Black widow killer Lindy Williams’ confession revealed in early bid for parole

Black widow Lindy Williams’ startling confession from behind bars can be revealed for the first time as the notorious headless torso killer makes an bid for early freedom.

Black widow Lindy Yvonne Williams spent days hacking apart the remains of her dead lover with a Bunnings electric saw before dumping his body parts at random in wheelie bins across Gympie and the Sunshine Coast.

Williams made the startling confession to police who visited her in prison months after she was convicted of the murder of George Gerbic whose dismembered torso was discovered burning on the side of a Queensland road in 2013.

Detectives believe the missing remains of Mr Gerbic, including his arms and legs, would be buried under at least 13 metres of waste at two different landfill sites if Williams’ story is to be believed.

Lindy Williams and her victim George Gerbic.

Details of the killer’s confession can be revealed for the first time after she launched an early bid for release from her life prison sentence, citing ‘exceptional circumstances’ understood to relate to her ailing health.

Under Queensland’s No Body No Parole legislation, the parole board cannot begin to consider her bid for release until it has made a determination on whether she has sufficiently co-operated in helping to locate her victim’s remains.

Williams, 65, cut a frail figure in the dock of the Brisbane Magistrates Court during a parole hearing on Friday, sitting in a wheelchair with grey hair – a stark contrast to the blonde defendant who faced trial in 2018 pleading her innocence.

Throughout her trial, Williams emphatically denied killing Mr Gerbic whose death she covered up for months with a sophisticated web of lies. The sentencing judge described her actions in murdering, decapitating and dismembering her victim as “heartless and horrific”.

But at a parole hearing on Friday, the board heard evidence that months after her conviction, she described to police in detail how she had used a reciprocating saw purchased at Bunnings to cut up Mr Gerbic’s body in the en suite of their home.

“She did that to make the body easier to dispose of,” counsel assisting the parole board Sally Robb said.

“It took her at least several days to undertake that task. She used multiple plastic rubbish bags either black or mauve to bag up the smaller parts she had effectively created.

“She then described how she disposed of those bags and it was effectively across various wheelie bins it would seem chosen it would seem at random, but the night before those bins were to be collected by the local council.”

Lindy Williams leads police through the crime scene.

Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Knight was called to give evidence about Williams’ co-operation and said she told police the items were left in bins spanning from the Wide Bay to the northern Sunshine Coast.

He said information from council workers suggested the remains would likely have already been 13 meters deep in landfill by the time of her confession.

“Once we had that material available I made the determination from other experiences I’d had that it was simply not feasible, and I don’t say that from a financial perspective, I was not concerned about that, but the probability of recovering Mr Gerbic’s remains was so remote it was simply not viable (to search for them),” he said.

Williams again contacted police more than a year later and gave an “incredibly consistent” account about what she had done.

Lindy Yvonne Williams.

The discovery of Mr Gerbic’s torso burning on the side of Cedar Creek Road about 10kms from Gympie on September 19, 2013 sparked a massive nine-month police investigation to determine his identity.

“The initial human remains consisted only of a male torso, no arms, no legs, no head, and it was essentially a midsection and it was quite obviously fire damaged,” Det Snr Sgt Knight said.

“The focus of the investigation initially was to identify those human remains which was a substantial task. I’ve worked in the homicide squad for nearly 12 years and that task cannot be understated.”

With no recoverable DNA, the only clue was the presence of a pharmaceutical drug found in Mr Gerbic’s remains.

The board heard detectives used medical records to identify thousands of people across Australia who had been prescribed the drug and were no longer taking it, painstakingly working through the list to establish proof of life.

When police visited Williams searching for Mr Gerbic on July 6, 2014, she claimed he had travelled overseas and they had lost contact.

Police searching Sunshine Coast waterways in the search for evidence in the Lindy Williams case. Picture: Warren Lynam / Sunshine Coast Daily

Days later on July 17, police executed a search warrant at her home, and she acknowledged Mr Gerbic was dead but refused to disclose how he had died.

“Essentially what she said is there’d been some sort of argument or confrontation between herself and Mr Gerbic and she had retreated and locked herself in a bedroom and when came out a couple of days later she found Mr Gerbic’s dismembered torso,” Det Knight said.

“She was unable to provide explanation as to what had happened as to the interference but she did conceded that she was the person who had dumped Mr Gerbic’s torso.”

She participated in three interviews that day, telling stories that exonerated herself claiming there had been a domestic violence incident and Mr Gerbic had slipped and hit his head.

Williams was arrested and charged with murder that same day and has been in custody ever since.

Under questioning from Williams’ barrister James Fenton, Det Knight agreed there were a number of consistencies between her post-conviction confession and other evidence gathered during the investigation.

The board heard the pathologist who conducted the autopsy gave evidence the dismemberment was consistent with the use of a saw and a forensic examination using light sources at the crime scene also corroborated her story.

“What it indicated was some of the walls had been repainted but under that paint there was evidence of blood patterning which was consistent with a saw or a man-made object being used to dismember the deceased’s remains,” Det Knight said.

“It strongly indicates to me and I have little doubt Mr Gerbic’s body was dismembered in that house and in the manner she described.”

George Gerbic and Lindy Williams.

There was also evidence found of the Bunnings transaction of the purchase of that saw which again was consistent with timings and last known signs of life.

Det Knight agreed a then-56-year-old Williams would not have been able to move an entire in-tact body alone.

Mr Fenton made submissions to the board that Williams had provided sufficient information to assist in locating Mr Gerbic’s remains and argued the No Body No Parole legislation’s purpose had been fulfilled.

“Because the victim’s family has been consulted, they have been told, they are not wondering in their own minds whether a person is going to come across a piece of a body one day and think that was their loved one,” he said.

“The peace of mind that the act is directed at has been given to the victims.”

Mr Gerbic, a beloved father-of-two who was the president of the Coolum Football Club, was aged 66 when he was killed by his then-girlfriend.

The board has reserved its decision.

If Williams is successful in proving her co-operation with the No Body No Parole legislation, she still faces further parole hearing to assess her application for release on exceptional circumstances.

If she is unsuccessful, her original parole date in 2034 will remain.