Seven murders and disappearances that rocked the region
From a teenager killed in a historic cold case to a council worker who hasn’t been seen for over 20 years, these are Toowoomba’s biggest mysteries and murders.
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Even small country cities like Toowoomba has its residents with their fair share of secrets and skeletons in the cupboard.
The Chronicle has complied a list of seven of the most spine chilling murders and mysteries from nearly five decades of criminal investigations and inquiries, with some of these crimes still remaining unsolved all these years later.
1. Three men horrifically murdered after killers receive bed and board from victims
Back in 2007 Justice James Douglas described the murders of Michael Thompson, 30, David Lyons, 17, and Ty Wilson, 17, on the evening of May 30, 2005, as “one of the worst types of offences of murder one could imagine”.
The trio were bludgeoned to death at Mr Thompson’s Toowoomba flat during a party after Mr Thompson had allowed his killers to stay at his unit in the weeks leading up to the murders.
A 22-month-old boy was present while his mother was raped several times by two of the three killers.
Scott Geoffrey Maygar, then 17, and then 16-year-old Brian John Woodman – the first juvenile offender publicly named in Queensland – were both jailed for life in 2007 for the three murders and for raping a 19-year-old single mother who had also been at the flat that night.
While juveniles cannot legally be named in Queensland, Woodman’s sentencing judge, Justice James Douglas issued an order to release his name publicly because of the seriousness of his crimes.
The third offender was released in 2010 after serving half of his 10-year detention order but no-one will ever know who he is or where he is.
Woodman pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court in April 2015 to one count of seriously assaulting a corrective services officer.
He was given another four months of jail time for the assault after serving six months in solitary confinement.
He was eligible for parole release on May 30, 2020 until the commission of the assault.
2. Toowoomba Council arborist not seen in over 20 years
The Queensland Police Service is offering a $250,000 reward for information on the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of Steven Goldsmith, a Toowoomba City Council subcontractor who went missing in 2000.
The last confirmed sighting of Steven was on July 10, 2000 when he conducted a transaction captured on CCTV at the Commonwealth Bank ATM in New Farm before he was reported missing on July 29, 2000.
At the time of his disappearance, Steven was living at a residential unit in Sydney St, New Farm and was an arborist subcontracted to Toowoomba City Council and other tree-lopping operators, returning to Brisbane on weekends.
Steven’s disappearance has been subject to a thorough investigation and extensive inquiries in relation to possible sightings, however despite efforts that crossed two decades, the matter remains unsolved.
3. Mother and son duo do in grandfather to collect inheritance
In April 2011 the entire state was left reeling by the incredibly violent actions of a Toowoomba mother and son duo in what has since been described as “simply evil” by police.
Samantha Ann Brownlow, then 45, and her son Corey James Lovell, then 21, killed Brownlow’s stepfather, Robin Behrendorff inside his Burnett Heads home after Brownlow mistakenly thought she had been written into his will.
The pair viciously bludgeoned and stabbed him, leaving him to die alone in a pool of his own blood with the plan to collect $200,000 from the sale of his Baldry St home – $50,000 of which would be given to her son Corey for his role in the killing.
In 2013 Brownlow pleaded guilty to the murder while her son Lovell pleaded not guilty, leading to a six-day trial in Bundaberg Supreme Court before Lovell appealed this conviction at Queensland’s highest court in 2016.
The pair were ultimately both imprisoned for life but will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in 2028.
The grisly murder even inspired a true crime documentary called Mama’s Boy to be made staring Wendy Spencer as Browlow and Kai Johnson as Lovell.
4. Husband allegedly killed pregnant wife with drugs, but is there more to the story?
In 1998 Jehovah’s Witness Minister Ian Patrick Reilly pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering his 35-year-old wife Sylvia sometime between August 27 and September 22, 1997.
Over 20 years ago the Toowoomba Supreme courtroom heard Reilly allegedly gave his pregnant wife a lethal mixture of drugs before weighing her body down in a dam before contacting police and newspapers claiming his wife had gone missing.
In a Courier Mail article written by Murray David in June 1998 it was revealed that Sylvia’s body was found in Lake Perseverance near Toowoomba on September 21, 1997.
