Former detective remembers trek to find victim’s body
NT police veteran Matt Sodoli recalls the day he and a police team uncovered the body of Dean Robinson on OT Downs cattle station west of Borroloola
Northern Territory
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THIRTY-EIGHT-year veteran of the Northern Territory police Matt Sodoli has recalled the day he and a police team uncovered the body of Dean Robinson on OT Downs cattle station west of Borroloola.
Peter Kamm and Daniel Heiss were sentenced to life in prison on January 31, 1991, for killing Mr Robinson after deciding to steal his three hunting rifles.
In his sentencing remarks, Justice John Nader described the killing as “cold-blooded murder for the most trivial of motives”.
“They took away the life of a young man in perfectly cold blood, having planned to take his life to steal from him something like three rifles,” Justice Nader said.
Yesterday, Mr Sodoli, a former detective sergeant, said following admissions of guilt by the pair they had directed a police team, of which he was a part, to the spot where they had buried the charred remains of Mr Robinson under a termite mound on May 14, 1989 after the three men had gone pig hunting together near Borroloola.
The police team, along with Heiss and Kamm, had rendezvoused at Daly Waters airstrip for the 300km drive to OT Downs.
Mr Sodoli was not originally part of the investigating team but had reluctantly agreed to a request from the officer in charge to try and get an admission of guilt from Heiss.
By the time Mr Sodoli was called into police headquarters at Berrimah, Kamm had already confessed to the murder of Mr Robinson but Heiss was maintaining his innocence.
“So I pulled him in. Sat him down. It took me about an hour and a half, just chatting to him, and he finally opened up and told me the whole story.”
Police flew both Kamm and Heiss to Daly Waters.
“On the instructions of Heiss and Kamm we drove out towards OT Downs Station.
“They showed us where to pull off on the side of the road and we went in, probably a kilometre in the bush. It had me stuffed how they found it.
“They found an anthill. That’s where the body was buried.”
After being shot twice, Heiss and Kamm placed Mr Robinson’s body in a sleeping bag, wrapped a rag around his head before pouring petrol over the body and setting fire to it.
His killers then placed a termite mound over his head.
“I remember a line from interviewing Heiss, after he broke down and coughed.
“He said, ‘well, Peter booked the flight and I gave him the ticket’,” Mr Sodoli said of the order in which the two fatal shots were fired.