
Warning: The following deals with domestic violence, which may be triggering to some readers.
An afternoon in early 2014, police were called to a property in Beenham Valley Road, Wolvi, a regional pocket near Gympie in Queensland's southeast.
Kirra-Lea McLoughlin had phoned 000 to report an alleged domestic violence incident. But when police arrived, she denied there was a problem, apologised for calling them, and turned them away.
One of the officers present was Jamie Pultz, then a first-year constable with Queensland Police.
Speaking on Australian Story, he claimed that he questioned Kirra about her partner's behaviour: had he hit her, threatened her, was she in need of help? Each time, she replied, "No."
Roughly six months later, the 27-year-old mother of four was dead.
There was more than 105 bruises on her body, and her cause of death was ruled to be a traumatic brain injury.
Six years on, no charges have been laid over Kirra's death. But a c
oncerted quest for answers led by her mother, Alison Russell, and bolstered by a podcast co-created by Jamie Pultz, has put the case back in the spotlight.That podcast, Beenham Valley Road, has been credited by Alison as the reason a coron ial inquest was finally held at Gympie District Court this month.
But despite Jamie's tremendous efforts over months of private investigation, the 'what-ifs' of that first callout to Kirra's home haunt him.
"That plays on your mind; did you do everything right, or what could we have done?" the former cop told Mamamia's True Crime Conversations podcast earlier this year. "I guess your brain plays tricks on you."
What happened to Kirra McLoughlin?
Kirra McLoughlin and her partner had been in a relationship for roughly ten months at the time of her death.
Her partner was known to police and has a history of offending, including multiple domestic violence-related convictions.
Several people known to the couple, including the man's ex-partner and his mother, told the recent inquest that their relationship was studded with violence.
Out of fears for the safety of Kirra's children, Keira's husband, from whom she was recently separated, obtained legal custody of their four children, and her mother moved from NSW to Queensland to help him care for them.
"It's really hard to take someone's kids away from them, but we had to do what was best for the children," Alison said during Monday night's episode of Australian Story. "I was going to go back for her; I just didn't have time."
Throughout the inquest, Kirra's partner and his sister gave the same account of that winter night at Beenham Valley Road.