Shandee’s Story podcast: the people involved in the story of Shandee Blackburn
The murder of Shandee Blackburn in 2013 has appalled the community of Mackay for eight years. Her family wants justice. Here are the key people involved in the case.
Shandee Blackburn was a bright and fun-loving 23-year-old woman with a cheeky smile. Her murder after a ferocious knife attack in 2013 has appalled the community of Mackay for eight years. Shandee’s family wants justice.
Shandee’s Story, a new podcast from The Australian’s Gold Walkley winning investigative journalist Hedley Thomas, investigates a harrowing cold case.
Subscribers of The Australian will be able to hear it before the rest of the nation, exclusively in The Australian app. Subscribe to The Australian here.
Download the app via: Apple App Store | Google Play Store
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Here are some of the people you’ll hear from, or about, during Shandee’s Story. More people will feature here as they emerge through episodes released weekly.
Episode 1: Sugar Town
Shandee Blackburn
Shandee Renee Blackburn was born on June 11, 1989 in Brisbane, before she moved with her family to the sugar and mining town of Mackay on the central Queensland coast. Her parents separated when she was young and Shandee grew up with her mother Vicki and sister Shannah at Slade Point, and then in Boddington Street in Mackay. Shandee had a bubbly and outgoing personality and her friends fondly remember her mischievous smile and lilting laugh.
Shandee dated a talented amateur boxer, John Peros, in 2011 and they broke up in early 2012. She found a job as a waitress in the coffee shop of the Harrup Park Country Club in late 2012, where she met and started dating Arron Macklin, a chef. On a balmy night in early February, 2013, after completing a night shift at the country club, Shandee was walking home to her mother’s house in Boddington Street, just over a kilometre away. She didn’t make it. Shandee suffered 23 stab and slash wounds from a large knife and was left for dead less than 100m from her home. Her killer has not been brought to justice.
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Vicki Blackburn
Shandee’s mother. Vicki was woken by loud knocking on the front door of her townhouse four hours after Shandee was murdered nearby - it was the police and they had come to break the news to her. It is a harrowing recorded conversation. At first, Vicki thought Shandee was killed in a motorbike accident with her boyfriend Arron. Vicki has dealt with her deep and enduring grief in private, and she kept an open mind as the police investigation unfolded. She maintains a Facebook site seeking justice for her daughter and she regularly tends a garden where Shandee walked her last steps. Vicki has lived for eight years with the torment of knowing her daughter’s killer remains free. Since Shandee’s murder Vicki has raised awareness about violence against women and held safety talks in Mackay. Read more
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Shannah Blackburn
Shandee’s older sister. Along with her mother Vicki, Shannah has been stoic and dignified since being woken on a Saturday morning in early February 2013 with the news that her little sister had been murdered. Shannah has campaigned with her mother for justice for Shandee. As sisters Shandee and Shannah had a loving and sometimes edgy sibling relationship. One of their holidays together was a trip to Greece, then Las Vegas in late 2012. Shandee lived with Shannah for a while on the Gold Coast in early 2012. Shannah didn’t have any idea who would have killed Shandee when police first asked her. When asked about Shandee’s former boyfriends, she described John Peros as ‘odd’ in her first police statement. Read more
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Paul Beardmore
Shandee’s stepfather. Vicki’s partner Paul remained a steadfast figure for her and Shannah after Shandee’s death. He’s across much of the evidence. In the weeks before her murder Shandee was excited about the prospect of being her mum’s bridesmaid at her wedding to Paul.
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Arron Macklin
Shandee’s boyfriend when she died. Arron worked as a chef at the Harrup Park Country Club where Shandee worked in the adjoining coffee shop. They were smitten immediately. Arron’s close friend told police that Arron was planning on buying Shandee a ring and surprising her with a proposal. The day before Shandee died she had gone with Arron to Airlie Beach and posted about it on Facebook, excited about her blossoming relationship. Arron was at home on the evening Shandee was murdered. He’d had too many drinks to pick Shandee up on his motorbike. Read more
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John Peros
Shandee Blackburn’s ex-boyfriend. John Peros moved to Mackay a few years before he met Shandee at the Envy Nightclub in town. They started dating in mid-2011 and John ended the relationship in early 2012. The relationship was marred by serious trust issues. After Shandee’s murder John Peros became the primary suspect. John was charged with murdering Shandee but was acquitted by a Supreme Court jury in 2017 in less than two hours. In 2020 John was named by a Coroner as Shandee’s killer. John has consistently denied killing Shandee. Read more
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William Daniel
A suspect in Shandee’s murder and a convicted criminal. William Daniel, 22 years old in 2013, already held a significant criminal history involving drug use, violence and carrying knives. He has denied any wrongdoing.
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Jaspreet Pandher
A taxi driver and the only eyewitness to Shandee’s murder. Jaspreet Pandher was driving his maxi taxi on the night Shandee was murdered. On the corner of Boddington Street he witnessed what he later said looked like two people fighting over a handbag. As Jaspreet performed a U-turn up the road, he spotted a figure running across an open paddock. The specific details Pandher remembered from that evening were rigorously tested in proceedings at John Peros’s murder trial and later the inquest into Shandee’s death.
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Ringo Tapim
Ringo, then 37, was watching a movie at his father’s flat in Boddington Street when he heard desperate choking sounds coming from outside. From his balcony he saw Shandee doubled over on the street below. He looked for an assailant but saw no-one. His emergency call is raw and emotional as he pleads desperately for paramedics to arrive. Ringo named his daughter Ndeesha after the young woman that couldn’t be saved that night. Read more
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Detective Sergeant Lisa Elkins
A Mackay local, Lisa Elkins grew up not far from where Shandee was murdered. The detective went to the scene a short time after police were alerted to the stabbing. When a young constable spotted an iPhone 3 in a distinctive lime-green casing as a nurse removed Shandee’s clothes at the hospital, Lisa told another officer to punch in an emergency code, bypassing the phone’s privacy lock, and leading to Shandee being quickly identified. Lisa would go on to lead the murder investigation, execute a number of key search and seizure warrants, deploy covert strategies, and talk to all of the key persons of interest and suspects.
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Peter Cowan
Peter Cowan was one of the first police officers to appear on the scene in Boddington Street. His digital voice recorder captured police efforts to establish a crime scene and organise search efforts for potentially valuable evidence. It also captured a grim forecast in a report to base – that the girl being rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds probably wasn’t going to make it. Read more
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Anthony Cowan
Peter’s brother Anthony Cowan, also a police officer, had the unenviable job of visiting Shandee’s mother Vicki at 4am to tell her that her daughter had passed away just down the road. Read more
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Talitha Favero
Constable Talitha Favero and her patrol partner Phillip Hindmarsh arrived at the crime scene and were directed by Peter Cowan to go to the Mackay Base Hospital, where Shandee had just been rushed. They ensured that Shandee’s clothes were placed in brown paper bags as evidence. Talitha spotted Shandee’s iPhone 3.
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Claire Carroll
A university student studying nursing at the time, Claire Carroll was getting work experience with paramedics when the emergency call came in. She knelt in the gutter at Boddington Street, rolling Shandee onto her back.
