His body also showed signs of beatings and torture. The following morning, however, is a different story. The death of George Duncan would serve as a catalyst, eventually martyring Duncan himself and leading to repeals of South Australia's harsh anti-homosexuality laws. Kelvin was held captive for approximately five weeks[24] and a post-mortem examination revealed that he had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury,[25] likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object. But he decided to instead head to a local mall, named Tea Tree Plaza, where Peter and his friends often hung out on the weekends. This theory is that whatever item had been used to sexually assault Mark with - which ultimately led to his death - had gotten caught up in his intestines, and required surgery to retrieve. Mr B made contact with police two days after Alan Barnes was found. It is confirmed that 5 of these victims were murdered, usually by having an object forced so far up their anus that it split the lining and they bled out. It is estimated that over 150 youths and young men were abducted, drugged, and then raped. Homosexuality itself would become decriminalized just a few years later, in 1975, with the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, making South Australia the first Australian state or territory where members of the LGBTQ community no longer had to fear government persecution. It wasn't until the following year, 1983, that police finally rediscovered George's story. Major Crimes was primarily responsible for serial killings, mass killings, and any other high-profile crimes that the local government wanted to be handled by a specialized task force. The ongoing investigation featured in an episode of Crime Stoppers which went to air on 2 March 2009. by enjin | Feb 12, 2021 . He had good grades at school, was well-liked by just about everyone, had a stable of trusted friends, and played soccer for a local Lockley club on the weekends. Unfortunately, it would later be determined that he would suffer in anguish for weeks before meeting eventually dying more than a month after his initial disappearance. But he didn't commit these crimes on his own. When Boris had last seen Richard, walking away from the bus stop down the street from his home, he had still been wearing the collar, and it is has been theorized that the collar itself might have been a trigger for the deviant (or deviants) that ultimately decided to abduct Richard. In Adelaides gay community in the 1970s and 1980s, young men were coveted for sex. If you recall, M.E. Several eyewitnesses remembered seeing Alan and his long, blond hair standing along Grand Junction Road that Sunday. Needless to say, over the past few months, this investigation had become a new beast entirely. Mark Andrew Langley RICHARD KELVIN Richard Kelvin, aged 15 years, was abducted at about 6.15 p.m. on Sunday 5 June 1983 from a laneway off Ward Street, North Adelaide. Detective O'Brien was the unfortunate one tasked with notifying the Kelvins that Richard's body had been found; which he describes in his book as one of the most heartbreaking duties he's ever had to endure. However, unlike many of the others, it was believed that Richard had been held captive for an extended period of time, enduring torture and sexual abuse for weeks leading up to his death. It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. He remembered going to a back room of the house to have sex with one of the older women, only to discover - during the act itself - that she was transgender. This reported sighting led police to the notion that a group of people might have been acting in-tandem to abduct Richard, for reasons that appeared nefarious. Like the other victims, investigators would learn a lot from the status of Mark's remains. Once it became clear that something had happened to Peter, his family launched a frantic search for him, starting in the family's home. This included people that visited the same bars and clubs as Neil and perhaps knew him that way. Needing to get away from his friends and clear his head, Mark decided to get out and walk away. [18] His skeletal remains were found in October 1982 later by a local farmer at Middle Beach, 50km north of Adelaide. Listen to "The Family Murders (Part One: The Murders)" on Spreaker. A cold case review was opened in March 2008 with a $1,000,000 reward available for anyone who provided information leading to a conviction. Like the other victims, Richard Kelvin's blood and organs were tested for any sign of drugs, with investigators hoping to find a connection to any of the prior victims. This caller alleged that the two older men had been driving around a 1963 EJ Holden sedan. His head had also been removed from the rest of his body, but was placed in its own separate black trash bag and connected with a rope tie to the rest of the remains. Because of this lack of clarity, police were unable to press forward with any charges for the offenders, and George's story would become buried by more pressing police concerns in the coming weeks and months. His body had been dissected into parts, with his internal organs carved out and missing, replaced by his lower legs and arms, which had been sawed off and placed inside of his hollowed-out chest cavity. Following the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1975, Adelaide began to be known as one of the more progressive cities in all of Australia. Darko's brother dropped them at a bus stop near the corner of on Grand Junction Rd and Addison. They began probing those that knew Alan and might have taken issue with something he did or said in the weeks before his death; in particular, those that drove a white sedan. The first of which was a very specific call alleging that two men - named Doug and Mark - were responsible for abducting Richard Kelvin. Description. A man who donned a balaclava and stormed a man's Adelaide CBD unit, stabbing him within nine seconds, will spend 20 years behind bars. One victim was killed and dumped within 24 hours, another was kept alive for five weeks, and the rest were in between. It was the body of Neil Muir or, rather, what remained of him. After doing away with his old, dried-up crops, the farmer was looking over his land when he came upon the now-charred remains of young Peter Stogneff. Because homosexuality was still outlawed in Australia at this point, Vice officers would often detain individuals that they believed were loitering nearby known gay hotspots. