Strike Force Osbox detectives continue homicide investigation after remains belonging to Monto woman Wendy Hansen found at Coffs Harbour

It is a deepening mystery of the last movements of Queensland gran Wendy Hansen. Why were her remains found 800km away on the NSW north coast? And why was her phone switched off as soon as she left town?

As far as security camera vision goes, it is clearer than crystal – Wendy Hansen casually spends 45 seconds withdrawing $200 from a Bank of Queensland automatic teller machine in her sleepy Queensland home town and wanders off in her three-quarter jeans and thongs.

A few hours later – and some 410km south – the 63-year-old businesswoman and grandmother is snapped driving her distinctive 2007 two-door Mitsubishi Pajero with Queensland registration 645TCZ south on the Bruce Highway near a place called Wild Horse Mountain.

And yet, it is what has happened since those apparent last-day-of-summer vibes which is clouded in mystery and possible murder spanning 860km and more than nine months.

The suspicious vanishing of Ms Hansen has not only sparked a homicide investigation covering two states and multiple towns and cities, but also raised unanswered questions about her final movements.

Like why did her Nokia 2.3 mobile phone appear to have been switched off not long after she left the tiny town of Monto – population 1156 and 175km west of Bundaberg – and never turned back on?

The last confirmed sighting of Wendy Hansen, driving her Pajero south along the Bruce Highway near Wild Horse Mountain on February 29, 2024. Her remains were found 110 days later.

Or why the Pajero was uncovered at a suburban Brisbane train station more than six months later with no evidence of Ms Hansen ever being there.?

And, possibly most importantly, why were her skeleton remains discovered adjacent a city beach in Coffs Harbour – a place she had no links with and another 400km south from where her car was recovered?

Forensic police at the Coffs Harbour scene where Wendy Hansen’s remains were found in June. Picture: Toni Moon.

More than nine months after the bones were found partially buried – maybe by someone or even by the coastal breeze among a tiny, fenced off vegetation dune next to a popular beach walkway – homicide squad detectives are still no closer to knowing if she was murdered.

The remains were just bones and so vital forensic evidence lost forever. Her cause of death is still undetermined – bones don’t tell forensic pathologists much unless there are fractures or knife marks.

The volunteers who found them noticed some possessions in a place noted for tents and belongings owned by rough sleepers.

It took some time for them to notice the skull half protruding from the NSW north coast sand and called on authorities.

It sparked Strike Force Osbox, which was still two months from publicly identifying who belonged to the remains – and the decomposition process was so complete that early estimates immediately after the gruesome discovery indicated that the person who belonged to them could have died four years earlier.

Queensland businesswoman and grandmother Wendy Hansen. Picture: NSW Police.

It would turn out to be 110 days or thereabouts, with detectives confident Ms Hansen met her demise on or very close to February 29 – the day she is seen at the bank and on the highway.

What they also know is that Ms Hansen’s family have nothing to do with death.

Completely ruled out.

And that deepens the mystery deeper than the dunes at Jetty Beach – what the hell happened to Ms Hansen and how did her remains end up there?

The bones were found on June 18 and a crime scene quickly established.

Even back then, the cops were circumspect and open to all scenarios.

The crime scene in dunes adjacent to Jetty Beach at Coffs Harbour Picture: Toni Moon.

The area, only a few hundred metres from the central business district of the ever-growing Coffs Harbour, had become a place for those down on their luck.

Tent city is over the top, but the population calling the dunes home was not small.

And so crime scene and forensic experts did their due diligence.

Along with uncovering the skeleton remains, they also bagged many other items.

It included silver earrings, hair clips, a Target-branded blue and white striped button up shirt, a Harvey World Travel backpack, a Laura Jones-branded wallet, reading glasses and a paperback book titled The Butterfly Summer.

Forensic police spent a day sifting through sand for evidence. Picture: Toni Moon.

But who belonged to the remains, and were they dealing with a natural death, one of a person who took their own life, or something much more sinister?

It is unclear exactly when strike force detectives confirmed the remains were those of Ms Hansen – DNA was taken and compared to missing persons in a national database – they didn’t publicly say until the state’s head of homicide Danny Doherty did so in a press conference on August 29.

