THE CASE OF MR CRUEL

hey guys it's bella and mia welcome back to my channel i hope you're all having an incredible day today so today we're going to be covering another mystery monday case it's an australian case and it's probably one of australia's most notorious cases and that is the case of mr cruel he was a masked attacker that preyed on young girls throughout the 80s and 90s and he still has not been identified to this day it's believed that he was responsible for a dozen attacks in north east melbourne but he's only officially been linked to four before we get into it i just want to thank today's sponsor audible you guys know i love audible i have been using audible for yonks now i love listening to audiobooks i feel like if it's a fictional one it just really immerses you into that world and the words and it just feels so special and real and my absolute favorite thing to do is listen to non-fictionals when i'm in the car kind of like a podcast currently i am listening to the power of habit by 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will leave all of the information in the description down below and let's go ahead and get into the case so as i mentioned it's believed that mr cruel has been responsible for about a dozen attacks but he's only officially been linked to four the first attack took place on the 22nd of august in 1987 in lower plenty which is around 16 kilometers or 10 miles northeast of the melbourne cbd and the names of everybody involved in this particular attack have never been revealed at around 4am while everybody in the family was asleep a master sailon who was armed with a small handgun and a large hunting knife removed a window pane from the living room and entered the house he first made his way into the parents bedroom and he woke them up at gunpoint just kind of acting like he just wanted some money or their personal belongings like it was a robbery he then forced them to roll in their stomachs and he tied their hands and their feet up using this like very specific knot that was commonly used by sailors or those who commonly secured large loads he then blindfolded and gagged them with some surgical tape that he brought himself he then forced them into their wardrobe and locked them in there he then made his way across the hall to their young son's bedroom he blindfolded and gagged him with the same surgical tape and then tied him to his bed lastly he made his way to the bedroom of their 11 year old daughter he took her and brought her to the nearby bathroom and began sexually assaulting her over the next two hours he took occasional breaks from this assault to wander around and search the house he was clearly in no rush he even at one point stopped in the kitchen to make himself some food he also stole a couple of things from the house he stole a little bit of money he stole some jewelry he stole some classical records he also stole like a blue coat that had some fake fur trimming oh mia don't be a big baby she just wants to love you oh you're so mean to her all the time you never let her give you love she just wanted to give you cuddles he also made a phone call while he was at the house and you know this was 1987 cell phones weren't really like a big thing that everybody had so he used the family's home phone and he called up somebody that he referred to as bozo and he made some threats basically told them like you need to move your children if you don't i'm coming for them next and then after that phone call he left the house police were obviously brought in and they started their investigations they found out that there were no calls made from the family's home phone and on top of that the phone line had actually been cut before the intruder made his way into the house so obviously he was just pretending to be on the phone it just seemed like maybe it was a red herring that he was using to try and confuse police and throw them off and because of that it also seems like the items he stole from the house were also another red herring just used to try and conceal his true motives and it becomes clear later on that this is definitely a trend of mr cruel to leave red herrings to try and throw police off the second attack took place on the 27th of december in 1988 in ringwood which was about 20 kilometers or 14 miles east of melbourne cbd and also about 20 kilometers from the last attack in lower plenty john and julie wills lived on hillcrest ave in ringwood with their four daughters and by 5 30 am that night everybody was asleep john and julie in their master bedroom and their four daughters who slept in bunk beds in one of the other rooms it was at this time that a man wearing a ski mask in blue overalls broke into the family home through the back door he went straight to john and julie's master bedroom and julie was woken up to a man standing over her with a gun pointed at her head immediately she began screaming out for her daughters telling them to run and get out of the house and the man pushed the gun closer to her head and told her to shut up and stop screaming he then pointed the gun at john's temple and said are you going to be a hero to which john shook his head no the man then forced john and julie to get onto their stomachs and he tied them up again just like he did in his last attack but this time he tied them up with copper wire he used a similar knot to the last time the ones that was predominantly used by sailors he told them that he wanted all of the money in the house and