Casefile True Crime: Case 249: Lorraine Wilson & Wendy Evans

Und du? Wenn isst du deine Pinklady am liebsten? Zum Frühstück oder gegen den kleinen Hunger?

Pinklady vor dem Schlafengehen oder Pinklady nach der Arbeit? Pinklady zu Nachtisch oder Pinklady als Snack?

Warum sich überhaupt entscheiden? Der Pinklady-Apfel einfach immer ein Genuss.

Winden Sie Pinklady in den Zieldörfern der Deutschland-Tour vom 23. zu 27. August.

Es war ein windiger Sonntagabend auf Oktober 6, 1974,

als zwei Queensland-Polizistinnen und Polizisten auf der Früchte zu Yucanavale Youth Camp gelangten.

Sie waren von den Camps-Aufwärtskampen geliebt, die verflussbar waren.

Vor der letzten halben Stunde waren die remote und pacifischen Verwaltungen

intermittent verletzt worden, durch ein frittendes Geräusch.

Die Polizisten lachen. Ein paar Minuten später hörten sie es für sich selbst.

Blutkörterliche Verwaltungen.

Für die erste Zeit in Officer Ian Hamilton's Karriere, die Haare auf dem Backen seiner Nenke standen.

Er hat nie so ein horrendes und terrifizierendes Geräusch gehört.

Es war nicht so, dass die Verwaltungen von nur einer Person kamen.

Die Verwaltungen in Pitches waren, dass es zumindest zwei Frauen für Hilfe kamen.

Wie die Anwaltinnen und Anwaltungen, die die Anwaltinnen und Anwaltungen nicht festgestellt haben, welche Richtung die Verwaltungen kamen.

Die Yucanavale Youth Camp war auf der Uphill-Aufwärtskampen gelangten,

zwischen der Inlande Stadt von Toowoomba und der rührenden Stadt von Whithcott.

Diese Mountainous-Lokation, die mit den Blutkörtern gewinnt,

hat die Origin der Verwaltungen geändert.

Eine Minute sahen so aus, als ob sie von oben kamen.

Die nächste sahen so aus, als ob sie von oben kamen.

Nach 40 frustrierenden Minuten,

sonderlich zu den verdammten Verwaltungen rumgekommen waren,

war alles unruhig.

Die Officierinnen und die Anwaltinnen und Anwaltinnen beruhen auf den Blick auf jemanden in Trouble.

Jeden Tag und dann stoppten sie, um zu sehen, ob die Verwaltungen wieder begonnen wurden.

Aber sie waren mit den Verwaltungen getroffen.

Für die 20-jährige Lorraine Wilson hat die Anwaltinnen und Anwaltinnen eine offizielle Karriere choice.

Die jüngste von vier Kindern in einer jüngsten Familie,

hat sie in den Fußgärtern ihrer Mutter,

die als Anwalt in Sydney als Kind des Weltkrieges, aufgeräumt.

Die Wilson-Familie lebte auf einem Farm, 64 Kilometer außer Dubbo,

eine kleine Stadt im Zentrum von New South Wales.

Sie lebten predominantly auf dem Land,

mit den Kindern mit dem

Als ihre Brüder um die Nase zu verlassen, begann sie in Sydney, um ihre Treinung in St. George Hospital zu beginnen.

Es war da, dass sie 18-Jährige Wendee Evans mit einem Fellow-Trainer meeten.

Wie Lorraine, Wendee hat die unerwartete Träume für eine Nurse geholfen, Empathie und Verständnis geholfen.

Sie hat auch in einer Flüchtlingsfamilie gegründet und war eine der vier Kinder.

Wendee hatte eine mehr ursprüngliche Erbringung in Sydney in den Westen, aber das hat sie nicht veröffentlichen und Lorraine von nahem Freunden zu kommen.

Sie geholfen ihre Treinung, um ihre Klassen in solchen Subjekten als Neurologie zu tauschen.

By late August 1974, Lorraine und Wendee haben das erste Jahr der Studie geholfen.

Um sie zu feiern, haben sie einen interstate Bus zusammen geholfen,

um Touristen wie Townsville, Mount Isa, Katharine, Darwin und Alice Springs zu besuchen.

Die Treppe ging in Dubbo.

Die zwei Freunde haben ein paar Tage auf der Wilsons Familie farmt, bevor sie in Lorraine's Volkswagen Beetle in der letzten Leg der Reise gehen.

Eine 800 km Roadtrip zu Brisbane.

Vor einerasses riecht die aha

Die, die sie pickten, waren so freundlich, dass sie nicht stoppen, um ihnen Burgers zu kaufen,

bevor sie sie in das Zuhause von Wendee-Sister Susan,

die in der Suburb von Camp Hill lebten.

Lorraine und Wendy haben sechs Tage in Brisbane geäußert,

während sie mit Susan und ihrer Familie zusammengekommen waren.

Am Sonntag, Oktober 6,

waren die beiden bereit, nach Hause zu sein, um auf die Arbeit zu gehen.

Sie waren aus dem Geld geäußert,

aber Lorraine war ein Volkswagen und noch nicht bereit zu sein.

Sie haben ihre Optionen geäußert.

Nach der positiven Erfahrung, als sie in Brisbane geäußert haben,

haben sie nach der Wilsons Farm in Dubbo geäußert.

Susan hat sie reingesteckt.

Sie waren willkommen zu bleiben, bis Lorraine die Fahrt bereit war

oder sie die Geld für ein Train- oder Bus-Ticket haben.

Wendee considered her sister's offer,

but Lorraine was confident, that everything would be okay.

The friends were sure their good luck would continue.

Wendee reassured her sister, saying,

I've got Lorraine to protect me.

When the young women failed to arrive in Dubbo,

Lorraine's mother Betty told herself

that they must have made last minute plans.

But she could feel in her bones, that something was wrong.

