Suspected clues in kill case revealed

ITEMS found with tattoo artist Dwayne “Doc” Davies’ body were similar to items found in his accused killer’s shed, a police officer has told a Supreme Court jury.

Detective Sergeant Brad Conyers was the final prosecution witness to give evidence in the murder trial that has been running for the past four weeks in Hobart.

Bradley Scott Purkiss, 43, of Elderslie, and Mr Davies’ wife, Margaret Anne Otto, 47, of Risdon Vale, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Davies.

It is alleged the pair formed a plan to kill Mr Davies and that Mr Purkiss shot him at Elderslie on May 26, 2017, and buried his body at Levendale the following day.

Sgt Conyers yesterday told the jury he was at the Hobart mortuary when the tarpaulin Mr Davies’ body was wrapped in was removed and his body was examined.

He said the twine the body was tied with and the latex gloves on Mr Davies’ hands were, to his eye, “very similar” to twine and a box of gloves found in Mr Purkiss’s shed.

Sgt Conyers said green waste and plastic found at the gravesite were also similar to items at the Elderslie property.

Sgt Conyers said Mr Purkiss’s father, Anthony Purkiss, told him he went to the Levendale property with his sons, Bradley and Wayne, to go shooting on the evening of May 27.

“He said that they reached a shooting shack on the property that they shot from frequently and at that point Wayne and himself got out of the vehicle and started to set up … and Bradley indicated he had to get rid of some rubbish and drove off,” Sgt Conyers said.

He said Anthony Purkiss told him Bradley Purkiss returned about 20 minutes later and the tray of his utility, which had earlier contained rubbish, was empty.

Sgt Conyers said Anthony Purkiss went with him to the Levendale property on June 1.

Mr Davies’ body was found and exhumed on June 3.

Sgt Conyers told the jury he gave a press conference on May 31 and appealed to the public for information, particularly relating to movements of two vehicles — Mr Purkiss’s Nissan Navara and Ms Otto’s Hyundai Tucson.

“A member of the public had phoned suggesting they saw a white utility similar to the one that we released and it was in the vicinity of Black Brush Rd [near Elderslie] and that there was a dam in that location [and] they’d seen the vehicle reversing strangely nearby to it and that vehicle had left once that person had started walking towards it,” Sgt Conyers said.

He said the person who made the report said they saw the vehicle about 4pm on May 27, 2017.

The court heard police inspected the area near the dam.

“It was extremely wet … we found it quite hard to get close to it, it was that wet, you just sink as soon as you walk into it,” Sgt Conyers said.

He said police received a “minimal” amount of information from the public about the investigation into Mr Davies’ disappearance and death.

Earlier in the trial Constable John Howe told the jury he was at Ms Otto’s home on May 29 when a friend of hers who was also at the house received a phone call.

Constable Howe said the friend said he had been speaking to Greg Hutt, who told him Mr Davies was in Launceston with a man called Max Morrison “cleaning himself up”.

The jury heard Mr Hutt had been convicted of murder some years earlier — and had since been released from prison — and Mr Morrison had been convicted for failing to report a separate killing.

Sgt Conyers yesterday said police did not find a link between either of the two men and Mr Davies.

The trial continues next week.