Keli Lane (born 21 March 1975), an Australian former water polo player and teacher, was convicted of the 1996 murder of her newborn baby, Tegan, and of three counts of making a false declaration.
Lane is serving an 18-year prison sentence and will be eligible for parole on 12 May 2024, after serving a period of 13 years and five months in custody.
1990
During her trial, the prosecution alleged that Lane became pregnant five times over seven years during the 1990s, terminating the first two pregnancies, placing the third and fifth babies up for adoption, and allegedly murdering the fourth.
1994
Between 1994 and 1998, she was in a relationship with rugby union player Duncan Gillies.
1995
An elite water polo player at national and international level, Lane was a member of the silver medal-winning Australian Junior Women's team at the 1995 World Championships in Quebec, Canada in which she competed just months after giving birth to her first child, whom she gave up for adoption.
Further investigations revealed that Lane had also given birth in 1995, during her four-year relationship with Gillies.
Gillies claimed he was completely unaware of Lane's pregnancies.
1996
After four failed attempts to be induced early at Ryde Hospital, on 12 September 1996, Tegan Lee Lane was delivered at around 38 weeks at Auburn Hospital.
Less than two days later, and prior to being discharged, Lane left the hospital with Tegan at around 11 am-12 pm and by 3 pm, she arrived at her parents home alone.
A few hours later, she then attended a friend's wedding dressed in white with her partner Duncan Gillies.
There was no sign of nor mention of Tegan.
1999
In 1999, 25 weeks pregnant with her third child (pregnancy five), Lane flew to Queensland to seek a late term abortion.
She was refused due to the foetus being of a viable gestation.
Three months later, in May 1999, Lane gave birth to a boy who she decided to put up for adoption (as she did with her first born child in 1995).
Lane advised a social worker that this was her first child and that Gillies was the father.
Gillies denied the claims.
Prior to finding a permanent home for this child, a Department of Community Services (DOCS) child protection worker made further investigations that led to finding that the child born in 1999 was in fact not Lane's first child and that she had given birth in 1996 at Auburn Hospital.
When confronted with these allegations in October 1999, Lane initially denied the existence of the two earlier children.
Several days later, she claimed that her daughter was living with a family in Perth.
The matter was referred to local police who began investigations in late 1999.
2001
In February 2001, Lane, who by now was seven months pregnant with her fourth child (i.e. pregnancy six), was interviewed by police.
During the police interview, Lane claimed that she had given Tegan to the baby's father, a man called Andrew Norris (or Morris), with whom she claimed to have had a brief affair.
According to Lane, the affair took place at a unit block in Balmain on Friday nights after a drinking session at the Town Hall pub ("The Townie").
Lane alleges in her police interviews Norris's long-term partner, Melanie, also lived there as she often saw female apparel strewn around the unit.
According to Lane, Melanie was in retail although she was not present at the unit on Friday nights.
During police interviews, Lane claimed that she felt forced to hide her pregnancies because of her fear of the reaction of her parents and friends as according to investigations she could not be sure who any of the fathers of the babies might be.
She told police she handed the baby over to Norris in the Auburn Hospital car park but later changed this story to state it was inside the hospital foyer.
It was reported that during the police interviews Lane said several times she felt alone when she became pregnant and told her mother in an intercepted phone call "I had no other choice", referring to why she gave the baby to Norris.
2005
Manly Police referred the matter to the New South Wales Coroner in 2005.
A coronial inquest into the disappearance of Tegan began in June 2005 and ran until February 2006.
The inquest was presided over by the State Coroner, John Abernethy, and heard that police had undertaken an extensive search for the child, including attempting to match DNA samples.
The inquest resulted in the coroner declaring that he was "... comfortably satisfied that Tegan Lane is in fact deceased..."
and that he was concerned that Tegan had met with foul play, although he also stated that there still existed a possibility that she was alive somewhere.
The Coroner ordered that a death certificate would be issued for Tegan and recommended that the brief of evidence and transcript of the coronial inquiry be forwarded to the New South Wales Homicide Squad for assessment and if necessary further investigation.
2006
From 2006, police investigations focused on locating Norris, Melanie (Mel), and Noeline (Nana) Norris, Andrew Norris's mother, all alleged to have participated in or witnessed carriage of baby Tegan from Auburn Hospital.
2011
On 18 April 2011, Lane's lawyers lodged an appeal against her conviction at the same time as a Sydney taxi driver alleged he saw Lane dispose of the child.
2014
Her final application for appeal was rejected by the High Court of Australia in August 2014.
Lane is the daughter of Sandra Lane, a former hospital worker at Manly Hospital, and Robert Lane, a retired police officer.
Educated at Mackellar Girls High School in Manly, Lane enrolled in an arts degree at the University of Newcastle from which she dropped out and started working part-time at Ravenswood School for Girls as a water polo coach.
She went on to hold a position as sports convener at Ravenswood where her credentials are listed in the school year book as a degree qualified teacher with honours.
