Great information that the CCTV footage of Jill came from the Duchess Boutique on Sydney Road and that Jill was actually seen walking on that side of the road directly in front of the boutique.
It's interesting to note that according to police the CCTV footage capturing Jill was time stamped at 1:41am. Secondly her phone call to her brother commenced at 1:43am. So it would seem that she made that call just two minutes after passing the Duchess Boutique. If she was walking while talking on the phone she would have reached, or almost reached the intersection of Sydney Road and Hope Street where there is a chemist on one corner and a shoe shop on the opposite corner and next-door is the Alasya Turkish Restaurant, which operates until 3:00am. The shoe shop may no longer be there now. I sourced this info from Google Maps (captured in 2009) and the shoe shop did have a 'closing down sale' sign in the window. Are any of the locals able to enlighten us as to what is there now?
So now we are left with a lot of speculative scenarios. It's quite possible that the background voices her brother heard on the phone came from patrons of the Alasya Restaurant. Did Jill decide to venture inside to grab something to eat? Did she meet up with someone she knew and decided to join them for a while? Was she hassled and accosted by someone or a group near the restaurant? Did someone decide to follow and attack her when she was even closer to her home. The fact that the owner of the restaurant said she heard screams may indicate that something happened to Jill very near the restaurant. I wonder if the restaurant owner bothered to investigate where the screams came from?
Then there is the alternative. Jill did make it home.
Below are some screencaps I grabbed from Google Maps to satisfy my own curiousity about the area. I've driven through Brunswick quite a few times over the years when I've visited Melbourne but I needed to get my bearings in relation to where Jill was last seen. From where she was seen on the CCTV footage outside the Duchess Boutique, there is nothing but shops and business houses on either side of Sydney Road. There are no dark alleys or parks that she could have been dragged into.
That's my two bobs worth and MOO except for the pics which are real, albeit three years old.
The Duchess Boutique Sydney Rd. Brunswick.
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Looking along Sydney Rd. from the Duchess Boutique towards Hope St.
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Intersection of Hope St. and Sydney Rd. (Bloody truck!!) You can see the Alaysa Restaurant in the right of the pic.
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A closer view looking down Hope St. with the Alaysa Restaurant on the right hand side of the pic on Sydney Road.
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