Excavator used to find evidence in drug trafficking case linked to McCulkin murders

Police have executed another warrant on a Queensland property that was searched last week as part of the investigation into the cold case murder of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters.

Detectives from the Warwick Criminal Investigation Branch joined officers from the Homicide Cold Case Unit and drug investigators to search the rural property near Warwick.

Detective Inspector Mick Dowie said tip-offs from the public had resulted in police using an excavator to unearth a container buried on the property.

“As a result of fresh information received from the public we have returned to the property to inspect a suspicious site and located a buried shipping container,” Insp. Dowie said.

Officers with the Serious Crime Illicit Laboratories Investigation Team (ILIT) are examining the contents of the container for further evidence of drug trafficking.

Investigators discovered around $500,000 in cash and three metal drums filled with cannabis during their initial search of the property.

The drugs and money were found when police searched the property as part of an investigation into the 1974 murder of Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki and Leanne.

Warwick resident Vincent O’Dempsey was charged with murdering the women after a 1980 coronial inquest, however the case was dropped a year later.

Mr O’Dempsey’s long-time associate Thomas Edward Martin, 66, was arrested last week on drug trafficking charges as a result of the police search.