WEBVTT - The Irwin sisters murders 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:05.680 She climbed the stairs. The beep came from Laura's bedroom. 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:10.799 She pushed the door open and saw a scene she'd 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:15.680 never forget no matter how much she tried. It shot 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:20.360 thousands of practice rounds with glock service pistols over the years, 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:25.160 and now it showed. He dropped the clipboard he was holding, 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:30.200 pulled his pistol and fired twice from the hip. I'm 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.680 Andrew Rule. This is life and crimes. Some crimes have 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:40.040 great resonance. We remember them for decades, mainly because not 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.600 only they are terrible crimes, but they go unsolved for 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.080 a long time. They become famous cold cases, and it's 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.120 the mystery element that makes people wonder about them and 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.880 wonder who done it, who's out there, who got away 0:00:54.920 --> 0:01:01.120 with it. Others are equally terrible crimes, but they don't 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:08.480 capture the same attention because sometimes they are solved reasonably quickly. 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.039 Today we're going to talk about one of those, and 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:16.240 it's a case that, on the bare facts, is every 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:21.280 bit as terrible, every bit as haunting as the notorious 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.920 Easy Street case in Collingwood in nineteen seventy seven. This 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.160 is a double murder of two young women from the 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:33.800 country like Easy Street that happened almost thirty years later 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:40.600 in the year two thousand and six. It involves two 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:45.920 sisters from Talamba, which is a little tiny town just 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:50.919 south of Sheperdon. A hellish hour after the killer forced 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.680 his way into the sisters home, one of the girls 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.040 managed to dial triple zero. The call was cut off 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:03.320 after five seconds, and so oh it wasn't answered. What 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:08.680 happened after that is the stuff of nightmares. Laura Urban 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.320 was twenty one, working in her dream job in television 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:17.160 production at Channel ten. Her sister, Colleen was twenty three, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.440 a promising photographer who had just been promoted at her 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.480 job in a camera store. They were their parents' only children, 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.679 country kids who'd come to Melbourne to make their way 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:33.440 in the world. It's twenty years ago this month since 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.919 Laura and Colleen were raped and murdered by a paroled prisoner, 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:44.080 a violent sex offender who it turned out, had spied 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.680 on them from next door after cutting down a palm 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:52.280 tree so he could see their bathroom window. It was 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:56.360 clearly premeditated. It happened in the early hours of a 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:02.320 Saturday morning, January twenty eighth, t and six. Colleen, the 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.639 older sister had come home from a housewoman party around 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.560 twelve forty five am to the unit that she shared 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:15.600 with Laura in Miller's Road, Eltona North. He was a 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:20.080 big man. He was waiting for her. He attacked after 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.080 she got out of her car. Colleen, barely more than 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.680 half his weight, had no chance. He forced her to 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.839 the door and used her keys to get inside where 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.360 Laura was asleep. After spending a quiet evening at home. 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.760 That was at twelve forty five of thereabouts. That call 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.760 to triple zero was at one forty four am an 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:50.680 hour later, and of course that call was cut off 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:56.920 by someone in the murder house after five seconds, and 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:01.000 so it didn't last long enough to be a transferred 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.680 to an operator who could raise the alarm. This is 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.960 one of the things that must haunt the Irwin girl's parents. 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.240 The girls always called home every day, sometimes several times. 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:19.200 Their parents, Shirley and Alan Erwin, lived at Talamba, where 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:23.640 they brought the girls up most of their lives. Talamba 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:25.920 is on the southern edge of Shepardon. It's one of 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.920 those little country towns that the locals call a small 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.080 town with a big heart. The girls had gone to 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:37.599 school in shep they'd played sport locally, and they'd worked 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.719 in the fruit caneries to save money to get where 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.520 they wanted to go. Shirley Erwin knew something was wrong 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.839 when her daughters didn't call on that Saturday, and when 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:54.200 her calls to them went unanswered. She was worried. So 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:59.200 was her husband. So was the girl's best friend, Candace Osborne, 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.520 who it lived in Melbourne and had a key to 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:09.400 their unit. Eventually, Candace went around to the sister's unit 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.440 in Miller's Road and she opened the door. It was 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:18.320 late on that Saturday, was in the evening. Downstairs, everything 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:23.600 looked normal. Candace walked through the kitchen. She called out, 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:29.640 No one answered. She almost left, she said later it 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:34.119 felt weird snooping through their house, so she nearly left. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:42.400 But then she heard a faint electronic beep. She recognized it. 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.919 It was Colleen's phone. It was set to beep to 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:51.800 flag any unanswered calls and text messages. Candace was alarmed. 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.839 She climbed the stairs. The beep came from Laura's bedroom. 