The smirking face of evil cop killer Stacey Prepare may be revealed for the primary time – from a really totally different chapter in her life, when she was a revered college principal.
The mother-of-two was shot useless alongside her husband Gareth and his brother Nathaniel throughout a dramatic police shootout at their property in Wieambilla, west of Brisbane, about 10.30pm on Monday.
The firefight got here after the camouflage-clad trio killed younger constables Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26, once they went to the home searching for Nathaniel, who was reported lacking a yr in the past.
Gareth and Stacey Prepare had religiously stayed off the grid after the paranoid pair had been caught up in in weird excessive conspiracy theories – together with anti-vax beliefs that noticed her stop her job as a head of curriculum at a close-by college not too long ago.
Virtually no photographs exist of the killer couple however Each day Mail Australia has obtained a picture of Stacey Prepare posing with college students when she was the principal at Quinalow P-10 State College, north-west of Brisbane, at an awards night time in 2010.
Carrying a pearl necklace and patterned beige gown, she smiled awkwardly for the digicam within the uncommon image.
The smirking face of evil cop killer Stacey Prepare (pictured again proper) may be revealed for the primary time from a really totally different chapter in her life, when she was a revered college principal
It was one in every of a protracted record of colleges in Queensland the place, referred to as Mrs Prepare, she had stints as head instructor.
All three killers had labored for Queensland Division of Schooling within the final 15 years, however all had stop by the point of the savage ambush on Monday.
Stacey Prepare was additionally principal at Herberton, Mitchell and Proston State Colleges and others in far north Queensland round Mount Isa, earlier than taking over a submit as head of curriculum and a instructor’s aide at Tara Shire State School in 2019.
Nathaniel Prepare (pictured) was once a faculty principal, like his sister-in-law Stacey Prepare
However the staunch anti-vaxxer stop that job final December reasonably than settle for a Covid vaccination.
Gareth Prepare additionally resigned from the Division in Might 2016, his particular position unknown.
In the meantime, Nathaniel Prepare resigned from the Division in March 2020, a spokesperson for the Queensland Authorities stated.
None of them had been topic to any Departmental disciplinary proceedings on the time of their departures, and Nathaniel Prepare went on to work within the college system within the central west of NSW.
A former scholar at Tara Shire State School, instructed Each day Mail Australia that Stacey Prepare felt as if she needed to stop her job because of the college’s necessary immunisation coverage.
Like her husband and brother-in-law, Mrs Prepare believed in a spread of false conspiracy theories – hers centring round issues about Covid vaccines.
Constables Rachel McCrow, 29 (left) and Matthew Arnold, 26, (proper) had been each gunned down upon coming into Gareth Prepare’s property in Wieambilla, rural Queensland
4 officers had been at this Wains Highway property at Wieambilla once they had been fired upon
The previous scholar stated Mrs Prepare was ‘her personal individual, however good’ and lived as one thing of a recluse – solely ever travelling into city in Tara, about 45 minutes from her property, to go to work.
Like many individuals within the Wieambilla space, the previous scholar heard gunshots on Monday night and was shocked to be taught the shoot-out occurred near her house.
She stated it was ‘unsettling’ and he or she felt rattled, however was much more shocked to be taught her previous instructor was caught up within the incident.
Earlier than the murderous trio moved to Wieambilla, the three of them owned a four-bedroom house collectively in Millstream, about 150km south-west of Cairns in Far North Queensland, earlier than they bought it in 2009.
A former neighbour from Millstream described the Trains to the Each day Mail Australia as ‘paranoid’ and aggressive’ individuals who did not need any consideration.
The property, owned by Gareth, who spoke of prepping his house for an apocalypse, and his spouse Stacey was effectively off the grid, had in depth photo voltaic panels and water tanks
‘They simply weren’t good folks and confirmed the potential for simply this form of factor even approach again then,’ he stated.
‘That they had barbed wire and gates and fences across the property too – that’s regular on rural properties like these, however they’d surveillance cameras and spotlights and issues like that which was a bit out of the odd again then.’
He stated Stacey and Gareth lived on the property full time, and Nathaniel would keep there on the weekends.
’That they had youngsters who can be within the 20s now – they clearly don’t stay with their mother and father any extra although,’ the previous neighbour added.
After they bought the Millstream property in 2009, the trio formally modified their house handle to the handle of Proston State College – the place Mrs Prepare labored because the principal for a short while.
Nathaniel and his father Ronald Prepare hadn’t spoken for 23 years – however he co-owned property together with his different son, Gareth.
On Tuesday, exterior his Toowoomba house, the retired pastor instructed the Chinchilla Information: ‘I’ve misplaced two youngsters.’
One of many two surviving officers, Constable Keeley Brough (pictured) fled into surrounding bushland
A 3rd officer, Constable Randall Kirk, 28, and a quickly to be father-of-two, was shot within the leg however managed to flee. He’s now recovering in hospital
‘I’m not going to share something with you, you possibly can speculate and make up as a lot as you need,’ Mr Prepare stated.
‘I’ve already had conversations with police.’
It’s understood Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, arrived within the first car, and met up with a second automotive containing Constable Keely Brough and Constable Randall Kirk, each aged 28, earlier than approaching the property.
McCrow and Arnold then honked their horn to alert the residents of their presence. When there was no motion from inside the home, the 4 officers bought out of their automobiles and jumped over the locked fence.
Seconds later, a bathe of bullets descended on the 4 officers, believed to have been fired by Nathaniel and Gareth Prepare and Gareth’s spouse Stacey.
Constance McCrow and Constable Arnold had been immediately hit, and fell to the bottom.
A 3rd officer, Constable Randall Kirk, 28, and a quickly to be father-of-two, was shot within the leg however managed to flee. He’s now recovering in hospital.
The fourth cop, Keely Brough, 28, was capable of escape to cover in close by bushes because the gunmen tried to hunt her down.
The killers moved on the injured cops and shot them useless, point-blank whereas stealing their weapons whereas Ms Brough scrambled away.
Neighbour Alan Dare (pictured) was shot useless by the armed trio after he went to research the gunshots
The terrified officer texted her family members telling them she felt her time was practically up. The murderous trio then set hearth to the bush in a bid to flush her out.
An harmless bystander, Alan Dare, 58, who lived subsequent door raced over after listening to the commotion however died after being caught within the crossfire.
On Tuesday, Each day Mail Australia revealed the Trains had spent years fortifying the wood house right into a makeshift bunker to attempt to fend off an assault by police which they’d lengthy anticipated.
That they had additionally been bingeing on methamphetamine, with Gareth posting more and more weird conspiracy theories on-line that claimed the 1996 Port Arthur bloodbath was a army operation and Princess Diana was killed as a ‘blood sacrifice’.
Gareth and Stacy Prepare had purchased the two-bedroom wood house and 45 hectare property for a discount $95,000 seven years in the past.
Since then, an in depth member of the family instructed one native they’d arrange elaborate defences, and moved it off the grid, putting in photo voltaic panels, satellite tv for pc dishes and rainwater and septic tanks.
