Investigators were initially stumped by the fatal shooting of Glenn Walewicz, described by one senior detective as "a real whodunnit" solved by some "good old-fashioned police work".
Now the Sunday Canberra Times can reveal how cell tower data, the running of a red light and images from speed and bus cameras put police on the trail of those alleged to be involved in the Phillip man's murder.
Five people have been arrested this month and hauled before the courts in connection with the June 2021 homicide, with three facing murder charges and two accused of being accessories after the fact.
Court documents tendered in the case of one alleged accessory, Reatile Ncube, detail how cell tower data shows him and others known to police travelling to Phillip on the relevant night.
About 11.23pm on June 10 last year, a black Proton Suprima registered to the 19-year-old's mother, and bearing a red P-plate, was captured by a point-to-point speed camera on Hindmarsh Drive in Phillip.
Over the next seven minutes, cell data is said to show Ncube's phone in the vicinity of Mr Walewicz's home, in the Connorville Gardens public housing complex, on Mansfield Place.
An ACTION bus travelled past there at 11.36pm, capturing an image of a black hatchback outside the complex.
It was three minutes after this that Mr Walewicz's girlfriend called the ACT Ambulance Service, requesting assistance after the 48-year-old was gunned down when he answered a knock at the door to his unit.
At the same time she was on the phone, a traffic camera at the intersection of Hindmarsh Drive and Ball Street, in Phillip, detected a vehicle believed to be the Suprima running a red light with no headlights on.
Speaking after Ncube and the first person to be charged with murder were arrested, Detective Inspector Mark Steel said little information had been forthcoming in the early stages of the homicide probe.
He credited "good old-fashioned police work" with cracking a case he described as "a real whodunnit".
Court documents explain some of this, showing police who identified the evidence from the cameras and cell towers obtained a warrant in early April to intercept Ncube's phone calls and messages.
They were listening in two months later when Ncube, having admitted to police he drove the Suprima on the night in question, allegedly told an associate he had to go to "the cop shop" for an interview.
Police allege he told the associate he would "make some shit up" about why he was in Phillip that night, with the other man replying: "If they have your car parked and you drive off and people come back to the car, that's where you'll be f---ed."
After attending the interview and saying he had just been driving around Phillip on the night in question, Ncube allegedly spoke to the associate about needing to "get rid of" two shotguns.
The associate, according to court documents, told Ncube people knew who had shot "that guy", and stated a redacted name.
Ncube was subsequently apprehended in the first of a series of recent arrests, which have included fellow alleged accessory Nicole Williams.
The pair, who are yet to enter pleas, are due to face the ACT Magistrates Court again on Monday.
Two of the trio charged with murder - an 18-year-old man who cannot be named and country NSW resident Gary Taylor, 24 - are due in court again in the coming weeks.
The most recently arrested suspect, a 13-year-old boy, is also before the ACT Children's Court on a murder charge.
