Alan lived with his parents, both English immigrants, in Salisbury: a northern suburb of Adelaide. by enjin | Feb 12, 2021 | victim. This witness would also recall hearing this supposed argument on the street come to a sudden end, punctuated with the sound of a loud exhaust system as a car sped down the street. This ultimately resulted in a victory for Dr. Peter Millhouse's attorneys, earning the man an acquittal and his freedom. Unfortunately, it did not. [14][24] His body was found on 24 July by a geologist who was searching for moss-covered rocks near a dirt airstrip at Kersbrook. The police came to this conclusion due to the status of his remains, which weren't nearly as decomposed as they should have been; by the time he was discovered at the end of July, he had been dead for no more than a week or two, despite having gone missing at the beginning of June. He was last seen stumbling down the street, supposedly wandering off to parts unknown. In June of 1983, Richard Kelvin was approaching sixteen years of age. The Family Murders is one of Australias most captivating true crime stories. 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. View description Share. 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. In the days to come, police began asking around the area for any sign of Peter Stogneff and discovered that the teen had essentially vanished into thin air. In 1979, residents of Adelaide were gripped by fear when several young men began to go missing under mysterious circumstances. When Dr. Millhouse's trial eventually commenced in the latter half of 1980 - more than a year after Neil Muir's murder - the prosecution continued to rely heavily upon their circumstantial evidence and witness statements, failing to establish any motive for the crime or provide any definitive evidence. Unfortunately, information gathered by police that fateful Tuesday began to cast doubt on the idea that Richard had willingly chosen to run away from home. They hoped to use character witnesses to build up the relationship between the two, and then use other eyewitnesses to fill in the rest (the drugs, the sexual relationship, etc.). The victims were all young men, who had gone missing in or near the northern section of town. But underneath the surface, a monster lingered 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. [14] The hair around the area had been shaved as it would have been in an operation in a hospital. Because this murder seemed like the type of crime beset by emotional issues - or likely someone with an ax to grind against Alan, personally - police initially began investigating this as a personal crime. He also happened to be a relative of Robin Millhouse, South Australia's former Attorney General who would become a Supreme Court Justice in 1982. For a week, his loved ones had been bracing themselves for the worst, but this was a confirmation of everything they had been fearing for the past several days: Alan had been violently murdered, and had spent his final hours in agony. Peter Stogneff was a fourteen-year-old that lived with his family in a middle-class home, in a northeastern suburb of Adelaide. For many, that meant gay-specific bars and clubs, where these individuals were allowed to socially express themselves honestly for the first time in their lives. 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). Show True Crime Conversations, Ep The Family Murders Of Adelaide - 10 Nov 2021. While working for Major Crimes, Investigator O'Brien received an anonymous tip that Richard Kelvin was being held against his will in a caravan in the Adelaide Foothills. His family knew this but accepted that there was little they could do to curtail this behavior; letting Alan grow and develop at his own pace as his adolescence came to an end. [8] Little more could be determined as the remains had been accidentally burnt by the farmer while clearing his property of scrub.[11][19]. Mark Andrew Langley RICHARD KELVIN Richard Kelvin, aged 15 years, was abducted at about 6.15 p.m. on Sunday 5 June 1983 from a laneway off Ward Street, North Adelaide. However, Neil's life was far less glamorous; rumors persist to this day that, leading up to August of 1979, Neil was engaging in sex work to support his bad habits and lifestyle. Was Dr Millhouse involved in Neil Muirs murder. 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. The Family Murders is a well known and notorious series of crimes that occurred in Adelaide, Australia. Richard walked him down the road to the nearby O'Connell Street bus stop, arriving without incident, and waited there for his friend's bus to arrive. However, the medical examiners in Adelaide concluded definitively that Alan had died several hours before this happened. Gay people (in particular, gay men) began to become more comfortable in their own skin, and no longer had to suppress their sexuality in public. While police pounded the pavement to find out what had happened to Richard Kelvin, the young man's life was slowly coming to an end. The Family Murders is the name given to a series of five murders speculated to have been committed by a loosely connected group of individuals who came to be known as "The Family". But the rumors that he engaged in sex work were mainly perpetrated by those that knew him from his regular haunts: members of Adelaide's gay community, who regularly saw Neil at the gay-friendly bars they frequented. 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. This section explores the people who at this stage are thought to have been on the periphery. High profile lawyer and murder victim Derrance Stevenson regularly entertained teenage youths. 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. The male and female drove off but returned At about 6pm on a Sunday afternoon, Richard walked his friend to the bus stop on O'Connell St, North Adelaide. 