Police have revealed a major update in the investigation into the death of an apprentice who was found dead on the side of a road after a night of partying 14 years ago.
On the fourth day of a coroner’s inquest into the death of Josh Warneke, it emerged that there are 15 people who cannot be ruled out as suspects in the 21-year-old’s death.
Mr Warneke’s body was discovered on Old Broome Road in Broome, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, on 26 February 2010, shortly after leaving a nightclub in the popular tourist town.
A $1 million reward is offered for information leading to the capture of the killer.
On Thursday, the inquest, which moved from Broome to Perth, revealed there were also “three other groups of suspects” who could not be ruled out as being involved.
The worker was last seen walking near Old Broome and Bagot roads at around 2.45am and was found by a taxi driver with a serious head injury shortly afterwards. Western Australia reported.
Detective Inspector David Palmer, who led a team that conducted a cold case review into Warneke’s death in 2017-2018, told the court they concluded he died after being hit by a vehicle, being assaulted with a weapon, or both.
Around 850 witnesses were spoken to or identified during the police investigation into Mr Warneke’s death, the inquest heard.
On the fourth day of a coroner’s inquest into the death of Josh Warneke (pictured), it emerged that there are 15 people who cannot be eliminated as suspects in the 21-year-old’s death.
Some of the suspects’ names were mentioned in court on Thursday, but a suppression order means they cannot be named publicly.
One of the suspects told a woman that he hit Mr Warneke with a tomahawk and that he could point to where the gun was.
But police later ruled the man was known for “talking nonsense,” the court heard.
Sergeant David Magorian, one of the state’s most experienced crash investigators, said he did not believe Warneke was hit by a vehicle the night he died.
He said the lack of tyre marks at the scene, Warneke’s injuries and the fact his flip-flops were found near his body led him and his senior crash squad colleagues to conclude no vehicle was involved.
“My view… is that I can’t imagine a scenario where he would have been struck by a vehicle that would have left him lying in that position,” Sergeant Magorian said.
“I can’t think of any situation where there was contact with a vehicle. It looked too neat. It’s not what we would normally find.”
A report into Mr Warneke’s death also concluded he was not struck by a vehicle or anything protruding from a vehicle.
Sergeant Magorian said he agreed with those conclusions.
Earlier 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 less than a mile away.
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 the Coroner’s Court after his testimony. alphabet reported.
The young worker was caught on security cameras in the parking lot of a McDonald’s 30 minutes before he was found dead.
A taxi driver has denied hitting the worker with his car in a McDonald’s car park (pictured) 30 minutes before Mr Warneke was found dead.
On Monday, the inquest revealed that a man who was charged and later acquitted of Mr Warneke’s murder would not give evidence.
Indigenous man Gene Gibson was charged with Warneke’s murder in 2012 before eventually pleading guilty to manslaughter.
He was jailed for more than seven years and had served nearly five when the Western Australian Supreme Court ruled that “the integrity of the conviction had been called into question” and that his conviction should be quashed. He is not one of the 15 suspects identified by police.
The investigation continues.
