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Today's episode contains information about murder and sexual offences committed against both humans and animals.

And while we did not focus on it, it is mentioned and won't be suitable for all listeners.

Blacktown is a large local government area in Western Sydney, 37 kilometres inland from Sydney's central business district.

It encompasses a group of suburbs, including the suburb also called Blacktown, and the suburb of Prospect.

Prospect sits on the housecarts, around the Prospect Reservoir and Nature Reserve.

In the 1980s, the area was speckled with acreage and open land, which was used mostly for farming.

Many of the roads were still dirt, and although it was on the verge of Sydney suburban housing a state boom,

it had a sense of the country.

Blacktown was no stranger to crime. In the mid-1980s, drugs, crime and high levels of unemployment were a major issue in the area.

According to the New South Wales Police Annual Report for 1986 and 87,

there were 98 murders recorded across the entire state of New South Wales, of which 69 were solved.

55 of those solved murders were classified as domestic killings,

leaving 14 that were committed by offenders unknown to the victim.

Violence was an escalating problem, and the New South Wales government saw a need for growing the tanners of specialist police squads that focused on violent crime.

Although the community was used to crime, in early 1986, a crime would drop Blacktown that would change things forever.

On Tuesday, February 4, 1986, a dairy farmer in Prospect noticed something strange.

All morning, his cows had been gathered in the same spot, at a place he called the boiler paddock.

He first noticed it at 9.30am while he was leaving the house to go to a cattle sale.

When he returned home two hours later, the cows were still standing in the same spot.

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