No indications Shandee's murder was random: Homicide boss

Topics:  boddington street, death, homicide, investigation, shandee blackburn

  • Vanessa Chircop
  • 20th Feb 2013 6:00 AM
Shandee Blackburn.Shandee Blackburn.

THE boss of the state's homicide squad has flown into Mackay to head up the investigation into Shandee Blackburn's murder.

Homicide detective Superintendent Brian Wilkins, who has been involved in several high-profile murder cases including those of Daniel Morcombe and Allison Baden-Clay, arrived in Mackay yesterday morning.

"My role up here today is overviewing the status of the investigation," he said.

But he played down any hype surrounding his arrival. "As part of my role I travel the state to homicides no matter where they are."

Det Sup Wilkins said police did not think the attack on Shandee was random.

"We keep a very open mind in relation to this investigation; there's certainly no indications that this is a random attack from initial enquiries," he said.

Det Supt Wilkins said they were busy viewing hundreds of hours of CCTV footage seized from private dwellings and businesses and following "a number of positive leads".

Despite it being almost two weeks since Shandee was murdered the investigation has not been scaled back.

"It's certainly a concern from a community safety perspective but it's certainly not a concern from an investigative perspective, how long an investigation takes is very difficult to estimate," Det Supt Wilkins said.

"You can certainly be assured that there are significant resources that are currently deployed in this investigation. I'll be in Mackay for as long as it takes.

"There is someone in the community that knows who's responsible for this offence and that person needs to contact the police."

Meanwhile a Facebook tribute page to Shandee has been shut down after an internet troll hacked the page and made derogatory comments about the 23-year-old.

"Our major focus is that we work with Facebook and we get the Facebook pages shut down, and should we be able to track the person down who's responsible for committing offences, action will be taken against them," Det Supt Wilkins said.

Mackay Daily Mercury

Topics:  boddington street, death, homicide, investigation, shandee blackburn

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