It was only after Lorraine and Wendee

failed to appear for work on Thursday

that the pair were realized as missing.

A police investigation was launched.

Lorraine and Wendee hadn't told anyone

what route they intended to take from Brisbane

or whether they intended to stop anywhere along the way.

With no concrete information to use as a starting point,

it was like searching for a needle

in a near 900 kilometer long haystack.

Lorraine's parents hit the road,

retracing every step the friends had taken

on their journey up to Brisbane.

They showed photos to everyone they crossed paths with

and spoke to the media along the way,

doing everything in their power

to bring publicity to Lorraine and Wendee's disappearance.

Reported sightings of the young nurses

came in from all over the country,

but none could be verified.

Neither Lorraine or Wendee had touched their bank accounts

since the day before they left Camp Hill.

As time wore on,

the possibility grew that they had met with foul play.

Taking the mentality that no news is good news,

the Wilson family remained hopeful

that the young women would be found alive.

The Evans family were less optimistic.

By the time Wendee had been missing for four months,

her sister Susan had given birth,

meaning Wendee had become an aunt again.

The fact she didn't reach out could only suggest

that something terrible had happened.

Wendee's mother Alice told reporters,

I now feel the situation is hopeless for my daughter

and just want to know where she lies dead.

There is no doubt in my mind

that the worst has happened.

The investigation continued,

but no promising leads emerged.

By Friday, June 25, 1975,

the two friends had been missing for almost 21 months.

That day, an elderly couple went for a leisurely drive

to Murphy's Creek,

a small historic settlement

approximately 30 km northeast of Tawumba.

The couple drove down Murphy's Creek Road,

a rural thoroughfare surrounded by dense bushland and dry paddocks.

About two and a half kilometres outside the township,

they turned down an unsealed dirt road.

After 900 metres,

they parked their car near a split rail fence.

It was an isolated area with residential homes

in between.

The closest farmhouse was about 800 metres away,

making it an ideal spot for a private picnic.

As they ate lunch in their car,

a wallaby hopped past the couple's vehicle.

They decided to get out and follow it.

The pair scaled a barbed wire fence

that framed a private property

before walking into a wooded paddock.

After heading through a cluster of trees,

they came across a small clearing.

It looked like some kind of rubbish dump.

On the ground, all kinds of items were strewn about,

clothing, cosmetics, bags and other personal belongings.

The man bent down to get a better look at a discarded camera

when his companion noticed something on the ground nearby.

A human skull.

This wasn't just a rubbish dump.

It was a burial site.

The couple rushed back to their car

and drove towards Toowoomba.

By chance, they passed the police car

and stopped to inform the officer what they'd found.

The officer followed the couple back to the clearing,

where he identified two human skulls

and other human bones.

Amongst the personal belongings dumped throughout the site

was a transistor radio.

A name was engraved on the back.

Lorraine Wilson.

Within hours, the remote site was teaming with police.

They uncovered the mostly intact skeletons

belonging to Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans.

Although wildlife had dispersed some of the bones,

it was clear that the two bodies had initially been dumped

side by side.

Their killer had made no attempt to hide the bodies.

They likely deemed it unnecessary,

given the remote spot was obstructed by trees

and at the rear of a 2000 acre plot of farmland.

Both women had sustained fatal head injuries,

possibly inflicted by a large piece of timber found nearby.

Lorraine had been struck on the back of the head

between one and three times,

whereas Wendy had endured multiple extensive injuries.

A forensic examiner determined that Wendy's face

had been, quote, bashed to a pulp.

Remnants of a thin, looped synthetic cord

indicated both women had been hogtide,

but the state of the remains meant it couldn't be ascertained

whether either of them had been sexually assaulted.

Their genes and underwear were still in place,

their brass straps were fastened

and the cord had been tied over their genes.

Had they been raped, it likely happened

sometime before they were killed.

All up, a total of 90 personal items belonging to Lorraine

and Wendy were found at the bush side,

everything they'd been carrying on their journey from Brisbane.

Only a few items were missing,

both of their wallets and two bank books.

However, it didn't necessarily seem

that the killer was motivated by robbery.

Lorraine und Wendy still had their jury,

including a pendant necklace, a gold bracelet

and Lorraine's prized antique ring.

Using a metal detector,

an army officer scanned a dry mound of dirt nearby.

They located a men's silver signet ring

with a large green stone.

This was the only item that couldn't be attributed

to either Lorraine or Wendy.

While it was possible that the killer had accidentally lost the ring,

another scenario had to be considered.

What if the killer or someone who knew of the crime

had intentionally left it behind as a clue?

The crime scene was around a two hour drive west

of Camp Hill where Lorraine and Wendy were last seen alive.

Investigators deemed it unlikely

that the pair had been killed elsewhere

while being dumped at Murphy's Creek.

It would have been too difficult to cut their bodies

over the barbed wire fence

and dense bush to the burial site.

It made much more sense

that Lorraine und Wendy had met their fate

in this isolated location

where no one would hear them scream.

Except someone did.

Wann Police Officer Ian Hummelton

heard about the discovery of the remains,

he immediately thought back to the night of Sunday,

October 6, 1974.

He and his partner had been unable to locate

the source of two women screaming

in the Toowoomba Ranges region.

He checked his records and confirmed

that the incident had happened on the same day

that Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans went missing.

Based on this information,

investigators concluded the screams

had come from the two nurses

and that they had likely been killed

the same day they left Brisbane.

Lorraine und Wendy had briefly mentioned

wanting to go sunbathing on the Gold Coast.

This became a significant detail.

In July 1972,

18-year-old Robin Heunville-Bartram

and her friend 19-year-old Anita Cunningham

had hitchhiked to Queensland

and were last seen in the Gold Coast

suburb of Coulangatta.

Four months later,

Robin's body was found under a bridge

in the rural town of Charter's Towers.

She had been shot twice with a rifle.

Anita's body was never found,

but police were certain she'd met the same fate.

