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Outback Murder Highway S01E02 crime doc. #OutbackMurderHighway #TrueCrime
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00:02it's been dubbed the outback murder highway 11 people murdered or missing in the past 50 years
00:10all on one stretch of road the Flinders Highway it's been a hunting ground for serial killers
00:19for decades and it's probably one of the most notorious stretches of road in the whole of
00:26Australia the case we're investigating is a brutal execution style triple murder back in 1978 three
00:35friends on a motorbike trip throughout back Australia Karen Tim and Gordon were shot dead
00:41on the murder highway three people were murdered that's a real killer three heinous execution style
00:53murders it remains one of the most difficult unsolved murder cases for more than 40 years in
01:01Australia could this be a highway killer or a murderous local our investigators will unearth new
01:13clues new witnesses and new leads there were several things that struck me when I started
01:20reinvestigating this case in my view killers don't want to run risks this fourth man was last seen in
01:29that evening and had never been seen since that time a crucial witness we tracked her down this man clearly
01:38was the killer
01:41so
01:54you
01:55you
01:57you
02:10Flinders Highway starts in Townsville, it goes all the way to Mount Isa and it joins
02:15on with the Barclay Highway which continues on to the Northern Territory.
02:23Our remote highways do attract murderers with psychopathic tendencies, they're out there.
02:36In 1978, this stretch of road was the perfect place for people trying to stay under the radar.
02:57The triple murder at Spear Creek remains one of Queensland's most baffling cold cases.
03:03So we're bringing together a team of investigators to shed new light on this mystery.
03:11This story starts in 1978 with two Kiwis, best mates, Tim Thompson and Gordon Twaddle.
03:19They were living and working across the ditch in Alice Springs.
03:28My name's John Twaddle, brother of Gordon Twaddle and friend of Tim Thompson.
03:36Gordon was the youngest. We got on very well because I got into motorcycling when I was 15 and then
03:43Gordon followed.
03:45It was easy going. He was very keen on life, keen on doing all sorts of things, motorcycling, cars, chasing
03:53women.
03:54Tim was very adventurous. He'd been around the world a bit and he'd brought back motorcycles, rare ones, from overseas.
04:07The two motorbike nuts wrote to John about their plans for a cross-country adventuring trip.
04:16This letter's from Tim, sending it from Australia, and a photo of his motorbike and the sidecar he's just bought.
04:24This is from my brother Gordon, telling me that he had bought a GS750 Suzuki, almost brand new, $1,750.
04:40There was a third person on this motorbike adventure, Karen Edwards.
04:47She was the Aussie of the group and Tim's girlfriend.
04:54She joined the boys in Alice Springs on the 30th of September, 1978.
05:03It was going to be a trip of a lifetime to go across to Mount Isa and then across to
05:10the coast and make their way back down to Melbourne for Christmas.
05:16But their journey ended in bloodshed on the notorious murder highway.
05:25I'm Mike King and I spend a career investigating serial predators, primarily focusing on geography.
05:35You know, I've had the opportunity to look at the Flinders Highway murders for more than five years.
05:42This is a place where people are traveling that are not from the area.
05:48They are passerbys, another face that's quickly forgotten.
05:54Which equates to the fact that they can then become targets of opportunity.
05:58That they can simply disappear off the face of the map and nobody knows that they've come and gone.
06:04And not only is the victim anonymous, the people traveling along this highway are anonymous.
06:12To unlock this mystery, we're retracing their journey step by step.
06:20The three friends left Alice Springs on the 2nd of October.
06:26Tim rode a red motorbike with a sidecar for Karen.
06:30And Gordon followed behind on his bike.
06:35From Alice Springs, they made several sightseeing stops.
06:41This is the last known photo of the trio, taken on their journey days before they disappeared.
06:48They arrived in Mount Isa on the 4th of October.
06:54And then they vanished.
07:02My father told me that Gordon hadn't been in touch with him for some time.
07:08And I said, don't worry, Dad.
