Joseph Schwab

The gunman’s first known victims were Marcus and Lance Bullen, a father and son, who were shot dead with a semi-automatic rifle on June 9, while scouting for a fishing location on the banks of the Victoria River. Their burned out vehicle was found after they were reported missing, and their bodies were discovered nearby in poorly disguised shallow graves.[4][5] Police investigations were unable uncover a motive for the killings, and the killer evaded capture despite roadblocks being set up across the area.[6]

Just five days later three locals who went fishing overnight– Phillip Charles Walkemeyer, his fiancée Julie Anne Warren, and their friend Terry Kent Bolt – were shot dead hundreds of kilometres away in neighbouring Western Australia in similar circumstances at a campsite at the Pentecost River Crossing near Wyndham.[7][3] As in the previous incident, Schwab stripped the victims, put their possessions in their vehicle and then drove it a short distance away from the scene and set it on fire. The killer was suspected to be driving a white Toyota 4Runner[8] with conspicuous red side stripes after a truck driver saw a vehicle with this description leaving the area of the vehicle fire.

A seven-member team of police officers from the Tactical Response Group and an officer from the forensic division were rushed by chartered jet from Perth to Kununurra to assist Kimberley police with the apprehension of the suspect.[9][2] Forensics identified the weapon used in the murders as a Ruger Mini-14 .223 semi-automatic rifle.

An intensive police search and network of roadblocks was unable to locate the suspect vehicle. However an outback livestock mustering helicopter pilot, Peter Leutenegger, from Napier Downs station,[10] raised the alarm after fortuitously spotting a camouflaged vehicle in bushland near Fitzroy Crossing.[6][9] Tactical police, unsure if the hidden vehicle belonged to the gunman they were looking for, approached it cautiously on the ground and then called on a police aircraft to fly over the site in an attempt to flush the occupant out into the open. A man dressed in military trousers and armed with a semi-automatic weapon emerged from the camouflaged camp and opened fire on the Cessna 182 aircraft. Police on the ground identified themselves, whereupon the gunman opened fire on them too. Police returned fire, eventually killing the gunman after a protracted firefight.[6]

Police later identified the gunman as Joseph Schwab, a 26-year-old German tourist. A security guard in his native country,[8] his motive for the killings is unknown.[6]. He had hired the vehicle in Brisbane before buying three rifles (.223-caliber Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, a .308 SAKO bolt-action rifle & .22-caliber Brno bolt-action rifle) and a Winchester 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and driving to the Northern Territory. He had previously travelled to Australia and lived in South Australia for a while.

The crime was featured in series 1 (2007), episode 10 of Crime Investigation Australia entitled The Kimberley Killer.[11]

The crime was also featured on podcast, Casefile, case 70