Dann, on October 6, 1973,

one year to the day before Lorraine und Wendy

went missing,

best friends Michelle Riley and Gabriel Jankie

got out of a taxi in Brisbane's CBD.

The 16- and 19-year-old

planned to hitchhike to the Gold Coast.

A week later,

Gabriel's decomposing body was found

at the bottom of an embankment

in the Pacific Highway.

11 days on and 25 kilometers away,

Michelle's body was found in bushes

off the Mount Tambourine Highway.

Both teens had been sexually assaulted

and bludgeoned to death

in what police described as a frenzied attack.

On May 5, a month and a half before Lorraine

und Wendy's bodies were found,

Gold Coast teenager Margaret Rosewarn

hitchhiked from surface paradise

to a party in nearby Burley Heads.

16 days later, her body was discovered

amongst overgrown grass on a vacant block

in West Burley.

She had been beaten so ferociously

that dental records were needed to make a positive identification.

It appeared as though a struggle had taken place

on a nearby road, leading investigators

und Margaret had tried to flee from someone's car.

Including Lorraine und Wendy,

all seven women were of a similar age group

and had gone missing while hitchhiking

in the Brisbane Gold Coast areas.

Five of them were bludgeoned to death

and likely sexually assaulted,

their bodies disposed of relatively out in the open.

The similarities seemed too strong

to be purely coincidental.

Was it possible that all seven of the young women

had fallen victim to the same cold-blooded killer

who the public had dubbed,

the Gold Coast Hitchhiker Murderer?

A $100,000 reward for information pertaining

to the Wilson and Evans case was offered,

the largest ever for a Queensland homicide.

A bus driver came forward to report

in Sunday, Oktober 6, 1974,

he'd been completing his route on Ipswich Road

in Western Brisbane.

As he passed the Oxley Police Academy,

he saw two young women who matched the descriptions

of Lorraine und Wendy sitting on the side of the road.

A faded, light green E.K. Holden pulled over

and the women got in.

Two men aged in their early 20s were sitting inside.

The driver had shoulder-length fair hair

and his passenger had an Afro.

This sighting coincided with the time

that Lorraine und Wendy left Camp Hill,

prompting Detectives to conclude it was genuine.

They appealed for anyone who had seen

a similar vehicle in the area to come forward.

The appeal caught the attention

of Brisbane resident Anthony Doherty.

On Sunday, Oktober 6, 1974,

he'd been parked in front of the Oxley Hotel

when he overheard two young women

disagreeing about whether or not

they should accept a ride.

The women matched the description of Lorraine und Wendy.

The shorter of the pair, presumably Wendy,

was reluctant.

Her friend said,

I'm going, whether you come or not.

She walked over to the car park to next to Anthony's,

a green Holden with a white top.

In the passenger seat was a young male

around 20 years old with dark hair and a round face.

He had a scruffy look and a quote

silly grin on his face.

Another male of similar age stood next to the Holden,

as though waiting for the girls to make up their minds.

He was tanned with dark medium length hair

and a tattoo on his upper arm.

Eventually, the shorter girl picked up her luggage

and followed her friend into the back seat of the Holden.

Anthony watched as the tanned male

got into the driver's seat.

The vehicle then sped off towards Ipswich Road,

kicking Pebbles in its wake.

Anthony called the police to report this sighting,

but the Sergeant he spoke to thought he must have been mistaken.

Convinced Lorraine and Wendy had fallen victim

to the Gold Coast Hitchhiker murderer.

They believed the girls had actually been travelling

in the opposite direction, down the Pacific Highway

towards Sydney.

Consequently, the Sergeant wasn't interested

in Anthony's sighting and didn't take a statement.

This was despite the fact that the Holden had also been sighted

in the vicinity of where Lorraine and Wendy's bodies were discovered.

A local musician drove down Murphy's Creek Road

every Saturday night for several weeks

during September and October 1974.

Each week, he noticed a car parked in the same spot,

not far from where Lorraine and Wendy's bodies were eventually found.

It was a light-coloured 1964 EH Holden.

Officer Ian Hamilton knew the vehicle well.

Over his years working as a traffic cop,

he'd pulled over a similar Holden several times.

Although it was a common model,

he remembered its distinct chrome wheels

and the way it sat low at the front and higher at the back.

He'd issued defective Tickets upon realising

that it was a light-coloured 1964 EH Holden.

Officer Ian Hamilton knew the vehicle well.

He'd issued defective Tickets

upon realising there were no interior door handles

or window winders in the back seat.

He told detectives working the Wilson Evans case

everything he knew about the vehicle

and those associated with it.

Regardless, these leads went nowhere

and the case eventually went cold.

Nine years passed with no further developments

until an Inquest was finally held in October 1985.

No witnesses were called and no suspects were named.

Based on the known facts,

the coroner could only conclude that Lorraine and Wendy

had been killed in Murphy's Creek

by a person or persons unknown.

Lorraine's brother, Eric Wilson,

had an overwhelming need to uncover the truth of what happened,

explaining,

it's hard to accept that we might never ever find out.

The thing is, you compound it every day.

It makes it worse in your mind, if that's possible,

all those unanswered questions, they're not knowing.

You walk around every day with a mountain of fear

sitting on your shoulder.

Three years after the Inquest in October 1988,

Detective Senior Constable Paul Rouge

of the Toowoomba Criminal Investigation Branch

received a word that an inmate in New South Wales

had implicated two men in the Wilson Evans homicide.

According to this witness,

several years after Lorraine and Wendy were killed,

he'd been drinking with two acquaintances

when the subject of the nurse's murders came up.

One of the men allegedly admitted

that they'd picked the pair up to drink with them,

to which the other allegedly responded.

Yeah, but more than that happened, didn't it?

We screwed them and killed them.

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The witness named the man as Toowoomba Locals

Donald Lorry and Trevor Hilton.

This confession turned out to be a bust.

