WHEN Grant Collard burst through the doors of a Mandurah business and threatened two women in April 2013, they didn’t know he had just killed a man.
But they knew their lives were in danger, and they believed him when he said they would die if they didn’t help him.
What started as a normal work day for Debbie Tippett and Chenoa Eudey turned to terror with Collard threatening the pair before police arrived and arrested the 46-year-old man.
Earlier that morning, a drug-affected Collard had been a passenger in Lindsay Ferguson’s taxi.
He threatened Mr Ferguson and damaged the vehicle before the taxi crashed. Collard then left the 67-year-old cabbie for dead.
In the two years since then, Collard’s crimes, and the devastating impact of Mr Ferguson’s murder have been highly publicised.
What hasn’t been heard is the story of how two local women thought fast on their feet and not only escaped death at the hands of Collard, but caught a killer.
Ms Tippett and Ms Eudey’s story started on April 24, 2013.
The pair, who worked for a Rafferty Road business, were alone in the office when Collard barrelled through the doors at 10.20am.
He approached the counter, grabbed a pen, and said to the two women, “Someone’s gonna give me a lift, or someone’s gonna die”.
Recalling the horrifying incident, Ms Eudey said she looked at Ms Tippett and thought “s*** just got real”, before the women sprang into action.
“We didn’t know what was going on,” Ms Tippett said. “But we did know that our lives depended on how we reacted.
We could tell he was drug-affected; we knew we had to keep him as calm as possible.
- Debbie Tippett.
“We could tell he was drug-affected; we knew we had to keep him as calm as possible.”
With hearts pounding, the women offered to call Collard a taxi, with Ms Tippett secretly phoning police from a back room.
But during the phone call, Collard followed her through the office before grabbing a knife and holding it up to her face.
“I was on the phone to the police and they could hear him grunting and snorting,” Ms Tippett said. “He had the knife and I knew I either had to get it off him or wear it.
“I knocked it out of his hand and I heard the police say ‘we’re onto you Debbie’.
“From then we just had to bide our time. I knew they [the police] were on their way.”
Although Ms Eudey managed to escape while Ms Tippett was out of the room with Collard, the danger was far from over.
“I got out and ran to the deli to get them to lock down,” Ms Eudy said.
“While I was outside, Collard threw a helmet at Deb, which hit the window.
“I thought that was it; I thought he’d done Deb in.”
Terrorised “beyond belief”, Ms Tippett was forced to take a phone call during her ordeal.
It was the police.
They wanted to know if everything was ok, and to let the women know officers were on their way.
I told them every nanosecond counts now.
- Debbie Tippett.
“I told them every nanosecond counts now,” Ms Tippett said. “[Collard] was on a mission; he had to be stopped.”
After 15 minutes, police arrived at the scene and arrested Collard, but not without a struggle.
He was subsequently charged with the kidnapping and murder of Lindsay Ferguson and the kidnapping of Ms Tippett.
Found guilty earlier this year, Collard is now facing life imprisonment when he is sentenced next month.
During the trial, both women took to the stand and recounted the terrifying events of the day Collard killed Mr Ferguson and threatened their lives.
“It was good therapy to see him in court,” the women said. “Last time we saw him it was his decision if we lived or died. When we stood on that stand we had the power. We don’t expect he’ll ever see the light of day; he doesn’t deserve to.”
Since the incident, both Ms Tippett and Ms Eudey said they had struggled to sleep, and had received very little counselling or support.
They have become outspoken on the drug scourge affecting the community, with Collard found to have been on the tail-end of a methylamphetamine binge at the time of his offending.
They are also calling on increased help from employers and Work Cover for employees injured, traumatised, or threatened at work.
They have found support from Mandurah MLA David Templeman, who last week read a statement regarding the women’s ordeal in Parliament.
Drug-fuelled crime is quite often violent and scary, and it is increasing.
- David Templeman.
“My point was that the amphetamine tsunami experienced in our community is a major issue the Government must respond to,” he said. “Drug-fuelled crime is quite often violent and scary, and it is increasing.”
The past two years has found the pair gaining strength from each other, with both now working again in different jobs.
Ms Eudey, refusing to simply be a victim, has gone into counselling others, with Ms Tippett now employed as a security guard.
“We’ve come out of this with bugger-all help,” Ms Tippett said. “But we worked together as a team; that’s what got us out of this.
“But what about Lindsay?
“It’s all just too sad for words.”
