In January 2023, Perth grandmother Donna Nelson flew to Tokyo expecting to meet her future husband, following a two-year online relationship. Instead, customs officers found two kilograms of methamphetamine in a suitcase she'd been asked to carry, and she was arrested.
Last November, Australian Story followed Donna's five daughters as they attended her long-awaited trial for drug smuggling. Despite Japan's 99 per cent conviction rate, Donna's daughters were confident she would be among the fortunate one per cent and be home for Christmas.
"Even though I knew what we were up against, I still felt confident," daughter Kristal Hilaire tells Australian Story. "You can't be guilty of something you didn't know and didn't have intention of doing."
Before her trial, Donna – a 59-year-old Nyaki Nyaki woman and community leader – had spent 22 months in solitary confinement with no family contact.
"She's pretty much confined to her cell for 23½ hours a day," explains daughter Ashlee Charles. "She has to eat in her cell, she isn't allowed to talk loudly, she's not allowed to sing, she's not allowed to talk to other people who are detained."
Says her Japanese lawyer, Rie Nishida: "She actually told me she felt she is suicidal at a certain point. She told me she almost forget how to speak."
Donna Nelson was the victim of a sophisticated love scam. Her fiancé, who called himself Kelly, said he was a businessman based in Japan. After two years of daily online contact, he invited her to Japan to meet in person, booking her a flight with a stopover in Laos and asking her to pick up a sample suitcase for his Japanese boutiques.
"With these romance scams, people's usual reaction is, how could you be so stupid," says lawyer Luke McMahon. "But it really lacks an appreciation for how sophisticated these scammers are. It's this person's job. That's what they do. They do it every day."
Donna was sentenced to six years in prison, despite the court accepting she was the victim of a scam. No effort has been made to investigate ‘Kelly' or the syndicate he belongs to, either in Japan or Australia.
In a dramatic and absorbing episode, Australian Story reveals the details of the elaborate scam that led to Donna Nelson's arrest and provides exclusive behind-the-scenes coverage of the family as they attend the trial, digest the shock sentence and prepare for an appeal.
