It was a cold July morning at Ipswich on the 15 July 1987 and I had just taken charge of the Ipswich Police District having been reassigned from Internal Investigations in Brisbane. Following our morning conference I briefed my second in command, Inspector Graham Burgemeister regarding my activities for that day and then commenced to travel to Brisbane to attend to some matters left over from my previous assignment.
When reaching the suburb of Goodna severe crackling commenced to emit from the two-way car police radio. I was unable to understand any of the conversation but I could hear a siren and what sounded like a helicopter descending from the air onto the ground. I then called at the Goodna police station and there learnt that a serious accident had occurred on the Warrego Highway west of Ipswich and that a female had been shot dead.
On reaching the scene I can only describe the situation as mass confusion. Police vehicles, ambulance vehicles, journalists seeking answers, helicopters descending to the roadway and police officers endeavouring to control traffic travelling north and south as well as people who had arrived at the scene for no other reason than to find out what had occurred.
Those officers on traffic control were performing an excellent job. Inspector Burgemeister was present at the scene and briefed me on the situation. I was then approached by an officer of whom I have the greatest respect and he said to me. “Danny Murdoch has court this morning. He would be finished by now and may I suggest that he is appointed the detective to investigate this accident to bring it to a successful conclusion.”
Detective Sergeant Dan Murdoch subsequently arrived at the scene and took charge of the investigation assisted by his work colleague, Plain Clothes Constable Glen Pointing. Other detectives and uniform officers were quickly detailed to assist.
Some years ago Dan Murdoch separated from the Queensland police service with the rank of Detective Senior Sergeant/Acting Inspector and pursued other interests. I recently contacted Dan and he readily agreed to recount the investigation for me and kindly supplied me with the following report.
“As a Police Officer one sees many deaths caused by actions or events, some common and some not so common, some deliberate and some not intended. Victim’s young and old; there is no immunity it seems. The great majority of these deaths are of course unwanted.
On a fine winter’s day in July 1987 such a death occurred just outside of Ipswich, it was unwanted and should never have occurred.
On Wednesday, the 15th July 1987 Mrs. Pamela Florence Bain aged 65 and her husband Donald William Bain aged 70 were travelling west on the Warrego Highway near the Ipswich outer suburb of Tivoli heading to Toowoomba to visit their family. They were driving their Ford Falcon sedan and towing a small caravan. Pamela Bain and her husband were on a three-month holiday from their home in Vermont near Melbourne, Victoria to see relatives in Queensland. It was 11.30 am.
As the vehicle passed near an unused quarry and disused mine area, which occupied a large parcel of land to the left-hand side of the Warrego Highway at Tivoli, a bullet shattered the passenger window of the Falcon striking Mrs. Bain in the lower part of her neck killing her. Her husband quickly pulled to the shoulder of the highway, saw his wife slumped over the seat and then discovered she had been shot. He hailed a passing car and an Ambulance called.
Ipswich Police were then notified of the shooting.
Donald Bain had a heart condition and the event caused serious concerns, so he was taken to the Ipswich Hospital for examination as a precautionary measure before giving Ipswich detectives an account of what had occurred.
Queensland Police Scenes of Crime, local uniformed officers and Ipswich Detectives were called to investigate the shooting and immediately conduced a detailed search of the vast expanse of vacant land bordering the Highway. A new Ipswich District Officer had been appointed for the Ipswich Police District and it happened to be his first day ‘on the job.’ It was a day Inspector Laurie Pointing would not forget. He immediately attended the scene and took charge of ‘fine combing’ the vacant quarry, mine area and nearby scrub land.
A full search utilising dog units, helicopter, water Police, Police cadets and the tactical response group were used to secure and search the vast area and nearby scrub land, while Detectives interviewed local residents who had heard shots being fired from the direction of the scrub area within the vacant land, which in some places was up to one kilometre away from the Warrego Highway.
The entrance wound Mrs Bain suffered indicated that the bullet had been fired from an elevated location giving Police their first clue. All avenues of enquiry were considered from it being a deliberate act to a careless act using a firearm. The search continued for the rest of the 15th and into the 16 July. Residents advised Police of hearing shots at approximately 11.30 am on the 15th and other residents advised hearing gunshots being fired earlier that same morning.
Reports filtered into investigating Detectives of persons on trail bikes armed with rifles in bushland near the site of the shooting. It was not clear if any of the many reports were factual however, the death of Mrs. Bain caused a degree of fear among local residents.
Police were beginning to reach an early opinion that the shooting may have been the result of indiscriminate firing of a weapon in the direction of the Warrego Highway killing Mrs. Bain.
The search of the bush area adjacent to the Highway where it was believed the shots were fired from resulted in the location of nine (9) 6.5 mm cartridges that came from an old style military weapon similar in type to a Swedish Mauser. The location of the cartridges was some 700 metres from the Warrego Highway and the site of Mrs. Bain’s death.
The cartridges matched the bullet retrieved from Mrs. Bain’s body.
Detectives broadened their investigation to include persons of interest in areas adjacent to the Warrego Highway area and also to persons known to possibly have weapons in their possession. Many persons were interviewed however; no firm suspects were identified at this point in time. Even after extensive interviews were conducted Police were still considering all options, including deliberate actions and the possibility of a group of persons target shooting.
Door knocks in the vicinity and other adjacent areas continued and Police appealed to the public for assistance. Detectives believed that intense Police enquiries and their activity in these areas would prompt action by witnesses or the offenders themselves.
As well as creating fear in the minds of local residents, Politicians started to campaign for the strengthening of gun laws. This started a lively debate publicly regarding the availability of firearms in Queensland and claiming Queensland as a State not strict on gun laws.
On the evening of the 17th July Detectives spoke to two young men at the Ipswich Police Station and then responded to an address in Karalee. They located a weapon 6.5 mm Mauser buried at the rear of the property and a hoe utensil used to bury the firearm. Two local men Robert James Kington aged 22 years and Christopher Gerard McEwen aged 19 years were interviewed and charged with the Unlawful Killing of Mrs. Bain as well as firearm charges. They appeared in the local Ipswich Magistrates Court on the 18th July 1987 and due to the fact that they contacted Police voluntarily and admitted to firing at a tin, there was no opposition to their bail application.
The two men were remorseful for their actions and the death of Mrs. Bain.
On the 2nd October 1987, the two men were committed for trial for the unlawful killing of Mrs. Bain. At the committal hearing evidence was placed before the Court that the rifle was sold to the youths some two (2) months prior to the shooting for the sum of $150.00. The young men were instructed as to the fact that the weapon was in fact a dangerous weapon and to shoot it only at the base of a tree and they were also instructed as to the weapons safety features.
Both men were committed for trial.
It was not until 1996 that Queensland along with the rest of Australia strengthened their laws relating to firearms.”
Both Kington and McEwen were committed for trial to the Supreme Court Brisbane, however they were found ‘Not Guilty’ as the Crown were unable to prove who pulled the trigger, which caused the fatal death of Pamela Florence Bain.
Ironically Christopher Gerard McEwen was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident on the Warrego Highway sometime after the handing down of the decision.
Throughout our service police officers investigate and are involved in many unusual investigations. I rate the unfortunate death of Pamela Florence Bain on the 15 July 1987 as the most unique I was involved with.
