KINGS PARK PIZZA LINK IN NANNUP 4 MYSTERY
BUSHLAND at King’s Park could hold the clue to one of Australia’s most baffling missing persons cases? The ‘Nannup Four’.
by Carmelo Amalfi
EXCLUSIVE: ON an unusually chilly July 15, 2007, a taxi driver delivered a pizza to a man who called himself Tony near the entrance to King’s Park. It was dark, early evening. The delivery driver later told police he thought it was odd when Tony appeared out of nowhere, paid, then disappeared back into bushland off May Drive.
What happened next is a ‘mystery within a mystery’, according to the WA Coroner and police investigating the disappearances of ‘spiritual leader’ Gary Felton, known as Simon Anthony Kadwill, 45; Chantelle Jane McDougall, 27; their daughter Leela, 5; and hairdresser Antonio Konstantin Popic, 40, known as Tony.
The four lived in Nannup, having moved from Denmark in late 2003. By 2006, they began telling family and friends they intended to move to Santo Daime Church in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre, “to get away from it”. It appears the group planned to leave Nannup around April 2007, nearly three years after police were told the group was part of a doomsday cult and that Simon was a fake and possibly dangerous.
An investigation review in 2013 was completed by Major Crime Squad Senior Sergeant Greg Balfour who reported to the Coroner in 2016. An inquest held in Busselton in 2017 could not determine whether the deaths of the four had been established beyond a reasonable doubt. They could be dead or alive.
Now retired, Balfour submitted the investigation was completed, “but for a search of the vicinity of King’s Park where the pizza was delivered on 15 July 2007. In my view, the decision made by his superior not to carry out a search of the area was reasonable given the passage of time”.
But what if Balfour’s superiors had decided to launch a proper search of bushland at Kings Park using ground probing technologies and cadaver dogs which can sense a corpse buried in a few metres of soil?
The retired police officer told StreetWise that ‘blood hounds’ were considered but was not pursued because of the passage of time referred to by the Coroner: “The chances of finding anything was minimal as some six years had passed by the time I conducted the investigation review.”
Balfour said a bush search off May Drive where the pizza was delivered was one of his recommendations. “It’s not a huge location. Unfortunately, the powers that be did not have a similar view.”
Balfour said a grid search of bushland would be difficult as it was reasonably thick, “so you’d probably need to deploy assets from the SES and police emergency operations”.
StreetWise asked why anyone would order pizza to be delivered at night at the side of the road at Kings Park: “It was unusual for anyone to be camped out in the bush that time of the night. I located the taxi driver in Asia and had him interviewed. He confirmed he delivered the pizza to that location. It was dark, it was a male person. The driver said he got the creeps because it was a dark location and he was concerned he was being set up to be robbed. He didn’t want to hang around and got out of Dodge City.”
One theory Balfour considered was the pizza was drugged and used to subdue Chantelle and Leela who were then killed and buried in Kings Park near where the pizza was delivered.
Balfour said it would not be easy to dig a grave at Kings Park: “What are you going to dig it with and after you have dug it do you leave the shovel or take it with you.
“Suddenly you’re walking down the road with a shovel. It would be more likely it was left nearby. In addition to looking for bodies, you’re looking for a shovel.”
As noted by the Coroner, either the four planned a drug suicide or they were murdered by one or more people including Simon, Tony or unknown third party.
Trail turns cold
THE Nannup four were never seen or heard of again after July 16, 2007. Plenty of ‘sightings’, particularly in the South-West, but no further contacts or solid leads. A trail turned cold in Perth where a man called Tony took delivery of a pizza delivered at Kings Park, then vanished into the night.
There is no evidence of Chantelle and Leela having travelled to Perth. Were they left behind when Popic and another man, probably Simon, left Nannup on July 15?
Popic had sold his car in Bridgetown on July 10 when he said goodbye to his parents Lucy and Josip in Manjimup. He told them Simon was headed to Brazil and would arrange for Chantelle and Leela to join him. Popic would join them later as he planned to visit Alice Springs.
On July 12, an unidentified person called TransWA from the landline at the Nannup property and purchased a ticket for ‘J Roberts’ to travel from Bridgetown to Northcliffe on July 15, but it was not used. The rental in Nannup was a beef farm on Roberts Road. ‘J Roberts’ could be an assumed name used by Simon or Popic.
On July 13, a ticket was purchased at the East Perth train station for a return trip from Kalgoorlie on July 16. The ticket was purchased with cash for ‘J Robwerts’, the name most likely a typographical error.
