Cops told man he was on hired killer’s hit list
IF Tamara Murphy had come up with $10,000, Tim Kobelt may have ended up — like his old mate Peter Murphy — in a shallow grave somewhere in the outback, executed by hired killer Gregory Allan Russell.
Ms Murphy, who was given immunity from prosecution, gave evidence at the Supreme Court trial of Russell’s alleged accomplice Adam “Wog” Filippone where she told the court Russell offered to kill Mr Kobelt if she came up with $10,000.
The deal fell through when she could not scrounge up the cash, Ms Murphy told the court.
Ms Murphy had made allegations against Mr Kobelt, the details of which cannot be published, and became “very angry and upset” after police chose to drop their investigation.
Ms Murphy told the court Russell also offered to “help out” with Mr Murphy, who she claimed owed her money.
But the transcript of an interview Ms Murphy gave to police in the weeks after Mr Murphy disappeared describes the planned killings in a different light, and suggests the two men were to be killed as part of a package deal.
“Yeah, combination,” Ms Murphy told police. “(Tim Kobelt) was to go in with the deal.
“When (Russell) said it, I did say to him that it’d be worth the ten grand just to do Tim but as for the two others, they’re the fathers of my kids.”
Ms Murphy’s evidence at trial was the subject of what Filippone’s solicitor, Greg Walsh, described as a “withering” cross-examination and many aspects of her testimony were inconsistent with other witnesses. Coroner Greg Ca- vanagh said in 2011 he was “suspicious” Ms Murphy knew more about Mr Murphy’s disappearance than she had told the inquest but said he could make no more adverse findings about her.
Mr Kobelt said police warned him in 2008 or 2009 there may be a hit out on him.
“I told (the detective), ‘I’ve had a good time, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen’,” he told the Sunday Territorian.
Russell died in 2010 and his deathbed confession led to finding Mr Murphy’s body.
“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen”