‘Love you bub’: Fugitive’s farewell to partner after alleged crime spree and four-day manhunt
Police swarmed Goolwa on Tuesday, arresting a couple for an alleged carjacking and concluding a four-day manhunt for a fugitive.
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A fugitive yelled “love you bub” to his girlfriend as they were arrested on Tuesday, moments after an alleged carjacking at a busy South Coast shopping centre.
Police had swarmed Goolwa in search of Luke Deane Brandon, 33, and Didi Gail Wilson, 43, over an alleged crime spree across the state this week.
Police allege the pair’s offending stretched more than 150km, from Parkside to Murray Bridge and then across swathes of the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula.
Detectives are investigating the violent rampage, which allegedly involved multiple home invasions – including at a Parkside home owned by a pensioner aged in her eighties – carjackings, a high-speed chase, the ramming of a police car and a petrol drive-off.
The pair, both of Elizabeth South, are in custody and were expected to be charged with numerous offences including aggravated robbery, serious criminal trespass and acts to endanger life.
They are due to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday and police confirmed that Brandon was refused bail.
The pair on Tuesday allegedly evaded police through the back streets of Goolwa, where relatives of Brandon’s are known to live.
They bought items from a local service station amid an extensive coast, land and air search as police, including officers from the elite STAR Group, saturated the area and laid road spikes.
Officers then swooped on Goolwa Village Shopping Centre’s carpark, off Beach Rd, just after 11am Tuesday, moments after the pair allegedly tried to carjack a grandmother’s car.
Thea Huxtable, 68, had just parked her car and was walking to the centre’s butcher shop when Wilson allegedly removed her car keys from her pocket.
“(A) woman came up behind me,” the Middleton woman said. “I knew straight away I was in trouble.
“I was very, very lucky as police were here in a minute.”
In bizarre scenes captured on camera, Brandon and Wilson were heard yelling declarations of love for each other.
Brandon, who had a head wound, urged his partner to call his lawyer before launching an expletive-laden tirade at officers.
Witnesses told The Advertiser they heard Brandon yell “love you bub ... make sure you lie ... love you baby” as he was placed into the back of a police wagon. His partner, who was being led to a separate police car, shouted back: “Love you too.”
Recordings of the arrest, however, are inconclusive amid suggestions he may instead have said “make sure you write”.
Witnesses told of their shock as the dishevelled pair was arrested in front of dozens of terrified shoppers.
Witness Donna Hunter said Wilson was quiet, while Brandon was “pretty resistant” and appeared “angry”.
“He said, ‘look what you’ve done, you rat’,” she said. Police said the pair was restrained after a “short struggle”.
The massive hunt was launched last Friday after a Parole Board warrant was issued for Brandon’s arrest for allegedly breaching a court-imposed extended supervision order.
Neither the details of the order nor Brandon’s background can be published for legal reasons. His mother and the Parole Board chief, Frances Nelson QC, had both urged him to hand himself in.
The statewide hunt had intensified on Monday after the pair was linked to an attack on an 83-year-old Parkside resident.
She was putting recycling in her bin outside her Foster St home just before 5pm when the pair allegedly accosted her.
Brandon, who like his partner has an extensive social media presence, is accused of stealing the keys to her car from inside her home.
Wilson allegedly pushed her to the ground before the pair drove off. The pensioner’s family expressed relief she escaped with minor bruising.
The pair allegedly stole fuel just after 1.30am Tuesday from an OTR service station on Adelaide Rd, Murray Bridge – near where Wilson’s relatives live – leading to a high-speed chase through the Hills.
A police car was rammed at Middleton at dawn before the pair fled, dumped the car at Goolwa South and then allegedly stole another car.
Brandon’s family refused to comment.
Eastern Adelaide and Victor Harbor CIB detectives are investigating. No other people have yet been charged.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.