The Family Murders | Butchered Boys of Adelaide | Crime Investigation Australia | Australian Crime

foreign [Music] [Music] 1983 at an unknown location somewhere in Adelaide South Australia a frightened teenager cowers in the corner of a darkened room his ravaged and beaten body Shivers in the dull light not from the cold but from Pure fear he can no longer remember how he came to be there or how long it's been time is Irrelevant in the boy's unending nightmare [Music] finally Darkness begins to close in and soon the teenager Slips Away into its comforting embrace foreign in the 1970s crime in Adelaide was more or less the same as in any other big Australian city but as the decade Drew to a close people in Adelaide discovered that their city had a dark and Sinister underbelly still reeling from the discovery of the bodies of five young women near the town of Truro South Australia was rocked by yet another series of shocking murders 16 year old Alan Barnes is a typical teenager living with his family at Salisbury in Adelaide's Northern suburbs he's good-looking energetic and fit and has the world at his feet cheeky he had an answer for everything and everybody he had one of those quick minds and he came up with a quip he had used to keep everybody laughing one Sunday in mid-june 1979 Alan is hitchhiking home after spending the night at a friend's house police aren't certain what happens next however it's believed Alan is picked up on Grand Junction Road that traverses the city's Northern suburbs he has never seen alive again [Music] Monday Morning When Alan hasn't arrived home his mother Judy calls police to report him missing my children always run to let me know if they're going to be late so I run the place and said there's something wrong my boys stabbed stabbed his way home but he hasn't reached it police appeal for information about the teenager's disappearance a motorist tells them someone matching Alan's description got into a car containing three or four people [Music] then exactly a week after he goes missing two bushwalkers make a shocking discovery on a lonely dirt track leading to the South para Reservoir in the Adelaide Hills lying beside the track under an overhead Bridge they stumble upon the contorted body of a young man there was a report come over the television that a man in his twenties his body had been found at the little Para and I was just so sure I picked up the phone and said it's not a man he's twenties he's 16 years old and he's my son and if you look on the back of his watch there'll be an engraving it was his Christmas present and um not long after that the police came and our doctor and my husband went down and identified him it was Helen seven a postmortem reveals the teenager has been brutally murdered police can see nothing to indicate how he came to be there from later evidence they construct this scenario he's picked up on Grand Junction Road offered an alcoholic drink that's been laced with sedatives and passes out [Music] when he comes to he's naked and still groggy from the cocktail of drugs he lies still confused by his surroundings and unable to move beautiful over the next week the terrified boy is repeatedly beaten and abused by an unknown number of people although kept sedated the crude drugs can't compensate for the agony he's forced to endure they said that they believed he'd he would Friday and on the Saturday night his body had been thrown over the bridge they said that Tim his body showed signs of beatings and some torture and who died of a mess of blood loss but he said they said there was a lot of signs of beating torture it start ripples in a pond somebody drops a stone in and the ripples keep going further and further and further out and you're drowning you're absolutely drowning in this there's no reality police believe Allen's body was washed clean after he was murdered also the teenager is dressed in different clothes from those he was wearing when he disappeared police appeal for information about the murder and a reward is announced but despite their efforts the investigation stalls and then another body is found [Music] it's late August 1979 and a fisherman at a remote disused Wharf at mutton Cove Northwest of Adelaide makes a gruesome Discovery snagged on the Rocks just out of the water he finds two garbage bags stuffed with the remains of a mutilated body detectives are called to the scene and begin a detailed inspection of the area the victim is identified as 25 year old Neil Muir who disappeared two days earlier Neil mule was found in in two garbage bags he was very much cut up and stuffed into garbage bags it was a vicious killing and mutilation the legs of Neil Muir had been stuffed actually into his chest cavity so it was quite horrific foreign police complete their search of the area before the bags containing the body parts are taken away detectives are Disturbed to discover there are similarities between the two murders both victims ingested drugs before they bled to death from injuries the two bodies were dumped in or close to water and both were last seen on a Sunday the evidence indicates the victims are most likely to have been driven to the locations where their bodies were found Muir is a heroin user and well known to police he disappears the day before his body is dumped and police wonder if his murder may be drug-related little is known about his movements but detectives reconstruct his ordeal from the post-mortem evidence it's believed that he is drugged before being held captive and tortured [Music] leads to death from the injury [Music] afterwards his killer hacks into his spine with a saw severing his head his arms and