Man charged with murder of South Australian nurse Gayle Woodford
A Mimili man, 36, who was arrested and charged with vehicle theft on Thursday after police stopped a local ambulance normally driven by Ms Woodford near Coober Pedy, was then charged with murder on Sunday.

Another man and a woman who were also in the ambulance have not been charged.

Forensic investigators spent Sunday making their way to the site where Ms Woodford's body was found.

The death of the 56-year-old nurse has shocked the tight-knit remote healthcare community.

She had worked for the Nganampa Health Council for more than five years.

The council's medical director Paul Torzillo told ABC Ms Woodford was held in high regard and his organisation was focusing on supporting her husband, family and colleagues.

"Gayle was a loved, incredibly popular and extremely competent nurse with our organisation for a long period of time," he said.

Remote healthcare association CRANAplus executive officer Christopher Cliffe told AAP many people in the industry were "very angry and upset" over Ms Woodford's disappearance and death.

"Even if you didn't know Gayle herself, you know people who know her, it's a very small group of highly skilled health professionals and it's tightly knit, it's such a horrific tragedy to occur," he said.

Mr Cliffe said while it was too early to know the exact circumstances surrounding Ms Woodford's death, there had been safety concerns for remote healthcare workers for some time.

He said the vulnerability of clinicians needed to be recognised and workers should not be allowed to work at posts alone to ease the stress of isolation and workload.

A change.org petition has also been started calling for the abolition of single nurse posts, with more than 12,000 supporters by Sunday evening.

Following the discovery of the body on Saturday afternoon, Superintendent Des Bray told reporters the "worst fears were realised".

"Gayle, I'm told, was a much loved person here, so this is devastating news not just for Fregon but for the whole APY community," he said.

I bet the resident do-gooders won't make a fuss about this murder because it's a black on white murder.

Aussie wrote on Mar 29^th, 2016 at 3:14pm:
It does because nurses dealing with these communities have been in danger for some time. There have been assaults, break and enters etc etc etc. You do-gooders swept it under the carpet and now a beautiful woman has been murdered.

Mr Hammer wrote on Mar 29^th, 2016 at 3:17pm:


That makes the deed all the worse does it....that she was (in your eyes) beautiful?  Ugly nurses are more worthy of murder than beautiful ones?

He may well be aboriginal, but the article you quoted does not back your claim up at all.

Mr Hammer wrote on Mar 29^th, 2016 at 3:18pm:


How is that relevant?

greggerypeccary wrote on Mar 29^th, 2016 at 3:23pm:
Why can't a persons race be mentioned? The media doesn't have a problem mentioning a perp being Caucasian. It happens all of the time.

Mr Hammer wrote on Mar 29^th, 2016 at 3:26pm:


Nobody said that it can't be mentioned.

However, the story in the OP does not contain the word 'Aboriginal', yet you used it in the title of the thread.

Why is that?

Mr Hammer wrote on Mar 29^th, 2016 at 3:27pm:


Yes, you're very macho.

Now, how about answering the question.