I made the discovery of the major flaw in the original and current cold case review into the murder of Shirley Finn while preparing for a talk in May 2018 to the Rotary Club of Mill Point at Royal Perth Golf Club.The talk was at the golf course where Shirley Finn's body had been found in her Dodge sedan back 43-years earlier.
I'd never had a golf course map when I'd looked for the 7th Fairway in the past, trying to work out exactly where the grizzly scene unfolded on the morning of 23 June 1975. Exactly where the motorcycle cop had discovered the Dodge with Shirley Finn' slumped against the steering wheel with four bullet holes in her head. The 7th Fairway about 100 yards from the 7th tee.
A Rotary member directed me to the course map which is now online.. The 7th Fairway ran along the Kwinana Freeway and Melville Parade at the Northern end of the Royal Perth Golf Course near the city. I looked at the crimescene map. It identified the location where the Dodge was found using two roads, South Street at the Southern end of the course and a slip road, Lockridge Street that intersected the golf course near the middle. The map showed the Dodge at the southern end, the opposite end to the 7th Fairway.
I checked if the 7th fairway position had run at the southern end in 1975 but veteran members assured me it had not. I pulled up the original police statements and photos. Multiple witnesses had put the car at the southern end of the golf course yet it was definitely found at the northern end. Photos, and Constable McMurray', the police officer that discovered the body, confirmed this in his original statement.
Isn't the "where" a fundamental question in a crime? Why didn't the review pick this up? How is it that so many witnesses put the car in a different location on the golf course and police continue to insist the car wasn't moved from the around 10.20pm when they say it arrived on the golf course and 8am when it was discovered by McMurray?
So many checkable details. A key fundamental against which other data was to be measured against. Witnesses dismissed based on the vehicle being sighted in a different location on the golf course. Given police involvement at the time this error should have been picked up in a review.
The discovery one of many that has left me dismayed. So many lost opportunities to solve this crime. To suggest it was not solvable is also incredible.
I'd never had a golf course map when I'd looked for the 7th Fairway in the past, trying to work out exactly where the grizzly scene unfolded on the morning of 23 June 1975. Exactly where the motorcycle cop had discovered the Dodge with Shirley Finn' slumped against the steering wheel with four bullet holes in her head. The 7th Fairway about 100 yards from the 7th tee.
A Rotary member directed me to the course map which is now online.. The 7th Fairway ran along the Kwinana Freeway and Melville Parade at the Northern end of the Royal Perth Golf Course near the city. I looked at the crimescene map. It identified the location where the Dodge was found using two roads, South Street at the Southern end of the course and a slip road, Lockridge Street that intersected the golf course near the middle. The map showed the Dodge at the southern end, the opposite end to the 7th Fairway.
I checked if the 7th fairway position had run at the southern end in 1975 but veteran members assured me it had not. I pulled up the original police statements and photos. Multiple witnesses had put the car at the southern end of the golf course yet it was definitely found at the northern end. Photos, and Constable McMurray', the police officer that discovered the body, confirmed this in his original statement.
Isn't the "where" a fundamental question in a crime? Why didn't the review pick this up? How is it that so many witnesses put the car in a different location on the golf course and police continue to insist the car wasn't moved from the around 10.20pm when they say it arrived on the golf course and 8am when it was discovered by McMurray?
So many checkable details. A key fundamental against which other data was to be measured against. Witnesses dismissed based on the vehicle being sighted in a different location on the golf course. Given police involvement at the time this error should have been picked up in a review.
The discovery one of many that has left me dismayed. So many lost opportunities to solve this crime. To suggest it was not solvable is also incredible.
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