A post mortem found no injuries that could have caused her death, but blood and tissue tests revealed she had ingested three antidepressants – Aropax, Parnate and Effexor.
Crown prosecutor Paul Rutledge said Mr Reilly had been prescribed the drugs for depression the month before Sylvia’s naked body was located by a fisherman at Perseverance Dam, 50km north east of Toowoomba, three weeks after she disappeared.
Despite Reilly being convicted and sentenced to six years’ in jail for Sylvia’s death, both Reilly’s family and Sylvia’s family have claimed he was framed and wrongly convicted of the killing.
Police ruled out any link between Sylvia’s death and the stabbing murder of Leanne Kennedy by confessed Satanist Darren Maloney, who knew both women.
Ms Kennedy’s body was found on the day of Sylvia’s funeral …
5. Killer claimed Satan made him kill Leanne Kennedy
A 23-year-old man charged with the murder of a woman at Toowoomba in 1997 allegedly told police that Satan had made him do it.
Opening the Crown case in the Toowoomba Supreme Court, prosecutor Robbie Davies said Darren Bradley Maloney allegedly made the statement, one of several he made to police, relating to events of September 28, 1997.
Maloney pleaded not guilty to the murder of Leanne Judith Kennedy, aged 37, whose body was found in a pool of blood in her flat on the corner of Gowrie and Taylor Streets.
An article written in September 2001 by Amanda Gearing said Maloney, who was jailed for life in February 2000, pleaded not guilty to the murder on the basis of unsoundness of mind, claiming he was deluded into thinking he was Satan when he stabbed Ms Kennedy.
Gearing also wrote that a prison inmate with Maloney claimed in May that Maloney had confessed to also killing Sylvia Reilly.
6. Sydney nurses found bashed and left for dead in a paddock off Murphy’s Creek Road
Sydney trainee nurses Lorraine Ruth Wilson, 20, and Wendy Joy Evans, 18, headed to Queensland for a brief holiday in September 1974 but never made it home again after they were raped, bashed and left for dead in a paddock just outside Toowoomba.
Their skeletal remains were found two years later in bush country off Murphy’s Creek Road, their skulls were bashed in and their bones tangled in cord from a venetian blind.
Despite two coronial inquests failing to lead to a prosecution, Queensland state coroner Michael Barnes eventually found that Wayne “Boogie” Hilton, along with other unidentified men, killed Lorraine and Wendy at the foot of the Toowoomba Ranges.
In 2012 Barnes discovered the women were more than likely picked up hitchhiking by a notorious group of men allegedly known in the area for kidnapping and raping women.
Barnes also found that local police were aware of the gang’s violent reputation for raping women but failed to investigate the deaths of Wilson and Evans properly.
The only person against whom there was enough evidence to send to trial, was Wayne Robert Hilton, but he died in a 1986 car crash.
7. Teen murder still Toowoomba’s only active cold case after over 30 years
15-year-old Annette Jane Mason was found bludgeoned to death in her house in November 1989 after a night out with friends.
The brutal, vicious and senseless murder on November 19, 1989 is Toowoomba’s only active cold case murder investigation.
Mason’s badly beaten body was found partly naked and concealed underneath a doona in the sunroom of a house she had moved into two weeks prior to her murder.
She was sharing the 131 Anzac Ave house with two other women at the time of her murder, which is believed to have happened sometime between 5am and 7am before her body was discovered around 2.10pm.
An autopsy revealed she died from extensive head injuries and police believe a piece of timber found in the laundry could have been the murder weapon.
Back in 2015 Annette’s father, Andrew Mason, spoke to The Chronicle from his home in Newcastle, pleading with people with information to finally come forward and give everyone some peace of mind.
“I think it is time for people to come forward and tell what they know. There are a couple of people out there that know what happened to Annette,” he said.
In 2015 a petition launched by the Chronicle called on then Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath to act and order a coronial inquest into the murder of Annette amassed 4,421 supporters.
Despite several suspects allegedly admitting to killing Annette over the years, the teenager’s murderer still remains a mystery to this day.
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