Claire was five years younger than Shandee and they had mutual friends on Facebook. Amid chaotic scenes as distressed onlookers urged the ambulance crew to save Shandee’s life, Claire started doing strong and hard compressions - heart massage. But Shandee was dying.
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Sheeana
A good friend of Shandee’s. Sheeana remembers Shandee as a sweet, kind and caring person. She says she felt happy for Shandee when she met Arron Macklin a few months before she died. She recalls Shandee’s toxic relationship with her ex-boyfriend John Peros, including nasty posts John made on Facebook directed at Shandee.
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Episode 2: Sweating Bullets
Jarrod Hau
A mutual friend of John Peros and Shandee Blackburn, Jarrod Hau introduced Shandee and John at Mackay’s Envy Nightclub in mid-2011. He told his friends not to develop feelings for each other because he believed the older amateur boxer with trust issues wouldn’t match well with the popular 23-year-old hospitality worker. John and Jarrod stopped talking to each other sometime before Shandee’s death after John discovered that Jarrod had slept with his roommate’s girlfriend. He said that despite having no involvement, John took this discovery badly, ending their friendship. Jarrod is deeply troubled by Shandee’s murder and the ferocity of the attack that took her life.
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Zara Charles
John’s friend in 2013, Zara Charles was the first person to visit John Peros at his flat in Evan Street with news of Shandee’s murder. To Zara, John appeared oblivious to the news. She said that after telling John that Shandee had been murdered, he squatted on the floor of his unit and repeated words such as “holy shit”, “when?”, and “where?” and said that he didn’t know how he was supposed to feel.
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Steve Calicetto
Steve Calicetto and John Peros were mates in Sydney before they moved to Mackay separately in the mid-2000s. Steve accompanied John Peros on a fishing trip and then to a work barbeque on February 8, the day leading up to Shandee’s murder. He told police that John was a generous person, and that he didn’t believe John was violent or short-tempered. He added that John never mentioned to him that Shandee was back in Mackay before her murder.
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Trina Brown
Shandee’s former boss at the Envy Nightclub in Mackay and friend of John Peros. Trina sometimes saw John and Shandee together when they were out socializing in Mackay’s nightclubs. She told police she was present for a conversation in December 2012 between John Peros and a friend, during which John spoke about his feelings towards his ex-partner Shandee. Trina told police that she couldn’t remember if she told Peros that Shandee was back in town during this conversation, but that it was possible that she did.
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Jon Kent
A police detective investigating Shandee’s murder. Jon Kent visited Shandee’s former boyfriend John Peros at his flat the day after Shandee’s murder. A hidden digital voice recorder captured Jon Kent convincing a reluctant Peros to give a police statement. It also captured Jon Kent and another officer commenting that Peros appeared very nervous while he was sitting in the police station waiting to give his statement. Read more
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Arnold Di Carlo
A friend of Shandee who worked in Mackay’s hospitality industry. Arnold told police that before Shandee moved to the Gold Coast, she told him that she’d been arguing with her ex-partner to the point that he wanted to kill her. Arnold said that when he told her not to worry about it, Shandee again said that her ex-partner wanted to kill her. At the time, Arnold wasn’t sure if Shandee was referring to John or a previous boyfriend. He told police that John was polite and easy to get along with, and that Shandee had never really said bad things about him before.
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David Marsters
A friend of Shandee’s who worked in Mackay’s hospitality industry, David Marsters told police that Shandee would sometimes come to him crying after arguments with John but that she never talked about violence in the relationship. David didn’t approve of Shandee’s relationship with John. He said he told Shandee that John manipulated her, but said she wouldn’t believe him.
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Episode 3: Toxic Love
Nicola Curro
A friend and colleague of Shandee’s on the Gold Coast. Nicola and Shandee worked together at a door-to-door marketing job selling donation packages for charities. They were easy friends and Nicola said they enjoyed working together. Nicola said that Shandee was hesitant to speak about her relationship difficulties with John Peros but it was clear to her that Shandee was upset by what she said were threatening messages from John. Read more
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Breanna Shepheard
A friend and colleague of Shandee’s on the Gold Coast. A Canadian citizen working in Australia in 2012, Breanna was Shandee’s manager at her door-to-door marketing job on the Gold Coast. She remembers Shandee as shy and very sweet. Breanna witnessed the recorded messages passing between Shandee and a man she believes was John Peros through an app called HeyTell. She believes the messages were manipulative and abusive.
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Steven Phillips
A friend, colleague and later roommate of Shandee’s on the Gold Coast. Shandee lived with Steve for a brief period on the Gold Coast and they had a short fling. Shandee told Steve about her ex-boyfriend John Peros and the trust issues that affected their relationship. Steve recalls hearing toxic rows between John and Shandee over the voice-messaging app Heytell while he lived with Shandee. According to Steve, Shandee told him that her ex said that if he wanted to have her killed, all he needed was to make “one phone call,” and that if she were a man, he’d “drop” her.
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Jess
John Peros’s ex-girlfriend and later a friend of Shandee. Jess and John Peros dated for about eighteen months in late 2009 and 2010, and then Jess moved to live on the Gold Coast. She said that John was very caring, understanding and passionate in their relationship, and she never saw him be violent with her or anyone else. When Shandee moved to the Gold Coast after John broke up with her in early 2012 she became friends with Jess. Peros was aware of the friendship - he’d introduced them in the first place. Jess and Shandee had a brief intimate fling while they were together on the Gold Coast. They agreed to keep it a secret from John.
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Daniel McLaren
A friend of Shandee’s, Daniel McLaren was told about Shandee’s relationship problems in early 2012 via text message exchanges. Shandee informed Daniel of the arguments she was having with John about trust issues stemming from a pregnancy scare she kept from John while he was in Thailand. Shandee wasn’t pregnant but she told Daniel the false-positive tests created more trust issues in the relationship. Daniel told Shandee to stop putting up with what he perceived were John’s insecurities.
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Jeff Poots
John’s psychologist in Mackay in 2012. Jeff Poots saw John throughout 2012 following his breakup with Shandee. Jeff Poots was visited by police after Shandee’s murder and had his notes from sessions with John seized under a search warrant. Mr. Poots’s notes reveal a young man suffering from depression, anxiety stemming from childhood experiences and what John described as a “panic” after having turned thirty. Mr. Poots said that John never mentioned any violent thoughts about Shandee.
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Dr Ambica Jha
John’s psychiatrist in 2012. Dr. Ambica Jha wrote detailed notes which would later be seized by detectives investigating Shandee’s murder. In his notes, Dr. Jha observed John suffering excessive ruminations, sleeping difficulties, and an inability to build trust, symptoms he believed had been exacerbated by his breakup with Shandee.
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Dr Graham Futter
John’s psychiatrist in 2012. Dr. Futter gave evidence at John’s Supreme Court trial in 2017. He observed similar symptoms as John’s other mental health professionals and explored further into John’s troubled childhood. From what he observed, Dr. Futter did not believe John posed a threat to himself or anybody else.
