A lawsuit filed by the widow of NBA star Kobe Bryant over photos taken of his body immediately after his death will begin Wednesday US time in Los Angeles.
Key points:
Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash, along with his daughter, Gianna, and seven others, in January 2020
His widow is suing the LA County Sheriff’s Department and the city’s fire department for invasion of privacy over photos taken of her husband’s body
The lawsuit says police shared the graphic photos with firefighters and bar patrons after the crash
Vanessa Bryant is suing the LA County Sheriff’s Department and the city’s fire department for invasion of privacy, seeking unspecified millions in compensation for pictures taken of the basketballer’s body that were circulated after he was killed in a helicopter crash with their daughter and seven others in 2020 .
Mrs Bryant claims deputies did not take the photos for investigative purposes, and shared them with firefighters who responded to the crash scene. The lawsuit says a deputy showed the photos to bar patrons and a firefighter showed them to off-duty colleagues.
“Mrs Bryant feels ill at the thought that sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and members of the public have gawked at gratuitous images of her deceased husband and child,” according to the lawsuit.
“She lives in fear that she or her children will one day confront horrific images of their loved ones online.”
Kobe Bryant, their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and other parents and players were flying to a girls’ basketball tournament when their chartered helicopter crashed in the Calabasas hills, west of Los Angeles, in fog.
Federal safety officials later blamed pilot error for the wreck.
Firefighters at the scene of the helicopter crash that killed NBA star Kobe Bryant, along with his daughter and seven others, in January 2020.(AP Photo: Mark J Terrill)
Mrs Bryant has also sued the helicopter charter company and the deceased pilot’s estate.
The county has argued that Mrs Bryant has suffered emotional distress from the deaths, not the photos, which were ordered deleted by Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
It said the photos have never been in the media, on the internet nor otherwise publicly disseminated, and the lawsuit is speculative about harm she might suffer.
A law prompted in the aftermath of the crash makes it a crime for first responders to take unauthorized photos of deceased people at the scene of an accident or crime.
The county already agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a similar case brought by two families whose relatives died in the January 26, 2020 crash. Vanessa Bryant did not settle her case, indicating she is seeking more.
The litigation has, at times, been contentious. When the county sought a psychiatric evaluation of Mrs Bryant to determine if she suffered emotional distress because of the photos, her lawyers criticized the “scorched-earth discovery tactics” they said were intended to bully her and other family members of victims to abandon their lawsuits .
While the county responded by saying it was sympathetic to Mrs Bryant’s losses, it dismissed her case as a “money grab.”
Your wishes for what will happen after you die are vitally important but only a third of Australians have made plans about how they would like their lives commemorated in the event of their deaths.
Death has lingered around Della Muscat since she was a young girl.
The 36-year-old, who grew up in Mackay and now lives in Brisbane, said people were never too young to make a plan and let their family and friends know exactly what their wishes were.
Through the creation of a web application, she wants to change the way we talk about and plan for death.
“I know it sounds crazy but I want life celebrants like we have wedding celebrants and venues that are non-secular and beautiful flowers and celebrations of life that someone has created for themselves,” she said.
Ms Muscat is passionate about changing the way we talk about death and dying.(Supplied: Della Muscat)
When Della Muscat was 29, she lost two really good friends in the space of two years.
“One was from ovarian cancer and the other was a tragic car accident.
“The decisions that were left to be made for my friend that suddenly died were so difficult.”
Ms Muscat recalled a casual conversation with her friend Jemma as they sat on Ms Muscat’s deck drinking wine and talking about their plans for death.
No-one knew that Jemma would be dead within a month.
Della (centre) with her friends Tamie (left) and Jemma (right).(Supplied: Della Muscat)
“I was a new mum and I was telling Jemma that I had this idea to help people do this,” Ms Muscat said.
“She sort of laughed and said, ‘that’s a really weird idea but I think it could work’.”
The two young women continued to chat about what kind of “celebration” they would want in the event of their death.
Ms Muscat said she wanted a cheap wooden coffin, a paint and sip night and all of her friends in attendance.
“I want everyone to dance around and have lots of drinks and laughs and then cremate me and keep me in an old-school Mexican tequila bottle.
“We giggled and Jemma said the same thing… that she wanted to be cremated.
“Four weeks later she died in a car accident on the way back from a wedding.”
Ms Muscat came to view that conversation was a blessing that changed the course of her life.
