Police have charged a 29-year-old man with murder after an alleged random attack on a south coast property more than a year ago.<\/p>\n
Matthew O’Brien was found unconscious with head injuries on a fire trail at a rural property in North Nowra in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Detective Inspector Catherine Flood says more than one person is believed to be involved.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Romy Gilbert)<\/p>\n
South Coast Police District crime manager Detective Inspector Catherine Flood said Mr O’Brien was visiting a friend when he was “randomly” attacked following an altercation with a man not known to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was random, but it was a result of an altercation that took place and that altercation is still being investigated,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
she said.<\/p>\n
Detective Inspector Flood said police were “not ruling out” the likelihood of other people being involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Somebody knows something about this matter, and we appeal to them to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1e5e54456b0731c5c299d81106f05dee.jpeg\")
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Police have launched a fresh search with drones and on foot in the area where the man’s body was found. (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n
Police have previously said in a statement that they were searching for a woman seen leaving the area in a car who they believe could assist with inquiries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Detective Inspector Flood said the friend and owner of the property where the man was attacked was not being treated as a suspect.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He has assisted in the investigation and we maintain contact with him.”<\/p>\n
Crime detectives and officers from the Rescue and Bomb Disposal Unit returned to the scene earlier this month with drones after receiving fresh information regarding the man’s death.<\/p>\n
Detective Inspector Flood said nothing was found during the search, which led to the arrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have charged a 29-year-old man with murder after an alleged random attack on a south coast property…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":528917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,3534,234639,234640,9620,50,7207,5812],"class_list":{"0":"post-528916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-emergency","10":"tag-fire-trail","11":"tag-matthew-obrien","12":"tag-murder","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-police","15":"tag-search"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115925291200747455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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