'I wrote to Keli Lane in prison for years. This is what she told me.'

The case of Keli Lane stands as one of Australia's most captivating mysteries. It's hardly surprising, considering Keli secretly gave birth to three children. She legally arranged for the adoption of the first and third child, but the second child, Tegan, vanished mysteriously. 

Keli's narrative shifted repeatedly, but the version she ultimately insisted on — that she handed Tegan over to the baby's biological father, with whom she had a clandestine affair — led to her undoing.

It's important to remember that Keli was only 19 when her first baby was given up for adoption. 

Her friends and family were completely in the dark. The secrecy surrounding her pregnancies and the births, hidden from partners, family, and friends, adds an almost unbelievable layer to her story.

In 1996, Keli gave birth to a daughter at Auburn Hospital. After the then 21-year-old was discharged with baby Tegan, she attended a friend's wedding without her baby. 

Nobody at the wedding had any idea she had recently given birth and it was years later, when she was arranging the adoption of her third baby, that questions were asked in regards to the whereabouts of Tegan. 

Keli has always maintained her innocence. She claims she handed Tegan over to her biological father, a man named either Andrew Morris or Norris. 

The search for this man led to one of the biggest manhunts in Australian history but he has never been found. In 2010, Keli was found guilty by a NSW Supreme Court jury of murdering Tegan. She was sentenced to a maximum of 18 years behind bars, with a non-parole period of 13 years and five months. 

Watch: The Case Of Keli Lane From Olympic Hopeful To Convicted Murderer. Post continues below.

As for me, I've been a crime reporter for many years and, like most people, I found Keli's case fascinating. It's highly unusual for a woman to be convicted of murder, espeically in this case when there is no clear evidence that Tegan is dead.

Throughout my career, stories behind the crimes seemed to gather at my feet via odd coincidences.  

I became friends through my children with two people who knew Keli from Sydney's Northern Beaches in the 90s. This led to multiple conversations with Keli's close friends, including a high school sweetheart, a former fiancé and a fascinating meeting in a Darlinghurst café with a high-profile lawyer and retired police officer – both of whom were passionate in their belief that Keli was innocent.

"Just because someone tells a few lies, does not make them a murderer," a police officer involved in the case told me. 

I've also written about Keli in my crime book 'Fatal Females' which led to more information dropping into my lap. 

There was one strange morning when I was at home with my three sons. A middle-aged Private Investigator showed up at my front door, on the back of bizarre new anecdotal evidence which I'd passed onto a lawyer close to Keli's case, which came to me via a champagne-soaked book club evening with a bunch of school mums. 

My information led to the PI carrying out a five-day stakeout in Balmain, on the belief that Tegan was alive and well – and still with her biological father. The stake-out proved fruitless, yet it opened a door to a flurry of fresh questions and new theories about whether Tegan was living in the US.

In 2016, I started visiting Keli in prison with her then-fiancé. When I asked her, "Keli, did you do anything to Tegan?" she looked me in the eye and said "I did not kill my baby! Why one earth would I go to the trouble of having her details on a Medicare card if I planned on killing her the next day?" She looked me directly in the eyes as she said this – and I believed her. 

People who've never visited a prison might not know that visitors aren't allowed to take anything into the visiting room (a pencil and paper would have been useful for this journalist, of course) And there was only so much I could remember word-for-word from our lengthy conversation. 

So I asked Keli if, on my return home, I could write her a letter with some of my questions so that she could reply with her answers via 'snail mail'. These handwritten letters that I received from Keli have been in my possession for eight years and her answers are fascinating. 

Here are some of the things that Keli told me when I visited Dillwynia prison (the rest of Keli's answers I intend to reveal in an upcoming podcast).

LJ: If you'd had your chance to speak in court, what would you say? I realise you had no idea it would be a murder case and, at worst, you assumed you would be getting in trouble over a custody issue. (Note: Keli's legal team decided that she wouldn't address the court – a decision she regretted)

KL: "I did not kill my baby. I would accept that I lied about contact details, relationship details, during the adoptions but I would clarify which ones are lies and which ones the crown presented as lies but they aren't. I would fight the relevance of the use of adoptions against me to convict me of murder.

"I would finally be able to tell my side of things. Right from the start, rather than a whole bunch of randoms, found by the police, telling their views on my life. Without even having to support it with evidence, just pure speculation."

LJ: You claim the timeline of you being discharged from the hospital to arriving at your friend's wedding was botched/twisted by prosecutors to fit with their own timeline – i.e. to give you enough time to leave hospital and then kill and then 'dispose of' your baby, when you didn't have access to your own transport. Can you explain? 

KL: "I originally told police I left hospital 'about lunchtime' (this was seven years later and during a stressful police interview). The medical records, which I did not have any access to before the trial, says I was discharged at 2pm. I was home by 3pm which was confirmed by my mother to police, before I had even talked to her about the police investigation. I was filmed at a wedding at 4pm. The police never investigated this period of time, nor did they drive the route to see how long it took (it takes approx. one hour).

"How would it be possible for me to kill my baby without anyone seeing me? How did I dispose of the body? It was an area unfamiliar to me and I had no transport. Why is it that her body has never been found if I was supposed to have disposed of her in a miniscule amount of time?"

***

At the time of her trial, much was made of Keli being a potential Olympic waterpolo champion, with theories circulating via the prosecution that she had killed her baby so she could focus on her sporting career. 

But, as Keli explained to me, women's water polo only was not in the Olympic program until 2000 – and, in Keli's words:

"Why would I kill my baby to make a squad that was yet to be accepted by the IOC in the upcoming Games? I had successfully placed Child A up for adoption in '94 and continued to play sport. Why would I feel the need to murder my baby to improve my chances of playing any sport at any level?"

Keli is now aged 48 and is nearing the completion of her 13.5-year sentence. She was in the news this week for breaching a condition of her day release after being caught with a mobile phone.

She has been she's been working at a milk processing plant in the community in the lead up to her possible release and has now returned to Silverwater prison as she gets closer to the end of her non-parole period.  

Over the years, many people have asked me if I think Keli killed her baby and this is how I respond: I do not believe she killed her baby. 

And when people ask, if she is innocent then why didn't Tegan's biological father ever come forward? I'll let Keli answer this question: 

"I don't know. I really don't. But I do know that some people keep family secrets for years and years."

Feature Image: Supplied.