Anita Cobby’s killer Michael Murphy ‘on death bed’ with advanced cancer

The brutal murder of Sydney beauty queen Anita Cobby in 1986 shook the nation after the 26-year-old was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed at the hands of five men, who then dumped her body in a paddock.

However new reports have claimed that Michael Murphy, one of the men convicted for the murder, is on his death bed in hospital, with 9News reporting that he was transferred to palliative care on Wednesday, in the advanced stages of cancer.

The 65-year-old, who was arrested in 1986 for murder, is said to have been moved from his cell in Long Bay Jail in Sydney.

Murphy was one of five men arrested for the kidnapping, brutal sexual assault and murder of Anita in Blacktown, western Sydney in 1986. The nurse and former beauty pageant winner was attacked while walking home from the train station in February after having dinner with friends.

Two days after she was reported missing, her body was discovered on a rural farm in Prospect, not far from Blacktown.

Cobby suffered severe broken bones from the savage bashing and was raped repeatedly before being dragged along a barbed wire fence. She was eventually killed by a slit to the throat that almost left her decapitated.

Read more: Remembering Anita Cobby

While her estranged husband was initially a suspect he was quickly cleared and the hunt was on for Murphy, his brothers Les and Gary, along with John Travers and Michael Murdoch.

With a history of violence the five were tracked down quickly by police and arrested only weeks later with secret tapes of the men confessing to murder leading to their sentence of life imprisonment. Murphy was 33-years-old when taken into custody.

The gorgeous brunette’s death has gone down in history as one of the most brutal and publicised murders in Australia. Her death caused outrage throughout the country and changed the way people viewed violence against women. 

Angry members of the public, infuriated by the crime lined the streets, calling for the death penalty for the murderers. 

Two years ago, 30 years after his wife was abducted and murdered, husband John spoke out about Cobby’s death.

In an emotional interview with Seven News, a distraught and angry John said his life was destroyed by her murder.

When asked how he felt about the killers all those years later he said: “I’d smash the f*** out of them”.

Cobby’s younger sister Kathryn Szyszka also spoke out, touching on the difficulty her parents faced following their daughter’s murder.

“They somehow managed, muddled through, coped…they managed to exist,” she during the heartbreaking Channel 7 segment.

The year prior the brave sister also led a speech at a remembrance ceremony for Cobby, where she spoke of the importance of standing up for violence against women and White Ribbon campaigns.

Do you remember this case?