Detectives refused to consider allegations that hit-and-run victim Troy Forsyth was deliberately run down, telling one informant they wanted an ''open-and-shut case'', despite being presented with evidence suggesting it was deliberate.
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The Canberra Times has confirmed that a friend of Troy's, Barry Treloar, claimed that he spoke to a criminal investigations detective a week after the collision in March 1987, after police made a public appeal for help with the case.
Mr Treloar told police he feared that Troy had been deliberately run down, saying two of the three witnesses had told him they saw the van swerve towards the 17-year-old.
He also told the detective that threats were made against Troy's life at a birthday party he had attended earlier in the night.
However, in a sworn affidavit tendered as part of the coronial inquest into Troy's death, Mr Treloar describes how his evidence was dismissed by the detective.
''He [the detective] said that Troy's tragedy was an accident and there was (sic) no suspicious circumstances and he didn't want to hear anything else. He said he wanted an open-and-shut case,'' Mr Treloar wrote.
The Canberra Times has learned that, at the time Mr Treloar came forward, police knew two witnesses were claiming the panel van veered towards Troy hitting him. All three witnesses claimed it made no attempt to stop or slow down.
Another detective, John Lawler, who is now chief executive of the Australian Crime Commission, had also contacted the case's investigators, warning them that police had received information suggesting the hit-and-run was deliberate.
''Sergeant Brian Simpson contacted the [criminal investigations branch] with information that he believed that the hit-run accident on Kent Street, Deakin may have been a murder,'' Mr Lawler wrote in a memorandum to investigators.
Mr Lawler said the driver of the van had allegedly told Troy he would be ''going to your funeral within the next two weeks''. He also noted reports that the three witnesses were warned ''that if they told anyone they would be next''.
Investigators knew of those claims when Mr Treloar came forward but his concerns were still dismissed.
The two witnesses eventually changed their statements to say they had not seen the van veer towards the victim, but their statements were not altered until well after Mr Treloar's information had been dismissed by detectives.
