Update 5: Homicide, Cooktown
A contingent of 20 detectives with the support of general duties officers and specialist units are continuing investigations into the homicide of Donna Steele in Cooktown.
Scientific analysis on more than 200 items, including over 95 from the primary search location of Leggett’s Crossing, is ongoing – with trace evidence having been identified on some of them.
Ms Steele’s family have undertaken an audit of her belongings – a number of items have been identified as missing.
The State Emergency Service (SES) will conduct a further search of Leggett’s Crossing on Sunday or Monday in an effort to locate those items.
It is the strong belief of detectives that Ms Steele’s missing items may contain trace evidence (i.e. DNA) that will lead to a positive resolution to the investigation.
Police are again appealing for anyone who may have been at Leggett’s Crossing between August 2 and August 6 to come forward and hopefully provide police with the key piece of information they need in relation to Donna’s missing property.
Leggett’s Crossing has often been used as site for people to dump unwanted items and rubbish.
With this in mind, police would also like to speak with anyone who may have been there or may have used the site for that purpose between the last week of July and August 6.
DNA on items already located there may be theirs – and detectives would like to eliminate them from their enquiries.
At this time, police have no significant witnesses or a person of interest.
Detective Inspector Geoff Marsh is appealing to the Cooktown community for help.
“It has been three weeks. If someone knows what happened to Donna, they owe it to her and to her boys to come forward and give that information to police so that we can resolve this investigation and the community and her boys can move forward.”
Video from Detective Inspector Geoff Marsh’s media conference can be downloaded here: https://d2haxmvzil2swt.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/08/25/134953_IMG_3964.MOV
If you have information for police, contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.
You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld.com.au 24hrs per day.
Source: Cairns Crime Alert