Trevor Hilton had been incarcerated

at the time Lorraine and Wendy were killed.

Still, Detective Rouge's interest was peaked.

He requested the Wilson and Evans cases

to be investigated.

The witness named the man as Toowoomba Locals

He requested the Wilson and Evans casefile

to find all it contained was a few notes and newspaper clippings.

There were no witness statements,

no running sheets, nothing.

Rouge was left to piece together the case

using the scant paperwork and limited physical evidence.

The more he learned, the more shocked he became.

The inmates confession wasn't the first time

that the names Hilton and Lorry had been mentioned

in relation to the murders.

The extended Lorry and Hilton families

were interrelated by blood and marriage.

They had lived around Toowoomba for decades,

where some members of the families had earned a fierce reputation

for being violent and dangerous.

Local police were very familiar with several members

of the two families due to their history of alcohol abuse,

domestic violence and run-ins with the law.

Following the discovery of Lorraine Wilson

and Wendy Evans' remains,

three separate people had suggested police look in

to the Hilton and Lorry crew.

It was well known that some of the young men

associated with the group had a habit of picking up

teenage girls for sex, whether consensual or by force.

They'd go as far as grabbing them off the street

and throwing them into the boot or backseat of their cars.

Survivors described that handles and window-winders

had been removed from the back doors to prevent their escape.

The group were also known for throwing alcohol-fuelled parties

out in the bush, including at Murphy's Creek.

Despite this information,

none of these men had been questioned at any point

for reasons Detective Rouge couldn't ascertain.

Back when the bodies of Lorraine and Wendy were found,

a local couple had reported a strange encounter

they'd had on the Toowoomba Range in early October of 1974.

Brian and Velma had been driving home from visiting

their sick infant daughter in hospital

when they noticed a vehicle parked in a small turn-off

on the left-hand side of the road.

It was a pale green E.J. or E.H. Holden with a white top.

Judging by its angle, the Holden looked as though

it had abruptly skidded to a stop.

Both passenger side doors were open.

Towards the back of the car,

a man was throttling a young woman while trying to force her inside.

About 20 metres away, another man was marching

in front of the holden,

pinning her arms behind her back.

The woman looked directly at Brian and Velma and screamed,

Help me, oh God, help me.

Velma ordered her husband to stop

and he slowed down a little further ahead.

Brian and Velma looked back.

In the front seat of the holden,

they could see two other men and a third woman.

Velma und Brian wanted to offer assistance,

but they had their three-year-old daughter in the back seat

and were scared they might put her or themselves in danger.

Overcome with fear, they decided to keep driving.

They soon passed a payphone,

but decided not to call the police

in case the men drove past and suspected what they were doing.

Instead, they went home.

The next morning,

Velma reported the incident to a police officer whom they knew.

The officer wasn't too worried.

There hadn't been any news of any assaults

the night prior or missing person reports filed.

When the bodies of Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans

were discovered not far from where they witnessed the altercation,

Brian and Velma were convinced they had seen something significant.

They reported their concerns to the same officer

they'd initially spoken to who looked into their claims.

Apparently, hospital admission records for Brian

and Velma's sick daughter didn't match up

with the alleged timing of Lorraine and Wendy's murder.

Their accounts were therefore eliminated

as a potential lead in the investigation.

Detective Rouge wasn't so sure.

He showed the couple a photo lineup of 16 men.

Despite over a decade passing,

Brian confidently pointed to one photo.

It was Wayne Hilton.

Better known by his nickname Boogie,

Wayne was a prominent member of the Hilton Laurie Klan.

19 years old at the time Lorraine and Wendy were killed,

he had a reputation for turning violent if he didn't get his way.

He reportedly had a tyre lever stored

under the front seat of his car that he wielded as a weapon.

Some of Wayne Hilton's close cohorts

included friends and relatives,

Alan Shorty Laurie, Alan Unge Laurie,

Donald Laurie, Desmond Hilton, Larry Charles

and Jimmy O'Neill.

Due to their proclivity for heavy drinking and fighting,

many of the men were banned from every pub in Toowoomba.

Another member of their crew named Kingsley Hunt didn't drink.

He took on the role of designated driver

and ferried the gang to parties and pubs out of town.

There were several vehicles that could be attributed to the crew.

One was a pale green Holden with a white top.

Detective Rouge turned his focus

to one of the only pieces of physical evidence at the crime scene,

the cord used to bind Lorraine and Wendy.

It was fairly commonplace,

much like the kind used on Venetian blinds,

but Rouge had his suspicions about where it might have originated.

He visited the Darling Downs Baking Company in Toowoomba.

The pig processing plan

was one of the largest in the state

and employed many of the town's locals.

Rouge presented the cord to an employee

and asked if it looked familiar.

The employee said yes.

A similar type of cord was used in the factory to hang bacon.

This was a significant revelation.

Wayne Hilton had been employed

at the Darling Downs Baking Company

around the time Lorraine and Wendy were killed.

Detective Rouge spoke with another man named Neil

who had worked with Wayne Hilton

on and off for several years.

According to Neil, one day,

Wayne suddenly announced that he'd soon have to quit his job.

When Neil asked why,

Wayne allegedly said,

did you see the picture of our cars in the paper?

They're right onto us.

You would have heard about the nurses being murdered

a bit over the rain.

Me and the brother done that.

Neil assumed Wayne

was talking about his brother Trevor

but realized he'd been in jail at the time.

Instead, he figured Wayne

was talking about one of his uncles

who were close in age to Wayne

and with whom he had a close relationship.

According to Neil,

Wayne went on to explain that the nurses

had gotten away from them

and gave them an opportunity

for a bit of trouble.

He said he was afraid of getting caught

and asked for advice.

Neil asked why he did it,

to which Wayne responded,

full of piss and bad manners.

Although Neil found it odd,

he didn't really believe what Wayne was saying,

even when he went through with quitting his job.

