Allecha Boyd murder: How her killer and his conspirators were caught out by drug cops
The body of chef Allecha Boyd has never been found. But following a tearful court room confession, the truth of the brutal slaying of the 27-year-old cousin of AFL star Will Hoskin-Elliott can finally be told.
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For the first time the harrowing details behind the 2017 bush slaying of Allecha Boyd, and the operation that nabbed her killers, can exclusively be revealed.
The 27-year-old chef was murdered in broad daylight on a quiet dirt road just outside Coolamon near Wagga Wagga, shot multiple times with a pistol by her drug dealer Samuel Shephard after an argument about a break and enter at his lover’s home.
The details of what happened next were laid bare this week when an accomplice - the ex-partner of Ms Boyd’s killer - faced court charged with being an accessory to her murder.
Ms Boyd, who is the cousin of AFL star Will Hoskin-Elliott, had initially arrived at Shephard’s home to purchase meth, but just a few hours later she found herself being driven to the outskirts of town before being callously gunned down.
Shephard’s lover Katie Barnett was jealous of the Melbourne-native, noticing the pair together, and began following them in her car to a country road.
Barnett then began arguing with Ms Boyd about her home being broken into.
It was at that point Shephard, who had a gun tucked behind his back in his waistband, pulled the pistol out and shot Ms Boyd.
Shephard then told Anthony Hagan, who was known as Emu, about what he had done and the pair drove her body 12km to the Lester State Forest, dug a grave and buried her there.
Her remains have never been found.
Shephard has pleaded guilty to murder and will be sentenced next year while Hagan was jailed for four years and nine months for being an accessory to murder after the fact earlier this year. Barnett has never been charged with any offences relating to Ms Boyd’s death.
Three weeks later, news of Ms Boyd’s disappearance was making headlines. A nervous Hagan called Shephard.
“Something has come up get everything out of the house,” he said.
“Which one, (Coolamon)?,” Shephard replied.
“Yeah everything, f***ing everything, tonight not tomorrow,” Hagan said.
Shephard then contacted his de facto wife Tracy Lee King.
King, who has pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact, broke down in court on Monday as she told of how she kept Shephard’s secrets, only for them to be revealed in police tapes.
A month before the shooting, police had begun tapping Shephard’s phone as part of an investigation into drug supply.
While those intercepts had raised suspicions that Shephard and King were involved in Ms Boyd’s disappearance, it was not until a scorned King, frustrated at her partner’s infidelities, changed her voicemail greeting that it was confirmed.
“Where’s Allecha Boyd you f*****g dog c***, in the state forest?” she ranted in the pre-recorded message. “You and Katie got rid of her because she was a part of (the) police?”
She then sent 70 texts and voicemails to Shephard.
“Sam John Shephard killed her,” one text began.
“Then told me they would kill me if I said anything … I know she was there at my house that day at the container then all three of you were gone and (a child’s) car seat was left on my dad’s smoker ha ha ha … with a pistol and a silencer on it.”
“Can you shut your f***ing mouth?,” Shephard responded in one call, explaining he was coming to see her.
“Make sure you bring Katie (Barnett) because both of you are going to jail … her hair is out there, everything is,” King responded.
A month after Shephard was charged with murder Hagan told police his previous interviews with them were “a crock of s**t because I was scared”, making admissions to being an accessory to murder.
“I hate myself for it,” King said in court on Monday.
“I feel like a piece of s***, I regret it every day, I should have told the truth but I wasn’t thinking straight at the time
“I think about it every day, I’m very sorry about lying, I normally I don’t lie.”
She added: “I wanted to protect myself because I didn’t know how the system works, I didn’t want to go to jail for 25 years because I’ve got children.”
Ms King will be sentenced later this month.
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