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Courts / Northern Territory

Who was Trevor? A cold case, 'homemade' tattoos and 50 years of silence

ABC News
1 min read Rewritten in plain language

CrimeDomestic Violence

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  • Half a century after the bodies of two men were found near a cattle station in one of the most remote parts of the Northern Territory, Glen Chatto knew finding answers was always going to be a "long shot".
  • In the decades since, forensic science has advanced in quantum leaps, so by the time the file landed on Acting Sergeant Chatto's desk, he was able to enlist the help of experts in the field at the Australian Federal Police.
  • While Acting Sergeant Chatto says "FIGG gives us a very good idea" when an investigation is on the right track, it wasn't enough on its own "to build a case to take to the coroner for an identification just yet".
  • Kathy's brother managed to clean up his act too and the last time she remembers seeing Trevor was about 1970, two years before his last confirmed proof of life.

4 sentences from our version of the report, chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below. How

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One of the three things this headline claims did not turn up in the report.

  • The figure “50” is in the headline. We could not find it in the report.

Figures, names and quoted words in the headline, looked for in the report itself — not in the summary above. Figures are matched digit for digit, so a report that writes “forty per cent” out in words where the headline wrote “40%” is queried here when it should not be. How this is checked

Half a century after the bodies of two men were found near a cattle station in one of the most remote parts of the Northern Territory, Glen Chatto knew finding answers was always going to be a "long shot".

When police first found the two men's remains near Mount Bundy Station, 110 kilometres south of Darwin, in 1976, while they were intrigued by the circumstances, they had little to go on.

Investigators believed the pair likely ventured out to the remote place together, but by the time the bodies were discovered, they'd already been in the elements for years.

In the decades since, forensic science has advanced in quantum leaps, so by the time the file landed on Acting Sergeant Chatto's desk, he was able to enlist the help of experts in the field at the Australian Federal Police.

Using the same technology Californian detectives deployed in the effort to identify Golden State serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr, the AFP scientists went to work.

While Acting Sergeant Chatto says "FIGG gives us a very good idea" when an investigation is on the right track, it wasn't enough on its own "to build a case to take to the coroner for an identification just yet".

By going back through Trevor's "fairly chequered past", Acting Sergeant Chatto found a clue in old arrest records that yielded the next piece of the puzzle.

Kathy's brother managed to clean up his act too and the last time she remembers seeing Trevor was about 1970, two years before his last confirmed proof of life.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 3.7 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is ABC News's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

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Outlet Niral ScoreAdjectivesSourcingSentimentHappiness
ABC Newsas they published this story 6.6 16 76 -0.2 47.1
Mundane Readneutralized from ABC News 5.9 14 76 -0.2 47.1

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