A MAN accused of the murder of
a missing 33-year-old from Maryborough has been
arrested in suburban Warwick, police have
confirmed.
Homicide detectives from Brisbane swooped on an
undisclosed residential address in Glennie
Heights late on Thursday afternoon after
receiving information on the whereabouts of
41-year-old Graeme Kenneth Wright.
Wright appeared in the Brisbane
Magistrates Court yesterday and has been
formally charged with the murder of Noel Allan
Clark (pictured) who has been missing
for five months. Mr Clark’s body is yet to be
located.
A Police Media spokeswoman yesterday
declined to release further details of Wright’s
arrest as he was now before the courts but it is
understood he had been living with friends in
Glennie Heights for several months.
Wright appeared briefly in court yesterday
and was remanded in custody to appear again on
January 18, with the matter likely to be shifted
to Maryborough.
Mr Clark was last seen at a Maryborough
Centrelink office on May 25 and in the town of
Murgon earlier that day.
Relatives reported him missing to police
in July.
Information received from the public after
a major appeal led Gympie police late last week
to a rest stop on Steve Irwin Way at
Landsborough, where it was believed Mr Clark’s
abandoned 1994 blue Ford Fairmont sedan had been
spotted.
The car was not able to be located.
Mr Clark’s relatives
were yesterday upset Maryborough police had not
informed the family immediately after Wright’s
arrest, but told the Fraser Coast Chronicle
the development was a welcome step forward.
“It’s pretty devastating,”
uncle Iain Cronk said.
“But it’s relieving to know that someone’s
been charged.
“I guess the next step would be locating
Noel’s body – we’d rather not bury an empty
casket.”
Mr Cronk said the family had been “doing
it tough” during the investigation and Mr
Clark’s mother was “shattered but also relieved”
when she was informed yesterday morning that
police had made an arrest.
A person connected with the Maryborough
drug industry told the Fraser Coast
Chronicle in early September she believed
Mr Clark had been murdered.
Neighbours said Mr Clark may have
attracted trouble but that he was a quiet man
who kept to himself, living in a house owned by
his father.
Glennie Heights locals who spoke to the
Daily News yesterday were shocked to
hear an accused killer had been in their midst
in recent months but were unaware of the police
activity on Thursday.
AS the Daily News went to print
last night, Police Media confirmed officers will
travel to Armidale in New South Wales to seek
the extradition of a Maryborough woman also
charged with the murder of Noel Allan Clark.
The woman, 30, was arrested on Thursday
night by virtue of a Queensland arrest warrant
and is due to appear in the Armidale Magistrates
Court on Monday, charged with murder and
interfering with a corpse.
Information to Crime
Stoppers on 1800 333 000.