Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans who were murdered in 1974. Source: The ... - Courier Mail

Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans who were murdered in 1974. Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Three men who have been identified by police as "persons of interest" in the brutal cold case murder of Sydney nurses Wendy Evans, 18, and Lorraine Wilson, 20, will give evidence when an inquest opens today.

12.10pm: Former Toowoomba police officer Ian Hamilton was the next witness to give evidence.

He told the inquest he and a colleague heard "blood-curdling" screams around 9pm on October 6, 1974.

Mr Hamilton said he and his partner spent 30 to 40 minutes looking for who was making the screams and said they came from the Withcott area.

He said there were two distinct screams that may have been carried up the range because it was "extremely windy" that night.

"It's the only time in the service where I've had the hairs stand up on the back of my neck," Mr Hamilton said.

"It was the most blood-curdling scream I'd ever heard in my life... It was obvious they were desperate."

He said the screams appeared to "die out" towards the end of the 40 minutes.

"We never heard the screams again," he said.

Mr Hamilton continued searching until after midnight but could not find who had been screaming.

He said, with the benefit of hindsight, he was "quite confident" the screams could have come from the place where the women went missing, some 4 or 5km away.

"Our logs correspond with the date the women went missing," he said.

He said police searched extensively but were unable to determine where the screams came from.

11.53am: The second witness at the inquest was former Toowoomba police officer Paul Ruge. He retired in 2008.

He told State Coroner Michael Barnes he believed that if 'person of interest' Wayne Hilton were still alive he would have had enough evidence to charge him with the women's murder.

"If Wayne Hilton had of been alive I definitely had sufficient evidence to arrest him for murder," he said.

He queries aspects of the police investigation into the women's disappearance and the subsequent discovery of their bodies.

He said a musician saw a car parked very close to where the women's bodies were found.

Mr Ruge said he believed sightings of a car seen around Murphys Creek at the time the women went missing weren't properly investigated by police.

"They seemed to make a lot of assumptions rather than a proper investigation," he said

11.43am: The first witness to give evidence was detective Inspector Kerry Johnson.

He now works for the G20 Project Group but in 2004 was in State Crime Operation Command's Homicide Group and was handed the Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans file to investigate as a cold case.

It was called Operation Murphy.

He said Allan John Laurie (nicknamed Shorty) died in 2001 and was the cousin of Allan Neil Laurie. He said the pair had criminal history that was "very thick".

He said Wayne Hilton died in 1986 in a traffic crash.

Insp Johnson said Donald lloyd Laurie died in 1994 but was interviewed by police before his death and a statement was also obtained.

Terrance James O'Neill was still alive and told police in an interview he was not involved in the nurses' murders. He also gave evidence in CMC star chamber hearings.

He named Larry Charles as a "close associate" who had also since died.

The inquests heard a recorded interview between Insp Johnson and Desmond Roy Hilton at the Gatton Police Station in 2008.

In it, he told Insp Johnson he'd been asked to clean blood smears from the boot and backseat of a car being driven by Shorty Laurie. It was around the time Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans went missing.

He said the four men who arrived in the car, including Shorty Laurie, Terrance O'Neill, Larry Charles and Allan Neil Laurie, bragged about having given "two girls a hiding down the bottom" of the Toowoomba Range.

On the tape, Mr Hilton said it hadn't been unusual because the Hiltons and the Lauries were always brawling and "beating people up".

He also recalled Donnie Laurie washing his hands of blood at the top of the range, allegedly after driving down with Wayne Hilton to check on the women.

Insp Johnson said police were investigating a new lead relating to what may have been the car involved.

"We have a new lead where a farmer purchased a very similar Holden and it sat at a farm east of Toowoomba for many years," he said.

"It's being examined at the moment.

"(The car) just seems to have disappeared after the murders."

9.40am: Three men who have been identified by police as "persons of interest" in the brutal cold case murder of Sydney nurses Wendy Evans, 18, and Lorraine Wilson, 20, will give evidence when an inquest opens today.

A police investigation into the case has spanned almost four decades since the women's disappearance in 1974 and the gruesome discovery of their bodies dumped in bushland at Murphys Creek, near Toowoomba, two years later.

Check back here for rolling updates of the inquest

A pre-inquest conference in Brisbane in December identified persons of interest Desmond Roy Hilton, Allan Neil Laurie and Terrance James O'Neill would be called to give evidence when it opened before State Coroner Michael Barnes in Toowoomba today.

Counsel assisting the Coroner Craig Chowdhury also identified now deceased Allan John Laurie, Wayne Hilton, Donald Laurie, and Larry Charles as persons of interest in the case.

An inquest in 1985 ruled the women met with "foul play" after their bodies were found in bushland on June 26, 1976 with skull fractures and marks consistent with being bound with the cord of a venetian blind.

Mr Chowdhury said a significant amount of material had since become available to police investigating the murders, including a number of witness statements taken between 1988 and 2005; the most recent in October.

He said at least 28 witnesses would be called to give evidence, including one who recalled seeing two women crying out for help as they were "manhandled" into a green-coloured EJ Holden.

Mr Chowdhury said much of the new evidence had never been previously reported to police.

Another witness would share a conversation she had with a stranger who gave a detailed account of the women's deaths at a Toowoomba pub in 1989, he told the court.

Another witness would recall seeing a man cleaning blood from a car on a suburban Toowoomba street when he was just 10-years-old.

A retired police officer involved in the original investigation would also give evidence, Mr Chowdhury said.

He said the court had a duty to investigate the deaths on behalf of "the two murdered girls, their families and the public of Queensland".

"It's a tragedy a lot of material that has come out wasn't available to the original investigation at the time," he said.

A $250,000 reward remains in place for information on the killings. Call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.