07:10Those boys can look after themselves.
07:12They're big boys.
07:13They'll be fine.
07:14They're probably just having a good time and forgetting to ring home or send a letter.
07:27I'm Ken Gamble.
07:29I'm a private investigator that specializes in criminal investigations.
07:32And I'm reinvestigating the Spear Creek murders of 1978.
07:38There were several things that struck me when I started reinvestigating this case.
07:43And I believe that the case was always solvable.
07:54On the 24th of October, 1978, 22 days after Karen, Tim and Gordon set out on their adventure,
08:06a couple walking their dog made a gruesome discovery.
08:14In a dry creek bed just off the Flinders Highway, they found Tim's body.
08:28It was a gruesome discovery.
08:36He was lying down essentially where he had fallen.
08:42It would appear that he was running away at the time that he was shot.
08:50The next day, police returned to the scene in the morning.
08:56And they found two more bodies, which was Gordon and Karen.
09:02And their bodies were located quite close together.
09:07They were both executed also at close range with a .22 rifle.
09:17The same rifle that had been used to murder Tim.
09:22This was a brutal execution-style murder of three people.
09:28But identifying the victims was no easy task.
09:32Police at the time didn't know yet that this was Gordon, Tim and Karen.
09:38They had no way of identifying these people at all.
09:44There was very little evidence other than a couple of personal items.
09:48There was no shell casings found at the scene.
09:53When they found Tim, Tim's thongs had come off.
09:57He'd been trying to scale the sandbank.
10:00He was running.
10:03It appears that robbery was the motivation for this crime.
10:08At least because their property was missing.
10:13Police were baffled by the brutal highway murder on Mount Isa's outskirts.
10:19What sort of person would execute three people in cold blood?
10:23And why?
10:25Because so many itinerant people go through Mount Isa,
10:29police possibly thought it was someone travelling through.
10:38Was the killer just passing through and his victims were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?
10:45Or was he a local just lying in wait?
10:52Early on in the investigation, there was a huge dramatic setback.
10:56Within seconds, we struck the ground.
11:02It made it even more difficult to track down the killer.
11:13It's been dubbed the Murder Highway, a deadly 900-kilometre stretch of road
11:20with more unsolved murders than anywhere else in Australia.
11:26The Flinders Highway.
11:30We're investigating the 1978 execution-style highway murders of three friends,
11:36Karen, Tim and Gordon.
11:42So this triple murder at Spear Creek remains one of the most difficult unsolved murder cases
11:49for more than 40 years in Australia.
11:54Was it a killer passing through?
11:57Or a murderous local?
12:02Police had no idea who these victims were, let alone who murdered them.
12:12I'm Amelia Oberhart.
12:14I'm a Queenslander and I'm an investigative journalist.
12:17The only clue that was left by the killer was Karen's watch.
12:22Police put ads in papers right across the country,
12:25hoping they could identify who it belonged to.
12:28But early on in the investigation, there was a pretty dramatic setback.
12:38On the second day of the investigation,
12:40it was decided to conduct an aerial search of the crime scene.
12:46I'm Jim O'Donnell and in 1978, I was a homicide detective.
12:54We hired a helicopter for a 30-minute surveillance of the scene.
13:04Within a matter of seconds,
13:09we struck the ground.
13:16I slipped out of my seatbelt straight out onto the ground behind me
13:24and started to crawl away from the crash.
13:29The first 48 hours of any police investigation are critical.
13:34It's a crucial window to collect evidence
13:36and track down suspects before they have a chance to flee.
13:40So that helicopter crash was a major setback for detectives.
13:45Because those vital 48 hours at the start were lost
13:49and the investigation never really regained the momentum it needed.
13:57It couldn't have happened at a worse time.
14:00The weeks that went by
14:01made it even more difficult to track down the killer.
14:09The chopper crash delayed investigators,
14:13giving the killer, or killers, a head start.
14:16And time to cover their tracks.
