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Courier Mail
12 JUL 2003
Possible Milat connection frustrates grieving family
By Amanda Watt
THE mystery of what
happened to Anthony John Jones in north Queensland more than 20 years ago has
been a source of agonising frustration for his family.
And one aspect to the suspected murder case is particularly aggravating for the
Jones family.
Mr Jones, 20, from Western Australia, was hitchhiking around Queensland and was
last seen in Townsville before he vanished, feared murdered, on November 3,
1982.
His body was never found and a coroner ruled last year he was killed by an
unknown person/s.
But earlier this year, north Queensland police announced they would be reviewing
the possible movement of convicted killers and other criminals in the area in a
bid to solve a number of unsolved murders and suspicious disappearances.
One of the people whose movements they are tracing is Ivan Milat -- convicted
and jailed in 1996 for the murder of seven backpackers whose bodies were found
in Belanglo forest, NSW.
The announcement rang alarm bells for Mr Jones's family as in the early days of
the Milat investigation police showed a strong interest in the disappearance of
their son.
However, since that initial contact by police, the family have heard nothing
more about a possible link.
Mr Jones's elder brother Brian, whose anguish over his sibling's case prompted
him to established the National Missing Persons Week in 1988, recently wrote to
the Townsville region's crime co-ordinator, Inspector Richard Nikola, asking him
to at least dispel the family's lingering doubts about a possible Milat
connection to his brother's disappearance.
But Inspector Nikola wrote back saying it was inappropriate for police to
comment.
Mr Jones, 49, who is keeping tabs on the case from his home in South Korea, said
he and his family felt police had kept them in the dark about the investigation
ever since the disappearance of his brother.
He said the Queensland Police Service's inability to dismiss the Milat link only
increased the family's frustration.
"This is the frustration we've had for 20 years. For 20 years we've had the
brush-off,'' Mr Jones said.
"They give you the impression it's their business and (we should) leave
them to it but they forget this is our brother and we have a right to know what
is going on.
"Getting a resolution in these cases is so important for the families
because, without it, how do you move on?''
Mr Jones wrote a book about his brother's bizarre disappearance in 1988.
A Queensland Government reward of $50,000 still stands for information about the
case that leads to an arrest.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Rod Milton, who assisted police during the Milat
investigation, said yesterday he believed it was "unlikely'' the convicted
serial killer was responsible for the murder of Mr Jones.
He said while there were some similarities in Mr Jones's disappearance and those
of the Belanglo victims, he believed Milat had a stable job in NSW in the 1980s.
"He was not the kind of chap to go for a long drive and (kill someone) in
north Queensland. It doesn't fit with what I know of him,'' Dr Milton said.
He said he understood the family's anguish, but police were often restricted in
what they could publicly say to victims' families.
"It's a general principle of police not to reveal what's going on,'' Dr
Milton said.
The Sunday Times
13 JUL 2003
Family snub on Milat
By LOUISE PEMBLE
A PERTH family is
appealing to the Queensland police to tell them if notorious backpacker murderer
Ivan Milat is implicated in the disappearance of their son and brother.
Perth man Tony Jones, 20, went missing in 1982 while hitchhiking from Townsville
to Mt Isa.
A coronial inquest last year failed to find a killer and in 1993 the family
worked with a private investigator who warned that a serial killer might be
operating in the area.
Now a Townsville newspaper has sparked fresh concerns for the family by asking
if convicted serial killers such as Milat had been ruled out of all unsolved
murder cases in the area.
To clear things up, Mr Jones's brother, Brian, recently wrote to Queensland
police asking if Milat was a suspect.
"We never found out if Milat was in Queensland at that time. That's a
question that has haunted my family for years,'' he said.
On the day before he disappeared, an eyewitness saw Tony Jones drinking with an
older man in local hotel, he said.
Brian Jones expected police to tell him if Milat had been in the vicinity of
Townsville in late 1982.
Instead, he received a letter stating that it was not appropriate for any member
of the Queensland police service to publicly comment on the issues raised in the
letter.
A spokesman for Townsville police said the inspector handling the Jones case was
on leave and unavailable for comment.
Brian Jones asked why it was inappropriate for the police to discuss the matter
with the missing man's family.
"If the police can't tell us, who can?'' he asked.
The family is angry that Tony Jones's inquest was held only last year, when he
had disappeared 20 years earlier.
His mother Beres died of leukemia in 1990 but his father and six siblings are
still wondering what happened to their son and brother.
Police have issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of
a killer.
Return to Searching for Tony
For more on the disappearance of Tony's
great-grandfather see The
Geddes Mystery
