Queensland murder case: 60 Minutes episode opens new claims of wrongful conviction

Stephen Struber and Dianne Wilson were convicted of the murder of Bruce Schuler. Photo / 60 Minutes Australia

The haunting Outback murder of gold prospector Bruce Schuler continues to cast a shadow in Australia 13 years on, with fresh claims of a possible miscarriage of justice.

In a wide-ranging review of the murder, which happened on the vast Palmerville Station in far north Queensland in 2012, 60 Minutes reveals some people, including a Queensland detective, believe Stephen Struber and Dianne Wilson, the husband and wife convicted of Schuler’s murder, may have suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Struber and Wilson owned Palmerville and Schuler was prospecting for gold on the cattle station when he disappeared.

A jury convicted the pair of gunning down Schuler, 48, and they are now in prison.

Schuler’s body has never been found and because of Queensland’s “no body, no parole” laws, the former station owners look set to live out the rest of their lives in jail.

Former Queensland detective Graeme Crowley believes the wrong people are in jail.

“It seems this is going to be one of those cases where just about everything you look at unravels,” he says on the show shown last night.

“I believe it’s a miscarriage of justice and it needs to go back to the courts.”

Supporters of the convicted killers and those who believe a miscarriage of justice has occurred point to a lack of DNA evidence linking Struber and Wilson to the crime, the fact that Schuler’s body and the murder weapon have never been found, and alleged discrepancies in witness testimony.

Crowley believes Struber and Wilson did not attend the “second crime scene”, or the place where a small amount of Schuler’s blood was later discovered.

“Once you expose that, the Crown don’t have a case,” he argued.

Wilson and Struber continue to maintain their innocence.

In a letter to Schuler’s daughter Lisa, Wilson says: “I did not shoot your father and if I did, I would have said so from the very start”.

Lisa and the broader Schuler family are sure the right people are behind bars.

Bruce Schuler’s widow Fiona Splitt believes the right people are in jail. Photo / 60 Minutes Australia

According to the police, Wilson and Struber killed Schuler because they were obsessed with protecting their land.

The pair had a reputation in the region for intimidating and threatening trespassers.

“It was the talk that something’s going to happen out there one day,” Schuler’s widow Fiona Splitt said.

“Someone’s going to get hurt … they always had guns with them and things like that.”

Supporters of Wilson and Struber plan to go back to the Court of Appeal to overturn the murder conviction, 60 Minutes reveals.

The pair’s original appeal was dismissed.

“I just feel like I’ve been kicked in the guts right now,” Splitt says.

“It [the new appeal] is just ridiculous, the only other way of finding out anymore is tell us where Bruce is and we’ll get the rest of the evidence.”

In a statement provided to 60 Minutes, the Queensland Police said their investigation of the murder was “extensive and thorough”.