The same day, Popic sent his brother Joseph a package he received on July 16 containing power of attorney forms, bank and super statements and a note apologising for being a ‘crap brother’.
On July 15, a ticket was bought at 2.20pm for ‘J Roberts’ to travel from Bunbury to Perth at 2.45pm. This man arrived at Perth train station about 5.15pm. There is no indication Chantelle or Leela joined him.
It appears either Popic or Simon travelled to Perth by train and stayed overnight before they left the city on July 16 by train to either Kalgoorlie or Northcliffe: “From about 5.30pm, Tony’s mobile phone was in the Northbridge area, being used to call budget accommodation and the Court Hotel, a venue known to be gay-friendly. The phone was also used to order pizza to be delivered to a location in King’s Park near a toilet block known to be frequented by gay men looking for sexual encounters.
“A pizza delivery driver drove to the location in King’s Park and delivered a pizza to a man whom he identified to be Tony. That night, a person using Tony’s driver’s licence as photographic identification checked into a double room in the Underground Backpackers Hostel in Northbridge for two nights.”
There is little doubt it was Popic who purchased the pizza.
At 6.35am, July 16, Tony’s phone was again used in Northbridge to call NAB online trading. That was the last known call from his phone. At 6.54am, a taxi conveyed a fare booked under the name ‘Tony’ from the Underground Backpackers Hostel to East Perth train terminal arriving at 7.09am.
About the same time, a ticket was purchased at Perth City Terminal for J Roberts to travel from Perth to Northcliffe, departing 9.30am. By train to Bunbury and on to Northcliffe by bus.
At 7.15am, an adult male passenger travelled from East Perth train terminal to Kalgoorlie on the ticket purchased on July 13 for ‘J Robwerts’ who could not be traced because manifests were not kept.
Balfour is still curious over the taxi ride on July 16 in Tony’s name from the Underground Backpackers Hostel in Northbridge to the East Perth train station.
“Why did they go there, to catch a bus or train? There is a high probability one of the two men got on the train or bus going somewhere, most likely on the Prospector going east towards Kalgoorlie. But that’s where the trail goes cold.” About the same time, a second man took a train and went to Busselton and Northcliffe. At 9.30am, an adult male travelled to Northcliffe via Bunbury on a ticket purchased that morning for J Roberts.
The Coroner said: “The identities of the persons who travelled to Northcliffe as J Roberts and to Kalgoorlie as J Robwerts on 16 July 2007 is a mystery within a mystery.”
He said while it was most likely Popic who travelled by train as J Roberts from Bunbury to Perth on July 15, “it does not necessarily follow that Tony returned to Bunbury and then on to Northcliffe the next day”.
Unfortunately, police could not determine which man travelled on which service.
Dead or alive?
MEDICAL records show before their disappearance, Chantelle, Tony and Simon obtained oxazepam and diazepam. Simon also was prescribed dextropropoxyphene, mirtazapine and chlorpromazine. However, investigators obtained Medicare records which showed Chantelle had one claim on June 15, 2007, for 50 tablets of diazepam, leading investigators to conclude stockpiling for a mass suicide had not occurred.
Balfour said it would have been a big step for Chantelle to kill her child or assist in their suicide: “If he did it unwittingly, Simon or Tony, that’s another theory. At the end of the day you have to work with the facts.”
Simon was a British national whose online friend Sheryl Plocharczyk told police she could not convince him to move to Brazil because he felt a spiritual hopelessness consuming him and could not make the trip. His energy was being affected by the planet and was taking strong antipsychotic medication.
Simon told Ms Plocharczyk in May that the group in Nannup had a plan for a family suicide with a quick-acting drug. Called ‘Si’ to his acolytes, the founder of Truth Fellowship had 40 online followers in what has been described as an international doomsday cult.
However, this appeared to contradict Simon’s beliefs which did not involve suicide but the ‘ascension’ of the spirit to another dimension. Believers were being prepared for a cataclysm.
The plan was for the four to wander into the bush where he, Chantelle and Leela would take drugs and Popic would bury them. Popic would then wander into the bush and take the drug where no-one would find him.
Simon told Ms Plocharczyk he thought Chantelle could not do it because she kept delaying. She told him it would be murder to kill Leela, after which Simon was no longer as open with her.
Balfourr told StreetWise one of the puzzling aspects of the case was how the four moved around. For example, how did they get from their rural property to Nannup? Did they walk into town and did anyone see them? Did someone help them?
