A man has been found not guilty of murder by a judge after skull fragments linked to the man he was accused of killing more than a decade ago were found while he was on trial.
Bruce Anthony Coss was discharged by the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, cleared of murdering Darren Royce Willis, who went missing from Bingara, near Tamworth, in December 2010.
An inquest later found Mr Willis, who was 45 when he disappeared, was likely dead given he had not accessed his bank account in about four years, left the country or come to the attention of police with whom he’d had multiple prior dealings.
There were theories Mr Willis had tried to cross the Gwydir River while it was high and he was drunk or that he had a run-in with an “outlaw motorcycle gang” as a result of a relationship he had with a woman associated with a member.
But they were found to be no more than rumours.
How and why he died remains a mystery.
Mr Coss was charged with murder in October 2019 on the same day another man, Robert Stonestreet, was charged with concealing a serious indictable offence.
The two were close before a falling out led to a violent altercation in January 2018.
Mr Stonestreet then told another man he’d been “holding something in for a matter of years”.
That man spoke to police the next day and apparently shared the information with others “sparking some discussion amongst various members of the township,” Justice Hament Dhanji said.
The detective he told said he took a note of the conversation, which was subsequently destroyed and not available when he prepared his statement, forcing him to rely upon versions recorded in two databases, which were inexplicably different.
Mr Coss pleaded not guilty in May 2022 and was granted a judge-alone trial.
As the Crown was closing its case against Mr Coss the trial was adjourned “as a result of circumstances beyond anyone’s control”, Justice Dhanji said. By the time it resumed there had been further developments.
Bones in the waterfall
Publicity surrounding the trial prompted a Bingara local to remember seeing what he thought at the time was a kangaroo tailbone. He and a friend returned to the area, below a waterfall at Doctors Creek, and found a number of other bones.
A police search uncovered further skull fragments which were later linked to Mr Willis.
Justice Dhanji said the case against Mr Coss changed somewhat as a result of the finding, but did not materially advance the Crown’s case. Nor did telephone-conversation recordings of Mr Coss denying involvement in Mr Willis’ disappearance and death.
The evidence of two men alleging Mr Coss was responsible contained inconsistencies and evolved over time, including at trial.
“(They) are witnesses who might have been involved in the alleged crime,” the judge said.
They also benefited from assisting police in relation to an incident they said occurred years earlier while they were both influenced by alcohol and drugs.
“The result is that I cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the account of either … with the result that I cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused,” Justice Dhanji said.
Mr Coss sat in the dock wearing jeans and a black shirt, leaning forward while listening as the judge detailed the reasons he was discharged.
-AAP