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Dr Praveen Jayaram
John’s general practitioner in Mackay. John reported deteriorating mental health to Dr. Jayaram in March 2012. Following his break-up with Shandee that month, John began visiting Dr. Jayaram regularly, received a mental health care plan and a referral to a psychologist and two psychiatrists, as well as prescriptions of anti-depressants. In October 2012 John reported to Dr. Jayaram that he was feeling much better and had ceased all medication and therapy.
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Episode 4: Stealth Mode
Louise Holme
A former friend of John Peros. Mother Louise Holme met John Peros through Mackay’s nightclub scene. She describes John as thoughtful, sweet and helpful to his friends. After a sexual encounter with John, Louise said she saw photos of her high-heel shoes, her dress and her necklace on John’s bedroom floor posted to his Facebook page. She said John hadn’t mentioned to her that he’d taken the photos. Louise found it hard to believe that John had any involvement in the murder of his former girlfriend.
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Myra Irwin
A former friend of John Peros from Mackay’s nightclub scene. Myra Irwin provided police with John Peros’s address the day after Shandee’s murder. She spoke to John shortly after Shandee’s murder and asked him if he had killed her. She said he replied “no” and added that he didn’t even know Shandee was back in town. Myra confirmed that she saw photos that John had posted to Facebook of her friend Louise Holme’s personal belongings on the floor of John’s bedroom.
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Greven Breadsell
The president of the Pioneer Valley Boxing Club where John Peros trained as an amateur boxer. Greven, whose name is a combination of Graham and Kevin, remembers John Peros as a naturally talented athlete and a powerful boxer. He describes John as a super athlete who could punch well with both hands. He also describes John as a nice bloke – gentle, well-spoken - who got along well with everyone. Greven was shocked to discover that John was a person of interest in Shandee’s murder.
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Paul Turnbull
A security and hospitality worker in Mackay’s nightclub scene who knew John and Shandee. Paul Turnbull had a brief casual relationship with Shandee before she met John Peros. He also knew John Peros from Mackay’s nightclub scene. He recalls that Peros would sometimes step in and help Paul restrain and calm alcohol-fuelled violence outside the nightclubs. Paul describes getting a message out of the blue from John shortly before John started dating Shandee, asking him about the young hospitality worker and what she was like. Paul thinks about Shandee often and wonders how no one has been brought to justice for her murder.
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John Berardi
A friend of John and Shandee’s. John Berardi met John Peros and Shandee through his nephew, Jarrod Hau. Peros texted John Berardi before he started dating Shandee, asking him for his opinion on the popular young hospitality worker. John Berardi thought Peros was a nice person and that John and Shandee looked like a normal couple. He found it hard to believe Peros was a person of interest in Shandee’s murder.
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Sharlene Perry
A former long-term friend of John Peros and Australia Day witness. Sharlene Perry told police in March 2013 that on Australia Day, two weeks before Shandee’s murder, John said that he hated Shandee and had said something like: “she would be better off dead,” but added that she wasn’t certain if these were the exact words John used. Sharlene said that John visited her house after Shandee’s murder, telling her that she did not have to speak to police and that he had spoken to a lawyer and had a new phone. The impromptu visit made Sharlene uncomfortable. According to Sharlene, while standing at the bottom of her driveway before departing, John acknowledged his new motor scooter parked down the road and told Sharlene that he was in “stealth mode.”
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Nicole Hutchinson
A former friend of John Peros and Australia Day witness. Nicole Hutchinson told police a similar story to that alleged by her friend Sharlene Perry. She said that on the evening of Australia Day 2013, John told his friends that he hated Shandee. She said John was emotional and that he appeared to still have hate inside of him. She added that the comments were out of character for the usually easy-going John.
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Liam Aleman
A former friend of John Peros and Australia Day witness. Another Australia Day witness who told police that he heard John Peros say he hated Shandee on a national holiday two weeks before her murder. Liam added that he could “vividly” remember John saying he wanted to stab her, too. He didn’t know John was referring to Shandee at the time. Liam is Sharlene Perry’s nephew.
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Melissa Oliver
Liam Aleman’s girlfriend in 2013. Melissa didn’t hear John’s alleged comments on Australia Day 2013. Rather, Melissa said she was inside the house when she overheard Nichole Hutchinson and Sharlene Perry talking about what John had said about his former partner and how the comments had struck them both as strange.
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Dr Georgina Heydon
A forensic linguistic expert and Associate Professor at RMIT University in Victoria. Dr. Heydon analysed a document John Peros had written and sent to Shandee titled ‘Things about Shandee I don’t like’. She was able to determine that John’s spelling was extremely unusual, with certain words spelt in ways that were unique when compared against a vast database of spellings. Her conclusion was that John had authored the document.
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Scott Furlong
A police detective investigating Shandee’s murder. Scott Furlong arrived in Mackay from his base in Brisbane about 12 hours after Shandee was murdered. Investigating crime is in Scott Furlong’s blood – he’s a descendant of generations of police officers in his family. Scott played an important role in the police investigation into Shandee’s death, codenamed Operation Lima Zimzala. He visited John Peros’s flat the day after Shandee’s murder to get a police statement and investigated another person of interest, William Daniel. He also contacted the American FBI to try and find new leads in the murder investigation. Scott is retired but he spoke about his role in the police investigation from his property just outside of Brisbane.
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Episode 5: Willy D
Barbara Briggs
A detective investigating Shandee’s murder. Detective Sergeant Barbara Briggs followed up on information received by police about a potential person of interest in Shandee’s murder. It led Barbara and Detective Senior Constable Christina Davage to the town of Sarina, about 45 minutes south of Mackay, to speak to Celeste Walsh who shared concerning rumours about William Daniel, a young man with an extensive criminal record.
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Celeste Walsh
Celeste Walsh told police about rumours circulating around local criminal William Daniel suggesting he was involved in Shandee’s murder. Celeste said she’d heard these rumours through her son, Basil, and had decided to call Crime Stoppers to inform the police. The information she gave to detectives prompted them to start asking tough questions of the 22-year-old self-styled gangster who called himself “The Black Prince” on Facebook.
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Levii Blackman
Levii told police that William Daniel had claimed in a brief chat that he ‘did it’ - killed Shandee. 17-year-old Levii Blackman told detectives that William Daniel was walking near flats in James Street where William was staying with his partner Keiarra Tass. Levii said that when he asked William about the sirens coming from nearby Boddington Street, William replied that there’d been a murder and said: “I did it.” Levii said the brief exchange occurred soon after the frenzied knife attack that took Shandee’s life just after midnight. Levii said that William was with his cousin and good mate Norman Dorante. Levii was uncertain if William was telling the truth or joking. He told police that William and Norman had no blood on them and didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons. These disclosures and all the rumours led detectives to exhaustively investigate William Daniel as a person of interest.
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Norman Dorante
A person of interest in Shandee’s murder and William Daniel’s cousin and good mate. According to Levii Blackman, Norman Dorante was with William Daniel on the night of Shandee’s murder when William said ‘I did it’. Norman denies playing any role in Shandee’s murder, and his physique doesn’t match with the running person captured on CCTV footage and the assailant described by taxi-driver Jaspreet Pandher. Norman was in custody in the Rockhampton Watchhouse when police visited him with questions about Shandee’s murder. He refused to give a statement and he said he knew nothing about the murder - he volunteered that he was with his partner on the night.