14:21Gordon's bike was found dumped in Mount Isa on October 16th.
14:25But this was eight days before the bodies were discovered,
14:28so no-one raised the alarm.
14:32In my view, killers don't want to run risks.
14:36I'm Dr Louise Stedding.
14:39I'm an archaeologist and a criminologist.
14:42In my spare time, I look at cold cases.
14:48Louise looks at these crimes through a different lens.
14:51She's intrigued by the effort the killer took to conceal their crimes.
14:58Somebody rode out on one of those bikes.
15:04They parked it outside a motel.
15:08God, how clever.
15:10That bike won't be found for ages
15:12because it'll be assumed it's somebody in the motel.
15:15Bites them time.
15:20But on the 30th of October, there was a turning point.
15:24A Melbourne watchmaker reading the newspaper recognised Karen's watch.
15:30Police could now identify the bodies as Karen, Tim and Gordon.
15:36Their families were given the devastating news.
15:39Well, I didn't really believe it, actually.
15:43I thought, no, they're two strong guys.
15:47They're not going to be just murdered by somebody.
15:50But they were.
16:01The next day, another discovery.
16:05The trio's property was found discarded at the Mount Isa tip.
16:11Now, police had to work out how they ended up on the notorious murder highway.
16:21Mapping predatory behaviour and routes is much easier today than it was in the 1970s.
16:28But detectives in 1978, they had no physical or electronic evidence to track the trio's movements.
16:36Luckily for them, members of the public who saw the three friends on their trip came forward.
16:43Police put together this sort of timeline of their final movements and it started with Mount Isa.
16:56If you wanted to get lost in Australia, you came to Mount Isa.
17:03The remoteness of the place and the cheap accommodation attracts people who are on the run.
17:10You can hide away there and not be noticed.
17:14We did have a real rough and ready persona.
17:23Mount Isa in the 1970s was an isolated outpost on the Flinders Highway.
17:31Our investigation is focused on a caravan park just outside of town where police got their first big lead.
17:41Moondara Caravan Park is the last place that Karen, Tim and Gordon were seen alive.
17:50They arrived at the park on October 4 on their motorbikes and they checked into the park.
18:01Detectives discovered that a mystery fourth man had visited the three friends here,
18:07right before they disappeared.
18:12So it became evident quite early in the investigation that this man gained the trio's trust at the Moondara Caravan
18:20Park,
18:20or possibly before there was already some sort of relationship, some sort of trust between them.
18:29The three friends left the caravan park in the fourth man's Toyota Land Cruiser and went to a pub in
18:35Mount Isa.
18:38The next morning, that same man with the Land Cruiser came to the campsite about 8am and he picked them
18:46up.
18:47A short time later, this vehicle was seen to drive out as if they were going out for a day
18:54trip.
18:55And this is the last time Karen, Tim and Gordon are ever seen alive.
19:09It's what happened next that made police pretty sure they were murdered on this same day.
19:17Witnesses told police that 12 hours after leaving the campground with the three friends,
19:22the man returned without Karen, Tim and Gordon.
19:29He came back alone.
19:31That man packed up all their belongings and left the area.
19:38So this fourth man was last seen about 8pm on that evening of the 5th of October and had never
19:46been seen since that time.
19:50Police now have a prime suspect, the fourth man.
19:55Was he a local or did he follow them all the way to the murder highway?
20:01This fourth man clearly was believed to be the killer.
20:07This was a crime not just of violence but certainly of betrayal.
20:15It looked like the mystery of the fourth man was finally solved.
20:19It wasn't a deranged highway killer, it was a local motorbike thief.
20:25When they arrested him, we thought, fine me, justice is going to be done.
20:38In 1978, three friends on a motorbike trip through Outback Australia were found shot dead.
20:49On the notorious and deadly Flinders Highway.
20:53Police had a suspect.
20:57The mystery fourth man.
20:59The man last seen with the trio.
21:06When the three bodies were found on the banks of Spear Creek,
21:11that was really upsetting to the community.
