Luke Anthony Murray

Luke Anthony Murray was born on 2 May 1976 in Perth, Western Australia. He was the youngest of four children with three older sisters. His parents separated shortly after his birth and Luke grew up in and around Perth, where he was educated.

He commenced working as a deck hand on a commercial deep sea fishing vessel operating out of Denham around 2008, and started working on the Napoleon, a deep sea crabbing vessel, in January 2010. Luke was well known and loved around the area and recognised as ‘a very nice guy’.

The Napoleon was owned by AUSASIA Ocean Fishing Pty Ltd and onboard on 15 August 2016 were Andrew Wassman (Skipper), Luke Murray, Jeremy Draper and Richard Thorn (Crew).

The Napoleon left Denham around 3pm on Sunday, 14 August to travel to Steep Point, approximately 32 nautical miles west of Denham. They reached Steep Point around 7pm, where the Napoleon was put on autopilot while heading towards the fishing grounds south west of Steep Point. From Steep Point, the crew took approximately two hour watches each, while the vessel was on autopilot heading out to the fishing grounds.

Wassman woke at about midnight when the Napoleon had reached the fishing location and took over the watch from Thorn, and saw both Draper and Murray asleep in their bunks. He switched the engine off at 12.19am on 15 August, with the generator running and the deck lights on.

The weather conditions were good, with a light to moderate south west wind and an intermittent one to two metre swell. He returned to his bunk where he read for a while and last saw Murray in his bed at 12.45am.

At 6.15 am, Wassman started the engine, which usually alerted the crew that they were expected to get up and be ready. Both Draper and Thorn arose, but Murray did not appear.

This was unusual as he was nearly always the first up, having a cigarette or breakfast.

At 6.20am Wassman went down to check on Murray, but he was not in his bunk. On alerting the others, they immediately searched the entire boat and the surrounding ocean.

Wassman then rang his wife, via the satellite phone, giving her their current co-ordinates and asked her to contact the Water Police to advise them of the need for a search for a man overboard.

The Napoleon started searching and returned to the start point of their drift line, the crew taking vantage point on the bow and on top of the wheelhouse for good visibility in all directions across the ocean.

The official marine search and rescue operation and police investigation commenced at 6.47am the same morning. At 1pm, the fishing vessel Maverick joined the search, along with the vessel Sea Jay and the Fisheries vessel Houtman, around 5pm. There was no sighting of the deceased.

The search was suspended around 2pm on Tuesday, 16 August, however the Napoleon remained out until they were no longer able to see, and then returned to Denham arriving at about 7am on 17 August.

An inquest was held at the Carnarvon Coroner’s Court on 18 and 19 January 2018, and found that the identity and death of Luke Anthony Murray had been established beyond all reasonable doubt, and that his death occurred on 15 August 2016 as a result of drowning in the Indian Ocean, west of Cararang Peninsula, Western Australia.

Luke Murray was 40 years of age, not married, but left a young daughter from a previous relationship.