And for the boss of homicide to speak to the media about a case normally says a lot about their thoughts on what happened to her.

The highly regarded homicide squad boss was quick to point out they were treating her death as suspicious. But to this day they have still not been able to use the word homicide or murder.

And it is what he left out which could be most telling to what happened to Ms Hansen.

Wendy Hansen, 63, was seen withdrawing cash from an ATM on Newton St in Monto in the North Burnett, about 170km west of Bundaberg, in Queensland, on February 29.

The public was told her phone was missing. It wasn’t told it hadn’t pinged to any mobile tower since a tad after she left Monto.

They were told there were possessions found, including her wallet, but no reporter thought to question how the cops could not identify her if there were personal belongings with the remains.

Was it because any identifying features within the wallet were missing?

Bank cards were gone, driver’s licenses were not there, Medicare cards and local club membership cards were missing.

And her Lenovo brand tablet has also never been recovered.

And if robbery was the bizarre motive, why were there not any attempts to use the bank cards? No activity at all. Zero.

But Doherty, known both inside and outside the cops as a quality and seasoned media performer, really only had one question for the public.

Where the hell was Ms Hansen’s car?

“We’re treating it as a suspicious death and at this stage the highly unusual disappearance of a loving grandmother who has been found 800 kilometres from home and no one knows why. It’s a mystery, and we would like to solve that mystery and provide those answers to the family,” Doherty said.

So when the Pajero was found at Geebung railway station on September 7 – nine days after Doherty’s very public plea – it changed the direction of the investigation again.

Geebung is a battler’s part of Brisbane. The fact it could be the closest area to inner-city Brisbane with free parking could also be important. Or not.

And how did the Pajero sit so long near the station without it raising eyebrows How long was it actually there for?

Police have confirmed that investigations have not been able to identify “any activities of Wendy Hansen around the Geebung area or how she then travelled to Coffs Harbour”.

They have also confirmed that there is no CCTV of Ms Hansen at Coffs Harbour railway station – only a few cricket pitches from where her body was found but a kilometre if you were to walk from the town’s platform to where the bones were found.

“Investigators are still seeking public assistance to secure CCTV/dashcam/photographs of Wendy surrounding Geebung, Coffs Harbour and anywhere between these locations,” Strike Force Osbox told this masthead.

If Ms Hansen did park at Geebung before vanishing, what was she doing in the city with her phone off? Was she meeting someone?

And if she did vanish after parking the car at the station, why would her remains be found over 400km away, and in such a public setting where there are thousands of hectares of remote bush and sand dunes along any stretch between Brisbane and Coffs Harbour?

All investigators would say was: “The circumstances in which Wendy’s vehicle was abandoned in Geebung remains under investigation.”

But what if Ms Hansen made her own way to Coffs Harbour? It wasn’t by train. Was it with someone else? Or did she drive herself there and her car dumped after her body – or even just after Doherty’s public plea to find her distinctive little four-wheel drive?

When asked whether they believed Ms Hansen she was killed at Coffs Harbour or elsewhere and her body dumped, or if they thought she was killed elsewhere, investigators would only say: “The location of Wendy’s death remains under investigation”.

(Left to right) Jetty Dunecare volunteer Lindy Davis and Jetty Dunecare President Desnee McCosker with the “Wendy tree” – a coastal banksia planted at the site where Ms Hansen’s remains were found. Picture: Toni Moon.

As homicide investigators continue to grapple with what happened to Ms Hansen and how, those who found her in those lonely dunes have also been proactive.

They conducted a tree planting ceremony at the site of where her remains were found off Jordan Esplanade to bring some sense of comfort to the volunteers who made the gruesome discovery.

“We now call this coastal banksia: Wendy’s tree,” Jetty Dunecare President Desnee McCosker said.

“It’s important for the family to be able to have somewhere to come to.”

The volunteers extended an invitation to Ms Hansen’s family to visit the site where they would be welcomed by Dunecare volunteers.

Originally published as Strike Force Osbox detectives continue homicide investigation after remains belonging to Monto woman Wendy Hansen found at Coffs Harbour