The Advertiser | July 30, 2008
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24100430-5006301,00.html
A SOUTH Australian man killed in mysterious circumstances in the Northern Territory was eaten alive by wild dogs, his family said yesterday.
The fatal mauling is believed to have been the work of the same dogs that bit off a woman’s ear two months ago.
Michael Hardy, 26, a visitor from South Australia, had been driving back to Adelaide after coming to the Territory to visit his brother, Peter, in Darwin.
He was found dead near the entrance to the Hidden Valley town camp in Alice Springs last Thursday.
Police are mystified about what the Caucasian man was doing in the Aboriginal camp.
Witnesses said his body was a bloody mess, with his leg and arm savagely bitten.
The man’s family has been battling with South Australian Government departments to cover the costs of having his body flown back to his home town of Adelaide.
His mother, Brenda, is mentally disabled and cannot afford the $3000 it would cost to fly his body home.
The family was told by a South Australian Government official yesterday that they should consider “putting him on a bus” to reduce the cost of bringing the body home.
Mr Hardy’s cousin, Tabatha Dellar, said the death — and the way it had been handled since — had devastated the family.
“He deserves some dignity and humanity,” she said in Darwin yesterday.
Ms Dellar said the Tangentyere Council should have found the dogs and put them down after the first attack in May.
“The town council did nothing about these dogs and now they have eaten my cousin alive,” she said.
Ms Dellar said Mr Hardy, who was on a disability pension, had been driving back to Adelaide and the family was unsure what he was doing at the town camp.
She said police had at first told the family Mr Hardy had been killed in a car accident, but the Coroner’s office had confirmed that he had been killed by dogs.
Mr Hardy’s family fear he could be buried in a pauper’s grave in Alice Springs.
Comment:
Funny how the members of the Abo community are presumed to be completely innocent in relation to the death of Mr Hardy. I on the other hand don’t believe that to be the case.
It’s more likely that the poor man was lured to the Abo community, beaten and robbed, then fed to the dogs.
This is why even the Northern Territory Police will sometimes warn tourists to never stop for an Abo on the highway. If they stand in your way, go around them or run them down. If they lie down on the road, run them over – but never stop! If you do, you may be robbed, lose your car or be murdered, as I suspect this poor fellow was.
Cailen.
