Alleged Double Murder in Downer
Media Conference, Winchester Police Centre
Detective Superintendent Michael Kilfoyle, Territory Investigations Group
Thursday September 11, 2008 (0930)
Det-Supt Kilfoyle: Thanks everyone for coming in. As you're aware ACT Policing is currently investigating the alleged murder of two people in the Canberra suburb of Downer last night. About 10.30pm emergency services were called to an address in Raine Place in response to a report of a house fire at that location. On arrival the bodies of two deceased people, a male and a female, were located. Obviously investigations commenced from that point. About 2.15am today, members of ACT Policing apprehended a male suspect on Sutton Road. He was in a vehicle at that time. That person is currently in police custody; he is yet to be formally charged and he may appear in the ACT Magistrates Court later today charged with offences in relation to the incident that occurred last night. Obviously there are a large number of inquiries that are underway; this investigation only in its infancy and there are a lot of things that still need to be done. What I would urge from members of the Canberra community is that if they have heard or seen any suspicious activity, any suspicious behaviour or vehicles in the area of Downer, shortly prior to 10.30pm last night, that they contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via the Crime Stoppers website. I'm happy to take any questions.
Reporter: Is there any indication about the cause of death?
Kilfoyle: It's too early to say at this stage. A post-mortem examination will be conducted in the coming days and that will determine the cause of death.
Reporter: And are the victims known to the suspect?
Kilfoyle: That's forming part of the initial inquiries that we're undertaking at the moment, so I can't confirm that 100 per cent at this stage. So that'll be part of the ongoing inquiries.
Reporter: Are the deceased husband and wife?
Kilfoyle: No, we are unsure of the relationship between the male and the female at this stage, that's obviously still part of our enquiries and for us to establish why this incident's happened.
Reporter: Do you know ages [of the victims] or anything like that?
Kilfoyle: What I can tell you is the male person who is in custody, the alleged offender, is 35-years-old.The deceased male person is around mid-forties and I'm not completely sure of the age of the deceased female.
Reporter: Have they actually been identified?
Kilfoyle: No they have not.
Reporter: What led you to arrest the man on Sutton Road . . . ?
Kilfoyle: We had information from witnesses that had contacted Police Operations; we acted on that information and were able to locate the person on Sutton Road.
Reporter: Witnesses from the scene saw a car?
Kilfoyle: I'm not going to go into that any further; that's forming part of the investigation.
Reporter: When you arrived, what did you find at the scene, [inaudible] was there a body out the front on the lawn?
Kilfoyle: No. As I said at the start the bodies of the male and the female deceased people were located inside the house.
Reporter: What kind of state was the suspect in on Sutton Road?
Kilfoyle: I'm not going to go into that, that's obviously going to form part of the investigation.
Reporter: What was it [inaudible] on Urriara Road this morning; we've had reports of police tape, is that related to this case at all?
Kilfoyle: It is related to this police case but I'm not going to go into that any further.
Reporter: [inaudible question]
Kilfoyle: I'm not going to go into it any further.
Reporter: There's been four murders in the last month or so, two months, is that a concern?
Kilfoyle: Well obviously it's something that we take very seriously. You know Canberra is a safe place to live and we want to reassure the community that it is a safe place to live so the fact that these incidents have occurred is obviously something that we look at, and we don't look at that in isolation from a policing perspective, there's a whole range of reasons why these incidents happen and there's a whole range and level of offences that happen along that path. So obviously it's something that we talk about with our other government and non-government agencies and to see if there is a wider reason why this happens and it's not simply something that happens out of a crime of hatred or something like that; there could be other motives for which we are still to investigate, particularly in this instance. It's a tragedy, there's no doubt about that.
Reporter: Do you have any motive for these particular cases?
Kilfoyle: It's too early to tell at this stage.
Reporter: The chap who is in custody, is he a New South Wales or an ACT man?
Kilfoyle: I'm not actually sure where he resides at the moment, and whether he's been an itinerant within the ACT or a permanent resident I'm unsure.
