Murder cold case: Who killed Gold Coaster Colin Woodhouse?

AS far as cold cases go, the murder of Worongary father Colin Woodhouse is as frozen as they can get.

Unsolved Murder 24 dec 1992 - victim Colin Woodhouse (31) found shot by his car near his Worongary home 12.45am after leavin...

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AS far as cold cases go, the murder of Worongary father Colin Woodhouse is as frozen as they can get.

The slaying of the Pacific Fair worker on Christmas Eve 1992 is one of the longest unsolved murders on the Gold Coast, despite a $250,000 reward.

But police still believe someone, somewhere knows something.

What is known about this “baffling” murder is that Mr Woodhouse — aged 30 and the catering manager at Myer — was driving home after a long day at work about 12.30am.

That’s where his killer, posing as a stranded motorist in Quambone Street, Mudgeeraba, flagged him down.

 

Mr Woodhouse did a U-turn and nosed his car to the front of the killer’s Nissan Skyline — either to use jumper leads on the battery or to shine his headlights on the engine bay of the other car.

Mr Woodhouse stepped out of his station wagon and was standing parallel with the back door of the Skyline when the killer took a .303 rifle from the back of the car and pumped three shots into his head and body at close range.

 

Of all the unsolved murder cases on the Gold Coast, this is the most puzzling because of a complete lack of apparent motive.

It appeared Mr Woodhouse was not involved in drugs, had no money problems and neither he nor his wife were involved in extramarital affairs.

For nearly 25 years detectives have investigated the case but the killer has slipped through the cracks.

In 2007, case officer Detective Senior Sergeant Doug Lawlor told the Bulletin “at least one person knows who killed Colin Woohouse”.

Over the years, he said police had interviewed almost 1000 people from as far afield as Melbourne.

 

“As best we can establish, the Skyline was not hired or stolen and we have checked all Nissan Skylines in southeast Queensland,’’ Det Sen-Sgt Lawlor said.

He said police would love to find the murder weapon but there were more than 640,000 of the .303 rifles manufactured in Australia, so that remained unlikely.

To this day, detectives are convinced Mr Woodhouse knew his killer and did not stop for a stranger.

In 2002, Mr Woodhouse’s parents David and Pam told the Bulletin they could not understand how someone would hate their only son so much to kill him.

“There is also the possibility that someone Colin may have sacked at Myers could have had a grudge and coming up to Christmas this person was angry enough to kill him,” Pam said.

“We have always thought his murder was related to his work but if the person who shot him was a stranger, then it could have been a case of mistaken identity.”

Regional crime co-ordinator Detective Superintendent David Hutchinson said despite the passage of time, all unsolved homicides remained open and were systematically reviewed.

“We would encourage the public to pass on any information they have re: serious offences such as this.

“One small piece of information could be the missing piece in the puzzle and may make all the difference to an investigation.”

He encouraged anyone with information relating to the death of Mr Woodhouse or any other unsolved crime, to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333000.