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He likely did this to hide it from his parents, in case they made it home before he did. This was commonly found in the drug Noctec, which was an over-the-counter pharmaceutical used to aid people with sleep problems, which had been given to Alan sometime before his death. Unlike other drugs, Mandrax was heavily-regulated, meaning that police could search through government records to find out who had a prescription, and whether or not they appeared on their suspect lists. Global Nav Open Menu . 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. Darko's brother dropped them at a bus stop near the corner of on Grand Junction Rd and Addison Neil Muir was last seen in Hindley St, Adelaide in the company of Dr Peter Leslie Millhouse at 3pm on the day he was murdered. On Saturday, June 16th, 1979, Alan spent the night at a friend's house. 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. [14][15] Skin bearing tattoos had been removed and most of the body parts were placed in another garbage bag before being placed within the abdominal cavity. There were signs that he had been tortured and beaten by a sexual sadist, who had likely kept Alan drugged with a chemical compound named chloral hydrate. View description Share. 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. The Family Murders Of Adelaide - True Crime Conversations Police thought that these gruesome and violent actions had been part of an effort to easily transport Neil's remains out to sea, and dispose of them in a way that they'd degrade before being identified. Victims - The Family Murders Victims Alan Barnes Feb 12, 2021 The night before he went missing he stayed at Darko Kastelan's house in Cheltenham. Among friends, Alan had begun to smoke weed and experiment with new things, pushing himself to the limits of his comfort zone to discover who he was and what he enjoyed. He then explained to the investigator that he was a former lover of Neil's, from roughly four years beforehand, and had run into the man just days before his eventual murder. It was broad daylight, and both were assured that Alan would easily be able to find a ride to take him the few miles home. Australia's murder capital: Why can't Adelaide bury the myth? The night before he went missing he stayed at Darko Kastelan's house in Cheltenham. 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. The fishermen probed the bags - a mystery just waiting to be unearthed - and quickly discovered that the bags held human remains. In particular, they were members of the Vice Squad, who typically crackdown on "moral" crimes such as gambling, narcotics, pornography, and illegal substances. Over the next few days, it became apparent that Alan Barnes was not returning home. While charges would later be filed against several police officers, they were ultimately acquitted; and it has been widely accepted in the decades since that local law enforcement engaged in a systematic cover-up. The "Family Murders" *Warning: graphic content and mentions of sexual abuse ahead. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the case is how did von Einem find accomplices willing to be involved in such crimes? Bevan Spencer von Einem is serving a life sentence for one of those murders. Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is perhaps most well known for its beautiful, scenic landscape, which is wedged in-between the Adelaide Foothills to the east, the coastline that runs along the west and down into the southern cape, and expanse of vast Australia that lies to the north. That evening, as Mark drove around with his friend Ian and Ian's girlfriend, Paula, an argument broke out. The Family Murders is the name given to a series of five sadistic murders committed by a loosely connected group of individuals who came to be known as The Family. This group was believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a number of teenage boys and young men, as well as the torture and murder of five young men aged between 14 and 25, in Adelaide, South Australia, in the 1970s and 1980s. Neil Muir had suffered the same type of anal injuries as Alan, implying that a large, bottle-shaped object had been used to intentionally injure him, which caused a large amount of blood loss. The victims were all young men, who had gone missing in or near the northern section of town. The name of the group stems from an interview a police detective gave on 60 Minutes, claiming the police were taking action to break up the happy family. The Family Murders revolved around von Einem. [4][10], Some authorities do not recognise the term "The Family", stating that "[t]hey should not be given any title that infers legitimacy. At the same time he was developing a network of people who made it possible for him to carry out his sexually sadistic fantasies. For that reason, many of these men and women had to keep their sexuality confined to specific locations. With tattoos, long hair, and a gruff demeanor, Neil looked like your average rock musician, and his transient lifestyle seems to support that. 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. A span of 4 years. 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. by enjin | Feb 12, 2021 | victim. While police began to investigate who might be responsible for this heinous crime, medical examiners testing the body made a pretty shocking discovery: the presence of drugs in his blood. This has come to be disputed over the years, with some speculating that Alan might have willingly consumed the drug the weekend before his death; or, perhaps, he might have been slipped it by someone at the bars he was rumored to visit with his friends that Saturday. 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. