The anguished daughter of the Queensland cop killers has revealed how paedophilia allegations saw them ostracised from their family and into the embrace of crazy conspiracy theories.
Gareth Train, 47, wife Stacey, 45, and brother Nathaniel, 46, killed constables Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26, and neighbour Alan Dare, 59, in a deadly ambush at their rural home at Wieambilla, 300km west of Brisbane, on December 12.
The three were later gunned down by police in a late-night stand-off, before the trio’s anti-vaxxer conspiracy theory past was exposed.
Now daughter Madelyn Train, 26, has revealed how the three killers sparked a rift with their extended family when Gareth and Nathaniel made the child abuse claims.
Madelyn Train (pictured with her brother, and parents Stacey and Gareth Train) has revealed how her family was ripped apart by paedophile allegations and haunted by doomsday predictions
Madelyn Train, 26, has revealed how the three killers had been cut off from their family after Gareth and Nathaniel made child abuse claims
They accused a man known to the family – who is now dead – of molesting them, but were left isolated from the rest of their clan when they spoke out.
Maddy now believes it was the trigger that ultimately led to madness and the deadly shootout.
‘I didn’t really understand the scale of what they experienced as children because they never unpacked it on us,’ she told a Guardian podcast.
‘They talked to each other about it, and I think they talked to some medical professionals, but they never told us what they did.
‘They always just taught us how to process our own trauma, not theirs.’
The brothers were also haunted by doomsday prophecies after they grew up in a strict religious home where their father Ronald was a born-again Christian pastor.
He is the author of several books on the Bible, including ‘The Truths of Revelation’, ‘Without Absolutes, God Is Not God’ and ‘The Bridge to Eternal Life’.
‘They were always spiritually minded,’ said Maddy. ‘And they believed literally that Covid was the end of the world.’
Ronald Train officiated at the wedding of his son Nathaniel and Stacey (pictured) when the childhood sweethearts married as teenagers in 1995
Maddy (pictured here with her mother and brother) was brought up by her uncle ‘Gary’ as her father after Stacey Train divorced her biological dad Nathaniel to marry his old brother Gareth
Ronald Train officiated at the wedding of his son Nathaniel and Stacey when the childhood sweethearts married as teenagers in 1995, and the couple later had Maddy and her brother.
But four years later, Stacey divorced Nathaniel to marry his older brother Gareth in 1999.
Maddy and her brother, who Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to name, were brought up with their uncle ‘Gary’ as their father, but Maddy says they were all her parents.
‘All three of them were parental figures for me in different ways,’ she said.
‘Everyone else thinks it’s weird, but if that’s what your parents did, it’s not weird. It wasn’t weird for me.
‘Nathaniel was more like an uncle than a dad. Like, he tried, [but] Stacey and Nathaniel had us so young that they were still figuring out who they were.’
In the wake of the bizarre wife-swap love triangle and the brothers’ paedophile allegations, the trio became distanced from the rest of the Train family 20 years ago.
In 2004, all three were cut out of a family-owned property in Cambooya near Toowoomba which was then resold to be owned by the rest of their family.
The sale noted it was because of ‘estranged family members’.
How the drama unfolded
Constable Matthew Arnold (left) and Constable Rachel McCrow (right) were ambushed and killed by the Trains
Neighbour Alan Dare (pictured) was also shot dead after trying to help them put out a fire
The three then travelled all over Queensland – often living together – as former school principals Stacey and Nathaniel moved from school to school, while Maddy and her brother were left behind to board at a state school in far north Queensland.
But Gareth struggled for work and spent more and more time online as a result, plunging him deeper into conspiracy theories, she said.
‘I know he spent a lot of time on the internet,’ she revealed.
‘You watch one weird video on YouTube and then the algorithm sends you on a weird f***ing Alice in Wonderland trip where you’re watching heaps of weird shit.
‘And that’s all it feeds you.’
She added: ‘He would send me links to s*** and I’d go, that’s a bit weird. He would send me YouTube stuff – like, repeatedly, send me weird links.
‘I didn’t even really look. I knew I had read enough to say “That’s weird” to Gary and Gary just wouldn’t say anything.
‘They just contacted me too much about s*** that I didn’t want to hear about, like Covid s*** that I thought was not accurate.
‘It was not like, “Hi, how are you?” It was like, “Here’s this Covid conspiracy theory – BOOM!”
