DETECTIVES have arrested the former boyfriend of alleged murder victim Carly McBride – a breakthrough in the two-and-a-half-year investigation into the Lake Macquarie mother’s death.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And police will visit Lithgow Correctional Centre later this week to make an arrest of a second man.
In a press conference on Monday afternoon, police revealed they had arrested a 39-year-old Buff Point man who had been in a short relationship with Ms McBride in the lead-up to her disappearance on September 30, 2014.
The Newcastle Herald has previously reported that Sayle Kenneth Newson had been in a short relationship with Ms McBride before her death.
Police revealed that a post-mortem had concluded that Ms McBride died of a blunt force trauma, and a “significant“ part of the prosecution’s case was that the man in custody told them he was a Muai Thai champion with “20 wins and no losses”.
“That man will be charged with the murder of Carly McBride,” Hunter Valley Superintendent Steve Clarke told reporters at Wyong police station.
“Further to that, there will be another arrest later this week, where investigators will go to the Lithgow area, where a man will be charged with her murder.”
Police will allege the pair were parties to a joint criminal enterprise to murder Ms McBride.
Asked about the actions of the accused in the aftermath of Ms McBride’s disappearance, including appeals for help on Facebook and a reward offered for information, Superintendent Clarke replied: “Certainly, there will be information, including information in relation to Facebook posts, that investigators will present as part of their evidence … because of the fact he was proactive in the early part of this investigation.”
The Herald reported in 2014 that Newson was “fearing the worst” in the wake of Ms McBride’s disappearance.
“I believe she is dead, but I need the truth,” he told the newspaper at the time.
Ms McBride’s remains were found in August last year in roadside scrub at Owens Gap on the outskirts of Scone – about 50km from where she was last seen in Muswellbrook.
The Belmont woman had been visiting one of her children at the Calgaroo Avenue house of ex-partner Andrew Easton.
She was reported missing soon after by Newson.
On Monday morning, detectives arrested Newson at San Remo on the Central Coast in connection with the murder.
Detectives also searched the man’s home in nearby Buff Point.
Police investigations continue.
MURDER INVESTIGATION – AUGUST 2016
A TIP-off led police to the remains of missing mother-of-two Carly McBride and blown the murder investigation wide open.
Hunter Valley local area commander Superintendent Guy Guiana told a press conference on that detectives were keeping the exact information about the tip-off “under wraps” as they continued to evaluate the evidence from the crime scene.
Carly’s skeletal remains were discovered in some bushland west of Scone, nearly two years after she disappeared while in Muswellbrook to visit one of her children.
“It has taken us two years to get this breakthrough and we have a fairly vast volume of fresh evidence that we need to evaluate and until we have done that in a thorough fashion,’’ he said.
Superintendent Guiana later added: “A range of new evidence we have taken from the scene that will certainly strengthen the investigation.
“...we have put a lot of work into this in the past two years, the team here is pretty keen to solve this for Carly’s family and we have got so much new evidence now that it is going to take a lot of work but we are well into it.’’
