Our sister was thrown from a cliff

When Therese Rourke was given the heartbreaking news that her eldest sister Janet ‘Jenny’ Fisicaro had died, her first words were: ‘How did he do it?’

The mum-of-five didn’t know how or where her beloved sister had died but she knew 100 per cent that Des Campbell, the man Jenny secretly married six months earlier, was the one responsible.

‘I knew straight away he’d done something to her,’ says Therese who, along with sister Mary Marshall, is speaking out about the shocking murder for the first time.

Their worst fears were realised when they learnt Jenny had fallen off a cliff while camping with Campbell in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, on March 24, 2005. It was later proven in a court case that gripped the nation that Campbell had indeed pushed his wife off the ledge, with a jury taking six days to find him guilty.

Justice at last
During the NSW Supreme Court trial, it emerged that disgraced ex-policeman and paramedic Campbell was a cold-hearted gold-digger who had three other lovers and was motivated by greed when he pushed Jenny, 49, to her death.

Jenny’s son Stephen, 26, and Therese and Mary had fought for five long years for
the verdict – the case had consumed their lives. Sadly, Jenny’s heartbroken mum Val didn’t live long enough to see justice prevail.

‘Everyone kept saying: “I hope you win,” but we were never going to win,’ Therese says. ‘We are never going to get Jenny or those five years back. I often question whether we’d still have a mum if this didn’t happen. I think it took Mum to an early grave. You don’t bury two daughters – our sister Kathy died of breast cancer. Mum was on 24-hour oxygen and had to deal with her daughter being murdered. That’s just not right.’

Before Campbell came into their lives, the sisters lived an idyllic life in the rural south-west NSW town of Deniliquin, which has a population of 7600. They’d grown up in a close, happy household of seven kids, and the siblings had all remained in the tight-knit community after they married and had families of their own.

Jenny was the exception, having moved to a property outside of town when she married ‘the love of her life’ farmer Frank Fisicaro.
‘I never thought she’d become a farmer’s wife but she was quite good at it,’ recalls Therese, 45. ‘Frank was everything to her.’

But when Frank died suddenly after suffering a heart attack, Jenny and their only son Stephen, then 14, sold the farm and moved back into town. She bought a house close to her parents and sisters, and the girls would meet at their mum Val’s every Friday afternoon with their kids for tea and cake.

‘Jenny had the biggest heart,’ Therese says. ‘She’d ring Mum every morning and then she’d go there for a cuppa. She’d do at least five visits a day. She was the kind of person who would go up the street and she would walk into every shop and say hello to most shopkeepers. They all knew her because she’d be so friendly. They would get told everything whether they’d like to know or not!’

Conniving killer
It was Jenny’s openness, as well as her wealth, that may have led to her downfall, say her sisters.
‘As soon as she met Des, she would’ve told him: “I’m widowed. We used to have a farm but I sold it and moved into town,”’ Therese says. ‘Des would have probably thought: “Wait a minute. This woman’s got money and she will be easy to get money out of.”’

Indeed the big-hearted, wealthy farming widow was just the sort of target Campbell preyed on. In court, it was found he was facing debts worth $15,000 and $35,000 when he met Jenny. He had a history of duping women, including his former fiancee June Ingham, who he dumped by text message in 2002 after she gave him $64,000 for a car and a house.

‘She was seeing Des for about six months before we even knew about it,’ Therese says. ‘She was getting these text messages or she’d be at Mum’s having a cuppa and her phone would ring and she’d go outside to take the phone call. Or she’d disappear in the car somewhere. She never said anything about him until she called and asked us around for tea one night. She said she had this person she’d met and that we’d really like him and that he was just like Frank.’

The entire family went for dinner at Jenny’s to meet the man who had stolen her heart, but found him to be the complete opposite of Jenny’s first husband.
‘He just sat there, he didn’t mingle, and didn’t show any affection to her or make conversation,’ Therese recalls.

