Queensland police say Sharron Phillips was killed by a taxi driver. Source: 7 News
Queensland police believe they have finally settled one of Australia's coldest cases - 30 years after the brutal murder was committed.
Police say they are confident that a taxi driver, who died 15 years ago, murdered young Ipswich woman Sharron Phillips in 1986.
If Raymond Peter Mulvihill was alive today, he would be charged with the 20-year-old's murder, detectives said on Friday.
Police officers excavating a storm water drain and surrounding creek at Carole Park, west of Brisbane, search for remains of Sharron Phillips. Photo / AAP
Mulvihill died in 2002. He drove a cab that was based at the back of a Wacol convenience store where Ms Phillips made a phone call after her car ran out of petrol on the night of May 9, 1986.
Police said they are confident Mulvihill killed her, after detectives received specific information from an informant in May last year.
Detective Inspector Damien Hansen says police are keeping an open mind and will consider whether Mulvihill may have had an accomplice, but he said there was no evidence to support that at this stage.
He said a person came forward in May last year, and gave homicide detectives specific information about the murder of Ms Phillips.
The man, believed to be the son of Mulvhill, told police he thought his father was responsible for Phillips' death.
In an interview with Nine News, the son said his father was supposed to drop his taxi at the same spot Ms Phillips made her call from.
He said he saw the taxi parked suspiciously down a dirt lane and his father's behaviour was erratic.
"He said, 'Wait here and keep an eye out for police', and then he reversed by car around to the back," he told Nine.
The man also saw Sharron tied up and gagged with tape in the boot of the taxi, The Courier Mail reported.
He watched as his father pulled her from the boot and walked her to the other car.
The father didn't want to speak about what was going on, and told him not to worry.
"He didn't really acknowledge me, he just turned up the stereo and kept driving," he said.
As soon as they were home, the son got out and drove off somewhere alone.
Police officers excavating a storm water drain and surrounding creek. Photo / AAP
It prompted a search of council-owned industrial land at Carole Park, a suburb of Ipswich, but soil taken from two drains failed to find any trace of human remains.
Detective Inspector Hansen told reporters there was nothing to suggest Ms Phillips' father, Bob, who died in 2015, was involved in his daughter's death.