legs are also removed and stripped of Flesh and muscle his internal organs are removed and placed in a plastic bag which along with his severed limbs are then stuffed into his mutilated torso his head bazali is wired to his body and placed flat against his chest before the whole package is tightly fitted into a large garbage bag ready to be dumped at mutton Cove the murders of Alan and Neil send shock waves through the community as the murders clearly are linked it seems likely that yet again a group of sadistic serial killers is operating in Adelaide following the murder of Neil Muir police receive a tip-off from an anonymous caller suggesting that Adelaide accountant Bevin Spencer Von einem may be responsible for Allen barnes's death it was believed from subsequent witness statements that he was seen with Von Ireland but that couldn't be actually backed up we're here to ask you uh in the company of Mr Neil Muir last Saturday night yes it was but I dropped him off at a local hotel and I didn't see him after that do you ever know anyone that could verify that story no the information is filed away along with hundreds of other leads well look thank you for your time uh we may be back later to ask some more questions thank you thanks thank you [Music] [Music] more than two and a half years have passed since the murders of Alan Barnes and Neil Muir and police are no closer to solving the mystery of their deaths in February 1982 19 year old Mark Langley is with his family at a friend's birthday party his father David his mother and two sisters leave early just a few hours later Mark vanishes Without a Trace foreign contented young man enjoying life to the full just a normal teenager he like girls and he like Motorcars and motorbikes yeah it just was a great light his last scene in the early hours of Sunday walking towards the Torrens river near the city after having had a minor argument with two friends later that morning David Langley becomes concerned when he discovers his son hasn't come home from that not a club we were starting to get worried the next day 12 o'clock I was that worried I went to the police and that's not much well anyway you know for a 19 year old who we knew there was something wrong over the following days police conduct an extensive hunt and interview those who last saw him divers are brought in to search the Torrens River days pass and there is still no sign of Mark we were still hoping that maybe something just gone wrong he was just injured or or something like that it's believed that shortly after his last sighting Mark accepts a lift from a stranger [Music] not a problem how you doing [Music] way off now oh looks like a bit yeah yeah sure he's handed a beer pulled from an Esky on the back seat of the car [Music] don't worry about it [Music] another one in the back when you finish it without a Russian as the car speeds through the night Mark suddenly begins to feel drowsy he struggles to keep his eyes open the beer is laced with a powerful sedative and minutes later the teenager passes out in the front seat of the car foreign over the next 48 hours he's kept sedated at an unknown location [Music] he drifts In and Out Of Consciousness and is subjected to a series of perverted experiments [Music] is violently assaulted with and bleeds to death from massive internal injuries [Music] nine days after Mark Langley's disappearance his body is found in scrubland at Summertown east of the city his blue shirt and distinctive silver Ingot chain are missing there are no visible injuries his clothes are clean and there are no blood stains frightening the um they said we found a body out there towards me lofty way I we believe it's Mark I had to sit down until till my other Doris that their brother wouldn't be coming off and that was really good the post-mortem conducted at the Adelaide morgue reveals something even more bizarre there was a vertical cut into his abdomen which was actually stitched up with some thread afterwards so being cut open and then re and then stitched police believe the killer has cut open his victim to retrieve an object that had been inserted into his intestinal tract possibly because the item may have the Killer's fingerprints on it animals or animals [Music] well this is I've been trying to think of what to call them you do not call them men you do not call them people then you do not call them animals what do you call them and for 25 years I could not think of the name to call him you know to address the Press what do I say to him what do we call these people they're not human [Music] Mark Langley was held captive and tortured for several days and like the others had been forced to ingest alcohol and drugs foreign detectives now consider the same person to be responsible for all three murders interestingly Bevin Spencer Von einem's name keeps cropping up but he's just one of many Persons of Interest fearing more bodies are out there they reopen the case files on other missing teenagers including one on Peter stockneff who disappeared six months earlier fourteen-year-old Peter stockneff is a talented youngster with a flair for music living with his parents in Adelaide's Northern suburbs well Peter was born in Sydney I thought he was the most beautiful baby in the whole world the and when my friend had a look at him and she said oh the but look at his face he's all got red on his cheeks and everywhere I said you be quiet he's my beautiful baby you know Thursday the 27th of August 1981 Peter says goodbye to his mother and heads off to school however he isn't planning on attending school that day having decided to skip classes and travel into the city to meet up with