TRUE CRIME: Eight chilling crimes that rocked Mackay
From fears a serial killer was stalking the Old Bruce Highway to the horrific torture and death of a puppy, these are eight crimes that gripped the region.
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Murder highway
FEARS a serial killer was on the rampage along the lonely stretch of highway between Rockhampton and Mackay plagued the wider community.
Before October 1982 this section of the Bruce Hwy, which was the main trek between the two cities, took an inland route through rugged and thinly populated land west of the coastal ranges.
In late June 1966, the slain bodies of two men, wrapped in mesh wire, were dragged from Funnel Creek just metres from the highway.
First to be found was Tasmanian Raymond Muir.
The 54 year old had been shot in the head; his body weighed down by a car tyre rim and stones and left to rot in the creek for nine days before three youths on a picnic found him on June 26.
Three days later police would find a second wire-encased body, that of John Henry Smith, also shot and wedged under a tree stretching over the creek.
Two men Walter John Anderson and David Thomas Knight were convicted of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.
The Funnel Creek murders, also dubbed the 'Chicken Coop Murders' and the 'Crab Pot Murders', incited terror that a serial killer was claiming victims on the Crystal Highway, as it was then known.
In fact during the late 60s and early 70s the notorious section of highway was the scene of at least five murders, as well as assaults and robberies and its terrible reputation kept many travellers at bay.
One of the most sensational killings was the cold-blooded double murder of Townsville couple Noel and Sophia Weckert in early 1975 just south of Sarina.
On March 22 the body of 36-year-old Noel Weckert was found slumped over the steering wheel of his Toyota Celica, which had been parked on the side of the highway about 145km south of Mackay.
There were bullet holes in his head.
Five days later, the body of his 27-year-old wife was found near Funnel Creek. Both had been shot dead.
Raymond John Wylie, 22, Maxwell John Harper, 23, and his girlfriend Janice Christine Payne, 17, had been skint and decided to rob the occupants they had spied sleeping in the Celica, which they had driven past earlier.
When Noel refused to hand over any cash, Wylie shot him in the head twice as Sophia ran screaming from the vehicle. She was caught by Harper and then driven north by the murderous trio before Wylie shot her in the back of the neck.
During a Supreme Court trial Wylie took sole responsibility for both murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment. A jury found Harper guilty of murder for Sophia and manslaughter for Noel. Payne was found guilty of manslaughter for both and jailed for 10 and seven years respectively.
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A teen with murder on his mind
He was a 16 year old with blood on his hands after the calculated, execution-style killing of his father.
He waited until his dad had fallen asleep in bed in his Eimeo home.
The teen then crept up to the sleeping figure at 3am on May 3, 2006 and shot his father in the head at point-blank range with a rifle.
He confessed to his then-boyfriend before the pair tried to conceal the crime by breaking up the rifle and throwing the pieces around different part of the Northern Beaches.
Clothing and the stock of the rifle was burned in a barbecue at Shoal Point. The bolt was thrown into mangroves at Dolphin Heads and another part was tossed into waters at Blacks Beach.
They then set off party poppers to hide the gunshot residue on his hands - an idea obtained from a show on television.
He later confessed to murdering his dad but told police and a jury that his boyfriend had urged him to do it.
The teen's boyfriend stood trial for murder during which a witness told Mackay Supreme Court the duo had sent insulting messages over the internet about his mother, who was the dead man's former partner.
He showed the messages to her then partner, who was the then-president of a Mackay bikie chapter.
The court heard the new boyfriend phoned the later murdered father and told him to "pull your head in and know what your kids are doing".
The teen had told the court that his boyfriend encouraged him to kill his own father before the bikie club president did and they got hurt in the process.
A jury acquitted the boyfriend of murder but he had pleaded guilty being an accessory to murder and was jailed for five years.
Because he was a juvenile when he killed his father, he was jailed for 12 years with parole eligibility after 8.4 years.
The Daily Mercury's crime reporter Bruce McKean gained exclusive access to the Children's Court when the teen first appeared and he also obtained a special supreme court order granted by Justice Peter Dutney to identify the family.
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The drawn-out torture and death of a puppy named Peanut
It was considered one of the worst cases of animal cruelty in Australian history.
The horrifying mutilation and death of a seven-month-old puppy named Peanut at Moranbah in October 2008 made national headlines and left everyone feeling sick to their core.
So angry were animal lovers that protesters stood outside Mackay courthouse when the case was first mentioned.
His sadistic killers were heard laughing in the background as they videotaped their cruel and callous torture on a mobile phone.
When the vile details were read aloud in Mackay District Court, people in the public gallery wept.
Jonathon Connor Blake and another man kidnapped Peanut in revenge after Blake had a falling out with his owner.
The pair then mutilated, dismembered and decapitated the little fox terrier in a park behind the Moranbah rodeo grounds.
The actual details are shocking.
Prosecutor David Morters at the time said, by looking at the video: "It is quite clear that both Blake and his co-accused are enthusiastic about their actions. They are laughing and making comments. It is also clear in the video that the dog is in excruciating pain".
Blake was given the maximum sentence of three years jail for killing an animal and was released after serving 12 months. Judge Michael Shanahan ordered the videotapes be destroyed.
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Death under the Ron Camm Bridge
The vicious murder of a mother of two in a frenzied attack, by a man who did not know her name, left the community in shock.
Natasha McCarthy was stabbed 33 times in parkland under the Ron Camm Bridge in July 2012.
The 28 year old's killer David John Jepsen told police he had no idea why he killed her, he had only known her for three months.
