The Bowraville murders is the name given to a suspected case of serial murder, relating to three deaths that occurred over five months from September 1990 to February 1991 in Bowraville, New South Wales, Australia. All three victims were Aboriginal, and all disappeared after parties in Bowraville's Aboriginal community, in an area known as The Mission.Australian Story – Truth be Told – Transcript , 2006-09-04, abc.net.auLone cop to tell inquest name of killer suspect, By Alex Mitchell, 2004-02-08, The Sun-Herald The Mission is on Gumbayngirr Road, (formerly Cemetery Road) and is approximately two kilometres outside of the town centre. A local labourer, who was regarded by police as the prime suspect, was charged with two of the murders but was acquitted following trials in 1994 and 2006. On 13 September 2018, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal decided that the man could not be retried for the murders. On 22 March 2019, the High Court of Australia refused an application by the Attorney General of New South Wales to bring an appeal against that decision.
Victims
Disappearance of Colleen Walker The first victim, 16-year-old Colleen Walker of Sawtell, New South Wales, was in the rural timber town of Bowraville visiting relatives. She was last seen alive on 13 September 1990, walking away from a party in the Aboriginal community of The Mission. Thomas Jay Hart, a local man who later became the prime suspect, was noted to have been loitering around the party house. The following day, Walker's family reported to the police that she was missing. Despite the family believing something terrible had happened, the missing person's report was not taken seriously by local police; no search parties were formed and no formal action was taken. Walker's body has never been located, although in April 1991 articles of her clothing were later found weighed down by rocks in the Nambucca River. Death of Evelyn Greenup On 4 October 1990, Walker's cousin, four-year-old Evelyn Greenup, disappeared after a party at her grandmother's house. She was last seen by her mother's side after she was put to bed that night, but had vanished when she awoke the next morning. Evelyn's mother reported that she felt very tired and unwell that evening, and had gone into a deep sleep, waking up to find her clothes were removed. Greenup's grandmother later recalled hearing Evelyn briefly cry out during the night, but did not think much of it at the time. Several attendees recalled that the prime suspect was in attendance at this party, and had been awake late into the night. On 27 April 1991, Greenup's skeletal remains were found in bushland near Congarinni Road. An autopsy could not conclusively determine the cause of death, but noted that a skull injury was "consistent with a forceful penetration by a sharp instrument".Accused spoke of killing girl, court told, By Natasha Wallace, 2006-02-07, The Sydney Morning Herald. Death of Clinton Speedy-Duroux On 31 January 1991, 16-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux went missing after a party at The Mission. Friends noted that Clinton appeared to be drunk that evening. This was noted as strange, as Clinton was not known to drink to intoxication. He was last seen on the morning of 1 February, and had stayed with his girlfriend in a yellow Viscount caravan used by the prime suspect. When his girlfriend awoke the next morning, Clinton was gone and some of her clothes had been removed. The prime suspect was outside, and stated that he had witnessed Clinton leave the caravan at 5am, but never returned. On 2 February 1991, Clinton's father, Thomas Duroux, reported his son missing to the local police, and a search was launched. On 18 February 1991, Speedy-Duroux's remains were discovered in bushland near Congarinni Road about seven kilometres outside Bowraville. A pillowcase from the prime suspect's caravan was located underneath his clothing.
Initial police response Colleen was the first of the Bowraville children to vanish, and so her case was treated in isolation by local police, who categorised her disappearance as a likely runaway. Colleen's family, however, rejected this view, insisting that something more serious had befallen her. Concerned for her safety, members of the local community, alongside Catholic priest Bernie Ryan, established an office where residents could come forward and document their memories of the night Colleen went missing. These statements were carefully transcribed and provided to police, to assist with the investigation.Allens Arthur Robinson (law firm) & Clinton Speedy-Duroux Association Incorporated, 'Bowraville Murders', [report submitted to Attorney General of New South Wales the Honourable John Hatzistergos MLC], pp. 1–16, 2010. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/inquiries/2131/Bowraville%20-%20Final%20report.pdf
Despite compelling evidence such as Colleen's intention to depart the following morning, her packed belongings, and her positive mood (all factors that could complicate the runaway theory) local authorities insisted that the majority of teenage disappearances are runaways, and Colleen would likely return home within two weeks. Colleen's family persisted in reporting her as missing, and encountered increased police scrutiny and accusations of child abuse in response. Research suggests that when reporting possible crimes or presenting as victims of crime, Aboriginal Australians commonly experience confrontational reactions, outright dismissal, and suspicion from police.NSW Ombudsman, 'Working with local Aboriginal communities', Audit of the implementation of the NSW Police Aboriginal Strategic Direction (2003 – 2006), April 2005, p. 18.Comack, E. (2012). Racialized policing: Aboriginal people's encounters with the police. Fernwood Publishing.
