Mount Isa Murders

In October 1978, three young travelers — Karen Edwards, 23, a trainee medical psychologist from Dandenong; her partner Tim Thomson, 31, a teacher; and his friend Gordon Twaddle, 21, a pastry cook — were riding motorcycles through central Australia from Alice Springs toward Cairns and Melbourne. Edwards and Thomson shared a BMW motorcycle with a homemade sidecar carrying their gear and a nine-month-old Doberman, while Twaddle rode a separate Suzuki motorcycle. The group was last seen alive on 5 October 1978 at the Moondarra Caravan Park in Mount Isa. Witnesses reported the trio had been joined earlier by another motorcyclist and, on their final day, by an unidentified bearded man driving a brown-and-white Toyota Land Cruiser (Wikipedia).

Edwards's body was found on the morning of 24 October 1978 approximately 12 km north of Mount Isa near Spear Creek, discovered by a local resident walking his greyhounds. The bodies of Thomson and Twaddle were found nearby the following day. All three had been shot, and their identification had been stripped from them, leading investigators to initially believe they were unidentified hitchhikers. The victims' dog was found abandoned at the Mount Isa Dump on 6 October and was later euthanised before the bodies were discovered. Other victim possessions were later found dumped near the same location (Wikipedia).

The original 1978–79 investigation focused on the unidentified "4WD man," who was never located, and explored possible links to other unsolved murders of the era, including the killing of John Tzelaidis in Western Australia and, later, convicted killer Ivan Milat as a person of interest. No suspect was charged at the time. In 2018, Queensland Police's Cold Case Investigation Team, together with the Mount Isa Criminal Investigation Branch, reopened the case, and a public appeal in March 2019 generated dozens of new leads (Wikipedia).

On 12 April 2019, police arrested Bruce John Preston, a 63-year-old former prison guard from Goulburn, on three counts of murder. Preston had been known to the victims and had been interviewed by police in 1977 after being found in possession of Thomson and Edwards's stolen BMW motorcycle; he was convicted of theft of the vehicle in 1978 and fined $300, maintaining he had simply found it. Witnesses reported seeing a man matching Preston's description with the victims the night before the killings, and Preston's father had owned a vehicle similar to the Land Cruiser described. Preston's motorcycle was later located during a raid on Preston's garage in November 1978, along with a 4WD and rifles. At his April 2019 court appearance, Preston's lawyer stated he denied being in Mount Isa at the time of the killings, a claim reportedly contradicted by an earlier interview in which Preston said he had been in Mount Isa when the trio went missing. Preston remained in custody and was later permitted to apply for bail. Police continued to seek further information, offering a $250,000 reward and indemnity from prosecution for any accomplice providing information (Wikipedia).