Neil said Wayne mentioned his involvement in the murders

on several other occasions.

But it was only years later

that Neil suspected

he might actually be telling the truth.

Wayne Hilton's cohort, Alan Laurie,

who went by the nickname Shorty,

had also worked at the Darling Downs Bacon Company.

Shorty turned 22,

the day Lorraine and Wendy were murdered.

Perhaps the most violent of the group,

he was feared by many

and labelled by some as a psychopath.

Shorty's violence knew no boundaries.

He once punched and stomped on his own mother

and had bit his father's ear off

over a fight about a sausage.

Detective Rouge visited Alan Shorty Laurie at home

and asked if he could come by the station

to answer some questions.

He made no mention of Lorraine and Wendy,

simply saying he wanted to discuss a car

that Shorty had previously owned.

Shorty became highly anxious

but reluctantly agreed to come by later that day.

He arrived at the station hand in hand with his wife.

Shorty was clearly agitated,

almost to a point of panic.

Everything about his demeanor was in complete contrast

to the menacing character that Detective Rouge

had been led to expect.

When placed in an interview room away from his wife,

Shorty entered a full blown state of panic.

He started breathing heavily and frothing at the mouth.

When told,

we need to ask you some questions about your involvement

in the nurse's murders,

Alan Shorty Laurie lept to his feet

and started bellowing like a bull.

It was so loud that other officers rushed to the interview room

to see what was going on.

He repeatedly cried out,

I didn't do it, I didn't do it.

His distress was so extreme

that Detective Rouge couldn't continue with his questioning.

He requested that Shorty return to the station later on

for a formal interview.

Instead, Shorty hired a lawyer

who advised that his client wouldn't be answering

any further questions.

Detective Rouge was eventually transferred

to another district,

which meant he could no longer have any involvement

with the Wilson and Evans case.

He collated all the information

and witness statements he'd obtained

and sent them to the homicide squad,

hoping someone would pick up where he left off.

Although tips continued

to come through over the years,

things soon came to a standstill.

No arrests were made.

In fact, none of the remaining persons of interest

were even questioned.

Lorraine's brother Eric

spent his adult life tormented by the murders.

In 2003, he wrote a book about the case

titled The Echo of Silent Screams.

It sparked renewed interest in the case,

putting pressure on the Queensland Police Commissioner

to reopen the investigation.

The job went to Detective Inspector Kerry Johnson,

a former member of the Homicide Squad

known for his success rate at solving cold cases.

For the first time,

all the case material was reviewed in thorough detail.

It was abundantly clear that poor policing,

lack of investigative resources

and conflicting witness statements

had contributed to Lorraine and Wendy's killers

going unpunished.

Motivated to finally find closure

for the Wilson and Evans families,

Detective Johnson said about reinterviewing

all of the key witnesses and persons of interest,

piecing together the known information

and trying to fill in any gaps.

It appeared that the circumstances surrounding Lorraine

and Wendy's murders were an open secret

amongst many people in Toowoomba.

Over the years, others had reported worthwhile information

that implicated the same group of men.

The morning after the murders,

Wayne Hilton's neighbour claimed to have seen him

ripping the carpet out of the back seat of a grain holden.

When she asked what he was doing,

he said he was looking for a solution

und asked what he was doing.

Wayne told her to mind her own business.

The neighbour left but couldn't ignore

what she saw on the carpet.

A large reddish-brown stain that looked like blood.

Another associate of the group, Desmond Hilton,

recalled that one morning in October 1974,

Wayne Hilton and Donald Lorry were drinking at his house

when a light green E. H. Holden pulled up.

Inside were Alan Shorty-Lorry, Jimmy O'Neill,

Larry Charles and Alan Unge-Lorry.

They revealed that they'd quote,

given two girls are hiding down the bottom of the range.

According to Desmond, Shorty bragged and demonstrated

how they kicked and stomped on the girls.

Desmond claimed that the men offered him beer

in exchange for cleaning their car.

He agreed, too scared to say no.

Across the back seat was a light smear of blood,

as though an injured person had been dragged across it.

According to Desmond,

Wayne Hilton and Donald Lorry then went back to the range

to check on the girls.

When they returned, they had blood on their hands.

It was only years later when Desmond found out

about the murders of Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans,

that he realized the group had been talking about the nurses.

Donald Lorry had seemed terrified ever since,

and it now made sense why.

He'd admitted to Desmond that he'd taken a ring

from one of the girls that he'd later sold

for beer money at the local pub.

While sick in hospital years later,

Donald Lorry allegedly told a friend.

We killed the nurses, I was there, I didn't do it.

According to this witness,

Donald directly implicated Wayne Hilton,

Unge Lorry and Shorty Lorry,

but also said that three or four carloads of people were involved.

When asked why he hadn't gone to police,

Donald apparently replied that the others would have killed him

if he had spoken up.

Another associate had once seen

gang member Larry Charles crying,

which was completely out of character.

When asked what was wrong, Larry allegedly responded,

it was two years today that them girls got killed at Murphy's Creek.

Larry then apparently confessed to having picked up Lorraine Wilson

and Wendy Evans with Wayne Hilton, Shorty Lorry,

Donald Lorry and Jimmy O'Neill.

They took the women into the bush,

at which point Unge Lorry, Desmond Hilton

and a few of their friends arrived.

The whole group, excluding Larry,

then took turns raping and bashing the women.

The next morning, Wayne Hilton and Shorty Lorry

had a whispered conversation.

Then, quote,

they both walked towards the girls,

picked up a big stick each

and just wailed and wailed into them.

Fear of retaliation had kept some silence,

but the poor policing couldn't be ignored.

Back in 1974,

a 19-year-old woman had accepted a lift home

from Shorty Lorry and one of his friends.

Instead of taking her home,

she claimed they pulled over

and took turns raping her in the back seat.

