A clan feud, a love triangle and a baffling unsolved double murder in Australia’s Deep North. PETER MICHAEL on the agonising search for justice at the centre of haunting new Stan documentary Revealed: The Cape
- Cape York unsolved mystery examined in new documentary
- Revealed: The Cape premieres on Stan on June 18
Cape York is home to one of the nation’s most baffling unsolved double murder cold cases – with a blood feud, love triangle and a string of dead witnesses – in the multi-million-dollar fishing industry of the Deep North.
Fisherman Bevin Simmonds, 36, and his son Brad, 10, vanished without a trace 20 years ago last Monday while checking shark nets 5km from the mouth of the Coleman River on the remote wild west coast of Cape York.
No bodies, no boat, no murder weapons, and no witnesses were ever found – with the pair still officially listed as missing at sea.
Rival fishing clan member Michael Gater – who was having a sexual affair with the missing man’s wife Cathy Simmonds – and his mother Joan Betty Gater were charged and acquitted of the alleged double murders in a Cairns Supreme Court trial in 2005.
No other leads or suspects have ever been found.
Fisherman Bevin Simmonds (right), 36, and his son Brad, 10, vanished without a trace 20 years ago
Detectives believe the father and his 10-year-old boy were shot dead in a cold-blooded execution and their bodies and dinghy sunk in an act of evil that haunts locals who still practice sorcery and magic.
Both formidable fishing clans work the same waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria – teeming with barramundi, mackerel, crocodile and shark – in a bitter family turf war akin to that of America’s Hatfields and McCoys.
Detectives believe the father and his 10-year-old boy (pictured) were shot dead in a cold-blooded execution
Last Friday, the Stan original documentary Revealed: The Cape, premiered at the Sydney Film Festival. It will go live on Stan on June 18.
The Cape is based on nearly two decades of my research, access, footage, interviews, and a podcast investigating the unsolved cold case – in what has been an agonising search for justice for the victim’s families.
The documentary sheds new light on the story of life and death on the lawless frontier of Cape York, one of the world’s last great wildernesses.
It features key witnesses who gave evidence at the trial, and dives deep into the hard-working fishing families who inhabit the mangrove-clad rivers and swamps, out beyond the edge of civilisation.
Katie Simmonds, who was 12 when her father and brother disappeared without a trace, has the words ‘Brad’ and ‘Justice’ tattooed on her skin – and a lifetime of heartache and regret etched into her soul.
Rival fishing clan member Michael Gater (pictured) – who was having a sexual affair with the missing man’s wife Cathy Simmonds – and his mother Joan Betty Gater were charged and acquitted of the alleged double murders in a Cairns Supreme Court trial in 2005
‘I just want to know what happened,’ she told me at the family fishing camp on the Holroyd River, north of the former aboriginal mission of Pormpuraaw, 660km from Cairns.
‘I just want to know where they are, where the boat was sunk, just give me the GPS co-ordinates.
‘All I’ve got is a million miles of water to look at and no answers.’
Queensland Police expect unless fresh evidence is found, or in the unlikely event the unknown killer comes forward with a confession, the case may never be solved.
It is hoped the Stan documentary can somehow deliver both peace and justice.
