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The mystery of the Flinders Highway
Part of the Mapping Evil with Mike King podcast series
The Highway of Death
The cases surrounding the Flinders Highway have bewildered both authorities and the community for more than half a century.
One theory is that a ‘thrill killer’ operates along the highway. Police have come across leads to support this but none have been conclusive.
It's more likely the crimes were committed by multiple perpetrators who gravitate to the same empty stretch of road.
The Crimes
On 26 August 1970, 7-year-old Judith Mackay and her 5-year-old sister Susan vanished from a bus stop on Ross River Road in Townsville on their way to school. Their bodies were found two days later, at Antill Creek just off the Flinders Highway.
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On 4 July 1972, 18-year-old Robin Hoinville-Bartram and 19-year-old Anita Cunningham were hitchhiking from Melbourne to Anita’s mother’s house in Bowen when they disappeared on the Flinders Highway. Four months later, on 15 November 1972, Robin’s body was found in a shallow grave approximately 80 kilometres west of Charters Towers in Sensible Creek under a bridge on the Flinders Highway. Anita's body has never been found.
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18-year-old Catherine Graham was selling educational books door-to-door in Townsville on the evening of 29 July 1975.
At 8:19pm, Catherine called her mother from a Townsville phone box. During the conversation, she told her she didn’t like the look of a man standing nearby.
Her body was found later in Antill Creek, just 500m from where the Mackay sisters' bodies were found five years earlier.
------
In October 1978, 23-year-old Karen Edwards, 31-year-old Gordon Twaddle and 21-year-old Timothy Thompson disappeared near Mount Isa during a motorcycle trip from Cairns to Melbourne.
On 24 October 1978, a dog walker found Karen’s body propped up against a tree in Spear Creek, 10 kilometres north of Mount Isa. Police later found the bodies of Timothy and Gordon against other trees in the area. All three had been shot in the head with a .22 calibre rifle.
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On 3 November 1982, 20-year-old Perth man Anthony ‘Tony’ Jones vanished near Antill Plains Creek, 25 kilometres south of Townsville. He was on the final leg of a six-month working holiday hitchhiking around Australia. His body has never been found.
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On 23 September 2009 – more than 20 years after the last Flinders Highway disappearance – Ayr Police Senior Sergeant Michael James Isles disappeared while en route from his Ayr police residence to a training course in Townsville. The state coroner conferred that Michael had ended his own life – but with extensive police searches of the area failing to locate his body, speculation continues about what happened to him.
------
On 21 December 2017, 26-year-old Reece Kearney stopped to fill up his 2012 Bonneville Triumph motorcycle at the Ravenshoe Roadhouse in Charters Towers. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
------
On New Year's Eve 2017, 22-year-old Newcastle man Jayden Penno-Tompsett was driving with a friend to Cairns.
After the two got into an argument in the early hours of the morning, Jayden pulled over at Stockroute Road and stormed off. His bank and sm accounts have remained inactive.
------
The Suspects
Andy Albury
In 2014, incarcerated killer Andy Albury confessed to 14 murders along the highway between 1970 and 1982 but there is little evidence to support his claims. Many of the murders occurred when he was a child and are unlikely to have been his doing.
------
Arthur Stanley Brown
In 1999, after a victim of serial paedophile Arthur Stanley Brown came forward with long-held suspicions, Brown was charged with the 1970 murders of the Mackay sisters. The trial resulted in a hung jury. He was declared unfit for retrial due to dementia and died in 2002.
Brown is also a suspect in the disappearance of the Beaumont children from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide in 1966.
------
Bruce John Preston
A retired Prison Officer from Goulburn Correctional Centre, Bruce John Preston, was charged in 2019 with the 1978 murders of Karen Edwards, Timothy Thomson and Gordon Twaddle near Mount Isa.
In January 2020, he was granted bail after the judge declared some of the evidence may have been “exaggerated”. Preston denies any involvement in the murders.
------
A Serial Place
The victims range in age from 5 to 58 years, encompassing both genders and varied causes of death, the only commonality between all is the highway itself.
Mapping and analysing the movements of each victim can uncover hidden patterns to help law enforcement understand why victims and predators repeatedly cross paths on this isolated stretch of road.
A better understanding of the area may help solve these decades-old cold cases but also increase the safety of future travellers on the Flinders Highway.