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George. The Family Murders is a well known and notorious series of crimes that occurred in Adelaide, Australia. This ultimately resulted in a victory for Dr. Peter Millhouse's attorneys, earning the man an acquittal and his freedom. Dylan John Kovarskis murdered Nathan Russell in 2021 . 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. Family Murders Are Adelaide's Most Horrific Unsolved Crime - PEDESTRIAN.TV 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 . Alan and his friend bid adieu to one another, with his friend assured that Alan would be okay; Grand Junction Road was always busy and teeming with life, and it wasn't like he was leaving Alan in the middle of the night. I think we might get closer to understanding what happened but I think lack of physical evidence pretty much rules out any more charges being laid. Several eyewitnesses remembered seeing Alan and his long, blond hair standing along Grand Junction Road that Sunday. So they tried to safely guard the parts of the investigation that they could. Alan Barnes was a teenager growing up in this environment, who seemed to live on the bubble between childhood and adulthood in the winter of 1979. Both witnesses - who were friends with Neil and drug users themselves - were prepared to testify should this man be tried for the murder. Later on, Ian would recall the argument cropping up around cigarettes, but that just proves the point of how nonessential it was. The smallness of Adelaide and the six degrees of separation theory became even more evident when it was revealed that one of the Family murder victims was Richard Kelvin, son of a popular Channel . Police wouldn't get around to conducting a door-to-door canvas of the neighborhood until Tuesday, two days after Richard had gone missing. The final two - Mark Langley and Richard Kelvin - had disappeared just blocks away from one another. Was Dr Millhouse involved in Neil Muirs murder. It shows the facts and most likely scenarios, but is fluid so when new information comes to light changes can easily be made. It was at around this time - the end of August - that Investigator Rod Hunter finally got around to interviewing Bevan Spencer von Einem, the man implicated by an anonymous caller in the murder of Alan Barnes. This period saw the creation of gay clubs in Adelaide (such as a location known as the Mars Bar) and other clubs where all sexualities were welcome (such as the Duke of York or Buckingham Arms, known in the area as "The Buck"). The victims ranged in age from 14 to 25, and most were found to have suffered brutal violence, sexual assaults, and/or body mutilation before their death But other than that, this friend had nothing new to offer police: he hadn't seen or heard from Alan since the two went their separate ways. His friend likely just assumed that Peter had bailed on their plan, and likely gone to school that day. The evidence is contained in a detailed diary kept by a man who was a close associate of several key players in the so-called Family murders. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for the crimes: Bevan Spencer von Einem was sentenced in 1984 to a minimum of 24 years (later extended to a minimum 36-year term) for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. 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. Following the supposed abduction of Richard Kelvin, the police unit known as Major Crimes was tasked with overseeing the investigation. Wife 'kills family in murder-suicide' - news.com.au The next day was a Sunday, they both planned to hitchhike to Alan's home in Salisbury. Boris left on a bus, and Richard started making his way back home a trip that was no more than four-hundred meters. Rather than have to read the whole site, or miss updates in the case because you dont know they exist, this section will show time-stamped updates so you can keep up to date with developments. This website was built on publicly available information contributed by many people who have an interest in this case. At the time of the murder, Dr. Millhouse - a gay man in his mid-forties - lived alone in northern Adelaide, and drove a ten-year-old Holden sedan. Bob O'Brien was an investigator for Major Crimes, who had just started working with the unit the year prior (1982). Due to changes in the Forensic Procedures Act, which later allowed DNA samples to be taken from suspects in major indictable offences, all the suspects voluntarily submitted to DNA testing. That Monday - August 27th, 1979 - Neil Muir was seen alive for the last time. 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. But underneath the surface, a monster lingered And, with the recent discovery of the chemical cocktail found in Richard Kelvin's system, they had a pretty decent foundation for their investigation. This conflict has endured because Alan's bloodstream also showed signs of alcohol consumption, which Alan had participated in that same weekend. Five young men who were drugged, viciously raped and tortured, kept captive for up to five weeks, horrifically mutilated, and ultimately murdered. Needless to say, over the past few months, this investigation had become a new beast entirely. There's a conviction in the last murder in the series, but I will include it due to the similarity and due to the man convicted being suspected in the other murders as well. 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. But, just like the failure to properly drop Alan's body into the water, these bags had failed to make it to their intended location; still resting against the coast, instead of floating out to sea, where they'd have been lost forever. His body had been severely mutilated and dumped in the South Para Reservoir, northeast of Adelaide. He had been killed elsewhere and then transported to this location postmortem, implying that the killer had a base of operations for his or her dark deeds. Criminologist Alan Perry of the University of Adelaide, has argued that the murders were part of widespread series of kidnappings and sexual assaults of boys that might number several hundred victims in South Australia from about 1973 to 1983.