‘A motive to lie for podcast’: Coroner doubts man’s evidence in Sharron Phillips case

A man who accused his father of murdering Sharron Phillips more than three decades ago had a commercial motive to lie for the benefit of his podcast about the notorious Queensland cold case, the state’s coroner says.

The lack of reliable evidence has made it impossible to determine who was responsible for Phillips’ disappearance in May 1986, although coroner Terry Ryan found that the man and his father could have both been involved.

Phillips, 20, vanished while waiting for her boyfriend after running out of petrol in Wacol, in Brisbane’s south-west.

It is a crime that has haunted south-east Queensland since. The case produced hundreds of leads, some tenuous, others more detailed. No one was charged and Phillips’ body has not been found.

But in 2016, Ian Seeley contacted a former detective and claimed his father - taxi driver Raymond Peter Mulvihill - was responsible for abducting and killing Phillips.

Then-attorney-general Yvette D’Ath ordered a new inquest into Phillips’ disappearance in 2017 and evidence was heard over three days in 2021.

Coroner Terry Ryan delivered his findings on Monday.

The coroner found Seeley had a commercial motive to lie to benefit his podcast about the case called Evil Gingerbread Man and had made unsupported claims, such as his father having murdered at least 10 other women and hidden the bodies in a drain alongside Phillips.

“It is possible that both Mr Mulvihill and Mr Seeley had some involvement in Sharron’s disappearance,” Ryan said on Monday.

Ian Seeley, the son of main suspect Raymond Peter Mulvihill, leaving the coroner’s court in 2021.Credit: Darren England

But the coroner said Seeley was an unreliable witness and his evidence was not enough to support his allegations against his father.

Sharron Phillips vanished without a trace in May 1986.

“Given the inconsistencies and lack of credibility that can be afforded to Mr Seeley and the absence of further reliable evidence ... I am not able to conclude that Mr Mulvihill played a role in Sharron’s disappearance to the necessary standard,” Ryan said.

Mulvihill, who died of cancer in 2002, was Seeley’s stepfather.

But Seeley referred to Mulvihill as his father and said he had “raised him as his own”.

Queensland Police advised the Coroners Court that he would have been arrested for the murder in 2017 had he still been alive.

Seeley told police his father called him on the night of Phillips’ disappearance to pick him up and drive him home after he finished his cab shift.

He claimed Mulvihill threatened him with knife after he heard noises and realised his father had put someone in the boot of his car.

“It is significant as to the reliability of this fresh allegation that Mr Seeley only suggested that an assault had taken place after he admitted that he knew someone was in the boot but continued to drive,” Ryan said.

The coroner said there was evidence to support Seeley and Mulvihill being in the Wacol area when Phillips disappeared.

“[But] the evidence of Mr Seeley does not provide sufficient, credible or reliable information for me to make any positive finding as to who caused her disappearance and death,” Ryan said.

The official finding of the first inquest held in 1988 remains unchanged: the cause of Phillips’ suspected murder is “unknown and undetermined”.

Ryan recommended that Phillips’ death remain with Queensland Police’s cold case investigation team for monitoring of any new information.

“I acknowledge Sharron’s family, who have lived with continual and unresolved grief for over 38 years,” Ryan said.

However, any new developments will come too late for Phillips’ parents: Dawn Phillips died in 2010 and Bob Phillips died in 2015.

There is a $250,000 reward on offer for information leading to the conviction of the person or people responsible for Phillips’ suspected murder.

AAP, with Tony Moore