15 Sunshine Coast murderers found guilty named - List
WARNING GRAPHIC: They committed some of the most horrific crimes in the region from murder-suicide to young innocent lives cut short. Here are 17 of the Sunshine Coast’s murderers. List.
Sunshine Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sunshine Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Sunshine Coast is certainly no stranger to the dark and tragic events surrounding murder, with a number of cases over the past two decades shocking the region.
It’s a rare occurrence, but Queensland Police statistics reveal there have been 36 murders on the Sunshine Coast since January, 2001.
Overall, the state has had 1052 murders since 2001.
After a four-year stint with no reported cases, the region has recorded five murders since June 2019.
There were two in 2019, two in 2020 and one so far this year.
Here are 15 murders that shocked the region:
Bernard John Robbins jailed for murder of his brother Kenneth Robbins, 61, at Buderim
The Buderim man, who fatally stabbed his brother three days before his own wedding, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in April.
The 59-year-old had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Gregory Kenneth Robbins, 61, at Buderim on June 13, 2019.
The Crown alleged Bernard took two knives from a kitchen and stabbed his brother in the garage of his Buderim home after Greg made comments to his fiancé that threatened his wedding.
Greg, who had come from Western Australia for Bernard’s wedding, was stabbed seven times, with five in the chest and abdomen considered lethal, the Supreme Court heard.
On the sixth day of the Supreme Court trial, and after deliberating for almost eight hours, the jury returned a guilty verdict.
Chief Justice Catherine Holmes sentenced Bernard Robbins to life imprisonment, declaring that he had already served 686 days in custody.
The court heard prior to the stabbings, the brothers had been drinking and arguing.
After seeing the brothers arguing, three days before the wedding, Bernard’s fiancé Sally Doring said to him: “If this is how you’re going to behave I’m not marrying you on Saturday.”
Crown prosecutor Chris Cook said Bernard set upon his brother, thinking his wedding was in jeopardy.
Tragic murder-suicide at Coochin
A murder-suicide scene was discovered down the remote Roys Rd, Coochin, in February 2019.
The bodies of a man and a six-month-old baby were found in a car off Roys Rd by council workers.
Police believe domestic violence was behind the deaths, with the 46-year-old man in the car responsible.
Heartless and horrific murder of Tanawha’s George Gerbic
Lindy Williams, 60, was sentenced in 2018 to life behind bars for the killing of Coolum Football Club president George Gerbic in September 2013.
Williams was found guilty by a jury after a nine-day trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
She will be eligible for parole in 2034, after already serving four years behind bars prior to sentencing.
The jury found Williams murdered Mr Gerbic before dismembering his body by removing his head, hands and legs.
She then left his torso burning on the side of a road near Gympie on September 19, 2013.
It took police 10 months to identify the charred torso, during which Williams orchestrated a sophisticated web of lies, including lying to his elderly parents.
Justice Peter Flanagan said her lies had been heartless with the court hearing Williams had also contacted the 66-year-old’s friends and family from his phone and email account following his death, claiming the pair were travelling overseas and getting married.
She told police the 66-year-old hit his head on the kitchen bench after slipping on blood from a cut on her arm, that he had inflicted with a steak knife.
She denied cutting up his body, claiming she returned to the home days after the fight to find his torso wrapped in plastic in their ensuite.
On top of murder, Williams was sentenced to the maximum two years’ jail for interfering with a corpse.
She had pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to disposing of the body.
It remains unknown where Mr Gerbic’s head, lower body and hands are.
Couple kills mother-of-four Tia Landers
Linda Eileen Appleton, and her partner John Edward Harris, pleaded guilty to the murder of Tia Landers in June of 2014.
The pair pleaded guilty to the six-hour torture and murder of 28-year-old Ms Landers after a five-day trial in Brisbane Supreme Court.
Ms Landers was killed in Brighton, where she had been attacked with a machete, punched and then shot twice in the head.
Ms Landers’ body was found wrapped in a blanket in a shallow grave in Beerburrum forest in July 2014.
She had two bullet wounds to her head, 30 wounds to her body, and her throat was covered in green tape, the court heard.
Both Appleton and Harris received life sentences, with Appleton to serve 23 years without parole.
Appleton appealed her sentence in 2017, but lost the appeal.
Harris was to serve 27 years without parole.
However, Harris, 47, was found lifeless at a Townsville jail in July 2019.
He was in a single occupancy cell and was understood to have taken his own life.
Anthony William Young’s fatal Coolum stabbings
Anthony William Young stabbed his brother and his brother’s partner to death in Coolum in 2013 before being shot dead by police after moving towards an officer while armed with a “large bladed” machete.
Queensland Coroner Terry Ryan in December 2015 outlined how Young murdered David Young and Louise Dekens, whom he shared a home with.
