Silk-Miller police murders
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The Silk-Miller murders (also known as the Moorabbin Police murders) was the name given to the murders of Australian Victoria Police officers Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, Victoria, Australia on August 16, 1998.
On the night of the murders, police officers were staking out the Silky Emperor Restaurant near the corner of Cochranes and Warrigal Roads, Moorabbin at approximately midnight when they were gunned down at close range.
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[edit] Operation Lorimer
Police investigations into the murders were named Operation Lorimer. Victorian Police Minister Andre Haermeyer announced an AUD$500,000 reward for information on the murders, and later said he would consider increasing the reward.
Evidence left at the scene of the crime included pieces of glass, suspected to be from the getaway car used by the killers. Police tested this glass and discovered it came from a late model Hyundai hatchback. After extensive investigations, which took the team to the Hyundai factory in South Korea to obtain vital prosecution evidence, police narrowed down the exact make and model of the vehicle involved in the shootings from the glass samples. The vehicle was registered to the daughter of known criminal, Bandali Debs.
[edit] Arrests
On September 24, 2001, Bandali Michael Debs, a father of five from Narre Warren and Jason Roberts, an apprentice builder, of Cranbourne faced charges relating to the murders of Miller and Silk as well as 13 other charges of armed robbery relating to offences alleged to have occurred between March and July, 1998.
[edit] Guilty verdict
Debs and Roberts were found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. Both are currently serving their sentence with time spent at maximum security Victorian prisons HM Prison Barwon and Port Phillip Prison.
[edit] Aftermath
Former police officer Joe D'Alo was a member of the taskforce investigating the shootings. He left the force and authored a controversial book titled One Down, One Missing (ISBN 1-74066-141-9) about the crime. Assistant Commissioner of Crime, Simon Overland said of the book,
- "Victoria Police does not endorse or support this book. We were only told of the book after it had been written and the deal finalised with the publisher. We're extremely disappointed that a serving police officer would be involved in this publication without the knowledge or support of many of his taskforce colleagues."
In May of 2007, Debs was convicted of a third murder of an intellectually handicapped teenager named Kristy Mary Harty in Upper Beaconsfield around June of 1997. This leads to his term in prison without the possibility of parole.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Walsh Street police shootings, two Victorian Police officers killed execution style in South Yarra, Victoria in 1988.
- Timeline of major crimes in Australia
[edit] External links
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