Members of Evelyn's family also encountered significant issues when reporting Evelyn missing, and police initially refused to take a statement or report the 4-year-old as missing. In a statement to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Evelyn's aunt stated, "... they just kept asking us where she was. They thought we had sent her up to Queensland. They just wouldn't listen to us when we said she had disappeared. I don't understand why they didn't believe us."'Supplementary Submission No 17a', Inquiry into Family Response to the Murders in Bowraville, Standing Committee on Law and Justice. NSW Government. 22 May 2014. https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=96c1f14c-15e0-499b-b382-c4d0b6fa4ca4&subId=732715 Similarly to Colleen's family, Evelyn's mother was subjected to unfounded accusations when continuing to report her daughter missing, "The Police kept telling me that my mother and I sold her and I was so disgusted in the thought of what they were saying this about me and my mother. My daughter was missing and it seemed like they just didn't want to find her."Inquiry into Family Response to the Murders in Bowraville, Standing Committee on Law and Justice. NSW Government. 22 May 2014. https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=96c1f14c-15e0-499b-b382-c4d0b6fa4ca4&subId=732715 Clinton's disappearance prompted a more immediate response from police compared to Colleen's and Evelyn's cases, with officers visiting the suspect's caravan later that day. By the time officers arrived, the bedding (sheets, pillow slips, and blankets) had been removed, and there was no visible sign of where Clinton had slept. The suspect was informally questioned at Macksville Police Station later that day, and on February 4, was formally interviewed about Clinton's disappearance. The caravan was officially searched on February 7, six days after Clinton had disappeared. This delay exemplifies a recurring criticism of the initial police investigations: police took too long to search pertinent locations and question key witnesses, risking the loss or contamination of potential evidence. At the time of Clinton's disappearance the police were treating each case as unrelated and possible runaways, and no formal connection was made between the three disappearances.
A crucial additional witness account, now referred to as the 'Norco Corner' evidence, further implicated possible foul play in Clinton's disappearance. On the early morning of February 1, two truck drivers were making early deliveries near Norco corner, roughly 200 metres from the caravan. They observed a white man standing over a barefoot Indigenous teenage boy beside a red car. When the truck drivers stopped and offered assistance, the man responded curtly, claiming he was trying to get the boy off the road and had already contacted police. Although this witness sighting was reported to law enforcement at the time, it was not pursued by the original investigative team and never reached the courts. It resurfaced only in 2006 through a renewed investigation, though by then its evidentiary value had diminished significantly due to the passage of time.
Investigation Police eventually agreed that the disappearances were likely criminal. However, they rejected the idea that the cases were directly linkedN. Prior, 'Still no trace of four-year-old Evelyn despite weekend search', Sydney Morning Herald, 8 October 1990, available from Factiva, (accessed 04 April 2021). and instead suspected the disappearances were a result of domestic child abuse, calling in the NSW Child Mistreatment Unit to investigate the community. Despite being under investigation, Bowraville's residents were sceptical of the police's claims and maintained their own search of the local area for their missing children.
After Clinton and Evelyn's bodies were found, the case officially became a homicide investigation. However, the investigation was not transferred to a homicide squad, and the Child Mistreatment Unit was ordered to continue on the case, despite having zero experience with homicide investigations. This decision has never been clearly explained, and is noted as a crucial mistake in the investigation. Several distinct similarities between the disappearances and murders led the local community and police to believe they were committed by the same person: All took place within the short time frame of five months. All three victims were Aboriginal. Autopsies of the two bodies that were found, indicate both suffered trauma to the head.Aborigine murder case is re-opened, By Kathy Marks, 14 May 2005, independent.co.uk All three victims disappeared after parties in the area locally known as "The Mish", a former Mission located on the outskirts of Bowraville. Due to these similarities, investigators moved away from the initial 'child abuse' theory, to instead focus on a single prime suspect, Thomas Jay Hart, a 25-year-old, white, local labourer.
Trials On 8 April 1991, a 25-year-old local Bowraville labourer, Thomas Jay Hart, was arrested for the murder of Speedy-Duroux. He was well known in the Aboriginal community in Bowraville and often attended the parties at The Mission. On 16 October 1991, while out on bail awaiting trial, Hart was arrested and charged with the murder of Greenup. Despite the prosecution intending to try the cases together, Justice Badgery-Parker ruled that the trials for Clinton and Evelyn's murders had to be held separately, as the law at the time restricted the use of coincidence (aka similar fact) evidence. This meant that evidence from one case could not be used in the other, posing a significant challenge for the prosecution and shaping the course of the Bowraville proceedings. With the cases separated, the prosecution had to present a much weaker circumstantial case. Hart was acquitted of Speedy-Duroux's murder by an NSW Supreme Court jury on 18 February 1994, the third anniversary of the discovery of his body. Significant concerns were later raised regarding how the jury interpreted Aboriginal witnesses. After the acquittal, prosecutors did not proceed with the trial against him for the murder of Greenup.