Sergeant Leaves The Scene, But Mystery Remains

The Age

Thursday July 29, 1999

ANDREW RULE

It is four years this month since two young men with a torch and a long rope hauled themselves from an old mineshaft at Bonnie Doon, near Lake Eildon.

One of them was carrying a bone they'd found while exploring the shaft. A doctor confirmed their suspicions: the bone came from a human.

So began an investigation that was to link two mysterious deaths in one district, and grow into one of the most notorious cases in Victoria's crime history.

Yesterday, the saga reached an ending of sorts with the forced resignation of the serving policeman at the centre of the case, Sergeant Denis Tanner. The man who, when his resignation takes effect on Saturday, faces the first day of the rest of his life without rank or badge.

In June 1996, The Sunday Age first publicly connected Sergeant Tanner with the mineshaft skeleton, and the alleged suicide of his sister-in-law, Jennifer Tanner, in 1984. Since then he has tried to avoid publicity, refused to testify at two coronial hearings, on grounds it could incriminate him, and ignored investigators' questions.

But, yesterday, he broke his silence by announcing his ``resignation" from the force - albeit with a quaint try to quarantine the story to two media outlets.

The attempt to stare down three years of bad publicity by orchestrating news of his own exit, fizzled into farce when radio 3AW scooped him by following up an early-morning ``promo" on ABC radio, plugging his upcoming live appearance with morning announcer Jon Faine.

Sergeant Tanner chose the Faine program in tandem with a publication called the High Country Times, a giveaway local paper dropped into the letterboxes of Mansfield every Wednesday morning, and known for publishing anonymous letters supporting Sergeant Tanner. Its editor told 3AW listeners all about his friend's resignation - 10 minutes before Sergeant Tanner spoke on 3LO. This prompted Sergeant Tanner to complain on air that it was another example of the ``carnivorous" media that had hounded him for three years.

Nervous and defensive, he didn't sound convincing in answering even the few gentle questions put to him.

He didn't give evidence, he said, on the ``best legal advice" of his lawyers. On the question of his guilt he said carefully: ``Everybody's entitled to an opinion. So be it."

He claimed he had ``plenty" of friends and supporters, but said the ``general public got its mind made up from a media campaign. I can't help it now. It's been done".

The host thanked the disgraced detective for choosing to talk to his program - modestly suggesting it was because he handled such stories more fairly than others.

He didn't know he was second choice. The fact is, Sergeant Tanner offered his ``exclusive" to a senior newspaper reporter some weeks ago ... on condition the reporter reveal who'd given his newspaper a copy of Tanner's wedding photograph a few days earlier. The reporter refused, and the sergeant went looking for a softer target.

© 1999 The Age

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