Family farewell murder victim
FAMILY and friends of Cooktown murder victim Donna Steele will come together today to say goodbye.
The funeral for the 42-yearold mother-of-two will be held at Atherton and comes 11 days after her wrapped body was found in a creek about 20km west of Cooktown.
Her killer is yet to be identified and police continue to ramp up efforts to track down whoever is responsible.
Far North police detective Inspector Geoff Marsh has revealed the investigation centre which had been operating out of Cairns was shifted north to Cooktown yesterday to tighten the net on the culprit.
He said more than 20 detectives were now working out of the small town, including specialist officers from the Brisbane-based homicide squad who have been in the region since the investigation began.
“Someone in the community knows what happened,” Insp Marsh said.
“The funeral is being held (today) which will give the family some closure.”
An appeal for information, including CCTV, dash cam footage or anyone who spoke to Ms Steele in the days before her disappearance, remains in place.
She was last seen at the Cooktown IGA supermarket at 12.15pm on Wednesday, August 3.
A CCTV image showed her white Toyota HiLux heading out of town on Endeavour Valley Rd five minutes later.
Her two sons, aged 8 and 10, arrived home from school to the family’s Poison Creek Rd property about 4pm to find their mother not home.
The home, the Isabella Creek area at Leggett’s Crossing where her body was found, and two properties belonging to her friends were the subject of major forensic examinations with detectives awaiting results of testing.
A lack of CCTV in the remote, coastal town has been a stumbling block for investigators trying to piece together her final movements.
With no damage and no sign of a break-in at her property, they are adamant she knew whoever came by and may have been killed there or left willingly with the person and met foul play elsewhere.