Oil, flies alert cops to body in concrete, court told
A fresh layer of oil and a lot of flies helped police discover a plastic-covered, concrete-encased body in a warehouse, a jury has heard.
Joshua Searston, 27, and Dewald De Klerk, 30, have pleaded not guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court to murdering Andrew Walsh, 35, in November 2021.
Walsh’s body was found at the bottom of an oil pit at a Coopers Plains transport depot in Brisbane’s south in February 2022, the court was told.
The Coopers Plains warehouse where Andrew Walsh’s body was found. Credit: Reece D’Alessandro, Nine News
Walsh – known as “Ghost” – was discovered more than a month after his mother reported him missing.
Detective Senior Sergeant Jason Kitto was shown pictures of the transport depot in court on Tuesday, detailing how police were able to find Walsh’s body.
Police removed a grate covering a pit in the depot’s warehouse that had previously been covered by a car on February 19, 2022, the court was told.
“When we took that lid off, it looked like there was a layer of fresh oil over the top,” Kitto told the court.
“So we decided, due to the fresh concrete dust and the splatter around the back … that would be an area of interest to us.”
Contractors dug deep holes into the pit to gauge its depth and confirmed it was new concrete, the jury heard.
