Murder of Sian Kingi

At around 4:30 pm on Friday, 27 November 1987, Sian Kingi, a 12-year-old schoolgirl, was last seen riding her yellow 10-speed bicycle home after school near Pinnaroo Park in Noosa Heads.[4] Just beforehand, Kingi had been shopping with her mother, and took her regular route home afterwards through the park. When her mother arrived home and Kingi was not there as expected, it was assumed that she had met friends from her school or her volleyball team and was delayed. Later, when Kingi still did not return, her mother began calling the homes of her friends without success. By 8 pm, Kingi's parents began retracing her steps, and, after retrieving her abandoned bicycle from the park, visited the local police to report the disappearance.[4]

Despite the late notice, police were able to assist in having a missing person's report for Kingi inserted into the following day's newspaper.[4] Police also began collecting information about people who had been in the park at the time of the disappearance. Police had little to go on until the discovery of Kingi's body on 3 December 1987, 15 km away near Castaway's Creek in the Tinbeerwah Mountain State Forest.[5]

Attention then turned to a dusty unidentified white 1973 Holden Kingswood station wagon, with interstate registration, that had been seen in the general area.[4] In the weeks that followed, as police gathered evidence, numerous other incidents were linked to the vehicle (although exact details of the vehicle often varied), including the suspicious behaviour of the driver and three other assault incidents.[6] The owner of the vehicle, confirmed as Victorian registration LLE-429, was finally identified as Valmae Beck. Beck and her husband, Barrie Watts, who had married a year earlier, had been living in Perth, but had moved to Victoria before renting a property in Lowood, Queensland. Both had extensive criminal records and were out on bail.[4]

When police visited the Lowood property on 11 December, evidence indicated that Watts and Beck had last been there on 4 December (when news of the discovery of the body broke). Cut hair and dye kits indicated that both had changed their appearance. Fortunately, the owner of the property had received a money order for rent from the couple on 10 December from The Entrance, New South Wales. Plain clothes police were then able to locate and arrest the couple there on 12 December, and they were extradited to Queensland on 14 December.[4]

The couple were charged on 15 December with the abduction, rape, and murder of Kingi. During questioning, Watts refused to speak, but Beck was more talkative. Between Beck's comments and secret recordings from their adjacent holding cells, investigators were able to recreate the crime. Beck explained how Watts, unsatisfied with her because she was ten years his senior, had fantasised about raping a young virgin.[4] After a number of previous attempts on other victims in Ipswich, they noticed Kingi, and Beck stopped her on the premise that she was looking for her lost poodle.[5] After dismounting to help, Watts then grabbed Kingi from behind and forced her into the back of their car where she was bound and then driven by Beck to Tinbeerwah. Kingi was then raped by Watts before being stabbed, strangled, and abandoned.

At a committal hearing in April 1988, Beck pleaded guilty to the abduction and rape, and not guilty to the murder, while Watts pleaded not guilty to all charges. The couple were tried separately at the Noosa Magistrates Court primarily on Beck's testimony. Beck's trial commenced in October 1988 and Watts's in February 1990.[4] Beck was found guilty on 20 October 1988, and given three years, five years, and life imprisonment for the three charges. Watts, who remained unresponsive during trial, was found guilty on 28 February 1990, and given three years, fifteen years, and life imprisonment for the three charges.[4]

• Murder of Daniel Morcombe
• Murder of Ebony Simpson
• Bega schoolgirl murders
• Wanda Beach Murders
• David and Catherine Birnie