Shandee Blackburn ‘the happiest she’d been’ before knife attack: Shandee’s Story
Shandee Blackburn had no chance to survive a savage knife attack while walking home. Eight years on, new facts may make a profound difference in the case.
At the street corner where 23-year-old Shandee Blackburn’s life was brought to a brutal end, her mother, Vicki, tries to keep her thoughts on the minutes before the attack.
In those moments, before a large knife was used against her with powerful and relentless force, Shandee was the happiest she’d been.
“She was comfortable in her own skin, she had a boyfriend who treated her right, she had no money problems, she had a job she liked,” Vicki says.
In February 2013, Shandee was walking home after a Friday night shift at Mackay’s Harrup Park Country Club when she was attacked along Boddington St.
It was near the heart of the CBD and within sight of the townhouse she shared with her mother on the same road, with CCTV capturing a figure running hard towards her and then away.
She had no chance to survive the frenzied stabbing that slashed her voice box, stopping her from even crying out.
Crawling to the gutter, she lay under a dim street light, bleeding profusely until her pulse faded out.
The cowardly assault shattered a family and deeply rattled the sugar and mining town on the central Queensland coast.
Eight years later, the murder remains unsolved and will be the subject of the latest investigative podcast series by The Australian’s national chief correspondent, Hedley Thomas.
“You feel sick that someone could do that,” says Vicki while retracing her daughter’s final steps for the series, Shandee’s Story, launched on Friday for subscribers of The Australian.
“It’s a blow, you feel it physically. I can’t ever think of what she went through that night on her own here – I try to concentrate on that 40m (before the attack), where she was happy and at peace. That’s what I have to think of. I can’t think of this. Her being alone and me just up there and not able to protect her.”
Over the past six months, Thomas has obtained hundreds of witness statements, police running sheets and video and audio recordings that have never before been made public, and has conducted new interviews with witnesses, investigators and experts.
Remarkable facts have been uncovered that have the potential to make a profound difference – and Thomas’s hope is the podcast investigation will finally result in the person behind the savage slaying being brought to justice.
While there are many hurdles to solving the cold case, there is also a crime scene, DNA, blood, plenty of CCTV and new evidence. There are also experts with different and compelling interpretations.
“Here we are, in 2021, and this shocking crime hasn’t been solved,” Thomas says.
“Why not? Is it the fault of the criminal justice system? Is it the fault of the police? Or is it the fault of someone else?
“Was this a crazed ice addict or the jealous ex-boyfriend, or the local criminal who was known for doing home invasions and brandishing knives?
“The challenge is to go through this incredibly complex, perplexing case to try to get to the bottom of that.”
Two suspects came to dominate police investigations: Shandee’s former boyfriend John Peros and a local criminal, William Daniel.
Peros was charged with Shandee’s murder in 2014 and acquitted at a Supreme Court trial in 2017 after a jury deliberated for less than two hours.
Queensland Central Coroner David O’Connell re-examined the evidence at an inquest. Last year, he delivered a finding that Peros did in fact kill Shandee.
Despite this, Peros cannot be retried unless there is new, compelling evidence implicating him, and the coroner didn’t find any.
Peros was a talented amateur boxer known for his toughness in the ring but described by his friends as being good-natured, loyal, gentle and caring.
He has always denied involvement and his lawyers insist police went after the wrong man, ruining his life. They allege the mistaken police focus has allowed the real killer, Daniel, to go free.
Daniel carried knives, was addicted to the drug ice and lived nearby. He denies involvement.
Since his acquittal, Peros has kept a low profile, at times staying at his family’s waterside home in southern Sydney.
Detectives still believe he got away with murder. Through his lawyers, he has declined repeated requests for comment.
Shandee’s family has welcomed and co-operated with the podcast series. Vicki says the community’s residents, who turned up at the murder site with flowers and joined her on midnight walks, deserve answers.
“Something that we’ve always been trying to get out there is what actually happened that night, the truth, and have it accessible to the public,” she says.
“We still get people saying to us, ‘Do they know who did it? Are they still looking for somebody?’
“We feel it’s really important that people understand all the evidence.”
She hopes the series will bring out new evidence that might lead to the arrest of her daughter’s killer: “This wasn’t a random attack. All the evidence shows it was a very well thought-out plan.”
Shandee’s sister, Shannah, lives on the Gold Coast but will travel to Mackay to listen to the first Shandee’s Story episode with her mother.
She says the family does not know what is to come from the podcast series but already has a sense of the depth of investigation from a trailer released at the weekend. “I’d never heard the triple-0 call before hearing part of it on the trailer.
“That was very emotional for me and rattled me, as it did a lot of other people,” she says. “That’s going to be really beneficial, for everyone to be able to hear and see that kind of in-depth look.
“We will be hearing it as everyone else will be every week, so there’s going to be, I’m sure, a lot of stuff that will probably take us by surprise.”
Vicki has moved from the Boddington Street home she lived in with Shandee, but after the murder, the local council gave her permission to turn that last 40m of Shandee’s walk into a garden, and Vicki still tends to it.
Her bubbly, mischievous daughter, who worked to turn her life around after some troubled times, is never coming back, but other women could still be at risk, and Shandee’s mother urges anyone who may have information to come forward.
Anyone with information about the murder of Shandee Blackburn can contact Hedley Thomas at shandee@theaustralian.com.au
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