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for a crime. Was Dr Millhouse involved in Neil Muirs murder. [citation needed]. Some were involved in the abduction of victims who were murdered, some were involved in the rape of murdered victims, and some were involved in murder. Police wouldn't get around to conducting a door-to-door canvas of the neighborhood until Tuesday, two days after Richard had gone missing. View description Share. Regardless, this information was incredibly helpful to police, who began to expand their interests to finding people in the area that drove similar vehicles. However, they were able to learn that - before his body was burned in the brush fire - his remains had been cut into multiple parts with a saw. Both witnesses - who were friends with Neil and drug users themselves - were prepared to testify should this man be tried for the murder. Police got the number one offender. Another anonymous caller claimed that they had seen Richard Kelvin in a snuff film, which had been filmed very recently. Nine days after Mark Langley went missing, his body was discovered in the Adelaide Foothills, close to Mount Lofty in the area known as Summertown. Gay people (in particular, gay men) began to become more comfortable in their own skin, and no longer had to suppress their sexuality in public. Progressive ideas began to spread out from Adelaide, but even then, progress itself was rather slow to catch on throughout large chunks of South Australia. Trace evidence, including hair and fibres from von Einem's home, was found on Kelvin's body and clothing. Mark Langley was an 18-year-old with the entire world in front of him: an athletic and good-looking young man, who quickly endeared himself to others. Because very little physical evidence had been left behind, it was hard to tell whether or not these crimes belonged to the same spree, or were simply copycats. No additional leads would surface in that time-span, and police would continue to refrain from stating that the two victims so far - Alan Barnes and Neil Muir - were connected in any way (at least, they wouldn't say so publicly). The body count had essentially doubled within a couple of months, and police were still unsure whether or not the cases were related. He had become so messed up on drugs and alcohol that a bouncer had to physically drag him outside of a bar, where he stumbled onto the pavement and struggled to get up. The Adelaide Festival of Arts (also known as just Adelaide Festival) started in 1960 and led to something of a "cultural revival" in the area. Neil Muir had been missing for less than 24 hours by the time his body was discovered, and because he was an adult that lived alone, police were already at a disadvantage when it came to trying to figure out what happened to him. [14] The hair around the area had been shaved as it would have been in an operation in a hospital. Ian and Paula, Mark's friends, drove away but would return just minutes later, cooler heads having prevailed. Now twenty-five years old, Neil had spent the better part of the last few years struggling with addictions and vices that left him moving from place-to-place pretty regularly. But now, they needed to find a suspect. Unfortunately, this lead ultimately led nowhere, so police began investigating people more tentatively linked to Neil through his social circle. He was seventeen years old, with a youthful, handsome appearance, and a carefree, fun-loving attitude. Unfortunately, as the farmer's land burned, so did the remains of the missing teenager. Mark's remains had also clearly been thoroughly washed before being dumped, just like Alan Barnes. March 3, 2023 - 7:08PM. This witness would also recall hearing this supposed argument on the street come to a sudden end, punctuated with the sound of a loud exhaust system as a car sped down the street. Mandrax was quickly gaining notoriety as a drug used in the commission of date-rape crimes, and the local government decided that the best way to combat their usage was to keep them regulated so that they had a record of everyone that was prescribed them. Now, with Mark Langley, police were able to confirm the presence of the drug Mandrax in his system. They had no idea that they were about to make one of the most gruesome discoveries in Australian history. However, police would reach out to all of Mark's known friends, and learned that the night prior - February 27th - he had simply wandered off into the night and had not been seen since. Many of these people were directly involved in the abductions and rape of victims who survived. Things then came full circle when he began using heroin again, and shortly thereafter, followed that up with a dependence on Rohypnol ("roofies", commonly known as the date-rape drug). Neil's penis had been cut, and he was missing a testicle at the time of discovery. Of only one victim. This section explores the people who at this stage are thought to have been on the periphery. The Family murders are the name of the murders of five young men and teenagers who happened in Adelaide, South Australia between 