Queensland crime: Police set to charge Derek Sam with cold case murders
POLICE are readying to charge a suspected serial killer with murdering two women who vanished from the same southeast Queensland road almost 20 years ago.
Crime & Justice
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POLICE are readying to charge suspected serial killer Derek Sam with murdering two women who vanished from the same rural road on the Sunshine Coast almost 20 years ago.
Detectives expect to complete a brief of evidence against Sam within months, after a renewed investigation into the suspected murders of British backpacker Celena Bridge and teacher’s aide Sabrina Glassop.
Prosecutors will then be asked to make the call on whether to charge Sam, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of schoolgirl Jessica Gaudie.
Sam has always denied being involved in the disappearances of the three women. Detectives last year secretly took Sam out of prison and back to where Ms Bridge and Ms Glassop vanished as part of the new push to solve the mysteries.
Police are also discussing an alternative plan in which Sam would not be prosecuted if he leads them to the bodies of all three missing women.
“There remains an opportunity for Derek to help himself. All police are trying to get is an outcome for those families,” Detective Senior Sergeant Daren Edwards said.
Ms Bridge, 28, a British backpacker, was last seen walking along Booloumba Creek Rd, outside Kenilworth, on July 16, 1998.
Ms Glassop, 46, a Kenilworth teacher’s aide, disappeared from her home on the same road less than a year later, on May 29, 1999.
Sam worked on the road’s Piabun Farm, where Aboriginal youths were taken at the time as an alternative to youth detention.
Jessica, 16, was babysitting Sam’s children in Nambour when she disappeared on August 28, 1999.
Sam claimed he dropped Jessica off near a party, but was convicted of her murder in 2001 and jailed for a minimum of 15 years. He recently became eligible for parole, but it is understood he is yet to apply.
In the latest push to find the missing women, police have been revisiting key witnesses. Detectives also removed Sam from Lotus Glen Correctional Centre, in far north Queensland, with the approval of a magistrate late last year, Sen-Sgt Edwards confirmed.
They brought Sam down to Maroochydore police station and then Booloumba Creek Rd, hoping for a confession.
“My investigators said they thought he was a bit teary at one stage. He appeared very unsettled,” Sen-Sgt Edwards said.
Sam offered no assistance to detectives during the exercise, but police have been building a case against him, using witness statements and similarities between the three cases.
Sen-Sgt Edwards expected to go to prosecutors by the middle of the year.
“That is where we are at. We need to have a meeting and put a brief of evidence to the DPP and let them make that call,” he said.
Police would also consider not charging Sam if he revealed where the bodies were located.
“It’s been done before with another prisoner I’m aware of. It’s an option. Whether he would take it, I don’t know,” he said.
New State Government “no body no parole” laws could also keep Sam behind bars until he helps locate Jessica’s remains.
WOMEN DOOMED BY DEADLY LINK
THREE missing women, linked by one man.
Celena Bridge, Sabrina Glassop and Jessica Gaudie did not know each other but had something in common — each had come across horseman and tracker Derek Bellington Sam.
Ms Bridge was a nature lover with an independent streak. She had no qualms about hiking alone to a camping ground on Booloumba Creek Rd in the winter of 1998.
A woman who lived on the remote road came across her that day and told her she was game, doing that on her own. Ms Bridge is said to have replied that she only ever had a problem once before.
The backpacker from the English county of Cumbria had been at the nearby Crystal Waters permaculture village and was due to meet up with a birdwatching group.
She got as least as far as Piabun Farm, where she stopped to ask for directions. Soon after, Derek Sam was seen driving out of the property, where he was a supervisor, and in Bridge’s direction.
Ten months later, another mystery. Ms Glassop was a mum and teacher’s aide who lived on the corner of Booloumba Creek Rd and Maleny-Kenilworth Rd.
Her parents lived in a caravan next to her house and heard her car being driven off quickly towards Kenilworth about 5am.
The car, steering lock in place, was found about 500m away later that day but Ms Glassop and her pet poodle, Poppy, were never seen again. A forestry worker saw two cars arrive and only one leave. Sam had previously helped Ms Glassop with her Shetland ponies.
“We know Derek Sam had been staying at a house in Nambour (the night before Ms Glassop went missing) and drinking alcohol all night,” Detective Senior Sergeant Daren Edwards said.
“He was not there that morning. Derek’s car turned up back at that place later that morning with mud and dirt on his car.”
Jessica vanished three months later, while babysitting Sam’s three children in Nambour. Sam was drinking and argued with his ex-wife, Mia, at a party. He went home, collected Jessica, and she was never seen again.
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