Mr Ryan said the 42-year-old stabbed his brother multiple times in the head, chest and back in the kitchen of their home on August 21.
Ms Dekens tried to escape but Young caught her, stabbing her twice in the chest.
“Young … experienced a marked deterioration in his mental health prior to the deaths,” Mr Ryan said.
Police attended the Yandina Coolum Rd property at 10.30pm after a neighbour’s 000 calls had alerted police to a possible stabbing.
Upon arrival, and unaware of the mortally wounded couple inside, police encountered Anthony who started approaching Senior Constable Evan Condon with a “large bladed weapon”.
After Anthony picked up his pace and lifted the weapon above his head Condon fired five bullets to stop Young.
It was the first time he had used his gun in the line of duty during his 13-year career.
Anthony later died from his gunshot wounds in hospital.
His declining mental health prior to the incident had worried friends, family
Wayn Edward Raymond McClutchie killed partner then burnt body
The 38-year-old was jailed for life by Supreme Court Justice Ann Lyons in November 2013 after a jury found him guilty of murdering his estranged partner Noelene Beutel, 35, on the Sunshine Coast on June 29, 2011.
Ms Beutel had separated from McClutchie in the days before her death, but the pair had met at their Sippy Downs home about 3pm on June 29 to try and talk things out.
But as Ms Beutel made to leave the garage, she was struck on the head by a “10 out of 10” blow and fell on to the concrete.
Medical experts told the trial the force of the blow fractured Ms Beutel’s skull and she would have suffocated as a result of internal bleeding after a few, short breaths.
Police suspected McClutchie, who has a bad back, used a wheelie bin to lever Ms Beutel’s body into the boot of her Holden Commodore with their 21-month-old daughter in the backseat.
He later removed the toddler from the car, doused it in petrol and set it alight in Tanawha bushland.
McClutchie’s appeal on the sentence was dismissed by the Queensland Court of Appeal in June 2015.
The disappearance and murder of Daniel Morcombe
On December 7, 2003, Daniel Morcombe was taken from a Woombye underpass by Brett Peter Cowan, murdered and dumped in Beerwah bushland.
His disappearance sparked one of the biggest manhunts in Australian history, with almost a decade-long search and dogged policing in a bid to find answers.
After nine years, and a five-month covert operation, Cowan was finally arrested on August 13, 2011, for the murder of Daniel.
In March, 2014, Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum 20-year non-parole period.
He was also sentenced to three and a half years for indecently dealing with Daniel and two years for interfering with his remains, to be served concurrently with the main sentence.
Triple murder-suicide at Maleny
A teenage boy discovered his mother, father and grandmother shot dead in a murder-suicide near Maleny in June 2006.
Police said the 17-year-old boy discovered his 42-year-old father Stephen Kirton and 40-year-old mother Suzanna Kirton each with a single gunshot wound to the head in their 4WD on their property on the Maleny-Kenilworth Road at Witta, north of Maleny, about 7.30am.
Police said the boy later discovered his grandmother, aged about 60, in the second home on their property.
She had also suffered a single gunshot wound to the head.
A note written by the father was found at the scene.
Derek Sam convicted for teenager Jessica Gaudie’s death
In August 2001, Derek Sam was convicted of 16-year-old Jessica Gaudie’s murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison, despite the fact her body had never been found.
Sam was the last person to see Ms Gaudie alive when he gave her a lift home after she babysat his estranged de facto’s three children.
She was just one of three women to go missing between July 1998 and August 1999 on the Sunshine Coast.
British backpacker Celena Bridge was the first to disappear after going for a hike to the Little Yabba Creek camping ground at Kenilworth on July 16, 1998.
Next to disappear was Sabrina Ann Glassop, who was last seen by her mother at her Kenilworth district home on May 29, 1999.
Three months later, Jessica Gaudie disappeared after babysitting Sam’s children in Nambour on August 28, 1999.
Kenilworth-based indigenous tracker Sam was a common link between the three, but only convicted of Ms Gaudie’s murder.
The 38-year-old had worked for Ms Glassop and was rumoured to be having an affair with her before she disappeared near Booloumba Creek Rd, near his workplace.
That was also close to where Ms Bridge was last seen on her camping trip.
The bodies of all three have never been found.
Kris Slade murders girlfriend in Mooloolaba
Kris Slade stabbed his partner, 19-year-old mother of one Jacinta Bush, more than 45 times with a fishing knife in a Mooloolaba resort in July, 2000.
He then tried to kill himself, unsuccessfully.
He was described by Jacinta’s sister Jonty as a ‘totally controlling’ boyfriend.
Slade pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison and was eligible for parole in 2015.
Teenage murder
On June 6, 1996, an 18-year-old was strangled, stomped and stabbed in her home at Kuluin.
