Year in review – March 2017

Mullet memory: A woman claims in court she was able to identify the man who fired a series of shots into her house because she recognised his mullet. “He’s always had a mullet ever since I have known him,” she says.

Flood chaos: Blocked drains and a heavy downpour shuts down part of the M1 Princes Motorway at Dapto.

Not reality: Wollongong’s My Kitchen Rules contestants Mell and Cyn object to the way they were portrayed. “It’s a load of bull,” Mell claims,” that’s not what we are. They’ve edited us severely”.

Unnoticed: A driver is stood down pending an investigation after a student from Peterborough special needs school was left in a bus parked in a depot for six hours.

Sacked: The Steelers Club punts its general manager Scott Miles over fraud involving a substantial amount of money. It would later be revealed Miles had fleeced the club of around $800,000 over seven years to fund a gambling problem.

On the run: Prisoner Jason Rees escapes from police custody while at Wollongong Hospital. He had been arrested earlier that day over alleged firearm offences. He would be re-arrested four days later following reports of a man attacked with an ax.

​Road tragedy: Julie Bullock and her seven-year-old son Hunter die in a head-on collision on the Hume Motorway at Pheasants Nest. Athena Vibert, the driver of one of the cars, will later be charged with negligent driving after police allege she crossed onto the wrong side of the road.

Cancer fears: Soil at a Helensburgh building site will be tested after residents raised fears of a high rate of cancer cases in the vicinity. Testing by the EPA does not turn up any “contaminants of concern”.

​Late charges: A bus company manager and a mechanic are charged with manslaughter nearly seven years after a bus plunged into a ravine at Kangaroo Valley.

Guilty: Gywnneville man Oskar Calvi is found guilty of stabbing David Merxhushi in the neck and face with a broken glass bottle near the Wollongong Tennis Club in June 2015. The broken bottle came within a centimetre of severing Mr Merxhushi’s jugular vein. Calvi will be sentenced to six years in jail.

Frantic search: The discovery of expensive camera and computer equipment at a dangerous Bombo headland sparks a major search for a possible drowning victim. But the owner is later located “safe and well” and police are told the man inexplicably left his camera gear behind when he returned home.

Dental theft: Balgownie woman Daniette Paulissen confesses to stealing almost $320,000 from her employer, dental surgery Contemporary Smiles. She would later be sentenced to perform extensive community work, after refinancing the family home to pay back the money.

Farewell: Tributes flow in for Dr Margaret Gardiner, Illawarra ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, after she lost her battle with breast cancer. “Mum was an inspirational woman who had a gift for making the lives of those around her more special,” her children said.

Big win: Wollongong poker player Branko Usljebrka wins $265,000 in a tournament at the Star Poker Festival in Sydney. “It’s a lot of money,” he says. “Certainly the most that I’ve ever won”.

Drug crackdown: Police launch a co-ordinated series of raids on houses in the Illawarra in the hunt for drugs. A dozen people are arrested with the expectation of more arrests to come.

Tragedy: Eleven-year-old Ryan Teasdale is washed down a stormwater drain while riding a boogie board in a Unanderra park during heavy rain. His body was found in a creek bed near Western Suburbs pool, 500 metres away. It occurs as the region is hit with  more than 200 millimetres of rain in an afternoon, causing houses and streets to flood.

Bypass move: The NSW government calls for tenders to design and build the long-awaited Albion Park Rail Bypass.

We’re here: After closing the doors on its Globe Lane bar, His Boy Elroy opens the door at its new home in Keira Street.

Shark bite: Spanish tourist Gonzalo Mompo Fernandez is bitten on the backside by a shark while surfing at The Farm.

Confession: Adam Johnson admits to using his role as a netball umpire to prey on an underage girl, grooming the teen via Facebook. She had become friends with him on social media because she felt he would mentor her as an umpire. Instead he would repeatedly ask the girl for sex.

Hospital sale: Three Illawarra private hospitals will be sold to a Chinese-owned health care operator for as much as $50 million.

Cold case: Wollongong film-makers Josie Stuart and Katie Huggins plan to make a documentary about the unsolved January 1966 murder of Wilhelmina Kruger at the Piccadilly Arcade. Mrs Kruger was a cleaner at the Wollongong and her mutilated body was found at the foot of the stairs to the lower parking level.

Eye to eye: Stephen Grimmer, the brother of 1970 murder victim Cheryl Grimmer is denied the chance to look her accused murderer in the eye when the now 63-year-old man declines to front Wollongong Local Court.

Fiery crash: Two truck drivers die in a head-on collision on Picton Road after one of them veered onto the wrong side of the road.

Seen him?: Victorian police are investigating two reported sightings of notorious Corrimal killer Graham Gene Potter in NSW. Potter spent 15 years in prison for 1981 murder of Kim Barry.