Two chilling theories have emerged 14 years after a young apprentice labourer was found dead on the side of a road after a night of partying in a popular tourist town.
A $1 million reward is being offered for information leading to the murder of Joshua Warneke.
The body of Mr Warneke, 21, was discovered on Old Broome Road in Broome, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, on 26 February 2010, shortly after leaving a nightclub.
He had a black mark on his arm.
As an inquest into his final moments began this week, taxi driver Philip Nordfelt denied hitting the worker with his car in a McDonald’s car park 30 minutes before Warneke was found dead.
The second theory is that the young worker was killed with a sharp weapon.
The inquest also heard on Tuesday that the crime scene may have been unintentionally contaminated. Western Australia reported.
Mr Nordfelt, who was one of the last people to see Mr Warneke alive, said he “definitely did not touch him”.
It’s been 14 years since Josh Warneke was found dead on the side of a road after a night of partying.
The young worker was caught on security cameras in the parking lot of a McDonald’s 30 minutes before he was found dead.
He also said he did not recall any passenger in his taxi telling him “please don’t hit him.”
“I’m sure I didn’t do it,” Nordfelt told reporters outside Coroner’s Court after finishing his testimony. alphabet reported.
“I know my vehicle passed within a foot of him, but I never touched him.”
The black mark on Mr Warneke’s arm has led to theories that he could have been hit by a car earlier in the evening.
But Linley Cilia, the ambulance officer who arrived first at the scene, told the inquest she saw no evidence of a hit-and-run.
Ms Cilia told the inquest she had attended hundreds of scenes involving people being hit by a car, but in this case, she did not see the telltale tyre marks that would be produced by sudden braking, nor “shrapnel or anything like that”.
An inquest into the death of Josh Warneke began in Broome this week
Police later allowed him to place a white sheet over Mr Warneke’s body to preserve his dignity in death.
In response, his mother, Ingrid Bishop, said: “I hope there was no contamination of the forensic evidence at the scene because it is obviously extremely important.”
Ms Cilia was asked if any interference had occurred at the scene.
“No, we were told it had been treated as a crime scene and we should try to preserve it as intact as possible,” he told the inquest.
He also recalled seeing a taxi driver and passengers who were “very shocked” by the scene.
The hearing also heard evidence from friends and other witnesses who were at the Bungalow Bar in Broome on the night of Mr Warneke’s death.
Witnesses said he was in good spirits and did not appear to be affected by alcohol that night.
The inquest will continue in Broome on Wednesday before resuming in Perth next week.