a friend father Alex comes home from work early and finds Peter's school bag in the garage walked into the garage so he must have been planning something to do to Wagner die from school or something because he left his bag in the garage Peter had intended to go to the Rundle Mall shops but somewhere between his home and the city he mysteriously disappears police investigate a report that the boy may never have made it into the city but was abducted from tea tree plaza near his home despite numerous appeals for information about Peter's disappearance police received little response and have no leads then in June 1982 at the little town of two Wells 20 kilometers north of Adelaide a local farmer after conducting a burn off discovers a human skull along with the blackened remains of a skeleton [Music] major crime Squad detectives are called to the scene based on dental records They believe the skeletal remains are those of Peter stognev [Music] I just accept that why why why um why they could be Peters he's such a little boy you know he didn't do anything to anybody a forensic examination reveals extraordinary similarities to the other victims injuries where they went to we we can only speculate we don't know the back had been cut through the saw so his spinal cord had been cut through and his legs had been cut through above his knees with a saw as well even to this day the stognaths aren't completely certain the remains found at two Wells belonged to Peter I waited every minute for him to come home every every minute well definitely we want the answers desperately yes we would have helped to go along to battle this hard life the one we have at the moment it's always in your mind that we wish we would have more evidence that it is him till this day I don't think it's even him police now have four victims all murdered in similar circumstances three have shocking internal injuries two have been dissected and one has been operated on using surgical instruments with the discovery of Peter stogniff's body the police investigation goes into overdrive one by one the bodies are beginning to pile up and detectives fear there are more to come [Music] thank you [Music] after the discovery of Peter stognev the fourth of the murdered boys 15 months go by and police are no closer to solving the crimes with the passage of time the Public's anxiety begins to diminish foreign [Music] 1983 the murders of Alan Barnes Neil Muir Mark Langley and Peter stogniff are dramatically thrust back into the headlines [Music] 15 year old should Calvin lives with his parents Rob and Betty Anne in the trendy suburb of North Adelaide Richard's father Rob Calvin presents the nightly news on Channel 9. Richard is a good-looking youth who loves playing Sport and has a steady girlfriend journalist and family friend Rex leverington describes Richard as a normal teenager who's much loved by his parents you know it was one of those just nice families but they're all jeweled you know you could turn around and almost say that what a perfect family they were loving parents and loving kids thank you on Sunday afternoon on the 5th of June 1983 Richard is playing football with a friend at a local park he's wearing sneakers and jeans and a channel 9 t-shirt for a bit of a joke he's borrowed the studded collar from the kelvin's family dog and is wearing it around his neck it's getting dark Drew home for dinner he walks a short distance from the park to nearby O'Connell Street and waves goodbye to his friend who catches a bus home [Music] what happens next isn't exactly clear but somewhere between the bus stop in O'Connell Street and his home in Ward Street a distance of just 400 meters Richard Calvin disappears [Music] and Richard fails to arrive home his parents alert police the police begin a door knock of nearby homes and businesses and detectives from major crime are informed about Richard's disappearance obviously the local detectives Adelaide CIB had started the investigation and then we quickly realized that something was seriously wrong detectives involved in the investigation of the four other murders visit Rob and Betty Ann Calvin it's very obvious straight away that he just hadn't run off he was coming home for tea it was a normal 15 year old boy in love with a young girl and was had was due to go to school the next day the police canvas of residents living near the Calvin's home pays off a security guard living nearby tells detectives he heard cries for help and car doors banging at around 6 15 on the night that Richard disappeared [Music] other residents provide police with similar accounts saying they heard shouting from a group of men and a woman shortly before a car with a noisy exhaust sped away news of Richard's disappearance resonates around the country news presenters are major celebrities for one to lose a son is a big story it would be like one of Brian Naylor's children suddenly being on the front page of the paper having disappeared in awful circumstances so if you're watching the program up in Sydney you'd be like Brian and Marty Hendersons one of their daughters suddenly having disappeared so it had that sort of impact on Adelaide immediately there's speculation that the teenager might have fallen prey to the same Killers responsible for the four other unsolved murders police question all his family and friends but they can't explain why he would go missing well I had no idea this is this this is this is it it was so unlike Richard to just disappear or not to ring up and say hey I'm over at somebody else's place and I'll be home so it was just not like Richard at all rumors sweep the city and police are inundated by calls