A woman walks out of a pub one day in far north Queensland and seemingly vanishes into thin air.
What follows are nine years of suspicions, accusations and heartache for her family.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains information some people may find distressing.
Ms Bernard, 23, whose family asked that she only be referred to by her surname, has been listed as a missing person since February 10, 2013.
Born in the Aboriginal township of Kowanyama on the western side of Cape York, Ms Bernard was travelling around the region when she disappeared.
Now an inquest in Cairns has heard the last person to see her, quarry caretaker Thomas Byrnes, gave conflicting stories to police who immediately deemed him suspicious.
But this information was not passed on to senior officers at the time or other police teams, including searchers and the homicide squad, the inquest heard.
Search coordinators told the inquest a suspicion of foul play would have changed their efforts to find Ms Bernard.
Matthew Moloney, who was a sergeant at the time but has since left the Queensland Police Service, was working in the township of Coen when he spoke to Mr Byrnes three days after Ms Bernard's disappearance.
He told the inquest sitting in Cairns last week that one of the first things Mr Byrnes said was: "I haven't done anything with her. I haven't murdered her or anything else."
Mr Moloney said he observed injuries on Mr Byrnes and he and an officer from Kowanyama said Mr Byrnes's "unlikely" version of events had aroused their suspicions.
The inquest heard that, among his inconsistent claims, Mr Byrnes described picking Ms Bernard up in or near Archer River late at night and taking her back to where he lived by the quarry.
Mr Byrnes allegedly told police she had been intoxicated and had urinated in her clothes, so he took them and Ms Bernard ran into the surrounding bushland naked or with only a towel.
The first search
Three days after Ms Bernard was last seen, her family in Kowanyama reported her missing.
Local officers and an Indigenous tracker searched the grounds of the quarry but found no trace of Ms Bernard.
The next day the site was declared a crime scene.
Search and rescue crews were called in and an extensive land, air and dive search began.
Sergeant Andrew Ibell, who coordinated the search, and Senior Sergeant Jim Whitehead, who reviewed the earlier search and coordinated an additional search in 2021, also gave evidence at the inquest.
They told coroner Nerida Wilson the initial search for Ms Bernard was focused around the quarry based on Mr Byrnes's statement she had run into the bush.
Both officers said the search was given the largest possible parameters and they were confident that had Ms Bernard been alive and in the area, there was a high probability they would have found her.
Sergeant Ibell said even if Ms Bernard had been fleeing violent behaviour from Mr Byrnes, he thought the chance of her going far into the bush was slim.
"For Ms Bernard to leave what should have been a point of safety, to go off into an area she'd never been before … I find it unlikely that she would have left that quarry building and ventured far," he said.
"We did as much as we could."
No trace of Ms Bernard was found in either search.
Police handling of the case
On Friday, Detective Senior Constable Byron Worth, who was stationed in Weipa in 2013 and led much of the investigation, was questioned.
He said his initial impression of Mr Byrnes's account was that it was "odd to say the least".
But the assertion that the investigation was treated with the seriousness of a potential homicide was questioned by the counsel assisting the coroner and lawyers representing Ms Bernard's family.
'Disjointed' testimonies or lies?
According to various police officers, Mr Byrnes gave numerous different accounts of his actions on the day he saw Ms Bernard.
The discrepancies ranged from telling some officers he had picked Ms Bernard up on the side of the road, telling others he had met her in the Archer River pub, to briefly saying Ms Bernard had stolen his car, before recanting that version of events.
He also forgot about a phone call Ms Bernard appeared to have made from the quarry.
While the detective said Mr Byrnes "didn't seem to be deceitful", when questioned he acknowledged the accounts significantly changed and they could be viewed as lies.
Forensics and the scene
Police were also questioned over the handling of various forensic elements in the case.
Clothes belonging to Ms Bernard, which she had allegedly urinated in, were handed over by Mr Byrnes but were not tested for the presence of urine.
Senior Constable Worth said he was not aware any such test existed.
Mr Byrnes also told police he had taken Ms Bernard's clothes to wash them, but a caretaker who moved into the quarry house shortly after told local police the washing machine did not work.
This information did not appear to have been followed up, the inquest heard.
Small amounts of blood were found on a towel in Mr Byrnes's quarry home.
Mr Byrnes said the blood was his, from when he had injured his arms.
"I couldn't negate it," Senior Constable Worth said. "I had no knowledge of whose it was other than likely one of theirs'.
When questioned, the detective agreed the amount of blood could be consistent with strangulation.
Lawyers also criticised the handling of evidence of injuries to Mr Byrnes's arms and chest and the lack of any forensic sampling taken.
Photographs were taken of Mr Byrnes's injuries — which he claimed were caused by rock smashing — by an officer the day Ms Bernard was reported missing.
