A FRIEND of missing Pyramid Hill woman Krystal Fraser has told an inquest she was scared and had run away from the hospital on the night she disappeared.
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Witness Robert Glennie told a coroner's inquest on Wednesday morning he had spoken to Ms Fraser the night she vanished - June 20, 2009.
He said she made it clear she did not intend to go back to the hospital, even though she had been heavily pregnant and due to give birth.
The inquest had previously heard Bendigo Medihotel nurses did not have the power to stop Ms Fraser from leaving, but had tried to persuade her to not go out.
She had told them she was invited to a party at Pyramid Hill and wanted to go.
Ms Fraser has not touched her bank accounts or used her phone since she disappeared.
Investigator, Detective Senior Constable Mark Crossley, told the inquest a search of Ms Fraser's flat had revealed her wallet was on a lounge chair.
He said it had two $5 notes inside and a train ticket from Bendigo to Pyramid Hill dated June 20, 2009.
He said he believed she had returned to her Pyramid Hill flat that evening, after taking her train journey.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Fiona Batten, asked Detective Senior Constable Crossley if he believed Ms Fraser could have successfully run away and started a new life, independent of her family and friends.
He said he had learnt of rumours that Ms Fraser had run away so the Department of Human Services could not take her baby from her.
However, after examining her phone records and investigating her disappearance, he said he did not believe she could have done so.
"Not without some type of assistance," he said.
"In my opinion there is just no way known that Krystal Fraser had the smarts to be able to change her identity - not access her accounts, not access Centrelink or access the money supplied to her through State Trustees.
"Plus with her constant need to be in touch with family and friends - there's just no way known."
THE INQUEST
Detective Senior Constable Crossley said analysis of Ms Fraser's phone records showed she would send vast quantities of messages and make many phone calls daily.
He formed the view that a person in regular contact with Ms Fraser had stopped calling her from his own landline and mobile phone, and began calling her from a public phone box instead.
Detective Senior Constable Crossley said that person had never come forward to identify themselves, but he had formed a view about who they were.
He said he came to believe Ms Fraser had met with foul play and on August 2, 2009 he rang the homicide squad to report his suspicions.
Detective Inspector Wayne Woltsche told the inquest a check showed Ms Fraser, who was 23-years-old at the time, had not attended any hospitals across the nation to give birth to her child.
He said he had seen medical records which indicated her unborn child had an enlarged head and it was expected there would be complications with the birth.
Detective Inspector Woltsche said he did not believe she could have given birth unassisted.
"I think it's very unlikely she could have been able to labour outside a hospital facility even if she had the help from friends or other people," he said.
"Being a father and going through that three times with my wife, I just don't believe she could do that by herself or unaided by a person who is not qualified."
Detective Inspector Woltsche said he didn't believe Ms Fraser could have successfully run away and kept her identity concealed.
"I just think she didn't have the capacity or capability to do it..." he said.
"There was no indication in her behaviours that she intended to do that (run away).
"Krystal herself is a pretty identifiable person. I don't see she would be able to curb her personality and blend. She was just so identifiable.
"She is a big personality when she wants to be, I think she would have popped up.
"She would be able to change where she lives but not her personality."
Detective Inspector Woltsche said a number of sightings had been reported of Ms Fraser, but they had turned out to be other people. He said he did not believe Ms Fraser, who was intellectually disabled but lived in a public-housing flat independently, had ended her own life.
"If Krystal had've taken her own life ... we have never found her body, her child, so I'm not sure how she would have done that," he said.
"I have not heard of Krystal wanting to take her own life in the course of my investigation."
The inquest was told that a purported suicide note, potentially written by Ms Fraser, was likely to have been written a year before she disappeared because it was addressed to a number of people including her sister's ex-boyfriend.
Ms Fraser's sister Chantal Fraser told the inquest she believed the handwriting matched her sister's writing, and the nicknames on it included a man she had been dating in 2008 but had broken up with long before Ms Fraser disappeared.
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