The property, owned by Gareth, who spoke of prepping his home for an apocalypse, and his wife Stacey ran off the grid with extensive solar panels and water tanks
A series of bizarre video clips emerged featuring two of the three doomsday prepper cop killers discussing deranged theories about religion and death, and their mistrust in the police. One video showed the missing person report of Nathaniel Train
Gareth also regularly posted increasingly outlandish crank posts online, including wild claims that Princess Di was murdered as a Satanic sacrifice and the Port Arthur massacre was staged by the government.
He and Stacey were also posting bizarre videos on YouTube using their middle names Daniel and Jane as aliases and admitted they had lost touch with their children.
They were also preparing for the end of the world at their compound in Wieambilla, which they had fortified with barbed wire fences and tunnels, and installed CCTV.
But despite the spiral into insane conspiracy theories, Maddy says she still had no idea how far her parents had descended into madness.
‘Even though he was sending these links, I still think that he was mentally sound,’ she said.
‘Because Gary’s [role] in life really was that he would say dumb s*** to spark conversation.
‘And I know that sounds stupid. But what Gary would say is the most extreme thing he could, whether he believed it or not, to get people to talk.’
A man, believed to be Gareth, was seen in another video with his voice digitally altered and a heavy filter placed over his face
Her biological father Nathaniel became embroiled in the Covid conspiracies after he had a heart attack and feared the vaccine may cause complications with his heart condition, she said.
He had recently moved from Queensland to a NSW school in Walgett and had made allegations about exam cheating which he claimed was being covered up by education bosses.
He contacted NSW Upper House One Nation MP Mark Latham to help expose the alleged scandal before he cut off all contact last July.
Stacey told Maddy that Nathaniel was going to ‘blow the whistle on high up corruption within the NSW Education Department, its connections to NSW Police organised crime syndicate and fixated person branch,’ she said.
Maddy says the stress of that investigation and his hard-working lifestyle led to the heart attack and then his radicalisation online.
Madelyn Train says she still had no idea how far her parents had descended into madness.
‘The heart attack was from stress,’ she said. ‘He would drink so much coffee.
‘And he’d forget to eat because he was working so hard, and he would hardly sleep because all he wanted to do was do his job really well.
‘He didn’t even want to take the medication, but he was forced to and he didn’t want to be forced to have a vaccination that could aggravate any heart conditions.’
Stacey had also recently resigned from her head of curriculum teaching job at a nearby school rather than accept mandatory Covid vaccination.
Maddy said Nathaniel quit to go back to nature and fled north to Queensland during lockdown to camp next to his brother and ex-wife at their Wieambilla compound.
‘He was reconnecting with God, in nature,’ said Maddy. ‘That’s why he was living that way.’
His second wife, who Daily Mail Australia is not naming, was left behind in NSW and she eventually raised the alarm with police after she had not seen Nathaniel in a year.
Maddy says the Trains repeatedly told her not to get involved, with the last message on October 9.
‘They asked to be left alone multiple times,’ she said. ‘They told [Nathaniel’s second wife], “Don’t report him missing. He doesn’t want to see you. Leave him alone.”‘
But on December 4 she lodged a missing person’s report with NSW Police who then asked Queensland Police to check the Wieambilla address, sparking the ambush.
Maddy revealed the final text message from her parents came at 6.34pm after they had gunned down the two officers and their neighbour.
It read simply: ‘[Nathaniel’s second wife] sent people to kill us.’
Stacey and Gareth Train posted a haunting barely visible video on YouTube where they admitted gunning down the two young police officers
Maddy Train revealed the final text message from her parents came at 6.34pm after they had gunned down the two officers and their neighbour
Around the same time, Stacey and Gareth posted a haunting video on YouTube where they admitted gunning down the two young police officers.
‘They came to kill us and we killed them,’ Gareth said, with his and Stacey’s face barely visible in the pitch darkness on the now-deleted video.
‘If you don’t defend yourself against these devils and demons, you’re a coward.’
Maddy says she tried to reply to the text message she received.
She revealed: ‘I said, “What does that mean Gary? Are you and Stacey all right? I love you both.”‘
Maddy never got a reply. A few hours later, all three were killed by police.
The former office worker at a health and safety firm in far north Queensland quit her job in the wake of the tragedy and is now said to be travelling and looking for work.
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