from members of the public it seems like everyone has a theory about what happened to Richard Calvin every everybody was out looking people were going to clairvoyance something anything to see what had happened [Music] weeks go by and still there is no trace of Richard Calvin and detectives now fear the worst resources are stretched to the Limit as police investigate every lead and then seven weeks after Richard mysteriously vanishes there's a tragic development Trevor Holmes is with his wife and children at Mount Crawford Northeast of the city searching for moss-covered rocks for his garden cold and he's not having a great deal of luck finding anything suitable however he decides to have one last look before leaving the area as he moves further into the Bushland Trevor notices some kangaroo bones and bends down to inspect them as he does so he sees someone lying in the scrub in front of him at first he thinks the person might be injured so I just edged my way over and I went over there and I said are you all right mate and I pulled the bushes right back and then I that's when I saw his head and his hair was all greasy and his skin was all mottled I pulled further bushes out of the way and I asked him again if he was all right and because then as I pulled the bushes right out of the way I noticed that he had a channel 9 jumper on so I backed off and I went up there and I said that's Richard Kelvin police arrive and quickly established that the body is indeed that of Richard Calvin he's wearing the same clothes he had on when he went missing and has the dog collar around his neck a crime scene is established and police begin a meticulous search of the surrounding area Richard was in the scrub immediately adjacent to this airstrip this dirt airstrip so is lying on the ground in a fetal position and and he'd been there probably two weeks [Music] Bob O'Brien faces the awful task of informing Richard's parents that their son has been found murdered it's not an easy task of a police officer and and I don't think I did it as well as I could have but how can you do anything like that well it was a terrible thing you you look at a family that has been torn apart by something they had no control over and something you have no control over there's nothing you can do which is the horrific about it of watching these nice people being torn apart the post-mortem confirms that Richard Calvin has been murdered in the same way as the three other victims [Music] shut up it's gonna be fun we're just taking you for a little while after being abducted near his home Richard is driven to an unknown location held captive the terrified boy is made to swallow a cocktail of powerful and stupefying drugs [Music] as they take effect he becomes Dazed and Confused and loses track of time days turn into weeks and Richard is trapped in an unending nightmare [Music] each time the door opens the boy cowers with fear terrified of what's to come [Music] finally Richard can take no more and his ordeal comes to an end [Music] police deduce his body is then washed to remove any traces of evidence and he's redressed in his own clothes before being taken away and dumped in the Bushland at Mount Crawford people just didn't believe it was happening here in Adelaide I just didn't believe it [Music] the pathology report reveals Richard Calvin has a mixture of four powerful prescription drugs in his system the following day police conduct a further search of the area where the teenager's body was found police determined he was murdered five weeks after being abducted but where has he been all that time newspaper reports suddenly begin to speculate the murders are being committed by a ring of high-profile South Australian businessmen politicians and even judges who are above the law they dubbed the group The Family I think it was a possibly a media beta it was a hook to hang things on [Music] there's got to be a family of people and it's just stuck undercover police infiltrate Adelaide's gay community and at the same time detectives working on the Neil Muir murder think they've made a breakthrough when an Adelaide doctor is arrested and charged but the doctor is later acquitted and police are back to square one police focused their attention on the identification of fibers found attached to Richard Calvin's clothing the fibers are examined by forensic scientist Sandra Young in this particular case there were lots of tape lifts that had been made from Richard kelvin's clothing that had been found on his body and that included a t-shirt a pair of jeans and a pair of Underpants a number of foreign hairs are also found yes I believe there were some hairs found on the jeans on the inside of the jeans and Bose hair samples were taken to the biology part of the forensic science laboratory meantime detectives banking on a long shot visit the Adelaide offices of the State Health commission police are looking for a Common Thread and they sift through thousands of files they concentrate on a list of people who've been prescribed restricted drugs similar to those found in Richard kelvin's blood it is an arduous task but it results in a stunning development among the files police discover the name Bevin Spencer Von einem [Music] six South Australian detectives investigating the horrific murder of Richard Calvin identify a major suspect he's Adelaide accountant Bevin Spencer Von einem he is catapulted to the top of the list when police discover he's been prescribed a restricted drug that's been found in the bodies of two murder victims Richard Calvin and Mark Langley detectives visit him at his home in the northeastern Adelaide suburb of paradise where he lives