Just weeks after NSW Police posted a reward of $1 million to solve one of Australia’s most disturbing unsolved murders, a ground-breaking episode in the Murders, Lies & Alibis series, ‘The Beauty Queen Killers’ will reveal new evidence and secrets in the murder of teenage beauty queen Bronwyne Richardson, and sensationally features an interview with the main suspect.
In this riveting two-part investigation, a year in the making, reporter and Executive Producer Mark Llewellyn and Australia’s premier forensic criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett discover new evidence never put before a jury.
The episode comes to an extraordinary climax when a secret witness names the person who they claim allegedly strangled 17-year-old Bronwyne before she was thrown into the Murray River; a man police let slip through their fingers.
The unsolved murder of Bronwyne is one of the greatest mysteries in Australian criminal history, still making headlines more than 40 years after her murder.
“In recent weeks, the previous $200,000 reward has been increased by $800 000, and no wonder, because walking amongst us to this day is the ringleader who led the savage torture and murder of Bronwyne,” says Mark Llewellyn.
“She deserves justice and he deserves jail. This is the $1 million cold case the police are desperate to solve. Our investigation opens up dramatic new leads and delivers answers that will stun many.”
Bronwyne was a title-winning beauty queen in Albury with a jealous ex-boyfriend and an obsessed cousin. She had been stalked and received death threats that left her terrified.
On Friday, October 12, 1973 she was dragged into a car full of men in front of witnesses on one of Albury’s main streets. Less than half an hour later she was dead…raped, strangled and thrown into the Murray River to drown, with her body discovered two days later.
Her post mortem had to be re-done, forensic evidence was lost, and detectives were disciplined for how they handled the original case. Police got nowhere until TV legend Derryn Hinch blew the cold case wide open in 1989 on his current affairs show.
After a Hinch story aired, police in South Australia received two anonymous phone calls running through intimate details of the murder and naming Geoff Brown as the main suspect. It was the biggest lead in the case for more than 15 years, yet when South Australia police passed on the information to their NSW colleagues, nothing was done.
Two men, more than twenty years apart, have been charged with Bronwyne’s murder – but neither has ever faced a trial.
This is a crime series unlike any seen before. It is rare for prime suspects to agree to an interview, and in a series of increasingly tense encounters Mark Llewellyn grills the man police are convinced was at the scene the night Bronwyne was murdered.
Prime suspect Collin Newey has never done an interview before. He has consistently pleaded his innocence. Watching and prompting questions throughout is Dr Mallett; ready to confront him is Derryn Hinch and ready to go is a polygraph machine. Viewers will see the dramatic moment that Derryn Hinch returns to the story he’s followed for over 30 years and challenges Newey to prove his innocence.
You’ll be engrossed as Dr Mallett examines the police failures, discovers bombshell audio recordings never previously heard, and finally finds that answers that detectives missed.
Featuring riveting official police interview recordings, a new revelation by a police informant and interviews with Bronwyne’s family, ‘The Beauty Queen Killers’ uncovers the secrets, nails the lies and challenges the alibis that have bamboozled generations of police.
The Beauty Queen Killers have got away with murder for more than four decades but now their identities could finally be revealed.
Murders, Lies & Alibis ‘The Beauty Queen Killers’ screens on Monday, July 15 and Tuesday, July 16 at 9.15pm on Nine.
