Robin Bowles's account of the Sue Neill-Fraser case — one of the most controversial murder cases in Australian legal history.
On 26 January 2009, Bob Chappell disappeared from his yacht Four Winds, moored in the Derwent estuary near the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania's marina. His partner of 18 years, Sue Neill-Fraser, was tried and convicted of his murder in 2010 and sentenc
The case has never been settled in public opinion. Neill-Fraser's supporters — including a petition signed by nearly 40,000 people — argue the conviction was unsafe, pointing to DNA evidence placing another person on the boat, the absence of a body, motive or murder weapon, and multiple alleged failures in the police investigation. In her 2021 appeal, the three-judge bench divided 2:1 — the majority dismissed the appeal, but dissenting Justice Estcourt argued for a retrial.
As of 2026 the case remains actively contested, with calls for an independent judicial inquiry continuing in the Tasmanian Parliament. Bowles examines the case and the questions it raises — who killed Bob Chappell, and was the verdict safe? At 365 pages, this is a thorough account of one of Tasmania's most debated criminal cases.
BOOK DETAILS
Softcover.
365 pages.
Published 2019.
CONDITION
New.
DELIVERY & IN-STORE PICKUP
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![Death on the Derwent – Sue Neill-Fraser's Story | Robin Bowles | 2019 [USED – SC]](https://onlinestore.bookcellar.com.au/images/P/death-on-the-derwent.jpg "Death on the Derwent – Sue Neill-Fraser's Story | Robin Bowles | 2019 [USED – SC]")
![What Could Possibly Go Wrong? – Death and Disappearance in Tasmania's Wild Places | Paul Helleman | 2025 | Signed [NEW – SC]](https://onlinestore.bookcellar.com.au/images/T/what-could-possibly-NpQKLi.png "What Could Possibly Go Wrong? – Death and Disappearance in Tasmania's Wild Places | Paul Helleman | 2025 | Signed [NEW – SC]")
![A Compulsion to Kill – The History of Tasmania's Earliest Serial Killers | Robert Cox | 2014 [SC]](https://onlinestore.bookcellar.com.au/images/T/a-compulsion-to-kill-umkX6z.png "A Compulsion to Kill – The History of Tasmania's Earliest Serial Killers | Robert Cox | 2014 [SC]")