with his mother police tell him they want to ask him about the prescription drugs your name does a panelist of restricted prescribed drug users we have interviewed most of the people on that list you've met your name is on it we'd like you were coming to us down to the station for some further questioning sure but I'd have to fill my solicitor getting to meet me down there that'll be fun they start by asking him what drugs he has in his house I take them to help me sleep you know because I wouldn't sleep without taking them that's all I have them for help to sleep so you would give them to anyone else no I wouldn't give them to anyone else because I'm using them for myself detectives then cut to the Chase and asked him straight out if he knows anything about any of the murdered boys I've never heard of anyone called Alan Barnes did you kill Alan Barnes no I don't know who he is did you kill Peter stogniff no why are you asking me these questions I don't know I don't know who these people are do you know anybody who may have killed them I don't know these people I don't know what you're asking these questions for did you kill Mark Langley no I didn't I don't know who these people are did you kill Richard Kelvin no following the interview Von einem allows police to take samples of his blood and hair he also agrees to let police examine his car and search his home made the bathrooms clear that's fine in his bedroom they find various drugs including those found in the bodies of several of the victims [Music] the drugs are found behind a mirror in his bedroom and in a carry bag thank you if possible there's another one here too that's again [Music] detectives are now convinced Von einem is the monster who murdered all the boys but they know they'll need more evidence before they can formally charge him during the search of Von item's Home Police also collect fiber samples from the carpets and his bed spread to compare against the trace evidence found on Richard Calvin's clothing police dig deeper into his past and find he's been interviewed previously about an incident involving a young boy this led was taken back to a house where transvestites live and the story was come back to the house and we'll have a party there's some girls there but it was all a Bruce to get the boys back there and give them a drink with drugs detectives discover Von einem has close ties to a CD group of friends who share a sick passion for young boys then police Tracked Down the anonymous caller who had first pointed the finger at Von einem where did Von item go cruising for boys Bob O'Brien interviews the witness whose name is suppressed and known only as Mr B how often did he do that all the time every weekend tell me about the two hitchhikes what he reveals is dynamite Saturday after midnight there were two guys walking down the street in North Adelaide so you picked some of the things he told me about what he and Von Island were doing was quite staggering picking up boys and using and drugging them always had booze in his car yeah Esky in the boot and then let's get on the back seat which was always covered in clothes in case the cops pulled him over so you picked up the boys and what did you do then Mr B's account of Von items activities sickens detectives he tells police Von item had a regular beat and would drive around in his car trawling the streets looking to pick up boys Mr B says he and Von einem were together in his car on numerous occasions when boys were picked up and provided with drugs and also given alcohol from an Esky Von item always had on the back seat of his car Mr B says many of the boys were taken to a house in the Adelaide suburbs and subjected to acts of extreme degradation by Von item after they'd passed out from the drugs and alcohol they'd been given and Devin went in his room and shut the door we haven't said he'd kill him if he woke up clearly Von item is a sadistic sexual predator but police still don't have enough evidence to charge him then there's another major breakthrough Sandra young confirms trace evidence collected from Von item's home matches that found on Richard Calvin's body the bedroom carpet was made of acrylic and that was a blue and an aqua and then they hold carpet had I think four different fiber types in it um five um and they were again acrylic with a little bit of wall so with and the colors were so vibrant through the microscope so I was rather excited about it hair samples collected from Von item also match those found inside Richard Calvin's jeans detectives now know that Richard Calvin has been at Von einem's home prior to his murder detectives make their move and arrest him later that day his formerly charged with Calvin's murder Von einem is aware of the damning trace evidence identified by forensic investigators and he knows he must come up with an alibi detectives visit him in jail and he admits he was with Richard Calvin but many weeks before he was murdered and he started to say that yes I picked up Richard curwin but soon as he said look I picked up Richard Kelvin I knew he was he was in a lot of trouble in terms of a jury trial because it just the case was getting stronger and stronger against him on October the 15th 1984 more than a year after Richard Calvin was murdered Bevin Spencer Von einem appears in a South Australian Supreme Court the trial attracts huge public interest when Von einem is led into the courtroom the public Gallery Falls silent no one can believe the ordinary looking man standing in the dock could be responsible for such a heinous crime as the trial continues Von einem's explanation of how fibers from his home had been found on Richard Calvin's