Mapping Evil podcast with Mike King
Mapping Evil podcast
Part of the Mapping Evil with Mike King podcast series
The Highway of Death
The cases surrounding the Flinders Highway have bewildered both authorities and the community for more than half a century.
One theory is that a ‘thrill killer’ operates along the highway. Police have come across leads to support this but none have been conclusive.
It's more likely the crimes were committed by multiple perpetrators who gravitate to the same empty stretch of road.
The Crimes
On 26 August 1970, 7-year-old Judith Mackay and her 5-year-old sister Susan vanished from a bus stop on Ross River Road in Townsville on their way to school. Their bodies were found two days later, at Antill Creek just off the Flinders Highway.
------
On 4 July 1972, 18-year-old Robin Hoinville-Bartram and 19-year-old Anita Cunningham were hitchhiking from Melbourne to Anita’s mother’s house in Bowen when they disappeared on the Flinders Highway. Four months later, on 15 November 1972, Robin’s body was found in a shallow grave approximately 80 kilometres west of Charters Towers in Sensible Creek under a bridge on the Flinders Highway. Anita's body has never been found.
------
18-year-old Catherine Graham was selling educational books door-to-door in Townsville on the evening of 29 July 1975.
At 8:19pm, Catherine called her mother from a Townsville phone box. During the conversation, she told her she didn’t like the look of a man standing nearby.
Her body was found later in Antill Creek, just 500m from where the Mackay sisters' bodies were found five years earlier.
------
In October 1978, 23-year-old Karen Edwards, 31-year-old Gordon Twaddle and 21-year-old Timothy Thompson disappeared near Mount Isa during a motorcycle trip from Cairns to Melbourne.
On 24 October 1978, a dog walker found Karen’s body propped up against a tree in Spear Creek, 10 kilometres north of Mount Isa. Police later found the bodies of Timothy and Gordon against other trees in the area. All three had been shot in the head with a .22 calibre rifle.
------
On 3 November 1982, 20-year-old Perth man Anthony ‘Tony’ Jones vanished near Antill Plains Creek, 25 kilometres south of Townsville. He was on the final leg of a six-month working holiday hitchhiking around Australia. His body has never been found.
------
On 23 September 2009 – more than 20 years after the last Flinders Highway disappearance – Ayr Police Senior Sergeant Michael James Isles disappeared while en route from his Ayr police residence to a training course in Townsville. The state coroner conferred that Michael had ended his own life – but with extensive police searches of the area failing to locate his body, speculation continues about what happened to him.
------
On 21 December 2017, 26-year-old Reece Kearney stopped to fill up his 2012 Bonneville Triumph motorcycle at the Ravenshoe Roadhouse in Charters Towers. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
------
On New Year's Eve 2017, 22-year-old Newcastle man Jayden Penno-Tompsett was driving with a friend to Cairns.
After the two got into an argument in the early hours of the morning, Jayden pulled over at Stockroute Road and stormed off. His bank and sm accounts have remained inactive.
------
The Suspects
Andy Albury
In 2014, incarcerated killer Andy Albury confessed to 14 murders along the highway between 1970 and 1982 but there is little evidence to support his claims. Many of the murders occurred when he was a child and are unlikely to have been his doing.
------
Arthur Stanley Brown
In 1999, after a victim of serial paedophile Arthur Stanley Brown came forward with long-held suspicions, Brown was charged with the 1970 murders of the Mackay sisters. The trial resulted in a hung jury. He was declared unfit for retrial due to dementia and died in 2002.
Brown is also a suspect in the disappearance of the Beaumont children from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide in 1966.
------
Bruce John Preston
A retired Prison Officer from Goulburn Correctional Centre, Bruce John Preston, was charged in 2019 with the 1978 murders of Karen Edwards, Timothy Thomson and Gordon Twaddle near Mount Isa.
In January 2020, he was granted bail after the judge declared some of the evidence may have been “exaggerated”. Preston denies any involvement in the murders.
------
A Serial Place
The victims range in age from 5 to 58 years, encompassing both genders and varied causes of death, the only commonality between all is the highway itself.
Mapping and analysing the movements of each victim can uncover hidden patterns to help law enforcement understand why victims and predators repeatedly cross paths on this isolated stretch of road.
A better understanding of the area may help solve these decades-old cold cases but also increase the safety of future travellers on the Flinders Highway.
Mapping Evil podcast with Mike King
Mapping Evil podcast
