Face of Nation : Four decades after the probable murder of missing backpacker Tony Jones, his family hopes a Queensland court ruling will finally lead to justice. Mr Jones, 20, mysteriously vanished near Townsville in November 1982 while hitchhiking to Mount Isa.
The 20-year-old’s body has never been found but a coronial inquest in 2002 ruled he’d probably been murdered. A second inquest in 2010 also heard that after Mr Jones was killed his body may have been burned in slaughter yards in the outback town of Hughenden.
The coroner was forced to halt that inquiry part-way through when lawyers noticed the inquest was being heard under the 1958 Coroners’ Act and not the updated 2003 legislation. The family hopes a Brisbane Supreme Court judgment to be delivered on Wednesday will finally bring clarity to the issue.
If the inquest was being heard using the wrong act it could jeopardise any future criminal prosecution of any suspects, Tony’s older brother Mark told AAP. “We’re not getting younger and dad is now 94 – we just want to see justice for Tony before it’s too late,” he said.
