Paul Geoffrey ELLIOTT

 

 

Gender
Male
Build
Medium
Height
180 cm
Hair colour
Brown
Eye colour
Blue
Complexion
Fair
Ancestry
Caucasian

 

Circumstances

Paul Elliott, 41, was last seen at the Mercure Hotel, Levey Street Wolli Creek NSW on 6 December 2008 and has not been seen since. Several men were convicted over his murder but he has never been found. Paul was reportedly disposed of inside a large toolbox, in the ocean off Sydney.

If you have information that may assist police to locate Paul please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via Crimestoppers.com.au.

 

 

Murder charge laid over Elliott disappearance – Strike Force Tuno 2

Wednesday, 18 Feb 2009 11:58am


Detectives investigating the disappearance of a Victorian man, who was last seen alive in Sydney’s south last year have charged a man with murder.

Paul Elliott, 41, was last seen leaving a hotel at Wolli Creek about 4pm on Saturday 6 December 2008.

Detective attached to Strike Force Tuno 2 have established Mr Elliott had travelled by car from Melbourne with his girlfriend and had arrived in Sydney earlier that day.

He left the hotel to attend a meeting and has not been seen since. Mr Elliott’s body is yet to be located.

As a result of ongoing inquiries, detectives charged a 40-year-old man at Burwood Police Station with Elliott’s murder this morning.

He was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Burwood Local Court later today.

This is first person to be charged with murder in relation to the disappearance of Paul Elliott.

A 31-year-old Bellevue Hill man was charged earlier this month with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

As part of the investigation into Mr Elliott’s disappearance, strike force detectives also charged a 31-year-old Waverley man with make and use false instrument.

Detectives have executed a number of search warrants as a part of their investigations into Mr Elliott’s disappearance and subsequent murder.

January 22 – A search warrant was executed at a house in Brighton Le Sands. Police seized a large quantity of cannabis plants and a hydroponic set up. A thorough forensic examination has been carried out at these premises. Police will allege Mr Elliott was killed at that address.

February 11 – Strike Force Tuno 2 Detectives assisted personnel from the NSW Crime Commission to execute warrants at Waverley and Kingsford. At the Kingsford address a quantity of hydroponics equipment was seized. Inquiries are continuing into the discovery of the hydroponic equipment.

February 14 – Detectives executed a search warrant at a Cobargo property, seizing a 6.5 metre boat. Police will allege this boat was used in the disposal of Elliott’s body.

S/F Tuno 2 is a Homicide Squad investigation into seven murders, three suspected murders and two attempt murders between 1993 to 2008 in NSW and Queensland.

Eight men have been charged with more than 40 offences and a large quantity of drugs, firearms, explosives and police equipment have been recovered as a result of inquiries to date.

Inquiries are continuing and further arrests are expected.
 

Two charged over missing Victorian man – Strike Force Tuno 2

Thursday, 12 Feb 2009 05:20am


Detectives investigating the murder of a Victorian man at Wolli Creek, in Sydney’s south, last year have charged two men.

Paul Elliott, 41, was last seen leaving a hotel at Wolli Creek about 4pm on Saturday 6 December 2008.

Detectives attached to Strike Force Tuno 2 have learned Mr Elliot had travelled by car from Melbourne with his girlfriend and had arrived in Sydney earlier that day. He left the hotel to attend a meeting and has not been seen since.

As a result of ongoing inquiries, detectives arrested a 31-year-old Bellevue Hill man in Liverpool Street, Bellevue Hill yesterday afternoon. He was charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Mr Elliott. He was refused bail and is expected to appear in Waverley Local Court today.

A 31-year-old Waverley man was charged with make and use false instrument. He was remanded in custody and is expected to appear in Central Local Court on 17 Fberuary. The charge relates to a fraud offence uncovered during the course of investigations by Strike Force Tuno 2.

Strike Force Tuno 2 is a Homicide Squad investigation into seven murders, three suspected murders and two attempted murders between 1993 to 2008 in both NSW and Queensland.

Inquiries are continuing and detectives are expecting to make further arrests.

 

Dead in the water

It is a Sydney tradition for murderers to take their victims out to sea in a boat and throw them overboard.