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Keiarra Tass
William Daniel’s partner at the time of Shandee’s murder. Keiarra Tass lived in a flat in James Street, a short walk from the scene of Shandee’s murder. Her partner William Daniel was living with her in February 2013 and Norman Dorante would regularly sleep over. Keiarra was questioned by detectives on multiple occasions. She told detectives that knives were always missing from the knife block in her flat and that William sometimes carried kitchen knives – and a meat cleaver – for protection. She told police that William was with her on the night Shandee was assaulted and maintained that William had nothing to do with Shandee’s murder.
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Telitah Pearson
William Daniel’s former partner. Telitah Pearson was living in Broome, Western Australia in 2013 with her family and her two young children fathered by William Daniel. In April, William Daniel visited Telitah and their children in Broome but did not stay long, leaving for Wyong, New South Wales. While in Broome, Telitah said that William spoke about how he had been caught up in rumours about Shandee’s murder. She told detectives he firmly denied any involvement. William Daniel returned to Mackay in late 2013 and was soon charged with going armed so as to cause fear, an offence which landed him in Capricornia Correctional Centre. William’s calls to Telitah from prison were recorded and captured his frustration and mistrust with the police investigation as well as moments of fury where he threatened violence against Telitah’s boyfriend.
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Priscilla Seden
William Daniel’s mother. Priscilla Seden told police that she was living with her son William Daniel and his partner Keiarra Tass in Keiarra’s flat in James Street at the time of Shandee’s murder. A cleaner working two jobs and a single mother, Priscilla told detectives that she arrived home from work around midnight on the night Shandee was murdered and saw William and Keiarra already asleep in their bedroom. She added that her son William was hard to keep track of and that she hardly saw him, except when he needed money or was having relationship troubles. She said they had a cup of tea in the morning hours after Shandee had died, and talked about the murder just down the road.
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Episode 6: Losing It
Poppy Peros
Detectives visited John Peros’s sister Poppy and mother Maria at their expensive waterfront home in Sydney with questions about John and Shandee. Poppy and her mother said that John had never mentioned Shandee by name and had not been home since Christmas – Poppy added that she knew John had gone to a funeral in Mackay but didn’t know any specific details. Retired detective Scott Furlong described the visit, saying John’s family were welcoming but couldn’t shed light on anything new and did not provide police statements. Poppy was present when John had his firearms license revoked by police at his flat in Evan Street. She visited Mackay a number of times to support John through the police investigation and subsequent court hearings.
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Aaron Walker
A police detective investigating Shandee’s murder. Detective Senior Constable Aaron Walker from the State Crime Command played a major role in Operation Lima Zimzala, the homicide investigation into Shandee’s death. Aaron made enquiries with some of John Peros’s close friends including John’s former boxing partner Mick Coles and his wife Maria. Mick Coles had given a brief and uncontroversial statement to police describing his friendship with John – it contained nothing bad about John – but a frustrated Mick told Detective Aaron Walker in a phone call that John had interpreted his brief statement as a betrayal of trust and this ruined their friendship.
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Michael and Maria Coles
Michael and Maria Coles were close friends of John Peros – they knew him through his boxing training and he visited them on regular occasions for dinner. Peros, who is godfather to Mick and Maria’s child, cut ties with his former friends after he became a person of interest in Shandee’s murder. Mick Coles expressed frustration with detectives visiting him with questions about John, telling them that Peros had become suspicious of everybody and adding that John was “losing it” under the pressure of the investigation. Mick and Maria’s statements to police contain nothing bad about their friend John and there was no reason for John to feel upset by their brief interactions with detectives. But Maria told police that John said he was avoiding anyone who knew anything about Shandee and had told her that she and her husband were at the top of his list. Maria said that in the same conversation John had quickly changed the topic and started talking about his family adding that he was ‘good as gold’. Maria said in her words it was like John was ‘bipolar.’
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Cameron Maltby
Cameron Maltby and his brother Jason were friends with John Peros and met John through the Pioneer Valley Boxing Club. After John and Shandee split up, John reported to Cameron that he was taking antidepressants and was hoping that getting back into boxing would help him out of his depressive state. Cameron Maltby told police that John was upset by what he alleged were rumours Shandee was spreading about him having a sexually transmitted disease. Cameron added that John said some not very nice things about Shandee and wished her harm but said he couldn’t remember the exact words – he said he thought these were just the usual comments after a bad breakup. Cameron told police that John had thanked him for touching and getting his fingerprints on a Glock pistol John owned in a visit to John’s flat after Shandee’s murder. Maltby told police something else: that when he’d spoken generally to John about who would want to kill Shandee, John said that he’d thought about it a couple of times. Cameron said in his witness statement that he took this comment to mean that “John had thought about killing Shandee”. He added that he didn’t think much of this comment either as he knew John was upset about his breakup with Shandee.
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Ricky Bird
A Mackay Toyota salesman who assisted police in identifying the vehicle of interest seen in CCTV footage on the night of Shandee’s murder. Ricky Bird used printouts of CCTV images to observe a number of distinctive features on the vehicle of interest seen driving around Mackay before and after Shandee’s murder. Ricky was confident that the vehicle was an older model Toyota Hilux from the 1992-1997 model range and his observations were corroborated by another Toyota salesman. Ricky would later be called to give evidence at John’s 2017 murder trial.
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Episode 7: Bad Science
Episode 8: Charge
Episode 9: Fast Hands
Dr Kirsty Wright
Dr Kirsty Wright is one of Australia’s most highly regarded forensic biologists and has been a valued and trusted scientist for the Queensland Government and for numerous state and federal agencies. She led the expansion of the National Criminal Investigation DNA Database for federal agency CrimTrac in 2007, and the Queensland Skeletal Remains Project, dedicated to identifying long-term missing persons.
A committed DNA expert, Kirsty spent several years in the Queensland Health forensic biology laboratory, working as a technician and then as a senior scientist. For nine years she was a senior lecturer teaching forensic science at Griffith University. While there she ran a program called Master of Science in Forensic Science, Crime Scene Examination, and helped Queensland police improve their crime scene examination processes. Her work in forensics after the 2002 Bali Bombings, and then in 2005 as DNA Team Leader for the International Disaster Victim Identification effort in Thailand after the Boxing Day tsunami, is acknowledged as gold-standard. Her methodological advice was integral in identifying the fragile skeletal remains of murdered 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe.
Kirsty was awarded the prestigious Churchill Fellowship to investigate methods of identifying missing people in 2004. She is a reservist and officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and has worked in remote locations overseas identifying the remains of Australian soldiers from historical conflicts.
Kirsty has been working closely with Hedley Thomas and she is alarmed by evidence she has found showing that there have been serious mistakes in the testing processes of the laboratory handling forensic samples in Shandee’s case. She says the Queensland Government-run lab should be suspended and an independent audit undertaken of the lab’s results and processes. She wants the forensic samples in Shandee’s case retested by an independent laboratory – and believes that doing so could expose Shandee’s killer. Her findings could have serious consequences – for Shandee’s case and possibly unknown others. Read more
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Adrian Brock
An experienced police scientific officer, in 2013 the then Sergeant Adrian Brock collected many forensic samples in Shandee’s case which were sent to a Queensland Government forensic laboratory for DNA analysis. Brock conducted a forensic examination upon Shandee’s body, collecting samples from tape lifts, fingernail scrapings, loose hairs and swabs of blood.
