David Ross Elms killed in Bundaberg as death remains unsolved

It was ruled out by police at the time, but friends fear a young Australian farm worker met a shocking and violent death in Bundaberg. See why they think he was targeted.

His name was David Ross Elms.

David was a quietly spoken man, polite and well mannered.

His sandy blonde hair was a bit surfie-like, longer in the front with a fringe and shorter on the sides. His light hair framed a short face with a fair but weathered complexion.

Missing man’s daughter speaks of heartbreak 

Police reveal CCTV in double murder probe

At no taller than about 5’4, David wasn’t a big man. He was thin, but those who knew him remembered he was strong and wiry, a physique built by regular farm work.

David, raised and educated in the Brisbane suburb of Rochedale, had worked on sugarcane farms in the Bundaberg region, but he was known to drive tractors on tomato farms and carry out other agricultural work in the off-seasons.

Born to a transport operator named Alfred and his wife Constance, David would end up an only child after the death of his sister when he was only four years old.

David Ross Elms (not pictured) was killed in Bundaberg in 1982.

His mother would also pass away in 1966, before his own life was cut short at just 34.

Those who remember David Elms say he was somewhat of a loner, or, what might be termed an introvert in modern vernacular.

That’s not to say the hard worker didn’t have friends, he did, and he liked nothing more than meeting them for a drink at a local pub after a long workday.

A one-time resident of East Bundaberg, he would frequent the then bustling East End Hotel.

Although the decades have rolled by, there are still those who remember the softly spoken, well-mannered young man and they have never given up hope of finding answers.

The following has been compiled based off witness accounts, media reports at the time and official documentation which was able to be accessed.

This publication was denied access to a report conducted in Bundaberg on December 22, 1983 by Coroner GA Stubbins.

A NewsMail front page from the 1980s calls for information on the driver responsible for David's death.

A violent death on a quiet city’s streets

David Elms had been working hard on the region’s farms during September 1982.

The night of the 14th was a sugar cane crushing night and the “good worker” would have had an early start ahead of him.

It was a Tuesday evening and reports from the time say he was seen out with a friend at a Bourbong St pub, before the two of them parted ways after closing time near Barolin and Woondooma Sts, not far from his Crofton St home – a humble boarding house for workers which has since become retail space.

But that was when David’s ordinary night would begin to unravel, ultimately claiming his life.

Two women who drove past David on the corner of Barolin and Woondooma Sts noted he was unsteady on his feet, before another driver says they noticed him falling onto the roadway, in a gully between Woondooma and Crofton Sts at about 10.30pm.

Another group of witnesses would see David lying on the road not long after.

A few minutes later, the two women who had passed him earlier had returned and noticed a pair of thongs and packet of cigarettes by the roadway, but no sign of David.

Police released an image of the same type of car that was seen to be dragging David to his death.

Media reports at the time state the women had stopped their car and looked for any trace of the man they’d seen looking unsteady, but found nothing.

The next witness would see something much more horrifying.

Then Bundaberg Police CIB Officer in Charge Ken Strohfeldt explained how, at the time, a woman was driving and saw a white Ford Falcon with what she believed was a bundle of clothing hanging from the back.

When she got closer, she saw it was a body. It was David’s, and he would be found several streets away.

David was still alive, but in a horrific and brain damaged state, having been dragged along Barolin St, Electra St, Targo St, George St, Robert St, Burnett St, Hunter St and Curtis St before being found on the bitumen at Pitt St – a drive of about four minutes.

Police said at the time that there was no evidence to suggest David had been dragged deliberately, but they did believe the person responsible was both “almost certainly” a local and “fully aware” of what had happened.

David died two-and-a-half hours later in hospital, with his death certificate stating his cause of death as “multiple injuries (major ones cerebral)”.

Repeated calls for information on the driver or occupants of the car went unanswered, and there were few clues to the driver’s identity other than a 3cm circular sticker seen on one of the car’s doors.

David Elms parted ways with a friend in the Bundaberg CBD before witnesses said the farm worker appeared unsteady and fell on the road.

Friends believed David may have been gay, strapped to car

Official accounts of David’s death differ from what some of those who knew him believe – that he was deliberately tied to and under the white Ford.

Police accounts at the time ruled out David having been tied or tethered to the car, but it’s what many people who knew him and the people around him believed to have happened – it was big gossip in Bundaberg in 1982.

Then there are the other theories about what happened that night.

There are also reports that David hadn‘t been at a Bourbong St pub, but at the Melbourne Hotel on Targo St.

If he had been, then questions have been raised around where he was found because some think he was followed before being dragged from Burnett St – meaning he had been somewhere in the opposite direction of his home.

According to some, David had been seen at a payphone on Targo St. A phone still sits there to this day.

Friends believe he was calling for help and was afraid.

The driver has still not be found despite widespread media coverage in Bundaberg at the time.

While there is no known motive for killing David, it was revealed by some who knew him that he could at times be teased due to his short stature.

David was either gay – or thought to be – according to some of his friends, which adds another layer to an already chilling story.

One member of the LGBT community who spoke to this publication on the condition of anonymity, said the early ’80s in Bundaberg was a terrifying time to be suspected of being gay and that things could be rough.

Horrifically, Australia was not immune from the pandemic of gay hate crime that swept the world in previous decades.

Multiple reports of scores of unsolved deaths have piled up across states, with many cases remaining unsolved or at best, listed now as “possible” or “probable” gay hate crimes.

One investigation uncovered that about 80 gay men had been murdered in New South Wales alone, with at least 30 unsolved deaths remaining from the ’80s and ’90s.

A phone box still sits on Targo St. Some reports put him on Targo St on that night, afraid and trying to make a call.

The sick preoccupation was viewed like a hobby or sport.

Investigations and inquests into deaths were not always reliable.

While gay hate crimes are not as prominent as they once were, they still happen.

In 2019, and in a similarly disturbing case to David’s, a gay man in Florida was left clinging to life after being dragged two blocks behind a car.

Investigation followed by decades of questions

Police conducted door-to-door searches of homes in the area where David had been dragged to his death, but found little information.

A number of locally-owned white XY model Ford Falcons had been extensively checked.

Police stated they were able to determine that David had been hooked to the back of the car by clothing at the back of his neck.

“It is possible that the person who hit Elms did not know he was being dragged along by the car,” Detective Strohfeldt said.

It was accepted the driver most likely realised they‘d hit something, though.

Retired officer Ken Strohfeldt pictured in 2010. Detective Strohfeldt said David had been caught on the car by the neck of his clothes, and was not tied to the vehicle.

Then, there was the question of the skid marks found at the scene.

Police said there were skid marks swerving to the right at the area where David had been on the road, and that someone had seen the white Ford Falcon brake just before reaching the place David was seen lying.

Detective Strohfeldt told said the driver would have to have known they had dragged David from the place where they first braked.

It is believed David did not have many immediate family members, and there were no available photos of him that could be included in this story.

No one has ever come forward to confess to the incident on that night in 1982.

David Elms, the 34-year-old Brisbane boy turned regional farm worker, died on September 15, 1982 and was cremated and interred at the Bundaberg Crematorium on September 30 of that year.

His case remains unsolved.

Originally published as David Ross Elms killed in Bundaberg as death remains unsolved