She reported the incident

and was examined by a medical officer,

but never heard another word about it

and was too scared to follow it up with the police.

This was just one in a long series of similar allegations.

Detective Inspector Kerry Johnson

was deeply troubled by this information

and the fact that nothing had been done

to reprimand those involved.

But perhaps most concerning

was there were other innocent bystanders

that had witnessed the attack against Lorraine and Wendy

as it unfolded.

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On Sunday, October 6, 1974,

married couple Neil and Jocelyn

had been driving down the Toowoomba Range

when one of their children fell carsick.

They pulled into a turn-off,

only to find two cars already parked there.

Clothing was strewn on the side of the road,

leading Neil and Jocelyn to believe

the two cars had been involved in an accident.

Two men were escorting a young woman

into a black-forward Falcon

as though offering her assistance.

One of the men was scrawny and ill-looking

and dressed all in white.

This fit the description of the designated driver

of the Hilton and Laurie crew, Kingsley Hunt.

His job at a pest control company

required him to wear a white uniform.

The young woman turned to face Neil and Jocelyn.

That's when they realized the men weren't helping her at all.

They were forcing her into the car.

The young woman screamed, please help me.

Another young woman was in the backseat of the other car,

a light-colored Holden.

She was wrestling with a dark-haired man

aged in his early to mid-20s.

He attempted to restrain her

as she lent forward and yelled for help.

Another man was pacing around nervously

outside the vehicle with his hands on his head.

Too scared to stop,

Neil and Jocelyn continued down the range.

They considered reporting the incident to the police,

but instead they drove onwards,

convincing themselves that it was just a lover's tiff of some kind.

They decided to let it go

unless they heard anything in the news over the next few days,

which they never did.

Another married couple, Vivian and Rose,

were driving down the range at dusk

when they saw a car pulled over on the left-hand side of the road.

A man and young woman were lying across the front bonnet

in what appeared to be a lover's embrace.

Thinking it was a strange place to stop for a cuddle,

they soon realized it wasn't a romantic moment at all.

The man was restraining the woman who was trying to break free.

At that moment, another young woman raced out onto the road,

screaming for help.

A dark-haired man of average height and build

was chasing close behind her,

und deterred by the fact that Vivian and Rose had seen what was going on.

Vivian applied the brakes,

but the couple had their three young children in the back seat,

so Rose urged him to keep driving.

They drove to the nearest police station,

where the officer on duty said they'd contact the Tawumba police

to send a patrol car down the range to check it out.

Vivian and Rose never heard another word about it.

When the bodies of Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans were found,

Rose contacted police again.

She did so again when the case was featured on Australia's Most Wanted in 1989.

No one ever so much as asked for her contact details,

let alone took a statement.

Norma was preparing dinner alone at her home

in the Tawumba Rangers in early October 1974,

when she heard a panicked woman's voice.

It was coming from her back door.

Norma found a young woman with light brown hair standing there.

She begged for Norma's help,

saying she had just been at a party with a group of people

whom she now wanted to get away from.

She had escaped from their vehicle

and needed somewhere safe to stay for a while.

Norma didn't know what to do.

Her husband was due to arrive home,

so she told the young woman she could wait inside until he returned.

They'd figure things out from there.

But the woman became increasingly frantic.

She said she couldn't wait around for a while.

Norma told the woman she could sneak out the back way,

who in turn responded,

they would probably find me anyway.

Norma offered to call the police,

but the woman declined, saying,

I'd better go.

Norma returned to the police,

saying, I'd better go.

Norma returned to the police,

saying, I'd better go.

Norma returned to her kitchen,

only to hear a loud scream.

She rushed to a front window,

where she saw a car idling outside.

The woman who had just been in her house

was struggling with a young man

who had long, wavy dark hair.

He struck the woman across the face,

as he tried to force her into the back seat of the car.

Norma could see a second young woman in the back of the vehicle.

She, too, was in the throes of a struggle with another man.

It looked as though she was trying to get out,

but the man wouldn't let her leave.

At that moment, Norma's husband pulled into the driveway.

He had also witnessed the struggle

and headed inside to ask Norma what was going on.

She filled him in, but he responded,

quote, it was probably just a matter of time

The couple returned to the front window.

By then, the men, the women and the car were gone.

Two weeks later, Norma was reading the newspaper

when she came across a photo of Lorraine Wilson

and Wendy Evans.

Norma immediately recognized Lorraine

as the young woman who had knocked on her door

and Wendy as the woman who had knocked on her door

and Wendy as the woman who had knocked on her door.

She wanted to contact the police,

but her husband warned her not to get involved.

When Lorraine and Wendy's bodies were discovered,

Norma informed her parents

what she had witnessed two years earlier.

They agreed that she should obey her husband's wishes

and not get involved.

Memories of the women's cries for help

haunted Norma.

By the time a segment about the case

appeared on Australia's Most Wanted in 1989,

Norma and her family had relocated into state.

Unable to keep it to herself any longer,

she finally contacted the police.

They had her identify Lorraine and Wendy from a photo,

but whether anything else was done beyond that is unknown.

When Lorraine's brother Eric heard about this,

he was crushed.

He remarked.

My sister was standing in front of a woman

who was the same age as her mother.

She was looking for a mother's protection,

a mother's advice on what she should do.

She got nothing.

She was on her own.

The police were not sure

if she was on her own.

There is a famous saying.

Evil exists when good men or women do nothing.

How true a statement that is.

For almost 40 years Lorraine Wilson's family

had tried to move on with their lives,

but the lack of closure made it impossible.

By 2012 Lorraine's father was suffering from dementia.

Her brother Eric wanted answers not only for himself,

but for his elderly parents.

With all the new information that had come to light

since the initial inquest in 1985,

the Wilson family felt that Lorraine and Wendy

at the very least deserved another inquest.

Lorraine's mother Betty wrote to the coroner,

Quote,

I wish to rest in peace

and I urge for the sake of the girls

who do not have a voice as well as my own

for you to convene a coronial inquest

to wear these findings.

