LAKE CARGELLIGO — Police located a male body in a very decomposed state and a firearm next to an abandoned vehicle at Round Hill nature reserve, and believe the remains could be those of fugitive Julian Ingram. The discovery followed a four-month manhunt for the 37-year-old, who had been sought since January in connection with three fatal shootings near Lake Cargelligo.

The body has not been formally identified, and the cause of death has not been determined. It was not yet known whether the weapon found next to the body was the same allegedly used to kill three people. "At this point, the body appears to have been there for some time," Assistant Commissioner Andrew Holland said.

Ingram was last seen on 22 January driving a Ford Ranger ute with council signage from Lake Cargelligo. That day, Sophie Quinn and her partner John Harris were sitting in a car outside a house in Lake Cargelligo when at least three shots were fired from a ute's driver's side window, killing both. Quinn was seven months pregnant at the time of her death. Shortly afterwards, 50-year-old Nerida Quinn was fatally shot.

Hundreds of police were involved in the search. By March, officers had scoured 60,000 acres, and police offered a A$250,000 reward for information leading to Ingram's arrest. During the search, Holland said: "We believe he is being supported by someone in the community."

Ingram did not hold a gun licence, and police were investigating how he obtained the weapon or weapons allegedly used in the shootings. In February, police announced that a critical incident investigation overseen by the police watchdog would examine Ingram's domestic violence history and access to firearms, forming part of a broader review of how police handled the investigation into the alleged murders.

At the time of the January shootings, Ingram was on bail for alleged domestic violence-related offences against Sophie Quinn. Police had granted him bail on 30 November over counts of stalking and harassment with intent to cause physical harm, one count of common assault, and one count of damage or destroying property. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the November 12 offence. In January, police said there was no evidence Ingram had been stalking or tracking Quinn immediately before the shooting.

Court documents show that approximately a decade before the Lake Cargelligo incident, Ingram told a former partner he had a "gun and a hole" for her new partner and made threats towards her, their child and her mother. He was sentenced to eight months in prison on two counts of stalking or intimidating with intent to cause fear or physical harm and for breaching an AVO over that incident, but the custodial sentence was overturned on appeal. In 2022, he was convicted of grabbing a family member by the throat after she commented about one of his children, and was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order. Since 2014, six apprehended violence orders have been issued against Ingram relating to five different people.