[11]. The area around the scar had even been shaved away, implying that this a methodical decision by someone with surgical experience perhaps someone trying to rectify a mistake. From the outside looking in, von Einem was incredibly average. They now had five bodies - five victims - and five families pushing for answers. Some of the victims were brutally tortured, or horrifically mutilated or cut up. Gino Gambardella regularly scouted Rundle Mall and video game arcades for runaways, homeless teenagers, and youths who he was able to exploit. One victim was killed and dumped within 24 hours, another was kept alive for five weeks, and the rest were in between. 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. 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. Over time Trevor kept diary records of his conversations with that suspect as well as another suspect. Make no mistake, Bevan Spencer von Einem is the architect behind all these crimes. In 2014 when Trevor passed away, his diaries were recovered. Neil's penis had been cut, and he was missing a testicle at the time of discovery. Allegations would even surface that indicated Dr. Millhouse had been one of the people in the area that supplied Neil with prescription drugs, but that would remain an allegation for the foreseeable future. The bags looked as if they had been dropped from the higher-up wharf, just like the body of Alan Barnes had been. The other murders remain unsolved. He vividly remembered hearing a young voice shout out (which we can assume was Richard) and a group of voices screaming in protest, almost in unison. It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. He was seventeen years old, with a youthful, handsome appearance, and a carefree, fun-loving attitude. Witnesses would later recall having seen the two at some of the area's gay bars and clubs (which I referenced just a moment ago). Some of his strategies were to unscrew his car muffler or pull out his choke and ask an unsuspecting youth to help him with car trouble. When using other people (sometimes transgenders, sometimes cross-dressers, and sometimes Mr B), a common ploy was to ask a lone youth if he want to go to a party where there was plenty of booze and women. If you have information about the case then contact us through our contact page. It has been reported that the exposed skin on his face and neck had begun to wither away, leading to the theory that he had been killed shortly after going missing. Unfortunately, from there, the trail would go cold for over a year at which point, another victim had already become ensnared in this tragic saga. 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. A short time later, police were contacted and later arrived at the scene to document the grisly find. The ongoing investigation featured in an episode of Crime Stoppers which went to air on 2 March 2009. 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. [8] Little more could be determined as the remains had been accidentally burnt by the farmer while clearing his property of scrub.[11][19]. Police believe that up to 12 people, several of them high-profile Australians, were involved in the kidnappings. 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. Stogneff's body had been cut into three pieces in a similar fashion to Muir. Like most of the victims targeted by this unknown subject, Richard Kelvin was a young and athletic young man, who seemed destined to have a long and rewarding life. The Family Murders are a series of violent and depraved sex crimes committed against five young men and boys in South Australia throughout the 1970's and 1980's. In 1988 Detective Trevor Kipling described a group of people whom he suspected as being responsible as "one big happy family" and vowed to do all that he could to bring them to justice. Young Blood refers to the age of the victims who were brutally murdered. Among those voices, he described, was a higher-pitched voice, which sounded almost feminine. If your information is verified and its not breaking any laws, we may publish it. He had seemingly disappeared, and a brief search of the area failed to come up with him. There are also notorious unsolved disappearances in Adelaide, including the Beaumont children. In 1979, residents of Adelaide were gripped by fear when several young men began to go missing under mysterious circumstances. von Einem is serving life imprisonment. George gave police a description of the older man that had picked him up and driven him to the house in question, but he could not remember his name, nor the name of the two women at the house they had traveled to. The medical examiners conducting the autopsy and examinations also discovered that Alan's body had been washed extensively after his death; likely an effort to scrub away any evidence linking him to the killer. How, why, or where they had seen this tape escaped the caller, but it was enough to send detectives through the paces of investigating every lead related to this: known deviants, underground porn shops, etc. 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. 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. The closest thing to hard evidence that police found in this sweep was what appeared to be traces of blood on the bathroom floor, which had been cleaned multiple times over with a chemical agent; and, as such, could not be tested. 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. The Clermont County Sheriff's Office . Sadly, this dark and tragic saga was just beginning. 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. victim - The Family Murders The convicted killer and notorious head of "The Family" ring who picked up hitchhikers and schoolboys to drug and offer to South Australia's elite to sexually abuse has broken his 20-year silence, to blame his victim, and to claim innocence over other murders. 