Was he murdered for his $15 Million Fortune? | Murder of Peter Shellard | Murder Calls

our phones are now the center of our Lives they track our every move our every call Poli emergency and for police they have become the key to solving crimes this series is about the unique calls that cracked open Australia's most shocking murder cases it's taking a Sinister turn Voices From Beyond the Grave he's got blood everywhere calls you've never heard before think you might have been shot the amazing stories of how today's telephone calls brought Australia's most horrific murderers to Justice it's horrible police and Emergency Services my God it's blood everywhere blood everywhere is that correct this call would trigger an extraordinary murder investigation involving bondage there were things like handcuffs present revenge and greed he said there's money missing from his account tonight the brutal killing of Peter shellard he sounded scared a wealthy businessman adored by his family and friends he was just outrageous with a very eccentric streak it probably isn't really a sensible thing to do a bizarre case that had more questions than answers some aspects were certainly suggestive of sexual activity Plus for the first time tonight you'll hear the phone calls they probably tortured Peter that led to the solving of the case I'll kill them with my hand and I'll make those bastards suck [Music] Saturday the 7th of May 2005 and Shirley Withers arrived home at the house she shared most nights with her boyfriend of four years Peter shellard surely boards him takeway and go straight to Peter's house puts a takeaway in the kitchen and goes looking for Peter she finds the bludgeon body of Peter shellard in the bedroom she rang triaa it was a distraught call reporting the discovery of this gruesome finding of the death of her partner police and Emergency Services my God on my partner he CAU up on the FL there's blood everywhere blood everywhere is that [Music] correct police were called to the north corfield property shortly before 7:00 last night the body of Peter shellard was discovered by his partner who is believed to have been living with the millionaire for some time within minutes the police and the forensic pathologist had arrived D the crime scene was not just startling but puzzling It's The Old Situation of the crime got to tell Story how do you interpret that crime scene his body was in one of the bedrooms he was wearing box of shorts it was a blood soaked pillowcase near to the body and he was tied up with some rope there were Ties on the body leather straps things like that some aspects were was certainly suggestive of some sort of sexual activity others did not seem to be connected with sexual activity for example when we started to uncover the body we could see that there were some injuries To The Head And also some injuries to the arms so it's very difficult to infer exactly what was going on so you need to learn a lot more about the background of the deceased which might then add to what you're finding at that particular crime scene why would someone want to kill this person 56-year-old Peter shellard was a multi-millionaire he was worth over $15 million from dealing in real estate and new and used Rolls-Royce Motorcars and parts he loved money and making money and saving money even though divorced Liz shellard still has a soft spot for her first husband I'm at when I was 28 and he was 38 I was attracted to Peter's sense of humor and his twinkly blue eyes he was just outrageous some of the stories and some of the things he did because normally you expect people with wealth to behave in a conservative Manner and he was far from conservative so he loved Breaking All the Rules he was a character and he was always up to Mischief of sorts he had a letterhead sort of the scales of Justice on the top of the letterhead and it had the public defender and uh he would use these letterheads to take on the bureaucracy from anyone's point of view the hilarious except if you're involved in them dragging people into court or just simply stirring the pot was a bit of a game for Peter Peter Shad was an eccentric person to put it in mild terms um he rubbed people up the wrong way most of it had to do with his Heritage listed Mansion Rose kraic it was built in 1857 in the exclusive Melbourne suburb of North corfield it was Prime real estate a very prosperous area of melbour and Peter burnt the historic Garden to the ground when the fire brigade arrived Peter wasn't happy they started up their hoses and next minute Peter attacked the hoses with the chaina I was charged with it and I paid for the houses it probably uh isn't really a sensible thing to do but in the SP of the moment one you're a bit excited we one uh gets uh a little uh little excited Peter suffered from bipolar which is just like severe mood swings really when he was high he was very energetic and you know he'd get the tractor out at 3:00 in the morning and start turning up the S ready to F potatoes or something and then if he was depressed he'd need a lot of sleep and then there was a brief period in between where he' beig quite normal Peter also put up a wired fence brought into shipping containers for his Rolls-Royce and kept chickens his neighbors having no idea about his bipolar disorder well it looks like a concentration camp if you want my opinion I've had more complaints about this property than any other property in the har corfield I've had um an injunction taken out against him because he put a load of manure here and when I opened the door he screamed something about elephant [ __ ] so basically it was a lot of people didn't like Peter Shard I think he did it for entertainment he enjoyed it like some people go out and have a game of tennis with their friends or some people go off to the football he'd love to get involved in a tussle the question was whether it had killed him detectives also discovered Peter enjoyed being tied up well the first I knew about Peter's interest in bondage was he told me that he met a guy uh