The Betty Shanks murder is one of the oldest and most notorious unsolved murder cases.[1] in Queensland, Australia.
On the night of 19 September 1952, 22 year old Betty Shanks got off a tram at Days Rd. Terminus in the Grange, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, and started her short walk home. Her violently beaten body was found in the garden of a house on the corner of Carberry and Thomas Streets the next morning at 5.35am,[2] by a policeman who lived nearby.[3] At the time it was Queenslands' biggest ever criminal investigation,[4] and as of 2010 a reward of A$50,000 is still current.[2]
An attack by a sex offender was considered very early in the investigation.[5] Another theory is that the murderer attacked the wrong woman, and was actually interested in a doctor's receptionist - who also walked home down the same street at the same time, and had keys to the surgery which contained drugs.[4] A number of people have confessed over the years, however all have proved to be false.[6]