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The Coldest Case – The 60th Anniversary of the Betty Shanks murder
Police discovered that after the
lecture in the city, Betty accepted a
lift from her lecturer at approximately
9pm. Two other male students also
accepted a lift. Betty’s lecturer drove
her to the corner of Lutwyche Road
and Maygar Street, Windsor, where
she got out of the car alone to wait for
a tram.
“The police were
looking for a suspect
described as a ‘moonfaced
man that a taxi
driver reported seeing
jump the fence at the
murder spot’.”
Another resident of the Grange, Jane
Osborne, was waiting at the tram
stop, and she and Betty boarded the
tram together, which arrived at the
Grange terminus on Days Road at
9:32pm.
Also on the tram was Marie Patton, a
resident of Wilston, and she nodded
to Betty when the three women got
up from their seats to alight from
the tram. Mrs Osborne walked in
the direction opposite to which it is
believed Betty walked, and she did
not notice anyone at the tram stop.
Ms Patton walked quickly down
Thomas Street in the direction of
her home on Primrose Street, just
off Thomas Street, about two thirds
of the distance between the tram
terminus and Betty’s home.
She did not observe anyone lurking
along Thomas Street on her way
home, and she did not hear any
unusual noises either before or after
her arrival home.
Betty was in the habit of walking
down the side of Thomas Street next
to the Hill residence, where she was
apparently attacked, forced over the
fence into the Hill’s yard, and then
murdered.
OTHER WITNESSES
Though neither Mrs Osborne nor
Ms Patton saw or heard anything
unusual, other witnesses noticed
a man at the terminus as the three
women left the tram.
One described him as wearing
dark coloured trousers and a light
shirt, whereas two other witnesses
described him as well-dressed, in
a dark grey or brown suit. Another
witness claimed a man at the tram
terminus at about 9:30pm declined a
lift when offered.
The Courier Mail reported that the
police were looking for a suspect
described as a ‘moon-faced man
[that] a taxi driver reported seeing
jump the fence at the murder spot’.
Allegedly, this taxi driver later saw
the same man at the railway station at
Newmarket, just one kilometre from
the murder scene.
Another suspect was a man who was
picked up by a taxi at 10:20pm about
two kilometres from the scene of the
crime. This man allegedly had blood
on his shirt.
The statement of James Coats, who
lived next door to Const Stewart
on Thomas Street, says he ‘heard a
half moan or slight moan, sufficient
to make [him] inquisitive ... at
approximately 10:40pm.
‘That was what caused me to get
out of bed. It was then that [a] motor
cycle passed. I waited to hear if there
was anything more, but couldn’t
hear through the exhaust of the
“I heard two cries ... I did not take much notice
... I have heard cries by night out there before,
from the direction of the school grounds.”
The Hill’s home where Betty was found inside the front yard fence.
The site where Betty was found inside the Hill’s yard. Her body is located behind
the right hand fence post, hidden by the grass.
Queensland Police Union Journal August 2012 31