Wieambilla shooting: Massacre victim’s widow says culprits not terrorists or extremists, just neighbours

The wife of Alan Dare, who was gunned down along two police officers in the Wieambilla massacre, reveals the heartache she still feels in the months after her husband’s tragic death.

She waved to her husband’s killers every day for two years, but Kerry Dare says the people who gunned him down were “just neighbours”.

Good Samaritan Alan Dare, who will on Saturday be awarded a posthumous Bravery Medal by the Queensland Police Service, was shot dead by Stacey, Gareth and Nathaniel Train as he came to investigate a fire at their property.

And Mrs Dare says she has reached out to the daughter of Stacey and Nathaniel Train to offer her comfort and reassure her that the Wieambilla massacre – which also saw two young police officers murdered – was not her fault.

“They didn’t plan to kill me, we go up and down that road every day,” Mrs Dare said in an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail.

“Al had been up and down that road on his quad every day. They weren’t there to kill Al – they were there to kill the police.”

Kerry Dare with late-husband Alan Dare.

Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were murdered by married couple Gareth and Stacey Train, as well as Gareth’s brother Nathaniel on December 12 when they arrived at the Western Downs home for a routine missing persons inquiry. The Trains fired on Constables Arnold and McCrow, as well as two of their colleagues, from sniper hides in the trees.

Aerial images of the Train property show dry, dusty ground surrounding the fenced-in weatherboard home. Outdoor chairs sit at the entrance and the side of the house, facing outwards towards the road and surrounding bush.

By the front gate, a patch of scorched ground is still visible where the Trains set alight a police car, melted rubber from the vehicle’s tyres embedded in the dirt.

The property is eerily quiet and broken garden statues litter the ground beyond the chained front gate.

The Train property, Wains Road Wieambilla. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Dare was killed when he saw smoke coming from the neighbouring property and arrived to find a police vehicle on fire. He was shot as he attempted to use his phone to call for help.

The Trains were killed during a lengthy shootout with the highly trained Special Emergency Response Team.

Police have described the massacre as “domestic terrorism” and called the Trains religiously motivated extremists.

But Mrs Dare disagrees, saying that as far as she was concerned, “they were just neighbours”.

“That couple used to wave to me for two years at the letterbox,” she said.

“When (Stacey) got bogged, Al said the husband came down and more or less said to him ‘We are right here, mate, you don’t need to help us any more’.

“I never spoke to any of them … but they were just neighbours … I don’t even know which brother was which.”

Kerry Dare widow of Alan Dare and neighbour to the Train family. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mrs Dare said in the aftermath of the shooting, she reached out to offer comfort to Stacey and Nathaniel’s daughter Madelyn.

“I just let her know that it wasn’t her fault. It’s not her fault any of this happened … I don’t believe it was Stacey’s fault either … but I wouldn’t say (Stacey) was innocent, not at all.”

Police have confirmed Stacey Train played an active role in the massacre.

Mrs Dare said although she would have given anything for her husband to have returned home that day, she is relieved that he “died quickly”.

She said she constantly replays the night of her husband’s murder in her head, admitting that she was initially so distraught that she was beyond consoling.

“My voice is getting lighter every day. As the days go by, things get softer and there’s things that are important and there’s things that aren’t,” Mrs Dare said. “I only feel like myself when there are people around. The days out here are great and the nights are getting easier.”

Widow Kerry Dare's new tattoo in honour of her late husband. Picture: Liam Kidston

She said her husband’s bravery award offered her little comfort – but said it holds great meaning for her grandchildren. “My grandkids said to me ‘I’ve never seen Poppy run from anything’. I believed we could get through anything,” she said.

She said although she would support building a training facility at the Trains’ property, as suggested by the Queensland Police Union, she would be against any guns being fired.

“I shouldn’t have to put up with that,” she said. “The house should be bulldozed. The Trains massacred people there.”