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.919 She pushed the door open and saw a scene she'd 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:07.440 never forget, no matter how much she tried. Colleen was 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.480 lying on her back, naked from the waist down. Laura 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:16.559 was beside her. Both of them had been stabbed to death. 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:19.880 It didn't take the police long to deduce who they 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.200 were looking for. They did not make his name public 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:29.440 for legal reasons, but the obvious suspect was the sister's neighbor, 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:35.160 William John Watkins, whose form as a violent sex offender 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.160 was chilling. Not that they knew that. They knew nothing 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.600 about him. Watkins, who was thirty eight, had been committing 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.160 crime since nineteen eighty five, which was almost as long 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.480 as Laura had been alive. He'd been jailed in May 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.560 two thousand, six years earlier, for rape and aggravated burglary, 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.760 and he had prior convictions for serious assault, been sentenced 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.039 to more than four years, but was released after a 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:09.440 minimum of two. When police identified Watkins and his prior convictions, 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:16.200 he was officially quote a person of interest, but significantly 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:21.200 he had vanished. His employers notified the police on Monday afternoon, 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.880 January thirtieth that he had not turned up for work. 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.640 It wasn't until then the police got a warrant and 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.960 searched watkins home unit next door to the murder scene. 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.800 Watkins had left just after dawn on that Saturday morning, 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.200 January twenty eight. He'd withdrawn what little money he had 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.520 from a nearby atm at six forty four a m 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.760 exactly six hours after ambushing Colin Rman. It was late 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.520 on Monday before police were confident that Watkins was probably 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.120 the killer, but they did not flag his name and 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.960 prior convictions to interstate police, nor make it public in 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:08.760 media reports. That decision, or that oversight, nearly cost a 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:14.280 brave Western Australian policeman his life. Watkins had fled in 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.920 his white Toyota Lexton station Wagon, a vehicle identical to 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:23.480 a Holden Commodore in everything but badging. He had a 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:28.200 two day start. No one knew which direction he'd taken. 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:33.560 Around nine thirty Tuesday morning, January the thirty first, a 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:38.040 white Commodore station wagon as it appeared to be, pulled 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:42.080 into the Fortes Q roadhouse at Mardi, one hundred and 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:47.040 ten kilometers from Caratha in the Pilbra region of Western Australia, 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:53.120 bordering a vast area of the north where Victorian fugities 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:59.559 sometimes fled to hide to get lost. The driver filled 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.520 the car with eighty dollars worth of petrol and then 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.240 drove off northwards without paying. It was a drive off 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.480 the roadhouse attendant called Karatha police to report the theft. 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.760 Sergeant Shane Gray caught what seemed a routine job. The 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.920 other on duty officer didn't have his police belt, pistol 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.920 and handcuffs with him. Rather than wait for his mate 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:28.040 to grab his gear, Sergeant Gray headed out alone, driving 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.080 south in a marked patrol car to watch for the 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:37.480 white station megan. He was playing the car radio and 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:42.320 as luck had it, his favorite song came on American 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:47.560 Pie by Don McLean. Just as he saw a car 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:52.520 approaching in the distance, the song hit the last line, 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.480 this will be the day, that are day. It almost 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:02.520 was the approaching car, the wanted white station wagon. The 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:06.440 policeman flashed his headlights, did a U turn and hit 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.440 the siren and lights. The wagon kept on at a 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.760 steady one hundred and ten kilometers an hour for a 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.400 short distance, then pulled over on a straight stretch about 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:23.679 fifteen k's from Caratha. Sergeant Gray parked well behind it 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.760 and called in the car's details, only to be told 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.040 there was nothing known about it or its driver, meaning 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.720 that in the eighteen hours that Victoria police had known 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:37.200 that a double murder suspect was on the run in 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:43.840 his readily identifiable car. Their interstate counterparts had not been warned. 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:51.160 No other police outside Victoria knew anything about Watkins or 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.680 his car. Assured that it was nothing but a petty 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.520 petrol drive off. Sergeant Gray walked up to the car. 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.680 Small job, but when he saw the driver he felt 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:09.520 a pang of caution. The man was at least a 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:15.320 hundred kilograms and muscular and hard looking with it. The 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.240 policeman later described him as looking like a rugby player. 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.480 The big man showed his driver's license quite willingly. He 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.760 admitted he had stolen the petrol because he had no money. 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.200 In fact, he said he'd done it earlier, in the 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:35.240 same trip which he had. Sergeant Gray went back to 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.440 the police car and called in the details the name 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:45.240 and dated Bertha the driver William John Watkins born twenty 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:50.600 fourth of April nineteen sixty seven. The Karathur officers checked 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.000 the name inquiry system on the police computer and told 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.800 the sergeant that Watkins wasn't on the West Australian data base. