“Gunned down on her family’s front door…” says the promo for Nine’s new crime drama Human Error.
“They shot the wrong woman.”
The series “inspired by real events” premieres next week starring Leeanna Walsman as a homicide detective assigned to a shocking murder case in a Melbourne suburb.
The press kit notes:
When a suburban mum, Sonia Matthews, is executed in her driveway in front of a child, it has all the signs of a brazen professional ‘hit’. Except that Sonia has no criminal connections at all. Initially, Holly’s convinced the victim’s husband has organised the hitman and she puts her reputation on the line to prove it.
But while the series also carries the standard “any similarities to actual persons is coincidental” disclaimer Nine is declining to comment on any similarities to the tragic unsolved murder of Jane Thurgood-Dove in 1997.
According to Victoria Police, the 34-year-old mother of three was gunned down in front of her children in the driveway of her Niddrie home. She had just arrived back at her house with her three children, still seated in the back of her car, when a stolen car pulled up outside the front of her property and a gunman stepped out and shot her while she stood in her driveway.
Police still believe that Jane was sadly the victim of mistaken identity and not the intended target of the shooting. A $1m reward remains.
While it reads like a scene breakdown for Human Error, the series then explores other fictional subplots, both criminal and personal, typical of the genre in a post-Underbelly world.
But it is pretty disingenuous to promote, on the one hand, a Drama as being “inspired by real events” whilst, on the other hand, declining to acknowledge just what they are.
True life crime is a genre prolific the world over and one audiences flock to. As other families, including that of Shane Warne or even Baby Reindeer‘s Fiona Muir-Harvey have learned, there is nothing to stop drama producers from fictionalising your life or parts thereof. A year ago media even speculated a story on mushroom-related deaths in Leongatha were ripe for a telemovie….
Human Error, a six part drama filmed by Roadshow Rough Diamond in early 2023, will finally see the light of day next week.
In a best case scenario, police might be hoping it motivates someone to come forward with evidence that leads to a conviction and brings a family some resolution.
8:40pm next Wednesday on Nine.
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