DRUG dealers, underworld identities and thugs for hire work in a high-risk business, so it comes as little surprise when they’re gunned down before retirement age.

Shane ‘Bones’ Barker was none of those things. He was squeaky clean and no one in his home town had a bad word to say about him. If anything, Shane was known as one of life’s good guys — an honest worker, skilled outdoorsman and, above all, a loving father, brother, son and mate.

But on a rainy winter’s night in 2009, a killer lay in wait outside Shane’s house, before ambushing him and peppering him with bullets.

Even police were surprised by the calculated murder of this unlikely victim, but suspect that whoever pulled the trigger is someone they’ve already spoken to during the course of their investigation.

As police continue to delve into Shane’s associations, the gunman would do well to know that over five consecutive years detectives from Launceston’s Criminal Investigation Branch have solved every other murder they have investigated.

There’s no reason to think the Shane Barker case will be any different.

[Police] suspect that whoever pulled the trigger is someone they’ve already spoken to during the course of their investigation.

For most of his life, Shane lived in Campbell Town, in Tasmania’s northern midlands, a village of about 800 people where many of the locals are senior citizens. Hardly the kind of place where anyone would expect an execution.

Shane was well-known around town. He’d worked as the local postie, delivering his warm, trademark smile along with the daily mail.

He later worked at the abattoir in Longford before pumping petrol at a service station. Eventually, he settled in to a career at Roberts Limited rural merchandise store in Campbell Town where he sold rifles and fishing gear. It was Shane’s dream job because he was an experienced hunter himself, hence the nickname ‘Bones’.

media_camera Paul Barker holding a photograph of his murdered brother Shane.

“He lived for the weekend to go fishing and shooting,” says his brother Paul, who recalls how Shane learned to hunt deer on field trips with their grandfather. “Pop had a lot of time for him.”

In 2003, Shane married Rachael Jordan, who came from the rural township of Cressy, half an hour’s drive away.

“Shane had a home in Campbell Town when he met her, so she moved in with him just before they were married,” Paul says.

The following year they welcomed a baby girl, Sophie, into the world. To Shane’s sorrow, the marriage didn’t last but he always looked forward to the precious time he spent with his little girl, who was just five years old when her daddy was slain.

Before Shane was shot, there was no indication anyone had it in for him.

“He was a quiet, easygoing country lad,” says Detective Inspector Scott Flude from Launceston CIB.

“By all accounts, he had the sort of demeanour that didn’t upset anyone and was well-liked and well-respected. On the face of it, he didn’t appear to have any enemies at all.”

But murders without motives are rare, so perhaps readers of Unsolved Australia can tell police why, on the night of Sunday, August 2, 2009, Shane Barker was gunned down in cold blood.

It was raining and windy that night as Shane drove up the road to the home of his parents Rob and Barbara Barker for an early dinner. It was a Sunday night routine he’d stuck to since his divorce.

“He was living on his own so he’d come to get his washing or ironing and have a roast,” Paul explains.

After they’d eaten, Rob and Barbara decided to watch Dancing With the Stars, while Shane went home to watch an AFL match.

Forty minutes later, Shane didn’t answer his phone, which was unusual.

“A good friend rang him at about 10 to eight,” Paul says. “And Shane was one of those blokes who’d always answer the phone or ring back.”

The next morning, one of Shane’s workmates phoned Rob and Barbara to ask if they knew why he hadn’t turned up. Again, it just wasn’t like him.

“He’d start work at 8am but he’d be there at 7.45 because he was proud of his work,” Paul says. “Mum said, ‘He’s probably stayed up watching TV and slept in’.”

But mothers have a sixth sense about their kids, even when they’re grown up, so Barbara decided to go to Shane’s house. When she arrived, Shane’s boss was already there.

media_camera Family members of murdered Campbell Town man Shane Barker, dad Robert, mum Barbara and sister Nichole Garwood.

“They knocked on the door and there was no answer,” Paul says. “Mum had her mobile so she called Shane but she could hear the phone ringing inside.”

Shane’s dad, Rob, arrived just as the resourceful boss found the spare keys to the house near the garage.

“They tried to open the door but it had been dead-bolted from the inside,” Paul says. “They couldn’t get in so they thought it was time to call the police.”

