Death of baby Jakobi, former Deputy Mayor Paul Cohrs murders, Cardross crash among crimes that shook Mildura
In 2016, Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Club bikie Brandon Osborn emptied his revolver of all but one bullet, spun the cylinder, pointed it at his girlfriend’s head, and fired. He was only found guilty of manslaughter. It’s one of several crimes that shocked the Mildura community.
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From rogue grave diggers, to murderous ex-deputy mayors and a heartless hit and run – Mildura has had its fair share of shocking crimes.
Here are some of the crimes that have shaken the Mildura community to its core.
Who killed baby Jakobi
On April 11, 2020, six-month-old baby boy Jakobi Wilson was murdered.
Jakobi died from head injuries and his father Evander has been charged with murder.
The aunt of the boy, Cherokee Wilson, said Jakobi was a “beautiful little boy” who battled through his first months of life after being born premature.
“He was premature when he was a baby and had several things wrong with him, he was a very ill baby – just like his dad,” Ms Wilson said.
“Evander was premature and was only two pounds when he was born so Jakobi went through the same thing.”
The rogue gravedigger
Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass unearthed a scandal that rocked Mildura in November 2019, with a report finding improper conduct spanning two decades at the Nichols Point and Murray Pines cemeteries in Mildura.
Ms Glass found Mr Bock, who worked at the cemeteries from 1993 to 2018, conducted at least four illegal exhumations of human remains and pocketed cash on the side from funeral directors to allow more than one person to be buried in a single grave.
The report alleged former gravedigger Darren Bock had been removing bodies from graves without proper licensing.
On one occasion, witnesses said a woman was buried in the wrong plot and later exhumed and reburied.
In September 2015 a daughter broke down into tears at her mother’s funeral after realising her mother was being put into the wrong plot.
Another woman that had already been buried in her grave had to be exhumed and moved, family members attended to walk the coffin to its new spot.
The deputy mayor murder scandal
Former Deputy Mayor Paul Cohrs allegedly killed his brother Raymond and mother Bette Cohrs-Schulz in October 2018.
Mr Cohrs travelled 100km between Victoria and New South Wales to allegedly murder them both in cold blood.
He allegedly tied up real-estate agent, Michael Fernandez after he witnessed the alleged murder.
Paul Cohrs was the Mildura president of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia.
The Wentworth Shire Council released a statement saying the mayor and councillors were both “shocked and deeply saddened” by the events.
He pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court in July.
The Cardross Rd crash
It’s now more than 14 years on from Victoria’s worst hit-run smash where six teenagers were killed on a back road in Cardross.
They’d been mingling outside a party when a car ploughed into them on that awful night of February 18, 2006.
Thirteen were struck by the station wagon.
The teenagers killed were Shane Hirst, 16, his sister Abby, 17, Stevie-Lee Weight, 15, Cassandra Manners, 16, and Cory Dowling, 16.
Josephine Calvi, 16, died the following day in the Royal Adelaide Hospital after her life support system was switched off.
The driver, Thomas Towle, 35, faced six counts of culpable driving and five of negligently causing serious injury.
He was also charged with failing to stop at the scene of an accident and failing to render assistance.
A Supreme Court jury acquitted him of six counts of culpable driving but found him guilty of six counts of the lesser charge of dangerous driving causing death and four of dangerous driving causing serious injury.
The 41-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in prison with a minimum term of seven over the 2006 crash.
He has since walked free.
Hit and run of Luke Shaw
When 21-year-old Luke Shaw was found unconscious in October 2005 after suffering major head trauma, the Mildura community was in shock.
An inquest in 2008 by the Coroner found his death had been caused by severe blunt head trauma caused by his head striking the road with force as a result of a fall.
Investigators believed Mr Shaw died as a result of falling from or being struck by a motor vehicle.
Police have been unable to uncover the exact circumstances surrounding his death and offered a $100,000 reward in 2015 for any information.
The bikie murderer
On May 1, 2016, Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Club bikie Brandon Osborn put a loaded gun to his girlfriend’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
The 37-year-old had argued with Karen Belej, a White Ribbon campaigner, at their Cardross home after she asked him to get rid of the recently purchased revolver.
Instead, he emptied the revolver of all but one bullet, spun the cylinder, pointed it at Ms Belej’s head and fired.
Osborn claimed successfully that he didn’t mean to kill his partner, and he thought the chamber was empty.
He was charged with murder but a plea saw it reduced to manslaughter and a firearm offence.
On May 16, 2017, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the Mildura Supreme Court to nine years and two months’ imprisonment.
The cold case
Ali Riza Sonmez went missing from a post office at Merbein in 1986.
Three days later the body of the 44-year-old Turkish national was found with bullet wounds, floating in the Darling River 20km north of Wentworth.
The circumstances surrounding the death went cold until an anonymous 1986 letter was uncovered in 2014 and the case reopened.
A task force was established in 2008 and led to inquiries within the Turkish community in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
The case remains open.
McDonalds franchisee racist rant
A McDonalds franchisee was dumped after a shocking video emerged of him berating his indigenous Australian neighbours.
Mildura artists Robby Wirramanda-Knight and Jackie Wirramanda allege they were targeted by neighbours Rob Vigors and Karen Ridge as they painted in their garage in December 2019.
Soon after the video went viral, Mr Vigors was sacked from his job.
In the racist rant caught on camera, Mr Vigors questioned the family’s Aboriginality, saying they “make a mockery” of “true” Aboriginals.
“Which one per cent of you is Aboriginal?” he said.
“You make me laugh.”
Ms Ridge was seen tugging at an Aboriginal flag in the artists’ front yard.
“I’m not racist. I’m not racist,” she said before adding: “Which half of you is Aboriginal? You are not Aboriginal.”
Mr Wirramanda-Knight said they had previously been subjected to verbal attacks by their neighbours.
The paedophile priest
Monsignor John Day is described as one of Australia’s most ruthless sex offenders.
Former detective Denis Ryan collected up to 16 sworn statements from 14 boys and two girls in Mildura who detailed his sexual crimes during the 1960s.
In the Towards Healing program, an organisation set up to deal with alleged abuse in the church – Monsignor Day received more than 100 complaints.
The priest died in 1978 but was never convicted for his crimes.
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