Saving Candice alva beach stabbings death inquest, dean webber

Man of the family

Corey Christensen, 37, was a husband and father of three children, Chase, Cooper, and Coby.

“I met Corey while out with friends,” Corey's wife, Jaye Christensen, explained.

“Corey was a jovial individual...a jovial individual.

I was quite out there myself, so yeah, I believe we clicked and got along quite well.”

“He was an excellent father - his pride and joy were his sons.”

The gathering

“(Tom and Candice) arrived shortly after the sun set,” Jaye explained to 7NEWS Spotlight.

“I don't recall much about Tom; he was extremely reserved, but Candice...you knew she was there from the start.

She was inebriated...becoming lean and extremely touchy-feely.”

“Tom was simply saying, 'come on, it's time to leave.'

“It was more Candice saying, 'F you, F off.' 'I am not going.'"

“As the night progressed... I've always described the sensation I was getting from her as hairs standing up on the back of my neck,” Jaye explained.

Candice is determined to continue the game with her new friends Corey and Louie after the game concludes.

Unable to convince Candice to abstain from drinking or accompany him, Tom decides to leave alone and sleep in his car.

From the car, he sends one final text message to Candice: 'Thanks for the good times thus far, but I suppose all good things must come to an end.'

Dean Webber, 18, watched the grand final with friends a few houses away before returning to his home where he lived alone to get an early night.

The incident with the buggy

As the party draws to a close and guests begin to depart, Corey's best friend Louie Bengoa offers to take Candice for a buggy ride.

Even with a carton of beer and an unknown number of Bundy and Cokes in his possession, Louie takes off in the buggy with Candice towards the beach.

Candice falls out of the buggy at one point while intoxicated and speeding.

“She said, 'Oh, I injured my shoulder,'" Louie later explained to police.

“I said, 'You're right, it's a minor detail,' and she must have become upset or worried and bolted.”

Rather than returning to the party, Candice seeks assistance by knocking on a random door.

She makes a beeline for Dean Webber's door.

At the door, knock.

Candice knocks on Dean's door around 12 a.m., pleading for assistance.

“That lady was knocking on my door...as I got up and opened the door slightly, she said, 'you need to help me - these blokes have thrown me out of a buggy, and they're watching me now,'" Dean Webber told police during a walkthrough of the scene in 2018.

Louie returns to the party to inform his friend Corey as Candice enters the house.

They choose to awaken Tom, Candice's boyfriend, who is still asleep in his car.

All three climb aboard the buggy and head in search of Candice.

Dean Webber is on the phone to Triple-0 as Louie, Corey, and Tom approach the house.

Dean expresses concern to the operator about his safety.

An ambulance is dispatched in less than nine minutes - but there is a problem.

It comes to an abrupt halt 500 metres from Dean's home due to the threat of violence.

“If there is a perceived threat, such as the possibility of violence at the scene or anything along those lines, then (they) stand by until police arrive,” Josh Davy, a paramedic and Tom's brother, explained.

However, the police were busy that night, and Dean's call was given low priority.

With no assistance on the way, Tom begins calling out for Candice and searching for a way into the house.

Who is the deliverer?

One must consider the possibility that both parties believe they are rescuing Candice that night.

Not only Dean Webber, but Candice's boyfriend Tom and his new friends Corey and Louie, who are aware of her injury and fear for her safety, are also concerned.

In any case, the three men exit the property briefly.

Dean makes a second call to Triple-0 thirty minutes after Candice first arrived at Dean's front door.

“I require police assistance immediately...

Please, I've got two blokes attempting to break in!” Dean communicates with the operator.

The ambulance has been sitting idle for 43 minutes around the corner.

A lethal encounter

It is now 12.48 a.m. on October 1st, 2018.

Outside Dean Webber's home, tensions are rising, while terror is growing inside.

“As soon as they entered, the three of them - I could see them on foot, because they immediately exited and came over, and this is when they began (saying) 'oh where are you, you d***head, don't call the cops, you weak scum',” Dean later told police.

“That is where the threats began to take shape...

I was terrified for my life because the doors were rattling and he was attempting to enter.

“They were going around yelling, 'you know we're going to come in and bash you...we're going to kill you'.”

One of the men outside, local cane farmer Louie Bengoa, is the only survivor.

He claims to have wandered off in the heat of the action.

“I could hear Thomas saying, ‘Candice, come on,'” Louie stated during the videotaped walk-through.“

And then it (became) increasingly noisy and yelling, to the point where he became irritated with her for not responding.

“Then, in what seemed like an instant, I heard a bang...it wasn't glass breaking; I'm not sure if it was a window being forced open or a door.”

Dean claims that he and Candice feared for their lives inside the house.

“I recall being here with Candice...when the first male individual unlocked the door by ripping it up over the latch and sliding it open, I recall (hearing) 'I've got you f**kin' now,'" Dean explained to police.

“They tore the door down and simply said, 'Come here, you little f**kers,' and assaulted us...well, assaulted me.”

Dean then allegedly grabbed a kitchen knife from a nearby bench, according to police.

