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Nurses' killer the leader of 'a putrid pool of miscreants'

This article is more than 10 years oldLocal police failed to properly investigate women's deaths, despite gang's history of violence towards women, coroner finds

The ringleader of a gang who murdered two young nurses almost 40 years ago was part of a "putrid pool of miscreants", but will never face trial after dying in a car accident.

Queensland state coroner Michael Barnes has found that Wayne "Boogie" Hilton, along with other unidentified men, killed Lorraine Ruth Wilson, 20, and her friend Wendy Joy Evans, 18, at the foot of the Toowoomba Ranges in 1974.

Barnes also found that local police were aware of the gang's violent reputation for raping women but failed to investigate the deaths of Wilson and Evans properly.

"Certainly local officers were aware of the problem to some extent," he said in his findings.

"Either because of the then prevailing attitudes to rape that in part blamed the victim, or because the victims were too intimidated to more vigorously prosecute their complaints, an effective criminal justice response was not forthcoming."

Wilson and Evans went missing while hitchhiking from Brisbane to Dubbo in NSW to visit Wilson's parents and their remains were found tied up with venetian blinds chords in a paddock two years later.

Around the time the pair went missing multiple people reported driving down the Toowoomba Range and seeing two women struggling with a group of men, screaming for help and at one point a witness saw one of the women tied up.

None of the cars that drove past stopped to help, with one witness citing fear for his wife and children in the car while another, having recognised Hilton, did not stop because he was aware of his violent reputation.

Neighbours heard the women's screams for help but as they echoed around the mountains police could not find exactly where they were coming from.

"Their desperate cries for help that went unheeded are one of the most heartrending aspects of this terribly sad case," Barnes said.

Hilton was part of gang of men in the Toowoomba area loosely made up of the Laurie and Hilton families and others connected to the families by marriage or friendships.

Barnes said while there was no doubt there were other men involved in the murder of the young nurses, Hilton was the only one who could definitely be identified.

Hilton confessed to the crime multiple times to confidants but died in a car accident in the 1980s so will never face trial.

Barnes found Wilson died from a single blow to the back of her head and Evans, who escaped briefly before being hunted down by the group, was killed by numerous blows to her face, likely the result of her captors stomping on her face in anger that she got away.

Barnes also rejected the evidence of various witnesses including claims the women were repeatedly raped in front of guests at a party in a paddock or that Evans made it to a house but was turned away after banging on the door for help.

He described the young nurses as decent and much-loved members of their communities.

"The lives of these two fine young women and the happiness of their families were shattered by an unprovoked violent, vicious attack, mounted to satiate the perverse sexual dysfunction of a despicable gang of thugs," he said.

"Their families' suffering was made worse still by a long period of not knowing, during which, inevitably, false hope would arise until, dashed by the discovery of their remains strewn around a paddock, they were forced to accept they would never again see their loved ones."

Three other men named as persons of interest and potential members of the gang that night, Allan John Laurie, Donald Laurie and Larry Charles have died while the three who are still living, Allan Neil Laurie, Terrance James O'Neill and Desmond Roy Hilton, deny any involvement.

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