“Of course we dread death but if there’s something that can help us and make it a little bit easier, then why not?”
Developing an app
Over the past year-and-a-half, Ms Muscat has poured her life savings into hiring a web developer and creating what she has called “after me”, while still working as a lawyer.
The website, which she hopes to make into an app for mobile devices, is centered around the idea of planning for death and alleviating the stress for loved ones left behind.
Della Muscat was a lawyer in Mackay before moving to Brisbane.(Supplied: Della Muscat)
It is not a legally binding will, but rather a safe space you can jot down things such what kind of funeral you would want, who your dog would go to, or whether you want your organs donated.
You can even record voice messages or letters to send to loved ones after you die.
In the event of your death, your profile would be released online to people you have invited to receive the information.
“If you don’t have what’s called an advanced health directive in Australia or a power of attorney in place, your next of kin has to make decisions based on what they feel you might have wanted.
“Let’s hope you’ve had a conversation and your intentions are known.
“We didn’t make it legally binding or go down that road because I want it to be used worldwide, be non-religious and non-legislative.”
Ms Muscat said in addition to the logistical side of things, she wanted it to be about memory journalling, love and grief mitigation.
“I’m surprised it’s not something that’s done more.
“There are formats of it but not modern and recording everything from our heart right through to finances.”
Getting dead set
Cherelle Martin is the national manager for a public health campaign called Dying to Know Day.
Ms Martin said she has noticed online platforms starting delve into the realm of post-death directives.
“I believe in two or three years time, we’ll start to get a sense of how those platforms might play a bigger role in how people want to record their wishes,” she said.
“It’s really great to see these new concepts and ideas coming through.”
This year, The Groundswell Project conducted a survey including more than one thousand people, 18 and older, across all states and territories in Australia.
The results found that 87 per cent of people surveyed believe it is important to do some sort of end of life planning, but only 35 per cent actually had.
64 per cent of people also said they find significant challenges and barriers to recording their wishes.
“That includes death and dying as being too emotional to think about…and the not wanting to talk about it,” Ms Martin said.
On Monday, the campaign hosted its 10th year of events across the country to encourage people to capture their choices.
Dying to Know Day events include death cafes, tours of cemeteries and funeral homes, and coffin painting.(Supplied: Cherelle Martin)
Dr John Rosenberg, a palliative care nurse turned academic, spoke at an event hosted in Gympie.
“One of the things we’re looking at in the future is whether we can pitch some conversations around dying to schools with younger adults,” he said.
“If we’re teaching civics at school…if we learn how to vote and we learn how our government works…this would fall beautifully into that kind of learning space.
“What’s required, what responsibilities we have with writing a will for ourselves, writing an advanced care plan so that other people know what our wishes are.”
Dr Rosenberg said we should not be shielding children from the reality of our mortality.
Lisa McAulay, a social worker at Little Haven Palliative Care, said she believes being able to talk about death helps relieve people’s fears.
Lisa McAulay presented at the ‘Dying to Know Day’ information sessions hosted in Gympie.
“All of these little taboo topics, we try and put an age on when they should start being discussed.
“The truth is, there’s a little bit across a lifetime.
“The younger you start, the more prepared you are.”
Della Muscat said she believes leaving post-death directives is a social responsibility.
“Nobody wants to talk about when you die.
“But as sure as we are born, we will die.
“That’s probably the only two certainties in life, and that you’ll pay taxes.”
A Supreme Court jury in the trial of a Melbourne man accused of killing his new girlfriend’s toddler has been unable to come to a verdict.
Key points:
The jury has been discharged after being unable to reach a unanimous verdict following six days of deliberations.
Brendan Pallant is accused of murdering his former girlfriend’s two-year-old son
The case will return to court next month for a hearing
WARNING: This story contains graphic content.
Brendan Pallant was on trial for the murder of two-year-old Jaidyn Gomes-Sebastiao in September 2019.
After nearly a week of deliberations the jurors told the court they were unable to agree unanimously on whether Mr Pallant was guilty or not guilty of the charge.
The toddler died of a brain injury which the prosecution alleged was inflicted by Mr Pallant using a 4.6kg coffee table.
“Sometime that afternoon it’s alleged that Mr Pallant, during a short but profound period of frustration, anger, impatience, and loss of self-control, entered the boy’s bedroom and seriously assaulted two-year-old Jaidyn Gomes-Sebastiao,” Mark Gibson QC said.