1979 and 1983. Ten years von Einem's junior, Mr B helped von Einem pick up, drug, and rape several young men. Police first treated Richard as a runaway; an unfortunate symptom of the times. Because Mark had been killed and his body been dumped in the Australian summer months, his remains had already suffered some serious decomposition by the time police were called to the scene. Because Neil's transient lifestyle led to him becoming known as a bit of a vagabond, his sexuality was not exactly common knowledge. George and the driver, a man roughly twice his age with artificially-dyed hair, traveled to a nearby house where a couple of young women welcomed them. Richard was found wearing the same clothing that he had been wearing on the day of his disappearance, but in an unusual twist, was found to be wearing his family dog's collar. They admitted that he'd faced some issues with other kids at his school, but he was otherwise happy and had just gotten a serious girlfriend. These were connections that were hard to overlook, as police began to theorize that a single offender (or, rather, a group of offenders) had been behind all of these crimes. This notoriety brought with it a poor reputation, however, and by the late 1970s, Mandrax had become a regulated prescription drug throughout Australia. Unfortunately, by the time they returned, Mark was nowhere to be found. Australia's most notorious unsolved serial killings. Police were now back, right where they had started. They now had five bodies - five victims - and five families pushing for answers. Over a span of several years starting in 1979 and into the 80s five young men, aged from 14 to 25, went missing in different areas of Adelaide. The Family Murders is one of Australia's most captivating true crime stories. He has spent that Sunday, June the 5th, playing footy, until the afternoon when his best friend Karl came over. Meanwhile, the mutilation of Neil Muir's body seemed to be identical to that perpetrated upon Peter Stogneff's remains, whose limbs had been similarly severed with a saw-like device. . According to some witnesses in the area, screams had been heard at around the time that Richard had disappeared, some time between 5:30 and 6:30 PM that Sunday. Stogneff's body had been cut into three pieces in a similar fashion to Muir. This website was built on publicly available information contributed by many people who have an interest in this case. The emergence of this drug would prove to be very interesting in the years to come, but at this point in the investigation, police were still struggling to connect all of the dots. Sadly, almost all of the evidence that may have been left behind was now gone, burned away to ash along with all of Peter's remaining soft tissue. Due to the state of the young man's remains, it was believed that Alan had been detained against his will for several days. On Saturday, June 16th, 1979, Alan spent the night at a friend's house. Mark had likely hitched a ride with someone, and his friends trusted that he would make it home. In June of 1983, Richard Kelvin was approaching sixteen years of age. It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. Some time after they went missing, their bodies would each be found, often horribly mutilated. Its always easier to visualise events when you have maps. Bevan von Einem was an apex predator. Millhouse was charged and went to trial but was acquitted. The man that had driven George there offered him a couple of pills called "No-Doz," which - he promised - would help him stay awake to enjoy the party. The night before he went missing he stayed at Darko Kastelan's house in Cheltenham. Between 1979 and 1983, the city of Adelaide in South Australia was the stage for a horrific string of crimes against young men and teenagers.Five known victims of kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder showed up in those years, and police became convinced that the perpetrator was actually a group of several men . This bore signs of premeditation, implying that this wasn't an impulsive decision, but a conscious one by a killer afraid of being identified through forensic testing. For a week, his loved ones had been bracing themselves for the worst, but this was a confirmation of everything they had been fearing for the past several days: Alan had been violently murdered, and had spent his final hours in agony. The Clermont County Sheriff's Office . The son was fifteen when he was snatched from the street . Gino Gambardella regularly scouted Rundle Mall and video game arcades for runaways, homeless teenagers, and youths who he was able to exploit. The Butchered Boys: This episode revisits Adelaide's notorious Adelaide Family Murders case, where six young Adelaide men were murdered during the 1970s and '80s. But a discovery by the medical examiner seemed to undermine that: in addition to all of this, Neil's genitals had been mutilated by his killer. The next day was a Sunday, they both planned to hitchhike to Alan's home in Salisbury. And, with the recent discovery of the chemical cocktail found in Richard Kelvin's system, they had a pretty decent foundation for their investigation. Mark Andrew Langley, aged 18,[17] murdered in February 1982. Although there were in excess of 150 youths and young men who were drugged and raped, often by multiple men, this section focuses on the five young men who didnt come home. This is made apparent when we look at a story from 1972, which ultimately led to drastic overhauls in Southern Australian law and cemented its place in the nation's history. This ultimately resulted in a victory for Dr. Peter Millhouse's attorneys, earning the man an acquittal and his freedom. But only one recalled seeing where Alan might have gone.

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