BULLET PROOF
EXCLUSIVE Ammo breakthrough in 20-year-old murder
POLICE linked the “fingerprint” of four bullets that killed businessman Philip Carlyle to the man now accused of his murder 20 years after the crime. The bullets were “isotopically indistinguishable” from 103 rounds allegedly found at a Reedy Creek mechanic shop. Mr Carlyle’s business partner Neil Pentland, 68, has been charged with murder. Alleged gun owner John Hitchen was charged as an accessory to murder, and Pentland’s wife Diane, 69, was charged with providing a misleading statement.
SUNDAY, APRIL 13, 1997
9.40AM: Philip Carlyle arrives at his Atnet Pty Ltd office at Robina East Quays business complex in Glenferrie Drive.
10AM: Mr Carlyle’s business partner, Neil Pentland, arrives at the office.
11.05-11.15AM: Mr Pentland leaves the office. He is the last person to see Mr Carlyle alive.
10AM-noon: Sometime between 10am and midday Mr Carlyle is viciously killed.
5.30PM: Mr Carlyle does not turn up to pick his wife, Gion, up from church.
6.30PM: Gion Carlyle contacts Neil Pentland inquiring about Philip Carlyle. Neil Pentland attends the Atnet office and starts looking for Carlyle. 7:30PM: Security guards arrive at the office after Mr Pentland and the family call them concerned for Mr Carlyle’s welfare.
8.15PM: A security guard opens the plant room door to find Mr Carlyle lying against the wall. He has been shot four times.
2002: A $50,000 reward is offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of Mr Carlyle’s killer.
2003: A police unit within the state’s homicide squad, called the Cold Case Squad, starts a review of unsolved murders around the state. Mr Carlyle is high on the list and his case becomes the pilot case for a new method the police were trialling for compiling all information on one computer system. Police confident it can be solved despite six years already elapsing.
July, 2004: Burleigh Heads CIB detective Senior Constable Kurt Krebs and Senior Constable David Nicoll, from the Brisbane-based homicide squad, spend two weeks at Harvard University, New York and Syracuse, tracking email records and taking statements from past and potential clients of Mr Carlyle.
2006: A $100,000 reward is offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of Mr Carlyle’s killer.
2009: A $250,000 reward is offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of Mr Carlyle’s killer.
2016: Detectives from the Gold Coast Criminal Investigation Branch in conjunction with officers from the Queensland Homicide Investigation Unit start a fresh review of the Mr Carlyle case.
July, 2016: Investigators return to crime scene at Robina and a full forensic examination is
undertaken over a number of days. October, 2016: Police say they’re close to finding Mr Carlyle’s killer and are appealing to members of the public, even those who have already come forward, to see them again.
Yesterday: Philip Carlyle’s former business partner Neil Pentland, 68, his wife Dianne Pentland, 69, and John Hitchen, 66 are charged in relation to the 20-year-old murder investigation. Mr Pentland is charged with murder, Mrs Pentland is charged with false or misleading statement and Mr Hitchen is charged with accessory after the fact of murder and possession of an unsecured weapon.