21:14We were in shock.
21:16I'm Kim Marie Burton.
21:18I'm a local local, a very proud one.
21:20And by default, I've become a local historian.
21:23Kim Marie's archive is a treasure trove of photos that haven't been seen for decades.
21:30We're looking for clues in the photos released by police at the time of the triple murder in 1978.
21:39When the police released photographs of the motorbike and the sidecar, everyone knew they'd seen somebody in that motorbike.
21:49It wasn't a very pleasant time in the town.
21:57Back in 1978, Mount Isa, it's the sort of place where everyone knows everybody.
22:03And that's how a young guy named Bruce Preston came to police attention.
22:08On the 13th of November, police acted on a tip off.
22:12Tim's stolen motorbike was found in the garage of a local couple with a son by the name of Bruce
22:19Preston.
22:20He was a young person of 23 years of age.
22:23He gave full answers to all the questions that we asked of him.
22:29He didn't appear nervous at any stage.
22:32Not only was Bruce Preston in possession of the motorcycle, but his father owned a Toyota Land Cruiser, fitting a
22:41very similar description to the Land Cruiser that had been seen at the campground.
22:48The Mount Isa local had been away on a motorbike trip and took the same route from Alice Springs to
22:55Mount Isa around the same time as the three friends.
23:00So this was extraordinary coincidence that this man was believed to have been riding on the same road all the
23:10way from Alice Springs.
23:11His father happened to own a Land Cruiser that was identified as very similar to the Land Cruiser that attended
23:20the campground.
23:21And he was now in possession of one of the motorcycles of the victims.
23:28The Twaddle family was sure that Preston was the fourth man.
23:34Well, we thought that they caught this young bloke, stolen the motorbike.
23:39He must be the guy that's done the murders.
23:44At first, Bruce Preston lied to police about how he got Tim's bike.
23:51He took it and rode it around the town.
23:55He was seen.
23:57And then the trio were found.
24:01And with the trio having been found murdered, would not anyone freak?
24:06What do you do?
24:08You're holding a dead man's bike.
24:14The version Bruce Preston settled on was he found the bike, dumped in Mount Isa and saw two hippies trying
24:21to steal it.
24:22And then he scares them off and stole the bike for himself.
24:26Now, of course, Gordon's bike had also been dumped in Mount Isa.
24:32So to police at the time, Preston's story, it stacked up.
24:39Bruce Preston might have been a thief, but to police, he didn't fit the profile of a cold-blooded triple
24:46murderer.
24:47He was in his early 20s and he had a clean criminal record.
24:52It would be hard to believe that he would be capable of a triple murder.
25:00But then again, the circumstantial evidence, it all pointed to him.
25:05He had Tim's bike and he'd taken the same route as the three victims to get to Mount Isa.
25:12Despite the circumstantial evidence, police couldn't find any proof that Bruce Preston was in town when the friends were murdered.
25:23Bruce Preston has always maintained that he arrived in Mount Isa 24 hours after the trio had arrived at the
25:30Moondara campground.
25:32The fourth man was seen with the trio the same day they arrived at the campground.
25:39So if Bruce Preston did arrive in Mount Isa a day after the trio, then he couldn't have been the
25:47fourth man.
25:49There was no forensic evidence to link Bruce Preston to the crime scene.
25:54And there was really no evidence whatsoever that he was actually in the company of the trio at any stage.
26:03Police had no hard evidence to tie Bruce Preston to any of the murders other than the stolen motorbike.
26:11They charged him with theft, but ultimately ruled him out as a multiple murder suspect.
26:20He was discounted as a suspect, that is Preston we're talking about, mainly because we could not put him in
26:28Mount Isa at the time of the murders.
26:32The thing is, three people were murdered.
26:35That's a real killer.
26:38There's a huge leap between being a serial killer or being a thief.
26:48He stole a motorbike.
26:50That doesn't mean that he murdered people.
26:53Police ruled out Bruce Preston as the killer.
