Michelle BAGGOTT
Michelle BAGGOTT
From the wife of a retired Japanese crime boss to the cousin of a pop singer, these notorious Queensland killers have one secret in common.
Michelle Baggott was killed by estranged husband Kevin in 1998, just hours after dropping her daughter Kara off a school on July 17.
Then-Detective Sergeant Terry Goldsworthy worked on the Baggott case.
“(Kevin) had no reliable alibi and it was decided that he should immediately be tied down to a story,” Mr Goldsworthy wrote in a 2008 Australian Police Journal (APJ).
“It quickly became obvious to detectives that Baggott had been exceedingly busy that morning, in fact almost excessively so.”
Mr Goldsworthy said Kevin initially denied any involvement in Michelle’s death but as the net closed in he made a shocking confession in the back of a police car when he was arrested on July 26, 1998.
“The trip back was uneventful until about 500m from the station, when Baggott seated in the back seat with Sergeant Niland muttered the words, ‘I did it!’,”Mr Goldsworthy wrote.
“For the next few hours I interviewed Baggott at length about the murder of his wife Michelle. His basic story was that he had telephoned Michelle to come over on the pretence to swap their cars at Lavelle Street (which she did). When she arrived Baggott was downstairs under the house and told Michelle to come in under-there through a rear door.
“When she walked into the downstairs part of the premises, she allegedly said to Baggott, ‘You will never see Kara again’, at which point Baggott lost control and punched her once – allegedly a blow to the head killing her instantly.
“He then claimed to have loaded her body into the back of his work truck and then driven to a Nerang River (QLD) boat ramp (he claims at 9am in the morning), he then pushed her body out in the middle of the river in full view of the passing morning traffic and watched Michelle slowly sink from view. She was never seen again.”
The Nerang River was dragged but Michelle’s body was never recovered.
Kevin was later convicted of Michelle’s manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years’ behind bars.
Mr Goldsworthy and then-Detective Sergeant Justin Percival visited Kevin at home in 2017 shortly after he was released from prison.
“The purpose of the trip was to elicit the true whereabouts of the remains of Michelle,” Mr Goldsworthy wrote in the 2008 APJ.
“This was to give some closure to her parents and her daughter Kara.
“After a few moments of idle talk I cut to the chase and asked him to tell me where Michelle was. Despite my best attempts he refused to move from his original version.”