Brock reported that presumptive testing in John Peros’s vehicle had returned positive indications in 12 areas for the presence of blood. He took swabs from these areas and sent them to the forensic lab for further testing; however, after the lab reported: “No DNA detected”, Brock concluded that the substance probably wasn’t blood. Brock also took a total of 51 samples from John’s dirty car and when the lab tested 33 of these, none of the trace DNA samples returned a DNA profile of the owner and driver, John – a bizarre result as John’s DNA should have carpeted the inside of his car.
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Craig Eberhardt
John Peros’s committed criminal defence barrister who ran a spirited and successful defence for John, charged with the murder and armed robbery of Shandee Blackburn. Mentored by staunch criminal defence advocate and lawyer Terry O’Gorman, Craig Eberhardt’s passionate advocacy of John’s innocence across a murder trial and later a coronial inquest gave him a deep appreciation of all the evidence, as well as the accounts of many witnesses, several of whom he cross-examined rigorously. His close attention to detail has earned him the respect of cops including retired detective Scott Furlong. Several police officers have said that if they were charged with a serious offence, they would want Craig Eberhardt to defend them in court.
At John Peros’s murder trial, Craig Eberhardt pointed the finger at William Daniel, arguing that the knife-wielding criminal with a violent record and shaky alibi was Shandee’s real killer. He argued that the prosecution could not show that the running man seen in CCTV footage was John Peros - or even Shandee’s killer. Throughout the court proceedings Craig worked hard to ensure his client got a fair trial and that evidence Craig believed was unfair or prejudicial to his client would be excluded. Craig is a barrister who can communicate complex evidence to a jury while creating compelling arguments for his client’s innocence. At his murder trial, John was found ‘not guilty’ by a jury in less than two hours.
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Dan Rogers
John Peros’s criminal defence solicitor who represented John at his murder trial and a later coronial inquest. Dan Rogers is a staunch defender of his client’s rights, particularly in criminal cases where he believes an individual is vulnerable against the vast resources of the state. Dan says supporting his client’s mental wellbeing is important during the difficult court process. Dan Rogers prepared John Peros’s criminal defence for his 2017 murder trial, alongside barrister Craig Eberhardt who cross-examined witnesses in court. Dan cross-examined several witnesses himself during the 12-day trial. A jury took less than two hours to acquit John Peros of murder.
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Chad Davis
Detective Sergeant Chad Davis analysed and compiled CCTV footage that showed Shandee’s walk home from Harrup Park, a figure running hard towards her and then back, and a vehicle of interest detectives alleged was John Peros’s Toyota Hilux. Detectives Chad Davis and Lisa Elkins spoke to John Peros in an interview room at the Queensland Police headquarters in Brisbane in early September 2014, playing for John the compiled CCTV footage on a TV screen. John refused to look up at the screen and complained that detectives were harassing him. Chad told John that watching the footage would enable him to make an informed decision and that detectives had a right to investigate offences. John maintained that he had no interest in watching the footage or answering any questions.
In the same room a few minutes later, the detectives arrested John for the murder and armed robbery of Shandee Blackburn – Chad Davis informed John that they had played the footage to give him one last chance to explain his movements on the night of Shandee’s murder. The compiled footage – the result of hundreds of hours of analysis by Chad Davis and other detectives – formed a large part of the circumstantial case against John.
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Dr Zacharia Couper
A biomechanics expert who specialises in the analysis of how biological tissues respond to force, Dr Couper prepared a detailed 57-page report for police which closely examined the nature of Shandee’s wounds. He concluded that the assailant likely restrained Shandee’s right wrist and the cluster of wounds to the left side of Shandee’s body indicated the assailant likely held the blade in his right hand. Dr Couper commented at a pre-trial hearing that an assault involving 22 blows could be delivered in a little over ten seconds. He cited a study examining sharp instrument homicides which found the head, face and neck of the victim’s body was targeted more by intimate partners than strangers. Dr Couper was not a witness at John’s Supreme Court murder trial.
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Justin Vella
A cane farmer who found a knife in a cane field on his family’s farm called Mystery Plains north of Mackay on the road to Seaforth. About six months after Shandee’s slaying, Justin Vella and his father were cutting plants on their farm when they discovered what Justin described as a large serrated-edge carving knife under a heavy rock. The knife’s handle had been snapped off and Justin – who pig-hunted in his youth - said the blade was stained with blood. Justin believed the blade’s concealment under a rock not far from the road was suspicious, and he immediately called police who sent two detectives from the Operation Lima Zimzala taskforce investigating Shandee’s murder to the property and seized the blade as evidence. The blade tested positive with a Combur strip for blood; however, the lab didn’t fully test the blade and reported: “No DNA Detected”.
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Magistrate Damien Dwyer
Magistrate Damien Dwyer presided over a 2016 Committal Hearing in which evidence about Shandee’s murder was shown in a public court for the first time. While leaving the witness box after giving evidence on day four, William Daniel directed comments towards John Peros which Magistrate Dwyer viewed as a threat – he ordered William Daniel to be taken into custody so he could be spoken to at the end of the day. Magistrate Dwyer authorised a forensic procedure order in February 2014, which enabled detectives investigating Shandee’s murder to take John Peros’s DNA and fingerprints, as well as photograph and video him.
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Episode 10: Blood
Justice James Henry
The Supreme Court judge presiding over John Peros’s 2017 murder trial who heard lengthy debate about the admissibility of evidence. At a pre-trial hearing, Justice Henry ruled that ‘blood’ detected by a police scientific officer in 12 areas of John’s car was inadmissible evidence because the presumptive Luminol testing was not conclusive – it was not known whether or not there really was blood in the car. The lack of hard evidence in the Crown case prompted Justice Henry to comment that it “had the sniff of a very weak case” and he wondered aloud whether police had charged the right person or if they should have taken more time before charging John. Justice Henry indicated a view early on that there was a case for calling Levii Blackman as a witness – a decision the prosecutor steadfastly refused to make. As the trial progressed, Justice Henry would have to decide if he was going to make the extremely rare decision to call Levii himself.
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Josh Phillips
The prosecutor who ran John Peros’s 2017 murder trial. Josh Phillips, a busy prosecutor with other cases to run for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, faced fierce resistance by John’s passionate Brisbane barrister Craig Eberhardt at John’s murder trial. Phillips was less experienced and appeared to some to be a milder personality than Eberhardt. The trial didn’t start positively for Josh Phillips when the judge’s associate arraigning John Peros accidentally read out the prosecutor’s name – before being quickly corrected. Phillips argued a defence-led biomechanics expert’s evidence involving a video of a pig carcass being stabbed should be excluded. Phillips also wanted to exclude Levii Blackman from appearing as a witness at John’s trial, arguing in court that Levii had proven to be completely unreliable and a self-confessed liar. The debate about Levii Blackman’s inclusion or exclusion as a witness continued throughout the trial.
