At around 11:30pm, Mr Chandler left the Waratah Street, Chatswood party to buy some cigarettes. It was also his unacknowledged intention to visit the party of a friend, Ken Buckley, at 2 Phoebe Street, Balmain.
Unable to find an open shop, he ranged further and further from the Chatswood party, eventually deciding to drop in at the Balmain party. It was more of Mr Chandler's sort of party, with over 100 people present, and perhaps a less formal atmosphere. He arrived at about midnight.
He chatted with a friend, Victor Stewart Smith, but the person he wanted most to see was a woman named Pamela Logan. Mr Chandler was having an affair with Ms Logan and wanted to spend time in her company.
Nobody at the party noticed them leave, but they left together. Pamela Logan had only recently obtained her driving license and wanted help driving home in the New Year traffic; it was decided that Mr Chandler would lead and she would follow. Chandler's car was a very distinctive silver Vauxhall, with a canvas bonnet and aluminium frame. A 1924 model, it was considered vintage even in 1962.
Pamela Logan followed Geoffrey Chandler back to her house at 125 Darlington Road, Darlington, where Mr Chandler remained for about half an hour. He then returned to the Chatswood party, arriving at about 2:30am. He left the party again slightly before 4am and remained seated outside in his car, smoking a cigarette, for between 2 and 5 minutes. He then drove away.
Having left alone, he decided to visit Pamela Logan again. He went via the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where he was delayed for several minutes because the toll keeper, Darrell Lonsdale, was discussing an accident with a tow truck driver. The time was 4:35am.
Ms Logan was asleep when Mr Chandler arrived, but agreed to go with him to Granville, where his children were being looked after by Mrs Chandler's parents. Leo Francis Powling saw Mr Chandler in his car at the intersection of the Great North Road and Parramatta Road at about 4:50am. Mr Powling commented to his wife that the woman with Mr Chandler was not Mrs Chandler.
John Sherry also saw the Mr Chandler's distinctive silver Vauxhall. The car in which he was travelling overtook the Vauxhall near a bus depot at Burwood going towards Burwood Road. Minutes later, at 4:55am, Mr Sherry stopped at a church for Mass and the Vauxhall drove past, heading west.
Mr Chandler dropped Pamela Logan off several hundred metres from the home of Margaret Chandler's parents. He arrived there at around 5:30am, made some idle chat, then left with the children. They arrived back at Pamela Logan's place in Darlington at about 6:30am. Mr Chandler said later that he'd made it clear that the Chandlers' Croydon home would be available to his wife and Dr Bogle, and so he'd refrained from returning.
By 10am the children were getting restless, so he took them and returned home. Margaret was still not home, and so he went to bed. He was awoken by knocking on the door at 1pm. It was the police.