More details emerge about Gary John Schmidt, a Tennant Creek security guard found dead in WA

The Territory connection has been made to a man who was found deceased on the side of the road in WA in a decade-long mystery – with his former employer revealing more about who he was. Find out more

Gary John Schmidt has been identified by WA Police as a man who died in Kununurra in 2015. Picture: WA police

The former director of a Red Centre security company suspects “foul play” may have be involved after a former employee of his was found deceased on the side of a Western Australian highway.

More details are emerging about Gary John Schmidt, a former Tennant Creek security guard, who was formally identified by WA Police on Saturday, September 28 – almost 10 years after his body was discovered in mysterious circumstances.

Mr Schmidt, 46, was found deceased off the Victoria Hwy just outside of Kununurra on Wednesday, June 17, 2015.

Former director of Talice Security, Skimbo Turnbull said Mr Schmidt was employed by him for 20 years before he went travelling, describing him as “very quiet, very reserved”.

Gary John Schmidt in the Tennant Creek security office. Picture: WA police

“He left, he gave his car away, he jumped on a bus and said he was going to travel around,” Mr Turnbull said.

“When I spoke to him, he’d been all around Australia … he’d said he’d been to Perth, been to Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne.”

Mr Turnbull described Mr Schmidt as a “big man, but harmless”.

“He never had a bad word against anyone,” he said.

Gary John Schmidt. Picture: WA Police

Mr Turnbull did describe one encounter where he had to “bail (Mr Schmidt) out of the s--t” in Darwin.

“He’d been bashed and robbed in Darwin, and was sleeping under a bridge or something – he had no money, had no cards, no ID, so we had to verify to the banks who it was,” he said.

“That was the last we heard from him, after that he took off somewhere again.”

In a statement released when Mr Schmidt was found, WA Police said “investigations to date are unable to confirm the circumstances surrounding how Mr Schmidt died and why he was in the Kununurra area”.

WA Police investigating the site where Gary John Schmidt was found on Victoria Highway, Cockatoo Springs, Kununurra, WA, 2015. Picture: WA Police

Mr Turnbull said he has been assisting police and hoped they could get to the bottom of what happened.

“I feel that foul play is a role in there somewhere,” he said.

WA Police said there were no updates to the initial statement released.

Speaking to the ABC in 2015, WA Police lead investigator Cameron Blayne said “preliminary indications are the person died around late April 2015 or early May”.

The same year, WA Police were appealing to the public for information on a man who may have been hitchhiking along the Victoria Hwy between April 22 and May 5.

WA Police would not comment further if this line of inquiry was still open or if this man was found.

Mr Schmidt was not reported as missing, WA Police said.

When approached by this masthead, his family asked for privacy and did not wish to provide further comment.

Originally published as More details emerge about Gary John Schmidt, a Tennant Creek security guard found dead in WA