![\"Marta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/41eb74333ddfbd164375efda645465e6af29692d.png\")
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April 11, 2026 \u2014 10:28am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Police are investigating the suspicious death of a farmer in Victoria\u2019s north-west after he was shot dead and buried in a shallow grave on his farm near Mildura.<\/p>\n Richard Wills was last seen leaving his home in Hugh Street, Ouyen, a small community 440 kilometres from Melbourne and south of Mildura, about 8am last Sunday.<\/p>\n Investigators say the 65-year-old went to work on his farm, a large rural property about eight kilometres away along the Mallee Highway, as was his usual routine.<\/p>\n However, he failed to return home for lunch, which raised the alarm among his loved ones, who started searching the property later that day.<\/p>\n After Wills failed to return home that night his wife, Donna Wills, reported him missing to police on Monday.<\/p>\n Wills\u2019 body was found during a police-assisted search of the property on Tuesday. Investigators believe he was shot and buried in a shallow grave.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n On Saturday, police issued a plea for information about Wills\u2019 death.<\/p>\n While Wills was missing, police said they held concerns for his welfare, as his disappearance was extremely out of character. He was last seen wearing a yellow high-vis long-sleeve top and a dark-coloured cap.<\/p>\n Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Trewavas, from the missing persons squad, said it was unclear who was involved in the farmer\u2019s death and why.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, Richard has clearly met with foul play,\u201d Trewavas said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that this appeal leads to someone coming forward and doing the right thing \u2013 it can be done anonymously \u2013 so that we can hold those responsible to account.\u201d<\/p>\n Police are urging anyone who saw Wills last Sunday or who has information about his death to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit an anonymous report at www.crimestoppersvic.gov.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts<\/a> on email or turn on notifications in the app.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5d3beef0f09bc1d5e92c1b3dc733a5e39554a18e.jpeg\")
Richard Wills was shot dead and buried in Ouyen.Victoria Police<\/p>\n![\"Marta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/41eb74333ddfbd164375efda645465e6af29692d.png\")
Marta Pascual Juanola<\/a> is an investigative journalist at The Age. Before that, she was a crime and justice reporter. You can contact her securely via m.pascualjuanola@proton.me or Signal on +61 468 688 436.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 11, 2026 \u2014 10:28am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-599153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}