who' introduced him to um a club called the hellfire club now with Peter he always embraced things full on he was going every second night or you know he was going a lot he became very interested in it but for a very short time as a joke one time they invited a lot of these company directors and so on to his 50th birthday and when they got to the address it was some bondage club but another another total joke by Shad but amongst the last Peter also saw a business opportunity he wanted to start up his own club so he was um approaching the staff at the hellfire club and trying to poach them for his own club so it wasn't just an interest it was always well I can make money out of this and do my own one and do it better so within a few short hours of Peter's horrific murder detectives had many leads to follow including looking closer to home Peter shellard had two Ex-Wives and three daughters who adored their father and were devastating Ed by his death in the last 4 years he had shared his life with Shirley Withers the 38-year-old divorce found Peter murdered and rang the police my partner he's tied up on the Flo is blood everywhere what's your [Music] name looking any investigation the person finds a body automatically becomes a person of interest surely wasn't until we're satisfied that that particular person is not associated with the crime because there's been many of crime that I've been involved in where clearly the partner has set up a scene to look like a burglar gone wrong Shirley was nearly 20 years younger than Peter when they met they immediately hit it off and Liz who still cared for her ex-husband was delighted for them both Shirley seemed to share Peter's interests in the car business in the clients even in the car parts she seemed to be making the perfect soulmate for him she seemed to be genuinely interested in anything and everything Peter was interested in he said I've been going for all these other girls but you know I'm now learned my lesson I know they don't have to be perfect at all they just be like Shirley lovely girl she wasn't very good-looking either she was quite the opposite Shirley came across as being very much a Momsy type and when Peter was having access with the children I felt that my children were going to be well cared for when they were with Shirley you know I was delighted that they thought of her as a second mom Shirley became Peter's bookkeeper but her main love was running a fashion boutique in the upmarket suburb of Brighton she had no prior experience but it didn't matter Peter Still financed it that was her fantasy and she got it of Peter she loved to dress up and so she'd always adorned something in her hair her um dress sense was um individual to be polite so that was reflected in the choice of garments in the shop they were very idiosyncratic and plus very expensive not only did Peter fulfill his girlfriend's dream but he was so smitten with her he also bought her a house and the two became Inseparable we were fairly close we were in touch regularly most nights of the week about 7 7:30 he'd ring me or I'd ring him have chat but when he hooked up with Shirley as happens with couples all of a sudden I didn't see so much of him he seemed to have a dependency on Shirley and I often said why why would you need her in your life even but you've got to respect that's his choice as well as Shirley being a person of interest police had doved into Peter's neighborhood and Council disputes I think he stinks why do you say that a well you only got to ask any of the neighbors and I'll tell you but the idea of someone's irritation turning to murder was quickly dismissed you know there were people that didn't like him but there's a difference between not liking someone and absolutely hating and wanting someone dead but what aroused the detective's attention was the fact that Peter had been found tied up and there was bondage gear nearby I was aware that Peter was into a former bondage only on the basis that I went to his house a lot I saw the bondage equipment and I used to ask Peter about and he just said oh don't worry about that very strange at the autopsy defensive bruises were found on Peter's body suggesting he had put up a fight we also found significant injuries to the head which we know would be caused by a blunt instrument and there was bleeding around the brain which indicates the force was significant that can of itself cause death then there were the ropes but none of these were tight most of the um cord and rope type material was Loosely sort almost draped over the body so the thought of a sexual encounter gone too far was ruled out but who had staged it and what was the motive given Peter's wealth an obvious form of inquiry the investigators would have taken would be look at his will who's going to benefit Peter's will was clear he had left the bulk of his massive estate to his three daughters and a token dollar to each of his Ex-Wives I think he'd even told me that he was leaving me a dollar so you know it was sort of a bit of a tongue and cheek thing to do that it it was an old joke sort of that I saw it as so neither the two Ex-Wives or Peter's new partner benefited from Peter being dead in fact Shirley was a witness to Peter's will but according to Shirley there was another will that left everything to her and she turned up to Rose kraic to find it she made a demand of the investigators at the time that she wanted to go into the crime Center in the house the investigators was still in control of the house and hadn't handed the house over to the next of kin she declares to the investigators that she wants to look into the safe to see if there's a second will the next day in a recorded conversation police heard Shirley discussing the matter with Peter's friend Dale yeah they won't let me in they said to me that it's a matter of course whether this is your house or not well when shy called me she was saying to me that she couldn't get in there I couldn't go go near the property but the police actually did let her in that day they didn't just