Lisa Edwards recalls her father sitting at the table one morning in 1978, in a bright and sunny kitchen. But something was wrong – he was typically gone by that hour.
That morning, on his way to work, her father had picked up the newspaper as always.
“But this time, the front page reported that bodies had been found in Mount Isa and a photo of a watch – one that looked like Karen’s,” Edwards told the Coroners Court in Brisbane on Friday.
Karen Edwards, Gordon Twaddle and Tim Thomson died in 1978.Credit: Nine
“I’m sure none of us will ever understand what that moment was like for my parents.”
Lisa was only nine years old at the time her sister, Karen Edwards, 23, was killed. Her body was found near a bush track in north-west Queensland, near her partner, Tim Thomson, 31, and their friend Gordon Twaddle, 21.
“That was the day I realised terrible things don’t just happen to strangers on the news. They can happen to your family too,” she says.
“At first I couldn’t understand how anyone could hurt Karen so badly, that she was never coming home. My nine-year-old mind couldn’t stop imagining what her final moments might have been like.
“Was she scared? Did she know what was happening? The thought of her body left in the bush for weeks haunted me. I also tried to picture the person who had done it, but I couldn’t put a face to him.”
Edwards remembers her mother and father waving goodbye from the departure lounge as her sister’s plane taxied off to Alice Springs, earlier that year.
There, Karen Edwards met her partner, Thomson, who had been working as a teacher on the Hermannsburg Mission. At the mission, his 11-month-old dog Tristie had been shot and injured, and Thomson began to fear for the pup’s life.
Thomson and Edwards decided to join their friend Gordon Twaddle, 21, for a motorbike trip out of Alice Springs, hoping to arrive in Melbourne for Christmas.
They never made it. Their three bodies were found near a bush track at Spear Creek outside Mount Isa in late October. All three were found with gunshot wounds to the head by a .22 calibre rifle.
A second inquest into their deaths concluded on Friday, with Coroner David O’Connell to hand down his findings at a later date.
The only person charged over the outback triple homicide, Bruce Preston, 69, admitted to the inquest that he lied to police, with the court earlier hearing his father had claimed “the little bastard done it”.
The court heard Preston was found with Thomson’s red BMW motorbike, which Thomson and Edwards had been riding with a sidecar attached to travel with their dog.
Preston pleaded guilty to stealing the bike, and was fined $300. The inquest heard the bike was stored in Preston’s shed in Mount Isa and he was riding it 24 hours after the trio disappeared.
Bruce John Preston, who was initially charged over the Spear Creek deaths, outside court last week.Credit: Cloe Read
When asked if he had told lies about where he found the motorcycle, Preston answered yes. He then said: “I don’t know, it’s 47 years ago. I was a young fellow, I panicked.”
The murder charges were dropped against Preston in 2023. And the case remains unsolved.
“Many aspects” pointed towards Preston having some involvement, Counsel Assisting John Aberdeen told the inquest in his closing submissions.
If the coroner took the view that Preston was responsible, the matter could be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who would decide whether to pursue Preston over three counts of murder, Aberdeen said.
Aberdeen pointed to inconsistencies in Preston’s evidence, including stories that he found the motorbike in three different places. He also noted Preston had its keys some 8½ hours after Thomson was last seen.
“If Your Honour is satisfied that … his obvious possession of the BMW on the morning of the 6th [of October] is strong evidence that Mr Preston was involved in whatever caused the death of these three people … then Your Honour could refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions,” Aberdeen told the court.
He also raised the evidence given by Preston’s older brother Ian, who said Preston had called him from Adelaide and told him he had bought a BMW motorcycle, and had it transported to Mount Isa.
Aberdeen described these statements as misleading, and said Preston could be referred to the DPP for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Cold case detectives are continuing to investigate the deaths, with the families still seeking answers after being haunted for almost five decades.
The red motorcycle driven by Tim Thomson.Credit: Queensland Police Service
For years, the person responsible for the crimes has eluded police. And as Lisa Edwards grew older, she says that person became the “faceless man”.
She recalls family trips haunted by the tragedy. On one trip to Adelaide, the family visited a cottage in the hills where her sister and Thomson had lived.
“When we finally arrived we sat in silence for the longest time. I had remembered flying my kite on the hill behind, and playing with Tristie. She was just a pup then,” she told court.
“But I felt anxious too, because the cottage looked different to what I remembered, and I wanted memories of Karen to stay crystal clear.”
Ken Twaddle told the court his cousin’s death had a significant toll on his family. He recalled that before his own father died, only two things upset him: the war, and the death of his nephew, who had been named after him.
“Our family’s lives were forever changed the day we were told Gordon would never return home,” he said.
“The fact the crime has never been solved, despite notable efforts to see justice served, having a predator continue to roam free for 47 years, living their life as normal, is a source of much ongoing angst.”
A statement from the Thomson family described him as a generous, joyful and kind person whose life was stolen from him. They said they had struggled to deal with how Thomson was “slaughtered” and “left to rot with his friends”.
Thomson’s brother, Kenneth, said: “If the perpetrator is not found in this life, my faith consoles me that hell waits patiently for them.”
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