The Evidence in the Shandee Blackburn Case | Coffee & Crime AU
In the early hours of 9 February 2013, 23-year-old Shandee Blackburn was almost home. She had finished work at Harrup Park Country Club in Mackay and was walking towards her mother’s home when she was attacked. From the beginning, investigators had CCTV, witness evidence, vehicle movements and forensic samples. Years later, questions about how some of that forensic evidence had been tested would become part of something much bigger.
The final walk
CCTV captured fragments of Shandee’s journey rather than one continuous recording. Those recordings helped reconstruct her route and also captured a white Toyota Hilux-type vehicle moving through nearby streets. At the 2020 inquest, the coroner made findings about the identity and movements of that vehicle. Those are coronial findings and must be distinguished from the 2017 criminal trial, where John Peros was acquitted.
The witnesses
A taxi driver travelling through the area saw Shandee struggling with another person near the kerb. His view was brief and occurred at night while his taxi was moving. Witness evidence helped reconstruct the sequence of events, but it could not by itself identify the person responsible beyond reasonable doubt.
The missing handbag
Shandee left work carrying a white handbag. Her phone was found near the scene, but the handbag was never located. The taxi driver initially thought the struggle might involve a handbag, although the coronial material makes clear that the brief sighting did not establish robbery as the motive. The disappearance of the handbag remains one part of the evidence, not an answer to why Shandee was attacked.
The DNA evidence
Forensic samples collected during the investigation were submitted for DNA testing. Yet no DNA evidence linked John Peros to Shandee’s murder, and even some samples that appeared likely to contain blood failed to return useful DNA results. That absence became important at his trial and later drew intense scrutiny.
In 2022, the Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing in Queensland examined wider practices within the state-run laboratory. Shandee’s case played a pivotal role in exposing problems within that system and was specifically examined by the Commission. The final report made 123 recommendations, all accepted by the Queensland Government.
The trial
John Peros, Shandee’s former boyfriend, was charged with her murder in 2014. He pleaded not guilty. In 2017, after a 12-day Supreme Court trial, a jury found him not guilty. That acquittal remains an essential part of the legal history of the case.
The coronial findings
Shandee’s death was later examined at a coronial inquest. In 2020, Coroner David O’Connell made findings about the circumstances of Shandee’s death and found that she died during an incident involving violence with John Peros. The coroner expressly noted that an inquest is not a criminal trial and that his findings were not a statement that Peros was guilty of an offence. Peros has maintained his innocence.
The case that reached beyond Shandee
Questions raised by the forensic evidence in Shandee’s case became part of a much broader examination of Queensland’s DNA testing system. Her case ultimately exposed concerns reaching far beyond one investigation. At the centre of all of it, though, is Shandee: a 23-year-old woman who finished work, began walking home and never made it through the front door.