john directed him to the bedside table there was 35 in cash in there which he took and he then blindfolded and gagged them with surgical tape and then headed toward the room that the four girls were sleeping in one of the four girls was 10 year old sharon wills she was described as a quiet well-behaved girl she was a choir girl with the victorian children's choir and had actually appeared on tv with the choir just weeks prior she had also been in the newspaper with her parents just before the attack as well as her mother julie had saved her from a burning bed sharon had woken to her mother screaming and she saw the masked man walk into the room he called her by name so it's possible that he had seen her family in the newspaper or had seen sharon on tv with her choir it is believed that mr krull specifically picked out his victims weeks before his attacks whether he had seen them getting off a bus stop or had seen them in the newspaper on the tv and he would then stalk the family homes loiter around the family homes for days or weeks before the attacks he blindfolded and gagged sharon picked up a few of her clothing items and then carried her out into the night 15 minutes after he left with sharon john and julie managed to cut the copper wire that had been used to tie them up they immediately ran into their daughter's rooms and realized that sharon was missing so john runs to his neighbor's house because he notices that their phone lines have been cut he runs to the neighbor's house and uses their phone to contact the police and while the police are on the way he goes searching through neighbors yards knocking on their doors seeing if sharon had run out when her mother was screaming for her but unfortunately that wasn't the case when police arrived the wills family home was cordoned off and the major crime squad was alerted and a huge search was conducted of ringwood and the surrounding suburbs door knocks were conducted police searched cars set up a police van they really did everything they could but they found no trace of sharon initially police believe sharon was being held for ransom because the attacker asked for money and he took the 35 that was in the bedside table but no ransom demands were made they quickly realized that this was probably just a red herring and that he was just trying to throw them off by stealing this money just after midnight 18 hours after the attack a woman found sharon wrapped in green garbage bags on orchard road she was wandering around just outside of bayswater high school she was taken straight to hospital police were notified and despite what she had gone through and all the trauma that she had to endure she was so strong and so brave and tried to be as helpful as possible as she could to police and tell them what she went through in the previous 18 hours that she was being held captive she said that when she was first abducted she was taken for a long drive to a house in the suburbs she said she was blindfolded and gagged for the entire 18 hours and she was assaulted at the house she said that she never saw his face and that when he wasn't assaulting her he was kind and courteous he was soft-spoken and she also said that he was really gentle which is just not at all what the police were expecting i feel like obviously that is not what you expect the victim or a young girl who was a victim of an abduction and sexual assault to describe her attacker as and it's also not what you would expect of somebody who is committing such horrible crimes he apparently fed her a vegemite sandwich and gave her some milk and some lemonade to drink and one time while she was alone in the bedroom she actually very bravely lifted up her blindfold for a second so that she could get a look at the house that she was being held in when she looked around the first thing that she noticed was that there was a camera at the end of the bed facing the bed that she was on so it's assumed the attacker was recording the entire ordeal she also managed to describe the layout of the bedroom it had beige or cream carpet peach-colored full-length curtains a double bed with a peach colored bed head a lamp with an orange base and a yellow and white stripe shade and light colored walls and door there was a black or dark brown blanket over a bookcase or cabinet at one end of the room and the radio had been playing constantly for the entire 18 hours she also managed to describe what the bathroom layout was like she said that the bathroom had a bath a shower with a glass sliding door and in order to get to the shower you'd have to pass a wash basin she described the house as being on a quiet street with little traffic there were only a couple of steps to the front entrance and the driveway was on the right side of the house when he released her he did so very carefully and very meticulously he apparently cleaned both himself and sharon thoroughly like right down to the fact that he cleaned underneath her fingernails and clipped them and even brushed and flossed her teeth it was clear that he wanted to make sure there was no possible dna or forensic evidence he either kept or discarded sharon's clothes he then stood her in a garbage bag and tied it up or taped it around her shoulders he then put another garbage bag on top of her head which he taped around her body and then on top of that he put a men's white shirt he then placed her in a car drove her to orchard road and let her out near bayswater high school which as i mentioned earlier is