The experienced investigator was trapped in his crashed, unmarked police car, which had flipped on its side. Drunk and shaken, he still had the capacity to wonder: Was this the suicide attempt he had been planning for months?

That was 10 years ago, and he still doesn’t have the answer.

Tim Peck, a former homicide detective who has returned from the brink of suicide.

In police circles, Tim Peck was a star. A born crook catcher who worked homicide, revelled in the crushing hours, and always put the job first.

He joined the police force on a whim in 1994 when a workmate at the steel works said he had signed up. But once in, he wanted to be an investigator and set his sights on the homicide squad. He wanted to be the best, and anything that stood in the way would have to be discarded.

“From the outside I was flying. I didn’t apply for jobs but was invited to apply and got the position. If people didn’t work as hard as me, I would kick them out,” he says.

Sure there were warning signs. Five years earlier, full of booze after attending a colleague’s farewell he stacked a car and ran off. He didn’t lose his licence but escaped with a fine.

“I went to work, and it was as if nothing had happened. I was one of the boys. I liked a beer and worked hard,” he says.

Back then, policing was exclusively a results business, and as long as you did your bit just about anything else could be forgiven.

He adhered to the three unspoken rules of policing. “Don’t go sick on night shift, don’t lose a fight and don’t lag on your mates.”

Tim Peck (middle) graduates from the Police Academy.

Then in October 2014 there was the collision that cost him his job and probably saved his life. He couldn’t see a future outside policing, but when that was taken from him, he found a pathway by helping others.

Running out of options, he had told his wife in August that year he would be dead by Christmas. He was considering deliberately driving his car into a stationary object while drunk, as it could be written off as a fatal accident.

Now in the overturned car, his survival instincts kicked in. Released from the vehicle, he refused a breath test and took a train to Warrnambool. When he charged his phone in a pub it gave........

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