Defense lawyers shift blame to mother
Mr Pallant’s lawyers, however, argued the injury could have been caused by another person, including Jaidyn’s mother, Stacie Saggers.
“The evidence is equally consistent with someone, Stacie, pushing or throwing Jaidyn into it,” Rishi Nathwani said.
Jaidyn had been left napping in the care of Mr Pallant while his mother went to work at a cleaning job.
Not long after she arrived home, having had some food and a sleep, Mr Pallant had suggested waking the boy, the court heard.
It was then, the defense said, Mr Pallant found Jaidyn injured in his bedroom.
“Brendan Pallant gave Jaidyn CPR, mouth-to-mouth, and during that he vomited,” Mr Nathwani told the trial.
“Is that consistent with someone wanting to kill?”
During a month-long trial the court heard Jaidyn had been left in his bedroom napping in the care of his mother’s new boyfriend, Mr Pallant, on the day he died.
The court heard two-year-old Jaidyn Gomes-Sebastiao was in the care of Brendan Pallant on the day of his death.(Supplied)
Ms Saggers had met Mr Pallant just a month earlier, allowing him to move into her Langwarrin home days later.
The court heard the pair did drugs at the home and had taken some the night before Jaidyn’s death.
“[Ms Saggers] sold her son’s bed for drugs,” Mr Nathwani told the jury.
“There was methamphetamine and amphetamine in her son’s body, both in urine and in his hair.”
The crown prosecutor said despite the environment, Ms Saggers kept her home tidy and her children fed and clean.
“Sure, she was not a perfect mother, perhaps not even a good mother at times, but she was never, ever violent or physically aggressive,” Mr Gibson said.
He told the court Ms Saggers had started to notice signs Jaidyn was being injured shortly after Mr Pallant moved in, even taking photos of new bruises to monitor her suspicions.
Judge declares no verdict will be reached
Supreme Court Justice Jane Dixon discharged the jury on its sixth day of deliberations.
“Murder is a charge that requires a unanimous verdict,” Justice Dixon said.
“You’ve indicated that, despite all of that, you’ve not been able to reach a unanimous verdict.
“It’s not likely you ever will.
“This sometimes happens.”
Justice Dixon thanked the jury for its work during the month-long trial and its subsequent attempt at coming to a decision.
“You have not seen your family and friends since probably last Thursday, you’ve been cut off from communications with the world,” she said.
“You went through the Melbourne lockdowns, and you’ve been locked down again.
“On behalf of the community, you have been extraordinary, you have made such great sacrifices.”
Mr Pallant has been remanded in custody.
The case will return to court for a hearing next month to decide what happens next.
Tributes have flowed for Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake after his death due to liver cancer.
Key points:
Miyake grew up in Japan before working in Paris with designers Guy Laroche and Givenchy
He was known for inventing a new style of pleats and designed Steve Jobs’ iconic turtlenecks
He then developed more than a dozen fashion lines
The iconic designer died of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, on August 5, according to Kyodo news agency.
He was 84.
No further details were immediately available.
Known for his practicality, Miyake is said to have wanted to become either a dancer or an athlete before reading his sister’s fashion magazines inspired him to change direction — with those original interests believed to be behind the freedom of movement his clothing permits.
Miyake was born in Hiroshima and was seven years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city while he was in a classroom. He was reluctant to speak of the event in later life.
Miyake worked with Givenchy and founded one of the best fashion houses.(Reuters: Kim Kyung Hoon )
In 2009, writing in the New York Times as part of a campaign to get then-US President Barack Obama to visit the city, he said he did not want to be labeled as “the designer who survived” the bomb.
“When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience,” he wrote, adding that within three years his mother died of radiation exposure.
“I have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to put them behind me, preferring to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy.
“I gravitated toward the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.”
After studying graphic design at a Tokyo art university, he learned clothing design in Paris, where he worked with famed fashion designers Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy, before heading to New York.
In 1970 he returned to Tokyo and founded the Miyake Design Studio.
In the late 1980s he developed a new way of pleating by wrapping fabrics between layers of paper and putting them into a heat press, with the garments holding their pleated shape.
Tested for their freedom of movement on dancers, this led to the development of his signature “Pleats, Please” line.
The Issey Miyake fashion house has become known for its flowing pleat style.(Reuters: Piroschka Van De Wouw)
He then developed more than a dozen fashion lines ranging from his main Issey Miyake for men and women to bags, watches and fragrances before essentially retiring in 1997 to devote himself to research.