Several years later, these were sent to an expert who reported the injuries could have been caused in the way Mr Byrnes had suggested.
This was later written into a report to the coroner by Senior Constable Worth as the injuries not being consistent with fingernail scratches.
In that report, submitted to the inquest at a hearing last year, the expert maintained he had not been asked to evaluate the injuries as possible fingernail scratches.
Senior Constable Worth told the court he had only just picked up that discrepancy and could see his statement looked misleading.
He was also asked why swab and under-fingernail samples were not taken from Mr Byrnes.
Senior Constable Worth said Mr Byrnes had already given an account that he had been in close contact with Ms Bernard and had engaged in oral sex with her, and at that point when police were speaking to him four days had passed.
"The likelihood of DNA being found on Mr Byrnes at that stage is greatly reduced," he said.
Andrew Hoare, a lawyer representing Ms Bernard's family, countered by saying DNA traces present under a person's fingernails were capable of demonstrating a struggle.
"It goes to passive presence or an assault," Mr Hoare said.
Missed witnesses and leads
While Mr Byrnes worked as a caretaker at the Archer River quarry, his long-term home was closer to Coen, at a place called "the bend".
This location was never officially searched.
"It would be highly unlikely that he would travel if Ms Bernard was deceased," Senior Constable Worth said.
"Why would he travel from the remote location of the quarry, an hour drive towards civilisation.
There are multiple disused mine shafts and caves in the bushland surrounding the bend, which former police sergeant Mr Moloney told the court he had thought at the time of Ms Bernard's disappearance should be examined, and that he had passed that advice on to his senior officers.
The decision by Senior Constable Worth and the search team to dismiss the location without a search or any attempt to seek witnesses was heavily questioned by counsel assisting and Mr Hoare, as was the lack of any follow-up of the phone call apparently made by Ms Bernard from the quarry on the night she vanished.
The call was made to her relative's mobile in Kowanyama and lasted several minutes, but police never followed up on who answered the call or what the contents of the conversation were.
A record of violence and threats
During the inquest Mr Byrnes's history of violence was examined, as well as why none of the incidents appeared to have been considered as part of Ms Bernard's investigation.
On multiple occasions since Ms Bernard's disappearance different people had told police Mr Byrnes had threatened them with phrases including, "I put things like you in the ground" and, "Watch yourselves or I'll bury you next to that girl and no-one will find you".
The court was also shown police body camera footage of an apparently drunk Mr Byrnes telling a police officer he was angry at another local man. Mr Byrnes was recorded saying: "When he goes missing I'm f***ing responsible."
In the video, Mr Byrnes also asks the officer if he is recording, before yelling into the camera, "I'm not going to put up with these black c***s around town … yes, I am a racist bastard".
Senior Constable Worth described the comments as "the ramblings of a drunken man".
He was also asked by Mr Hoare why he was not aware of Mr Byrnes's previous assault charge in 1995 when Mr Byrnes allegedly attempted to strangle another man.
Senior Constable Worth said he could have requested records of previous charges but had not.
"We would not raise with them in relation to the fresh offence … unless there was a similar MO or style of offending."
Police communication
Numerous parts of the investigation did not appear to have been communicated within the Queensland Police Service, to detectives or search and rescue teams.
Sergeant Andrew Ibell and Senior Sergeant Jim Whitehead, who coordinated the searches, said they were not told to consider that foul play may have occurred, the potential of a second search site at the bend, or Mr Byrnes's familiarity with various caves and disused mines.
They said all these factors would have altered how the search was conducted.
Senior officers, including in the homicide squad and covert operations team, were not informed of their colleagues' suspicions of Mr Byrnes and his differing accounts in the years after Ms Bernard went missing.
Lawyers assisting the coroner questioned this assumption, showing the detective a police process chart for a missing person, which was headed, "Remember, when in doubt, think homicide until the contrary is proved".
Senior Constable Worth's insistence that he always considered the case a suspected homicide was also questioned when his report to the coroner in 2017 was presented.
In that report he stated he thought Ms Bernard had probably taken some of Mr Byrnes's clothes and had "walked east from the quarry site and become disorientated and lost in remote bushland and subsequently perished".
The family
All week, Ms Bernard's family sat in the courtroom listening to detectives and officers.
Because of social distancing, Ms Bernard's relatives sat spread out and masked, provided with blankets to cope with the cold courtroom.
Two photos of Ms Bernard sat in front of the bench, with flowers scattered around them.
The family's lawyers said the investigation into the disappearance of the daughter and niece had failed them, as had the detectives tasked with finding out what happened to her.
The inquest continues on Monday when Thomas Byrnes is expected to give evidence.
The hearing is due to finish on Tuesday.