where she was found by a passing motorist based on the way that he cleaned both himself and sharon to remove any possible forensic evidence that could tie him to the crime it was theorized that this was a man who knew something about forensic evidence he knew about forensic procedures he knew what to expect he knew what he had to clean to avoid being caught and it was clear that he came very prepared john wills did a press conference after sharon's return just basically saying that he was so grateful for sharon's return he was grateful for the police and their hard work and he was grateful for the woman that found sharon de wills was grateful to all who assisted in the search for his daughter i'd just like to thank all my friends my neighbours and relatives i'd like to thank the media for your coverage and your assistance to get my daughter back and most of all i'd like to thank a lovely lady who buys water thank you like to say to somebody who might be watching now who may know this man someone must know him he couldn't be that much of a loner someone either is married got a girlfriend he's got a mother somewhere surely he must have some idea he needs help before he takes another little girl after that night as i'm sure you can imagine the wills family's lives changed completely john took the assault particularly hard he always wondered if there was something that he could have done to prevent it or something he could have done to protect sharon better which just absolutely broke my heart because how are you meant to know a man is going to break into your home and take your daughter there was nothing he could have done john and julie began sleeping in the lounge room with their daughters refusing to sleep in separate rooms for months after the attack because they were just so scared they were worried the attacker would come back and return and they also increased their home security got a new home security system and they were also gifted a golden retriever by like a family friend or an acquaintance or something police also set up regular surveillance and patrols of the home to make sure that this didn't happen again on the 2nd of january 1989 six days after the attack the victorian state government offered a 100 000 reward for any information that could lead to the conviction of the attacker after they announced this reward they did get a few calls with possible leads one caller said that at 11 15 pm the night of sharon subduction they saw a white commodore with three straps running down the side in bay's water and that it was acting kind of odd as the commodore was turning from jersey road onto mountain road it had its lights off and it nearly collided with another vehicle to the point where the other vehicle had to like slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid it the commodore then just drove off and the other car followed it and it pulled up next to the commodore at a set of red lights the other driver was trying to like yell at the person in the commodore through the windows but the guy in the commodore he seemed to be a male he seemed to be the only person in the car and he also seemed to be really anxious and completely just ignored this guy yelling at him just like didn't even acknowledge that he was there which fair enough is what i do in that situation i've had someone yell at me through a car window before and i literally just sat there and pretended like they didn't exist when the light went green the commodore continued straight for a short distance before turning right onto church road towards bayswater high school which obviously bayswater high school is where sharon was discovered 18 hours after her abduction the driver of the other car didn't get a number plate or anything and after getting this call police actually set up a display of a similar car to this commodore to try and like jog other people's memories see if they could get any other leads from it which unfortunately i don't believe they did i mean to be honest i don't even think the car was acting that strangely like he almost got in a collision then somebody was trying to yell at him and he looked anxious because somebody was like trying to yell at him but on the same note it is weird that he like had his lights off when he almost got into the collision and then he did turn to go towards bayswater high school where sharon was found police also dropped off pamphlets in ringwood and the surrounding suburbs with basic details of the attacks as well as what they believed was a description of the attacker male around 20 years old wearing blue overalls and a ski mask the next attack occurred 18 months later on the 3rd of july in 1990 in canterbury the lioness family were pretty well off family from england they were in australia for father brian's job and he was a partner of the accounting firm called pricewaterhouse and he was on secondment to work from the melbourne office for a while they were actually just days away from moving back to england like their bags were packed he was done with work they were ready to go during their time in melbourne they had been renting a house on monometh avenue which is a very affluent street most of the houses on the street at the time were over a million dollars and one million dollars in 1990 is worth about 2 million today many high-ranking australian politicians and high-ranking public officials also lived on the street like it was very well to do so on the night of the 3rd of july bran and rosemary were