The first uniformed officer at the scene couldn’t get in either, so she picked up a log from the yard and smashed it through a window. “She walked in with Mum and Dad behind her,” Paul explains. “They could see Shane’s feet — his Blundstones and his jeans.”

Immediately, the concerned officer told the others to wait outside. “But Dad couldn’t help himself,” Paul says. “He went back and he saw Shane. He had a trickle of blood coming from his mouth. He was on his back in the hallway.”

About 10 o’clock that morning, Paul — a valued employee of Tasmanian Independent Retailers (part of the IGA supermarket chain) — was at work in Launceston when he received a call from his grandfather.

“He said, ‘It’s Pop here, Paul. Are you sitting down?’ I knew it was bad straight away by the emotion in his voice. At first I thought he said, ‘Jane’s dead,’ and I thought, Who the hell is Jane? But he said, ‘No Paul, Shane’.” Paul couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I said, ‘Has he harmed himself?’ and Pop said, ‘No, it looks like he’s had a heart attack’.”

As Paul visibly crumpled, his boss laid a comforting arm around his shoulder.

Recognising he was in no fit state to drive, two other workmates drove him home. They stayed by Paul’s side and made him coffee until his brother-in-law, Grant Garwood, came to pick him up.

Grant took Paul to his house to collect his wife Nikki — Paul and Shane’s sister.

Grant then drove the distraught siblings back to their hometown.

“I could see witches hats about two hundred metres from Shane’s home. They had those slippers on their feet and they were wearing overalls. I knew it wasn’t a heart attack.” – Paul Barker

Inside the car, Paul was still grappling with the news. “A heart attack?” he asked. “But he’s as fit as a fiddle. If anyone was going to have a heart attack it would have been me because I’m a bit overweight.”

The 45-minute trip to Campbell Town seemed more like two hours for the dazed family, who drove straight to Shane’s house.

As they pulled up, they felt like they were watching a horror story on the news, except there was no flat-screen TV to separate them from the crime scene.

“I could see witches hats about two hundred metres from Shane’s home, and a caravan, like what forensics people have. They had those slippers on their feet and they were wearing overalls. I reckon there were thirty police on the front yard and about 10 police cars,” Paul recollects. “I knew it wasn’t a heart attack.”

A uniformed police officer tried to prevent Grant from driving any closer, but as soon as Paul said he was Shane’s brother, the policeman fetched Senior Sergeant Rick Newman, the detective in charge of the crime scene. Paul told Sgt Newman he wanted to go inside and see his brother, but the sympathetic detective said, ‘no’. “You can’t tell me this was a heart attack,” Paul said.

“There are things we’re not happy about here,” the detective admitted. “The best thing you can do now is go and see your parents.”

media_camera Tasmania Police vehicles at the crime scene.

It was an emotional scene at Rob and Barbara’s house. Friends from all over the neighbourhood started turning up to support them. “I’d never seen my father cry ever in his life. He’d always been the strong person in the family,” Paul says. “He kept saying to me, ‘He’s gone, he’s gone’.”

About 6pm, Sgt Newman arrived with another detective, “probably to see if there was any reaction from us in case any of us were ­involved”, Paul says. Sgt Newman then asked everyone but family to leave the room. “He said, ‘There’s no easy way to say this, but he’s been murdered’.”

Shane had been shot several times at close range with that most common of rifles — the .22. Murder. How could the easygoing 36-year-old’s life have ended like that? “It hit us like a sledgehammer,” Paul says. “Your immediate reaction is, who could have done such a thing?”

It was the job of the Launceston Criminal Investigation Branch to find out.

“It was a targeted attack. Almost an assassination, I suppose you’d call it, and that’s been the dilemma for us – finding a motive.” – Inspector Scott Flude

Lead investigator, Detective ­Inspector Scott Flude, ­remembers how his team spent days at the crime scene, poring over evidence that had been partly contaminated by the heavy rain and wind. They also tried to work out why Shane’s front door had been dead-bolted and surmised that he might have been shot outside, ­before stumbling indoors and locking his assailant out.

Detectives spoke to the townsfolk, who were stunned.

“We did a lot of doorknocks,” Insp Flude says. “We basically spoke to the whole town. And everyone knew him, so we didn’t leave any stone unturned.”

media_camera Tasmania Police forensic officers search Shane Barker’s house for evidnce.

