This is a tragic Gold Coast story. It involves looking behind us, into the darkness. There will be no happy endings. No positives to speak of.
I personally didn’t know Miles Buisson. He was a few years younger than me. A good-looking bloke just kicking off into adulthood. He liked a surf and looked the part with shoulder length, ocean-bleached blond hair and broad smile.
Miles graduated from Merrimac High School in 1988 and landed a job as an apprentice sign-writer. A well-liked member of the local Christian Boardriders Association and talented artist from all reports. Life was going to plan.
He was from a good family too. Miles’ mum Brenda was a council librarian in Southport. A friendly, bookish looking lady. I fondly remembered her from many afternoons, back in the mid-eighties, studying at the library on the upper level of the Australia Fair Shopping Centre. Dad Derek ran a local screen-printing business. Miles, 18, was the couples only child.
What happened to Miles at The Spit on the 7th of January 1990 does not get spoken about all that much anymore. The recollections of it are too disconcerting. A man called Colin Jeffrey Florey killed Miles in a completely random and deadly assault. It was a Sunday evening, around 8.10pm, when Miles and his high school sweetheart of two years, left Fisherman’s Wharf and headed across Seaworld Drive to the beach. They were just north of the Sheraton Mirage hotel near Philip Park. Sitting in the sand dunes as teenagers do. Minding their own business and enjoying each other’s company. Appearing from the darkness Florey attacked them from behind. He used part of a broken tree branch as a weapon. He bashed Miles with it, striking him three times, causing fatal head injuries. The petite girl was beaten and raped. He placed sand in the victim’s mouth to quieten or possibly suffocate her. It was reported later on that Florey laughed hysterically as he tried to strangle her to death. Somehow, she survived. The media dubbed the unknown assailant, the “Sand Dunes Killer”.
The girl was only 17. Described as being pretty and popular, she was never named in the media. The teenager remained in our deepest prayers as she commenced her long physical and mental recovery. We wondered who this girl was and what happened to her as the years passed? Maybe she finished high school somehow? Perhaps she even went to uni or found a job she really enjoyed. Did she move away from the coast to start a new life? In time become someone else… and not just a victim of an unspeakable crime. Eventually meeting someone she could open herself up to, trust on some emotional level and fall in love with…
For the fortnight the killer was on the run the coastal community was genuinely unnerved this maniac would attack again. Fortunately, the police apprehended him at Coffs Harbour and Florey was extradited back to Queensland to be charged with murder, attempted murder, rape and grievous bodily harm. Family and friends of Miles attended Florey’s hearing for the heinous crimes at Southport Magistrates Court. Shouts of “kill him” rang out from the public gallery. After pleading guilty before trial, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Desmond Derrington. In his remarks the judge described Florey as being guilty of “the most vile of human conduct”.
Which brings us to the question – who was Florey? Originally from England, he had spent some time in Victoria before moving north. Newspaper reports stated he was a one-time landscaper, but by January 1990, Florey was a 24-year-old drifter with no fixed address. He had been sleeping on the beach at Surfers Paradise in the days leading up to the attack. Asked why he committed theses monstrous actions against the teenagers, Florey confessed to investigators, “I wanted to rape the girl. It’s just pressure that’s been building up in me for years”.
Very much a pathetic excuse from a depraved, worthless individual. And yes, he’s still in jail.
So what’s the point to all this? Where does shining the “spotlight” on these tragedies, these so-called true crime stories, lead us? For me, it’s to acknowledge the victims and those left behind. To dwell, even for a moment, on the meaningless destruction of lives. Where possible, gain a deeper understanding of the ongoing pain and trauma caused by these incidents. And, to continue to remind future generations of these devastating events and cautionary tales that affected our communities.
The True Crime Spotlight website is dedicated to Miles Dylan Buisson and the other victims of homicide from the Gold Coast region.