They offered their canine, left city and have been by no means seen once more: The fascinating inside story of an Australian doomsday cult

Simon Kadwill and his household all the time appeared a bit of odd to his neighbours.

He was a doomsday cult chief dwelling in a small Australian timber town and sometimes raved to neighbours concerning the hazard of electromagnetic fields.

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Then his life acquired even stranger.

In 2007, Kadwill, his companion Chantelle McDougall, their daughter Leela, age 6, and buddy Tony Popic offered their canine, withdrew a wad of money, stated goodbye to household, and left three phrases scrawled on a chunk of paper: “Gone to Brazil.”

Then they were never seen again.

Fifteen years on, their disappearance stays simply as baffling and each a years-long police search and inquest have failed to find out what occurred – or if the group is even alive.

‘He was actually bizarre’

Bruce Blackburn has the picture of a ranting, raving Kadwill burned into his thoughts.

Kadwill moved to the quiet city of Nannup, about 260km south of Perth, together with his a lot youthful girlfriend McDougall and little Leela a number of years earlier than their disappearance.

Their buddy Popic lived in a caravan parked outdoors the house.

“They have been very secluded,” Blackburn instructed 7NEWS.com.au, including every time he noticed Kadwill he was “glued to his laptop”.

There was good motive for that.

The Englishman led an web cult known as The Reality Fellowship with about 40 devotees worldwide, based on a coronial inquest into his disappearance.

In his e book Servers Of The Divine, Kadwill prophesised the approaching of a brand new, higher-conscious world.

To his followers, he was recognized merely as “Si” – a non secular chief who would keep up all night time speaking with them on on-line boards.

However to these in Nannup, a city of 1300 individuals in WA’s southern forests space, Kadwill was merely thought of unusual.

“He was fixated on vitality … he was actually bizarre,” Blackburn instructed 7NEWS.com.au.

“He was the kind of one that would give you crimson hives on his face from stress.”

{The electrical} contractor remembers Kadwill’s fierce opposition to plans to put in a brand new electrical transformer connecting to his house.

“He was frightened about dying from the electromagnetic fields – however he sat on his laptop all day. I instructed him he’d get extra radiation from that,” Blackburn stated, including Kadwill thought the electromagnetic fields have been making him sick.

“He was careworn to the max about vitality … He took it past the extremes.

“All around the atmosphere he was dwelling in, he had these bottles with batteries and coils in them and he buried them round the home. They have been meant to soak up the electromagnetic radiation.”

Someday, the spiritualist instructed Blackburn he needed to depart and requested Blackburn for strategies.

“I stated the bush or a 3rd world nation and he stated Brazil, that’s the place he needed to go,” he stated.

Two months earlier than he disappeared, Kadwill instructed considered one of his devotees about an eerie plan.

In a Could 2007 e mail, Kadwill shared how the group would wander into the wilderness to take their very own lives and Popic would bury them. Then Popic would go deeper into the bushland the place nobody may discover his physique.

By June, Kadwill and McDougall had begun to make plans to depart Nannup.

They offered their canine, withdrew greater than $4000 from McDougall’s checking account and gave their chickens – McDougall’s “pleasure and joys” – to Blackburn.

Within the weeks earlier than they disappeared, Blackburn visited the property to complete putting in the transformer. A relaxed and relaxed Kadwill invited him to remain for a drink – a uncommon disposition within the common paranoiac.

“I had a pair beers with him and he was all good. He had no hives this time,” Blackburn remembers.

By mid-July 2007, the group had packed up and vanished, leaving a “spotless” house behind. McDougall was final seen on July 13 when she offered her automobile for $4000 at a supplier in Busselton, close to Nannup – however whereas she deposited the cash into her checking account, it was by no means touched.

All that remained of their home have been a bucket of rice, electrical home equipment and furnishings – and a notice on the door telling their landlords they’d “gone to Brazil”.

That was solely the start of the thriller.

The eerie clues

After their disappearance, an unsettling sequence of clues started to emerge.

McDougall’s mom Catherine remembers her abdomen sinking the final time she noticed her daughter and granddaughter.

Catherine McDougall and her husband Jim had all the time thought of Kadwill an “oddball” however this time one thing felt flawed, she stated in a Take5 Magazine interview.

Throughout a go to within the weeks earlier than their disappearance, she found a passport had arrived for Leela – however Kadwill and McDougall didn’t inform her their plans.

The penny dropped quickly after they flew house. McDougall known as to say she was transferring to a commune in Brazil and promised to be in contact.