Balfour concluded there were insufficient grounds to be reasonably satisfied the members of the group were dead. Why continue the deception over relocating to Brazil if the group intended to commit suicide?
The only obvious purpose would be to mislead anyone attempting to find them.
WAPOL Major Crime Division Senior Sergeant and behaviour analyst Kris Giesen said it was likely Simon killed himself otherwise, “he would emerge on the internet as a spiritual leader under a different identity”.
She said Simon not killing himself would, “undermine his credibility as being spiritually superior if he were discovered, and he was too narcissistic to risk that”.
She added: “The story of going to Brazil was a ruse to avoid any scrutiny and questions as to their intentions. Their lack of money and lack of activity on Chantelle’s bank account meant that they did not travel far from Nannup or stay alive for long. Her lack of contact with her family was completely out of character.”
She said it was inconceivable Chantelle would not contact her family to let them know they were okay. Tony’s apparent belief in the values, attitude and lifestyle associated with Simon’s spiritual beliefs, including the ascension process, and Tony’s actions in preparing to leave Nannup permanently, “suggest he is dead. An important part of those actions was in posting Joseph his papers and the power of attorney forms, and in apologising for being a crap brother”.
What is known is on May 5, local police stopped Simon for speeding on the Vasse Highway and asked him about his background in England. He appeared nervous and uncomfortable. Did Simon who was deeply paranoid decide to leave in a hurry because he was spooked?
On May 6, Chantelle applied for a passport for Leela at the Busselton Post Office with an intended travel date of June 26, 2007. Leela’s passport arrived two weeks later.
In early July, Chantelle called her parents and told her mother she was still not sure what her address would be in Brazil. She said Simon had already left and that she and Leela were going to follow by plane.
Balfour added: “For Simon to acquire a passport that looks authentic enough, that’s a big ask for someone who doesn’t have the contacts. But is it a case of Bourne identity, is the truth stranger than fiction? Was Simon bigger than what we think he is. A one man self-styled shaman conman or was he something more?”
In the UK, Simon was convicted of two counts of fraud for using a friend’s password to access a computer to send emails to friends and family. In 1986, he worked at a software company where he met the real Simon Anthony Kadwill and stole his birth certificate to obtained a UK passport.
According to the WA Coroner: “Chantelle, Leela and Tony are dead, especially the fact that they have not been in touch with their respective families for over ten years. There is also evidence, especially the evidence relating to Simon’s apparent despondency and his belief in ascension, which would, if accepted, support a conclusion that Simon is dead. However, given the nature and quantity of evidence inconsistent with any of their deaths, I cannot be satisfied to the required standard of proof that any one of them is dead.”
The Coroner found: “I have not been able to find that the death of any of the members of the group has been established beyond a reasonable doubt. To be clear, this does not mean that I have found that any member of the group is alive.”
Simon also is linked to the suicide deaths of followers who killed themselves after visiting Simon in Nannup. On July 24, 2007, 11 days after they disappeared, Canadian backpacker Alixander Fominoff and Kirk Helgason, avid followers of Simon aged in their 20s, died of an overdose.
Mr Helgason’s girlfriend Christina Parrott also died of an overdose in Massachusetts, in the US, on August 26 (Parrott had transferred two payments totalling $6000 into Chantelle’s account in 2006).
Suicide notes left by Fominoff and Helgason indicated they were not unhappy or depressed, but above this world and moving onto a higher plane.
A new ABC documentary, The Nannup Four, could shed light on the cold case as it approaches the 20th anniversary in 2027.
Asked whether he believed the four were still alive, Balfour said he is keeping an open mind and felt there was a 50/50 chance of finding them dead or alive.
He agreed it would not be easy for four individuals to disappear, particularly a young woman and child. Unfortunately, many of the leads in the early days of the initial investigation were not pursued, so they could have disappeared before Simon and Tony travelled to Perth on July 15.
Enquiries also were made into international commercial and cargo seagoing vessels which left Fremantle, Bunbury and Albany between July 13 and July 20, 2007. No such vessels left from Bunbury or Albany, but seven vessels left from Fremantle for South America or the Caribbean: “Had the members of the group left Australia on such vessels, they would have circumvented the immigration process.”
A spokesman for Police Minister Reece Whitby said: “The State Government and the WA Police Force are committed to helping find answers for families of long-term missing people. The toll families are left with, living with the unknown and uncertainty of what happened to their loved ones, is unimaginable.”
Chantelle, Leela and Tony are listed as missing persons with Interpol. Simon is a suspect.
Copyright Amalfi Publishing 2026
