The horrific nurse murders of Towoomba

The murder of Sydney nurses Lorraine Ruth Wilson and Wendy Joy Evans in 1974 will forever be remembered as a dark chapter in Toowoomba's history.

But no one was ever charged in relation to the shocking crime. A high-profile inquest held in 2013 named seven persons of interest authorities believed were responsible or involved in the double homicide.

Paul Antonio Toowoomba Mayor

One man was named as the likely culprit - Wayne Robert "Boogie" Hilton. Ms Wilson's brother, Eric Wilson, said he had found solace in the years following the inquest in the knowledge the people responsible had been finally named and shamed.

“I would have liked the coroner to go further in his findings but I think naming the person he did was the right decision. I had been haunted by their deaths right up until that inquest.”

Ms Wilson, 20, and Ms Evans, 18, disappeared while hitch-hiking from Brisbane to Goondiwindi on October 6, 1974. They were on their way to pick up Ms Wilson's VW Beetle that had broken down the week before and was being repaired.

The two friends were seen getting into a green EJ Holden with a white roof with two men near the Oxley Police Academy, in Brisbane, about 3pm. What happened after that remained a mystery until recently.

Bushwalkers found their skeletal remains on June 25, 1976 in a secluded clearing at Hoods Paddock, off Stevens Rd near Murphys Creek, almost two years after they were reported missing.

Forensic testing conducted at the time revealed the two women had been raped, bound, gagged and bludgeoned to death.

No attempt had been made to conceal the bodies and their personal items were found scattered around near where the bodies lay. Men's clothing, including shorts and socks, was also located at the scene and placed into police evidence, but was inexplicably destroyed in April, 2010.

The initial police investigation suffered from several other missed opportunities and sloppy work, including a failure to take statements from several people who had seen the women being bashed and forced into a car on the Toowoomba Range.

In 2012 Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie ordered a coronial inquest into the two murders after Mr Wilson's public campaign for justice finally saw the case blown wide open.

The inquest heard harrowing evidence about how a pack of booze-fuelled thugs and their associates would regularly abduct young women off Toowoomba streets, force them into their cars and take them into the bush to rape them.

In handing down his findings on June 28, 2013, Mr Barnes concluded if Wayne Robert "Boogie" Hilton were alive today there would be enough evidence to charge him with murder. Hilton, who was a prime suspect as early as the late 1970s, died in a car crash in June, 1986 after crashing his car into a tree near Texas.

There was insufficient evidence found against the remaining living suspects, Desmond "Dessie" Roy Hilton, Terrance James "Jimmy" O'Neill and Allan Neil "Ungie" Laurie.

Producer: Bianca Mastroianni Read more

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The horrific nurse murders of Towoomba

TRUE CRIME:

The murder of Sydney nurses Lorraine Ruth Wilson and Wendy Joy Evans in 1974 will forever be remembered as a dark chapter in Toowoomba's history.

“I would have liked the coroner to go further in his findings but I think naming the person he did was the right decision. I had been haunted by their deaths right up until that inquest.”

ERIC WILSON