Thieves steal jewellery from alleged murder victim, Sue Duffy’s home in West Street, Allenstown

Police had only closed the crime scene at the Rockhampton property the day before when thieves took the opportunity to ransack it.

Police are appealing for information after the family of alleged murder victim Sue Duffy, 71, suffered another ‘kick in the guts’ with heartless thieves targeting the home of Sue and her husband, ‘ransacking’ the Allenstown property and making off with jewellery and other personal items.

Rockhampton police believe a group of offenders gained access to the West Street property between the evening of Wednesday, August 24 and the morning of Thursday, August 25.

The property was declared a crime scene on Sunday, August 21 after Sue’s tragic death and police completed their investigations by around 4pm on Tuesday, August 23, closing the crime scene.

“Following the crime scene being professionally cleaned, investigators from Rockhampton CIB conducted a handover with the family and that occurred on Wednesday afternoon,” Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Kevin Mawdsley said on Monday.

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Kevin Mawdsley. Picture: Aden Stokes

“Unfortunately, sometime overnight from Wednesday to Thursday a break and enter occurred at that residence.

“Family members of Susan Duffy attended the residence that morning and were the persons who discovered the break in.

“A number of jewellery items and other personal items belonging to, not only Susan Duffy, but immediate members of the family were stolen during that offence.

“They are not only valuable from a monetary point of view, but more importantly for the family they are highly sentimental items.”

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Mawdsley said police were able to recover some of those items on Friday during a search of another home in Allenstown, however, a number of items were still outstanding.

“At this point in time no persons have been charged with any offences,” he said.

“A number of people were spoken to by police on that Friday where items were recovered during a search of a dwelling.

Police on scene early in the investigations on Sunday afternoon.

“We are aware there are people in the community who know where these items are and we are appealing to any person in the community who is aware of where these items are to contact police.

“Any information is sought.

“The primary goal is to recover those items and property.”

He said this incident had been another ‘kick in the guts’ for the family.

“It’s not something us investigators thought would have occurred during the course of the handover to the family,” he said.

“The premise was secured.

“It wasn’t imagined or contemplated that they would be the victims of a burglary offence that evening, so soon.

Police at the scene of an alleged homicide in West Street, Allenstown, on August 21, 2022.

“They didn’t think they could be any more devastated than what they were prior to this and this has just been another kick in the guts for them.

“They’re in the lowest part in their lives dealing with something that for any family to deal with would be difficult. But to now have to deal with this is devastating.

“It is entirely possible this was an opportunistic crime, that the persons who committed this offence were not aware of the homicide investigation.”

Anyone who may have seen anything suspicious or have CCTV and dashcam footage around the West Street area around the time is asked to contact police.

Police were called to the West Street home at 3.50pm on Sunday August 21 after a distressed call from a family member.

At the home, police found the body of Sue Duffy, who had “substantial injuries” from a “bladed instrument”.

A homicide investigation was declared and multiple police officers, detectives and units swarmed the property for hours into the night.

Screenshots from the video Portmoresbey Cecil took in the hours before the alleged murder.

Shortly after the alleged murder, Ms Duffy’s ex-son-in-law, Portmoresbey “Bj” Cecil, 35, presented himself to the front counter of the Rockhampton Police Station.

He was later charged with one count of murder, domestic violence offence.

Police will allege Mr Cecil drove himself to the station in his Great Wall dual cab utility.

Mr Cecil faced Rockhampton Magistrates Court on August 22 and was denied bail with matters adjourned to November 16.

He was incarcerated at Capricornia Correctional Centre, the prison north of Rockhampton but has since been moved to Brisbane Correctional Centre.

Tragically, Sue Duffy was the 36th woman to be allegedly killed in Australia this year and one of six women lost to violence in three weeks.

Messages of condolences have flooded in for the Duffy family.

Sue has been remembered as a kind woman who would do anything for anyone and who was lovely in her job as a carer.

She was married to Danny and they had lived in their West Street home for 35 years.

Originally published as Thieves steal jewellery from alleged murder victim, Sue Duffy’s home in West Street, Allenstown