GRUESOME SECRETS OF SENSIBLE CREEK
ON NOVEMBER 15, 1972, THE REMAINS OF ROBIN HOINVILLE-BARTRAM WERE DISCOVERED PARTIALLY BURIED UNDER A RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER SENSIBLE CREEK ON THE FLINDERS HIGHWAY, WEST OF CHARTERS TOWERS. THERE WERE TWO .22 CALIBRE BULLET WOUNDS TO THE BACK OF HER HEAD AND THE BODY WAS UNDRESSED FROM THE WAIST DOWN. UNTIL THEN, ROBIN AND HER FRIEND ANITA CUNNINGHAM WERE CONSIDERED TO BE MISSING PERSONS, TWO YOUNG GIRLS HITCHHIKING AROUND AUSTRALIA WHO HAD JUST ‘DISAPPEARED’. THAT WAS 48 YEARS AGO. ANITA’S BODY HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND. THEIR MURDER REMAINS UNSOLVED. REPORTS
RETIRED Sandgate police detective Mick Gurn has spent the past six years doggedly investigating the disappearance of Robin and Anita. He has travelled to Sensible Creek, to Pentland where the girls were last seen and spoken with dozens of people in Charters Towers in the hope of unearthing the truth for David Cunningham, Anita’s brother.
Mr Gurn has written dozens of letters to politicians, police detectives, police commissioners and more, but says there has been no interest in an inquest or a fresh investigation into the case.
College student Anita, 18, and her friend Robin, 19, took off from Melbourne on July 4, 1972, on a hitchhiking trip to Queensland. They made it to Mount Isa and it is believed they were heading towards Bowen, where Robin’s mother lived, when they disappeared.
After the initial discovery of Robin’s remains, which were identified using dental records, police sought to speak to Anita as a person of interest. It was some considerable time later that she went from being considered a missing person to murdered as well.
Mr Gurn said “every scrap of information” he had uncovered had been given to police, but with no result.
This includes a “staggering” witness account from the daughter of a woman who was at the Pentland Hotel with her mother on the day the pair were last seen. Mr Gurn said the witness, whom he would not name and who died in 2014, had travelled from a nearby station, where she lived with her family, to Pentland on the day they met the girls.
“They (the witness and her mother) entered the hotel in Pentland on this afternoon when the girls (Ms Cunningham and Ms Hoinville-bartram) were already there,” he said.
“First of all they sat at the bar, then they saw the girls and became friendly with them and sat at the table.”
Mr Gurn believes Ms Cunningham and Ms Hoinville-bartram had travelled on a truck from Hughenden to Pentland, with a man they knew as “Cowboy”. “Cowboy” was in the Pentland Hotel that day, but there he called himself “Richard”. He has some reason to believe “Cowboy” may have been Ivan Milat.
“Later in the day, the girls had
Bones found at Sensible Creek. told this woman and her mother they were on their way to Bowen,” Mr Gurn said.
“They wanted a lift to Charters Towers and one of the men who was in the bar there arranged a lift. It was to be given by a member of the band who was there that day so the girls and this Richard left with this man and at least one or two other men.
“Of course the girls were never seen alive again.”
Mr Gurn said the witness account becomes chilling at that point in the story.
“Later that afternoon, when it was dark, the woman and her mother left the Pentland Hotel,” Mr Gurn said.
“When they got to
Sensible
Creek, the car the girls had left the hotel in was sideways across the road, with all the doors open, all the lights on and the headlights shining towards the railway line.
“There was one man with long hair sitting in the vehicle and there was activity towards the railway line.”
Mr Gurn said somebody called out for the man to stop the passing car, but the mother told the daughter – in no uncertain terms – to drive on and they continued to the Mexican Caravan Park in Charters Towers.
He said later that night, the car and the men showed up at the van park – without Ms Cunningham and Ms Hoinville-bartram – and, the following day, “Richard” and the
They wanted a lift to Charters Towers and one of the men who was in the bar there arranged a lift ... of course the girls were never seen alive again MICK GURN
Ivan Milat.
other men accosted the witness outside a Gill Street hairdressing salon.
The witness said Richard had a scratch on his face, and had tried to entice her to go with him to Townsville.
“Luckily, she declined because that would have been the end of her,” Mr Gurn said. “She asked him (Richard) where the girls were and he said they were with their families.”
Mr Gurn said he was told the witness account in 2014 in graphic detail by the late witness’s daughter.
He never had the opportunity to interview the witness himself, nor her mother who also passed away in 2014, but the story was told to him, and corroborated, by the witness’s husband.
Mr Gurn said a part-time worker at the Pentland Hotel also told him the girls left the pub with the band that was performing there that night, but never arrived in Charters Towers.
He says all he wants is to see justice done and those involved in the murder of the two girls made to pay.
“I have taken this four-year battle to get justice for the murdered girls and to try and find the location of Anita’s body, for the peace of mind
Detective Sergeant Ron J. Redmond displays some of the garments found near Sensible Creek railway bridge in 1972. of her family,” Mr Gurn said. A Queensland Police Service reward of $250,000 for information which leads to the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of the girls remains active.
Anyone with information which could assist police is asked to contact the Homicide Investigation Group in Brisbane or Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
BELOW: Police search at Sensible Creek railway bridge west of Charters Towers and (bottom) police search the Sensible Creek area.