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Dr Brian McDonald
A molecular geneticist and DNA expert witness hired by John Peros’s legal defence team for his 2017 murder trial. Dr Brian McDonald reviewed police Scientific Officer Adrian Brock’s statement which referenced ‘blood’ in 12 areas of John Peros’s car. Dr McDonald reported that Brock didn’t exclude substances known to cause false positives and no DNA profile from areas marked as ‘blood’ were detected, indicating Brock’s references to ‘blood’ appeared to be “based more on wishful thinking than science.” He cited the notorious case of Lindy Chamberlain, in which forensic stuff-ups caused a shocking miscarriage of justice, resulting in Lindy being charged with the murder of her baby, who she always maintained was taken by a dingo.
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Dr Andrew Short
An expert witness in forensic biomechanics whose evidence John Peros’s criminal defence team wanted to include at John’s 2017 murder trial. Dr Short tasked his local butcher, Mario, with repeatedly stabbing a pig carcass to simulate Shandee’s frenzied stabbing and gain insight into the amount of force and time the attack required. The pig-carcass stabbing was recorded for the jury to watch, if admitted as evidence. Dr Short had not addressed the extent to which pig skin differs from human skin, causing trial judge James Henry to express doubt about the admissibility of the evidence.
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Episode 11: Lollies
Episode 12: Herring & Shark
Forensic biologist - not named for legal reasons
A Queensland Health forensic scientist who reported on many of the DNA and presumed blood samples in Shandee’s case and became an important witness at John Peros’s murder trial. The scientist was cross-examined at length by John’s defence lawyer about a DNA likelihood ratio of six showing ‘slight support’ for a possible contribution to a crime-scene partial DNA sample by local criminal William Daniel. The scientist tried to explain the evidence was statistically “meaningless”, referring to the fact that a real DNA link or match returned a result in the billions. His comment about the ratio being “meaningless” drew rebuke from John’s lawyer as well as the judge.
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Professor David Williams
A Queensland Government pathologist with over thirty years’ experience who conducted Shandee’s autopsy days after her murder. Professor William’s autopsy report lists in dry medical terms the wounds Shandee suffered, three of which the pathologist observed were ‘particularly significant’ wounds to Shandee’s neck, chest and forehead. At John Peros’s murder trial, Professor Williams estimated there were 23 to 25 stab and slash wounds to Shandee’s body in total including defence injuries to Shandee’s fingers as she tried to resist the frenzied attack. The pathologist said that part of Shandee’s scalp had been sheared off in the attack, a blow he said would have taken “severe force” to inflict. At a later inquest the highly experienced pathologist described the number of wounds as “horrific” and suggested the attack happened “fairly quickly” and with “maximum force”.
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Rachel Ratahi
The former partner of Norman Dorante. Rachel Ratahi confirmed at John Peros’s murder trial that her former on-again, off-again partner Norman Dorante, father of her young daughter, was violent and threatening towards her during their relationship. She told police that she’d sent Norman a text message shortly after the murder, telling him to be careful as the streets weren’t safe at night, to which she said Norman replied: “I’m all good because I’m the one who killed her”. Rachel said she was “pretty sure” Norman was joking and added that he had a very dry sense of humour. A single mother caring for her young daughter, Rachel recalled passing Shandee’s memorial with Norman and her daughter shortly after the murder when she said Norman joked about stomping on the flowers. She told police that Norman carried knives for protection including a 20-centimetre blade with a creamy white handle.
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Georgia Terry
A TV reporter based in Mackay in 2013 and covering the murder trial for Seven News, Georgia Terry had been told by her police contacts that they were very confident Shandee’s killer was the man on trial - and that he would be convicted. Georgia reported on each day’s evidence before and after the interruption caused by Cyclone Debbie. The young reporter said the thrust of John’s defence lawyer’s arguments and his powerful cross examinations of some of the witnesses were effective and intimidating at times. She recalled John being quiet and inscrutable as the trial unfolded. Georgia said Shandee’s mother Vicki, her partner Paul Beardmore and Vicki’s daughter Shannah were clearly under great strain however they remained friendly and kind to the media contingent.
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Episode 13: Unheard Evidence
Kristy Bell
A criminal lawyer who represented Shandee and her family at a 2019 inquest, Kristy Bell read every document in the enormous brief in Shandee’s case - and supports Shandee’s family in the pursuit of justice. Kristy has both prosecuted and defended clients facing criminal charges and has been scathing about John’s treatment of Shandee during and after their relationship, labelling his behaviour as domestic violence. She says the tenuous purported DNA link between William Daniel and the murder raised at John’s 2017 trial would “absolutely not” be admissible if William Daniel were facing the murder charges – agreeing it is “bad evidence”. Kristy remains a strong and trusted figure for Shandee’s family and continues to support them through the challenges in Shandee’s case.
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Dr Angela van Daal
A leading forensic scientist who has her own concerns about the Queensland forensic lab and says problems with the lab go back almost twenty years, during which time she has been appalled by the errors she has discovered during reviews. She says she has raised her serious concerns with the lab before but to her knowledge nothing has been done about them. Dr van Daal’s impressive credentials put her in a strong position to comment on the Queensland lab’s issues. She is working in the United States with the scientist renowned as the guru of DNA, Dr Bruce Budowle. She has a PhD in molecular genetics, has worked in Adelaide’s Forensic Science Laboratory and was instrumental in setting up accreditation requirements for forensic laboratories Australia-wide. She says there needs to be an external review of the lab’s practices, its training, and the quality of the work being produced – and says that forensic labs in the US have been suspended for producing similar bad results until the problems were solved.
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Kevin Virgona
An acquaintance of John Peros who went fishing with him and friend Steve Calicetto the day before Shandee’s murder, waking up in the early morning and boating near Seaforth. Kevin said Steve had just bought the boat and it was the first time they had taken it out together to a spot about forty minutes north of Mackay. A Mackay plumber, Kevin told police he went with Steve and John to a work function afterwards and saw John and Steve leave together.
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Scott MacPherson
A person of interest in Operation Lima Zimzala, the police investigation into Shandee’s murder, and a Mackay criminal with a history of violence. Scott MacPherson became a person of interest in Shandee’s murder after rumours about his alleged involvement began circulating around a small group in Mackay. The rumours were never substantiated – but Scott MacPherson’s alibi was weak and he gave conflicting accounts of where he was on the night Shandee was killed. His criminal history includes stabbing a woman in the breast – and years before Shandee’s death, he was charged with assaulting Vicki Blackburn after trespassing on their property in Slade Point. Both police and a coroner ruled out any involvement from Scott MacPherson, and evidence was thin.
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Isaiah Corowa
A person of interest in Operation Lima Zimzala, the police investigation into Shandee’s murder, and a friend of Scott MacPherson. Like MacPherson, Isaiah Corowa gave conflicting accounts of his movements on the night of Shandee’s murder, saying he was with Scott MacPherson at Lamberts Beach in Slade Point but later admitting that it might have been the night after the murder. Witnesses told police that they’d seen the man nicknamed “IC” hanging around the area where Shandee was murdered before. There was no evidence suggesting Corowa was anywhere near the murder scene on the night Shandee was attacked and he was ruled out by police and a coroner as a potential killer.
