{"id":600714,"date":"2026-04-11T20:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600714\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:37:16","slug":"dragged-behind-a-vehicle-grim-details-emerge-after-missing-man-richard-wills-shot-dead-and-buried-in-shallow-grave-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600714\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Dragged behind a vehicle\u2019: Grim details emerge after missing man Richard Wills shot dead and buried in shallow grave at work"},"content":{"rendered":"

A gunman remains at large after the shooting murder of a missing<\/a> man in rural northern Victoria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Richard Wills, 65, vanished on Easter Sunday and was found in a shallow grave on his Ouyen farm on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard has clearly met with foul play,\u201d Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Trewavas said.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a vicious killing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is some evidence that Ric\u2019s body has been dragged behind a vehicle on that farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard\u2019s wife of 32 years Donna Wills last saw her \u201ckind-hearted\u201d and \u201cworkaholic\u201d husband as he headed out the door about 8am to work on his farm off the Mallee Hwy at Ouyen \u2014 as was his usual routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just got up and had breakfast and left the house. I was still in bed,\u201d Donna said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just kissed me goodbye, and I thought I\u2019d see him at lunchtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donna began to grow concerned when Richard did not return home for lunch.<\/p>\n

She went to the property after lunch to look for Wills \u201cin vain,\u201d Trewavas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater that evening she returned with a family friend. The property was searched and there was no sign of Ric anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donna \u201cthought it was odd that he didn\u2019t have his phone with him\u201d \u2014 she was worried sick, but \u201cthought maybe a mate has come and they\u2019ve gone for a drive somewhere and perhaps they\u2019ve got a flat tyre.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the people she thought he might be with, would have got Richard to call her on their phones if something like that had happened.<\/p>\n

When he still had not returned the next morning, she reported Richard missing to Victoria Police, which kickstarted a search involving SES, friends and family, and members of the community within the farm.<\/p>\n

Trewavas said that what they found was \u201cconfronting\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"RichardRichard Wills, 65, was found in a shallow grave on his remote Ouyen farm after he disappeared on Easter Sunday. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

An autopsy on Richard\u2019s body has confirmed that he was shot dead.<\/p>\n

But who fired the gun and buried Richard remains unknown, as does the unknown killer\u2019s motive.<\/p>\n

The 1600-acre sharecropping farm, with sheep and a piggery, and lots of machinery \u201cwhich Ric spent his time tinkering with and repairing in an effort to sell,\u201d Trewavas said.<\/p>\n

The \u201cvery remote, very dusty … crime scene has been examined \u2013 it\u2019s extensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being in a remote community, Trewavas said that its highway location makes Ric\u2019s farm accessible to passers-by \u2014 but he said, \u201cwe suspect that a person who knows Ric is responsible for this crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police investigators have been in Mildura and Ouyen, canvassing the local community, checking CCTV and working through other evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis crime has happened in a remote community,\u201d Trewavas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be somebody in this community who knows what happened.<\/p>\n

\"DetectiveDetective Senior Sergeant Steve Trewavas and Richard\u2019s wife Donna Wills. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

Donna described her husband as \u201cone to help anyone, kind-hearted, he\u2019d give you anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would they want to do it him?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Richard and Donna have five children, and \u201clots of grandkids that are going to miss him,\u201d his grieving wife said.<\/p>\n

Investigations are ongoing, and police are urging anyone with information about the incident to come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not lost on police that a man who went to work on Easter Sunday, one of the holiest days in his calendar, has not come home,\u201d Trewavas said.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gunman remains at large after the shooting murder of a missing man in rural northern Victoria. Richard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,23800,48,2968,44,7481,2024],"class_list":["post-600714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-courts-justice","tag-crime","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-vic-news","tag-victoria-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600714","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=600714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}