26:56But Gordon's brother John didn't buy it.
27:00We were pretty sure that he was the person that did the crime.
27:06And now the police, for some reason, were letting him off.
27:10Got free.
27:11It just didn't make sense.
27:22The Flinders Highway in Queensland is a hotspot for unsolved murders.
27:31We're focusing on a 1978 triple murder at Spear Creek.
27:35For decades, the case sat gathering dust.
27:40But John Twaddle, the brother of one victim, was sure he knew who the murderer was and insisted the police
27:47act on it.
27:51Nothing had happened for several years.
27:53And I decided to write a letter to police and said,
27:57you want to look at Bruce Preston?
27:59This is the bloke I think it is.
28:05John's letters went unanswered.
28:08The unsolved triple murder was a stain on Queensland for more than 40 years.
28:15But after increasing public pressure, police opened a cold case investigation in 2019.
28:28The cold case unit firstly re-examined all of the evidence from the initial investigation by the Mount Isa CIB.
28:37They obtained a lot of witness statements.
28:39They also re-interviewed a lot of the witnesses.
28:44To confirm the contents of those statements.
28:47When the cold case team went over these old statements and re-interviewed witnesses,
28:53they formed this view that Bruce Preston was actually in Mount Isa earlier than he'd originally told police.
29:00Which meant he could have been in town when the three were murdered.
29:09But that's not all.
29:11Police claimed witnesses saw Bruce Preston travelling with the trio through the Northern Territory
29:17and even identified the motorbike he was riding.
29:20They also claimed to have seen him with the trio in Mount Isa, at the caravan park and at the
29:27local pub.
29:31Police claimed to have witnesses that had sighted Bruce Preston with the trio.
29:38And that was very important because a positive identification by a witness is very compelling evidence.
29:5141 years after Karen, Tim and Gordon were murdered in cold blood, there was a bombshell.
30:00John Twaddle's wish was granted.
30:03Bruce Preston was charged with their murders.
30:07Live across Queensland, this is Live's Afternoon News with Alison Ariotti.
30:13We begin with breaking news.
30:15Police have just charged New South Wales man Bruce John Preston with three counts of murder
30:22over the deaths of three people in rural Queensland over 40 years ago.
30:30Under questioning from detectives, Bruce Preston finally admitted he could have been in Mount Isa
30:37on the day the three friends were murdered.
30:40In a new police interview, Bruce Preston has now changed his story,
30:45accepting he could have been at the relevant place at the time.
30:50I firmly believe now that Preston was trying to distance himself from being anywhere near the deceased people
30:58on their journey from Alice Springs to Mount Isa.
31:04Back in 1978, police knew Bruce Preston had stolen Tim's bike and that his dad drove a Land Cruiser,
31:13the same model car seen with the trio right before they were murdered.
31:20Now, in 2019, police discovered Preston could have been in Mount Isa earlier than he claimed
31:27and witnesses said they saw him travelling with the trio.
31:38It looked like the mystery of the fourth man was finally solved.
31:42It wasn't a deranged highway killer.
31:45It was the local kid, Bruce Preston, the motorbike thief.
31:53When they arrested him, we thought, finally, maybe justice is going to be done after 40 years.
32:02New evidence blows the investigation wide open.
32:06The fourth man, you can see the black hair and dark features.
32:11And this is the photo of Preston, our documentary uncovered.
32:14Bruce Preston looked nothing like him.
32:28In 1978, three friends were executed beside the Flinders Highway.
32:36Police at the time cleared local bike thief, Bruce Preston, as a suspect.
32:44But in a bombshell, a new police investigation in 2019 charged Preston with triple murder.
32:52Detectives assured John Twaddle they had a solid case.
32:57I questioned them whether they had enough evidence after 40 years
33:02and they assured me that they did.
33:06They told me that they had enough information to convict him.
33:12Bruce Preston was caught with Tim's bike.
33:16His father owned the same model of Land Cruiser seen with the murder trio.