out at a farewell dinner that was being held for them by some friends and while they were out at dinner their two daughters 13 year old nicola and 15 year old fiona were at home alone by 11 40 p.m the two girls were asleep and a man in a black balaclava and dark clothes entered the house through a back window armed with a handgun and a knife he made his way into the girls bedrooms and threatened them said if they didn't cooperate that he would harm them he then tied 15 year old fiona up and told her tell your father that i want 25 000 he then ordered nicola into a separate room and told her to grab her presbyterian ladies college uniform and he put her uniform and some underwear in a bag he then took the keys for the family's rental car which was a blue balance sedan that was parked in the driveway of the home he forced nicola into the car and drove off and this was all just days before her 14th birthday 20 to 40 minutes later brian and rosemary returned home and the first thing they noticed was that their rental car wasn't in the driveway anymore when they entered the house they found that thirteen-year-old nicola was missing and 15 year old fiona was tied up on her in bed with a ransom message to share they immediately called police who showed up on the scene shortly after and they were unable to find any forensic evidence at the house brian and rosemary made it very clear to police that they were prepared to pay the ransom they just needed to know where and how to pay it so two police officers kept guard at the house they also monitored all incoming calls waiting for further instructions for how to pay the ransom but that call never came nicholas father brian made a public plea for the safe return of his daughter he stated his willingness to comply with the ransom demands and he said we would very much like to have nikki back with us whatever can be done to get her back we would like it to be done anyone in this room who has children might understand the stress when you see one of your own family taken away like that we have to sit and be patient and hold our nerve there is nothing else you can do one of the things that we have loved about australia is the safety of the children on the streets on trams on public transport it was fantastic it gave the children a freedom which certainly at their age and as girls we would never have let them have in london we'll just very much like to have nikki back with us obviously can't wait to have her back with us in their investigations police looked into brian and his business dealings thinking that the ransom may have been personal in nature that it may have had something to do with his business dealings however they did come up empty-handed on that line of inquiry they questioned everybody who lived on monometh avenue to see if anyone had seen or heard anything but nobody had seen or heard anything suspicious police interviewed nicola's classmates at presbyterian ladies college but learned nothing of value there either at 3am the next day the rental car was found on chaucer crescent in canterbury which is just a few streets away from the family home it was dusted for prints and dna evidence but dna testing was still pretty new so they didn't get much and nothing else of note was found in the car the victorian state government also offered another 100 000 reward for any information that could lead to the conviction of nicolas abductor as the days went on and nicola wasn't released and she wasn't found people obviously started to get more and more concerned sharon was released within 18 hours and studies show that children who are abducted are 90 of the time murdered within the first 24 hours but then at 2am on the 6th of july on nicola's 14th birthday and 50 hours after her abduction she was released by her abductor in queue which is about six kilometers or 3.5 miles from her family's home in canterbury she was fully dressed and wrapped in a blanket and blindfolded when he dropped her in front of the utility station once he drove off she removed her blindfold and made her way to a nearby house and immediately called her father brian police were also notified and nicola was taken straight to the hospital and unfortunately for the first two to three hours she wasn't able to hug or touch or see her parents because of protocols that were in place she instead had to spend those hours with psychiatrists and nurses and basically describing and reliving what had happened to her for those previous 50 hours she was an extremely strong and brave little girl she told them that her abductor was around 175 centimeters tall which she judged based on how tall he was in comparison to her she said he had reddish brown hair was between 20 to 40 years old and wore a green bella clava with cream stitching around the eyes and the mouth she also said that he had a serrated kitchen knife with a 25 centimeter long black plastic handle she said that he drove her around for about 10 minutes in her parents rental before he stopped at chaucer street which is about 10 minutes from her parents house she was then placed in another vehicle a blanket was placed over her and she was kept under the dashboard she was then driven around for the next 45 minutes before being taken to the house that she was held captive in for the next 50 hours she was also able to give a brief description of the house she was being held in and the car the attacker drove because just like sharon she bravely took her blindfold off a couple of times