Inquest set to unmask killers in 1982 slaying of young hitchhiker Tony Jones in Hughendon

THIRTY-FOUR years after hitchhiker Tony Jones vanished without a trace, a coronial inquest this week will hear he was slain in a “one-punch” kill.

THIRTY-FOUR years after hitchhiker Tony Jones vanished without a trace in one of the nation’s most baffling cold cases, a coronial inquest this week will hear he was slain in a “one-punch” kill.

Tony Jones who went missing while hitchhiking between Townsville and Mt Isa in 1982.

Two new suspects are the target of the three-week inquest into the death of Jones, 20, who disappeared while hitchhiking on the Flinders Highway between Townsville and Mount Isa on November 3, 1982.

His family, who has tirelessly campaigned against a “botched” police investigation and launched National Missing Persons week, expect the inquest to unmask the true identity of his killers in Hughenden, 400km west of Townsville.

“I think people are going to be shocked,” Jones’s brother Mark said ­yesterday.

“We believe it will also unveil a culture within the police force and why this investigation was so badly handled from the start.”

Police reopened the cold case four years ago after receiving “fresh and credible” evidence about the mystery disappearance.

The Sunday Mail exclusively revealed the breakthrough centred on a tiny slaughterhouse and bone yard on the outskirts of the Outback town.

Tony Jones’s brother Mark at the spot where Tony was last seen. The Jones family never gave up looking and has campaigned against what they say was a botched police investigation.

The inquest will hear testimony that Jones was drinking with a group in the town before he was allegedly killed with one blow by a suspect, a teenager, who enlisted the help of another to butcher and dispose of the body at the Hughenden abattoir.

The suspect in the alleged murder, now a business owner in Townsville, is listed to appear at the inquest, which starts in the north Queensland city tomorrow.

His alleged accomplice is also due to give evidence.

For three decades it has been speculated that Jones was shot and killed by a random stranger or that he fell victim to a deranged serial killer stalking a lonely stretch of the outback highway.

Convicted killer Andy Albury, who confessed to 14 murders, will be a star witness at the inquest.

Albury allegedly told investigators how he slaughtered victims in a random killing spree in the ‘80s, including along the Flinders Highway, known as the highway of death.

Former Northern Territory police detective sergeant Les Chapman arrested Albury for the murder and mutilation of Gloria Pinden in Darwin in 1983.

Chapman said Albury was a dangerous psychopath who was a notoriously unreliable witness and “big noter” in jail.

Tony Jones, originally from Perth, disappeared in the north Queensland Outback.