Three days after writing the letter,

Betty was working alone in the garden

when she slipped and severed an artery.

She tried to make it back to the house,

but the blood loss was too severe.

Betty passed away

without ever seeing justice served for her daughter.

Betty's request for accountability was denied,

much to the outrage of the public.

Media rallied around Eric Wilson,

propelling the murders back in the headlines.

The coroner succumbed to the public pressure

and it was announced that a new inquest

would be held with the aim of determining

whether there was enough evidence to warrant a trial.

By this point there was no shortage of witnesses.

Some had seen Lorraine and Wendy accepting a ride,

others had seen them trying to escape their attackers.

Others had received confessions

or incriminating statements from the suspected perpetrators.

The problem was inconsistencies were rife.

Some had described the perpetrators car as an EJ Holden,

others said an EH Holden,

both remarkably similar models.

The physical description of the men involved also varied,

making it difficult to pinpoint

which individuals were responsible for which acts.

A full forensic review was ordered on all available evidence,

but there was even less to go by than originally thought.

There were hopes that the cord used to hogtile Lorraine and Wendy

would reveal traces of the perpetrator's DNA,

but the tests proved negative.

Some of the evidence had been disposed of in 2010,

while other items had been lost altogether.

Amongst the missing items was the silver men's signant ring

that was found at the crime scene.

Wayne Boogie Hilton was known to wear a similar ring.

Given the ring had been misplaced,

images of it couldn't be circulated

to facilitate the identification of its owner.

In the 1970s, the Lorraine family had owned

a pale green EH Holden with a white roof.

The shell of this vehicle was tracked down and examined.

Traces of blood were detected inside,

but too much time had passed for it to be of any use.

There was one notable discovery.

There were no interior handles or window winders

on the back doors.

The inquest commenced into Wumba in April 2013.

For the first time, the seven primary suspects

were publicly named.

They included Wayne Boogie Hilton,

Donald Lorry, Alan Shorty Lorry, Alan Unge Lorry,

Desmond Hilton, Jimmy O'Neill,

and Larry Charles.

Kingsley Hunt,

the gang's designated driver,

was noted as a person of interest,

but not nominated as a primary suspect.

Over several days,

evidence was heard from the various witnesses

who claimed to have seen Lorraine and Wendy

with a group of men on the day they went missing.

Other individuals who provided testimony

ranged from the reliable to the questionable,

with one member of the Lorry family

claiming to have witnessed the murders himself

when he was 10 years old.

Many witnesses connected to the persons of interest

gave vague, non-committed answers.

Some backtracked from damning claims

they'd made in the past,

while several retracted their statements

pertaining to alleged confessions.

Those implicated flat out denied

any involvement in the crime.

Yet there was an air of anticipation

when one particular person finally took the stand.

1984 marked a decade after Lorraine Wilson

and Wendy Evans were killed.

Towards the middle of that year,

Kim Sandercock had been having a tough time at home.

She headed to Wumber's Crown Hotel for a breather.

Kim sat nursing a drink

when a woman whom she'd never met approached her table.

The stranger took a seat and introduced herself as Ellen.

The two women engaged in small talk for a while

before Ellen, who was clearly intoxicated, asked,

Have you ever had to carry around a secret

that you couldn't tell anybody?

It was clear to Kim

that Ellen had something she wanted to get off her chest,

so she let her talk.

But Kim wasn't prepared for what came next.

Ellen revealed that she'd been present

when Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans were murdered,

and she was sick of covering up for those responsible.

Ellen claimed that she'd been driving around

in a 1963 Holden with two men.

when they decided to pick up the two nurses

in the hopes of getting sex.

But the nurses refused the men's advances

and were labelled as, quote,

prick-teases.

The men wanted to teach the nurses a lesson.

The plan was to take them to an isolated area

and rape them.

But during the drive, things went haywire.

The nurses became aware of the fact

that they didn't know what to do.

The nurses became terrified and tried to escape.

One of them had been sitting in the front seat,

and the driver began hitting her over the head

and pulling her hair.

The other man who was sitting in the backseat

grabbed a bar of some kind.

He reached over and bashed the woman across the head.

She flung forward, blood flying everywhere,

and it was obvious that she was dead.

The other nurse was hysterical.

She began screaming.

The men panicked and decided they'd have to kill her too.

They pulled up to a remote site in Murphy's Creek

and dumped the first body.

The remaining nurse saw this as her chance to escape.

She got out and ran, but the men chased her down.

They launched a frenzied attack bashing her multiple times

in the head until she was no longer moving.

They then dragged her body alongside her friend.

When Ellen finally stopped talking about the murders,

Kim was shaking as she got up to leave.

Ellen grabbed her firmly by the shoulder and warned,

if you ever tell anyone what I just told you,

you'll end up the same way as the nurses.

Kim was terrified.

She kept this information to herself for five years

before finally going to the police.

By then, she couldn't remember much about Ellen herself,

but could remember every detail about the story Ellen had told her,

including the names of the men involved.

Shorty Laurie and one of the Hilton boys.

By the time Kim Sandercock appeared at the inquest in 2013,

she was in a wheelchair and hooked up to a morphine drip

as the result of a spinal injury.

She relied heavily on strong pain medication,

which severely hindered her memory.

Consequently, Kim claimed she had absolutely no recollection

of Ellen and the conversation they shared in 1984.

The court wasn't buying it.

They believed it was more likely that the encounter with Ellen

was a fabrication to cover for the fact that Kim knew more

than she was willing to admit.

After all, what were the chances that an individual

would approach a complete stranger in a pub

to confess to witnessing a murder?

Furthermore, the level of detail she'd managed to retain

in her statement was outstanding.

A more plausible explanation was that Kim herself

had witnessed the crime and wanted to unburden herself

without fear of retaliation or punishment.

