Bowraville 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.

The first victim, 16-year-old Colleen Walker of Sawtell, New South Wales, was in the rural timber town of Bowraville visiting relatives.

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.

[4] Several similarities between the disappearances that led police to believe that they were committed by the same killer:[citation needed] On 8 April 1991, a 25-year-old local Bowraville labourer, Thomas Jay Hart, was arrested for the murder of Speedy-Duroux.

[2][7] In 1997, the New South Wales Police Commissioner Peter Ryan set up Task Force Ancud to continue the investigation into the unsolved murders.

In 2006, changes were made to double jeopardy legislation in NSW opening the way for retrial of any person acquitted of a life-sentence offence if "fresh and compelling evidence" was uncovered.

[12] In October 2011, Walker's family found bones in bushland near Macksville, New South Wales, but forensic testing indicated that they were animal remains.

[13][14] In 2016, the detective inspector leading the investigation made a submission to the NSW Attorney General calling for a retrial based on new evidence.

[17][18] On 9 February 2017, police laid a murder charge against the suspect, and the NSW Attorney General applied to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a retrial.

The court concluded that most of the evidence relied upon was not "fresh", because it was available to be tendered or brought forward prior to the earlier trial of the man for the murder of Greenup.