Her sisters immediately smelt a rat – and they weren’t alone.
‘As soon as the town heard that they were together, people were approaching us,’ Therese says. ‘They’d say: “Tell Jenny not to be with him. He’s a gold-digger.” He had a reputation of asking women what their portfolio was within the first five minutes of conversation.

We tried to warn her but she said he’d changed. She said we were wrong and that everyone deserved the right to a second chance. She was completely besotted with him like all the other women.’

Rushed into love
Two days after that first family meeting, Jenny called her sisters and announced she was engaged.
‘I just asked her what was the rush and do you really know this man?’ Therese says. ‘I asked her what Stephen thought and told her to make sure it was a long engagement. She said it would be.’

Mary, who worked with Jenny at the hospital, announced her sister’s happy news to their colleagues during a night out. To her surprise, Campbell was livid.
‘Apparently, it was supposed to be kept a secret,’ Mary says. ‘Jenny then said more or less that it was all off because Des didn’t want the world to know he was engaged. The next thing you knew, it was back on and she had another engagement ring and they were re-engaged. I never said anything after that.’

From then on, their bubbly sister, who loved to share the most intimate details of her life, became increasingly secretive.

Despite being exceptionally close to her family, Jenny married Campbell in secret in September 2004 at the River Gallery Inn in Echuca. The only guests were two staff members from the hotel.

Civil celebrant Jennifer Whelan told the court the ‘lovely’ bride looked sad when she was asked about her absent son and family. No-one took a photo.

Soon after, Campbell convinced Jenny to buy a house in Otford, near Wollongong – which she bought in both their names. He later told police he couldn’t wait to get his new wife away from Deniliquin because her family were ‘interfering p*****’, and that they wanted to start their life over again without any interference.

‘We’re not an interfering family,’ Therese says. ‘We’re just a close family who are always there for each other. I think because of how close we were, Des and I had issues. If anyone was going to make her not go, it was going to be me. He knew I was the one to be cautious of. I was convinced that she would ring me within two months of her leaving, asking me to come and pick her up.’

Jenny left Deniliquin with Campbell on Friday, March 18. Less than a week later, she was dead, murdered on a camping trip with her husband.

Her sisters say she was scared of heights, yet Campbell pitched their tent just metres from the 50-metre drop where she fell. Campbell initially told police Jenny disappeared after leaving their tent for a ‘pee’. But this never made sense to Mary and Therese, who knew their sister’s fears.

An expert at the trial testified that a partial shoeprint matching Jenny’s, which was found on the edge of the cliff at the ‘point of no return’, meant it was likely she was pushed from behind.

‘I didn’t think he’d go to that extent,’ Mary says sadly. ‘I always thought he’d rip her off. At work, I had even talked her into not resigning. She’d taken 12 months leave without pay because I said to her that if “he rips you off and you’ve got no money, you’ve always got a job to come back to”.

‘I always thought that would be the worst, that she’d come back with her tail between her legs and no money whatsoever and start her life again. I never, ever thought he’d go that far.’

Chillingly, Mary says Campbell had urged Jenny to pack all her clothes in garbage bags, rather than suitcases, when she moved to Otford. She now believes he did that to make it easier to dispose of her things.

He proclaimed his innocence but Campbell acted nothing like the grieving widower, even skipping Jenny’s funeral to take one of his three secret lovers on
a luxury holiday to Queensland.

Never give up
Having spent the past five years tirelessly fighting for justice for their sister, Mary and Therese, both mothers of five, can now move on with their own lives.

Campbell’s sentencing hearing will begin on July 23 but Mary and Therese already have the closure they need.

‘Basically we became detectives and worked constantly for five years,’ Therese says. ‘Any little thing, I’d be on the phone. I’d lie in bed at night and think: “What have I forgotten, what did I miss?”

‘Once the verdict was delivered, I slept for a week. It was such a relief to know that we did enough. It didn’t bring her back but we did enough. People know that he did that to her now.’

Mary adds: ‘I always said he may have picked the right person – because she was beautiful – but he certainly picked the wrong family.’

By: Amy Mills
Photos: Nigel Wright