AN UNSOLVED MURDER
“ … He … poked the rifle through the back window and shot my husband through the head from about two feet away …”
*For more than thirty years the older residents of Alice Springs have pondered a senseless murder and wondered who is (or was) the culprit who, on January 7, 1972, committed the senseless killing of 34-year-old Alice Springs bus driver, Mervyn Hasted at the Flynn Memorial along the Larapinta Highway west of the township. Hasted and his family had driven out to the memorial about 7.45pm. * The victim was accompanied by his wife, Marie, and their children aged two and three years of age.Mrs Hasted later described the incident to a local journalist: “While we were standing at the memorial, something attracted my attention. I saw a head pop up behind some rocks. We were scared and ran to the car. I jumped into the front seat and wound up the window. The children were in the back seat. Mervyn ran around to his side of the car and jumped in.
“Then I saw a man with a rifle. He didn’t speak, but poked the rifle through the back window and shot my husband through the head from about two feet away. Mervyn slumped and fell out of the car. He couldn’t have closed the door properly …”
She described the killer as being of part-Aboriginal appearance, about five feet seven inches tall, of a slim build with short, dark, curly hair.
Mrs Hasted told the police that the murderer has dragged her to where her husband lay on the ground, ordering her to get back in and to drive the car away. She told him she was not able to drive.
“The children were screaming,” she said. “I pleaded with him not to harm the children or myself.
“Suddenly, he must have heard a car approaching. He said, ‘Get out. Run.” The car arrived as the killer ran off into the bush.” Detectives found a single shot .22 calibre rifle abandoned in the bush about one miles from the murder scene. They believed this was the murder weapon.
Officer-in-charge of the Southern Division, Acting Inspector, Andy McNeill (now deceased) said police had received a dentist’s report on bullet cases found near the murder scene.
Police had found the spent cases, which had teeth marks in them, after following what they believe was the killer’s foot prints.
“Inspector McNeill said: “The dentist told us the teeth marks were made by a person aged between 15 and 25 years.”
The “Centralian Advocate” newspaper reported that the government were offering a $2,000 reward for information “leading to the conviction of the murderer …”
Although the Alice Springs police twice conducted door-to-door investigations and interviewed “hundreds of suspects looking remotely like the man,” all their efforts proved to be futile and the unknown murderer was never apprehended. An appeal initiated by the Alice Springs mayor, Jock Nelson, realised $6,000 for the dead man’s stricken wife and three children.
-B.J.C.
