Farmers in Victoria are demanding action after a beloved grandfather was savagely murdered on his farm, and suspect a Middle Eastern livestock theft gang is to blame.
The body of father-of-five Richard “Rick” Wills, 65, was found in a shallow grave on his property in Ouyen on Tuesday last week after leaving his home at 8am on April 5, Easter Sunday, to go to work.
Victoria Police said he was fatally shot, and believe he was dragged behind a vehicle on the farm before being buried, and Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Trewavas from the Missing Persons Squad described the murder as a “vicious killing”.
Detectives are now investigating whether the murder was linked to a spate of recent sheep thefts after Mr Wills’ family confirmed he had recently reported livestock missing to police, saying it was an “avenue of inquiry”.
But some locals are calling for authorities to do more, and believe the brutal murder is linked to a Middle Eastern “Merino theft mafia” which has been targeting lambs across country Victoria since at least last year, the Daily Mail reported.
Farmer Kevin Butler referred to a May 2025 incident where police released images of three Middle Eastern men who stole Merino sheep from a farm in Strathlea, and another alleged incident in early April in Kurting, which he said was the “epicentre of this theft epidemic”.
He said a farmer at Brenanah had seen two Middle Eastern men in a ute with no registration scoping out properties, while another local reported on April 12 that about 100 unshorn lambs were allegedly stolen from a sheering shed on a farm at Clunes, near Ballarat.
Mr Butler said a “highly credible and respected fellow farmer” had told him he lost 200 to 300 Merino sheep to livestock gangs every year, and that criminals would take 20 to 40 at a time after lifting gates off hinges or pushing fences over.
The farmer said drones are used to locate the sheep, which are immediately slaughtered, sometimes in a truck, and that Merinos are chosen because they can be easily chased down in open paddocks until they collapse from exhaustion.
Mr Butler said more suspected thieves, “positively identified” as Middle Eastern, were caught in the act in the Golden Triangle region and followed at 10.30pm on Monday night, and demanded more attention from the government and police.
“If this shocking death happened at Bondi, it would be plastered everywhere and like the passion police had in finding Dezi Freeman no matter the cost and with every resource called in but not for this farmer who could have been you or me,” he wrote.
“We’ve heard nothing since from police. The silence here is hardly golden – it smacks of unconscionable indifference and incompetence.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to raise money for Mr Wills’ devastated family, some of whom do not believe a livestock gang were responsible, ABC News reported.
After the body was found, Donna Wills, Mr Wills’ wife of 32 years, described her late husband as a “kind-hearted man” and revealed the last time she saw him was when he kissed her goodbye before leaving for the farm on Easter Sunday.
“If he saw someone stopped on the side of the road he’d be the one who would turn around, go back, and make sure they were alright,” she said.
“He was one to help anyone … would give them anything.
“Why would they want to do it to him?”
In June last year a 68-year-old farmer was violently assaulted and his home burned down after a violent home invasion in Yea, in what police believe may have been a case of mistaken identity.
Victoria Police described the suspects as Middle Eastern in appearance and said they were believed to have spoken Arabic during the attack.
Header image: Left, Richard Wills (GoFundMe). Right, three Middle Eastern suspects in a sheep theft in Strathlea last year (Victoria Police). Bottom right, suspected sheep thieves caught on camera near Calder (Facebook).
The post Farmers suspect Middle Eastern gang behind brutal murder in country Victoria first appeared on The Noticer.
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