Michael Duffy SMH

PAUL ELLIOT was a Melbourne underworld figure, nephew of the notorious criminal Pandelis "Fat George" Karipis and close to the Moran crime family.

In December 2008 he bought a large quantity of methylamphetamine from a Sydney man known as Tong. The meth was no good, so Elliot returned it and then drove to Sydney in a hire car with his girlfriend, Lisa Gibson, to recover his money. Before they left he said to her, "If this doesn't go right, you might not see me again."

The couple booked in to the Mercure Hotel at Wolli Creek, near Sydney Airport, and Elliot took his gun and went out alone to meet Tong in a house at Brighton-le-Sands.

Tong, who didn't have enough money to repay Elliot in full, was anxious and had asked two violent criminals to protect him. One was a hitman, Sean Waygood, who had to decline because of a bicycle accident. The other was Michael Christiansen, who agreed to do it in return for a quantity of methylamphetamine.

The meeting turned nasty and, before Elliot could pull out his weapon,

Christiansen shot him in the chest and then in the head. As so often happens with this sort of crime, the killing was the easy bit. The problems began with the disposal of the body, not least because this meant involving more accomplices. Christiansen turned to a Waverley College old boy Jeremy Postlewaight, with whom he had been friends for years.

Postlewaight borrowed a large trailer boat and drove to Christiansen's house in Annandale, where they met Marcelo Urriola, an old boy of St Pius X College, Chatswood, and Marist Brothers, North Sydney.

He, too, was an old pal of Christiansen's and the two shared an interest in body-building and anabolic steroids. Waygood also turned up but he didn't help much because of his bike accident.

Christiansen boasted, "I did that thing" and mimicked the shape of a gun with his hand. Urriola replied that he had "done good".

Then they went to work. Elliot's body was stuffed into a large toolbox, which the men transferred to the boat. Blood leaked out which Postlewaight cleaned up. Waygood left and the others took the boat to Drummoyne, launched it, and motored out through the Heads. On the way, Christiansen and Urriola threw up – neither was a good sailor – and drilled holes in the toolbox so it would sink. When they reached a spot where the water was some 130 metres deep, Postlewaight stopped and tied an anchor to the toolbox.

He said a prayer "out of respect" – or so a court was later told – and they pushed the toolbox over the side.

Lisa Gibson waited two days and then, not having the car – Christiansen and Urriola had torched it – she flew back to Melbourne, where she said nothing about Elliot's disappearance until the hire-car company got in touch with questions about the burnt-out car.

Most of those involved in the crime and its aftermath are now in prison for various reasons.

Postlewaight and Urriola have been convicted of helping dispose of Elliot's body, with Urriola getting four years and six months non-parole and Postlewaight, who was sentenced this month, six years and six months. Both claimed to have been under the influence of Christiansen, with Postlewaight telling the court he knew his friend had shot people before and "I feared that I would or could be next".

In her judgment Justice Elizabeth Fullerton was sceptical about these claims, but less so in the case of Urriola, who "was apparently in Christiansen's thrall" and had a "misplaced loyalty and reverence".

In August police arrested Tuan Tran and charged him with being the "Tong" who had hired Christiansen. Tran is yet to enter a plea.

Last Monday Christiansen's murder trial was due to begin but at the last minute he pleaded guilty to the murder of Elliot. Waygood was arrested in 2009 at a trendy McMahons Point cafe, and in May was sentenced to 20 years for various offences. They included the shooting of a man in a Sydney bar in 2001, in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. The man survived.

The police had been after Christiansen and Waygood for a long time. Both were the targets of a long-running investigation by the Homicide Squad's Strike Force Tuno 2, which had its origins in the 2001 murder of criminal and police informant Terry Falconer, who was also stuffed into a large toolbox. Unfortunately for Falconer, he was alive at the time, and died inside the box.

Since then Tuno has expanded into an investigation of multiple murders, attempted murders and conspiracies to murder that occurred over a 15-year period, and resulted in a dozen people being charged. More arrests are expected.

Police put a lot of hard work into solving Elliot's murder but they got lucky too, when they searched a storage unit leased by Christiansen and Urriola while looking for drugs. Not only did they find plenty of drugs but also Elliot's bag and wallet.