Almost a year after the body of 49-year-old father-of-two Chris Robertson was discovered in a suburban South Australian workshop, the state’s police investigation has yielded a major new development: four additional people have been taken into custody in connection with the killing, joining a former Hells Angel already charged with murder.
Robertson, a resident of the coastal suburb of Moana, was last seen alive by the public on September 25 last year – the date of Australian Football League’s annual premiership grand final. Three days after that public appearance, on September 30, his remains were found inside an industrial workshop on O’Sullivan Beach Road in Lonsdale. Post-mortem analysis confirmed his death was the result of homicide, with fatal injuries matching those sustained in a violent assault. The case was immediately upgraded to a major criminal investigation, drawing senior detective resources from across the region.
The first major break in the case came in December 2023, nearly three months after Robertson’s body was found. Investigators had spent weeks tracing a grey Mitsubishi Triton that Robertson was believed to have been traveling in as a passenger on the day he was last seen; the vehicle was finally located in late November. That breakthrough set the stage for the first arrest: 30-year-old Dylan Danaher, a former member of the Hells Angel outlaw motorcycle club from Happy Valley, who was formally charged with murder. Danaher has remained in custody since his arrest, and is scheduled to next appear before the Adelaide Magistrates Court on July 7 this year.
Now, the investigation has expanded further, with police taking four more people into custody, all of whom face charges linked to the murder and efforts to derail the official inquiry. All four suspects were denied bail following their arrest, and are set to make their initial court appearances at Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday.
The charges against the newly arrested four vary in severity. A 33-year-old woman from Happy Valley faces the most counts: two charges of assisting an offender, alongside one count of making threats or carrying out reprisals against people connected to the criminal investigation. A 61-year-old man, also from Happy Valley, has been charged with two counts of assisting the person responsible for the killing. Two younger men from Christies Beach – a 29-year-old and a 27-year-old – each face one count of threats or reprisals against investigation participants.
Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke, the senior officer leading the investigation, made a public statement Wednesday reaffirming police commitment to pursuing all parties linked to the crime. “We will not hesitate to investigate offending of this nature and will vigorously pursue prosecutions against any person found to be assisting those responsible, interfering with investigations or threatening witnesses,” Fielke said, signaling that the inquiry may still be open to further arrests as new evidence emerges.
The case has drawn sustained public attention in South Australia, due to its link to the high-profile AFL grand final day and the connection to an outlaw motorcycle club member already charged in the killing.