Two chilling theories have emerged 14 years after a young apprentice tradie was found dead on the side of a road after a night out in a popular resort town.
A reward of $1million has been offered for information that helps catch Joshua Warneke’s killer.
The body of Mr Warneke, 21, was discovered on Old Broome Road, in Broome in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, on February 26, 2010, shortly after he had left a nightclub.
He had a black mark on his arm.
As an inquest into his final moments began this week, taxi driver Philip Nordfelt denied that he bumped the tradie with his car in a McDonald’s car park 30 minutes before Mr Warneke was found dead.
The second theory is that the young tradie was murdered with a sharp weapon.
The inquest also heard on Tuesday that the crime scene may have been unintentionally contaminated, The West Australian reported.
Mr Nordfelt, who was one of the last people to see Mr Warneke alive, said he ‘definitely did not touch him’.
It’s been 14 years since Josh Warneke was found dead on the side of a road after a night out
The young tradie was captured on CCTV in a McDonald’s car park 30 minutes before he was found dead
He also said he could not remember a passenger in his taxi saying ‘please don’t hit him’.
‘I’m positive that I didn’t,’ Mr Nordfelt told journalists outside the Coroner’s Court after his testimony was finished, the ABC reported.
‘I know that my vehicle came within a foot of him, but I never touched him.’
The black mark on Mr Warneke’s arm has led to the hit-and-run theory that he could have been hit by a car earlier in the night.
But Linley Cilia, the ambulance officer who was first on scene, told the inquest that she saw no evidence of a hit-and-run.
Ms Cilia told the inquest she had attended hundreds of scenes involving people hit by a car, but in this case, did not see the telltale tyre marks that would be caused by heavy braking, or ‘shrapnel or anything like that’.
An inquest into Josh Warneke’s death began in Broome this week
The police later allowed her to place a white sheet over Mr Warneke’s body to preserve his dignity in death.
In response, his mother Ingrid Bishop said: ‘I’m hoping that there was no contamination of the forensic evidence at the scene because obviously it’s extremely important.’
Ms Cilia was quizzed as to whether the scene had been interfered with.
‘No we were told it’s been treated as a crime scene and to try to preserve it as intact as possible,’ she told the inquest
She also recalled seeing a taxi driver and passengers who were ‘very shaken’ by the scene.
The hearing also heard testimony from friends and other witnesses who were in the Bungalow Bar in Broome on the night of Mr Warneke’s death.
The witnesses said he had been in a good mood and did not appear to be affected by alcohol that night.
The inquest will continue in Broome on Wednesday before it resumes in Perth next week
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