This fit with the witness statement from Brian and Velma,

who claimed to have seen a third woman in the car with Lorraine and Wendy.

Alternatively, someone close to Kim might have been involved

and had told her the story enough times for her to retain

such an accurate level of detail.

These possibilities were put forward to Kim's Sandercocking Court.

She flat out denied being present when Lorraine and Wendy were attacked

or having any first-hand knowledge of what happened.

The coroner made it clear that Kim could be given immunity

if she was willing to share what she knew.

Kim replied,

I can't remember.

I just can't.

The coroner presented his findings in June 2013.

He concluded that the witness statement that held the most veracity

was the one given by Kim's Sandercock.

The details she provided aligned with the crime scene.

Lorraine had been killed by a single blow to the head

before the perpetrators carried out a rage-fuelled frenzy on Wendy

as she tried to escape.

The coroner concluded that Kim had to likely either be present

when the crimes were committed

or had a close connection to someone who was.

The coroner viewed the alleged confession that Wayne Hilton

had made to his former colleague as valid.

As for the number of witnesses who ignored Lorraine

and Wendy's screams for help,

he put this down to the bystander's effect.

This socio-psychological phenomenon dictates

that the more witnesses there are to an event,

the less likely any one of them will offer help.

The coroner remarked,

with the failure of any of those people to even attempt to intervene,

went the girl's last chance of survival.

He went on.

The lives of these two fine young women

and the happiness of their families were shattered

by an unprovoked, violent, vicious attack,

mounted to satiate the perverse sexual dysfunction

of a despicable gang of thugs.

Their family's suffering was made worse still

by a long period of not knowing.

Speaking about the seven persons of interest,

the coroner stated that they'd gotten away

with committing their habitual sexual assaults in the 70s

because of the victim-blaming mentality of the time

and the fact that survivors were too scared to come forward.

He concluded,

it is more likely than not Lorraine Wilson

and Wendy Evans tragically stumbled into this putrid pool of miscreants

and were killed by them.

Undoubtedly, they were abducted and killed by more than one person,

but the identity of those responsible

cannot now be established with sufficient certainty.

With one exception.

Namely, Wayne Hilton.

I am satisfied the evidence implicating him

in the death of the two women reaches the required standard

for a coroner's finding to that effect.

By the time he was implicated in the double homicide,

Wayne Hilton had been dead for 27 years.

He was killed in a car accident in 1986.

As such, he would not face any justice for his involvement.

As for his associates,

the coroner conceded that there was insufficient evidence

to have any of them stand trial.

With that, the inquest was closed.

Three other members of the Hilton-Lorraine gang were deceased

by the time the 2013 inquest was underway.

A car accident had claimed Alan Shorty Lorraine's life in 2001.

Larry Charles took his own life in 1993.

Donald Lorraine had died in 1994 from a long-standing illness.

According to one friend,

Donald had died in 1994 from a long-standing illness.

According to one friend,

Donald had made a deathbed confession, saying,

We killed the nurses, I was there, I didn't do it.

The friend claimed to have reported this to police,

who took no significant action.

Those who were still alive were Desmond Hilton,

Jimmy O'Neill and Alan Unge Laurie,

all of whom were aged in their early 60s.

According to one friend,

Donald had made a deathbed confession,

all of whom were aged in their early 60s.

When appearing at the inquest, all were notably cagey.

Desmond, who had been warned,

he could be charged with being an accessory after the fact

for cleaning the car after the others allegedly spoke

of giving two girls a hiding,

claimed he had no memory of ever making such a statement to the police.

On the stand, each of the three men attempted

to distance themselves from the others,

playing they were ever friends,

or spent time together back in the 70s.

Back in 1976,

Officer Ian Hamilton of the Toowoomba police

had met with detectives working the Wilson Evans case

to divulge everything he knew about the Green Holden

and the Hilton and Laurie men who were associated with it.

It was only through the inquest

that he learned no record was ever made of this meeting.

Officer Hamilton told the Courier Mail,

There is no doubt in my mind

that if those leads were followed up,

the case would have been solved and solved quickly,

because the suspects would have been shitting themselves

and someone would have squealed.

Whether they would have got them all, I don't know,

but someone would have been brought to justice.

Although Lorraine and Wendy's loved ones were disappointed

that no tangible justice had been served,

they were grateful that someone had finally been held accountable

and that those suspected of being involved

had been publicly named and shamed.

Outside court, Lorraine's cousin told reporters,

I don't think they'll be able to walk down the street now

and feel comfortable.

I think naming them has probably been the best outcome

that we could have here.

Lorraine's brother Eric found peace with the fact

that the community was now aware of the criminals walking among them.

Quote,

The mountain of fear that sat on my shoulders

can sit on theirs now.

Eric sought permission from the Toowoomba Regional Council

to install a memorial plaque in a park garden

in the name of his sister and Wendy Evans.

After some back and forth, Eric's request

was denied.

Eric said of the decision,

it was an excellent opportunity to make amends

and acknowledge what happened,

not only to the girls,

but the community who have been held hostage for 40 years.

Had it been installed,

the plaque would have included the message.

Fear and intimidation must never against silence a community.

The so-called Gold Coast Hitchhiker Murderer,

who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of Michelle Riley,

Gabrielle Janky,

Robin Heunville Bartram,

Anita Cunningham and Margaret Rosewarn,

has never been brought to justice.

Investigators don't believe that the Hilton and Lorraine

gang were involved with these crimes.

Hopes remain that advances in genealogical DNA testing

could soon lead to the killer or killers

being identified.

A plaque in memory of Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans

was installed on the grounds of St George Hospital in Sydney,

where the pair had worked as trainee nurses.

For Lorraine's mother, Betty,

it was ironic that her daughter had a particular interest

in psychiatric nursing.

Prior to Betty's death, she remarked,

it seems the kind of people Lorraine wanted to help most.

Ended up killing her.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.