The pair, who had met through the drug scene, had been alone. Mackay Supreme Court heard she had been returning some paperwork.
Jepsen recalled stabbing Natasha once before he blacked out - and when he came to he was covered in blood.
He then bundled her lifeless body in a blanket and placed in the boot of a car, which he drove to his former girlfriend's house in a bid to frighten her into giving him money.
After he showed her Natasha's body, she convinced him to wait outside and called the police.
He pleaded guilty in September 2013 to murder and interfering with a corpse and was jailed for life.
Through his barrister Jepsen said he was sorry for the devastation he had caused Natasha's family.
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Savage attack in West Mackay
A WITNESS was confronted by "blood everywhere" as she looked into the Holland St townhouse where sugar mill worker Michael "Mick" Gelens lay dead on the floor.
His killer Blaze Seaton Pearce was high on a cocktail of drugs and alcohol when he began the unprovoked, brutal attack on December 18, 2013 while Mick's housemate was upstairs taking a shower.
Pearce and Mick had been alone sitting on the couch in the lounge room when he attacked.
Afterwards he called up to the housemate Andrew Drabsch "it's okay, come down".
As Mr Drabsch walked down the stairs he saw "blood on the floor, then more blood, and then Mr Gelens lying on the floor at the end of the couch".
"There was blood everywhere," he told Mackay Supreme Court during a murder trial.
The injuries to Mick were catastrophic.
Pearce knocked the 43 year old unconscious with a frying pan, fracturing both sides of his jaw, before stabbing him multiple times in the neck, severing his carotid artery and jugular vein - as a result he bled to death.
Other injuries included a partially-severed ear, three loose teeth, two black eyes and multiple cuts to his face.
Methylamphetamine and marijuana were found in Pearce's blood the following morning.
He had had pleaded not guilty to murder arguing self-defence, provocation and intoxication affecting intention.
In November 2014 it took a jury less than 50 minutes to reach a guilty verdict. Pearce was jailed for life. He tried to fight the conviction but it was upheld by the Queensland Court of Appeal in 2016.
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A mother and five children slaughtered
THE Ching family massacre at Alligator Creek, 25 kilometres south of Mackay, struck terror and fear right to the very core of every person living in region.
The bodies of mother Agnes Ching, 45 and four of her children Maud, 15, Hughie, 5 and Winnie, 1 were found by father and husband Hong Kong born Charlie Ching on Friday, November 16 in 1911.
Anges and the eldest daughter had been shot with a revolver and/or muzzle-loaded rifle, while the two younger children had been battered to death. Two children remained missing.
The rear room was splattered with blood and witnesses said it looked like a slaughter house.
Their bodies had been dragged into the sitting room and piled together. A rug was thrown over them and a Christian Bible placed on top by the murderer, who later admitted to being religious right before he was hung.
By about noon on the Sunday, after an extensive search, the bodies of the two missing siblings Eddie, 9 and Dolly, 7 were found. They were found well away from the farmhouse.
Mr Ching's farmhand of six months George David Silva was the main suspect and was arrested for murder five days after the killings.
Investigators took possession of a blood-stained shutter of the girls' bedroom as well as a muzzle loader broken into pieces, a flask of gunpowder and a ball shot.
Silva also lead police to the location of a revolver and charred pieces of bloodstained clothing. A watch stolen from Agnes Ching was also in the fire.
The 28 year old was reported to be "a miniature and very depressed looking specimen of humanity who was marched barefoot and securely handcuffed into the Police Court" wearing the same clothes he purchased on the day after the massacre.
It was reported at the time: "He looked undersized to the curious sightseers who crowded every seat and vantage spot in the court and the adjoining veranda."
He went to trial in March the following year on just one count of murder because any conviction would have brought about the death penalty.
A witness told the court Silva had wanted to marry Maud but her parents had shut down it down.
He denied the allegations, claiming "there was a lot of false evidence against me".
After a jury found him guilty, he said: "Your Honour, I'll ask you to have the greatest recommendation to murder upon my soul. I am innocent".
Silva was taken by steamer to Brisbane where an appeal failed. He was hanged to death at Boggo Road Jail on June 10, 1912.
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A teen girl snatched from the roadside
IT IS one of Queensland's most enduring murder mysteries - who killed Marilyn Wallman?
It has been more than 47 years and the Mackay community still does not have an answer.
The 14 year old was riding her bike to the school bus when she vanished near Wallmans and Eimeo Rds on March 21, 1972.
Her brother Rex and David, who came along the same route not long after, found her bicycle and school bag. As David ran home to tell their mother, Rex heard muffled screams, voices and noises from the canefield as he waited by her bike.
Initially treated as a disappearance, the case looked more sinister the longer she remained missing and it was not long before police labelled it a murder investigation.
The first major breakthrough came in October 1974 when railway worker Greven Breadsell came forward with a skill fragment found on private property near Mirani, about 50 metres from McGregor Creek.
It would be 41 years before the Mackay community learned how important that piece was to the puzzle when in January 2015 police confirmed it belonged to Marilyn.
She was farewelled in March that year amid a sea of yellow, her favourite colour.
The year before there was a buzz in the community when, in February 2014, police dug up a backyard in Basset St, North Mackay in relation to the case, but after several days nothing was found.
And in March 2016 police confirmed scientific officers took soil samples from a property on Mirani-Mount Ossa Rd, near where the skull fragment was found.
In September last year detectives revealed they were close to an answer as Police Minister Mark Ryan doubled the reward from $250,000 to $500,000 for 12 months honouring a request made to him personally by the Wallman family.
Police have said the person of interest who could help solve the crime still lived within the Mackay Police District.
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