In 2016, when asked what he thought were the challenges facing future designers, he indicated to the UK’s Guardian newspaper that people were likely to be consuming less.
“We may have to go through a thinning process. This is important,” he was quoted as saying.
“In Paris, we call the people who make clothing couturiers — they develop new clothing items — but actually the work of designing is to make something that works in real life.”
A 47-year-old man has died while waiting more than 40 minutes for an ambulance in Adelaide.
Key points:
A man called triple zero while suffering chest pain, but the ambulance arrived half an hour later
He died from cardiac arrest
The SA Premier has described the death as ‘tragic’
The man, who was suffering chest pain, called triple zero at 5:19 pm on Monday, after pulling over on Anzac Highway at Plympton.
The state’s Ambulance Employees Association said 35 minutes later, bystanders noticed the man was unresponsive and began giving him CPR.
The union said the case was upgraded to a priority one, and the first paramedic arrived at 6:01pm, 42 minutes after the initial triple zero call.
The patient was unable to be resuscitated.
The SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) has been contacted for comment and is expected to release a statement about the case.
The union said at the time of the case, the SAAS had declared an “Opstat White” – with 20 urgent cases left uncovered across the metropolitan area.
It said ambulance crews had been ramped for three hours at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and for six hours at the Flinders Medical Centre.
Chady Hamra, who witnessed the man’s death say something needs to be done. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall )
Witness Chady Hamra was working across the road when he saw the man going into cardiac arrest.
“We couldn’t really see what was happening… we could see people standing around someone,” Mr Hamra said.
“I think something needs to be done about it, someone’s life just got taken.
“It’s pretty tragic to wait that long, and it’s not far [ambulance units] from here.
“We’re not out in the country, we are in the city… you’d expect within five or ten minutes if that.
“It was terrible, my wife was in tears when we heard.”
Premier says death is ‘beyond tragic’
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said the circumstances of the case were “beyond tragic”, and that an investigation would be conducted.
“A man, a relatively young man, has tragically lost their life under circumstances that might have been preventable,” Mr Malinauskas said.
The Premier Peter Malinauskas said the circumstances of the case were “beyond tragic”.(ABC News: Ben Pettit)
“I think every South Australian knows that my government has made it clear that addressing ambulance ramping, which has consequences in terms of ambulance response times, is a priority of ours which is why literally as we speak, we are dramatically ramping up the resources within the ambulance service so they don’t spend their time ramped up and spend their time responding to call-outs as quickly as possible.
“We saw over the course of the last four years ambulance response times collapse. In no small part, that was a function of ramping, which is why we’ve got a policy to reduce ramping.”
The family of a disabled man who died after spending more than four months in hospital waiting for accommodation have described the National Disability Insurance Scheme and aged care system in Australia as “broken”.
Key points:
The family of a disabled man who died waiting for accommodation are fighting for change
Advocates say there are more than 1,000 NDIS participants “stuck” in hospital.
The NDIS Minister says the government has taken “immediate action” to understand the situation
Mitchell Pearce, 52, died on Saturday in hospice care, little more than a day after NDIS Minister Bill Shorten ordered the agency to find him appropriate accommodation as a “matter of urgency.”
His sister Justine Richmond said her brother died peacefully surrounded by people who loved him.
Mr Pearce had been in Busselton Hospital since March 29.
His family said Mr Pearce, who was disabled since suffering brain tumors as a child, had lost the will to live in hospital, and refused to eat or drink.
Vow to keep fighting
While it was too late for her brother, Mrs Richmond urged people to keep speaking up for change.
Mr Pearce’s sister Mrs Richmond, left, and mother Judith Pearce want people to speak up and bring about structural change to the NDIS.(ABC South West: Georgia Loney)
She said since the family’s story came out on Friday she had been inundated with people wanting to share their experiences.
The family had been told there while there was no nearby supported disability accommodation for Mr Pearce, at 52, he was considered too young for an aged care facility.
“Now that he’s died, you might think well, there’s no point in fighting,” Mrs Richmond said.
“But I feel like there is, because there are still people [in hospital].”
Mrs Richmond said the family was told he would have had to be “released” from the NDIS to be considered for admission to a nearby nursing home.
“I just feel like these boxes are rigid around numbers,” she said.
“I understand that there are a lot of people with disabilities who have struggled not to have young people with disabilities put into nursing homes.
