WHAT happened to Zac Barnes? What led to the horrific Hunter Valley bus crash that claimed the lives of 10 wedding guests?
And who murdered David King at Salt Ash, Graham Cameron at Stockton and Wesley Prentice at Cooks Hill?
These cases, and a number of other high-profile murders, will likely reach resolution in 2024.
After years of searching for answers, of waiting out the judicial process, there will be lengthy trials, verdicts, inquest findings or appeal judgments and the community, and most importantly the families of those killed, will get definitive answers.
These are the biggest cases of 2024.
The case: R v Brett Andrew Button
When a bus full of wedding guests lost control and overturned in the Hunter Valley in June the crash claimed the lives of 10 people and injured 25 others in one of the country's worst road accidents.
And the question on everyone's mind was how did this tragedy happen.
But details started to emerge about what happened in the moments before the crash, including survivors telling police Mr Button had allegedly taken the roundabout too quickly, had told passengers "fasten your seat belts" and "if you think that was fast ... watch this" before he lost control and the bus tipped over on Wine Country Drive near the Hunter Expressway off ramp at Greta.
Since then Mr Button's case has been mentioned almost weekly in Newcastle Local Court as prosecutors seek to subpoena his medical and employment records and defence solicitors applied to extend an order banning publication of his address due to safety concerns.
Mr Button has been excused from attending on each of those occasions, but at some point in 2024, after the charges are finalised and negotiations have taken place, he will have to come to court and enter pleas of guilty or not guilty.
Regardless of his plea, the matter will be finalised in NSW District Court, likely sometime in 2025.
The case: Inquest into the disappearance and suspected death of Zac Barnes
After more than seven years of waiting, it's hoped 2024 could bring some answers for the family of missing man Zac Barnes.
The apprentice bricklayer was last seen getting out of a friend's car near the intersection of Haussman Drive and Tripp Close at Thornton about 8pm on November 13, 2016.
A three-day coronial inquest was held in Sydney in July and focused on Zac's movements and behaviour that day, what was happening in his life around that time and the police response to his disappearance.
Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes has heard evidence and submissions but is yet to make formal findings about whether Zac is dead and, if so, how he died, as well as offer any recommendations.
The case: R v Elijah Cage, R v Max Vincent Lowcock, R v Tyson George Stamp
Tanilba Bay drug dealer David King drove to Salt Ash on the afternoon of August 29, 2021 to supply someone with half an ounce of methamphetamine.
But when the man who organised the drug deal allegedly tried to rob the 45-year-old, King sped away and was shot in the neck and head with a shotgun, his car careering into a tree.
Detectives say the men in the car during the failed drug transaction were Elijah Cage and Max Vincent Lowcock, while another associate, Tyson George Stamp, was waiting nearby in a rented Hyundai Santa Fe.
The two men then got out of Mr King's car and allegedly kidnapped a woman who witnessed the shooting, dragging her into the Santa Fe.
The group drove to a house at Raymond Terrace and changed vehicles, while Mr Stamp allegedly drove the hire car to Heatherbrae where it was set alight.
All three men have pleaded not guilty to murder and a trial beginning in Newcastle Supreme Court in late January is expected to focus on what happened in the car in those few moments before King was shot and who knew of the plot to rob him.
The case: R v Michael Thomas Rae
An argument over a drug debt inside a Cooks Hill unit full of people is alleged to be the catalyst for the murder of Wesley Prentice.
It was a bit after midday on July 22, 2021 when Mr Prentice, a 40-year-old from Rutherford, walked into the unit in Darby Street and was allegedly confronted about a drug debt he owed to 38-year-old Michael Thomas Rae.
Detectives allege Mr Prentice and Mr Rae were in a bedroom of the house, but moved into the loungeroom where they got into a "physical scuffle" and Mr Rae shot Mr Prentice once in the chest at close range.
Mr Rae and a woman then allegedly fled the unit and were seen getting into a car.
Mr Rae was arrested 10 days later at a coastal town 20 kilometres north of Port Macquarie and charged with murder.
He has pleaded not guilty and will face a trial in Newcastle Supreme Court in April.
The case: R v Dalton Trent Oliver
What started as a house fire evolved into a murder investigation after the body of Stockton man Graham Cameron was found suffering a number of stab wounds.
It was about 5am on July 26, 2021 when emergency services were called to Mr Cameron's one-bedroom unit in Fullerton Street after reports of a fire.
Firefighters arrived to find the unit was well alight and later determined the blaze had been deliberately lit.
After a 15-month investigation, police arrested Dalton Trent Oliver, 23, and charged him with murder and intentionally damaging property by fire in company.
Mr Oliver pleaded not guilty to both charges last year and will face a trial in Newcastle Supreme Court in June.
The case: Sayle Kenneth Newson v R
Convicted of murdering Carly McBride and jailed for a maximum of 27 years, Sayle Kenneth Newson's last hope of being exonerated lies in the hands of three judges on the Court of Criminal Appeal.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the three-judge panel reserved their decision until the new year and a ruling could be handed down as early as next month.
It was a circumstantial case, but the jury were ultimately left with no doubt that Newson was the person who intercepted Ms McBride, 31, after she left a house at Muswellbrook on September 30, 2014, and inflicted a number of blows to her head and back before dumping her body near the side of a lonely stretch of road outside Scone.
Ms McBride's skeletal remains were not found until August, 2016.
The CCA could either dismiss the appeal, leaving Newson to serve the rest of his maximum 27-year jail term, quash the conviction or order a re-trial.
Newson's mate, James Anthony Cunneen, who was found guilty of covering up her murder, has also appealed against his conviction and is awaiting a decision.
The case: Jordan Brodie Miller v R
It was a tragic case that made no sense; a young man with no criminal record or history of domestic violence strangles his girlfriend to death.
Jordan Brodie Miller was in 2022 found guilty of murder after a jury found the psychosis he was suffering at the time of killing 18-year-old Emerald Wardle was caused solely by using LSD and cannabis.
There was no dispute it was Miller who killed Ms Wardle; he confessed that night, telling police he thought his girlfriend was a "demon" who was "sucking the life out of him."
But Miller pleaded not guilty to murder and raised a defence of mental health impairment, with the trial focusing on his mental state around the time of the killing and what caused him to be in a "psychotic state".
Miller's lawyers have since lodged an appeal against his conviction and plan to call fresh psychiatric evidence during a hearing in the Court of Criminal Appeal in April.
A crucial issue during the trial was whether Miller's psychotic episode was "temporary" and related to his use of drugs.
But by the time the appeal is heard in April, nearly four years will have passed since Ms Wardle's death and an assessment of Miller's ongoing mental health could play a role in determining the cause of his psychosis on the night of the killing.
