Detectives were believed to have had a breakthrough in the case in 2019, charging Preston, a former prison guard at NSW’s Goulburn Supermax jail, with murder. He denied the charges and they were dropped in July 2023.
Sitting in a wheelchair in a Brisbane courtroom on Tuesday, the 70-year-old was asked repeatedly during the inquest about his police statements in relation to how he claimed to have found the motorbike on the outskirts of Mount Isa then later said he found it in the town’s centre.
He was asked if he initially told lies about where he found the motorcycle. Preston answered yes.
Karen Edwards, Gordon Twaddle and Tim Thomson died in 1978.Credit: Nine
When asked why, he said: “I don’t know, it’s 47 years ago. I was a young fellow, I panicked.”
Coroner David O’Connell asked him if he moved the location in his police statement to put the bike further away from Moondarra Caravan Park, where the trio had been staying and were last seen alive on October 5. Preston answered no.
The coroner repeatedly pointed out that although Preston had claimed privilege from indemnity over his answers, he could still face a risk of perjury.
Preston, who earlier in 1978 had travelled from Alice Springs to Mount Isa, reiterated that he struggled to recall dates and places.
At one point he told the inquest he had spent a further two days in Alice Springs, despite telling police he left earlier, and his family confirming he arrived in Mount Isa about October 4 or 5. The three were found dead on October 24.
The red motorcycle driven by Tim Thomson.Credit: Queensland Police Service
His older brother, Ian, told the inquest that at the time, their father, Arthur, had been concerned that the red motorbike in Preston’s possession “was involved somehow”.
Ian told the court he also went to police about his brother. He said: “The thoughts I had were that I was afraid if anybody had been involved in these sorts of events.” When asked who he was referring to, he answered his brother.
The 76-year-old recalled how he and his brothers used to go pig shooting with their father when they were boys.
The front page of The North West Star on October 25, 1978.Credit: The North West Star
Their father, according to Ian, was an avid hunter and shooter. The family also used to shoot kangaroos, sending their skins back to Brisbane to be tanned and sold.
When Ian turned 15, he left the family and joined the navy. He did not agree with many of his father’s opinions and wanted to get away, he told the court.
After Ian married he returned to Mount Isa with his wife for a trip. During that time, he asked his father about his old .22 pump-action firearm, which he wanted to have back.
He was told that Arthur’s wife, Yvonne, now had the gun and was using it to shoot, Ian told the court.
He said the following year, his brother called him from Adelaide and told him he had bought a BMW motorcycle and had it transported to Mount Isa.
Ian said he believed Preston was a member of the Black Uhlans outlaw motorcycle gang and recalled seeing his nickname, “Pedro”, on his jacket.
The court heard that at one time, Arthur Preston told a friend while discussing Bruce and the murders: “The little bastard done it. But he’s a tough little bastard, and they can’t break him.”
It was suggested to Ian Preston that he was harbouring a family secret that was no longer private, given it was in the public arena. Ian said he was not harbouring anything, and was not aware of his father’s conversation.
Merrill Anderson, who lived across the road from the Prestons in Mount Isa, earlier told the inquest she believed Arthur was “running interference” at the time by suggesting to help police search the Moondarra Dam looking for the bike.
Arthur was a ranger who knew the lake and area well.
Anderson told the court she quite liked Bruce, who would willingly demonstrate how to ride motorbikes to the kids in the community. She described him as patient and tolerant, and always a gentleman, who never used bad language.
But at times, he would be moody, she said.
She recalled how she had seen Bruce riding around town with a motorbike, which she believed to be a reddish BMW, and he did not try to hide it. Anderson said Bruce even took her sons for a ride on it to the corner and back.
“He was not in any way trying to be secretive about the bike,” she said.
But around the time police began looking for the motorbike in connection to the deaths, Bruce stopped riding it, Anderson said.
She recalled how his stepmother, Yvonne, explained to her that the bike was in the shed and needed parts. When Anderson saw the bike one day with marks on the side, she said: “You know what, I think this is the bike the police are looking for.”
Later, she and others went to the Spear Creek site, where they found bullet shells and a bullet hole in a tree. Anderson said she believed Bruce also visited the site with a group of people, but she said it was difficult to say with certainty.
The inquest continues.
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