Shandee Blackburn murder suspect caught on police property

Shandee Blackburn murder suspect John Peros was found wandering the grounds of Mackay police station, days after his ute was seized.

Shandee Blackburn murder suspect John Peros captured on CCTV wandering around the grounds of Mackay police station in March 2013. It was three weeks after Blackburn’s murder and just days after his ute was seized for forensic examination.

Murder suspect John Peros was found wandering the grounds of Mackay police station days after his ute was seized for forensic examination.

Police CCTV footage captured the moment two officers stumbled across the amateur boxer in an area at the back of the station the public would not normally go near.

It was March 2, 2013, three weeks after Mr Peros’s former girlfriend Shandee Blackburn was stabbed to death walking home from work in the sugar and mining town on Queensland’s central coast.

A new episode of Shandee’s Story questions if John Peros had something hidden in his ute.

The footage shows the officers exchanging words with Mr Peros, before he turns and walks off.

Mr Peros is seen to linger on the footpath outside, staring into the station’s grounds.

Plain Clothes Constable Jessica Murphy detailed the highly unusual encounter in a police statement examined by investigative podcast Shandee’s Story.

“At approximately 5pm on this date, I was at the rear car park of Mackay Police Station in the company of Constable Andre Stevens,” Constable Murphy wrote.

“I observed a male person walking in my direction from the Brisbane Street entrance, towards other police vehicles parked on the premises.

“I observed this male to be wearing a black singlet and three-quarter length shorts.

“As I got closer to the male, I recognised him to be John Peros.”

Constable Murphy said she asked Mr Peros what he was doing unaccompanied on police ­premises.

He told her: “I’m just looking around.”

The policewoman warned him it was an offence to trespass on government property.

“Peros then said something like, ‘Well, there is no sign that says I can’t’. I then signalled … and said ‘There’s a sign on that building that reads No Entry’.

“I then proceeded to tell Peros that ‘if you don’t have any ­lawful reason to be on the ­premises, you should leave as you can be ­arrested for trespassing’.” A week earlier, detectives had seized Mr Peros’s Toyota HiLux ute.

He may have been looking for it. A new episode of Shandee’s Story, released last week, ­questions whether there could have been something hidden in the car – similar to the way Mr Peros hid personal belongings in his home.

Detectives searching Mr Peros’s flat found he had secret compartments behind a microwave, in a cupboard and in the arm of a clothesline.

Later, when Mr Peros was in Woodford Correctional Centre awaiting trial for Blackburn’s murder, his ute was targeted in a mystery break-in while being kept in a locked and secure police holding yard.

Only two of the many vehicles in the holding yard were targeted. Mr Peros’s was one.

An internal police incident document states offenders used wire cutters or something similar to cut a hole in the chain link fence to gain access.

The front-quarter glass on the driver’s side was smashed, presumably to gain entry.

“There are no suspects. No witnesses. No CCTV footage in the holding yard,” the document states.

CCTV footage captured a vehicle that appeared identical to Mr Peros’s ute being driven near the scene of the murder shortly before Blackburn was killed.

A vehicle that looked like Mr Peros’s was then recorded driving out of town, and returning about two hours later.

Initial police Luminol testing found 12 areas of possible blood in the car but it was ruled out as being blood after no DNA was detected in tests by a Queensland Health-run forensics laboratory.

The lab’s results in the case and in others are under a cloud after the podcast series revealed a series of serious errors and ­problems. These include the failure to detect DNA in a sample from a pool of blood, or from Blackburn’s left forearm containing many of her own cells or any of Mr Peros’s trace DNA on surfaces of his car.

A jury acquitted Mr Peros of the murder of Blackburn, 23.

He denies any involvement.

In 2020, Coroner David O’Connell found Mr Peros killed Blackburn but did not find fresh and compelling evidence required to charge him again under double jeopardy laws.

Anyone with information about the murder of Shandee Blackburn can contact Hedley Thomas confidentially at [e-mail]