Million-dollar reward to crack cold-case servo murder

Australian Community Media

The NSW Government and police are offering a $1 million reward to help solve the murder of 17-year-old Billy Hegedus who was shot dead in Inverell, NSW in a botched robbery almost three decades ago.

Transcript

00:00 Today the NSW Government, with the NSW Police Force, have announced a $1 million reward

00:06 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible

00:11 for the murder of Billy Hegedus nearly three decades ago.

00:17 About 9pm Wednesday 23 October 1996, exactly 27 years ago to the day, emergency services

00:28 were called to the service station roadhouse on Warrealda Road at Inverrell in relation

00:36 to a young teenage boy that had been shot.

00:40 Upon arrival they found Michael Billy Hegedus, and we'll call him Billy from now on, was

00:49 found shot, had been shot twice and unfortunately was taken to hospital unable to be saved.

00:55 Postmortem confirmed that Billy had been shot in the chest and the stomach area.

01:01 In relation to what we believe has happened, a large amount of money had been taken from

01:09 the service station during a robbery, believed to be around $36,000, and the investigation

01:17 uncovered this was probably a robbery gone wrong.

01:20 In May 1997, the NSW Government announced a $100,000 reward for information leading

01:27 to the conviction of Billy's death and a year later a man was actually arrested but never

01:32 convicted.

01:34 The matter remains unresolved.

01:37 Someone out there may have some information that may be very beneficial to assisting solve

01:42 this crime, a longstanding crime 27 years ago but had a massive impact on the community,

01:48 clearly a massive impact on his family members who are standing with us today.

01:53 For us to get some closure, to get some information in relation to where this investigation, to

01:58 lead this investigation to hopefully a successful conclusion, we would be very appreciative

02:05 of any community member who will make contact with Inverell Police, Armidale Police or Crime

02:10 Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

02:12 He had the most beautiful smile, lovely blue eyes, he was everybody's friend, he was everybody's

02:21 friend.

02:22 He was cheeky and he loved his sport and he loved his family.

02:29 When the staff called us home and said Billy was on our bedroom floor and unresponsive,

02:35 we didn't know what had happened, we had no idea.

02:38 When we came straight home, only one night out, and we saw him on the floor and we rang

02:47 an ambulance and then Phil thought the safe was wide open and then he rang the police

02:52 and said this more than just whatever and then they came and it just all happened so

03:00 fast and then they said he's been shot and they rolled him over and said he's been shot

03:06 twice.

03:09 Didn't know he was going to die, I just thought it was something, I don't know what I thought.

03:14 Anyway he didn't survive.

03:17 He said goodnight at 7.30 and he was in his pyjamas and he was sitting on the end of our

03:23 bed when he was killed, in our bedroom.

03:28 We're hoping this will bring it closer to an end.

03:32 People out there are going, it's an attractive figure of money and we just hope it will attract

03:38 someone and someone might mention to the police something that they know.

03:45 People's situation has changed now.

03:49 A million dollars is a lot.

03:51 They've moved 27 years, they've changed their life, we haven't, we stayed the same for 27.

03:58 They've got on, they've got new lives, they don't owe people anything, they can come out

04:03 and talk now.

04:08 We hope it brings justice.

04:11 It'll never bring Billy back, it won't, but we want justice for Billy.

04:16 He was only 17, we buried him before he turned 18, the day before and he didn't deserve it,

04:23 he's only 17, he hadn't lived.

04:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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