body begins to unravel I believe he um said that at some stage he had put his arm around Richard and that would perhaps explain the cardigan fibers found on his clothing he had sat him on the floor at some stage that might explain the hall carpet fibers if Richard had willingly gone to Von item's home on the day he disappeared as Von item claims then most of the trace evidence would have fallen off his clothes long before he was killed five weeks later it had not therefore the evidence clearly indicates Richard was with Von item on the day he was murdered we were able to tell from the experiments that we did that [Music] that thou not be believed the jury also hears damning evidence about the stupefying drugs found in Von item's home dozens of witnesses including Von item's elderly mother are called to give evidence Von einer makes a statement from the doc declaring his innocence on the 2nd of November 1984 after a trial lasting almost three weeks the jury retires to consider its verdict shortly after 7 PM they return the foreman rises from his chair and says guilty and he said in the Box passively no emotion but he doesn't show any remorse he in my mind doesn't feel guilty at all about his abusive boys I'm quite sure he sees nothing wrong with it Justice white sentences Bevan Spencer Von item to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 24 years the sentence is immediately appealed by the south Australian Attorney General the Court of Criminal appeal increases the non-parole period to 36 years [Music] the time the sentence is the highest ever imposed on anyone in South Australia but the story doesn't end there in 1988 almost four years after Von item is sentenced the South Australian coroner reopens the investigation into the unsolved murders of three of the other boys his findings will set in train events that will result in yet another chapter being written about the depraved life of Bevin Spencer Von einem [Music] um following Von anem's conviction police re-interview secret witness Mr Bean he's granted immunity from prosecution and in exchange he agrees to give further Evidence against Von item in court this convinces the South Australian director of public prosecutions to allow police to charge Von item with the murders of Allen Barnes and Mark Langley on March the 5th 1990 11 years after the murder of Alan Barnes and eight years after the murder of Mark Von einem appears in court charged with their murders he pleads not guilty to the charges in a stunning development Mr B tells the court he'd seen Von einem with Alan Barnes before the teenager went missing the court also hears evidence that Von item had been in the area near the Torrens River on the same night Mark Langley disappeared [Music] the magistrate hearing the case finds their sufficient evidence concerning Von item's alleged involvement in the murders of Alan and Mark for him to stand trial in the Supreme Court the trial judge agrees to admit Mr B's testimony but disallows any evidence relating to the murder of Richard Calvin right from the start the prosecution's case is in trouble and the charges are withdrawn the failed prosecution is a major blow for investigators who still believe Von item knows more than he's ever admitted he's certainly a very strong Suspect with Muir and stogner Peter stogniff and Neil Muir and it'd have to be suspect for others as well but trying to prove it and it to term and to determine whether he actually did them as another matter again I think being a father it's my job to provide and to protect and anybody would take that away either way I haven't done my job and I don't feel I've done my job you know because I haven't protected my children you know and that's the part what really got me down a lot you know because of the protections of you know the real father if you can't do that sort of thing have some fun to take you for a little ride and have some fun okay how could one person I've got a strong 15 16 year old into the car [Music] there has to be more than one person involved a massive Commonwealth Royal Commission of inquiry has recently exposed widespread cover-up of child abuse in institutions throughout Australia other inquiries into abuse of young people have included a royal Commission in South Australia which exposed shocking molestation of young children in state care pedophilia in South Australia where well the world's capital we're the world's capital you know um it's rampant here you know kids are molested by such a high rate it's unbelievable the murders of Mark Langley Alan Barnes Neil Muir and Peter stognev remain unsolved their families are still convinced something or someone has protected The Killers and their followers in the so-called family I do honestly believe that there was a conspiracy involved in some way shape or form Peter Stog Nev's mother Lydia says shortly before Peter disappeared he was talking on the phone for an hour with an unnamed person but she claims police ignored this clue I thought they knew how to investigate you know anything that is so important as a telephone you know if you can trace it back there's your whole thing you don't have to investigate for investigate for 35 years job could have been completed and done claim one detective told them privately that police were powerless in the face of a high-level cover-up he told me said we know who they are but we can't touch them they are in very high places and they got so much protection around themselves said we can't do nothing Von einem is still incarcerated and has since been classified as a dangerous offender never to be released it's clear he did not act alone and yet Perhaps out of fear