say yes go in one of the investigators went with her his last will left mainly everything to his eldest daughter no no I Ted it all again no because if there was a second will and that would have opened up a whole new Avenue of inquiry I went in there and they didn't even know how to open the safe so I got the key to the safe and opened it but unfortunately it's not in there there was no will the I just don't know where it is I thought he put it in the safe Shirley had typ the will on Peter's computer but the signed original was nowhere to be found so I mean an I'm will isn't it if Shirley could find it she stood to inherit a fortune but it would also put her well and truly into the police spotlight I've had enough the whole thing is got to absurd degrees now if any of your viewers want it they can just come and take it 56-year-old Peter shellard had been murdered and while the multi-millionaire had a fetish for leather and whips the crime scene and autopsy suggested the bondage gear was a ruse to look like a sexual encounter gone wrong so the initial examination revealed the head injury and some natural heart disease which could have acted together to cause his death but then a phone call came through from the toxicologist that changed that finding we found morphine in the victim's blood and there's heroin in his urine the heroin was a real surprise this individual had recently had heroin now this was really important information because the levels found was certainly capable of contributing to his death so I rang the police and informed them of that heroin was in Peter's system but what the history of Peter showed was that Peter was not a drug user he was not a heroin user when I heard that there was heroin in the system that he' been injected with Heroin I knew it was murder wasn't something he would do the only drugs Peter took were for his bipolar disorder to help stabilize his enormous mood swings but in a phone conversation 5 days days after the murder and with the police still listening in Peter's girlfriend Shirley was claiming she was making all the difference you know he haven't started litigation against anyone for over 2 years he's just been person now L litigation day sort of died when you came on the scene yeah Peter did not want to take his medication and that's another reason why he wanted her around I don't think a normal girl would have put with all these mountains he was a little bit unwell he went through a period about a month ago of accusing me of doing this and of doing that in fact a month before Peter was killed he had rung his ex-wife out of the blue I got a call from Peter and he sounded scared fearing for his life so we discussed who might be his enemy he asked if I thought it was Shirley and I said no so I didn't think it was Shirley Shirley believed their 4-year relationship was so strong that Peter had in fact changed his will a year before he died to leave her everything and his daughter's penniless so he loved me and I loved him everything was working out beautifully not leaving anything to his children totally out of character for Peter because he would look after his children to the in degree he wouldn't let them go without apart from searching out the truth about the two Wills police had also begun to look at Peter's telephone records and they noticed a spike of calls he had made just before he had been murdered Peter called me and he said he wrote a check out for $250,000 deposit on a property and that check bounced he rang me and then he told me that 70,000 was missing and he said oh surely has knocked off $150,000 he said there's money missing from his account and he said I suspect Shirley's been stealing from me but when Peter told me that I wondered to myself whether that was bipolar talking to me or the real Peter shellard talking to me not long after those phone calls Peter was found dead in his bedroom my God my partner he's H up on the FL his blood everywhere had Shirley deliberately changed the will and was she her lovers killer surely start the firm up as a suspect more than a witness but the crime scene was telling a different story The forensic team had been SC scouring the house for Clues as to who had killed the multi-millionaire and loving father of Three Investigators knew that Shirley had spent time in the house so it's not unusual to find Shirley's DNA or fingerprints there but what frenzy examiners would have been looking for is anything that didn't belong in that crime scene and they were lucky enough to find a blooded fingerprint on the phone whose blood could it be was it Peter's did he stagger out and come back in they know that Shirley used a telephone is it Shirley's fingerprint they also find a cigarette butt Peter wasn't a smoker nor was Shirley so there was every chance that Shirley may not have been involved in her partner's bizarre and brutal murder and the police were looking at someone else well we all thought Shirley did it there's no one else but now the results of the bloody fingerprint and the DNA from the cigarette butt had come back it belongs to Sophia stupas age 31 she has several charges of possession assault petty theft and drink driving the fingerprint and also the cigarette butt certainly thrs a bit of a spinner in the works here you have a lowlevel drug user clearly you know that she wouldn't have been involved in the crime on her own she wouldn't be able to control P at all so she must have had an associate or help of some sort and you find that she's Associated to a fellow called Stan who was also a a lowlevel drug user 42-year-old Stan kinos had numerous drug and Petty criminal charges but he wasn't violent understand he was a bit of a gentle giant no form of violence and experience tells you that a lot of burglars will not stand and fight if they're interrupted in a burglary they're going to take off but in this case Stan and Sophia they've stayed there fought with him and tied him up to what end they've clearly B the ropes in and some electoral cord to restrain him do they want to force him to