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.440 No problems. Sergeant Gray replied that he was going to 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.680 try and arrest the bloke, but he said, he's a 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.920 big guy, so can you send out a secure vehicle 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.640 to take him back in? He meant paddy wagon or 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.400 Divvy van whatever. He didn't feel like putting him in 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.840 a sedan with himself. A police fan was sent, but 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:25.000 no one had any clue they could be dealing with 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:29.440 a double murderer on the run, probably the most desperate 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:34.960 man in Australia that month. The sergeant told Watkins he'd 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.720 have to come to the police station in Karatha. The 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:42.520 big man stayed dead calm and was strikingly co operative. 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:47.000 He locked his car and he walked towards the police car. 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.439 Sergeant Gray did the right thing and he stayed towards 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.840 the middle of the road to keep a little bit 0:12:53.880 --> 0:13:01.480 of distance between him and the offender. But it wasn't enough. Suddenly, 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:07.199 Sergeant Gray saw a white flash, as he described it later, 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.600 and a vicious blow hit him on the left side 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:16.200 of the head. It was the worst punch he'd ever 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:21.000 copped in a long career. The policeman went to the 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.400 ground on all fours while Watkins rain punches on him 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:29.920 and kneading twice Wakins told him, you're a dead kid, 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:37.280 with chilling calm. It was a promise, not bluster. The 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.840 policeman was scared for his life, and he knew that 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:48.480 his life was in danger, that any second now he'd 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:53.840 be dead. But the muscle memory from his training kicked in. 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.960 He said later that he'd shot thousands of practice rounds 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:04.280 with clock service pistols over the years, and now it showed. 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.800 He dropped the clip board he was holding, pulled his 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:12.559 pistol and fired twice from the hip as Watkins closed 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:17.680 in for the kill. The first shot hit the big 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:22.880 man in the torso. In fact, it went up through 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:27.200 his lungs, and it was a fatal shot. He grunted 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:34.240 and spoiled sideways. The second shot went wide. William Watkins, 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:40.880 rapist and murderer, had picked the wrong man. A proficient 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:47.000 shot under pressure wasn't Shane Gray's day to die, but 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:51.480 he had come terrifyingly close. Watkins had hit him so 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:56.880 hard that his nose had virtually disappeared and was pushed 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:01.640 up under one of his cheek b His teeth were 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.400 cracked and his ribs battered. It was as if he'd 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:10.600 been run over. Sergeant Gray would later tell a hushed 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:16.240 coroner's court he was going to kill me, simple as 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:21.640 that he had the ability and the means and everything 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:27.240 to take me out. I was gone. I was going 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.440 back to the ground. As soon as I was on 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.520 that ground, I was gone. He could have punched me 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.160 one more time to the head and I would have 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:41.800 no doubt he would have taken my firearm, finished me off, 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:49.400 and then driven into the sunset. Instead, Watkins had a 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:55.360 forty caliber bullet in his vital organs. He collapsed a 0:15:55.440 --> 0:16:00.120 few steps away. He was dead by the time the 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:06.640 police van arrived minutes later. By then, Shane Gray was 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:12.880 also spoiled on the road, injured and totally shattered by 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:19.000 his brush with death. The quiet policeman was in hospital 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.720 before he found out the truth about the monster who 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.000 tried to kill him. By then, four and a half 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:35.040 thousand kilometers away in Talamba, Shirley and Alan Irwine were 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:39.480 facing the first terrible week of the rest of their 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:44.840 lives when a detective called late to say they got him. 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:50.200 It meant a lot. William Watkins's death could never bring 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.720 their girls home, but it built a bond between two 0:16:53.800 --> 0:17:00.840 families living a continent apart, Shane Gray, the injured policeman 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:08.720 and his wife, and the grieving parents became firm friends, 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:16.240 glued together by terrible events and fear and grief. Shirley 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:20.240 Erwin struggled later to describe how close she felt to 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:25.440 the brave and humble man who'd shot the beast who 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.960 killed her girls. Shane doesn't want to be called a hero, 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:35.800 she said, but he did Colin and Laura justice, and 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:42.080 he did the world of favor. Thanks for listening. Life 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.240 and Crimes is a Sunday Herald's Sun production for True 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:50.200 Crime Australia. Our producer is Johnty Burton. For my columns, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.240 features and more, go to herold's son dot com dot 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.320 Au forward slash Andrew rule. 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.479 One word for advertising inquiry plea is go to news 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:06.600 podcasts sold at news dot com dot Au. That is 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:11.440 all one word news podcasts sold and if you want 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:16.480 further information about this episode, links are in the description.