Warwick murderers, manslaughter: killers and crime exposed - list

WARNING GRAPHIC: The bloody killings of victims at the hands of Warwick monsters, which range from exes to bush beatings, reveals a dark side of the region. Now, their names and crimes can be exposed.

From the calculated abduction and murder of a mother and her two daughters to the “panicked” strangling of ex-lovers, a number of brutal killings have sent shockwaves through Warwick in recent years.

Read more about the town’s most vicious killers and their chilling crimes here:

Ian Hannaford at Warwick Magistrates Court on May 15, 2014. Photo Jeremy Sollars / Warwick Daily News

IAN HANNAFORD

Ian Phillip Hannaford will spend at least another five years in jail after he was found guilty of murdering his former partner, Warwick woman Gail Lynch.

It took a jury only hours to reach a guilty verdict for the Toowoomba man, who killed the 55-year-old grandmother when she ended their relationship.

The Toowoomba Supreme Court heard Ms Lynch’s DNA was found in drops of blood on items in the boot of Hannaford’s car, on a towel inside his Rockville unit, and on an axe Hannaford had bought the day after the Warwick woman disappeared.

Gail Lynch, 55, went missing from her Warwick home.

Ms Lynch was last seen leaving her Guy Street unit in July, 2012, and her body remains undiscovered.

The court was told Hannaford went missing about two weeks after his victim, shortly after police visited him to discuss his ex-girlfriend’s last movements, but was found more than a week later in a toilet block where he had been “living rough”.

He was sentenced to life in jail but will be eligible for parole in 2027.

Bowan Taylor Wade

BOWAN TAYLOR WADE

Bowan Taylor Wade was sentenced to only nine years’ jail when he was found guilty of killing his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend and leaving her for dead in a locked storage shed.

The then-19-year-old pushed or threw Klarissa “Sal” Callow off boxes inside a Stanthorpe storage shed in August, 2009, then choked her for a short time until she turned blue.

The Toowoomba Supreme Court was told Wade thought the girl was dead, possibly from a broken neck, and fled the scene without making any attempt to call emergency services.

He handed himself in to Warwick police the next day.

A forensic pathologist found blood flowed to the teenage victim’s nose, pointing to asphyxia as the cause of death and indicating she likely survived for several hours after Wade left the storage shed.

The now-31-year-old Wade pleaded guilty to Ms Callow’s murder in March, 2011, but the Court of Appeal set aside the plea because it found it had been made under extreme distress.

He was eventually found guilty of manslaughter and made eligible for parole at the halfway point of his jail term.

GREGORY WILLIAM SHEAN

It took four years of investigation to put Gregory William Shean behind bars for life for the vicious murder of his housemate and former lover Zoeie Makylev in July, 2006.

The then-36-year-old punched his victim twice in the face before strangling her with a belt for about two minutes, then put a plastic bag over her head and put her body in the boot of his car.

The 40-year-old woman’s badly decomposed body was found in an orchard at The Summit three weeks later.

The Toowoomba Supreme Court was told Shean even hit Ms Makylev twice in the head with a hammer to ensure she was dead after he thought he heard a noise coming from her motionless body.

Shean claimed his victim attacked him with large scissors during an argument over the pair’s pending eviction from their Stanthorpe residence, and it was after disarming her that he “panicked” and went on to commit the murder.

The now-51-year-old was in 2010 sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of 15 years, but had 1161 days pre-sentence custody declared as time already served.

Vincent O'Dempsey, 82, was convicted of the murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters 43 years after their deaths. Picture: file

VINCENT O’DEMPSEY, GARRY REGINALD DUBOIS

Warwick man Vincent O’Dempsey was sentenced to life behind bars for the murders of Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, 43 years after their deaths.

The then-34-year-old and his accomplice Garry Reginald ‘Shorty’ Dubois lured their victims from the family’s Highgate Hill home late in the evening of January 16, 1974.

The Brisbane Supreme Court was told the two men bound the 34-year-old mother during the drive to an unknown bush location.

O’Dempsey strangled Mrs McCulkin a short distance from where Dubois raped Vicki and Leanne before they were also killed.

Garry Dubois, who was serving time for his part in the high profile McCulkin murders, was found dead in his jail cell.

The now-82-year-old was convicted of the three murders in 2017, and his co-accused the manslaughter of Mrs McCulkin along with the rapes and murders of her two daughters.

The three victims’ bodies have never been found.

Justice Peter Applegarth told O’Dempsey he was “beyond redemption” during court proceedings.

O’Dempsey appealed his conviction to the Queensland Court of Appeal and applied to the High Court of Australia for special leave to be retried, but all attempts were unsuccessful or dismissed.

Dubois was found dead in his cell at the Maryborough Correctional Centre earlier this year, a week before the beginning of the high-profile inquest into the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire in which he was due to give evidence.

Originally published as Warwick murderers, manslaughter: killers and crime exposed - list