Crime Investigation Australia: Conviction in Donald Mackay case

This excerpt is from an episode of true crime documentary series Crime Investigation Australia (2007), about the murder of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay. It details some of the findings of a Special Commission into the case.

Mackay was an aspiring local politician in Griffith who became a police informant, blowing the whistle on a group of local criminals with Italian mafia connections who were making millions in the growing and distribution of marijuana in the NSW Riverina district.

As a result of Mackay exposing the drug ring, a contract was put out for his murder and on 15 July 1977, Mackay was shot in a Griffith hotel car park after leaving the local pub. Mackay's car was found with his blood and other evidence on and around it, but Mackay himself was nowhere to be found.  

While a man was charged with conspiring to murder Mackay, no one has ever been charged or served time for his actual murder. Despite numerous searches throughout the district over the decades, his remains have never been recovered.