“But there are people who are 65 who can’t apply for the NDIS, while there are people like Mitchell, who at 52, probably would have benefited from being in aged care.”
Thousands in the same predicament
Research from the Summer Foundation found more than 1,000 NDIS participants were effectively stuck in hospital in Australia, with 20 per cent of those unable to be discharged because of a lack of suitable destinations.
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) said last week they acknowledged the exceptionally difficult challenges faced by Mr Pearce, and finding suitable disability housing in regional Australia could be difficult.
Last week, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten described Mr Pearce’s situation as “heartbreaking”.
He said the former Liberal Government, had “through its neglect and mismanagement of the NDIS” overseen a backlog of thousands of NDIS participants languishing in hospital beds, without disability supports.
“The Albanese Government has taken immediate action to understand the cause of delays supporting eligible NDIS participants that prevent fast and safe discharge from hospital,” he said.
“People with disability should be able to leave hospital as quickly and safely as possible, into suitable accommodation.”
The glue that held graziers Mervyn and Maree Schwarz and sons Graham and Ross Tighe together, also pulled in all those who knew them.
This magnetic orbit has been repeatedly described by shell-shocked friends and associates after the execution-style killing of three members of the family on their cattle property at Bogie, west of Bowen, this week.
“You won’t find many families as tied together and that work as hard as they did,” Queensland grazier Warren Drynan said.
Graham Tighe died after a shooting incident at a Bogie property.(Facebook)
Mr Schwarz, 71, Mrs Schwarz, 59, and son Graham John Tighe, 35, were shot dead with a rifle, allegedly by their neighbor Darryl Young, 59, at the gate of their property at Shannonvale Rd on Thursday morning.
Police allege they had met to discuss a property dispute.
Sole survivor Ross Tighe, 30, remains in hospital and is recovering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Incredibly, I have managed to escape, getting into a nearby car and driving 40 kilometers to raise the alarm.
Mr Young, a long-term resident, has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Darryl Young (right) has been charged with murder.(Supplied)
He remains in custody awaiting his first appearance before a magistrate on Monday.
The family had been at the property to muster cattle on the day of the fatal shootings.
The expansive Bogie farm where the tragic shooting happened was only purchased last year for $10 million, according to property records.
A floral tribute was left at the intersection of Normanby and Peter Delemothe roads.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
It’s located just west of Bowen, halfway to the mining town of Collinsville.
The property, known as Shannonvale Station, was owned by the same family from the 1930s to the early 2000s and then had five previous owners before the Schwarz family came to town just months ago.
The 29,856-hectare Shannonvale Rd cattle property was purchased in equal shares by Mr and Mrs Schwarz and Graham Tighe.
Graham is a father of two young children, one only a few weeks old.
The ABC has been told Graham lived at the Bogie property, while Mr and Mrs Schwarz lived at another large farm at The Gums, closer to the town of Tara.
Ross Tighe is recovering in hospital.(Facebook)
That address, known as Doonkoona, comprises 1,961 hectares of grazing land on Humbug Rd, which they bought in 2016 for $2.6 million.
Ross Tighe has been living not far from Rome.
It’s understood many family members are now traveling to be with Ross as he recovers.
But with large extended families from previous marriages, Merv and Maree’s children have been left to put together the pieces, with separate family groups joining to support each other.
The family declined to speak to the ABC.
Chilling deaths against gold rush backdrop
Bogie is harsh cattle country.
Many came to the area during the gold rush in the 1800s and some residents still believe their properties could have a jackpot of gold beneath the earth.
Bogie is described as harsh cattle country.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
Dirt roads and cattle grids connect properties dozens of kilometers apart.
Many boundaries are “give and take” perimeters, locals told the ABC.
Only 37 families call the 3,858 square kilometer locality — the size of Singapore, Samoa and the Maldives combined — home.
It was at the front gate of Shannonvale Station, in dense scrubby bushland an hour-and-a-half down a dirt track off the main road to Collinsville, where tragedy struck on Thursday morning.
Police cordoned off Normanby Road while investigating the shooting.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
Police say it was a request to meet that drew the family to the front gate along with their neighbor Mr Young.
“We understand there was a conversation that occurred the night before, which was the reason why the parties had met at the gate on the property in the morning,” Acting Superintendent Tom Armitt said.
“There was an invitation [from the alleged gunman] for them to go there.”
One local said disputes over boundaries and cattle had been going on in Bogie for “years and years and years”.
