The Northern Territory coroner has handed down her findings into the bizarre circumstances surrounding the death of Katherine man Shane Tapp. She casts a critical eye on the police investigation that followed and confirmed the case remains unsolved.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 A territory family that fought to be heard and today was vindicated.
00:07 I'm feeling like we got the answer that we knew was coming, that it wasn't an accident
00:11 and it wasn't suicide.
00:13 Shane Tapp was 43 years old when his body was found washed up along the Catherine River,
00:18 more than a week after he was reported missing in April 2021.
00:23 We knew from day one that something wasn't right.
00:25 Within days NT Police ruled his death as non-suspicious, alleging Mr Tapp, a known drug dealer, died
00:32 by accidental drowning, despite locating a machete balaclava and a bag containing $25,000
00:40 in cash where they believe he fell in.
00:43 Concluding the coronial inquest into Mr Tapp's death, Coroner Elizabeth Armitage said she
00:48 was not at all persuaded by NT Police's theory that he died by accidental drowning and said
00:55 the case remained unsolved.
00:57 In handing down her findings, Judge Armitage wrote, "It is relatively shallow at the edge
01:02 of the bank and there are a number of branches and snags that Mr Tapp could easily have held
01:06 onto in the event that he slipped in.
01:09 The inquest has also received evidence that Mr Tapp was a good swimmer."
01:13 A welcome finding for Mr Tapp's grandmother who lobbied for the inquest to happen.
01:18 There's $20,000 lying here on the ground along with a balaclava and a machete and a what
01:23 have you and they're not suspicious.
01:26 Come on.
01:27 There's people like my cousin that get lost in that underworld I guess and they slip through
01:31 the cracks.
01:32 An outback underworld that's reopened a police investigation.
01:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]