‘Dragged behind a vehicle’: Grim details emerge after missing man Richard Wills shot dead and buried in shallow grave at work

‘He just kissed me goodbye, and I thought I’d see him at lunchtime.’

A gunman remains at large after the shooting murder of a missing man in rural northern Victoria.

Richard Wills, 65, vanished on Easter Sunday and was found in a shallow grave on his Ouyen farm on Tuesday.

“Richard has clearly met with foul play,” Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Trewavas said.

“This is a vicious killing.

“There is some evidence that Ric’s body has been dragged behind a vehicle on that farm.”

Richard’s wife of 32 years Donna Wills last saw her “kind-hearted” and “workaholic” husband as he headed out the door about 8am to work on his farm off the Mallee Hwy at Ouyen — as was his usual routine.

“He just got up and had breakfast and left the house. I was still in bed,” Donna said.

“He just kissed me goodbye, and I thought I’d see him at lunchtime.”

Donna began to grow concerned when Richard did not return home for lunch.

She went to the property after lunch to look for Wills “in vain,” Trewavas said.

“Later that evening she returned with a family friend. The property was searched and there was no sign of Ric anywhere.”

Donna “thought it was odd that he didn’t have his phone with him” — she was worried sick, but “thought maybe a mate has come and they’ve gone for a drive somewhere and perhaps they’ve got a flat tyre.”

But the people she thought he might be with, would have got Richard to call her on their phones if something like that had happened.

When he still had not returned the next morning, she reported Richard missing to Victoria Police, which kickstarted a search involving SES, friends and family, and members of the community within the farm.

Trewavas said that what they found was “confronting”.

An autopsy on Richard’s body has confirmed that he was shot dead.

But who fired the gun and buried Richard remains unknown, as does the unknown killer’s motive.

The 1600-acre sharecropping farm, with sheep and a piggery, and lots of machinery “which Ric spent his time tinkering with and repairing in an effort to sell,” Trewavas said.

The “very remote, very dusty … crime scene has been examined – it’s extensive.”

Despite being in a remote community, Trewavas said that its highway location makes Ric’s farm accessible to passers-by — but he said, “we suspect that a person who knows Ric is responsible for this crime.”

Police investigators have been in Mildura and Ouyen, canvassing the local community, checking CCTV and working through other evidence.

“This crime has happened in a remote community,” Trewavas said.

“There will be somebody in this community who knows what happened.

Donna described her husband as “one to help anyone, kind-hearted, he’d give you anything.”

“Why would they want to do it him?” she asked.

Richard and Donna have five children, and “lots of grandkids that are going to miss him,” his grieving wife said.

Investigations are ongoing, and police are urging anyone with information about the incident to come forward.

“It’s not lost on police that a man who went to work on Easter Sunday, one of the holiest days in his calendar, has not come home,” Trewavas said.