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Episode 14: Renewed Hope
Coroner David O’Connell
A magistrate and Queensland’s Mackay-based central coroner who in 2019 ran a coronial inquest into Shandee’s unsolved death. Coroner David O’Connell was aware of Shandee’s murder from the beginning – in February 2013 he signed autopsy documents and authorized a police search warrant on John Peros’s flat. After John’s acquittal for murder in 2017, the experienced coroner – an endurance athlete and car enthusiast - began his own investigations, seizing John’s vehicle under the Coroner’s Act and rejecting multiple requests from John’s lawyers for its return. In his investigations and the 2019 inquest that followed, O’Connell would examine a vast brief of evidence, investigate 13 persons of interest, hear evidence from 53 witnesses, and crawl through John’s rusty Toyota Hilux himself for clues, eventually discovering a crucial detail missed by detectives.
He released his findings in 2020 in a 77-page report that found John Peros did kill Shandee in a vicious knife attack – but did not find fresh and compelling evidence to recommend John be recharged under double jeopardy laws. In February 2022 – nine years after Shandee’s slaying - Coroner O’Connell formally reopened the coronial investigation into Shandee’s unsolved murder amid ongoing revelations of forensic failures by Queensland’s government-run forensics lab.
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John Aberdeen
An experienced barrister and counsel assisting coroner David O’Connell at the 2019 inquest into Shandee’s death. John Aberdeen was a level-headed presence in the Mackay courtroom at Shandee’s inquest as he questioned every witness and explored evidence from a vast coronial brief. As counsel assisting he advised Coroner O’Connell on legal arguments and assessed all the evidence himself, presenting his own submissions to the coroner after the witnesses had given evidence. Aberdeen was the first to address the inquest in 2019, laying out the known details of the murder and describing the proceedings as a fact-finding exercise with the aim of finding the truth of what happened to Shandee. He told the coroner that Shandee’s brutal slaying was a tragedy from which the sugar and mining town was still recovering.
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Lee Smith
A retired surveyor and photogrammetrist, Lee Smith has dedicated hours of his spare time to extracting clues from grainy CCTV footage and has developed new methods that he hopes can be used on original CCTV imagery to make a valuable difference in Shandee’s case. Lee, who has a Master of Applied Science, says police data collected on hundreds of Toyota Hilux vehicles in Mackay confirms the view held by detectives and a coroner that the car seen in CCTV footage minutes before the murder is John’s. Lee believes new technology may be available to enhance the footage gathered by police and encourages defence experts and other specialists who could make a valuable difference in Shandee’s case to come forward. The former chief surveyor for the Brisbane City Council has won national awards for his surveying work and has previously managed surveying-related technology development for the Queensland Government. Read more
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Jessica Murphy
A plain clothes police officer who confronted John Peros in the Mackay Police Station car park while on duty just weeks after Shandee’s murder, asking John to leave and telling him that it was an offence to trespass on government property. Murphy, who gave a police statement, said she immediately recognised John Peros and asked him what he was doing, to which John replied words to the effect of “I’m just looking around.” The interaction, captured on CCTV cameras, shows John leaving the car park after being confronted by Murphy and another cop. In the weeks after Shandee’s murder, Jessica Murphy helped coordinate searches of water drains and Mackay’s waste facility for evidence.
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Samantha Bliss
A Mackay-based detective and William Daniel’s ‘aunty’, in May 2013 Detective Senior Sergeant Samantha Bliss was contacted by William Daniel who was concerned about the growing police interest in him about Shandee’s murder. During the friendly telephone call – digitally recorded by Samantha Bliss – the detective asked William about his whereabouts on the night of the murder and offered to call the detective who had contacted William the week before. Bliss – who grew up in Mackay – said prior to this recorded chat she hadn’t seen William since he was a little boy. Samantha Bliss’s close relationship with lead detective Lisa Elkins was criticised by John Peros and his lawyer Dan Rogers who sent an official complaint to the Crime and Corruption Commission suggesting that the detective’s close friendship had compromised the investigation into William Daniel. The complaint was rejected, and there was no evidence at all of a cover-up or any unprofessional behaviour from the two detectives.
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Episode 15: Spin Cycles
Jamie Lewis
A Mackay truck driver who is sure he saw Shandee’s handbag in a rubbish dump next to a pair of new brown work boots just days after her murder. Jamie Lewis called police after talking to his wife about Shandee’s murder and seeing a version of her handbag in the local newspaper. Jamie later learned that the bag he had described to police – slightly different to the newspaper version – was an exact description of Shandee’s real bag which also differed slightly from the photograph in the newspaper. But detectives took two months to get back to him, compromising the chances of recovering the handbag from the dump. The Mackay father who has followed Shandee’s case and met Vicki and Shannah Blackburn says the murder deeply affected Mackay residents and parents like himself.
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Sumara Blackman
Levii Blackman’s fiercely loyal older sister and William Daniel’s neighbour in 2013. Sumara Blackman told the 2019 inquest that she saw Norman Dorante dressed in black in her apartment on the night of Shandee’s murder and believed he was prepared to do a home invasion. She said that on a previous occasion her neighbour William Daniel had threatened her with a knife and warned her that he would cut her hands and throat. At the inquest coroner David O’Connell became concerned by some of Sumara’s off-topic responses prompting him to ask if she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, which she denied.
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Reece Harrington
William Daniel’s neighbour and Sumara Blackman’s partner. Reece Harrington gave evidence at the 2019 inquest that he saw Norman Dorante and William Daniel in Sumara’s flat on the night of the murder and had overheard them talking about “doing over” or robbing a drug dealer down the road. Reece added that Levii Blackman was upset in the days after the murder and that Levii had told him that William and Norman were responsible for the murder.
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Celeste Moore
Levii Blackman’s grandmother and an indigenous elder in Mackay who lived a short distance from the murder scene. Celeste Moore told a 2019 inquest that she saw Levii Blackman shortly after the murder and that he was visibly upset and refused to answer her questions. Celeste suspected that Norman Dorante and William Daniel might have been involved in the murder and shared her suspicions with police but was able to provide little evidence. She told police that Norman had visited her house on the morning of the murder, “had the look of fear in his eyes” and wouldn’t speak to her.
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Tiahrnie Davis
William Daniel’s cousin and a witness at the 2019 inquest, Tiahrnie Davis described a home invasion by William Daniel and two of William’s friends in which she claimed she participated just weeks before Shandee’s murder. The robbery described by Tiahrnie was badly botched and one of the men involved left his phone behind. Tiahrnie added that her cousin William Daniel was armed with a kitchen knife during the robbery, and told police that William had changed since the murder and that “everyone in our family thinks Will was involved.”
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Gildas Fodera
A Mackay local and mother of three who told the 2019 inquest she was chased by an unknown man behind the McDonald’s on the night of Shandee’s murder. Gildas spent the Friday night of the murder at the Mackay City Bowls Club, leaving around 11 p.m. to walk to McDonald’s for a late-night feed. Gildas said the restaurant was closed and she had begun to walk home when a man started following, and then chasing her. Gildas hid under a nearby car until the man had passed, telling the 2019 inquest that it was a terrifying experience she would never forget.