“It’s just rotten around there,” he said.
A family unit like no other
Warren Drynan bought his property at Jackson North, east of Roma, from the Schwarz family in 2014.
He said Ross and Graham had helped build some fences on the farm known as Noonga shortly after the sale.
Mr Drynan never forgot Mr and Mrs Schwarz’s hospitality and the boys’ hardworking nature.
He said the tight-knit family had long-held large parcels of farming land throughout Queensland.
Graziers said the family developed properties many thought too difficult to improve before making a profit and moving onto the next project.
“They’d take on anything,” Mr Drynan said.
“Que [Mervyn] liked doing, was finding these rundown places, clearing them, improving pastures.
“He was just that person, Merv, and Maree and the two boys, they were a family unit who worked hard and long hours.”
Even years later, Mr Schwarz would always stop and have a chat if he saw Mr Drynan at cattle meets.
“We weren’t real social friends by any means, but he was just that person that once you knew him, you could always have a yarn,” Mr Drynan said.
Other people called Mr Schwarz a “scallywag”, saying he was a joker and one of his main gags was about his signature one finger and one toe attached to his right hand after a farming accident.
“He’d always make a joke about shaking your hand,” Mr Drynan said.
“Merv was really just so happy go lucky, the sort of bloke who wore his heart on his sleeve,” another grazier from Tara recalled.
Maree Schwarz has been remembered as a “lovely person”.(Facebook)
Mrs Schwarz is remembered by many as a “lovely person”.
On social media she cradles a new grandbaby with a beaming smile.
“She is beautiful,” she tells a friend in a comment.
While one of Graham’s close friends described the father-of-two as “a top bloke who was a little rough around the edges.”
“He was always up to no good, had some crazy idea and was just a bloody good horseman,” he said.
“I learned more from that family than I could even explain.”
Mr Drynan, like many graziers, was shaken by the killings.
He said the family were “not aggressive” people.
“I just I don’t know how the hell it could happen,” he said.
Mrs Schwarz’s brother-in-law, Greg Austen, said the family had previously lived at Kilcummin, near Clermont in central Queensland, and were much-loved and well-respected members of the community.
“They were terrific, down to earth typical country people,” he said.
“They were typical pumpkin scones and a few beers on a Friday people.”
Mr Austen, a councilor on the Isaac Regional Council, said his children, along with Graham and Ross, would regularly muster cattle together.
“They were very close to them,” he said.
“My family are pretty… in shock. We’ll band together and hold together.”
Sole survivor ‘up and talking’
Ross Tighe suffered a gunshot wound to his abdomen.(Facebook)
Mr Austen said it was an “amazing feat of strength and courage” from Ross to flee the scene, which ultimately led to his survival.
“It was very strong of him to do that, to go that far and raise the alarm,” he said.
Ross was flown by helicopter to the Mackay Base Hospital in a serious, but stable condition.
“He’s OK,” Mr Austen said.
“He’s not out of hospital, but he’s out of surgery. He’s up and talking.
“But he’s got a lot of difficulties ahead of him I imagine.”
Angel Flight CEO Marjorie Pagani told ABC the service would assist family members of the shooting victims to return to Mackay, at the request of Bob Katter’s office.
Police were called to shoot at a property between Collinsville and Bowen.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
tragic story unravels
Whitsunday Regional Councilor Mike Brunker said the council would assist police in their investigation.
“I think as the story unravels, it’s going to be just a very sad, tragic story,” he said.
Burdekin MP Dale Last, whose electorate takes in Collinsville and Bogie, said nothing like this had happened in the community in recent memory.
“There are a lot of long-term residents and property owners in the area, and to think something like that could happen in their backyard, it just sent a shockwave through the entire area,” he said.
“But places like Collinsville are very resilient.”
Dale Last says the rural community is in shock.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
He said the community had been through a lot in recent years and they banded together when times were tough.
Mr Brunker said he instantly thought of the United States of America when he heard about the shooting, not his own region.
“The last thing you think of is the Bogie community, the remote properties,” he said.
Bogie grazier Bob Gaadie said the community might be spread out, but the incident hit everyone hard.
“It might be 50 to 60 kilometers away, but it’s still your doorstep,” he said.
Police blocked off Normanby Road while investigating the shooting.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
The police investigation into the deaths is ongoing and detectives are asking anyone who may have had interactions with the alleged gunman in the past two months to contact them.
Mr Young will appear in the Proserpine Magistrates Court on Monday.
