Queensland Police are doubling the reward for information about a suspicious fire at a hostel in southeast Queensland that claimed the lives of five men more than 30 years ago. They say advancements in forensic technology and further information could finally bring the killer or killers to justice.
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00:00Trapped in their upstairs bedroom, Trevor Ganter, Salvatore Tusa, Edward Boyne, Eldred
00:08Glode and Desmond Beamey were killed in an arson attack that destroyed the Oakdale guesthouse
00:14in December 1990.
00:17Consider there were 28 people in the boarding house that night, so in a way we were fortunate
00:25that we only lost the life of five people that night.
00:28Police say an argument broke out between a stranger and occupants of the hostel over
00:33a packet of cigarettes earlier in the night, but the victims were not the intended targets.
00:40I don't believe that these five people that died on the night of the fire were involved
00:46in any altercations.
00:48In 1992, a man was charged with five counts of murder and arson, but the charges were
00:54dropped two years later.
00:56The investigation then reopened in 2008 when a $250,000 reward was posted.
01:04Sixteen years later, police have doubled the reward to half a million dollars in the hope
01:10of finally solving the case.
01:12It is our intention to re-interview all witnesses and all previous persons of interest in relation
01:18to the original investigation.
01:20Nearly 34 years on, the pain is still raw for those who lost loved ones.
01:26The grief, the sadness, the loss, the feeling of frustration and anger, they're all very
01:33real.
01:34It never goes until it's resolved, and it won't be resolved until someone is brought
01:40to justice for this.