REMEMBERING LOUISE

Louise O’Brien was eighteen years old when she died in 2008.

Her mother, Katherine McDonald, remembered Louise as a beautiful and loving young woman who naturally wanted to help other people. Louise developed more slowly than many children her age and often felt more comfortable around younger children.

Those details matter because for years, the public story of Louise became dominated by the horrific circumstances of her death and the discovery of her remains.

But before any of that, there was Louise.

She was a daughter.

She was a teenager who needed additional support and protection.

And according to her mother, she was gentle, loving and willing to help people who needed her.

LOUISE’S STORY

In early 2005, Louise went to live with family friend Tracey Taylor and her children in Woonona, New South Wales.

Louise’s mother, Katherine McDonald, was waiting for public housing in the Wollongong area. The arrangement was intended to allow Louise to begin attending Woonona High School without having to change schools later. Katherine continued to see her daughter, although those visits eventually became irregular.

Tracey’s mother, Patricia Goddard, was frequently at the home and cared for the children when Tracey traveled for work.

Over time, Louise was subjected to appalling treatment inside the home.

Evidence presented in court described Louise being tied up as punishment, forced to eat chili and dog feces, choked, burned, subjected to attempted drowning in a bathtub and cut with an electric knife while she was semiconscious.

The abuse did not remain limited to isolated incidents.

By October 2008, Louise was in serious physical danger.

Evidence later accepted by the courts established that the last confirmed sighting of Louise alive was on Sunday, October 12, 2008.

That morning, one of the children in the household saw a concerning injury on the side of Louise’s head and told her mother about it.

Before Tracey left the home that day, she instructed Patricia to leave Louise alone and not touch her.

Louise remained in the house.

According to evidence presented during the criminal proceedings, Patricia subsequently struck Louise in the head with a hammer while Louise was restrained.

Louise was gravely injured.

She was pale, struggling to breathe and eventually unconscious.

Witness testimony later described Louise being carried from the kitchen into a bathtub and then moved into the laundry.

A child in the home eventually checked Louise for a pulse.

There was none.

Louise received no emergency medical treatment.

No ambulance was called to try to save her.

Instead, the adults involved concealed what had happened.

Louise’s body was placed inside a wheelie bin.

The bin was buried in the backyard of Patricia Goddard’s home in Bellambi, approximately three kilometers from the Woonona house where Louise had died.

For more than two years, Louise remained there.

People who asked where she had gone were given false explanations.

Her disappearance became a lie maintained by the people who knew she was dead.

In February 2011, Louise’s remains were finally discovered inside the buried wheelie bin.

SYSTEM FAILURES & WARNING SIGNS

There were opportunities to recognize that Louise was in danger before she died.

Evidence presented during later court proceedings established that police had visited the Woonona home to check on Louise’s welfare more than a week before her death.

Officers were told that Louise was away working.

They left without seeing her.

Louise was still alive.

After she died, police returned to the home.

Once again, officers were given an explanation for Louise’s absence, and once again they left without seeing her.

The first visit represented an opportunity to establish directly whether Louise was safe.

Instead, the explanation offered by the people inside the home was accepted without Louise being physically located or spoken to.

There were also warning signs within the household itself.

Other people saw Louise injured.

Children living in the home witnessed disturbing treatment.

One child saw the significant injury on Louise’s head shortly before her death and alerted an adult.

Yet Louise remained in the environment where she was being abused.

The fact that Louise was eighteen did not eliminate her vulnerability.

Her developmental limitations made her particularly dependent upon trustworthy adults and made the failure to ensure her safety especially consequential.

By the time authorities learned what had truly happened, Louise had been dead for years.

JUSTICE FOR LOUISE

Patricia Goddard was originally accused of murdering Louise.

The case ultimately ended with Patricia pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Her criminal responsibility centered not simply on what happened before Louise was injured, but on her failure to obtain medical assistance while Louise was suffering from life threatening injuries.

In March 2013, Patricia was sentenced to prison for Louise’s manslaughter.

Patricia Goddard

Relationship to Louise: Caregiver

Conviction(s): Manslaughter

Sentence: Imprisonment

Other members of the household were prosecuted for their roles in concealing Louise’s death and disposing of her body.

Tracey Taylor and her son were found guilty of offenses related to covering up Louise’s death. Prosecutors alleged that family members arranged for the grave to be dug and repeatedly lied about Louise’s whereabouts to conceal what had happened.

Those proceedings finally exposed publicly what had been hidden since October 2008.

Louise had not left.

She had not gone away to work.

She had died inside the home where she was supposed to be safe, and the people who knew the truth had concealed her death.

FOREVER REMEMBERED

For years after Louise died, the people responsible for hiding her death controlled the story others were told about where she had gone.

They could conceal her body.

They could lie about her whereabouts.

They could allow people who cared about Louise to wonder where she was.

But they could not erase her.

When Louise’s remains were finally discovered in 2011, her mother was eventually given answers that had been withheld from her for years.

And when the criminal cases reached court, Katherine spoke publicly about the daughter she had lost.

She did not describe Louise by what was done to her.

She remembered the person she knew.

A loving young woman.

Someone who wanted to help other people.

A beautiful daughter who did not deserve what happened to her.

Louise deserved adults who recognized her vulnerability without exploiting it.

She deserved a home where punishment did not mean humiliation, restraint or violence.

She deserved someone to insist on seeing her when questions were raised about her welfare.

She deserved medical help when she was injured.

And after she died, she deserved dignity rather than being hidden away for years as though her life could simply be erased.

It could not.

Louise O’Brien existed.

She was loved.

She mattered.

And the years spent concealing what happened to her do not get the final word on who she was.

Abuse Angels remembers Louise O’Brien.

Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.