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On the night Audrey Griffin died, her murderer threatened to kill his wife 12 times.

Audrey Griffin's future could not have been brighter.

The 19-year-old was about to fulfil her dream of joining the navy. She was celebrating with friends on a night out in Gosford, on the NSW Central Coast, six weeks ago. Unable to get an Uber for her journey home, Audrey began walking to a friend's house. She never made it.

Audrey was followed by a man with a violent past—a stranger who should have been behind bars. It was simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The next morning, Audrey was found dead in Erina Creek. With no knowledge yet of 53-year-old Adrian Torrens' involvement, police declared her death a misadventure — something her parents, Kathleen Kirby and Trevor Griffin, questioned immediately upon seeing their daughter's body.

They knew instinctively that it wasn't an accident. 

Kathleen Kirby and Trevor Griffin have spoken to 60 MinutesKathleen Kirby and Trevor Griffin have spoken to 60 Minutes. Image: 60 Minutes

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"I knew from the beginning there was something wrong," Kathleen said. 

Trevor added, "Kathleen spotted it straight away. Her nails were full of mud. Every one, jam-packed."

Her parents noted that Audrey had scratches down one side of her arm and a "big massive welt." She also had bruising down one side, which led police to theorise she had fallen and drowned.

But Trevor and Kathleen knew their daughter. 

"She's an ocean swimmer," Kathleen explained. "She's strong. She was up at five o'clock every morning, going to the gym. It just never made sense to me at all."

Listen to The Quicky discuss Audrey Griffin's tragic death. Post continues below.

Kathleen added, "I just knew from day one that she just didn't look at peace. And, and, and I kind of said to Trevor, 'How did you feel when you saw Audrey? Did you feel that she was at peace?' And he said, 'No, I didn't.'"

"Her face looked stressed, didn't it?" Trevor replied. 

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Despite their concerns, it took days for Audrey's death to make it to the media, and weeks for police to finally charge someone with her murder. Kathleen and Trevor say they had to repeatedly beg police to investigate, and their own inquiries helped authorities identify Torrens.

Torrens already had a horrid criminal history that should have seen him taken off the streets. In the same 60 Minutes interview, his wife, Michelle, spoke about the monster she married.

Michelle has opened up about the fear she had of her husband Adrian TorrensMichelle has opened up about the fear she had of her husband Adrian Torrens. Image: 60 Minutes.

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Michelle said she had been "living in fear for the past year". After being threatened so many times, she had no confidence that the police could help her. 

Michelle thought she'd be happy when she first married Torrens in 2022, but it didn't take long for him to turn.

"I could see a change, and it would just flip. It would just change automatically, like I can never predict it when it was going to happen," she said.

At Easter in 2024, the pair split when things began to get dangerous. 

"That was the night that he kicked the wall next to me and threw something at me and blocked my way," she recalled.

"He was in a big rage and I was trying to console him and I just couldn't console him. It was beyond anger."

Michelle took out an apprehended violence order (AVO), but Torrens continued to breach it, harassing her on the phone. 

"He called me 34 times, left 24 threatening voice messages," she said.

One message said: "I am on my way down. You're a f---ing mole. I'm going to end your f---ing reign."

"He probably wanted to kill me. It would make me so sick and nervous," Michelle added. 

It took police five months to track him down. 

Michelle was also not aware of his violent past — that he had already breached an AVO from a previous partner. That he had stomped on her chest, broken her arm and threatened to murder her with a knife. That he'd been jailed for theft, fraud, assault, intimidation and twice breaching an AVO.

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She thought he'd been in a couple of bar fights. The truth was much more sinister. 

After months of waiting, Torrens was finally convicted of breaching Michelle's AVO in January. His penance? The judge sentenced him to a community corrections order instead of sending him to prison, after completing a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.

Three months later, he killed Audrey Griffin. 

Speaking to 60 Minutes, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb acknowledged that Torrens should have been behind bars. 

"We wouldn't be in this position. I wouldn't be having this conversation with you," she said when asked what would have happened if Torrens had been jailed. 

"Audrey wouldn't be dead if he had been held in custody. He should have been locked up," she added. "A community corrections order for someone who has a violent history is, is no answer. And that exposed Audrey and others to risk."

On the night of Audrey's murder, Torrens was in another rage. He had called Michelle 12 times, again leaving evil messages, threatening to kill her, she told the programme. 

Michelle said that she had lost all belief that the police would do anything to help her. She didn't ring them to report his abuse. She wishes she had. 

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When Audrey left the pub that night in March, she was the victim of tragic circumstances. When walking to her friend's house, she had no idea that Torrens, who appeared to be on his way to Michelle's house, had begun following her — that she was about to lose her life. 

Now, Michelle believes that Torrens was on his way to kill her. In fact, even after killing Audrey, he spent the next three weeks harassing her. 

On the morning after the Gosford night out, Audrey's mum checked her phone and her daughter's location, immediately knowing something was wrong. It showed Audrey was at Erina Creek — she'd never made it to her friend's house.

Trevor headed there to make the devastating discovery of his daughter's body. 

"We walked down probably 20 metres and we could spot a body in the water," he said. "So I spotted that. I knew it was Audrey straight away because I could tell."

After the death was ruled a misadventure, Kathleen and Trevor did everything they could to encourage the police to investigate further. 

Five days after Audrey's death, Kathleen's friend told her she saw a man in a red singlet and white shorts poking around at 5am near where Audrey died. 

She called police and reported what she had seen.

Kathleen begged officers to show her every CCTV angle they had of her daughter that evening. It wasn't until April 17, as they reviewed the footage, that they realized a man in a red singlet and white shorts had been following Audrey—the exact same outfit as the man seen near the creek.

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Adrian TorrensThe image released by police. Image: 60 Minutes.

Police released the CCTV image, and it stopped Torrens' wife Michelle in her tracks. She came forward, reporting that he'd been threatening to kill her on the very night of Audrey's murder.

To gather further evidence, detectives tapped Torrens' phone. Soon enough, he rang a friend and confessed to what he had done.

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He was arrested on April 21, but would only spend three days behind bars before taking his own life — taking with him Kathleen and Trevor's chance for answers about Audrey's final moments.

"That's for me right now is just knowing what she was going through. What were her last thoughts? Knowing she fought him," Kathleen said.

"Fighting for her life, imagine fighting for your life," Trevor added.

Michelle knows how close she could have been to death that day, and thinks about the days Audrey will never experience.

"It is awful," she said. "You know this morning I got up and I saw the sunrise, and I thought that, that it is something that Audrey will never have the luxury of. Just the simple things in life."

"I never knew that the man I loved was a monster and could do something like that," she added. 

For now, Trevor and Kathleen must come to terms with a reality no parent should ever face.

"If there is a hell, I hope he rots in it," Trevor said. "How can the justice system keep letting a man go like this, after offence, after offence, after offence?"

Of his beloved daughter he added, "I saw a beautiful young girl grow up into a kind, outgoing, caring, young lady. As a father, iit made me so proud. I truly, truly loved that girl."

Featured image: 60 Minutes.

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