The Sheriff’s department and the Australian Search and Rescue team arrived at the accident site within a few hours. By daybreak they had organized separate water, air and land teams to comb the river, fly overhead and conduct foot searches of the nearby shorelines. They took advantage of every bit of daylight and used artificial lighting where available.

They searched for three consecutive days with no success. Jodi and Kelly were questioned extensively and recurrently but they just kept repeating the same story until finally they were released by the authorities to return to Eden to await any new developments. Kelly took to the bottle and though she wasn’t a heavy drinker before it seemed now she couldn’t get through the day without the comfort of having the amber liquid over ice as a constant companion. Passing out from a drunken state was the only way she could sleep at night without having nightmares. At least her subconscious mind had a conscience.

Jodi on the other hand was as cool as a cucumber. She didn’t even appear to be fazed by any of it. In all her years Katie had never seen anyone so unmoved and cold after experiencing such a tragic event as the loss of a loved one; least of all a spouse. She thought perhaps Jodi was still in shock and expected that she’d eventually break down but in the weeks that she spent at Eden she never did; at least not in anyone’s presence. As far as anyone knew Jodi never shed a single tear for the woman she’d proclaimed to love.

***

After not finding Tina within the first few hours of the search no one really expected that she was alive but more unexpected was the fact that there was no sign of her anywhere; not even a fragment of clothing was evidenced. It was as if she’d sunk to the bottom of the river and vanished without a trace. After the third day they changed the status of the mission from rescue to recovery accepting that she hadn’t survived the crocodile attack but still holding out hope that they’d at least find enough of her remains to identify the body and declare her legally dead. Otherwise with few exceptions the most common law jurisdiction would prevail whereby she would be listed as a missing person for the next seven years before she could be declared dead in absentia.