to see where she was being held captive just like sharon she was bathed and cleaned thoroughly before being released she was also forced into a neck brace which was fastened to the attacker's bed which i just cannot imagine how terrifying this whole ordeal must have been for her she said that while she was there she heard the attacker talk out loud to another person in the house but she never had a response and believed that he was there alone police thought this may have been another one of mr cruel's red herrings nicola also said that the attacker actually watched her father's press conference and tried to talk to her about it police set up a roadblock in canterbury and they stopped every single car that came through the area and questioned them about whether they were in the area on the night of nicola's disappearance and if they had seen or heard anything suspicious the media also began reporting on the case and dubbed the attacker mr cruel and they also speculated that he may have been an ex-police officer just based on the way he cleaned his victims and destroyed any evidence or clues it definitely seemed like he had some knowledge of forensic science and protocols it was also at this time that police announced they believed mr cruel was responsible for at least six attacks in the area since 1984 and people in melbourne started to become fearful people didn't want to take their children to babysitters their children were having nightmares people were sleeping in the same rooms as their children it was huge and there was paranoia all throughout melbourne this could happen to anybody i don't go out anywhere unless she comes with me she doesn't even go to babysitters or anything she's always with us he's he's woken up night with nightmares you know what if someone comes in mum and and it's terrible it's terrible for for a five-year-old to have to think like that and then nine months later on the 13th of april in 1991 mr cruel struck again it was a pretty normal day for the chan family that day that night 13 year old carmen chan was watching tv in her room with her two younger sisters nine-year-old carly and seven-year-old karen at their home in circles road in temple so which is another affluent suburb around 16 kilometers northeast of melbourne cbd carmen was a student at presbyterian ladies college just like nicola she was described as polite kind enthusiastic she was very hard-working and dreamed of one day becoming a barrister carmen and her younger sisters were home alone as their parents john and phyllis chan were working at one of their two chinese restaurants this one was just 10 minutes away and lower plenty and this was a pretty typical night for the family as john and phyllis worked 15 to 18 hour days at their restaurants almost every single day since migrating from hong kong 16 years earlier john and phyllis had worked extremely hard to ensure their children would have a comfortable and happy life growing up working long hours at their restaurants and they also had a few investment properties in victoria it's believed that mr cruel just as he's believed to have done with the previous attacks loitered around the family home stalked the family home for a few days to a few weeks before the abduction which is how he may have known that the girls would be alone at this time the cham family home was surrounded by a really tall brick fence and the property was accessible only via an electric security gate at around 9 00 am mr krill tampered with the security gate to gain access to the property upon entry he spray painted one of the chance cars that was parked in the driveway he wrote payback more to come an asian drug deal it's believed he then got inside the house through an unlocked door or window as there were no signs of forced entry by the time he got inside carmen and carly were in the kitchen because they were going to make themselves something to eat for dinner and this is where they were confronted by a man in a green grey tracksuit and a balaclava he told them that he wasn't going to hurt them he just wanted money and he forced them back into carmen's bedroom where they found karen who was curled up hiding behind the bedroom door he forced the two younger girls karen and carly into the bedroom closet and pushed the bed in front of it to lock them inside and then he left with carmen at around 9 30 pm 15 minutes later karen and carly managed to get out of the closet carly immediately called her father john and told him that a man with a knife had abducted carmen he rushed home he searched the house top to bottom but unfortunately carmen wasn't there he called the police and immediately they made the connection between carmen's abduction and mr cruel's previous attacks police dispatched everybody who was available including a police helicopter and sniffer dogs one dog picked up a scent and followed it north to church road where it abruptly ended and church road was super close to the champ family home as they lived on the corner of circles and church road so it was theorised that he walked carmen to his car nearby and drove her back to his house police sealed off all surrounding streets and interviewed everybody in the area but nobody had seen or heard anything they also released their latest description of mr cruel based on karen and carly's descriptions he was described as a 25 to 35 year old man he was a slim to medium build around 180 centimeters and he was last described as wearing grey sneakers a green gray tracksuit