New details in Rene Latimore manslaughter case
Sadistic scrawlings left behind by a killer and never-before-heard details about the killing of Qld mum Rene Latimore can be revealed for the first time.
On the night of August 9, 2021, Rene Latimore, seemingly in good spirits, hung up the phone with her baby sister Rebecca about 6pm.
It was the last time anyone heard from her.
The 31-year-old described as small and slight in stature had been alone at the Koumala property where she was living, and where she ultimately met her violent end.
Three weeks later on August 29 her decomposed, skeletal remains, by then weighing just 25.6kg, were discovered under thick grass 20m away from the scene of a terrible crime on a property now owned by Mackay Regional Councillor and Origin Great Marty Bella.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on Mr Bella’s part.
Now, it can be revealed crude graffiti of hangman with the words “you b****, f*** you dog” offered cops a clue to her killer.
While little can be revealed about his identity, because he was just 17 years old when he ended her life, it was accepted in Mackay Supreme Court he hated Rene. His treatment of her was appalling, his actions afterwards even more so.
Rene was discarded 800m up a hill on the property, wearing only a shirt, with zip ties around her neck and hands, which were also bound with duct tape behind her back.
A green tow strap was tied to her right ankle, and 20m away were her torn pyjama pants and pillowcase.
Prosecutors told Mackay Supreme Court they couldn’t prove how she died, and for a time her family lived in fear of a mystery killer lurking in their midst.
During that time her killer spent weeks feigning grief along with Rene’s loved ones and the wider community only adding to the family’s trauma when almost three months after her body was found and he was charged with murder, they realised they’d known him all along.
CCTV footage of a silver LandCruiser and mobile phone data also placed the youth at the scene.
Both his and Rene’s phones were pinging from the same location, before his mobile was dormant between 12.52am and 5.52am.
Rene’s phone was never found.
Police also took note of a spray-painted hangman where the youth had been living with the hateful scrawling which Justice Graeme Crow concluded to be evidence of his “admitted animosity” about Rene.
“I do accept it was more probable than not that you wrote those words and drew the hangman,” Justice Crow said during the two-day sentencing hearing.
The teen’s DNA was found on the pillow case, Rene’s pyjama bottoms and her body but his lawyer Scott Moon said it was important to note it was not semen and Justice Crow ultimately declined to make any findings that a sexual assault occurred.
What he did consider the likely scenario; was the youth was drunk and high on booze and marijuana – which had been a significant problem in his life at the time.
“I conclude you had a longstanding animosity towards (Rene) … you didn’t like her at all,” Justice Crow said.
He found there was likely some type of attack on Rene and the ligatures – the zip ties and duct tape – were applied to her body.
“It seems to me it was more probably than not that you placed the pillowcase over her head,” Justice Crow said.
“It was more probable than not she was walked up the hill in that distressed state.”
Justice Crow said the evidence suggested some type of attack occurred at the site 20m from where the body was found.
“There is an absence of any significant injury that was able to be detected physically,” Justice Crow said, finding her death was likely caused by asphyxiation or strangulation “either through … the hog tie restraint … or upon (the youth) placing additional pressure on the neck or asphyxiating her by smothering her”.
The case bounced throughout the courts for four years.
The committal process lasted 13 days, stretched across seven months because of the DNA which was tied up with the beleaguered state lab.
His initial charge was downgraded to manslaughter, and he was granted bail.
And there was talk it would be discontinued altogether, before he was indicted in the Supreme Court for murder.
His legal team tried to exclude evidence, which Justice Crow said was “largely unsuccessful” however the court heard the youth’s lawyers had identified gaps in the crown case.
Justice Crow said shortly before the pre-trial hearing in September 2025, prosecutors had given the teen the chance to plead guilty to the lesser charge manslaughter which was ultimately accepted on the basis he had no intention to cause the death or grievous bodily harm of Rene and did so through “low to moderate force”.
“In terms of a manslaughter this is a particularly heinous type of that offence,” Justice Crow said, also highlighting that the recent Youth Justice law provisions did not apply in this case and that he could not order a jail term longer than the period of detention that would have been imposed if sentenced as a child.
Justice Crow described the crime as “a drug and alcohol induced nonintentional killing” and a heinous example of an attack at night.
Further, he noted the teen had never said what occurred, even maintaining to a psychiatrist he knew nothing about Rene’s death.
He accepted the now 21-year-old had a tumultuous and prejudicial upbringing, but since being in detention and on bail had been taking steps to better his life.
Justice Crow told him had he been an adult when he committed this killing, he would have received more than 10 years in jail, meaning he would had to serve 80 per cent of the term.
Ultimately however, he was jailed for nine years, with parole eligibility after three years.
After this penalty was handed down, a supporter in the packed courtroom yelled “f***ing piss weak” and “f***ing joke”.
As the killer had already spent 886 days in presentence custody in detention and adult prison, this was declared as time already served. He could be out on parole on June 12, 2026 and will remain under supervision for six years.
A conviction was recorded.
