GUILTY Australia - Michelle Buckingham, 16, murdered, Shepparton, Vic, 21 Oct 1983

[Ausgirl]

I think a LOT of kudos has to go to reporter Tammy Mills, who did a great deal to keep Michelle in the public mind by reprinting all those old 1980's reports online and generally following any updates.

She is an extremely caring and responsible member of the press. I wish we had a thousand more like her.

But still,. Michelle's case was pretty far off the general public radar compared to other murders of young women that are still unsolved. I remember trying to find her, before Ms Mills reprinted the articles, and there was just a single brief note from some police publication from 1985.

I think it would be very useful if we took a look at the 'unsolved' and 'cold case' databases for Australia around on the web, see if anyone else is notably missing... Perhaps as new cold cases come to light here, that's a thing I can do to help - make a simple check and if they're not on the lists, try to get them included.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

'Secrets' of alleged murder of Shepparton teen Michelle Buckingham revealed 30 years on

The alleged secrets of the cold case death of a teenage girl in country Victoria were kept by very few.

But 31 years later in a small courthouse in the north-east town of Shepparton on Wednesday they began to unravel.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/s...0-years-on-20141119-11pr2l.html#ixzz3JV5U4ol6

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Deleted, due to being an old post.

 

[Ausgirl]

Thank you for that update, Tootsie.

I wonder if the other men named are to be charged with murder? I hope so.

 

[sleepinoz]

Victoria Police destroyed evidence in up to 40 cold case investigations including one 31-year-old murder investigation currently before the court.

Police made the decision to destroy the exhibits from 30 to 40 cold cases when evidence storage was moved to a new storage facility in the 1990s, Fairfax reports.

The destruction of evidence was revealed by former Homicide Squad police Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles who was giving evidence in a current hearing into the 31-year-old cold case murder of Shepparton teenager Michelle Buckingham.

Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...40-cold-cases-court-hears#CM337WSWAe3RpMcY.99

 

[Ausgirl]

Yesterday, the court heard from Rodney Butler, who said Michelle was his first girlfriend and denied involvement. Mr Gribble implicated Mr Butler in Michelle's murder, based on what he said Mr Bradley had told him the day after she was killed.

Lead investigator Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles told the court no new forensic evidence would be presented, as the original exhibits had been destroyed in 1994.

http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/shepparton/day-3-the-michelle-buckingham-hearing-1.84267#

Mr Butler today told the court he was once good friends with Mr Bradley but they had fallen out over “a joke” in the late 1980s that involved putting a pet cat in a microwave.

“I stuck the cat in the microwave for a couple of minutes. I didn’t turn it on or anything. I was on the grog. (Bradley’s girlfriend) didn’t take that real well,” Mr Butler said.

http://www.news.com.au/national/mic...cat-in-microwave/story-e6frfkp9-1227129532903

....I think I knew one of these guys.

 

[they'll get you]

Ausgirl, what do you remember about them? That's a scary memory for you. (((Hugs))).

 

[Ausgirl]

I don't recall Bradley at all, but the other two.. I feel I *ought * to know one fairly well and I'll kick myself when I recall from where, the other might have been a friend of a friend. Msm gave one guy's nickname the other day, is what pricked my memory. Dunno about scary.. (thanks for the hug anyways, hugs are awesome), more annoying at this point. Around that time of my life I was 'coming down' off years of trauma, so my memory of that whole period is a bit oddly organised. Perhaps some of my family members will be able to help place them. There's been other names come up in this, that I do recall very well. Even an ex-boyfriend in the mix, so it's super frustrating when a name is clear but the face and associated events are not.

I was pretty devastated to read about all that destroyed evidence.. I am guessing Ron Iddles was not a fan of that decision (if it was one, and not a stupid accident) since he was the one to prompt the formation of the cold case squad that has since solved several very old crimes, including Michelle's murder. I wonder which cases? Very dismaying... I think Bradley will go down for murder. I have the feeling the other two won't, unless some more evidence turns up. If they were involved, I hope they sweat every day until the cops come knocking.

 

[Natasha (Tash) Simp]

Sadly, that stupid police decision to destroy evidence might mean that several criminals escape justice.

 

[Ausgirl]

^ I'll bet Ron was spitting chips about that evidence.

Waiting for the verdict....no news I can find, but this is from a couple days ago:

IN A cruel twist of fate, the man many wrongly accused of killing Michelle Buckingham died just six weeks ago after living the life of a pariah in Shepparton.

...Gregory Gleadhill, a mentally challenged man known locally as Punchy, was originally charged with the murder in 1988 after volunteering a fanciful story about what happened.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/la...-wrongly-accused/story-fni0fee2-1227129345852

Classic case of false confession.