and a balaclava they also believed he was right-handed based on the way that he had spray painted on the chan family car it's believed mr krull closely followed his own publicity he watched news articles on himself he watched the press conferences he read all of the articles and so on the 16th of april john and phyllis chan gave an extremely emotional press conference away with me and then very hard very hard to sleep we couldn't sleep so we help them as the men understand and release her as soon as possible so we can have a family together peace this is my daughter [Music] phyllis was absolutely distraught and begged mr cruel to return carmen three days later on the 19th of april carmen's sisters carly and karen wrote open letters to their sister and mr cruel seven-year-old karen wrote dear carmen i miss you a lot of the time i'm very scared in the dark and mom and dad miss you very much mimi who is the family dog is sick because she misses you too love from karen nine-year-old karli wrote whoever has my sister i would like her back because then she can help me with my homework and also take good care of my little sister and me carmen i wake up all the time i need you carmen please bring carmen back come and mum dad karen and i are waiting for you we all miss you very much with our hearts love carly by tuesday the 23rd of april it had been 10 days since carmen have been abducted which is far longer than any of the other victims the victorian state government offered another 100 000 reward for any information that could lead to the conviction of mr cruel which made the total reward three hundred thousand dollars they contacted the fbi and scotland yard for help by the first of may they'd set up a special task force to investigate mr cruel called operation spectrum and it was headed by lead investigator david sprague he was also the lead investigator in carmen's case they released colored posters with photos of carmen nicola and sharon it was printed in all major newspapers displayed in every police station in victoria displayed at railway stations on crime stopper notice boards and shopping centers as well on the 2nd of may carmen's mother phyllis wrote an open letter to mr cruel it read to the man who took carmen chan dear mr kind not mr cruel we miss carmen very very much please let calm and go we know you are a kind and caring person we hope carmen is safe with you school has resumed and it would be nice if carmen can return to school thank you for letting her free and we can rebuild our lives please hear our plea love from the chan family father mother and sisters of carmen a few days later by the 5th of may police began to report that they believed carmen had been murdered on the 14th of may they set up a roadblock out front of a bus stop on main street in elfin which is the bus stop carmen used to get off after school as it was close to her parents restaurant because at this point detectives believed he may have stalked carmen after seeing her get off the bus they questioned hundreds of motorists and handed out leaflets containing information about carmen's abduction they actually sent out sized copies of the poster to 1.4 million homes every single home in victoria and then some in new south wales and south australia as well they put up around 100 billboards around victoria they also reinterviewed nicola and also sharon who had actually moved back to england so they had to fly over to england to reinterview her it had been a few months since both of their attacks so they were hoping that they may have remembered some new information sharon told them that while she was being held captive she heard loud low-flying planes overhead and this was actually something that nicola had also told them previously so because of this police believe that mr cool's home or the place that he took his victims was under a direct flight path and was in close proximity to telemarine airport so because of that they went and checked out 30 000 houses in 15 different northern suburbs trying to match them to the descriptions of the house given by nicola and sharon phyllis also wrote another open letter to mr cruel it read i beg you to release my daughter carmen immediately i'm longing for her safe return every minute of the day i love her very very much i'm willing to offer my life in exchange for carmen's release carmen's sisters karen and carly miss her very very much they had trusted you on the night of 13 april they had cooperated with you because you were calm and you looked kind you would promise them that after you had gone their sister would open the door for them you have broken your promise they were very upset they blamed themselves for trusting you and did not help carmen they feel very very guilty now karen's birthday is at the end of may and carly's birthday is in june both girls say they want nothing but carmen for their birthday present please send carmen back home immediately god bless you thank you very much love from phyllis since the attack carly had also started sleepwalking she would walk around saying carmen where are you have you come back yet the chan family also wrote another letter this time trying to bypass the police they told mr cruel that he could contact them by writing to a private postal address and they gave this private postal address in sort of a code that he had to decipher by asking carmen of the names of family friends in hong kong phyllis chan said if we do it through the police he won't get in touch maybe