Accused killer's name change a mystery

Daniel Morcombe. Picture: Supplied. Source: The Courier-Mail

Daniel's parents Denise and Bruce Morcombe arrive at court for day one of the committal hearing. Picture: Philip Norrish. Source: news.com.au

Daniel Morcombe touched the heart of a nation. Picture: Supplied.
Source: The Courier-Mail

• Brett Peter Cowan changed his name to Shadoo Nunya Hunter
• The meaning of Cowan's new name remains a mystery
• Cowan to be addressed by his natural name at trial

DEFENCE lawyers for the man accused of Daniel Morcombe's murder do not know why their client changed his name prior to his arrest.

Brett Peter Cowan changed his name to Shadoo (pronounced Shadow) Nunya Hunter in the years between Daniel's disappearance and the 2010 inquest into his suspected murder, at which Cowan was a person of interest.

Within months of the inquest being adjourned in 2011, Cowan was charged with murder, child stealing, deprivation of liberty, indecent treatment of a child and interfering with a corpse.

The 43-year-old's odd name change was revealed during the cross-examination of a lead investigator at his committal hearing in February.

At the committal, defence lawyer Michael Bosscher asked Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen Blanchfield whether the accused had legally changed his name to Shadoo Nunya Hunter.

''My understanding is that is now his legal name,'' the detective said.

Tim Meehan, of Bosscher Lawyers, told news.com.au that the defence team became aware of the name change upon taking on their client.

"He hasn't (provided an explanation for the name change) and it's not something we've pushed with him," he said.

"I can't guess as to what the motivation was or whether there's any special meaning or whether it attaches to anything in popular culture or whether it's just a name.

"People change their names all the time - it's not anything unusual. People do it often and for any number of different reasons."

Mr Meehan said the defence team addressed Cowan by his natural name and that his client had never insisted on being called Shadoo.

It is understood police were aware of the name change at the time of Cowan's arrest but charged him under his natural name anyway.

Mr Meehan said he was unsure what name Cowan's family used to address him.

"I don't talk about his family with him," he said.

"(Our communication) is just solely related to us defending him."

While the meaning of Shadoo Nunya Hunter is unknown, the name has a range of popular culture inferences.

Shadow Hunters is a survival board game set in a forest in which three groups of characters - the Shadows, creatures of the night; the Hunters, humans who try to destroy supernatural creatures; and the Neutrals, civilians caught in the middle of this ancient battle - struggle against each other to survive. 

The key to winning is to identify allies and enemies because once a players' identity is revealed, their enemies will attack with impunity.

There is a series of Shadowhunter novels in which shadowhunters, a magical race of beings that are half angel and half human, endeavour to protect the world from demons and other supernatural forces.

There is a Shadow Hunter comic book series by Virgin Comics and porn star Jenna Jameson.

There is also a 13-episode documentary television series about the paranormal called Shadow Hunter.

The only known meaning for "Nunya" is that it is slang for "none of your business".

It is believed Cowan probably changed his name in his home state of Western Australia.

The WA Department of the Attorney General said police checks were not performed against every name-change application but that the Registry ran police checks "in certain circumstances".

A trial date for Cowan, who remains segregated from other inmates at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Queensland, is expected to soon be set for as early as this year. 

Mr Meehan said the defence team were ready.

"It just needs to be done," he said.

"We're happy to just get in and do it really.

"(A trial this year would be good) for absolutely everyone involved."

News.com.au understands Cowan will be addressed by his natural name at his trial.

However, University of Adelaide Advocacy and Justice Unit director David Caruso said this would change if Cowan was found guilty.

"If he's convicted he has to be sentenced and so forth as the law recognises him and the law recognises him by his legal name," he said.

Follow @itsKShort or email kristin.shorten@news.com.au

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Sinkholes: Silent killers beneath us

A man has disappeared into a sinkhole while on the golf course in the US

Crews have begun the demolition of a Florida home over a huge sinkhole which swallowed a man.

A sinkhole swallows an entire building complex in China's southern Guangdong Province, state media reports. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

This gigantic sinkhole covered a street intersection in downtown Guatemala City in 2010. Sinkholes are formed when the land surface above collapses or sinks into subterranean cavities filled with acidic water.
  Source: AP

• Now is the season for sinkholes
• Formed when water erodes rock under surface of earth
• Results are sudden, spectacular and deadly
• Pictures: Sinkholes around the world

ONE month after a sinkhole swallowed and killed a man as he dozed in his bedroom, another has opened up in the same suburb, forcing residents to evacuate.

Authorities say a sinkhole opened between two homes in Seffner on Saturday night and the houses have been evacuated as a precaution.

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico told The Miami Herald the hole was estimated at 3m across and more than 3m deep.

The new hole is about 3km from where  Jeff Bush was swallowed up by a hole on the night of February 28 this year. 

Bush, 37, was in the bedroom of his home at Seffner, that night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room.

The sinkhole - one of hundreds that open up each year in across the United States - was about 4-metres across and ended up destroying Bush's house.

His body has not been found. And is unlikely to be, with engineners saying it was too dangerous to retrieve Bush's body, so they demolished the home and filled the hole with gravel. 

Demolition experts watch as the home of Jeff Bush, 37, is destroyed after a sinkhole opened up underneath swallowing Bush, 37, in Seffner, Florida. The 6m-wide opening of the sinkhole was almost covered by the house. Bush's body was never recovered. Source: AP

Mark Mihal was luckier.

