Outback carjacking horror
This woman was sett to become the next Peter Falconio sure she was after she was carjacked on the same infamous stretch of road
There’s an unspoken rule when it comes to driving in the Australian outback – if you spot someone in strife, pull over and lend a hand. But when Tennant Creek resident Jen Cadzow made the split-second decision to follow traditional bush etiquette, she had no idea she was about to become embroiled in one of the most brazen carjacking sprees in Northern Territory history.
The 49-year-old had just completed two days of teaching in the remote Northern Territory town of Newcastle Waters in April this year when she set off on her 270km journey home. Just 30km along, outside the small town of Elliott, she noticed a car ahead of her in distress.
“It was snaking on and off the shoulder of the road with the hazard lights flashing,” Jen tells Woman’s Day exclusively. “I was behind and decelerated.
I spotted three young fellas acting strangely. They suddenly pushed me off the highway and onto the shoulder.”
HELPING HAND
Jen pulled up next to their car, and partially opened her door to get out and offer the men a hand. At the same time, one of the three men – who had all just escaped from jail – forced himself into her passenger seat.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is the Stuart Highway – bad things happen here. It’s where English traveller Peter Falconio went missing in 2001,’” she recalls of the terrifying ordeal.
“He was a big musclebound bloke, and incredibly aggressive,” Jen says of her assailant. “I knew I was in for the fight of my life.
“He tried to push me out of the car door – I fought like buggery. We struggled and he smashed my esky into me. He screamed, ‘Drive!’”
Jen accelerated, hoping the sudden movement would throw her attacker from the passenger seat. Instead, after spinning out of control, she hit the brakes and her alreadyopen door widened, hurling her from the vehicle.
“I hit the bitumen with a thump but I managed to get up,” she recalls. “My attacker was in the driver’s seat. He shouted to his mates, ‘Get in!’ and they took off, leaving me standing there.”
Lucky for Jen, a guardian angel was on the remote stretch of road that day. “I looked north up the highway and saw a grey car had stopped about 30 metres away from me,” she says.
“I ran and opened the passenger door and there was a lovely young man staring at me. I think he was in as much shock as me. He said, ‘Quick – get in, my name is Jason,’” she says.
Having witnessed Jen fall out of her vehicle at the hands of the carjackers, Jason quickly realised the gravity of the situation and agreed to follow Jen’s stolen car.
Roughly 50km out of Tennant Creek, Jen finally got phone coverage and dialled 000, alerting the authorities to her location by listing landmarks they’d passed while following the stolen car.
Finally her nightmare ordeal was over. The three men – Josiah Binsaris, 17 at the time, Ezra Austral, 19, and a third man, who can’t be named for legal reasons – were arrested after a high-speed chase with police.
JUSTICE SERVED
The men faced 19 charges, including robbery and recklessly endangering serious harm, to which they pleaded guilty.
They could serve seven years to life behind bars in the jail they escaped from. Their arrests brought some much-needed closure for Jen.
“The physical scars are slowly healing,” she says. “I was left with severe concussion, and permanent nerve damage to my arm, but nothing can mend the emotional damage. I haven’t been back to work since this happened.”
The distress of what Jen went through has caused her and her wife Sabrina to relocate and leave the career she loved to enjoy a simpler life on a farm, where she is training for her truck licence to break into the mining industry.
“Until you’ve been carjacked, there’s no way to understand the sheer terror of it,” Jen says.
“When I found out they were involved in a prison escape and were on the run, I couldn’t believe I had been so trusting. I’ve been given a second chance at life and I’m not going to waste it.”