Shandee Blackburn murder highlighted in new crime documentary

Shandee Blackburn’s mother has called on politicians to stop ‘burying their heads in the sand’ over her daughter’s case as the chilling murder will come under the spotlight in a new crime documentary.

The mother of murdered Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn has called on politicians to stop “burying their head in the sand” over her daughter’s case as the chilling crime is set to again come under the spotlight in a new documentary.

The 23 year old’s story is well known – she was viciously stabbed and slashed more than 20 times as she walked home from work just after midnight on February 9, 2013 and died on the roadside a stone’s throw from her home.

Shandee Blackburn with John Peros, who was charged with and then acquitted of her murder.

Former boyfriend John Peros was arrested but a jury acquitted him of murder. In 2020 Central Coroner David O’Connell ruled he was her likely killer.

Mr Peros denies any involvement in her death.

Ms Blackburn said she and her eldest daughter Shannah were “scared” but it was “important to highlight the issues that have happened”.

“Shandee’s case seems to be the catalyst to all these revelations that have come out,” she said.

Shandee’s loved ones will be watching the documentary – titled Shandee’s Story: The Search for Justice – at the same time as the rest of the country.

Murder victim Shandee Blackburn’s mother Vicki Blackburn and sister Shannah Blackburn, around the time and at the site of her murder on the corner of Juliet st and Boddington st in Mackay. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen / The Australian

“It’s something that’s totally alien to us, as the podcast was,” Ms Blackburn said.

“It’s always heartbreaking to see the final results.

“We don’t know what’s going to come out.”

The true crime investigation – which premiers on June 7 at 8pm on Sky News Australia – will share new information and fresh perspectives from experts, family and friends following mounting concerns of systemic failures in the state DNA laboratory in the past 10 years.

This crime documentary is based on Hedley Thomas’s 18-part podcast, released in 2021, which revealed a widespread forensic failure in Shandee’s case and prompted the coroner to reopen the investigation.

The Australian’s podcast series Shandee's Story takes a look at the brutal unsolved murder that has haunted Mackay for nine years.

As a result police are also now reviewing almost 600 rape cases dating back to 2018.

National chief correspondent at The Australian, Thomas said: “After a lot of investigative work by myself and several experts in crime, Shandee’s remarkable story is coming back into the spotlight.

“Shandee’s family, other victims of crime and the community deserve answers. Shandee’s killer needs to be found and put behind bars.”

Ms Blackburn has also called for the forensic lab to release the samples in Shandee’s case so they could be retested and for an independent review into the pathology lab that processed the evidence in her daughter’s case.

She said the police review into the forensic lab failures had “just highlighted the atrocious attempt at stopping samples from being tested appropriately”.

Blackburn family photos with Shannah, Shandee and mother Vicki.

Ms Blackburn said politicians in positions of authority “can’t just continue to bury their heads in the sand” when it came to the state-run lab.

“It’s just absolutely sickening,” she said.

“We need to make sure that everybody understands in all departments just how critical it is that these issues within the laboratory are sorted out and sorted out appropriately and fully.

“Because unless there’s a huge overhaul and clean out of the current culture and process within that laboratory the justice system is just totally undermined in Queensland.

“It’s all come from what happened to Shandee, that alone makes us just cry.

“To know there’s hundreds and potentially thousands of other people that may have been affected the same way … they’re just not aware of it. That’s just heartbreaking.”