The case behind the Far North murder of Bruce Schuler
THE story behind the murder of gold prospector Bruce Schuler.
Cairns
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IN a murder mystery which harks back to the wild days of the Palmer River gold rush, a couple who slayed a gold prospector and hid his body deep in the Far North Queensland outback have been sentenced to a life behind bars.
Cape York graziers Stephen Struber and Dianne Wilson-Struber have been found guilty of murdering miner Bruce Schuler on their vast Palmerville Station, after finding him fossicking up a dry gully on their property three years ago.
Presiding judge Justice Jim Henry said their “cowardly, callous” killing was a return to the tumultuous days of the late 1800s gold rush, which occurred on the same rugged country where Mr Schuler was shot dead on July 9, 2012.
With no trace of Mr Schuler ever found and no witnesses to his killing, his daughter conceded her family “may never know” what happened to the 48-year-old father of two.
But a jury has now determined Mr Schuler was shot dead and his body discarded somewhere on a 130,000ha property which spans a “river of gold.”
“It has been well over a century since the turbulent and sometimes violent days of the Palmer River gold rush, that in this day and age, long removed from those frontier days, it beggars belief that station leaseholders could become so detached from the standards of civilised behaviour and could have engaged in such cowardly, callous behaviour as this,” Justice Henry said.
Principal Crown Prosecutor Nigel Rees admitted he could not say exactly who played what part in Mr Schuler’s demise, and built his case on circumstantial evidence to ultimately have the co-accused convicted.
In a two-week trial in the Cairns Supreme Court, the jury heard about a gold strike, the boom of gunfire, missing weapons, a missing body and flecks of blood found on a rock.
The jury was taken on a two-night trip to view key locations on Palmverville – described by Mr Rees as “probably the largest crime scene ever declared” – and told about a Croc Hole, Cannibal Creek, empty mine shafts from a foregone era, and a ghost town to the east.
The trial hinged on the testimony of three gold prospectors – Daniel Bidner, Tremain Anderson and Kevin Groth – who were on a fossicking expedition on “Struberville” with Mr Schuler when he vanished.
In handing down two life sentences to the Strubers yesterday, Justice Jim Henry speculated on the doomed gold digger’s final moments.
“This probably began with one of you shooting and intending to hurt, or at least scare off a prospector who you perceived to be a trespasser,” he said.
“Once begun, this conduct obviously spiralled out of control, with the probably panicked, but truly dreadful decision, to pursue and shoot again.
“Consistent with that dreadful choice, you followed through and disposed in some unknown way of the body of Bruce Schuler.”
Before Struber and Wilson-Struber, aged 58 and 53 respectively, were locked away for life, a final plea was made for them to give answers to the family of the man they killed.
“Whether there are earthly remains of Bruce Schuler to now be found is solely within your knowledge, as is the whereabouts of those remains,” Justice Henry said.
“It remains within your power to bring closure to the Schuler family ... by revealing the whereabouts of their loved-one’s remains. For as long as you do nothing about that, you continue to affirm your detachment from the civilised standards of our society.”
Originally published as The case behind the Far North murder of Bruce Schuler
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