Reporter: So are any of the people involved in this incident known to police or have police been to this Raine Place address in the past?
Kilfoyle: I’m not going to go into that, it's too early, there are too many initial inquiries that still need to be conducted and one of those is determining a motive as to why this may have happened, so it's early to speculate and I don't want to speculate.
Reporter: Are you confirming that it is a murder?
Kilfoyle: Yes.
Reporter: Were the bodies found together or separately, what was the situation there?
Kilfoyle: Both the body of the male and the female deceased people were found in the house, as I said.
Reporter: But together or separate?
Kilfoyle: I'm not going to go into that any further.
Reporter: What room were they found in?
Kilfoyle: They were found inside the dwelling.
Reporter: In which room?
Kilfoyle: They were found inside [the dwelling]; I'm not going to go into that [aspect of the investigation] any further.
Reporter: Is there a connection [inaudible] between fire and the murder do you think?
Kilfoyle: Well that's obviously going to form part of the investigation and it's too early to actually speculate why the fire was reported to emergency services, whether that forms part of the whole circumstances surrounding the incident, I don't want to speculate. It may; it may not, and simply it could be completely unrelated. So as I said, we were called to respond to a report of a house fire.
Reporter: There were several people turn up to the scene today with New South Wales plates on their cars, were they mates of the deceased or of the suspect?
Kilfoyle: There's a lot of witnesses that are currently in the process of speaking to, some are relatives or suspected relatives of deceased people. As I said, we haven't formally identified the deceased people at this stage and so we will try and establish who those people are, if they have any relationship either formally or indirectly to the deceased people.
Reporter: Were they renting or do they own that house?
Kilfoyle: I don't know that.
Reporter: What were police searching for on Sutton Road; were you looking for a murder weapon?
Kilfoyle: Well obviously that's where the alleged offender was located so there's a number of avenues of enquiry that we'll have in that location which has caused us to, for the sake of completeness, close that road until we've completed searches.
Reporter: When you say located, was he stationary there?
Kilfoyle: He was seated in a vehicle at that location.
Reporter: He wasn't on his way to New South Wales?
Kilfoyle: No, he was seated in the vehicle, the vehicle was stationary.
Reporter: So are you doing a forensic search on both sides of the road, the length of the road?
Kilfoyle: Well I'm not going to go into the details, obviously from your own knowledge and experience of these types of investigations, there's a lot of inquiries that need to be undertaken and forensics examination is one critical part of this whole process.
Reporter: Can you tell us what sort of vehicle it was?
Kilfoyle: It was a Ford Falcon sedan.
Reporter: You say he's facing court this afternoon; what was he charged with?
Kilfoyle: He may face court this afternoon, he is still yet to be formally interviewed, that process is underway at the moment and obviously when he attends court you'll be aware of the charges. At this stage it's too early to say what those charges may be, but obviously they'll relate to the whole circumstances surrounding the incident.
Reporter: So what condition was he in when he was apprehended? What state of mind was he in?
Kilfoyle: I'm not going to go into that.
Reporter: You say currently being interviewed.
Kilfoyle: Yes.
Reporter: Do you expect that there was more than one person involved, is there probably another person?
Kilfoyle: It's too early to speculate at this stage, I don't want to comment any further; that'll form part of our ongoing investigation obviously.
Reporter: You say they were murdered, I mean you know, how, were they shot, stabbed?
Kilfoyle: I'm not going to go into that, we have to go through a judicial process and I'm not going to do anything to prejudice that judicial process by divulging information that is inappropriate to do so at this time.
Reporter: In terms of who was living at that dwelling, were there any signs of other people residing there who weren't there at the time, any children involved, anything like that?
Kilfoyle: There may, there may not be, were not 100% sure at this stage simply because we haven't been able to contact all the people that we need to contact at this stage, both in terms of identifying formally both the deceased people and then going through those further inquires to see if anyone else was actually resident in those premises.
Reporter: [inaudible]
Kilfoyle: No concern.
Ends//