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Jason Brown
A Mackay local and person of interest at Shandee’s 2019 inquest. Jason Brown was kicked out of the Mackay City Bowls Club on the evening of Shandee’s murder. A bartender, Julie Day, who knew Jason, said he was banned from entering after threatening to burn it down a few months earlier. He was a big drinker and talker, Julie added, and she told police months later that he had texted her threatening to stab her and claiming he’d already stabbed someone else. Brown made similar comments at a pub in Gladstone and was questioned by a police officer, but said he was only joking. He was ruled out as having any involvement in Shandee’s murder by detectives and the coroner.
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Episode 16: Running
Isaac Irons
A university student studying journalism who has been working with Shandee’s Story as a part-time intern, helping journalist Hedley Thomas investigate and research Shandee’s unsolved murder. Isaac is well across the evidence in Shandee’s case and has examined the transcripts of John Peros’s 2017 murder trial closely to find out how much of the trial was spent on the man accused, and how much on another police suspect, William Daniel. Isaac ran the route of a running man captured in CCTV footage at night to test the defence theory that it could not be done. With Vicki Blackburn watching on he showed that a person of average fitness – Isaac plays touch footy games on the weekend to keep fit – could re-enact the killer’s footsteps with seconds to spare, disproving the defence theory.
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Brett Schnitzerling
A police photographic officer and a crucial witness at the 2019 inquest, Sergeant Brett Schnitzerling has expertise in CCTV analysis and compared a vehicle of interest seen in CCTV footage with a re-enactment done using John Peros’s white Toyota Hilux. The experienced officer said there were no unexplainable differences between the two vehicles, evidence the coroner later accepted in his findings. Schnitzerling also created a 3D model of John’s car for the inquest which the coroner used to examine the vehicle’s missing driver’s side wheel flare and compare it with the vehicle of interest in CCTV footage, finding that the same wheel flare was missing from that vehicle too. The link between the missing features was an important factor in coroner O’Connell’s finding that the vehicle seen in CCTV footage was John Peros’s white ute.
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Episode 17: Through The Cracks
Sharleen Caruana
A long-time Mackay resident who knew and liked Shandee, Sharleen contacted the podcast with new information about her sister Rebecca’s visit to John Peros’s flat shortly after Shandee’s murder. Sharleen said Shandee would often stay over at the place she shared with her sister Rebecca Davies and they’d discussed doing yoga together before her murder. Sharleen said her sister Rebecca had told her she felt sick with fear during her visit to John’s flat with her mutual friend Jarrod Hau and had tried to put up a front to hide her emotions. Sharleen said Rebecca was concerned about the smell of fresh paint or bleach in John’s flat and John’s own concern about which bathroom she used, fearing it might have some connection with the murder. Sharleen said both her and Rebecca were immediately suspicious of John when they heard about Shandee’s murder.
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Rebecca Davies
One of Shandee’s closest friends who told police she smelt fresh paint in John Peros’s flat when she visited just hours after police first questioned John. Rebecca’s close friendship with Shandee is obvious from many text messages where they discuss deeply personal issues and make plans to move in together. Rebecca told detectives that she went with mutual friend Jarrod Hau to John’s flat on the Sunday night after Shandee’s slaying, then drove to the Mackay harbour to chat before returning to John’s flat until about midnight when they left for Shandee’s vigil. She told police John seemed unsure which bathroom she should use while at his flat and mentioned seeing a ladder. She said John told her he was just keeping busy because he wasn’t working.
Rebecca’s sister Sharleen and another friend say Rebecca’s concerns about the smell didn’t go away and believe that Rebecca suspected it could have had some connection to the murder. Like Jarrod Hau, Rebecca has struggled since Shandee’s murder and remains deeply distressed by the slaying.
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Belinda*
A witness and friend of Rebecca Davies who told the podcast she was concerned about what Rebecca had described as a fresh paint smell in John Peros’s flat just hours after police first visited John. Belinda, who has asked for her name to be changed, said she was suspicious because of the fearful way Rebecca told her about the smell and the timing of the visit. Belinda said she was reluctant to speak out at all because she was “a little bit fearful” and intimidated by John, saying that when she gave evidence at the 2019 inquest John had looked at her and shaken his head, which she interpreted as a sign that he didn’t like her being there. Belinda was supportive of John early on but now says she feels guilty for walking with him at Shandee’s vigil and funeral.
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Nick Dore
A criminal lawyer from the law firm Fisher Dore Lawyers who assisted his then colleague Kristy Bell at the 2019 inquest by questioning key witnesses including John Peros. Nick Dore questioned John at length about his memory issues at the inquest wanting to know if John was receiving medical treatment for memory problems so bad that he couldn’t remember his own answer an hour earlier. Dore clashed with John’s defence barrister Craig Eberhardt over legal issues with both experienced lawyers arguing before the coroner over questions Dore wanted to ask John. During tense questioning Dore put it to John that he had felt calmer when Shandee left Mackay in 2012, which John denied, saying it didn’t faze him where Shandee was.
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Kath Kerr
An expert in identifying domestic violence who has been working in the domestic and family violence field for around 15 years. Kath, a qualified social worker, says she would be very concerned if Shandee had come to her and described her fear of being harmed by John, and says she would want to unpack Shandee’s fears further to find out what was happening. Kath has heard many of the messages between John and Shandee and the witness statements of Shandee’s friends and believes John had a high amount of control over Shandee and was doing a lot of image management to maintain that control. Kath’s research has focused on non-physical forms of domestic violence, and she says partner jealousy and victim fear are both big risk indicators of escalating control and violence in a relationship. Kath says trust issues are often a key narrative used by jealous partners to justify control in a relationship.
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Episode 18: Fair Go
Jeffrey Muir
A Brisbane taxi driver who told police that he drove a passenger with a bandaged right hand to a criminal lawyer’s firm in the week after Shandee’s murder. Jeffrey said it was the firm of Peter Shields who was then acting for John Peros. Jeffrey gave a police statement six months after Shandee’s slaying after reading about the case in The Courier-Mail newspaper’s Qweekend magazine. The story jolted his memory of a passenger he described as a diesel fitter from Mackay who had fine features, olive skin and short black hair. The passenger had a new bandage on the webbing of his right thumb. A biomechanical engineer who studied Shandee’s injuries had told police that her attacker could have sustained injuries to his right hand. The 63-year-old taxi driver who grew up in Mackay did not know he’d just described to police their number one suspect, John Peros.
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Dave Fisher
The former editor of the Mackay Daily Mercury newspaper and a real estate agent in Mackay who has followed Shandee’s case and community feelings closely. Dave says Shandee’s mother Vicki and sister Shandee have acted with incredible love and respect for Shandee in their search for justice and says the town supports them wholeheartedly. He says Shandee’s brutal slaying is part of the fabric in Mackay and locals are deeply frustrated that there hasn’t been justice.
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Anyone with information about the murder of Shandee Blackburn can contact Hedley Thomas confidentially at shandee@theaustralian.com.au
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