However there was no message within the weeks that adopted, and the couple reported her and Leela lacking to police.

Then an immigration officer delivered a heart-stopping revelation: there was no report of the group leaving the nation.

“Concern overwhelmed me … each time I heard on the information {that a} physique had been discovered, my coronary heart lurched,” Catherine McDougall stated.

7NEWS.com.au reached out to the McDougalls for remark.

The 27-year-old McDougall’s telephone data revealed different mysteries, based on the inquest.

A month earlier than she disappeared, McDougall obtained a name from somebody in Perth. However police stated the telephone proprietor claimed to haven’t any information of the decision – or any of the foursome.

Three days later, McDougall was known as by a person who lived close to Kalgoorlie however he, too, denied any information of the 4.

Then on July 12, at some point earlier than she disappeared, a name was made to a Victoria Park quantity. Once more, they denied realizing McDougall or any of the others.

In one other eerie twist, Kadwill’s philosophical teachings could have pushed two younger seemingly comfortable Canadian followers to suicide, the inquest was instructed.

Kirk Helgason and Alixander Fominoff visited Kadwill whereas on vacation in 2003-2004 and took their very own lives within the weeks after Kadwill disappeared, claiming they have been transferring on to a better airplane.

Infinite lifeless ends

Police have investigated each angle – even reaching out to worldwide connections to seek for clues.

However every lead has hit a lifeless finish.

The investigation took a dramatic flip in 2011 when it was revealed investigators have been making an attempt to find out whether or not the group had been on a flight in Brazil that crashed simply days after they went lacking, killing all on board.

Finally, Australian and Brazilian authorities concluded the 4 had not died on the flight.

That very same yr, somebody named Gary Felton checked in to a caravan park close to Albany.

This raised alarm bells for police, who had uncovered a stunning secret from Kadwill’s previous throughout their investigation.

His life was a lie.

Kadwill’s actual title was Gary Felton, and he had been dwelling beneath a false id for years after stealing the start certificates of a colleague at a software program firm in England, the inquest acknowledged.

Police quickly hit a wall with the Albany lead. Within the years since, there have been different attainable breakthroughs, together with proof suggesting Popic could have travelled to Perth three days after he was final seen with McDougall.

Nevertheless, what occurred to the then-40-year-old stays a thriller to at the present time.

A recent attraction for data was launched in 2017, when police shared an aged processed picture of Leela within the hope somebody would recognise her.

An inquest later that yr solely added to the thriller, with coroner Barry King failing to find out if the group was alive or lifeless.

King discovered Kadwill’s considerations over the electromagnetic fields may have been one of many primary contributors to the group disappearing, together with an interplay with police in Could 2007 when an officer questioned him about his life in England.

“There are affordable bases to floor a perception that Chantelle, Leela and Tony are lifeless, particularly the truth that they haven’t been in contact with their respective households for over 10 years,” King stated in his findings, including that Kadwill is also lifeless.

“My conclusion doesn’t imply that I’ve discovered any of them is alive.”

‘Somebody on the market should know one thing’

Fifteen years on, the group’s disappearance continues to be shrouded by questions.

There isn’t a proof they left the nation. There isn’t a proof they’re lifeless. There may be additionally no proof they’re alive.

Blackburn has mulled over a number of theories, however he believes the group is on the market someplace, dwelling off the grid away from electrical energy.

“(Kadwill) gave the whole lot away earlier than he went away. He had all of it labored out,” he instructed 7NEWS.com.au.

“I don’t suppose he would have executed half the issues he did if he was going to high himself.”

WA Police should not so positive. The lacking individuals workforce is continuous to hunt data, hoping they may give the households solutions.

For Catherine McDougall, the uncertainty is the toughest.

“It might be pretty to have the ability to see (Leela), to speak to her,” she instructed the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre in 2017.

“Not having the ability to see how her life was progressing alongside and the issues she was doing … we simply tried to consider the whole lot we may do to attempt to discover them.”

At present, her drive for solutions stays simply as sturdy, posting on social media in July: “15 years in the past immediately my lovely daughter Chantelle and granddaughter Leela went lacking from Nannup.

“Somebody on the market should know one thing.

“I wish to know what has occurred to them, to ease the ache we undergo daily of not realizing what occurred to all of them these years in the past.”

Anybody who is aware of something concerning the disappearance or the situation of Chantelle and Leela McDougall, Simon Kadwill aka Gary Felton or Antonio Popic is requested to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report on-line at www.crimestopperswa.com.au.