tell where the money is or where the safe is for example is it an exhaustion gone wrong has it gone beyond what they particularly wanted to do and while heroin was the pair's drug of choice investigators were confused as to why they might have wasted a hit on Peter doesn't fit their method of operation in doing the crimes that have in the past it just didn't make sense what was clear was that Shirley had been stealing money Peter's trusted bookkeeper had also been given the right to co-sign his business checks investigators found out that over a period of 12 months 195 checks were made out clearly by Shirley Shirley made each of those checks out to cash so in a year she walked away from the bank with a whopping $914,000 and she siphon the money into her luxury lifestyle and failing business Shirley's business was some 200,000 Plus in the red and she was using Peter's cards in relation to the business she was overdrawn some $43,000 so we got a bit of an issue there according to Dale Peter hadn't noticed his faithful girlfriend was a fraud until too late because he depended on her way too much she was more or less in control of him nearly she was into the finances she was so good that no one noticed it was going on around Peter and not did Peter when Peter did catch on he visited his bank and solicitor he put a stop on Shirley's signature and was going to sell the house he bought her to recoup losses that was a week before he was killed Peter knew money was being stolen and he was starting to wonder who he fallen in love with she knew once the cat was out of the bag with the balce check and Peter had cancel all the signatures at the bank that she was facing a not very bright future things weren't going well for for Shirley how does she get more money through his second will that may have or may not have existed his last will left mainly everything to his eldest daughter no no I Ted it all again Shirley said the second will was made by Peter and typed by her in 2004 but when police sees the computer it was a different story what surely didn't know was that they can time and date stamp when in fact that entry was made of that will and they found that that Will was in fact made days before Peter's death and the evidence continued to pile up because when detectives looked at Shirley's phone records They head the jackpot it's identified that she in fact has called and been in phone contact day after and day prior to the murder with Stan Stan's Associated to Sophia sopia with a direct link back to the crime scene with that Bloody fingerprint very damning evidence against surley surprisingly the police decided not to arrest the three suspected murderers at that point to go in too early is to show your hand be like playing poker Ro bows investigations into the homicides is methodical there is no time limit you just go along and get every piece of evidence so you can be in the box suat when you interview these people the strategy was to get evidence from one of the best investigative tools of modern day their phones we want to see what these people are talking about that'll either support Shirley's innocence or support her guilt and the guilt of Stan and Sophia we want to see what these people are talking about what's actually been spoken between Shirley and other people and Shirley and Stan in particular but it was an extraordinary phone call police had intercepted between Shirley and Peter's friend Dale that swung the investigation into another Avenue you well when Shirley called me I I said to her first do you know who killed Peter what's your view was on everybody's tongue who killed Peter I've got a really good idea who it is but they not talking to the cops and that's what I want to talk to you about wa is it more than one person yeah they breedy dirty little druggies evidence come comes from her own mouth I know who these offenders are they're dirty little druggies all of a sudden that druggy word comes in and investigators would have known who these dirty druggies were Stan and Sophia they probably tortured Peter to to open the safe and give them all his money no they know Peter didn't have money I'll kill them with my hand and I'll make those bastards suffer here we have a Live recorded threat that she wanted to kill these dirty druggies the revealing phone conversation posed a dilemma for detectives as to whether to bring Shirley in for questioning or not they would have looked at it and said you know what where would it take us we bring her in she says no comment oh it was just half the cuff remark you've declared the telephone intercept to her as you would have to the would be exposed to her and you've achieved nothing so what do the investigators do technically they look at a tactic of introducing an undercover operative 2 and 1 half weeks after Peter was brutally murdered the police took a gamble the undercover officer known as Victor made a call to Shirley saying he heard that she had a problem that needed to be fixed and Shirley agreed to meet it is a very delicate position to be in but it's a tactic that either is going to identify to what extent Shirley has played in The Killing of Peter shellard and to what extent is she serious about killing these dirty druggies in their very first meeting it was clear what Shirley wanted the undercover operty have said to Shirley what do you want do you want them hurt put in hospital and their response was I want them dead and people might ask well why would surely want to kill Saia and Stan in my experience drug users would pretty much sell their mother out they are the weak link for Shirley that's why they need to be removed cuz they were surely to kill his heel hence the threat to kill them investigators wanted to be able to show Beyond reasonable doubt that Shirley was in the house with Sophia and Stan at the time of the murder and that she played an active role in that Shirley met Victor another three times and gave him two down payments for the murder then on the last meeting when Victor told Shirley he had done the job the woman