Michael Jay Evans has said he expects to finally expose the whereabouts of Sam Price-Purcell’s remains, who has been missing for eight years.
In February 2015, Price-Purcell was last saw leaving Brisbane’s north in a car.
The Brisbane Supreme Court was informed that although Evans and Price-Purcell were acquainted through the criminal underworld, they had a falling out over a debt.
Price-Purcell allegedly said he was “going to war” with Evans and may have been attempting to acquire a firearm.
Evans devised a scheme after hearing rumors that Price-Purcell had threatened him or his family.
The court was informed that there were plans to gravely assault Price-Purcell and that firearms might be utilized.
When Evans picked up Price-Purcell in February 2015 and they began traveling in the direction of Toowoomba, Price-Purcell assumed they would talk about the debt.
The second man suddenly stretched out from the rear seat and wrapped his arm around Price-Purcell’s neck as they were traveling along a rural route west of Brisbane.
Price-Purcell fought back, biting the man’s arm, but she was eventually pulled into the backseat and collapsed.
The second man grabbed him from the car and shot him with Evans’ shotgun.
It is unknown if Price-Purcell passed away from a shotgun discharge or from strangling, the court was told.
Before running away, Evans and the other man wrapped Price-Purcell in a tarp and dumped the body in an embankment.
Before Evans took a shower, they next proceeded to a property to dispose of their garments.
Evans came back a few days later and set Price-Purcell’s body on fire.
It’s really repulsive behavior. It has denied a family access to their child’s remains, according to Justice Melanie Hindman.
The whereabouts of Price-Purcell’s body are unknown.
The crown prosecution claimed that Evans had stated a desire to reveal the body’s whereabouts after being sentenced, though.
He declared that it need to be given “significant weight” when Evans is punished.
“If I reduce the sentence to account for an intention and the intention doesn’t materialize, won’t the victim’s family have a valid cause of complaint?” In response, Justice Hindman.
If Evans “didn’t come good on that,” the prosecutor warned, it would impair his chances of getting parole.
He won’t be granted parole if he doesn’t cooperate, said Evans’ defense attorney.
The mother of Price-Purcell claimed that the loss of another of her “beautiful sons” had altered her life irrevocably.
Her victim impact statement stated, “Over the past eight years, I have kept onto hope.
My last remaining hope is that Sam’s bones will be brought back to us so that we can bury him according to our wishes.
Evans was first accused of murder and has been in detention since June 2018.
As a result of Evans’ “descent into drug use” in 2014, his criminal history, which started in 2000, became more serious.
The 41-year-old Evans admitted to manslaughter and tampering with a corpse.
He received a 10-and-a-half-year prison term.
