Coroner releases findings into Kirkstall killings inquest

Coroner Katherine Lorenz released her findings on October 10 into the deaths of Travis Cashmore, 45, Kevin Timothy Patrick Doherty (aka Knowles), 49, and Benjamin Paul Ray, 48, on July 22, 2022.

She found Cashmore shot and killed Doherty and Ray near the intersection of Scotts North Road and the Koroit-Kirkstall Road after years of "growing animosity" between Doherty and Cashmore.

In her findings the coroner said a staff member at Koroit Newsagency and Lotto reported Cashmore attended the business in the months before the bloodshed and while looking at the front page of The Standard, he said: "Do you know if Kevin Knowles is out of jail?".

Cashmore then reportedly said words to the effect: "He has threatened to kill me several times".

It was the same newsagency Cashmore attended on the morning of the 2022 killings.

He drove his white Ford van to the shop to purchase Oz Lotto tickets, as he did every week.

The coroner said the staff member who served him reported nothing unusual about his demeanour, describing him as his "usual smiling self".

Cashmore then headed back to Kirkstall.

Residential CCTV footage showed his van travelling north on Aire Street at 10.03am.

Seconds later Doherty and Ray were seen in the same footage walking south down Aire Street towards Kirkstall-Koroit Road.

There was speculation there must have been a trigger interaction between Cashmore and Doherty/Ray which prompted Cashmore to test fire a gun and then go and hunt them down - including driving over their bodies.

The coroner reported Cashmore arriving home at 10.07am - eight minutes before a residential CCTV near his home recorded what sounded to be an audible gunshot.

Cashmore then left in the same van, heading east and catching up with Doherty and Ray.

The coroner said she was satisfied Cashmore intentionally killed the two men by discharging a 12-gauge shotgun at them which inflicted unsurvivable injuries. He then used the van to run them both over.

Cashmore then drove to his Chamberlain Street home and took his own life.

The findings revealed a 12-gauge shotgun found at Cashmore's home had the barrels shortened and a faulty right firing pin.

That meant the right barrel was incapable of being discharged.

The left barrel had blood-stains near the muzzle.

It is not known how Cashmore acquired the shotgun, which was not registered and he did not hold a firearm licence to possess it.

During the coroner's inquest The Standard reported that two days before the double murder-suicide, the killer requested police leave a gun on the Koroit police station counter so he could "take care" of one of the victims.

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