How a Broken Pay Phone May Have Led to the 'Cold Blooded' Rape and Murder of a Former Beauty Queen

Mar. 15, 2025

Adrian Greer Michael Short/Fairfax Media via Getty

Content warning: The following article contains disturbing details of violence and sexual assault

For the 26-year-old Australian nurse, the barbaric beating and gang rape on the night of Feb. 2, 1986, that left her dead in a rural field with her throat slashed was the stuff of nightmares.

As the former beauty queen walked along the side of the dark road to her parents’ house, the unthinkable happened.

Five men in a car pulled up and forced her inside a stolen vehicle, according to reports in outlets including theSydney Morning Herald,News.Com.au, andThe Guardian.

For the next few hours, they raped her and beat her inside the car before dragging her body through a field and a barbed wire fence, and sexually assaulting her again.

Fearing she would be able to identify them, one of her attackers, John Travers, then 19, slashed her throat, leaving her to die, police said, theSydney Morning Heraldreported.

Gary Mclean/Fairfax Media via Getty

Soon after, police tracked down Travers and the other four men: Michael Murdoch, also 19, and three brothers, Leslie Murphy, 22, Gary Murphy, 28, and Michael Murphy, 33.

Convicted in 1987 of killing her, they were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Her brutal death left the nation in shock and disbelief and still haunts her loved ones today.

She considered a career as a model but opted instead to become a registered nurse, like her mother, according to theGoldCoastBulletin.

Father Usually Picked Her Up — But Phone Wasn’t Working

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She was unable to call her father to tell him to pick her up at the station, like she usually did, because the pay phone wasn’t working,The Guardianreported.

Detectives with then-suspect Garry Murphy at the murder scene in Prospect.Barry James Gilmour/Fairfax Media via Getty

Barry James Gilmour/Fairfax Media via Getty

Her attackers drove from Blacktown to a desolate farm, where they beat her further, leaving her with bruises all over her body and broken bones, and took turns raping her, police said.

After leaving her in a field, they burned her clothes in one of their back yards to hide evidence, police said, according to theSydney Morning Herald.

Where Are Killers Today?

After the five men were arrested, protesters held demonstrations calling for the return of the death penalty.

Murphy died in prison in 2019 after a long battle with cancer,The New Zealand Heraldreported.

The others remain in prison.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.

source: people.com