Work, coffee and four shots to the body
ON Sunday, April 13, 1997, Philip Carlyle made the fatal decision to go to work.
It wasn’t unusual for the father-of-three to work irregular hours. He often worked nights, weekends and public holidays.
It was 9.40am when he arrived at his Robina office. The 48-year-old was heading off on a business trip to the US on the Wednesday and wanted to V1 - GCBE01Z01MA tidy up last-minute work.
Mr Carlyle had planned to work for a few hours and play tennis in the afternoon, before collecting his wife from church at 5.30pm.
The last person alleged to see Mr Carlyle alive was his business partner, Neil Pentland, who had arrived at the Glenferrie Drive office at 10am that day and had stayed until 11.15am or 11.30am.
It was Mr Carlyle’s wife, Gion, who raised the alarm that something was wrong when her husband failed to pick her up from the family church in Mudgeeraba.
She became concerned and contacted Pentland, who went back to the office.
With his wife and son, Pentland arrived about 7.30pm, searched the office unsuccessfully and called security guards for help.
About 8.15pm, one of the security guards opened the door to the airconditioning plant room which adjoined Mr Carlyle’s office.
Inside, blood could be seen running across the floor, the trail leading to the body of Mr Carlyle slumped against a wall.
He had been shot four times in the head with a .32 revolver at close range – twice in the back of the head, once in his left temple and once in his left eye.
There was no sign of a struggle or a break-in and a full cup of coffee sat on Mr Carlyle’s desk. During the investigation a Government Medical Officer determined the death took place between 10am and midday on that Sunday.
It is believed he was shot inside the airconditioning room, which had almost sound-proof walls.
The office building and the area surrounding was turned into a crime scene that would last for days and be revisited many times over the 20 years it took police to lay charges.