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Home / World

Outback murders: Australia's most chilling cases

news.com.au
2 Dec, 2016 09:13 PM5 mins to read

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NT Police at the crime scene at Connor Well roadside stop where Frenchman Philippe Jegouzo was killed. Photo / Sky News

NT Police at the crime scene at Connor Well roadside stop where Frenchman Philippe Jegouzo was killed. Photo / Sky News

It is a nightmare scenario no Australian or tourist ever wants to face.

Travelling in Australia's outback alone, with few people around to hear your screams.

A French couple experienced that very chilling scenario after Victorian man Pande Veleski, 35, allegedly pulled up behind the couple and stabbed the Frenchman Philippe Jegouzo in the neck.

Mr Jegouzo, 33, had been standing in a rest stop on Wednesday afternoon when he and his wife, Aurelie Chorier, were confronted unexpectedly by the alleged knifeman.

Mr Jegouz was stabbed to death at Connors Well, 97km north of Alice Springs, with his wife desperately trying to save her husband from the alleged attacker.

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The alleged attacker fled the scene but was found the following morning after a massive search.

A nurse and husband drove past and tried to save Mr Jegouzo but he died at the isolated roadside stop.

In a chilling twist, the stabbing took place less than 200km from where British tourist Peter Falconio was murdered in 2011.

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The most recent killing once again brings the Top End into the headlines.

While police are yet to charge anyone over Mr Jegouzo's death, a number of other names will be forever linked to a series of unspeakable acts that have occurred in the outback.

BRADLEY MURDOCH
In 2001, Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees suffered a horrifying ordeal straight out of a Hollywood film when they encountered Bradley Murdoch.

The British couple were travelling along the Stuart Highway in the kombi van on July 14 when they were flagged down by Murdoch.

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Mr Falconio was shot while Ms Lees was tied up.

British backpackers Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees were on an outback adventure when they encountered Bradley Murdoch. Photo / news.com.au
British backpackers Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees were on an outback adventure when they encountered Bradley Murdoch. Photo / news.com.au

Police believe he wanted to kidnap and rape Ms Lees who escaped after being punched and restrained by the convicted killer.

She hid in the bush for several hours until she managed to wave down a road train, but her boyfriend's body was never found.

Murdoch was convicted of murdering Mr Falconio and assaulting Ms Lees and depriving her of her liberty.

He was jailed for life with a minimum 28 years non-parole.

JOSEF THOMAS SCHWAB
The man dubbed the Kimberley killer was a 26-year-old German tourist who went on a 10-day shooting spree in 1987.

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Schwab killed five people in a spree which spread across the remote Northern Territory and Western Australia.

The German died after a shootout with police but not before sparking a massive manhunt, the NT Newsreported.

Schwab first killed father and son Marcus and Lance Bullen who had been visiting the NT from WA.

Their bodies were found in shallow graves near the Victoria River and their clothes and car set alight.

Just three days later police were dealing with three more deaths.

Julie Warren and Terry Bolt were holidaying with their friend Phillip Walkemeyer at Pentecost River Crossing near Wyndham, Western Australia, when they were shot dead by Schwab.

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The killings sent the Top End into red alert and roadblocks were set up in the wake of the deaths.

Police later found Schwab at Fitzroy Crossing and he was killed after shooting at officers with a high-calibre rifle.

ROD ANSELL
The man dubbed the real Crocodile Dundee due to his incredible bush survival skills was shot dead by police after a drug crazed rampage.

Ansell, who survived for seven weeks on a small island at the mouth of a crocodile-infested river in the remote Northern Territory, gunned down NT police officer Glen Huitson at a roadblock in bushland 60km south of Darwin.

Ansell had been on the run from police when the shooting happened and was shot dead after Senior Constable James O'Brien returned fire, The Herald Sun reported.

The man, who 20 years earlier had lived through an incredible story of survival after his boat capsized in the remote outback river.

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Ansell injured two men on a shooting spree in Darwin and fled into the bush on the night of August 2, 1999.

He was shot dead the following day.

REGINALD KENNETH ARTHURELL
The three-time killer left his mark on the Top End following the discovery of the partly decomposed body of a young sailor in 1981.

Ross Browning was found dead off the Barkly Highway near Tennant Creek with NT police later discovering the 19-year-old had given Arthurell a lift.

Reginald Arthurell was jailed over the murder of Venet Raylee Mulhall. Photo / News Corp Australia
Reginald Arthurell was jailed over the murder of Venet Raylee Mulhall. Photo / News Corp Australia

In 1981, Arthurell was arrested at the Corncob Hotel in Mareeba and pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Browning.

That wasn't all Arthurell was convicted of.

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He was jailed twice for manslaughter. He served six years for the manslaughter of Browning, and four-and-a-half years for the stabbing death of his stepfather, Thomas Thornton.

He pleaded guilty to that crime on the grounds he was provoked.

Arthurell was jailed for a maximum 24 years for the bashing murder of Venet Raylee Mulhall.

Arthurell has also been named by police as a suspect in the bashing murder of Catherine Page, 82, in her Coonamble home in 1971 and a triple murder of two men and a woman at Mt Isa in 1978.

Last year, he had bid for freedom denied after the parole authority revealed he was still "unfit for release".

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