Fox on the run: The story behind one of Gympie’s most notorious killers

Billy Fox will be able to apply for parole this year, after he was jailed for life in 1998 following a psychotic shooting spree that killed his ex-wife Patricia Atkinson at Glenwood in August 1996.

William Kelvin “Billy” Fox is one of the Gympie region’s most notorious criminals, jailed for life in 1998 for fatally shooting his ex-wife and trying to murder other family members of his at Glenwood in 1996.

Notorious Gympie region murderer William Kelvin “Billy” Fox can now apply for parole after winning a bittersweet battle with the Queensland Parole Board this week.

Fox, who has been in prison for 24 years serving two life sentences for murder, is now eligible to apply for parole – just one month before he would have been able to launch a new bid for freedom anyway.

William Kelvin Fox being escorted away by police after his recapture. Picture: Channel 10

The board had previously granted Fox parole after 22 years behind bars, but that decision was overturned last June – just days before he was due to be released – following a campaign by one of the killer’s victims.

The eleventh-hour reversal came off the back of one of Fox’s victims, Basia Hellwich, who was shot in the head by Fox while holding her two-year-old son, Bodein, launching a bid to stop his release.

“I cried with relief, happiness and joy,” Ms Hellwich said at the time, after learning that Fox was not to be released.

Fox, understood to be aged about 70 now, was jailed in 1998 for murdering his ex-wife, Patricia Atkinson, at Glenwood in 1996 and the attempted murder of Ms Hellwich on the Gold Coast four years earlier.

Basia Hellwich was shot three times by William Kelvin Fox in 1992.

As Fox prepares to launch a fresh bid for freedom, here’s a look back at the atrocities he committed in the Gympie region 25 years ago – when he was one of Queensland’s top 10 most wanted criminals.

FOX ON THE RUN

Billy Fox was out on bail for the April 1992 attempted murder and kidnapping of Ms Hellwich at a Miami caravan park when he murdered his ex-wife Patricia Gaye Atkinson and injured three others, including his own son, at Glenwood in August 1996.

For years he eluded police capture by living in the bush following the violent crimes, and was added to the police top 10 list in October 1993 after shooting Ms Hellwich in the face, head and neck in the 1992 incident.

Newspaper reports at that time revealed Ms Hellwich had tried to intervene in a domestic dispute between Fox and his then-de facto wife Coleen King.

Basia Hellwich was shot three times by William Kelvin Fox in 1992.

The then-44-year-old Fox went into hiding, and by February 1995 he had warned that he would not be taken alive and was prepared for a shootout with police. He was listed as No. 4 in Queensland police’s top 10 most wanted at the time.

He would be arrested in 1995 after a Tiaro police officer recognised him during a random vehicle intercept south of Maryborough.

He was released on a $20,000 surety guaranteed by Patricia Atkinson from the Southport Magistrates Court that same year, despite police opposing his bail.

Ms Atkinson, 44, had guaranteed the surety for the father of their three sons, despite she and Fox having been separated for about 10 years at that point.

In that decade, Ms Atkinson had remarried, moved to Sydney and had a fourth son, while Fox spent those years with Ms King.

Basia Hellwich was shot three times by William Kelvin Fox in 1992.

When her marriage split up Ms Atkinson and her four kids moved to Glenwood.

According to police reports Ms Atkinson, complete with a black eye, had driven to Brisbane and had the surety revoked on August 26, 1996.

This meant Fox would go to jail until his trial if he could not meet the surety bail conditions himself.

Ms Atkinson was reportedly due back in the Supreme Court the next day to continue to discuss allegations of stalking by Fox.

But at about 6:30am on August 27, 1996, Billy Fox barged into Ms Atkinson’s rented Glenwood Estate home and shot her in the head.

Police called to the murder scene said it was believed the pair had been in a dispute over a house deed.

Police said Fox also shot his middle son Peter’s 18-year-old girlfriend, Julie Cotter in the arm as he arrived.

Peter, then 19, was cut by glass as he jumped through a window to escape being shot.

Police near murder scene where William Kelvin Fox started a shooting spree at Glenwood near Gympie. Fox shot dead his estranged wife Patricia Fox (44) & wounded John Horrex & Juliene Cotter, his son Peter (19) injured when he jumped through a glass window.

According to court documents submitted as part of Fox’s last parole application hearing in 2015, Ms Cotter was outside feeding the dogs on that day and saw a balaclava-clad man approaching her with a pump-action shotgun.

She screamed and was shot in the left shoulder, before running away.

Fox entered the house and shot at Peter before fatally shooting his ex-wife.

Another son Justin, then 16, managed to escape the murder scene and ran to a neighbour’s house for help.

Police said Fox drove 4km to another farmhouse following his murderous shooting spree, again opening fire through a window and hitting then-60-year-old John Horrex on the back of his body, reportedly because he believed the “well-known community leader” and Ms Atkinson were a couple.

It’s believed Fox then dumped his car and headed off on foot into the bush between Gympie and Tin Can Bay.

One of Ms Atkinson’s friends said the woman had been living in fear of Fox for the previous few weeks and had reported his threats to police.

Fox, an experienced bushman, would continue to slip through police’s fingers until he was finally caught in February of the following year.

Killer William Kelvin Fox

Reports said about 40 police officers surprised Fox at a shed converted into a home in Mt Glorious, northwest of Brisbane, cornering him after he exited the house early one morning.

A search of the property revealed a trapdoor in the ground at the rear of the property, concealed underneath beehive boxes and a slab of concrete.

That door led into a secret room in the ground.

Patricia Atkinson was murdered by her ex-husband, William Kelvin "Billy" Fox, at Glenwood in 1996. Picture: File

Fox was jailed for life in February 1998 for the 1996 shooting spree, and given another life sentence in September 1998 for the 1992 attempted murder of Ms Hellwich.

He unsuccessfully applied for parole in 2014 and 2015.

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Both corrective services officers and psychologists have previously described the inmate as a “charming man” who has “psychopathic interpersonal traits” higher than the average prisoner, according to articles from 2015.