Revealed The Cape Stan documentary: Clan feud, love triangle and baffling unsolved double murder

Cape York is home to one of the country’s most baffling unsolved double homicide cold cases – involving a blood feud, love triangle and a string of dead witnesses – in the deep north’s multimillion-dollar fishing industry.

Fisherman Bevin Simmonds, 36, and his son Brad, 10, disappeared 20 years ago last Monday while checking shark nets 3 miles from the mouth of the Coleman River on Cape York’s remote wild west coast.

There are no bodies, no boat, no murder weapons and no witnesses have ever been found – and the pair are still officially listed as missing at sea.

Rival member of the fishing clan Michael Gater – who had a sexual affair with the missing man’s wife, Cathy Simmonds – and his mother Joan Betty Gater were charged and acquitted of the alleged double murders in a 2005 Cairns High Court trial.

No other clues or suspects were ever found.

Detectives believe the father and his 10-year-old boy were shot to death in a cold-blooded execution and their bodies and dinghy sunk in an act of evil that haunts locals who still practice sorcery and magic.

Both formidable fishing clans farm the same waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria – teeming with barramundi, mackerel, crocodiles and sharks – in a bitter family war akin to that of the American Hatfields and McCoys.

Detectives believe the father and his 10-year-old boy (pictured) were shot dead in a cold-blooded execution

Stan’s original documentary was released last Friday Revealed: the Cape, premiered at the Sydney Film Festival. It will go live on Stan on June 18.

The Cape draws on nearly two decades of my research, access, footage, interviews and a podcast that explores the unsolved cold case – in a haunting quest for justice for the victim’s families.

The documentary sheds new light on the story of life and death on the lawless frontier of Cape York, one of the world’s last great wildernesses.

It features key witnesses who testified at the trial, and delves deep into the hard-working fishing families who inhabit the mangrove-strewn rivers and swamps on the fringes of civilization.

Katie Simmonds, who was 12 when her father and brother disappeared without a trace, has the words ‘Brad’ and ‘Justice’ tattooed on her skin – and a lifetime of heartache and regret etched into her soul.

Rival fishing clan member Michael Gater (pictured) – who had a sexual affair with the missing man’s wife, Cathy Simmonds – and his mother Joan Betty Gater were charged and cleared of the alleged double murders in a Cairns High Court trial in 2005

“I just want to know what happened,” she told me at the family’s fishing camp on the Holroyd River, north of the former aboriginal mission of Pormpuraaw, 410 miles from Cairns.

“I just want to know where they are, where the boat sank, just give me the GPS coordinates.

“All I’ve got is a million miles of water to look at and no answers.”

Queensland Police expect that unless new evidence is found, or in the unlikely event that the unknown killer makes a confession, the case may never be solved.

It is hoped that the Stan documentary can somehow bring both peace and justice.