I Catch Killers: How Gary Jubelin and his team trapped a murderer

When a luxury car salesman was called out to check on a vehicle he had wanted to purchase it was the start of a chain of events that finished in murder. Don’t miss a special I Catch Killers podcast plus exclusive video.

Bob Ljubic’s death had all the hallmarks of a suicide.

His car was found at The Gap, a notorious suicide spot in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

The luxury car dealer had been the target of a messy civil dispute involving a former business partner in the months leading up to his disappearance.

And when a fisherman came across a shark circling his body in waters off Kurnell, the 44-year-old showed no obvious signs of violent injury.

LISTEN BELOW: In a special I Catch Killers, Gary Jubelin reveals from start to finish how he and his team solved a Sydney underworld murder.

It could’ve been an open and shut case. But it wasn’t.

In the latest episode of his podcast I Catch Killers, former homicide cop Gary Jubelin provides an enthralling insight into what it takes to track down a murderer.

Like any good investigation, the case involved a combination of doggedness, grit and a little bit of luck.

Luxury car dealer Bob Ljubic who was last seen driving wife's Porsche Cayenne on Sydney’s north in March, 2005. Pic: Supplied

THE MYSTERY CALLER

The luxury car dealer vanished on the night of March 23, 2005 after going to meet someone in Wollstonecraft about purchasing a Ferrari Spider.

At the time, Jubelin was on a hiatus from the Homicide Squad and filling in as a crime manager at Chatswood Police Station.

“It immediately got my attention because Bob Ljubic, his name had come up in another murder (investigation) I had done prior to leaving homicide,” he said.

Mr Ljubic’s former employee, Franco Mayer, was shot dead at his new car yard in Granville a year before.

The pair had fallen out and Mr Mayer had tied his ex-boss up in a civil lawsuit over unpaid wages.

While it would emerge years later that Mr Mayer’s death had nothing to do with Mr Ljubic, at the time Jubelin thought: “There’s something a little bit smelly about this”.

Mr Ljubic’s car was found parked at The Gap in Watsons Bay. Pic: Glen Miller

Three days after the disappearance, a prominent Sydney lawyer, who coincidentally lived across the road, reported the missing man’s car parked at The Gap in Watson’s Bay.

The suspicion was that he had thrown himself off the cliff top but, unlike today, there were no CCTV cameras in the area.

After his body was found in the ocean, a post-mortem examination would cast further doubt over that theory.

“He had suffered injuries prior to his death,” Jubelin said.

“I think one of the injuries was a significant cut to his head and some bruising around his ankles.”

SUICIDE OR HOMICIDE?

Back at The Gap, the victim had unwittingly left behind clues in his car that would help police retrace his last steps.

On a piece of paper was the address in Wollstonecraft he was meant to go to on the night of March 23 and the mobile phone number that had last called him.

“We established that the phone was set up five days before Bob’s disappearance,” Jubelin said.

“The last time it was used was to call Bob to lure him from the house. It was in a dodgy name. That in itself tells me … we’ve got a homicide here.”

But that view, Jubelin explained, wasn’t entirely shared.

Newspaper article at the time Bob Ljubic went missing.

“There was conjecture between certain police and others on the investigation that it was a suicide,” he said.

“There was a very real risk it was going to be written off as a suicide. Just to me, it didn’t sort of add up.”

Jubelin and two you recently designated detectives, who weren’t trained detectives, took the case on.

“To have that enthusiasm, it‘s so important because homicide is painstaking,” he said.

“It’s not all glamour and excitement. Sometimes you’ve just got to knuckle down and do things.”

THE KEY SUSPECT

Trawling through e-tag records that showed cars crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the night of the disappearance was a perfect example.

But the painstaking work paid off when police discovered the victim’s car had travelled southbound on the bridge about 11pm. There was also another lead.

A car registered to a man named Jason McCall, a Kings Cross bouncer with a network of nefarious friends, crossed the bridge not far behind.

His body was found five days later in the water off Kurnell in Sydney’s south. Pic: Nathan Edwards

“And what got me particularly curious was at the time his car passed through the Harbour Bridge, (McCall) reported his car being broken into in the Western Suburbs of Sydney outside his home at the same time,” Jubelin said.

“I think that’s a real big coincidence.”

Police placed McCall under surveillance, even sending two officers to pose as car washers when he tried to have his car professionally cleaned.

“It came out very shiny,” Jubelin remarked.

THE BREAKTHROUGH

A breakthrough in the investigation came when one of McCall’s offsiders, Mr X, decided to rollover and give evidence for the police.

“They are the moments you strive for, the effort you’ve put in has been validated,” he said.

Mr X, who was granted immunity from prosecution, told police he, McCall — who was short of cash — and another man planned to kidnap Mr Ljubic and extort him for money.

But McCall, went “red in the face like a beetroot” Mr X said, lost his temper at The Gap and threw the car dealer to his death.

On the same day Mr X rolled over, police searched McCall’s house and found a SIM card linked to the number that called Mr Ljubic on the night he vanished.

“That pretty well sealed his deal,” he said.

McCall was found guilty of murder and sentenced to at least 22 years in jail.

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