Murder Of Tiahleigh Alyssa

MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING WITH THIS STORY.

Tiahleigh Alyssa Rose Palmer (sometimes known as Tia or Tiah) was a 12-year-old Australian girl who resided in Logan City, Queensland. She loved to dance and had the brightest personality. Her friend said, “Tia made our world full of happiness.”

Although her personality radiated happiness, she never had an easy life at all. She grew up living with her mother until she was 7 years old. Her mother Cindy was in a very violent and dangerous domestic violence relationship and wanted to remove Tia from the problem. She placed Tia in foster care for her safety believing that she was safest there. Cindy ended up expanding a drug habit and being homeless so Tia was bounced from foster home to foster home. In 2015 she was sent to live with the Thorburn family.

The Thorburn family was made up of Rick and Julene Thorburn. They had two sons Joshua (19) and Trent (18). The family was familiar with fostering children and fostered a few before Tia. Julene also ran a daycare center from home. Rick was a truck driver. Joshua worked at the daycare helping out his mother. The family lived on a rural property that was quite isolated from populated areas. Tia loved the property because there was a pool, land to run on, her bedroom, and horses to play with. Everything seemed perfect.

However, during her 10-month stay with the Thorburn family, Tia (12) ran away 10 different times and skipped school. Why? Tia was keeping a major secret from everyone, including her biological mother and foster parents. Not only was the foster father Rick super controlling and scary, but Trent (18) constantly sexually abused Tia. She only told one friend. She said that Trent would do it when no one else was home so he wouldn’t get caught.

In late September of 2015, Trent admitted to sexually abusing Tia to his cousin over text. He told that he feared that Tia may be pregnant. According to Trent, when nobody was home, Tia pushed to have sex with him or she would kill his dog. He told his cousin that he never had sex before Tia and only did it to keep Tia in the house. He said Tia was “a source of income” for his parents. His cousin pushed Trent to tell his parents. When Trent didn’t do so, the cousin told the Thorburn's what their son had done and that Tia may be pregnant.

When Rick got news of what his son did, he was worried that his son would get into difficulty for what he did rather than scolding him.

On October 30th, 2015, Tia headed off to school like any other common day. According to Rick, he dropped Tia off at the school she attended at 8:10 amm. He told that he watched her meet up with a friend and walk into the school together. However, Tia never made it to school…

Just before lunchtime, a school counselor called the Thorburn family to let them know that Tia never made it to her class. Rick behaved like he wasn’t that concerned because it was quite common that Tia would skip school or run away. Another interesting fact is Joshua Thorburn said he was told not to enter his sister’s bedroom that same day. That night, Rick began posting on his Facebook begging for Tia’s return.

When Tia’s biological mother got news of her daughter’s missing she became quite suspicious. Tia had run away before but always returned. However, this time...she was gone for a whole day which was unlike her. She was a young girl who always gave in to coming back home. Tia was reported missing to the police the same day she went missing.

Hours turned into days.

6 days after Tia’s disappearance, police held a press conference asking the public to come forward with any information that they had. Later that same day, some fisherman found human remains that appeared to be a young girl. The body was dumped by a river and was naked except for a pair of underwear that was barely pulled down around her hips. The next day, the remains were observed as Tiahleigh Palmer. Due to the decomposition of the body, it was difficult to determine the cause of death.

When Tia’s funeral was held, many people wore purple which was her favorite color. The Thorburn's followed and Rick was even one of the people who carried her casket. Trent and Joshua were a part of a dance routine to honor Tia. Tia’s biological grandmother said that people treated the Thorburn's as if they were Tia’s long-standing family at the funeral. The Thorburn's acted distraught over the death of their foster daughter.

Detectives did not know where to start. No proof was recovered at the scene. They had no suspects, nor any idea as to why this happened. Clearly, at one point, Rick became a person of interest, but it was quickly ruled out for whatever reason until a tip came in. The text conversation between Trent and his cousin was leaked to detectives. In this conversation, Trent expresses that he wished he could just get rid of Tia. This got the attention of detectives.

Listening devices were placed in the Thorburn home. One day, it picked up Julene’s voice saying to “stick to the story” about the last time they all saw Tia. It also picks up Rick saying to Trent what to say to the police regarding the sexual abuse. Furthermore, there was a conversation between Julene and Joshua about coming clean. Each family member told the same story to the police about last seeing Tia heading off to school, but this was a lie…

Detectives analyzed CCTV footage proving that Rick Thorburn never dropped Tia off at school that morning. He had driven the usual school route, stopped for about 6 seconds, and then continued driving before finishing some other errands.

After Tia’s death, the Thorburn's never fostered more children. However, they continued Julene’s in-home daycare until about April of 2016. This was 6 months after Tia’s death. During this time...it came out that Rick was charged, but not sentenced for the sexual abuse of two children under the age of 12. These 2 children attended the at-home daycare center. Their daycare and foster rights were immediately revoked.

Nearly a year after Tia’s death, Rick’s car was taken to be forensically analyzed. The whole family was taken into police custody for questioning. While this was happening, more police were searching the family’s property for Tia’s backpack and uniform.

Shortly after, Rick Thorburn was charged with the death of Tiahleigh Palmer.

It is thought that Rick smothered Tia to death in her bedroom in the evening before the whole family claimed to have last seen her. However, her cause of death could never be truly confirmed due to the body decomposition. His motive for the killing was to protect his son and family’s image. Before the murder, Rick asked his whole family to leave for a little bit. However, Julene also took part in covering up her son’s sexual relationship with his foster sister.

Julene stated that it was more about protecting her family’s image and her son. Although she did not physically take part in killing Tia, she knew about it and went to lengths to cover it up. She also told police that she had no idea what Rick was planning to do when he asked her and the boys to leave.

A day after Tia was murdered, Rick loaded her body into his car. Julene did not contribute. Rick took a very complicated and certain way to the river to dump Tia’s body. He made sure to take a route where CCTV did not pick him up. He also did not take his cellphone with him. Joshua and Trent were not home during the murder or the moving of Tia’s body. Rick made it clear to his sons that they needed to be out in public in places where they could be seen and accounted for. He told his boys not to ask him any questions and the less they knew, the better.

After Rick came back from dumping Tia’s body, he sat his sons down and said “Tia is no longer with us.” Julene claims she didn’t know what he meant. Joshua told police during his questioning that he instantly understood what his father meant…

With this in mind, the whole Thorburn family KNEW about the killing of Tia but never said anything.

When Rick came under fire, he tried committing suicide by overdosing on pills but was placed in a coma. Rick was convicted to life in prison.

Eventually, Trent (the abuser) was accused of two counts of perjury, attempting to pervert the course of justice and incest. At first, he adamantly refused the incest accusations, but later broke down and confessed it. He was sentenced to 4 years in jail BUT ONLY SERVED 16 MONTHS.

Both Julene and Joshua were accused of perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice. They agreed to be witnesses for the prosecution. Joshua was convicted to 3 months in jail while Julene was sentenced to 18 months.

All the family is released from prison except Rick.

The mother of killed Queensland foster care child Tiahleigh Palmer has launched legal action against the State Government and the children's services provider.

Thorburn's criminal history has since surfaced, revealing a long list of offenses spanning from 1977 to 1997. Despite his long rap sheet, Thorburn passed a host of tests which allowed him to become a foster father to Tiahleigh in 2014.

"She was put in child safety for her safety and was murdered. There are bigger questions that need to be asked and answer about what's occurring in child safety in Queensland."