Former boyfriend of murdered nanny Penny Hill speaks out

The former boyfriend of a rock star’s murdered nanny hopes a new $1 million reward will help police solve the cold case — and insists he was not involved in her death.

The former boyfriend of a rock star’s murdered nanny hopes a new $1 million reward will help police solve the cold case — and insists he was not involved in her death.

Penny Hill was found by a high school teacher savagely bashed and left for dead on a road outside the town of Coolah in the state’s central west on July 8, 1991, three weeks after she began dating Shane Williams.

Penny Hill, then aged 20, was found unconscious with severe head and facial injuries on Monday 8 July 1991. Picture: NSW Police

The 20-year-old never regained consciousness and died two weeks later at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital.

Now living in Bathurst with his wife, Mr Williams this week told The Daily Telegraph that he still thinks about what happened to Ms Hill “every damn day”.

Despite this, he cannot remember what he was doing before police knocked on his door in Armidale after Ms Hill was found.

“Some people can, some people can’t,” he said. “For me, the police coming to the door overrode all of that situation. I remember one person saying ‘I can remember everything that happened on the night (when) so and so was killed in my family, I can remember all the details’.

Penny Hill was found by a high school teacher savagely bashed and left for dead on a road.

The NSW Government has increased a reward to $1 million for information into Penny’s murder.

“Well good on them, and I’m very sorry for them that they can remember that, but I’m not that sort of person. I can remember the police coming to the door and everything else just went fuzzy … When that happened. It was the shock of it all.”

When asked if he killed Ms Hill, Mr Williams said: “No, not involved in any way or form … and I’d never travelled to Coolah at that period in time ever. Had nothing to do with her death in any way or form.”

A Coolah resident, who did not want to be named, said the high school teacher who made the grisly discovery had recently told her Ms Hill’s injuries were so severe she looked like she had been “pummelled”.

Shane Williams is the former boyfriend of Penny Hill.

“She said: ‘I’m glad that there was no family around because the body was really pummelled’,” the woman said. “It was horrible for her and she said: ‘I knew I couldn’t save her, but the only thing I could do was cover her over so that nobody could see her’.”

Reward

This week, NSW Police revealed detectives were reinvestigating Ms Hill’s murder and announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible.

Ms Hill had left her hometown of Narrabri to start in her first job looking after the young children of former Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs drummer Col Baigent and his wife Barbara, who were running Coolah’s Black Stump Motel.

Penny had been working in the Black Stump Motel for only a few days. Picture: David Swift.

She had also just begun the relationship with Mr Williams, who has previously been listed by police as a person of interest but has never been arrested or charged in connection with her death. Mr Williams 300 kilometres away in Armidale at the time of her death.

The Telegraph is not suggesting Mr Williams is connected to Ms Hill’s death.

It is believed Ms Hill was bashed inside her motel room before being dumped against a farm gate on Cassilis Road a few hundred metres away from the motel over a bridge.

Mr Williams said he welcomed the announcement of the $1m reward.

“Obviously yes — I want to help (Ms Hill’s mother) Jeanette and that most of all, but there’s just nothing more I can do — there’s no more aid, no more assistance, nothing more,” Mr Williams said.

Two inquests, in 1992 and 2012, returned open findings on the cause and manner of Ms Hill’s death.

Nobody has ever been charged over the incident.

The stretch of road where Penny’s body was found. Picture: David Swift.

The Black Stump Motel, which remains open today, is located near Coolah’s main street and consists of multiple units.

Management has changed hands several times since the Baigents left in the years after Ms Hill’s death, but her story remains common knowledge.

Ms Hill was given room 14 to stay in — which is still available to rent — and had only been in the new job for three days before she was bashed.

The 2012 inquest into Ms Hill’s death was told Mr Baigent sometimes allegedly acted inappropriately towards women.

The Tamworth court was also told the motel’s chef, Bob Lee, had claimed Mrs Baigent attacked Ms Hill because she was her husband’s secret lover.

Longtime Coolah resident Joan Schiemer, 77, remembers these characters from the early 1990s and told the Telegraph that her daughter Tracy had worked at the Black Stump Motel before Ms Hill arrived.

Room 14 where Penny Hill lived for the few days she was in town. Picture: David Swift.

“Penny came down to take over from Tracy, my Tracy,” Ms Schiemer said. “My daughter had been working at the motel for about eight months and she left because she was looking at going overseas.

“I think they’d met each other, but the police never interviewed my Tracy until about 10 years ago.”

Mr Williams said he was nowhere near the Black Stump Motel but in Armidale when Ms Hill was found. He remembers police knocking on his door to tell him what had happened.

“I was over 300 kilometres away … I can’t remember exactly what I was doing, I more than likely went to bed for the night, but I can’t prove that, I can’t prove I went to bed two or three nights ago, let alone 28 years ago,” he said.

“I was in Armidale all the time, all the way through. I got the news before anyone else obviously, because the police turned up on the door step.”

The roadside

The location where Ms Hill was found is a few hundred metres down the road from the motel over a bridge.

Joan Scheimer, 77, who's daughter had worked at the Motel, just before Penny Hill. Picture: David Swift.

Residents told the Telegraph that many locals think she tried to escape and jumped from a moving car which was heading out of town before she lost consciousness because she was found on the left hand side of the road. Mr Williams said his body went numb when police arrived at his doorstop in Armidale with the grim news.

“Uniform police (came) … (it was) beyond shock. It was numbness, my body went numb,” he said.

New discovery

In 2010, police found DNA on a condom which was found in a concealed drawer in Ms Hill’s room at the Black Stump Motal when it was uncovered during renovations. The condom’s wrapper suggested it originated from around the time of her death in 1991.

More than 100 men were asked to give DNA samples following the discovery. However, no charges were laid.

Jeanette Hill mother of murdered Penny Hill talks to the media at Parramatta Police HQ. Picture John Grainger

On the weekend of the bashing, there was a golf tournament in town and there were more people in town than usual.

Ms Schiemer believes police were not proactive enough in the days after the bashing, saying cattle moved through where Ms Hill was found on the roadside.

“There wasn’t enough investigation at the time,” she said. “In the time of her being found a mob of cattle went through there (on the roadside), so how would anything be left with a mob of cattle trampling the ground.”

Mr Williams said he had been listed as a person of interest because of the possibility he travelled to Coolah from Armidale and back on the night of the bashing.

“They just somehow thought that I may have travelled there and travelled back I guess was their theory, as was put to me,” he said. “It just wasn’t the case. Three hours there and three hours back, that’s a full night’s travel I’m assuming. I didn’t believe it could be done at the time till I’ve since done it many years later, in fact recently in the last five years … (to) see what they’re getting at.”

Originally published as Former boyfriend of murdered nanny Penny Hill speaks out