Recap of the Gleadhill story: http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/shepparton/february-20-1985-death-link-rubbish-man-claims-1.27752

(from an older report):

In a country town there is nowhere to hide and no one forgets, particularly when you have been branded a killer.

The man in the frame is slow, brooding and distinctly odd, the victim young, attractive and popular. Little wonder the town turned on him.

For the best part of three decades Gregory Peter Gleadhill had to live with more than stares and whispers. The local cruelly dubbed Punchy was regularly bashed in his home town of Shepparton by those convinced he was a cold-blooded murderer.

The truth was he was simple and lonely. He made up a story to make himself relevant and then added new layers of lies as he became trapped in his own deception.

From the day he was charged he has not worked. He returned to his parents' home, where he lived as a virtual hermit. Today he is a shell of a man, destroyed by his own demons and condemned by the judgment of his own town.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/t...ime-suspect-20131129-2ygw8.html#ixzz3JqLTcxdY

 

[Ausgirl]

UPDATE, 11.27am: Steven James Bradley, 53, has been committed to stand trial on one count of murder.

Mr Bradley will appear at Supreme Court in Melbourne on November 28 for a directions hearing.

http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/shepparton/day-3-the-michelle-buckingham-hearing-1.84267

:yesss:

 

[Ausgirl]

I just remembered ... there was an ex-bf of Michelle's I was mates with has the same first name - I just didn't click since we all called him by his nickname - but I can't recall his last name. :scared: Though I can't imagine it's the same person as the one I knew. He was such a nice guy. He came by my house a lot. So that's likely what was nagging at my memory.

 

[bessie]

Cold case accused claims he 'pretended' to stab teenager
September 29, 2015 - 6:27PM
Tammy Mills

[...]
In the first day of a two-week trial in the country Victorian town, a lawyer for Stephen James Bradley told the jury his client pretended to stab Michelle Buckingham when he thought she was already dead and at the behest of her real killer, his friend Rodney Butler.

It's a contention rejected by the prosecution, whose case relies on a confession by Mr Bradley, 53, to his brother-in-law the morning after Michelle was murdered almost 32 years ago.

[...]
Mr Fitzgerald said that when Mr Butler asked Mr Bradley to stab Michelle, he thought she was already dead and he pretended to stab her.

The court heard Michelle's body was found two weeks later in long grass on November 7, 1983, beside a rural road in the vicinity of the Pine Lodge pub. She had sustained 19 stab wounds.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Vic cold case mum deserved answers


Elvira Buckingham died a week before her daughter's killer was convicted, and now the detective who brought him to justice is lamenting the fact she never received the answers she deserved.


http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...deserved-answers/story-fnihsfrf-1227563324415

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Queensland man found guilty of murdering Shepparton teen Michelle Buckingham after 1983 cold case reopened

"A Queensland man has been found guilty of the murder of a Victorian teenager more than 30 years ago.

Stephen James Bradley, 53, of the Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill, was today found guilty by a Supreme Court jury in Victoria"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-...lty-of-1983-murder-of-16yo-shepparton/6840376

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Stephen James Bradley has been sentenced to 27 years behind bars, with a 21 year minimum, for the stabbing murder of Shepparton teenager Michelle Buckingham more than three decades ago.

Justice Robert Osborn described Bradley as casual and heartless as he put Michelle's body in his green Holden and dumped her beside a road, before disposing of his car.


http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...ver-1983-cold-case-murder#Cqgsf8gFv2yrjkbg.99

 

[StarrChance]

Great news about the conviction, just very sad the stress may have contributed to her mothers heart attack on the week before.

 

[pukasonqo2]

will the other two suspects go to trial?


lupus est *advertiser censored* homini, non *advertiser censored*, non quom qualis sit novit

 

[Cliff Hardy]

will the other two suspects go to trial?


lupus est *advertiser censored* homini, non *advertiser censored*, non quom qualis sit novit

Have been following this case and from what I hear it is extremely unlikely the other two will be ever face penalty. There just isn't enough evidence to positively place them there when the offense occurred.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

Vic cold case mum deserved answers


Elvira Buckingham died a week before her daughter's killer was convicted, and now the detective who brought him to justice is lamenting the fact she never received the answers she deserved.


http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...deserved-answers/story-fnihsfrf-1227563324415

The journalist who bought the case back to life with her newspaper article, Tammy Mills, said the thing that seemed to be worrying Elvira Buckingham the most was that the trial would end in just another disappointment.

Michelle's siblings are still eternally grateful to Tammy and Ron Iddles for giving them justice and closure.