The Multiple Murder
On the evening of 18 August 1983, Crabbe spent an hour at the Inland Motel bar before being refused service for intoxication. The bar was part of the Inland Motel, a short distance from the base of Uluru. It was on the eastern side of the rock, a few minutes walk from the camp site from which Azaria Chamberlain disappeared in 1980 but which had closed by August 1983. Crabbe, then aged 36, walked behind the bar and confronted bar staff before being involved in a fight and being ejected from the premises at 12.30am.
He then walked approximately 500 metres to his parked Mack truck, and drove it to the nearby Uluru Motel, where he unhitched one of two attached trailers. Crabbe then drove the truck and one trailer back to the Inland Motel. According to witness Martin Fisher:
"Crabbe then maneuvered the 25 ton Semi and trailer, at speed, around a blind bend, through a car park, around a minibus, turned and drove it through the Besser brick wall into the crowded bar, crushing the people there. Leaving the engine running, he then got out of the truck, smiled down at one of his victims, stepped over some bodies and ran. This was at 1.10am. It had been 40 minutes between being thrown out and driving the truck into the bar. He was captured the next morning walking out of the bush 22 kilometres away."
It was estimated that fewer than 50 people were in the bar at the time of the crash. Many of the customers were construction workers from the nearby resort project of Yulara, which was being constructed to replace the Inland Motel and two neighbouring motels to allow the ground around Uluru to revert to its natural state.
Witnesses likened the impact of the truck hitting the motel to that of a bomb exploding. The truck had penetrated the building to the length of one trailer. The truck remained in place after impact, and was the only thing holding up the building's roof. After the crash the dining room adjacent to the bar became an emergency clinic for the injured. Four people were killed instantly in the crash. A fifth person died in a hospital in Alice Springs, Northern Territory after surgeons worked for five and a half hours to save her life. The 35 year old woman had sustained severe internal injuries.
Crabbe's capture occurred at the Yulara Tourist Village construction site after a search by police and Aboriginal trackers. The Yulara settlement is a distance of several kilometres from the former site of the Inland Motel. William Hugh O'Neill, the catering manager from the Yulara Construction Camp, testified that he found Crabbe walking towards him near the construction camp on the morning of 18 August. Crabbe waited with O'Neill for police to arrive, asking the extent of the damage to the motel. Crabbe was informed by O'Neill that at least four people had died, including "one of my boys from the kitchen".
Read more about this topic: Douglas Crabbe
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