who Peter trusted with his life spilled the beans and told him that she was there on the night Peter was killed and that was enough for investigators to look at themselves and said you know what guys we've got enough to charge these three offenders and they would have then moved and no one would have been more surprised than Shirley when she got that tap on the shoulder and being told you're under arrest for murder Shirley Stan and Sophia had now been arrested for the murder of Peter shellard but why had two junkies got involved with a woman who seemed to be so removed from their lifestyle the answer was she wasn't investigator speaking to Stan identify he was in fact supplying Shirley with drugs amphetamine at heroin sherle had a substance problem that she had kept secret but it had led her to Dan and Sophia and in the months before Peter's death the trio had become more friendly surely would take Stan and Sophia to the casino she would give them money for them to buy drugs so when Shirley realized that Peter had found out about her systematically stealing his money she knew the pair would be useful and so she gave them her best so story she cockt and boled a story to paint Peter as the bad guy he was the one doing her bad she told them Peter had been forcing her into bondage and was about to sell her house from under her so because Stan and sfia were indebted to the support financially from Shirley they wanted to assist Shirley so late Friday night the 6th of May Shirley rang Stan and the three met at his place the plan was to teach Peter a real lesson about bondage and to get him to sign over the house to Shirley they would do that with rope and a syringe full of heroin Stan and sopia told investigators that they went in there with the view of just tying him up and it did go a plan I think he was lying in his bed she's just jumped on him with a pillow he was putting up a screaming fight Peter put up a hell of a fight and I don't think they believed how strong Peter could have been he's sort of um yelling what do you want the money's over there like um he was pointing at this drawer and we said you know we didn't want any money as they're struggling with Peter Peter has bat sopia's finger Sophia reacted struggling to the head with a blun object of some sort and then they've tied him up I was concentrating on tying the feet what with with the Rope Shirley gave me I said ah is that all right and she goes oh no no no TI him TI him more the three then left Peter in the bedroom and went searching for the paperwork to Shirley's house and then stand saw Shirley going through her handbag and take something out in response to the moaning that was going on in Peter's Room I seen her grab her handbag off the kitchen bench she put her hand in it and I assume she was grabbing the syringe it was the syringe Stan had seen Shirley put in her bag at his place and she was heading for the bedroom she said she was going to shut him up he doesn't see it but he presumes that she then further injects him with that heroin and then the moany had stopped not long after the three left Peter hadn't signed anything but Sophia had left her signature behind in the form of a fingerprint and DNA on a cigarette butt telephone records then show that Shirley has contacted Stan Stan tells investigators that that request was for more heroin and amphetamine and they needed to go back to the house for the second time they then go into the bedroom and Pet's in the same position as they left him Peter was dead the blows to the Head the injection of heroin and a possible heart condition had combined to kill him and then shiry comes up with a brilliant idea she instructs Stan and Sophia to open the window and climb through it to indicate to investigators the burglar gone wrong and then they leave Shirley then goes for work business as usual closes up the shop for that day buy some takeaway and go straight to Peter's [Music] house at 6:50 p.m. she picked up the phone and either in her best Oscar performance or simply because she knew her golden good was in fact dead she made her distraught call to Triple O police an emergency services oh my God my partner he's H up on the pH he BL everywhere when Shirley was finally arrested I was greatly relieved because I wanted to see Justice Done couldn't happen soon enough for me so nearly nearly 2 years on from entering Peta shad's house Stan kinos and Sophia stus pleaded guilty and were convicted for the manslaughter of Peter Shard they were sentenced to a maximum of 6 years in prison and have served their time what's your name Shirley Shirley was it Shirley Withers was convicted of her boyfriend's murder but she appealed arguing that she like her accomplice never intended to kill Peter subsequently the full Supreme Court agreed with her quashed the murder charge and she was subsequently convicted of the manslaughter charge Shirley was given a maximum 13-year sentence with a non-parole period of 9 years she also pleaded guilty and was convicted for the incitement to murder Stan and Soph Shirley is now out of jail having been released on early parole to have this person that I thought was a great mother and soulmate of my first husband to have her turn out to be just a thief and a killer was pretty shocking really I believe the world's a sadder place without Peter he was was highly amusing and good fun and entertaining and he was dearly loved by his family and [Music] missed

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 9,406

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Gangs & Mobs, Stalkers, child crime, cold case, con artists, crime, crime documentary, crime series, disappearances, family crime, ivan milat, murder, podcasts, police, renae marsden, revelle balmain, roger rogerson, serial killer, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series, millionaire, shirley withers, peter shellard, australia, murder calls, millionaire murder, murdered for money

Id: IwClD8x6NL4

Length: 40min 47sec (2447 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 25 2024