The attorney general’s office said Friday they are investigating a Nashua woman’s suspicious death. Investigators are at a house on Kinsley Street. The road is blocked off by police. The death is unrelated to Friday morning’s shooting at a gas station on Amherst Street in Nashua. The attorney general’s office did not release any information identifying the woman or how she died. New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley said the suspicious death investigation is ” all very preliminary at this time.” “It is very early in the investigation,” Hinckley said. “We are trying to confirm the adult female’s identity of her, still trying to find evidence in terms of eyewitnesses who may have some information as to what led to the circumstances of her death of her.” This story is breaking. Keep an eye on this page, and we will update it with more information.
NASHUA, NH—
The attorney general’s office said Friday they are investigating a Nashua woman’s suspicious death.
Investigators are at a house on Kinsley Street. The road is blocked off by police.
The death is unrelated to Friday morning’s shooting at a gas station on Amherst Street in Nashua.
The attorney general’s office did not release any information identifying the woman or how she died.
New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley said the suspicious death investigation is “all very preliminary at this time.”
“It is very early in the investigation,” Hinckley said. “We are trying to confirm the adult female’s identity of her, still trying to find evidence in terms of eyewitnesses who may have some information as to what led to the circumstances of her death of her.”
This story is breaking. Keep an eye on this page, and we will update it with more information.
A punch-up between brothers has ended in tragedy, with one dead and the other set to remain in custody for now, after being denied bail.
Key points:
Peter Kinthari’s brother had flown in from the remote community of Wadeye before the pair became entangled in a fight
Judge David Woodroffe described the matter as “simply too serious” to allow for bail
The court heard the accused would likely face family retribution while in prison
Peter Kinthari, a 39-year-old father-of-six, has been charged with a manslaughter after the death of his brother in the northern Darwin suburb of Jingili on Wednesday night.
Northern Territory Police have described the death as a “domestic violence incident”.
During a bail application on Friday afternoon, the court heard the brothers, who hailed from the remote community of Wadeye, had “engaged in a fair fight” during a prolonged drinking session.
Lawyer John Blackley, from the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, said the accused’s brother and his wife had “flown in from Wadeye that day”, before they met with their family members and started drinking heavily.
The two brothers began arguing, with witnesses alleging that verbal taunts soon spilled over into physical violence, with an ensuing altercation lasting at least two hours.
Mr Blackley said, at one stage, the fighting was interrupted by an “intermission” where “both the accused and the deceased were hugging each other and were in good spirits”.
A witness statement alleges they saw Peter Kinthari “absolutely belt” someone else during the altercation.(ABC News: Che Chorley)
Accused could face retribution in prison, court hears
The then escalated once more, with the court hearing allegations read by the prosecutor from a “sober, independent” eyewitness that the accused king had hit his brother to the face.
“I saw the father fellow [Peter Kinthari] absolutely belt the skinnier guy, knocking him from a standing position to the ground,” the witness statement read.
Crown prosecutor Marty Aust said the witness had watched the victim “completely out of it, sitting on the road by himself” when he was approached by his brother, who was yelling at him aggressively.
“I then saw the shorter, fatter bloke strike the skinnier bloke very, very hard. It was hard enough to send the skinny bloke flying backwards … it was so hard I immediately assumed he’d been kicked in the head,” the eyewitness statement said.
“It was a bit hard to see, but it could’ve been a very hard kick or punch to the face, chest, or guts.”
The court heard the 41-year-old brother, whose name is withheld for cultural reasons, is believed to have died from a ruptured pancreas, which the prosecution will allege was caused by blunt force trauma inflicted during the fight.
The defense team said questions remained over the cause of death, citing an incident where the victim fell over in the shower in the immediate wake of the punch-up.
Judge David Woodroffe described the death as a “tragic incident” but refused bail to the accused on the grounds that it was “simply too serious” to do so.
Mr Blackley, who had pushed for bail so his client could look after his children, including two infants, said there was a chance Mr Kinthari would face threats of retribution from family members while on remand.
The accused will next face court in Darwin on September 28.
When news articles refer to amateur sleuths who’ve dedicated time and effort to investigating the Somerton Man mystery, they’re referring to people like Nick Pelling.
The 57-year-old London-based computer programmer, author and researcher has never set foot in Adelaide, let alone on Somerton beach.
But that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing the case with the tenacity that one would expect from someone with his skills.
