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Gold Coast cold case: Who killed hitchhiking friends in 1973?
Michelle Anne Riley
Gabriele Jahnke
Gabriele Jahnke and Michelle Riley were last seen alive at Michelle’s home in Emperor Street, Annerley, about 5pm on October 5.
Eight days later, two children made the gruesome discovery of 19-year-old Gabriele’s decomposed body on the side of the Pacific Highway at Ormeau.
Her body lay at the bottom of an embankment and it looked as if she had been thrown.
She was dressed in a black caftan-style dress with white flowers and a black bra, but no other underwear.
Her dress had been pulled up, suggesting she may have been raped.
Eleven days after the discovery of Gabriele, her best friend’s body — 16-year-old Michelle Riley — was found in bushland off the Camp Cale Road at Loganholme.
She too had massive head injuries and her clothes were pulled up.
The killer had hurriedly tried to conceal her body by pulling some branches over it.
Police at the time said one person — “a frenzied maniac” — was responsible for both murders.
Homicide detectives followed up several leads in the double murder case, but no arrests were made.
Just days after the double murder, police were given a third case — an 18-year-old Ipswich girl who was raped, stabbed and left for dead near Nerang.
Police initially linked all three murders and focused their attention on the description of a man and his car wanted in relation to the stabbing attack.
He was eventually caught, but to the disappointment of the investigators at the time, was found not to be connected to the Jahnke-Riley murders.
The pair weren’t the only ones to meet a violent death in the southeast corner of Queensland during the 1970s.
They were in fact the third and fourth to endure such a gruelling end.
The murders began in July, 1972, with the deaths of 18-year-old Robin Hoinville-Bartram and Anita Cunningham, 19. The pair were hitchhiking from Melbourne to Bowen in northern Queensland to visit Ms Hoinville-Bartram’s parents when they disappeared near Coolangatta.
Robin Hoinville-Bartram’s body was found four months later under a bridge at Sensible Creek, west of Charters Towers. She had been shot in the head with a .22 rifle.
Anita Cunningham’s body has never been found, but there is not much doubt about her fate.
-----------
Police were never able to pin anyone to the “hitchhiker” killings and avoided suggesting the evil acts had been committed by one serial killer.
However there was no denying the chilling common denominators. All seven women were under 21, all were hitchhiking in the Coast-Brisbane area, they all suffered serious head injuries, it appears they were all sexually assaulted and, in most cases, there was little effort to hide the bodies.
No Cookies | Gold Coast Bulletin
Michelle Anne Riley
Gabriele Jahnke
Gabriele Jahnke and Michelle Riley were last seen alive at Michelle’s home in Emperor Street, Annerley, about 5pm on October 5.
Eight days later, two children made the gruesome discovery of 19-year-old Gabriele’s decomposed body on the side of the Pacific Highway at Ormeau.
Her body lay at the bottom of an embankment and it looked as if she had been thrown.
She was dressed in a black caftan-style dress with white flowers and a black bra, but no other underwear.
Her dress had been pulled up, suggesting she may have been raped.
Eleven days after the discovery of Gabriele, her best friend’s body — 16-year-old Michelle Riley — was found in bushland off the Camp Cale Road at Loganholme.
She too had massive head injuries and her clothes were pulled up.
The killer had hurriedly tried to conceal her body by pulling some branches over it.
Police at the time said one person — “a frenzied maniac” — was responsible for both murders.
Homicide detectives followed up several leads in the double murder case, but no arrests were made.
Just days after the double murder, police were given a third case — an 18-year-old Ipswich girl who was raped, stabbed and left for dead near Nerang.
Police initially linked all three murders and focused their attention on the description of a man and his car wanted in relation to the stabbing attack.
He was eventually caught, but to the disappointment of the investigators at the time, was found not to be connected to the Jahnke-Riley murders.
The pair weren’t the only ones to meet a violent death in the southeast corner of Queensland during the 1970s.
They were in fact the third and fourth to endure such a gruelling end.
The murders began in July, 1972, with the deaths of 18-year-old Robin Hoinville-Bartram and Anita Cunningham, 19. The pair were hitchhiking from Melbourne to Bowen in northern Queensland to visit Ms Hoinville-Bartram’s parents when they disappeared near Coolangatta.
Robin Hoinville-Bartram’s body was found four months later under a bridge at Sensible Creek, west of Charters Towers. She had been shot in the head with a .22 rifle.
Anita Cunningham’s body has never been found, but there is not much doubt about her fate.
-----------
Police were never able to pin anyone to the “hitchhiker” killings and avoided suggesting the evil acts had been committed by one serial killer.
However there was no denying the chilling common denominators. All seven women were under 21, all were hitchhiking in the Coast-Brisbane area, they all suffered serious head injuries, it appears they were all sexually assaulted and, in most cases, there was little effort to hide the bodies.
No Cookies | Gold Coast Bulletin
