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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/11/six-charged-murder-after-two-bodies-found-in-dam-near-brisbane
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| Six charged with murder after two bodies found in dam near Brisbane | Six charged with murder after two bodies found in dam near Brisbane |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| An aspiring television actor and a mother of seven are among six people facing murder charges after police discovered a metal box believed to contain their alleged victims in a dam south of Brisbane. | |
| Police were yet to open the “large metal box” still submerged in a dam in Kingston in Logan but suspect it contains the bodies of Cory Breton, 28, and Iuliana Triscaru, 31, who have been missing since 24 January. | |
| Superintendent Dave Hutchinson said detectives were still investigating the motives for the killings but suspected they were “drug related”. | |
| The discovery of the box came as six people appeared in Brisbane magistrates court charged with their murder on Thursday. | |
| Among them were Tuhirangi-Thomas Tahiata, 24, from Woodbridge, a sometime actor whose online talent-scouting profile states he has appeared in “international television commercials” for casinos and hotels in Macau. | |
| All six accused were remanded in custody, including mother of seven Ngatokoona Maretti, 36, whose lawyer told reporters outside court she was “shocked” and would fight the charges. | |
| Hutchinson said lengthy forensic examinations of the location around the metal box would have to be completed before it was opened. | |
| “We’re still in the process of removing that box. It’s still in the dam at this point so we haven’t been able to open the box,” he said. | |
| “However, we do fear the box contains the bodies (of Breton and Triscaru).” | |
| The pair and their accused killers were “all part of a loose group I suppose and they all knew each other”, Hutchinson said. | |
| “The motive is something we’re still looking at but we would suspect it is something that is drug related.” | |
| Police believe the pair were killed on the night of their disappearance and transported in the box via a dark green Hilux before being dumped in the van, he said. | |
| Hutchinson declined to detail the alleged manner of the killings but said they were believed to have taken place in the area near where the box was dumped. | |
| Police were still seeking key pieces of evidence in the form of two fluorescent ratchet straps that they believe were used to secure the box in the back of the Toyota, he said. | |
| Hutchinson appealed for help from a member of the public who was believed to have innocently picked up the straps after they were dumped on a roadside in Marsden on the morning of 25 January following the alleged murders. | |
| “For them it’s just a couple of ratchet straps; to us it’s an integral part of the investigation,” Hutchinson said. | |
| Police were still seeking two men, a 32-year old from Crestmead and a 25 year old, who they believed had information that could help the investigation. | |
| They also wanted to speak to anyone who saw the Hilux in the area around Mudgee Street, Kingston on 24 January, Hutchinson said. | |
| The six accused, who also include Davy Malu Junior Taiao, 21, Stou Daniels, 21, Trent Michael Thrupp, 22, Webbstar Latu, 31 – were due to appear in the Brisbane magistrates court again on 21 march. | |
| Tahiata’s online profile states he has worked in Macau and elsewhere in China, “doing international TV commercials for Sands Cotai Central, Sheraton Macau and The Venetian Macau”. | |
| “The roles I performed were polynesian fireknife dancing, polynesian drumming and professionally choreographed dances,” it says. |