33:22And cold case detectives from the 2019 investigation said witnesses identified Preston as the fourth man.
33:30Seen with Karen, Tim and Gordon before they were murdered.
33:35So the police cold case unit believed they had a strong circumstantial case that Bruce Preston was the murderer.
33:44But police still had to prove their case.
33:51And on the 31st of January 2020, a judge ruled police had overstated the evidence identifying Bruce Preston as the
34:00fourth man.
34:03But a lot of those witnesses that were re-interviewed were vague about the identification.
34:08So whilst police were able to establish that a fourth person had joined the trio at some stage,
34:15there was never any evidence to prove that that fourth person was Bruce Preston.
34:20The cold case team had ignored crucial evidence from the original police investigation.
34:27Let's go back to that time for a moment, 1978.
34:34Back then, multiple witnesses said that the fourth man had a distinctive black beard.
34:43He was a solid build, about 178 centimetres.
34:47He had a black beard and dark hair and he was noted to have an olive complexion.
34:55This same bearded man was seen with Karen, Tim and Gordon at a Mount Isa pub the day before the
35:03murder.
35:06Witnesses described him talking to them in the Mount Isa Hotel as having had a full beard, dark hair, a
35:16full head of hair and he also came along in a Toyota Land Cruiser.
35:26In 1978, the detectives who had ruled out Bruce Preston as a suspect were convinced that the trio's killer was
35:33this bearded man.
35:40Police had made several different identicates in case the suspect shaved off his beard or something similar to avoid detection.
35:47Look at this one, you can see the black hair and dark features.
35:50And this is the photo of Preston, our documentary uncovered.
35:55It's actually from the 1978 arrest when he stole Tim's bike and it's never been made public before.
36:03This photo was taken just weeks after the murder when Bruce Preston was charged with theft.
36:13Bruce Preston did not look a thing like the identikit of the Mediterranean guy with his full black beard.
36:20His black beard, his black hair.
36:22Bruce Preston looked nothing, nothing like him.
36:30He was shorter, he had fair hair, had fair skin.
36:34He was certainly incapable of having a black beard and he certainly wasn't Mediterranean looking.
36:40So there was nothing about the features of Bruce Preston that even remotely looked like the person described by the
36:47witnesses at the Moondara campground.
36:51And so fast forward to 2020.
36:57The difference between the descriptions of the bearded man and Bruce Preston was so stark that a judge granted him
37:05bail.
37:07I've never heard of an accused triple murderer being granted bail before.
37:18Three years later, the prosecution withdrew their charges.
37:23Bruce Preston walked away a free man.
37:29We had a Zoom meeting with the prosecution.
37:33They were very wishy-washy about why they dropped the charges.
37:37They just said insufficient evidence.
37:41And we thought that's just hopeless.
37:45They had a serious problem that they were contending with.
37:48A jury would never have believed the prosecution that Bruce Preston was the murderer.
37:55Bruce Preston has no criminal history apart from that one theft of the bike.
38:01He went on to serve in the military.
38:03He became a corrections officer.
38:06What is the probability that Preston would have committed three heinous execution style murders
38:15and then stole the one thing that was most identifiable to the crime and drive it around town?
38:24So if it's not Preston, then who?
38:27And frankly, that who takes us back to the bearded man.
38:31What on earth could be the motivation?
38:33And it leaves us all scratching our heads.
38:38Our investigators close in on a highway killer.
38:42This person was extremely violent and has a complete disregard for him in life.
38:49And guess where he ended up?
38:51Mount Isa.
39:01Along the deadly Flinders Highway, at least 11 people have been murdered or disappeared in the past 50 years.
39:10We're investigating what happened to three friends who were shot dead, execution style.
39:18In 1978.
39:21Their motorbike was found with a local man, Bruce Preston.
39:25He was convicted of theft, but the charge of murder didn't stick for one big reason.
39:31Preston didn't match the description of the last person seen with the three victims.
39:38The bearded man.
