Bullets key to arrests in cold case
Detectives allege rare ammo led to breakthrough in 20-year mystery
THE bullets used to murder failed businessman Philip Carlyle led detectives to his alleged killer, police claim.
The Gold Coast Bulletin can exclusively reveal police will allege the same style rounds – Norma brand .32 calibre ACP ammunition – used to shoot Mr Carlyle in 1997 were found at a Reedy Creek property allegedly visited by murder accused Neil Pentland just hours after the tech entrepreneur was killed.
Police are expected to allege:
• The cold case breakthrough came after the bullets were tested in recent years against the same type of bullets sourced from across Australia.
• The 103 rounds allegedly found at a Reedy Creek mechanic shop were “isotopically indistinguishable” – that is, they bore the same elemental “fingerprint” – as the four left at the Glenferrie Drive murder scene and did not match any other of the same type of bullets sourced nationally.
• The former girlfriend of John Hitchen, who is charged as an accessory to the murder, allegedly told police in 2016 she remembered seeing a car arrive at the Reedy Creek address on the day Mr Carlyle died but did not recognise the person as Pentland until she Googled the murder case 20 years later.
• The same woman told police Hitchen said he loaned Pentland a gun and when he returned it he told Hitchen it had been used.
• A $500,000 life insurance policy was taken out on Mr Carlyle six months before he was shot dead in an executionstyle slaying.
Mr Carlyle was a god-fearing, 48-year-old father-ofthree. He was shot in the head and neck four times at his Robina office in April 1997.
His body was found by a security guard in the building’s airconditioning plant.
Mr Carlyle’s business partner Pentland, 68, was yesterday charged with his murder.
He appeared briefly in the Southport Magistrates Court and did not apply for bail.
Pentland’s wife, Diane Pentland, 69, was charged with providing a false or misleading statement and was granted watchhouse bail to appear in a Brisbane court next month.
Reedy Creek mechanic Hitchen, 66, was charged with being an accessory to murder and possessing an unsecured weapon.
Outside court, Pentland’s defence lawyer, Moloney MacCallum principal Andrew Moloney, said the Robina man had been “maintaining his innocence for the last 20 years and continues to do so”.
Hitchen will appear in the Southport Magistrates Court today and is expected to apply for bail.
Gold Coast Criminal Investigation Branch Detective Inspector Marc Hogan said technological advancements were crucial to all three arrests.
“Technology has advanced so we were able to obtain evidence that we are pretty confident will be successful,” he said. “We’re confident that it (the case) is quite strong.
“By and large it’s been the dedication of a handful of investigators who have committed a lot of time and effort from Brisbane and the Gold Coast and the results have come out today which I hope is a great thing for the family of the victim who, after 20 years or so, would have always wondered what happened.”
Yesterday’s arrests came nearly a year after police returned to the scene of the crime in July 2016 to conduct a full forensic examination.
In October, officers appealed for anyone with knowledge about the shooting, claiming detectives were close to catching the killer.