The popular teenager had disturbed a 16-year-old school friend of her brother who was in the process of robbing his friend’s house.
The teen boy, who couldn’t be identified, had stolen from the family home numerous times before.
The killer’s footprint became a vital clue which helped detectives catch the killer.
The killer pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 14 years in jail in the Brisbane Supreme Court, the maximum penalty available to Justice Paul de Jersey at the time.
Two young girls’ lives cut short by Paul Stephen Osborne
On October 29, 1995, two young girls were raped and murdered.
They had been out doorknocking looking for odd jobs to earn pocket money.
Paul Stephen Osborne, a 27-year-old labourer and factory hand from Wurtulla, was seen by witnesses with the two girls at the beach about 5pm, before they were reported missing.
He’d already served time in jail for a sexual attack on a teen.
Osborne was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of rape were later added.
Osborne blamed a cocktail of drugs and alcohol for what happened.
Osborne was sentenced to double life for the murders and 18 years each for the rapes.
The murder of Noosa schoolgirl Sian Kingi
In November 1987, the blonde 12-year-old Sian Kingi was abducted from a Noosaville street by Barrie Watts and Valmae Beck.
They taped her arms and mouth and drove her to Tewantin State Forest where she was raped, beaten and strangled to death.
Beck and Watts were arrested in a Gosford caravan park after the park’s operator recognised their vehicle from a description issued by police.
They were both sentenced to life in prison after giving evidence against each other in court.
Beck, herself a mother of six, died in a Townsville prison in May 2008.
Brother of NRL legend Bevan Errol Meninga found guilty of murder
In 1991, Bevan Errol Meninga, 20, brother of rugby league legend Mal Meninga, appeared in court charged with the murder of Cheree Richardson.
The battered body of Miss Richardson had been found in bushland at Alexandra Headland, two days after she had been seen leaving a Mooloolaba nightclub at 4am.
At trial, Meninga admitted responsibility for Miss Richardson’s death but denied intending to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to her.
He said he was intoxicated and smoked marijuana before going to a park with someone and could remember swinging a branch but did not remember using it to inflict violence upon anyone.
He was on parole at the time for bashing another woman with a stake in her home.
A jury decided his actions were indeed intentional and found him guilty of murder, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He spent 21 years in jail before being released in 2014.
Meninga has been arrested on two separate occasions since being released on parole, the first for stealing a mobile phone and the second for being found in an allegedly stolen car.
However, police have since withdrawn the charge for being found in the stolen car.
As of October last year he was a prisoner at the high-security Wolston Correctional Centre
Nail bomber Peter Vivian Wardrop kills young girl instead of police officer
Peter Vivian Wardrop’s plan to murder detective Sergeant First Class Kevin Dorries ended in innocent three-year-old Merrilyn Gartner being killed.
On August 7, about 1pm, homeowner Heinz Otto Gartner took his two daughters, Merrilyn, 3, and Lisa, 2, around to the home he was renovating at 60 Sixth Ave, Maroochydore, near the popular Cotton Tree area.
The night before, an anonymous call had been made to the Nambour Police Station for Sgt Dorries with a message stating that a stash of heroin had been left in the house Heinz was renovating.
Sgt Dorries had organised an early morning raid but stood his officers down to make further inquiries when arriving to a vacant and closed up house.
That afternoon, Merrilyn Gartner opened the door of the kitchen cupboard as she played inside with her sister which tripped the detonator of a nail bomb sitting inside.
Merrilyn was killed instantly, while Lisa was severely injured.
Local detectives discovered the bomb had been a trap and Sgt Dorries had been the intended target.
On November 14, 1974, Wardrop and his associate, Gary Thomas Taylor, were committed to stand trial for murder in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
Taylor was found dead, hanged in his cell by his belt, on December 13, 1974, ahead of the trial, which started on April 28, 1985.
The trial ran for 39 days with 78 witnesses called.
After deliberating for five hours the jury found Wardrop guilty of Merrilyn’s murder.
An appeal to the sentence was upheld and a retrial ordered.
The retrial went ahead in Brisbane Supreme Court and the jury found Wardrop guilty again.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He served 14 years in jail before the State Cabinet, in 1989, decided to release him from prison and deport him back to New Zealand.
**FOR SUPPORT CONTACT LIFELINE 13 11 14***
Man fighting for life after head-on crash on stretch that killed devoted mum
A man is fighting for life after a head-on collision on the Sunshine Motorway near Coolum just a day after the funeral for another victim of a crash on the same stretch. UPDATES
50+ photos: Fun and fashion at the Big Pineapple Music Festival
Partygoers showed of their glamorous, outrageous outfits and dance moves at the first Big Pineapple Music Festival in three years. See all the looks here.