Yandina man charged for robbery with violence after horrific highway crash

Rafferty Rolfe, 25, charged for robbery with violence of one car involved in horrific Bruce Highway crash.

A Yandina man, the sole survivor of the horrific triple-fatality car crash on the Bruce Highway, has been charged for stealing a car involved in the collision.

Police are treating the incident as a domestic violence-related homicide.

The incident took place early Friday morning near Federal when three vehicles smashed into each other at high speed.

Mother-of-two Gypsy Satterley, 25, and Imbil alpaca breeder Jessica Townley, 38, were killed in the crash, as was a 65-year-old man.

An allegedly stolen Isuzu driven by Rafferty Rolfe, had been chasing the man and Ms Satterley in the Nissan Navara and attempting to ram it, which led to a collision between the two cars.

The Isuzu and Navara crossed over to the opposite side of the motorway and ended up hitting the Great Wall ute driven by Ms Townley.

The three people died at the scene. Only the male driving the allegedly stolen Isuzu survived.

On Friday night, police charged Rafferty Rolfe, 25, from Yandina with one count of robbery with violence whilst armed.

The charge comes after it was found the man allegedly held a woman with her three children at knifepoint in Gympie, 12 hours before the crash, and took off with the car.

Following the robbery, he started chasing the silver Nissan Navara with the two occupants before ramming into it. Queensland Police later found the female passenger in the car who was killed had been Rolfe’s partner.

“Police can confirm the 25-year-old Yandina man was in a relationship with the 25-year-old Yandina woman who died in the crash at Federal,” QPS said in a statement.

The man sustained a serious head injury and was taken to Sunshine Coast University Hospital following the crash.

Detective Superintendent Ben Fadian said on Friday authorities had been alerted of the Isuzu driving erratically about an hour after it was stolen, which led to patrols trying to intercept the car on the motorway, but they were forced to “desist” after the vehicle “sped off”.

The 38-year-old woman in the Great Wall who lost her life is not believed to be related to any of the other involved parties and was most likely an innocent victim.

Detectives from Homicide Investigation Unit and Forensic Crash Unit continue to investigate the circumstances leading up to the fatal crash.

The man was scheduled to appear in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court, July 24.