AN ARREST in mother Dorothy Britton’s 22-year cold case murder could spark a flurry of progress on more than a dozen North Queensland investigations.
More than $3 million remains on offer for anyone who can help solve some of the region’s most baffling cases.
Homicide Investigation Unit Cold Case Team detective Senior Constable Darren Mills said progress like the arrest last month of Mrs Britton’s son Christopher Mark Britton often created momentum in other cases.
Mrs Britton was found shot dead in her Jubilee Pocket, Airlie Beach, home on March 7, 1996. The 51-year-old Britton has been charged with her murder.
“Success in closing cold case homicides assists in building momentum for other cold case homicides,” Sen-Constable Mills said.
“It does (freshen up other cases).”
The recent investigation into Mrs Britton’s murder led homicide detectives to work with counterparts in New South Wales, South Australia and throughout regional Queensland.
Sen-Constable Mills said there were no borders when it came to unravelling murder mysteries.
“The Homicide Investigation Unit will deploy to wherever we’re needed to go,” he said.
He said working across long periods of time, often decades, posed challenges as technology and formats for keeping records changed but the basics remained the same.
“A good statement in 1996 is still a good statement now,” Sen-Constable Mills said.
He said the passage of time often led to some of the most crucial breakthroughs.
“Relationships change, motivating factors and reasons people were reluctant to provide police with information at the time of any offence may not be the case now,” Sen-Const. Mills said.
He urged anyone with information about unsolved cases to pass on any tips to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
A number of cases remain unsolved around North Queensland.
The Queensland Police Service’s register of outstanding rewards for cold cases lists a number of horrific crimes in North Queensland yet to be solved.
HIT AND RUN
On January 15, 2009, 45-year-old Peggy Jean Jacobs was hit and killed by a car, or its payload, while she stood or walked on Abbott St, Oonoonba.
The mother of two's body was found in a bus zone on Abbott St, across from O'Donnell Street between 11pm and 11.40pm.
The hit and run remains unsolved despite extensive police investigations.
Those investigations revealed she’d been hit around her sternum, fell backwards and hit her head on the road.
A reward of $50,000 is on offer for information that could help solve her death.
SCHOOLGIRL MURDERS
A $50,000 reward remains on offer for crucial information about the murder of Townsville schoolgirls Judith and Susan Mackay, who were killed on August 26, 1970.
The pair left their Aitkenvale home to go to school, but never arrived.
Their bodies were found stabbed, raped and strangled at Antil Plains two days later about 25km out of Townsville.
Arthur Brown was charged with their murder but never prosecuted. He died in 2002.
Both girls were sexually assaulted, strangled and stabbed.
STONE COLD MURDER
In July, 1975, Catherine Pamela Graham, 18, was found partly clad at the turn-off to Oak Valley on the Flinders Highway, 15km south of Townsville.
She was murdered, repeatedly bashed in the head with a heavy stone.
It’s believed the teen made her last phone call from a phone box near the Sun Hotel, which was until recently known as the Rising Sun Hotel.
A $250,000 reward is still on offer for information that will help solve her murder.
UNSOLVED CASE FILES
Case 1:
May 21, 1999: A 19-year-old man is abducted from Ogden St, Townsville, driven to Herveys Range Rd, assaulted, beaten, burnt and raped.
Reward: $250,000
Case 2:
December 2, 1997: Diane Mary Angwin murdered, stabbed in the chest in Leichardt St, Bowen. Her right carotid artery was severed in the attack.
Reward: $250,000
Case 3:
April 21, 2007: Jay Anthony Brogden last seen at Airlie Beach and is believed to have met with foul play.
Reward: $250,000
Case 4:
February 9, 2013: Shandee Renee Blackburn murdered, found on Boddington St, Mackay with stab wounds to her upper body.
Reward: $250,000
Case 5:
June 20-25, 2010: Two properties in Bowen have herbicide put into their water supply. Poisoning kills five to seven million tomato plants while 16,000 mature plants and 40 tonnes of produce is destroyed, inflicting huge financial losses on two farms.
Reward: $200,000
Case 6:
March 31, 1997: Richard August Dobrowolski gunned down in his backyard at 39 Ungerer St, North Mackay, by an intruder who had been hiding behind his fishing boat.
Mr Dobrowolski was killed by a gunshot wound to the back as he retreated up his back stairs.
Reward: $250,000
Case 7:
October 5-24, 1978: Timothy James Thomson, Gordon Stuart Twaddle and Karen Leslie Edwards found dead at Spear Creek, Mount Isa.
All died from 22-calibre rifle gunshot wounds to the head.
Reward: $250,000
Case 8:
September, 1972: Robin Jeanne Hoinville-Bartram found dead, shot twice in the head with a 22-calibre rifle at Sensible Creek, 80km west of Charters Towers. No trace of travel partner Anita Cunningham ever found.
Reward: $250,000
Case 9:
November, 1982: Anthony John Hones missing, suspected murdered, after disappearing between Townsville and Mount Isa.
Reward: $250,000
Case 10:
July 5, 2007:
Senior Constable Tenelle Luscombe punched in the head by unknown person while attending street disturbance at Flinders St East nightclub precinct in Townsville. Attack left her needing surgery for cheekbone and eye socket fractures and a steel plate was inserted.
Reward: $100,000
Case 11:
November 12, 1997:
Herbert Edward Murray found dead at his Pennsfield Station property in Bowen. He was killed by a single gunshot wound to the forehead from 22-calibre firearm.
Reward: $250,000