"I got into a car accident, I need your help. I think I killed someone, I'll pay you lots of money to take me to Canberra."
The desperate plea was made in the early hours of November 19, 2023, by self-proclaimed burnout enthusiast Marcus William Hargrave.
The person he had just killed before fleeing the fatal Cooma scene in a drunken panic was his friend, Michael Ryan, or "Smiley".