Sharon Ferguson says she is “not trying to stir anyone up” with her petition to the Queensland Parliament for a coronial inquest into the 2012 disappearance of 48-year-old Bruce Schuler on Cape York’s Palmerville Station, for which her sister Dianne Wilson-Struber (pictured) is currently serving a life sentence for murder. Photo: Supplied.
The sister of the woman convicted of the 2012 murder of Bruce Schuler in a remote part of southern Cape York is petitioning the Queensland Parliament for a coronial inquest into the disappearance of the gold prospector.
Mr Schuler, 48, was last seen on Palmerville Station, about 70 kilometres south-west of Laura, on 9 July 2012 while searching for gold with fellow prospectors Daniel Bidner, Tremain Anderson and Kevin Groth.
The leaseholders of the 134,000-hectare property, Stephen Struber and his wife, Dianne Wilson-Struber, were arrested and charged with the prospector’s murder days after his disappearance, but were released after a “forensic examination did not reveal any evidence of interest to police”.
On 30 October 2012, the pair was rearrested and charged with the murder of Mr Schuler and misconduct of a corpse, despite the missing man’s body having never been found.
Nearly three years later, on 24 July 2015, Mr Struber and Ms Wilson-Struber were convicted in the Supreme Court of Queensland in Cairns and both sentenced to life imprisonment.
One of Ms Wilson-Struber’s four sisters, Mareeba resident Sharon Ferguson, said she had started the online petition – for which she hopes to garner 10,000 signatures – because she believed there were too many questions about the disappearance, the prosecution of her sister and brother-in-law, and a subsequent 2016 non-coronial inquest.
“I don’t accept the coroner’s report,” she said.
“She (Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson) said he (Mr Schuler) died of a shotgun wound, but there wasn’t even a shotgun involved, plus, I think she just went off the court findings.
“I’m not trying to stir anyone up, but I thought this can’t hurt, because we all want answers to what happened to Bruce, and I hope it can get some closure for them (Mr Schuler’s family) and bring him home, and for us as well – it must be hell on earth for them.”
In her findings, Coroner Wilson said Mr Schuler was “likely to have died from shotgun wounds inflicted by Stephen Struber and/or Dianne Rose Wilson-Struber” and “likely to have died at Palmerville Station”, “likely … on 9 July 2012”.
“The precise circumstances of his death are unknown,” the report reads.
Ms Ferguson told Cape York Weekly she believed the only way to provide closure for those involved was for the State Government to approve a coronial inquest nearly 13 years after Mr Schuler’s disappearance.
“To me, I don’t know too much about the law, but I thought their job was to find the truth, and a lot of stuff just didn’t add up,” she said.
“I believe in my sister’s innocence and I’m just trying for whatever I can, and I want to know what happened, and I’m sure the Schulers, I don’t know them, but I’m sure they would want to know as well.”
Cape York Weekly reached out to Mr Schuler’s wife, Fiona Splitt, who did not respond to inquiries about whether she supported the petition.
Former detective and the podcaster behind Where is Bruce Schuler, Graeme Crowley, echoed Ms Ferguson’s sentiment about the need for a coronial inquest and criticised the convictions of the former Palmerville Station leaseholders.
“I’ve got very great concerns, grave concerns, about these convictions; I think there is a problem with these convictions,” he said.
“I don’t think they were honest or fair convictions, based on the research I’ve done.”
Queensland residents can sign the petition by going to Queensland Parliament ePetition website.
Ms Wilson-Struber and her husband, Stephen Struber, were convicted in 2015 of the murder of gold prospector Bruce Schuler (pictured) on Palmerville Station in 2012. Photo: Australian Missing Person Register.
