Tonight on Hunted, Bayan and Eesha’s burner phone led the Hunters to a Caravan Park in Warrnambool, but despite their best efforts, the duo remain on the run. And a phone intercept followed by a late-night stake-out saw the Hunters swoop in on besties Sonia and Ellerina.
Bayan and Eesha’s comprehensive communications system made them feel very safe within the Ocean Grove Pickle Ball community. However, little did they know the Hunted Cyber team had tracked their burner phone and access to their call records. After scouring phone records Hunted Team Cyber’s traced a call to associate Merryl’s house, and found that Merryl had recently driven Bayan and Eesha to a campsite in Inverleigh. Later, the Hunted team received another ping when the Fugitives used their burner phone in a Warrnambool Caravan Park. Knowing their window was limited, the Chief immediately deployed a specialist drone team, chopper and Hunted Team Bravo’s sniffer dog, to sweep the caravan park, but alas, there were no signs of the Fugitive pair. Bayan and Eesha were out of range.
Meanwhile, Ed and Jimi, who have been camping for most of the last 12 days, decided to recharge their batteries by visiting Jimi’s long-time friends, Craig and Linda. After learning about an upcoming nearby Pride Festival, Ed and Jimi had decided this could be the best way to find random people willing to help them. Simultaneously, back at Hunted HQ, Forensic Psychologist Dr. Karla Lopez had flagged that the boys might attend the Pride Festival, leading to the deployment of Hunted Teams Bravo and Charlie to search for them among the crowds. Fortunately for Ed and Jimi, they had a change of heart at the eleventh hour, dodging the grasps of the Hunters.
Hiding out in Footscray, Fugitive besties Sonja and Elerrina were paranoid and eager to keep moving. The besties planned to meet another associate, Daniel, in a remote park and use his phone to arrange accommodation. They carefully called Elerrina’s associate, ‘Ranger Benny’, to make their plan and then made a second call to their friend, Leeroy Brown, which unfortunately for them, was on full intercept by Hunted HQ. When Daniel’s phone pinged near the park, Ground Hunter Team Charlie raced to their location but missed the Fugitives by a split hair. The besties were already on their way to meet ‘Ranger Benny’ and stay with him, where they were working for board and food at Gumbuya World Wildlife Park.
Hunted HQ then intercepted Daniel’s phone, which proved to be a golden ticket, providing access to call records from the duo. Hunted Cyber Team traced one of the numbers to Ranger Benny’s house, leading Hunted Team Echo, to stake out. When Hunted HQ also discovered that Benny was a ranger at the nearby Wildlife Park, they knew his arrival from work would be imminent, and most likely he would be with Sonja and Elerrina, so they quietly waited in the dark for Benny to return home. Upon their arrival and under the cover of darkness, Hunted Team Echo blocked the driveway and zeroed in on the besties, Sonja and Elerrina, who up until that point were certain they were safe. They were wrong, and their time on the run was over.
