John Peros is taken to a windowless room in Brisbane’s police headquarters in early September 2014. Detectives want him to see CCTV footage from the night of the murder of a car remarkably similar to his ute driving around Mackay, and vision of a running man, and to confess to a murder. John refuses to look at the screen, and is charged with Shandee’s murder. Respected forensic scientist Dr Kirsty Wright finds more major and serious problems in the lab – including the failure to get DNA from a sample from Shandee’s forearm that would have at least contained many hundreds of her own skin cells. She describes the situation as “diabolical”, and warns the lab’s results in Shandee’s case and in unknown others cannot be trusted.

To contact Hedley Thomas anonymously with any information on Shandee’s Story email here – Shandee@theaustralian.com.au