Former bikie ‘enforcer’ Bronson Ellery and ex-girlfriend found dead in Gold Coast unit
UPDATE: Police are not ruling out the possibility of a double homicide with a killer on the run after a former bikie enforcer and his ex-girlfriend were found dead in Southport on Friday night.
Police are approaching the grisly apartment scene where they found ex-Bandidos bikie Bronson Ellery, 24, and his former partner Shelsea Schilling with an open mind, the Sunday Mail reported this morning.
Police sources have also confirmed Miss Schilling had obtained a domestic violence order against Ellery.
EARLIER: A NOTORIOUS Gold Coast criminal known as ‘Solitary Son’ and his ex-girlfriend have been found dead in a Southport unit, sparking a murder investigation.
Former bikie enforcer Bronson Ellery, 24, and his ex Shelsea Schilling, 20, were found dead in the common area of a Johnston Street, Southport unit by police at 4.40pm yesterday.
Ellery, who was known as Lizard Man to police because of his full-face tattoos, was a former Bandido bikie associate and had been in and out of jail in recent years.
ELLERY ADMITS TO STRONG-ARMING WITNESS
Police are treating the shock deaths as a homicide investigation — meticulously combing the ground-floor unit, which is nestled between a coffee shop and industrial precinct, centimetre-by-centimetre.
Detective Senior Sergeant Matthew Ward said no obvious weapon has been found but they believe the pair died in “unknown circumstances’.
“We don’t have any information (about how they died) at this stage apart from the fact that we have a female and a male within the address,” he said.
“Anything is possible. We’re appealing to anyone with knowledge of the persons who occupied this address or who were associated to this address — we’re seeking them to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers or the Gold Coast CIB directly.”
Ms Schilling’s heartbroken mother Bonnie Markwell Mobbs immediately took to Facebook after hearing of her daughter’s death.
“Bastard had no life, took his and my baby girl. Rott (sic) in hell Bronson. Let my angel be safe,” she wrote.
“I can’t believe my girl is gone! I want to believe it’s not true. But it is my heart aches.
“We are not yet to know the details till tomorrow. Thank you for everyone’s support and yes Shelsea was a kind hearted beautiful soul. I just wish she would come back. Shelsea had so much life to give. Cut short, only turning 21 years old at the end of November.”
Ms Markwell Mobbs had been desperately trying to find her Labrador-based daughter who had been missing since Wednesday afternoon.
“Please help, I am scared for her life,” Ms Markwell Mobbs posted on Facebook yesterday morning.
“This is not like her character. She always rings and we talk everyday. For her not to call back is so unusual.”
Ellery had many enemies through his association with the Gold Coast underworld and news of his and Ms Schilling’s death prompted one person to comment “R. I. P Bronson Ellery you colossal sh**bag. The world is now a better place”.
Friends say he had been in ‘a bad place’ recently but had been trying to focus on his music career where he had released a death metal single ‘In Memory of Us’.
Soltary Son single 'In Memory of Us'
A woman, not Miss Schilling, who Ellery was believed to be dating at the time of his death gave the Gold Coast Bulletin permission to publish her tribute:
‘To think that only less than 10 days ago you were with me and in my arms, talking about all the things that didn’t make sense to us, all the possibilities. You were not crazy my dear, just misunderstood, and now a piece of my heart is gone with you forever,” she wrote.
“God I wish I’d taken more photos. The most kind-hearted, caring, spontaneous man that I could not get enough of. I will miss you more than anyone could ever comprehend.
“Forever grateful of the last goodbye I had with you and how special it was.”
Ellery had a long criminal history.
In March last year, he walked free from court after spending almost four months in custody for trying to bully another man into withdrawing a complaint to police.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice in Southport District Court
The court heard Ellery called a man, who complained to police about Ellery’s friend damaging a car, to tell him to withdraw his police statement.
He told the complainant to tell police it was a case of mistaken identity and said if he didn’t withdraw the statement he would “(expletive) things up”.
Ellery also threatened to drop into his workplace then turned up there the next day.
At the time of sentencing, Judge Leanne Clare said it was a very pointed, deliberate attempt to bribe and strong arm the complainant into withdrawing his statement.
The charges and threats came in the wake of an interview in which Ellery claimed to have left the Bandidos after the murder of close friend Max Waller in 2013.
“It was bad,” he said in the report. “I didn’t expect that to happen. He didn’t deserve that.”
Ellery claimed he had left the criminal underworld and his mother, Suzi, protested her son is “no bikie”, just a young man who “loves tattoos” and has managed to cover most of his body with ink at a very early age.
“I’ve only one goal, to have my music heard by the whole world and be famous doing music,” he said at the time.
Police had said Ellery hoped the arrest would be covered in the media to increase exposure to his single, In Memory of Us.
It received a mixed reception, with critics panning the singing, production and quality of the single.
Originally published as Police ‘open-minded’ on bikie, ex deaths