Police search Mount Hope property for Julian Ingram

Warning: This story contains the names and images of Indigenous people who have died.

Mount Hope: The sole survivor of a gun rampage allegedly carried out by accused triple murderer Julian Ingram has recalled the moment the 37-year-old “laughed” before opening fire outside a home in the state’s central west.

Kaleb Macqueen has recounted the terrifying frantic minutes when Ingram allegedly shot dead Nerida Quinn, 50, outside her Walker St home after allegedly shooting dead his heavily pregnant former partner, Sophie Quinn, 24 and her friend John Harris, 32, in the NSW town of Lake Cargelligo on Thursday.

Speaking to Nine News, 19-year-old Macqueen recalled how he was standing outside the home of Nerida Quinn, his friend’s mother who is also the aunt of Sophie, when Ingram allegedly arrived in a car with a “gun pointing outside the window” of the vehicle.

“Within seconds it was too late,” Macqueen said.

“[Nerida] obviously went towards the ute and I heard ‘boom boom,’ she was holding her neck and he was laughing and [allegedly] gave her one good shot to the head and she was gone.

“It was fight or flight – I just had to save myself not that I could have done anything with Nerida anyway. I probably would have ended up dying if I went over to [her].”

Macqueen sustained serious shotgun wounds during the incident and was taken to Canberra Hospital for treatment.

NSW Police are yet to locate Ingram, 37, who has been on the run since Thursday afternoon. On Sunday, tactical police swooped on a remote property at Mount Hope, an hour from Lake Cargelligo, after a possible sighting of the accused triple murderer, who is also known as Julian Pierpoint.

Up to 100 officers have been searching for Ingram – including heavily armed members of NSW Police’s Tactical Operations Unit along with local police – since he was last seen leaving Lake Cargelligo in his Lachlan Shire Council ute, minutes after the alleged shootings. Ingram was seen heading north towards Euabalong, a town of about 80 people where he was raised and had lived until about a decade ago, according to locals who had spent time with him.

Assistant Commissioner Andy Holland on Sunday said members of the public had reported a possible sighting of Ingram on a remote property near Mount Hope, about 100 kilometres north-west of Lake Cargelligo just after midnight Saturday. People in the Mount Hope area are urged to “exercise extreme caution”, Holland said.

“There is no confirmation that it is the offender, but obviously, we are acting on the fact that it could well be him,” Holland said.

Tactical Operations Unit officers were searching the area and were expected to spend much of Sunday combing vast properties in the region, some of which extend thousands of square kilometres and are dotted with patches of dense bush and scrubland. Members of the search parties were clearing sheds and other buildings on properties in the area, Holland said. A PolAir helicopter and drones were being used to assist officers searching on the ground. The search was expected to remain at its current scale for several days.

“The farms are extraordinarily large in size, and, again, that’s what’s making the search difficult,” Holland said.

“He would know back roads that other people wouldn’t. He would know locations. He would know farm locations and sheds that he could obviously spend time in, hence why the search is so difficult,” Holland said.

Ingram had frequented the Mount Hope district and had extensive knowledge of the area through his work as a Lachlan Shire Council gardener, Holland said.

Ingram was spotted near a cemetery at Mount Hope, according to a social media post circulating in the local community. Locals said there were unverified reports Ingram had been spotted several times in the early hours of Sunday. Police have not confirmed the location of the reported sighting but were gathered at a Mount Hope property on Sunday afternoon.

Ingram, who worked as a brush cutter in the area before he was employed at the council, is regarded as an experienced bushman capable of surviving long periods in the remote countryside with limited resources. Holland said police were aware of the camps, but they were not the focus of Sunday’s search. Ingram is believed to be armed. Members of the public are urged not to approach him, and call Triple Zero if Ingram is sighted. It is not clear what type of firearm Ingram may be carrying, but several spent shotgun shells were seen near where Sophie Quinn and Harris were killed.

Holland said Ingram was believed to be travelling on his own, but could not rule out that locals may be helping the 37-year-old evade authorities.

“We have members of the public and associates being spoken to by detectives as we speak. Obviously, they’re providing us with information about what their knowledge is,” Holland said.

Ingram is believed to still be travelling in his council ute, a single-cab Ford Ranger with registration DM-07-GZ, council signage, a metal tray back, high-visibility markings on the side and an emergency light bar on the roof.

Police have searched and cleared properties in Lake Cargelligo, Euabalong and at Murrin Bridge, an Indigenous community north of Lake Cargelligo where Ingram had often visited friends.

“We are positive [of] the fact that we will locate this [alleged] offender,” Holland said

The maximum temperature in Lake Cargelligo was forecast to reach 44 degrees on Sunday, and stay above 43 degrees for at least a week – conditions police believe would force Ingram to travel after dark.

“I would say with the heat, it would make more sense – if I was doing those things – to obviously move at night,” Holland said.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service (1800RESPECT) on 1800 737 732.

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