Skull of missing school girl was used as an ashtray in nearby pubCharlie Jones Fri, October 16, 2026 at 12:59 PM UTC
The video of a 2015 reenactment was played in court (Image: -)The man who found the skull near a creek in Australia told police he thought it had been an Aboriginal person's remains
The skull of a missing schoolgirl was being used as an ashtray at a pub, an inquest has revealed. A local man told police he had found the skull at a nearby creek two years after 14-year-old Marilyn Wallman had disappeared.
Greven Breadsell found the girl's grim remains at McGregor Creek near Mirani, Australia, in 1974. A 2015 reenactment of the find was played in an ongoing inquest into what exactly happened to the girl. In the footage, Breadsell said police had questioned him about the skull.
He said: "I don't like to say this, but we took it over to the pub and used it as an ashtray one night. Made me feel a bit shitty when we found out it was hers and we were mucking around with it." Initially he had thought it was an Aboriginal person's remains. "Who else's skull would it be?" Mr Breadsell said, "I had it at the shed there [at my home] for at least a fortnight or three weeks."
Marilyn Wallman went missing after being spotted with a man near her school (Image: -)
He saw the top part of the girl's skull lying on grass in a cattle paddock where he had gone to collect pal fronds to shelter his mom's orchid house. At a pre-inquest hearing earlier this year, new DNA testing techniques confirmed in 2006 that the skull had belonged to Marilyn.
No one had been brought to justice over the teen's death.
The court heard from Trudy Voltz, a friend of Marilyn Wallman, who said that Marilyn had looked "scared" the day before she disappeared.
She claimed Marilyn had been quiet during a lunch break at North Mackay State High School. The 68-year-old remembered her acting strangely, including leaving to walk ot the school gates and sat near a window looking out at the same entrance.
No one has served jail time over the girl's death (Image: -)
"I said to her, 'Who's out there?' And she answered me," she said, "I think she said the word 'uncle'."
Council assisting the coroner, John Aberdeen, asked the missing girl's friend about an "incident" on March 17, 1972, days before Marilyn disappeared, involving Marilyn and a man.
She said that she had noticed her friend walking on the other side of the road outside their school when a man approached her. She recalled: "A man approached her, and when she saw him, she took a couple of steps back. He started talking to her ... Marilyn had a very defensive pose. She was not happy to see him at all."
The man was reportedly aged 19 to 20 and was about a "head height" taller than Marilyn.
The inquest continued.
Source: Crime