Cervantes mystery: Emotions swirl in Mid West town as police investigate human remains and sunken car link

Cervantes is a quiet seaside town on the Mid West coast, a bit busier during school holidays but nonetheless still quite sedate. However, this week locals and visitors have been in collective shock as the tiny town has become the centre of a major crime mystery, involving two scenes in close proximity, seemingly unrelated, and human remains located at one. The bizarre moment that Cervantes lobster fishermen came across a naked man aboard a boat “screaming his lungs out” and saved him after he floated facedown in the ocean near the local jetty were told to The Geraldton Guardian this week. The scene that played out in front of the three fishermen in the early hours of Tuesday is being investigated, as is the grim discovery of human remains in the back of a burnt-out car nearby on Indian Ocean Drive in Nambung. Brandon — who did not want his surname published — said the trio were heading out on the dinghy when they found a car in shallow water about 3am. As the fishermen set out to sea on the work boat, two flares were set off by another lobster boat, Condor, and the crew turned around to assist. “We got closer and realised there was a naked man standing on the bow of it, completely in distress,” Brandon said. It is believed the naked man drove the car into the ocean before untying the boat at the jetty and drifting out to sea. Brandon said the boat had drifted about 500m offshore. “He was carrying on pretty erratically on the boat just screaming at the top of his lungs,” he said. Brandon said the man climbed on the roof and jumped into the water, leaving the crew thinking he was dead as he floated facedown for about 40 seconds. “I don’t know if he passed out or if it was intentional of him laying facedown in the water but it looked like he’d given up, it honestly looked like it was the worst-case scenario,” the deckhand said. The crew pulled him on to the boat and assisted him until authorities arrived where he received medical treatment. “We comforted him. We gave him a towel, we gave him a jacket, we tried to help him the best we could . . . we had no idea he’d done what he’d done,” he said. Many local businesses around Cervantes were not willing to speculate, or make any comment on the matter, after rumours quickly circulated across the small fishing town. But it was clear most locals shared feelings of shock and confusion following the ordeal. David Newing from Cervantes Service Station said Indian Ocean Drive had been closed all of Tuesday and people around town were speculating and in shock over the incident. “It’s different. Certainly it’s a bit unnerving,” he said. “I’ve lived here 23 years and I’ve never heard of anything like this incident at all. We’re lucky if we get cars even broken into.” “Forensic police have been here, the arson squad have been in town as well . . . their presence is still here.” The community initially thought the incident on Indian Ocean Drive was a long weekend road accident, he said. Cervantes Pinnacles Motel general manager Tony Monk agreed the incident had shocked the small fishing town, but he was sure police would get to the bottom of what happened and “we will all go back to our happy selves”. “It was nothing to do with people in town that we are aware of,” he said. “There’s often things up and down the highways north and south of Perth and things can happen, and it just happens to be that Cervantes was chosen that night by a person or people. “Something has unfolded and unfortunately Cervantes has got caught up (in it) but I’m sure the people here feel quite safe, the police have been all over it and I guess we will just wait to see whatever else unfolds. “It’s very busy for us at the moment, being school holidays, and we are also coming off the back of wildflower season . . . but everyone has been very understanding,” he said. Another man in his 20s from Cervantes said he was “pretty shocked about it” and “nothing has happened like this before”. Earlier in the week, police put a call-out for information relating to a 1997 Mitsubishi Pajero they believed was driven at high speed from Perth’s northern suburbs before it crashed and came to a fiery end with a person inside near Cervantes. Benjamin Jack McLaughlin, 20, from Hamilton Hill has been charged over the bizarre incident near Cervantes jetty. He was bailed after appearing in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday on charges of casting away ships, assaulting a police officer and a fisherman who helped rescue him and obstructing police.