he's at the stage to release her but he's just too scared but he could feel a little bit easier if he believes us and then as if the family weren't going through enough on the 11th of july a prisoner and a federal protective services officer tried to extort them which is just so [ __ ] up peter ellen reed was serving 21 years in prison after shooting and killing a police officer after stealing a car and getting in a car chase he called john chan on six separate occasions saying he'd release carmen if john would give him fifteen thousand dollars he offered to kill both jon and carmen if he didn't get the money so john agreed to pay peter gave him a job site and got officer vince de paula to go to the drop site to collect the money but when vince got there there was no money police know about the extortion john had told them and they put a trace on his phone after the first extortion call so they ended up arresting both men i mean i guess vince was arrested and like peter reed was like already in jail they questioned both men extensively about carmen and they didn't know where she was they didn't know what had happened to her they just wanted to kick the chance while they were down and try to extort some money out of them and then on the 9th of april in 1992 just a few days shy of the one-year anniversary of cum's abduction a man was walking his dog on a track that went through the state electricity commission terminal station in thomastown which is just 16 kilometers from the chance family home the area had recently been leveled by earthworks which caused a shallow grave to be disturbed and about 20 meters away from edgar's creek the man found a skull he called the police who uncovered the rest of the bones of the body and police did confirm that the bones were those of carmen chan she had been shot in the head three times execution style and it was believed that it happened about a year prior to her bones being discovered although the exact date and location it happened couldn't be determined phyllis chan believes carmen was not the type of girl to go down without a fight and she may have taken off her blindfold or taken off mr cruel's balaclava and seen his face and for that reason he felt that he had to kill her this was obviously a massive jump from his previous attacks he started off not even abducting the girls then he started returning the girls and now he has murdered a girl and police don't believe the murder was planned they believe he may have suffered from stress anxiety depression and severe remorse following the murder so they actually sent a letter to every single one of victoria's 10 000 registered doctors basically asking them to consider breaking doctor-patient confidentiality and telling them if there was anybody that they were kind of suspicious of they also sent these doctors a description of mr cruel the crimes and some other general information it was a super controversial move actually because you know he's not just gonna roll in there and be like yeah i'm really depressed because i just killed a girl like i'm mr cruel so like doctors they would literally be going off like oh yeah this guy came to me at around the time of the murders he was stressed and he was like 180 centimeters tall just like you reckon mr cruel is but many doctors actually did respond to the letter and police said they did receive some useful information but that's as much as i could find out about that task force spectrum actually also looked into john chan because of the writing on the car saying like payback an asian drug deal they explored the possibility that john was involved in some sort of underground drug dealings and that maybe mr cruel wasn't involved at all and this was actually some sort of vendetta against john and not only just because of the writing on the car but also because of like the execution style murder and because of the fact that mr cruel hadn't previously murdered any of his victims john swears he had nothing to do with it that he works from 8 am till midnight almost every single day and wouldn't have any time to be involved in drug dealings anyway i swear i do nothing wrong and being here 15 years always in business i start seven o'clock eight o'clock in the morning and finish midnight so i work hard i know a good opportunity to australia there was no evidence to link him to the murder and task force spectrum did exhaust this line of inquiry but it has never been fully excluded though some officers from the task force do believe that this line of inquiry wasn't looked into enough in january of 1993 police released sketches of the bedroom and the bathroom of mr cruel's house drawn by one of the victims in the hopes that somebody would recognize it and contact police but i mean he could have changed the interior the furniture he could have moved and the house may not have even been his house police did receive around 1400 calls from the public after this was released and every single line of inquiry was looked into but all were eliminated in june of 1993 task force spectrum was scaled down from 40 offices to 10 and it was eventually disbanded by january of 1994. it was actually the largest task force in victorian state history up until that point 27 000 people were interviewed 10 800 leads were investigated 910 000 kilometers or 565 000 miles were traveled investigating those leads 30 000 houses were searched and the investigation cost about 3.8 million dollars the decision to disband the task force was supported