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A VIOLENT former bikie is the man police believe murdered
Niddrie mother Jane Thurgood-Dove in cold blood.
Hard-living Steven John Mordy is suspected of being the bungling
gunman who shot Mrs Thurgood-Dove instead of a neighbour who was
the intended target.
His former partner yesterday said Mordy was a close friend of
Jamie Reynolds, who police believe organised the car used by the
Thurgood-Dove murder team.
The man labelled the "pot-bellied gunman" in the
Thurgood-Dove killing was described in Coroner's Court documents
detailing his death as having a fat stomach.
Mordy was a former member of the Rebels Motorcycle Club and
served jail time in New South Wales for violent crime, the Herald
Sun was told.
He was a heavy drinker and amphetamine user.
The hulking, tattooed Mordy died at his North Geelong home in
2000, aged 39, of heart disease exacerbated by amphetamine use.
Ex-partner Julie Meade yesterday said Mordy never mentioned the
Thurgood-Dove case and she did not believe he was the killer.
Ms Meade said although Mordy was prone to aggression and moved in
violent circles, he was not capable of such an atrocious act and
did not match a police description of the killer.
But homicide squad detectives believe Mordy and Reynolds were
part of the team that botched the 1997 killing in Muriel St,
Niddrie.
They believe the intended target was Carmel Kyprianou, the wife
of a convicted criminal, who lived further along the street.
Peter Kyprianou had already survived a murder plot in 1994.
The getaway driver and whoever organised the killing have not
been identified.
Ms Meade said she was first contacted by homicide squad
detectives within weeks of Reynolds' death in a boating accident
at Barwon Heads in April this year.
He was a good bloke," she said of Mordy.
"I'm completely shocked at what's happened. It's hard to
believe isn't it."
Ms Meade, who went out with Mordy for three years before his
death, disputed claims he went to ground for 18 months after Mrs
Thurgood-Dove was murdered in front of her three children.
She said the father of three continued to go out and made his
customary weekly visits to the De La Ville Hotel in Geelong.
"He didn't hide. I didn't see a change," she said. Ms
Meade said she had never known Mordy to have firearms and that he
was trying to straighten out his life at the time he died.
"He wanted to put that life behind him. He was really
settling down," she said.
Police had earlier believed a serving Victoria Police officer,
who was infatuated with mother-of-three Thurgood-Dove, was the
killer.
Mordy died in bed at his North Geelong home in 2000. Coroner's
Court documents state he went to bed early on the night of
September 27 after not eating dinner. A housemate later heard
Mordy groaning in bed, but Mordy declined the offer of a doctor
when asked.
The report said Mordy had no particular complaint and just felt
unwell.
He then ate a Cherry Ripe and some ice-cream before vomiting, but
still managed to finish off two drinks of Coke.
The next morning, the housemate did not enter Mordy's room
because he liked to sleep late.
About 2.53pm, the housemate finally called on Mordy and found him
on his back with no pulse.
The Coroner's Court documents said of Mordy, who weighed 104kg
and stood 190cm, that "the abdomen is obese" and that
he had an enlarged heart.
The report found the most likely cause of death was a heart
condition and that amphetamines may have contributed.
"It is . . . known amphetamines can be associated with
sudden lethal cardiac arrhythmias," the report said. Traces
of methamphetamine were later detected in his urine.
