Shane Ross’ wife Alex Ross says her ex-bikie husband was lured to his death on Gold Coast
The widow of a slain Gold Coast ex-bikie has broken her silence one year after her husband’s killing, revealing what she believes really happened the night he was shot dead. READ THE FULL REPORT
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THE widow of slain ex-bikie Shane Ross believes her husband was tricked into attending the Gold Coast park where police allege he was shot and killed by Lone Wolf gang members.
In her first interview since her partner of more than a decade was killed, Alexandra Ross opened up about living with the “stigma” that her husband deserved to die because of his past and the trauma their three young girls — aged 10, 6 and 4 — live daily.
She talked of the pair’s early years, their wedding in Las Vegas and the ultimatum she gave him years before his death: It was her or the bikie clubs.
Mr Ross was found dead at a Tallebudgera park in October 2019. His friend and Monstr clothing business partner Cameron Martin was also killed.
Mr Ross was found with gunshot wounds from two different guns.
Police allege the 36-year-old was shot by bikies who organised a meeting with the victims before shooting them dead.
Lone Wolf outlaw motorcycle gang members Nathan Miller and Brodie Singh have been charged over the alleged premeditated double murder.
Another man, who is in jail in NSW, is expected to be extradited to Queensland and also charged with murder once he has served his sentence.
“Had my husband known what he was walking into that night he wouldn’t have gone and he sure as hell wouldn’t have let his friend go there either,” Alexandra Ross told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
She believes her husband was lured to the park under false pretences.
“I really can’t understand why he did go there. It’s easy to stereotype and it’s easy to look at him and the history that keeps being brought up, which isn’t always accurate. It’s easy to go along with a story like that, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.”
She says her husband kissed their daughter on the head on October 18 last year and told the family he was getting a haircut before leaving the house.
He would never return home.
“I take comfort in the conversation that we had that night because our last words were exactly what you would want them to be if you were ever in a situation like this. He said he was going to get a haircut, he gave my daughter, who was sitting beside me on the couch, a kiss and said ‘I love you, promise you I’ll be back soon’. He sort of smiled and laughed and said ‘I love you babe’ and I said ‘I love you too’ and that was the last thing I said to him.”
Mrs Ross says she has felt a “stigma attached” to her after her husband’s killing.
“I think, in terms of myself and my family, we are seen as somewhat deserving. People say ‘well, you knew what you were getting yourself into’ but that absolutely was not the case.
“Never in a billion years do you look at the person that you are going to marry and think that they are going to end up dead, in such a horrific way too, and that all you’ll have left of them is their ashes you wear around your neck.”
The Gold Coast mum met Mr Ross when she was in high school in Sydney, but the pair only became close years later when he began to pursue her in Queensland.
Mrs Ross, now studying to be a forensic nurse, says she was sceptical about dating him because she had heard stories from mutual friends.
She told him he could visit her on the Gold Coast but wanted to stay “just friends”.
“But, if he wanted something he made sure it became his, so I guess that was true for me,” Mrs Ross says jokingly.
The 33-year-old says her husband loved a party and a laugh — especially at his own expense — and would help out anyone who needed it.
Mr Ross was six years older and involved in the bikie scene when they first met up after leaving school.
She says he fell into clubs as an “escape from his life”.
“I knew that to be the case, that he had been a Lone Wolf and Comanchero.
“When he originally got involved in clubs he was in a bad place in his life …”
The pair were engaged in the Whitsundays in 2011 and were married in Vegas one year later before having a celebration with their friends and family back in Sydney.
“Shortly after our wedding … I already was sick of living back in Sydney. I thought ‘how am I back here already?’
“I said to Shane that ‘I don’t want to live this life’ and that was when he was already involved with the other club, and so I almost gave him an ultimatum, which I feel bad about now because I don’t know if that had anything to do with what happened … but I said ‘it’s me or it’s that kind of life’ and he just decided ‘OK we’ll move back to the Gold Coast’ and he left the club.”
She says he started a successful car detailing and clothing business shortly after they moved.
“I can’t even count the amount of times he said he was no longer a bikie and I knew him better than anybody knew him. I can tell you now those club days were well and truly behind him … He was past it. He was way beyond that.”
Mrs Ross said despite what has happened she “wouldn’t trade places with anyone in the world”.
“It could be worse, I could be the person who did this. My children will never remember their father as someone who didn’t care enough about them to make better choices.”
She says her girls continue to struggle with their father’s death.
“I’ve got a little four-year-old saying to me she can’t wait for us all to die to be in heaven with Dad.
“Those things are brutal.
“Making sure they’re OK, there is just nothing left at the end of the day. It’s exhausting. It’s an ugly feeling to feel like you can’t help your kids because of the trauma and the pain …”
Miller and Singh will face Southport Magistrates Court next month.
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