by phyllis she said that the police were amazing they did everything that they could but they just couldn't figure out who mr cruel was carmen's murder took a huge toll on phyllis as i'm sure you can imagine her and john ended up getting a divorce because of the strain from all of the press conferences from just dealing with a daughter who has been abducted and murdered after the divorce phyllis went through some pretty big financial difficulties she lost her house her car and she just held on to her restaurant one night in early 1995 phyllis returned home at around 12 30 a.m after a 16 hour work day and as she was carrying some things from her car into her house she was bashed on the back of the head with a wooden object she was then bashed in the head several more times before the attacker took off with the money that she had on her she required surgery 60 stitches and was in the hospital for over a week and it turns out the attacker was actually an ex-employee in 2016 on the 25th anniversary of carmen's abduction the victorian state government announced a 1 million reward for any information that would lead to the conviction of her killer after carmen's abduction there were no other crimes that were linked to mr cruel in victoria it is a theory that he didn't want to kill carmen but she took her blindfold off or took his balaclava off and saw who he was and so he felt like he had to kill her and that scared him into stopping his crime spree altogether some also theorized that he became ill and actually died because offenders like that it's like an addiction and they normally don't stop until they get caught they think they're above the law they think they've gotten away with it so they're better than investigators and they just keep going another theory is that he moved to another state or even another country and continued his crime spree from state to state even within australia there was no like centralized data bank or universal system to share information about cases or that sort of thing it's super unfortunate but it means that he could have moved to another state and continued his crime spree and because there is no database to pick it up there's no centralized database it was just never discovered i just feel like with such a high profile case everyone in australia knew about this case so i feel like if he went over to wa and continued his crime spree they would have picked up on the mo from what they would have seen on tv and in the news before joseph james d'angelo was caught in 2018 and he is the golden state killer or east area rapist one of the most literal vile human beings to ever walk this earth like i actually want to vomit thinking about him and his photo from when he was caught is actually revolting it's disgusting but before they caught him some people believe that mr cruel was the golden state killer who would come to australia to continue his crime spree at one point in the case police had 76 suspects to this day there are still seven suspects who had the propensity to commit this sort of crime who had committed similar crimes in the past and have never been ruled out the prime suspect was a former melbourne university lecturer named brian engler this is the guy that david sprague the man who was the head of the task force and the lead investigator on carmen chan's case believed was their guy he was jailed for 10 years in the 70s after pleading guilty to tying up and attacking six girls at knifepoint over a two-year period his house was actually raided after karman chan's disappearance and in his attic they found a bella clava and a knife and mr cruel was known to wear a balaclava and use a knife you destroyed their lives so you say you you do admit that you're the prime suspect though well i i know i am because i told them there was no forensic evidence to time to the case no witnesses he denies it and they've never been able to prove that he had anything to do with it and the worst part of it is that police actually lost a lot of forensic evidence in this case they had taken things like tape and wire and taken dna swabs from previous attacks and it got lost and so as dna testing became more advanced they weren't able to utilize it because so much of the forensic evidence was lost although mr cruel has never been identified this case did force change in the victorian state government justice system back in those times and this is so incredibly unbelievable to me but owning child pornography or possessing child pornography wasn't illegal it became illegal because of this case stalking and sex offenders loitering in school areas became a crime because of this case and task force spectrum did arrest 75 sex offenders during their three-year course even if they weren't mr cruel but that is all of the information that i have for this case i would love to discuss your thoughts and opinions in the comments down below what theory do you guys believe do you believe that he intended to kill carmen do you believe that mr cruel was responsible for carmen's death and why do you think he stopped do you think he became ill do you think he moved do you think carmen's death scared him into stopping i would love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments down below thanks for watching and as always i hope you have an incredible day bye guys

Channel: Bella Fiori

Views: 1,709,368

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Id: FKgVB3B3hP8

Length: 44min 11sec (2651 seconds)

Published: Sun May 09 2021