Normally a murder victim’s enemies are fairly easy to identify, but the people of Campbell Town had no obvious beef with Shane ‘Bones’ Barker. If anything, he was more likely to have been voted the town’s favourite bloke, so Insp Flude’s team had their work cut out.

“We checked businesses, people he knew, anyone who could assist with his movements or tell us about any problems he’d had that could have led to this. And we tried to get people talking,” he says.

What the team gleaned during the initial stages of their investigation was that whoever murdered Shane had waited like a spider.

“It was a targeted attack,” Insp Flude says. “Almost an assassination, I suppose you’d call it, and that’s been the dilemma for us — finding a motive.”

What the investigators suspect, however, is that whoever shot Shane was someone he knew. They believe that amid all their ­inquiries, they have probably even spoken to the killer and their associates, who have so far remained tight-lipped.

“We’ve always said that someone out there knows something,” Insp Flude says. “Our job is to find out who knows.”

“People have said to me, ‘Why keep going with your campaign? Your brother’s gone.’ But they don’t understand how important it is to get justice. I’ve said all along that Shane can’t talk for himself so we have to talk for him. He can’t solve the crime from his grave so we have to pursue it.” – Paul Barker

What police did find out was that on the morning of Shane’s murder, a local saw him outside his house, speaking with a man who had been driving a white ute with a cabin. That night — about the time Shane was killed — a white Toyota HiLux was captured on CCTV driving along the main street of Campbell Town. To date, neither the vehicle, nor the driver have been identified.

Paul finds it hard to believe that whoever murdered Shane may have been a Campbell Town resident.

“The town rallied around,” he says. “From the start, they were bringing casseroles and cakes for the family. They really cared.”

Indeed, Paul became overwhelmed by all the ­attention one day when he went to buy a carton of milk for his parents. “It was all over the front pages of the local newspaper that Shane had been murdered so I couldn’t go into the supermarket because I didn’t want anyone to ask how I was,” he says.

media_camera The white dual cab ute, at the top left of the frame, has never been identified, nor has its driver.

Paul decided to buy the milk in Perth, half an hour’s drive away. But at the check-out, a sympathetic staff member recognised him and gave him a big hug.

“I just broke down,” Paul says. “Then I got in the car, and bugger me, there was a picture of Shane on the front page. It took me 20 minutes to compose myself to drive off.”

A few years have passed since then, but Shane’s family feels the murderer has given them a life sentence. They hope someone’s conscience will be rattled when they read this book.

“Stand in our shoes for a day and see how much we’re suffering,” Paul says to the killer. “Do the best thing for Shane and those around you, and hand yourself in. It’s bad enough losing your brother, but it’s worse that we are left to wonder why no one has come forward.” Even though it wears him down, Paul is leading the family’s charge for justice, and speaks to the media about his brother’s death whenever there is an opportunity.

“I think it’s still solvable” – Insp Flude

“People have said to me, ‘Why keep going with your campaign? Your brother’s gone.’ But they don’t understand how important it is to get justice. I’ve said all along that Shane can’t talk for himself so we have to talk for him. He can’t solve the crime from his grave so we have to pursue it.”

Insp Flude and the team from Launceston CIB will also keep pursuing Shane’s killer.

“Everyone has a theory,” Insp Flude says. “And a lot of it is just rumour. But even with a rumour, we’ll identify where it’s come from and speak to as many people as we can with a view to corroborating or disproving it.”

The Tasmanian detectives are so determined to get it right that they have even called on investigators from the Victoria Police Homicide Squad to look at the case with fresh eyes.

“They’re happy with the way we’ve dealt with it, ­especially as we’ve had limited information, which hasn’t helped,” Insp Flude says. “I think it’s still solvable,” he says.

They are words that Paul Barker will cling to as he waits — as patiently as he can — for whoever murdered his brother to be ­arrested and face a jury.

“I will never forgive,” Paul says. “Never.”

His next remarks reduce him to tears. “You don’t know how much you love a person until they’re gone.

“If I could just spend ­another thirty seconds with him.”

Unsolved Australia by Justine Ford, Macmillan Australia, RRP $32.99