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. [8] The reward carried an offer of immunity to accomplices, dependent on their level of involvement. Apart from von Einem, three other core members are thought to be directly involved in the murders; while DNA testing re-commenced in 2008, no further charges have been laid. There was a bridge above where his body had been discovered, with a clearing of about a meter; implying that whoever had tried to throw him into the water below had missed the mark, but had not rectified their mistake. In October of 1982 - in the very midst of this crime spree - a teenage hitchhiker named George had been picked up by a passing car. He was found wearing most of the clothing he had last been seen in, minus an undershirt and without the chains he often wore around his neck (which contained his zodiac sign, Cancer). He was able to exploit and manipulate enablers, helpers and participants over a long period of time. [21] Among the mutilations was a wound that appeared to have been cut with a surgical instrument that went from his navel to the pubic region and part of his small bowel was missing. An accountant by profession, he was convicted in 1984 for the murder of 15-year-old Adelaide teenager Richard Kelvin, the son of local television and radio personality Rob Kelvin. Unfortunately, it did not. He was seen in the presence of individuals who would become relevant later on, but - at the time - were simply believed to have been his friends. [citation needed]. Meanwhile, as police struggled to answer these basic questions, the trial against Dr. Peter Millhouse remained a thing of the past. Despite there being an overwhelming lack of physical evidence, police decided to pursue charges against Dr. Millhouse anyways, using the rope and trash bags recovered from his home as their primary building block. Police had still not linked the two cases - Barnes and Neil Muir - but while being questioned about the first murder, von Einem inquired about the second without any provocation. March 3, 2023 - 7:08PM. Rumours of high-society involvement and cover-ups. Once in the car they would be offered a drink that was laced with a knockout drug. The Family Murders - Strange Matters Podcast The two were hiking through the area near the South Para Reservoir when they noticed something on the ground. Richard Dallas Kelvin, (born 4 December 1967) aged 15,[23] murdered in July 1983. Unlike the other murder victims, however, Mark's body showed an odd sign of surgical precision. This screening also revealed that the young man had been drugged with Mandrax ("Randy Mandys"), which had resulted in him losing consciousness. On the afternoon of Sunday, June 5th, 1983, Richard was kicking around a soccer ball with his father Rob and his friend Boris at a park near his home. [14] The hair around the area had been shaved as it would have been in an operation in a hospital. The post-mortem revealed that Langley had died from a massive loss of blood from gross injuries to his anus, similar to Barnes. [3], Von Einem was convicted in 1984 of the murder of Kelvin and sentenced to life imprisonment. He then moved away from Adelaide and the murders continued. Neil Muir's body had been so badly mutilated that he still barely resembled an entire being. 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. It was speculated that a foreign object had caused the internal perforations, leading to the belief that the killer had been a sexual sadist whose only intent was to cause physical pain. Dylan John Kovarskis sentenced to 20 years' jail for murder of Adelaide [18] His skeletal remains were found in October 1982 later by a local farmer at Middle Beach, 50km north of Adelaide. They kicked the footy around. Hence, the odd scar that seemed to serve no other purpose. 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. The skeletal remains of one victim bore marks to reasonably indicate a similar experience and outcome. They drove to War Memorial Drive (150m east of the Adelaide Rowing Club ) when Mark had a minor argument with the other male so got out and left. At this point, the idea of a random killer hadn't even crossed investigators' minds. 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. Examiners discovered that just a few inches above his groin - just below his navel - Mark had a small surgical scar that had been sealed shut with staples and a specific type of Johnson & Johnson surgical tape. The Family Murders Of Adelaide. When this young man woke up the next day, he was surprised to find himself both at home and in significant pain. While searching, they ended up discovering the body of Richard Kelvin, who had been missing for just shy of two months. POLICE are investigating new information linking convicted killer Bevan Spencer von Einem to the abduction and murder of teenager Alan Barnes. After all, three of the victims (Alan Barnes, Neil Muir, and Mark Langley) had all died of similar injuries, and at least three (Alan Barnes, Mark Langley, and now Richard Kelvin) had all gone missing on Sundays. Four of the five murders remain unsolved. Mark had driven there with his family, as they were attending the party alongside him, but he would leave with a couple of friends afterward to hang out and cruise around the city with the young adults trying to squeeze out every bit of the Adelaide summer that they could. We know that on the morning of Sunday, June 17th, Alan and his friend woke up, and tried their luck hitchhiking back to Alan's family's house (a practice that wasn't that uncommon in the late 1970s). Alan's body had fallen to the dirt below, twisting and contorting in such a way that - should he have been alive - would have surely resulted in death or serious injury. A Breakdown of a series of murders that took place in Adelaide, South