he steadfastly refuses to name any accomplices criminologists and the victims families believe there could be as many as 50. it's like a piranha speeding on a dead bit of Flesh they could they drug the boys up to such an extent that the boys not one of the boys you know could actually defend themselves in any way shape or form and that bring him in to have sex with him and things like that and uh yeah that's what we call Satellites they were involved at least partially in it they knew about it and they they protected these people as well for all these years they've been protecting them the reopening and Case by police in 2008 reportedly has been the largest ever conducted by Adelaide's major crime Cold Case team no significant breakthrough has been reported the South Australian police declined our request for a further interview on the investigation and didn't offer any reason one Fearless campaigner in the search for the truth is Wendy utting who successfully fought for the removal of South Australia's criminal statute of limitations rules mysteriously the law had been introduced some years earlier to set a time limit on investigations he could not get a conviction against an offender if the event had occurred prior to 1982. so that opened up the floodgates from there on in open up the floodgates and all of a sudden we were faced with you know everything prior 1982 as far as sexual offenses particularly against children doors are open coming and see us Wendy was venturing into dangerous territory when two of her informants Shane Moore and Robert Woodlands were murdered and a third bikey gang leader Steve Williams mysteriously disappeared Steve was helping me with a lot of the child abuse issue cases he certainly brought forward a lot of information that fingerprinted at people in positions of authority um and at the time of his disappearance he was due to come and speak to a trusted police officer with me and that was the last we saw of him he didn't make it to that meeting Wendy worked in the infirmary at yatler prison where Bevin Spencer Von einem was incarcerated whilst I was working at yet Luray found out that and discovered that he had access to um semi-pornographic material more disturbingly than that was also that that he was allowed to have extra time in the computer room he was teaching other prisoners computer skills and he was allowed to have extra time in the computer room when everyone else had gone with a chosen friend renowned journalist Graeme Archer has spent 30 years working on this and other crime investigations in Adelaide it's believed though there there was these high-profile murders the five murders that there may well be other bodies that have been undiscovered of Street kids for whom no one went searching no family was looking for them to come home and who knows the the drugs may have been administered to these kids and they've been unconscious and then disposed of so you know it's not it's not sufficient to say well look there were only five murders I think we can be fairly certain that there are others out there that we know that we know nothing of many questions surrounding unsolved murders are now being answered so this is something where someone's actually in touch thanks to groundbreaking work at a forensic DNA testing laboratory inside Adelaide's Flinders University it can now extract the smallest of samples from a victim's clothes and Link them to the killer when you're looking at a cold case it really just depends upon how much material is there our method has been shown to be able to generate really good results from Tiny traces so that's why we're interested in this technology Ellen was found wearing not his own clothing but somebody else's you know is that is that clothing still in evidence with with South Australian police can we bring that back out now and and retest it using modern techniques and see if we can pinpoint somebody else can we bring in the other people that were obviously present and responsible for for abducting and raping torturing and murdering Alan and the other victims the families of the four missing boys are convinced that only a fresh coronal inquiry will force all Persons of Interest to give evidence under oath and finally expose the family killers I believe we need a cranial inquiry new and perennial inquiry we need to look at who else was involved with Long Island in in these acts it's not good enough that one person's gone to jail over it when we already know that there are other people involved there are an enormous number of rumors an enormous number of potential leads and clearly vivin vonam is one of the perpetrators and that's been dealt with and proven but there are people out there who are responsible who've been involved who've never been brought to Justice and I think that's one of the great tragedies of this case but it is enormously frustrating that these young lives can be lost and there there can be no finality until those people are brought to Justice any information please call Crime Stoppers now on 1-800-33-000 . [Music]

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 253,878

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Gangs & Mobs, Stalkers, child crime, cold case, con artists, crime, crime documentary, crime series, disappearances, family crime, ivan milat, murder, podcasts, police, renae marsden, revelle balmain, roger rogerson, serial killer, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series, murder documentary, true crime stories, crime investigation, real crime stories, Family Murders

Id: nuZgc56ESrs

Length: 57min 27sec (3447 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 09 2023