THE mentally ill woman wrongly locked in Baxter detention centre slid into schizophrenia while a member of a Sydney religious cult.
German-born former Qantas flight attendant Cornelia Rau became an initiate of a secretive Surry Hills group, which practises self empowerment.
Today, The Daily Telegraph can reveal the extraordinary story behind the 39-year-old's mental decline and her membership of the inner-city cult.
The name Ms Rau was using when arrested by police - Anne Schmidt - is a composite of the names of two other cult members.
Last night, her sister Christine said: "It was while she was with them [the cult] that she started getting sick.
"We couldn't figure out how she got so ill."
Yesterday, as the Prime Minister ordered an inquiry into the mix-up, The Daily Telegraph identified the cult Ms Rae joined as the Kenja Communications group run by its guru Ken Dyers.
She spent a few months with the group, which runs its classes in secrecy behind steel doors in Surry Hills, in 1998.
Christine said from her home in Kings Langley, western Sydney, it was then that her sister's health deteriorated.
Attempts to contact Mr Dyers and the Kenja group yesterday were met with silence. The Daily Telegraph was told the name Cornelia was using - Anne Schmidt - is a composite of the names of her two Kenja "buddies" Anna Schouten and Caroline Schmidt.
When Cornelia went missing in March last year, after checking herself out of a Manly psychiatric clinic, Christine said she contacted Kenja for information. But she said they would not answer her questions.
"They seemed very secretive, they wouldn't talk to me," she said.
At Kenja's second floor offices in Surry Hills, The Daily Telegraph found access from their lift blocked by an 3.5m steel security door.
When we knocked, a man answered and said: We have nothing to say."
Repeated attempts to contact them directly and by phone were rebuffed.
The 83-year-old founder and leader of Kenja, Ken Dyers, also refused to comment.
His staff accused The Daily Telegraph of misreporting his trial over charges he sexually abused girls as young as 11 who attended his "energy conversion" sessions.
He was convicted in 1999 but was then cleared after a High Court appeal in 2002.
Dyers always claimed he was framed by former members motivated by revenge and hate.
Last night, a former Kenja initiate said he knew Cornelia and saw her downward spiral.
"She went a bit funny at the time she was in there," he said.
Kenja claims it is "a non-religious, non-political personal communication training organisation, designed to help the individual achieve his/her goals and discover his/her purpose" on its website.
It also has offices in Parramatta, Canberra and Melbourne.
Ms Rau's family has sent pictures of her life before she was mistakenly detained to her in Glenside Hospital in an attempt to "retrieve her from the fog" she is living in.
Christine said psychiatrists believed the family photographs might help jolt memories of her former life. "She is still saying she is Anna Schmidt and she comes from Germany," she said.
"We're keeping every day open at the moment. We don't know for sure what we are doing or when it is likely that seeing us might help her."
Christine said that rather than racing to Adelaide to see her sister - who has refused to be visited - she is working on the logistics of her future care and transfer to Sydney.
She said psychiatrists believed her sister's mental illness could have been worsened by being forcibly locked up.
"Our greatest fear is that her condition could have been compounded," Christine said.
She said the family wanted reform of the mental health and immigration systems, rather than compensation for Ms Rau's improper detention.
Queensland Police yesterday confirmed Ms Rau had given three names - Anna Schmidt, Anna Sue Schmidt and Anna Brotmeyer - after her first contact with police at Coen in March last year.
An Immigration Department official asked Queensland Police to detain her on March 31 because there was no record of a person with the name Anna Brotmeyer having entered the country.
She was taken to the Cairns Watchhouse later that day after telling police she had entered the country illegally but refusing to give more details.
After she was transferred to Brisbane on April 5, police on April 29 checked missing person records for the three names she had given but found no match.
Yesterday, Mr Howard reacted to the controversy by questioning the adequacy of Australia's immigration and mental health polices.
"This case raises questions of not only the immigration detention system, which has attracted all the critical attention, but it also raises some questions about the mental health policies this country has followed for a long time," Mr Howard said.
But he again refused to apologise for the incident. "I am not going to just, without knowing all the circumstances, issue an apology," he said.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said it was understandable authorities thought Ms Rau was an illegal immigrant, given that she had claimed to be German and spoke German.
While no one knew about her pre-existing mental condition, Ms Rau was found to be carrying a stolen passport.
Senator Vanstone said Ms Rau was assessed in Brisbane by doctors, who thought she behaved oddly but did not have a mental illness.
She underwent another assessment a month after she arrived at Baxter, and South Australian mental health authorities were then notified.