His blog Cipher Mysteries is a testament to his capacity to trawl through undigested records like those on Trove, the National Library of Australia’s freely accessible digital archive.
“History is a funny old thing,” he said.
“The stuff in archives is the stuff that didn’t get thrown away that day — it’s the stuff that survived somehow, just randomly.
“As a historian, you have to merge different types of evidence together because you only have scraps.”
Mr Pelling, pictured in 2014, shares his research into enigmatic cases at his blog Cipher Mysteries.(YouTube: Gamification World)
The Somerton Man is not the only enigmatic case to have captured Mr Pelling’s attention — but it is the one that has most recently made headlines.
Last week, Adelaide-based academic and long-time Somerton Man devotee Derek Abbott announced that he and a US-based colleague had solved the mystery.
They identified the man as Carl “Charles” Webb, a Melbourne-born engineer.
The breakthrough has spurred Mr. Pelling to uncover more.
He believes the Webb hypothesis is a compelling one, and he wants to find evidence to corroborate it.
The beach at Somerton Park, pictured in 2018, where the Somerton Man’s body was found 70 years earlier.(ABC News: Carl Saville)
“My best-case scenario is that we find a picture of Carl Webb. He was married – people have wedding photos, it’s a big day,” he said.
“We may be able to find more records of what Carl Webb was doing in the year-and-a-half after he left his wife and before he died [in 1948].
“It’s not that long ago in the bigger scheme of things.”
Detective work and the Da Vinci Code
A suitcase and belongings found at Adelaide Railway Station are believed to have belonged to the Somerton Man.(Supplied)
For Mr Pelling, discovery is as much about pathways as epiphanies — the investigator never knows how much treasure is awaiting excavation.
“The idea of Dan Brown and his ilk is that the archivist finds … one document that explains everything — it’s never like that,” Mr Pelling explained.
“[But] if you can ask the right questions of the right people, then all kinds of things open up.
“Things like photographs and diaries and journals all persist in attics and lofts.”
Over the years Mr Pelling has corresponded with Australian-based experts, including retired detective Gerry Feltus, who praised Mr Pelling’s endeavours.
“He’s got a massive website going, and people from all over the world have been contributing to that,” Mr Feltus said.
Retired detective Gerry Feltus authored the book The Unknown Man: A Suspicious Death at Somerton Beach.(ABC Australian Story)
Methodical by nature, Mr Feltus is withholding judgment on the Somerton Man’s identity until police and Forensic Science SA complete their own investigations.
“They are both working on it at this stage,” he said.
“Because of what I know and what I believe, I’m just not prepared to sit back and say I’m satisfied that the person is Webb.
“If it comes back as being Webb, I’d have to say that’s great news, simply because it would clarify a lot of matters.”
Moving behind the veil
For Mr Pelling, coding came before codes — he started designing his own computer games while still at school.
But when the cipher bug struck, it struck hard. He became fascinated with something called the Voynich manuscript, an enigmatic text believed to date back to the 1400s.
While he can’t recall exactly when he became interested in the Somerton Man, he can recall why.
It was the sequence of letters linked to the case, which Mr Pelling doubts is a code, that captured his attention.
The sequence of letters, thought by some to be a code, was found inscribed on a book of poems linked to the case.(Supplied: Australian Police)
“Mysterious writing excites people’s imaginations,” he said.
That point is the premise of the blog — Cipher Mysteries is a site where those who share his passion for cryptography can exchange facts they’ve gleaned from archives like Trove.
“Trove is the most marvelous resource for historians,” he said.
“Every country should look long and hard at Trove and say, ‘Why don’t we do this?'”
But Trove can only take you so far, he said.
All kinds of factors, including socio-economic ones, determine how many traces a person leaves to posterity.
“Genealogy has a very middle-class bias. If you’re doing okay, you might write letters to the newspapers,” he said.
“If you’re working class, you’ve got other things on your mind. There are a lot of people whose lives don’t get decorated by Trove.”
Does Trove hold further clues about the story of the Somerton Man? Or will they only be found in those attics and lofts?
“I’m hoping that we can move from Trove-type history to family history,” Mr Pelling said.
“Reconstructing the person’s life will be a whole load more work.
“I don’t think you can ever see the Wizard of Oz, but you can see a little bit beyond the veil.”
The Somerton Man’s remains were exhumed in 2021 to allow Forensic Science SA to conduct their own investigation.(ABC News: Daniel Keane)
