Murder of Chantal Glenda Barnett (27) and Robert John Martinez (26)
By Calvin Gnech, Criminal Lawyer and Legal Practice Director at Gnech and Associates
02 March 2022
Police believe on this day 9 years ago (2 March 2013) both Barnett and Martinez were murdered. Martinez’s body was found in bushland near Rockhampton in 2014 and Barnett’s handbag was found nearby. Ms Barnett is presumed dead but her body has never been found. Both were last seen alive around Rockhampton in early 2013.
In September 2018 two men went on trial in the Supreme Court in Rockhampton for murdering the pair and interfering with their dead bodies. The trial of Robert Armstrong, 33, and Daniel George Hong, 43, was initially described by the prosecution as one that would “expose Rockhampton’s seedy underbelly”.
However, midway through the trial, Hong and Armstrong pleaded guilty to two counts each of interfering with a corpse. The two murder charges, to which the pair had pleaded not guilty were then dismissed. At the conclusion of the matter neither the two men, defence or prosecutors would speak about the outcome of the proceedings.
The murders remains unsolved. A $250,000 reward remains on offer from the Queensland Government for information which leads to the apprehension and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the her murder.