Mihal was on the  fairway at the 14th hole of a southwestern Illinois golf course on March 12 when a pit - 5.5 metres deep and 3 metres wide - swallowed him.

“I felt the ground start to collapse and it happened so fast that I couldn’t do anything,” Mr Mihal said.

“I reached for the ground as I was going down and it gave way, too. It seemed like I was falling for a long time. The real scary part was I didn’t know when I would hit bottom and what I would land on.”

Friends managed to hoist Mr Mihal to safety with a rope after about 20 minutes.

Hank Martinez,Ed Magaletta and Russ Nobbe, look into the sinkhole that swallowed fellow golfer Mark Minhal at the Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo, Ill. Mihal was hoisted to safety with a rope and suffered a dislocated shoulder. AP/Courtesy of golfmanna.com, Mike Peters) Source: AP

One of the most spectacular sinkholes of recent years was in a crowded suburb of Guatemala City when a huge hole - 40m across and more than 30-storeys deep - swallowed an entire building in 2010.

Miraculously, only three people died.

The hole may have taken months or even years to form. But in seconds, it turned into a killer.

Experts suspect a tropical storm, which swept through the country and dumped more than a metre of rain, was likely the final trigger.

This gigantic sinkhole covered a street intersection in downtown Guatemala City in 2010. A day earlier authorities blamed the heavy rains caused by tropical storm Agatha as the cause of the crater that swallowed a a three-story building. At least three people died. AP Photo/Guatemala's Presidency, Luis Echeverria Source: AP

While sinkholes are less common in Australia, they do happen.

In 2011, at Inskip beach, north of Tin Can Bay,a 100m-wide section of beach was swallowed by a sinkhole.

Campers on Inskip Peninsula watched in awe as chunks of sand were sucked out to sea, followed by trees and signs.

Gympie police district duty officer Sergeant Vic Tipman said sinkholes - which can swallow portions of beach as big as houses - were common at Inskip.

"You've got to be careful driving up there," he said.

Jack Reed is held back by granddad Darryl at the edge of a sinkhole which swallowed most of the beach at Inskip Point, north of Brisbane, in 2011. Picture: Glenn Barnes Source: The Courier-Mail

Given the frequency of sinkholes - especially in some parts of the US - it's surprising more people are not killed.

The scary thing is these subterranean terrors can happen without warning.

One minute you're standing on terra firma; the next, the earth beneath your feet has disappeared.

Across Florida this time of year, it's the start of what's unofficially considered the "sinkhole season," State Geologist Jonathan Arthur said.

It coincides with the beginning of the state's rainy season and usually lasts until the end of the northern hemisphere summer.

"Florida is famous for bugs, alligators, pythons, hurricanes and now sinkholes," said Larry McKinnon, a Hillsborough sheriff's office spokesman. "I think our salvation is that for most of the time, our weather is picture-perfect."

But it's also the weather – along with man-made factors – that exacerbate sinkholes, experts said.

Arthur said February is usually when the state is at its driest, but it's also the start of the rainy season. Acidic rain can, over time, eat away the limestone and natural caverns that lie under much of the state, causing sinkholes. Both extremely dry weather and very wet weather can trigger sinkholes, he said.

"An extensive drought can cause soil and sediment over a cavity to be extremely dry and collapse," said Arthur.

On the other hand, following Tropical Storm Debby in 2012, dozens of sinkholes formed in counties north of Tampa because of the rain.

In Hillsborough County, an area particularly susceptible to sinkholes where Jeff Bush was killed, engineers and county officials don't know exactly why the sinkhole formed and said they will likely never know.

In Pinellas County, about 50km away from Seffner, fire-rescue workers in the community of Palm Harbor said they asked two people to evacuate a home after the residents reported "extensive cracking on the interior and exterior of the home."

A truck hangs over the edge of a sinkhole that opened up in the parking lot of Hughes Relocation Service in Salt Springs, Florida, in 2012. Sinkholes are com,mon Florida, espcially during rainy season. AP Photo/The Ocala Star-Banner, Alan Youngblood Source: AP

A county building inspector said the home was safe to live in, but the homeowner was seeking an engineer's opinion.

Arthur said he looked at 50 years of data and found that there is usually an uptick of reported sinkholes in February, with an increase until about July, when activity tapers off. December and January have typically low sinkhole activity.

Florida tracks naturally-occurring sinkholes and other ground collapses following a busted water main, development and groundwater pumping for crops.

In 2010, strawberry farmers in eastern Hillsborough County pumped water from the aquifer onto their crops during cold weather so that the water would freeze on the crops, creating a layer of ice that protects the berries.

So much water was pumped that more than 65 sinkholes opened in the area and wells went dry.

"When they take water out of the ground it's like taking air out of a balloon," said Bill Fernandez, a Florida sinkhole repair expert.

This massive sinkhole opeebnd up near Daisetta, Texas on May 7, 2008. A zigzagging hole believed to be as long as two football fields and up to 35m deep threatened to gobble up nearby tanks and other oilfield equipment. AP Photo/The Beaumont Enterprise, Dave Ryan Source: AP

"When you suck water out of the ground, you change the hydrostatic pressure underground and that's what can cause sinkholes."

Arthur added that moving a lot of dirt around for development can also trigger sinkholes. On Sunday in Largo, a failure in a pipe in a mall's stormwater control system under the parking lot caused the ground to collapse.

"There are a lot of variables," said Arthur. "Sinkholes are naturally occurring. Regardless of human activity they would occur."

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