Trigger warning: This post deals with suicide and themes of domestic abuse and may be triggering to some readers.
Breeana Robinson was a beautiful, happy 20-year-old cheerleader with her whole life ahead of her when she met 38-year-old Dan Shearin on Facebook.
The two formed a relationship and within months “Bree”, an aspiring dancer who was legally blind, had moved into a Gold Coast unit with the man who was 18 years her senior.
During their three-month relationship, Shearin reportedly bombarded Robinson with abusive text messages – allegedly more than 1400 over the period of a month.
The texts read: “You’re more interested in food, TV and everything else but your partner” and “That’s why everything’s ruined. Your priorities are f—ed up.”
Just minutes after receiving that final message, Bree fell to her death from the balcony of their 11th-floor Southport apartment.
Her family is convinced the 21-year-old did not commit suicide.
But they face the horrible possibility that they will never know exactly what happened that night.
Bree screamed “no” or “oh no” as she plunged towards the ground, neighbour Gina Hadid told A Current Affair last November.
Her husband, Buddy Hadid, said he saw Shearin after he ran to assist the fatally injured girl.
“We were trying to work out who she was and he just turned around and said, ‘Oh, that’s my girlfriend’,” Mr Hadid said.
A coroner’s report into her January 2013 death is due within weeks. Her aunty, Janine Mackney told News Limited the family will be devastated if her death is ruled a suicide.
“I don’t know how we’ll fight on,” she said.
“We don’t have the legal capacity. It’s all foreign to us.”
She said she wants justice.
“It’s never going to change the fact we don’t have her, and that she suffered,” Ms Mackney said.
“I’m sick of hearing people say it was suicide. In our heart of hearts, there’s no way she did that. She wouldn’t want to leave us.”
Mamamia previously reported the young women’s family told Channel 9’s A Current Affair that they blame Shearin – and his campaign of abusive texts – for Bree’s death.
“They’re disgusting; they’re the worst things you could possibly say to another human being. Especially someone you supposedly love,” Bree’s heartbroken mother Elaine Robinson told A Current Affair.
“I don’t think he knows what love is.”
In some of the messages Shearin called the young woman a “retarded slut”, threatening he would find “better sex elsewhere”, and saying: ‘You’re a complete f***ing moron. I don’t want a stupid, dumb c***’.
In another distressing exchange published in the Gold Coast Bulletin, Shearin wrote: “You are ruining the love I have for you and it’s only a matter of time before I find someone who treats me better… You are moving into the spare room tonight and I’m looking for someone else to treat me better.”
Bree responded: “I love you so much. I hope I can fix us and make you happy”.
Shearin replied: “You are the worst excuse for a GF that I have ever met. You make things worse and worse every day.”
Shearin pleaded guilty to a single charge of using a carriage service to menace or harass Bree, and was last year sentenced to six months in prison. But he only served 11 days behind bars after the sentence was found to be “manifestly excessive” on appeal.
Dan Shearin with his dog. (Photo: Facebook)
Magistrate John Costanzo, who handed down the sentence, said the Queensland man had launched a campaign of “gratuitous harassment” against the young woman, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.
“The greatest coward can hurt the most ferociously,” Mr Costanzo said. “I can’t think of a way for a man to be more of a pig towards a woman.”
“He promised her the world, he promised to get her working on cruise ship… He was a charmer, he was very charismatic,” Ms Mackney told A Current Affair.
“He’s not human. I actually think he was the devil,” Ms Mackney said.
“He’s just vile.”
Elaine Robinson (Screenshot via A Current Affair)
She added that her niece, a former Gold Coast Titans cheerleader, was in Shearin’s thrall and had constantly tried to make peace with him after his texting outbursts.
“Her on the other side of those text messages (was) always like: ‘Sorry, I love you . Sorry, I’ll try harder’. He totally had her.”
A teary Mrs Robinson told A Current Affair the family had always suspected Shearin was bad news.
When Bree and Shearin first met, “he said he was 28, no children, worked in the cruise line industry, and he turned out to be 38 with a daughter and was packing shelves at Coles,” Mrs Robinson said.
She added that she had begged Bree not to move in with the man, and that “it was hard for her to talk to us” when she did.
“The last message I ever sent her was at Christmas I said I loved and missed her, she sent me back the same message and a month later she was gone.
“I can’t breathe sometimes because I miss her so much. It’s just hard.”
If you believe you may be an abusive partner, you can receive help via Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277 or 1800 RESPECT – 1800 737 732. If you are in immediate danger please call the police on 000.
You can also call Lifeline on 131 114.
See the original A Current Affair story here.
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Top Comments
This reminds me of the man I had a relationship with last year. He initially baited me with his charismatic charm and then the insidious controlling behaviour gradually set in. I came to learn he was a very narcissistic person and myself who is a kind empathetic person who listens to others to a fault, became his 'narcissistic supply' of the feel good love that he lacked within himself. When I didn't comply or otherwise provide that supply, he became a raging monster.
Those text messages Shearin sent Bree haunt me as they sound as evil as the ones my ex used to send me. Fortunately, I got out after a year as he assaulted me in a very public place with the police standing nearby.
It was a very 'sticky' relationship and so hard to get out of otherwise due to the threats he made when his 'supply' was threatened. He is now up against charges for what he did to me. I hope that my experiences and actions by the authorities will help make things easier for women to stay safe from the clutches of these weak, evil men in the future.
This disturbs me to no end! My sister is in a relationship with a man who talks down to her, belittles her and harrasses her, but he does it to her face, not on text message. I have spent the last 2 years being there for her, however, I just can't seem to make her understand that this is his problem not hers, but I'm afraid the damage to her self esteem is already there and she is unwilling to make a break from him - and now they have a 10 month old child together, so he'll never be out of her life. It keeps me up at night! She was a vibrant, strong, independant woman but she is reluctant to leave him and be "on her own" again. What do I do? She won't get help and when she did get help from counsellors, they were helping her work "through" the issue, instead of giving her the tools to leave him! What a fucking joke!!!
I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear this :( I know too well being kept awake at night hoping your sister is ok (though for different reasons to yours). Perhaps contact 1800Respect (https://www.1800respect.org... or other domestic violence organisations for some guidance, and to help you cope with what is going on. We often pour so much time into worrying about our loved ones that we forget to look after ourselves. I really hope everything works out ok for you all xo