As debris from MH17 smouldered across the fields of eastern Ukraine, families and next of kin were thrust into a new reality – one of profound loss and unimaginable grief. While the world around them moved forward, their lives had been forever altered and they wanted someone held responsible. Justice would be an arduous 8-and-a-half-year journey and the AFP would not let them go through it alone. The AFP’s Family Investigative Liaison Officers (FILOs) would become a lifeline for grieving Australian families, providing support and a single point of truth against a background of complex misinformation.

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With the threat of conflict resuming at any moment, AFP investigators were racing against time to recover the last remaining MH17 victims and any clues that would bring them closer to the truth of exactly what happened... and who was responsible. At the crash site, investigators uncovered a bow-tie-shaped fragment of what appeared to be shrapnel, embedded in the plane’s fuselage. It would be a critical discovery in the MH17 investigation.

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Brisbane retirees Howard and Susan Horder were on their way home after a dream European holiday. They were among the 38 people who called Australia home on board MH17 when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine. The devastation of that day has never left the Horder family. While they and other heartbroken next of kin were desperate to bring their loved ones home, AFP officers were working quickly on the ground in Ukraine to recover bodies from the volatile crash site and move them to a safe location. Only then could DVI experts begin the painstaking processes of identification and repatriation.

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