“I was flipped 180 degrees” (degrees). I went from standing to being on my head, and they simply tossed me down... I believe I struck...my leg...on the chair or bench, but then I must've injured them, and once I was rendered immobile, they fled,” Dean told police.

“I believe I stabbed him through the heart. I had it in (my) left arm...I was simply attempting to protect (myself).”

Dean Webber fatally stabs Corey Christensen in the heart during the confrontation near the door - a single fatal wound.

Corey collapses outside, staggered backwards.

Tom Davy, Candice's boyfriend, is fatally stabbed twice in the heart and also suffers knife wounds to his left cheek, left hand, forearms, and fingers.

“I walked up and saw Thomas...and he came out in a white shirt that was all bloodied and he said ring Triple-0,” Louie stated in a filmed interview.

Candice is still severely injured on the inside, with a dislocated shoulder causing her excruciating pain.

The police arrive at 1.17am, nearly an hour after Dean Webber first requested assistance.

While paramedics work feverishly to save Cory Christensen and Tom Davy's lives, police walk to the front door.

Dean Webber continues to speak with Triple-0.

Dean was read his rights and arrested.

'Daddy was gravely injured.'

Jaye Christensen, Corey's wife, received the tragic news at 3 a.m.

“The female officer advised that Corey had been stabbed and that the wound was fatal,” Jaye explained.

The most difficult part for Jaye was telling their three children.

“I simply had to sit them down and explain to them that something had happened, that their daddy had been seriously injured, and that...he would now have to go to heaven,” Candice's boyfriend, Tom Davy, was also killed.

“The next morning, I was at work...just making a cup of coffee when the local police came around and informed me,” Tom's father, Neil, explained.

“They informed me that Tom had been assassinated in Ayr.”

“We didn't want to believe it,” Tom's mother, Heather, explained.

“Even more so when the police officer stated that Tom had been murdered.

“We couldn't fathom why someone would do such a thing to our son.”

There are no charges.

Although Dean Webber was arrested initially, police decided not to press charges.

“I didn't see (Lead Detective) Gavin (Neal) until the following day; it was around this time that we were informed that no charges would be filed,” Jaye explained.

“They decided it was self-defense, and I recall him saying that if he were in that position, he would do the same thing.”

The examination

According to the families, police investigation reports cast doubt on Dean Webber's story.

Dean's front door is a sliding glass door secured by two screws.

Dean is adamant that the door was forced open, but the police report found no evidence of 'forced entry,' though it does not exclude the possibility that the door was lifted off its hinges.

Additionally, Dean claims that the three men attempted entry into the house from multiple locations.

“That is untrue,” Heather stated.

“There are no forensics, no fingerprints, and nothing on anything except the door they opened to enter.”

Following Corey's stabbing, Tom Davy – Candice's boyfriend – fought Dean, battering him.

However, Dean used a knife in that fight – and Tom's blood, his DNA, is found throughout.

This suggests a frenzied attack rather than a defensive encounter to Tom's family.

“I believe Corey was murdered in the doorway and staggered out onto the footpath, where he died,” Neil stated. "Tom was behind him, and Tom then entered." I believe it was an ambush; I believe the bloke had already decided on his course of action before they entered.”

Dean asserts that the three men broke into his house that night, but forensic reports contradict him.

Corey was the first victim, and his blood was discovered only outside Dean's house, on the railing and concrete.

“The evidence established that not a single piece of Corey's DNA was found in that house,” Jaye stated.

Louie Bengoa, the third man present that night, claims he was not involved in any attack and that no trace of his DNA was discovered.

However, he has never adequately explained what occurred during the drunken buggy ride that left Candice Locke with such serious injuries.

What have they become?

Louie initially drove Candice in the buggy and later returned her to the house where she sought refuge with Corey Christensen and Tom Davy.

He was the only survivor of the three.

Denham Hitchcock tracked down Louie to ascertain what occurred that night, but he refused to answer any questions.

Candice Locke has recovered from that traumatic night.

She now has a new partner and is employed by a bank. Additionally, she refused to speak. Spotlight on the evening's events.

Dean Webber continues to reside in Ayr.

He has been unable to return to work, and a Coronial Inquest determined that he is exempt from giving evidence in person due to his acute PTSD.

The decision has outraged and angered the families of the two men who died.

“He is the person who took the lives of two people - he should be required to testify,” Heather stated.

“I believe Dean should be properly cross-examined,” Jaye stated.

As a result, Spotlight did not approach Dean about conducting this investigation.

Right to self-defense

There are numerous perspectives in this story, and the issues raised are significant.

However, how far are you willing to go to protect yourself and your family?

“Well, you have the right to self-defense,” Gavin Neal, the case's lead investigator, stated.

“I would say that you should do everything possible to avoid resorting to that type of thing, but if you truly believe that it is you or them, you have that legal protection.”

Neil and Heather continue to view their son as a hero.

“He simply knew Candice was in trouble - 'I'll go and assist, I'll go and rescue her.'

“To us, it's as straightforward as that.”