in the dirt dead? Was this the end for me? They threw me on to the ground the sharp sticks felt like shards of glass embedding into my skin.

I looked down and I saw John laying in the already dug out grave. Ready to be covered in the dirt. He looked beaten and broken. There was no sign of life. The men were holding me but not throwing me in there with him they just wanted me to see him.

Suddenly I heard a siren and I heard guns being shot. The two men dropped me into the grave. I laid there next to John's dead body. He was ice cold and his lips were blue. I tried to scream for help I stood up and I tried to jump out but it was just too high.

"Evelyn!" I heard a male voice shout.

"Evelyn!" A woman's voice echoed.

They were getting closer my throat was dry and I passed out. I don't remember much. I just remember there were police officers and they pulled my body up and out of the grave. There was nothing they could do for John. He had blood coming out of his mouth when I found him. So he died choking on his own blood.

He had been beating so bad that all his bones were broken. I woke up in the hospital bed. I felt uncomfortable and I was in so much agony. I had a drop connected to the veins in my hands. My back was sore from the fall. I couldn't move.

A nurse came to my aid with a doctor to examine my injuries. The doctor ran his fingers down my spine. It felt like it was burning. But that was because I needed major tailbone surgery. It had snapped.

They told me I was found laying on John's broken body when they found me. I was now a paraplegic I could not feel anything from the waist down. I'd never walk again. Wheelchair bound and fragile.

I did rehabilitation for ten months. Once I got a hold of putting myself in a wheelchair, I was able to go home to my parent’s house. My father was my full-time carer, he quit his job and stayed at home with me.

Soon after I got out of rehabilitation. I went to trial for John's death and found out exactly what happened through a magistrate. Him and his best friend were been stabbed. The two intruders were made to stand in the box.

I knew it was them because those were the male voices I had heard during my kidnapping. It turns out the bones in the suitcase was William Jones and John had been framed for his murder.

During Williams last moments of life he endured trauma. If he had lived, he wouldn't have been able to walk or talk because of the extent of his injuries. John’s finger prints and DNA were found all over Williams body. The two men were convicted and a verdict had been reached. They were in prison for the rest of their lives and were never to be released.

John’s parents were in the jury and they were in shock because of what happened to their son. During the trial there were pictures of John's cold-blooded killers torturing him. Dragging him along the dirt while he was unconscious and bleeding.

We walked out of that court room wishing that death row was still a punishment. We were hoping and praying that he would die in jail sooner rather than later.

One day I got a call from the prison and it was one of the two men that murdered my husband. He explained to me that he was on a lot of drugs when he killed John. He said how sorry he was and wished for me to drop the chargers.

I didn't and I was never going to. I wanted justice for John. I dreamt about the whole thing every time I closed my eyes even if I was day dreaming. I pictured them screaming for help. Amongst the trees and the darkness of the bush.

Around three years later the two men were killed in jail. There was a suspicious fire.

I swear to you their ghosts linger around my parent’s house and the creek where John had thrown the suitcase into.

When they died, I had a peaceful night sleep. I was put on more psychotic medication my dosage was the highest dosage. It knocked me out completely.

My dad would check on me through the night to check if I was still breathing. Dad would take me to the park for ice cream and we would just sit. Dad ended up having a heart attack in his sleep. By the time we noticed it was too late.