39:41That man has never come forward to clear his name.
39:47It would indicate to me that that person could have been the killer.
39:52To find clues about the bearded man's identity, we have to go back to the original 1978 police investigation.
40:02Back then, a crucial witness told police she saw this bearded man with Tim in Alice Springs before the trio
40:10set out on their journey.
40:13And we've tracked her down.
40:15She's never spoken on camera before.
40:18I'm Ermela Polner.
40:20In 1978, Tim Thompson was our neighbour.
40:26What Ermela saw was brief, but her memory is crystal clear.
40:33I was just standing at the gate in front of my house and Tim Thompson came with someone driving a
40:41Toyota Land Cruiser.
40:42And Tim was sitting in the passenger seat and there was this other fellow driving.
40:49He had a beard, dark hair, olive skin.
40:53And that's all we saw of him really.
40:58Ermela told police she saw Tim with a bearded man in Alice Springs.
41:04Witnesses saw a bearded man fitting the same description with Karen, Tim and Gordon in Mount Isa.
41:12Police believed they were one and the same.
41:15It raises a startling question.
41:18Did Tim know his killer?
41:21Was he followed up the highway?
41:26I believe that the killer knew Tim Thompson.
41:31I believe that the killer travelled to Mount Isa knowing that the trio were camping in that campground.
41:41Ken Gamble's investigation into the Spear Creek killings has thrown up a new suspect.
41:49In 1978, there was another highway killer suspected of murdering a man called John Zalades in cold blood in remote
41:59Western Australia.
42:01And like the Spear Creek trio, he had just a single bullet wound to the head.
42:08And had his ID and possession stolen.
42:12This murder, just months before the Spear Creek killings, is also unsolved.
42:18And is one of Western Australia's longest running mysteries.
42:26The suspected killer had been nicknamed George the Money Man.
42:30And he does bear similarities to the man Ermela described.
42:35This is an identikit of George the Money Man.
42:39And this is the Spear Creek suspect, the fourth man.
42:45The highway killer known as George the Money Man stole John Zalades' bank book and he was cashing his cheques.
42:51So detectives were initially able to track the suspected murderer's movements.
42:58And guess where he ended up?
43:01Mount Isa.
43:03Now, that's the last sighting that police could ever find of George the Money Man.
43:10George the Money Man has never been caught.
43:15Ken Gamble believes the murderer could have been responsible for other highway murders throughout remote Australia.
43:23This is a person that has a complete disregard for human life.
43:33After Bruce Preston had his triple murder charges withdrawn in 2023,
43:38it looked as if the Spear Creek killings would remain yet another unsolved case along the Flinders Highway.
43:47But in late 2025, there was yet another twist.
43:52And it put Bruce Preston squarely back in focus.
43:56A coroner has reopened an inquest into the cold case killings of three people near Mount Isa.
44:03Bruce Preston was called to give evidence to a new coronial inquest and was again questioned about his movements in
44:11the lead up to the triple murder.
44:19Hey Ken, how are you? Nice to see you.
44:22It's pretty interesting information coming out of that inquest.
44:25Bruce Preston was very vague about his movements at the time and I think that's made the judge a little
44:31bit suspicious.
44:31The coroner warned Bruce Preston that if he lied, he could face a perjury charge.
44:37You said that you spent 11 months in custody and the past six years thinking about nothing else other than
44:42this case.
44:46For the families of Karen, Tim and Gordon, this new coronial inquest is their last hope for justice.
44:55The family just wants closure and that's a horrible word that really there never is closure for the family, but
45:03they want answers that say it's now finished.
45:09Gordon Twaddle's brother John has carried his anger at a botched investigation for nearly 50 years.
45:17Perhaps soon he'll have his answer.
45:20If the police had done.
45:22If the police had done their job as they should have done from the start and investigated everything, they could
45:27have found somebody or something.
45:32I'm getting old and it would be good to see it all finalised before we all die.
45:55That's all I have happened to my family.
46:10You
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