NSW cold case: Newcastle couple’s murder still unsolved 51 years on

Fifty-one years ago today young couple Ray Hill and Alex Rees were shot dead in a ‘lovers’ lane’ in South Newcastle Beach. Their murder remains NSW’s oldest cold case.

The grim scene of the double murder of Ray Hill and his girlfriend Alex Rees in Newcastle in 1970. Picture: News Ltd

Ray Hill was a handsome young rooster who came from good stock and had permanent work. But of all the good things going for him, the young fellow had one thing holding him back — a persistent stutter that had failed to disappear with age.

So the 24-year-old decided to do something about it and had been a regular at Royal Newcastle Hospital during the back-end of 1969 as he received treatment to get rid of
the disorder.

Ray Hill was shot dead along with his girlfriend in 1970. Picture: Supplied

But if the speech impediment was supposed to be a sign of nerves, young Ray felt right at home in the presence of a pretty young nurse inside the landmark building overlooking Newcastle Beach.

Irene Rees was known as Alex and the teenager was calling the nursing quarters at the hospital home as she learnt her job. The pair hit it off instantly and were a couple within
a few weeks.

By the time the new year came around, 19-year-old Alex was already telling people that young Ray was the one. They were just another dashing young couple in a city full of youthful vigour in a decade that promised so much.

They were not to know, but their names were about to be etched into the city’s psyche for all the wrong reasons and would be the centre of one of it’s darkest mysteries for half a century.

A MAD WORLD

It is 51 years today that Ray and Alex met up for what was to be their last date. It was a Friday night and it was normal for the couple to head off for a movie and maybe even dinner.

Ray had finished his shift as a forklift driver and driven from his New Lambton home to pick up his sweetheart from the hospital.

Alex signed out at 6.30pm and the couple dashed back to Lambton in Ray’s prized 1967 blue Valiant to catch the Spencer Tracy film It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World at the Skyline Drive-In.

Irene Rees, known as Alex, was murdered in 1970. Picture: Supplied

Afterwards, they headed back to the city and spent about 30 minutes at the Vienna Coffee Lounge before popping over to Shortland Esplanade adjacent to South Newcastle Beach just before midnight.

But they were not alone.

The joint was somewhat of a lovers’ lane and for this balmy night, just a couple into the new year, it was popular. Some put up a couple of dozen cars at the scene at one stage.

But as Ray and Alex enjoy each other’s company, the patronage begins to wane. And within an hour, the joint is almost deserted.

A man was to later tell detectives that he had woken from his alcohol-induced slumber about 1.30am and put the radio on as he thought about driving home.

Police now believe it was about 1.40am when he heard three shots — two in very quick succession before a third again pierced the silence a second or so later.

He waited for five minutes or so before driving up and seeing what would be Ray’s Valiant with its interior light on. A few metres away was a late-model Ford Falcon, possibly blue.

There didn’t seem to be anyone inside either car, so he drove off. But he had just missed a double murder by a few seconds.

And the fact that Ray and Alex, now dead in the car, were not discovered immediately has probably allowed a killer to remain free for decades.

HORROR SCENE

Shortland Esplanade is one of the prettiest thoroughfares on the east coast. It meanders along the natural cliff face of Newcastle’s inner-city beach and is just as popular for early-morning walkers as late-night lovers.

And so it was a Sydney couple going for a walk at 5.20am who made the discovery.

The killer, armed with a .22 calibre rifle, had almost certainly taken aim through an open driver’s side door.

Alex was sitting and Ray was on his knees on the floor facing her. Both were naked from the waist down and had a blanket partially covering them.

The couple were in a loving embrace when murder struck.

The double murder is still unsolved 51 years later. Picture: Library Nwn

Both had been shot — Ray in the back of the head and Alex to the forehead. But in the four hours since the killer attacked, they had not been alone.

Overzealous council street cleaners had already performed their pre-dawn rituals along Shortland Esplanade. And with them they took vital evidence. Like bullet casings and other pieces of forensic evidence that could have been crucial in pointing to the killer.

Nevertheless, police threw everything they could at the case. As well as the local detectives canvassing all known crooks, sex offenders and gun owners, the case raised the eyebrows of a few other cops.

It included the state’s gun investigator at the time, Angus McDonald, and a younger detective who was making a name for himself — Roger Rogerson.

At one point over 60 investigators working on the case had compiled more than 250,000 pages of “evidence”.

And the theories abounded. Obviously those close to the pair, including former partners, were looked at. Alibis helped in discounting them.

There was also the rumour that gained legs about a “madman” who was roaming the streets, had a gun holster built underneath his car and was known to frequent the beachside suburbs.

There was a confession which was soon thrown out after it was found to have been “induced” and there were residents who have rung investigators and journalists over the years to throw dead relatives into the frame.

And although nothing has ever come close to being proven, police have not given up hope.

The South Newcastle Beach double murder is the oldest active case still being investigated by the state’s cold case detectives at the unsolved homicide squad.