As the midweek workday was wrapping up on Wednesday, November 11 1987, staff were closing stores and filtering out of offices throughout Ipswich, an inland, urban region on the western edge of Brisbane in Queensland: Australia. At 5:30 pm, 24-year-old retail assistant Cheryl Mortimer finished her shift at the Target department store located in the Booval Fair Shopping Centre.

After business hours, activity around the centre had died down significantly and very few people were still around. The adjacent car park, which was usually packed with cars, was now quiet and near deserted. Cheryl collected her vehicle and drove towards the parking lot exit, where her attention was drawn to an unassuming middle-aged woman with short hair and a frumpy physique. The woman was flagging Cheryl down, indicating she needed directions. Cheryl pulled over to assist.

As the two women interacted, a younger-looking, slim man, seemingly sprang out of nowhere and rushed at Cheryl, placing a knife to her throat. The man cut his own hand with the knife accidentally, leaving his bloody fingerprint smeared on the window of Cheryl’s car. The attack came to an abrupt halt when one of Cheryl’s colleagues appeared and approached the scene, causing the man and woman to flee in a white Holden Kingswood station wagon.