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. Unfortunately, by the time they returned, Mark was nowhere to be found. Do you think the Family Murders case will ever be solved? Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for a crime. In the days after Neil Muir's body was discovered in separate black trash bags, police had received two separate phone calls alerting them to the victim's relationship with a local doctor. He was last seen while hitchhiking being picked up by a white HQ Holden sedan carrying three or four people. The "Family Murders" *Warning: graphic content and mentions of sexual abuse ahead. This was done in a different method to what had happened to Neil Muir's remains, but medical examiners were able to identify points in the bones just above the knees and the back where a saw had carved the body into pieces. 2020 familymurders.com All Rights Reserved. This witness recalled Alan getting into a vehicle, which appeared to be a white Holden sedan. These people have no such bond, only an association that with time probably no longer exists". Hence, the odd scar that seemed to serve no other purpose. 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. Alan Arthur Barnes, aged 16, murdered in 1979. 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"). Noctec was found in his blood, suggesting he had been drugged. His mother, Judy, would later describe him as being incredibly witty; "cheeky," as she describes in a 2006 documentary, going on to say that Alan was always quick on his feet, and would respond to any type of comment with something sarcastic and bitterly funny. While investigators had been keeping information closely guarded in this case, they decided to publicize this information to the media in the hopes that it would attract follow-up tips. 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. The Family Murders Of Adelaide. 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. Over time Trevor kept diary records of his conversations with that suspect as well as another suspect. Among those voices, he described, was a higher-pitched voice, which sounded almost feminine. Sadly, this dark and tragic saga was just beginning. On Saturday, June 16th, 1979, Alan spent the night at a friend's house. They phoned police that evening, hoping that their son's whereabouts could be chalked up to a simple miscommunication. The other murders remain unsolved. 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. Over a span of several years starting in 1979 and into the 80s five young men, aged from 14 to 25, went missing in different areas of Adelaide. Now, with Mark Langley, police were able to confirm the presence of the drug Mandrax in his system. Gino Gambardella regularly scouted Rundle Mall and video game arcades for runaways, homeless teenagers, and youths who he was able to exploit. If that was true, then could that have been happening to the other young male victims that had been viciously murdered in the preceding years? However, when Neil Muir's body was discovered, his internal organs had been removed and were gone entirely, leading to police being unable to test his blood levels. 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). The bags looked as if they had been dropped from the higher-up wharf, just like the body of Alan Barnes had been. The two had been dating for about a month now, and Richard had excitedly told his mother that he planned on proposing when his girlfriend and he were nineteen years old. Following the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1975, Adelaide began to be known as one of the more progressive cities in all of Australia. 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 . Whatever it was, it looked like a human body but was somehow twisted and contorted in an inhuman nature. 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. Just like Neil Muir, whoever had taken him had killed him and dumped his body pretty quickly, within a day or two. An ear witness said they heard some shouting, 2020 familymurders.com All Rights Reserved. Once known as the "City of Churches," Adelaide began going through a stark progression in the 1960s. He has spent that Sunday, June the 5th, playing footy, until the afternoon when his best friend Karl came over. [citation needed]. His remains had been dissected and neatly cut into many pieces, placed in a garbage bag and thrown into the Port River at Port Adelaide. Five murders and over 150 rapes. [15] A post-mortem examination revealed that Muir had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object[16] and Noctec was found in his blood. 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. Hours would begin to pass, and Alan would fail to return home at all that Sunday. 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. 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. It was there that they found his backpack hidden in the garage, which ultimately led to calls to all of his friends. Alan's friend made it back to his house within minutes, but unfortunately, Alan was not so lucky. No additional leads would surface in that time-span, and police would continue to refrain from stating that the two victims so far - Alan Barnes and Neil Muir - were connected in any way (at least, they wouldn't say so publicly). Once in the car they would be offered a drink that was laced with a knockout drug. Unfortunately, Richard Kelvin would never make it home. After a bit, Rob decided to walk home, leaving the two boys at the park; assured that it was just down the street from their house and it was still early in the day. 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. So, they believed that this crime might have been perpetrated by someone that Neil owed money to, who wanted to cover up their tracks afterward. Ian and Paula, Mark's friends, drove away but would return just minutes later, cooler heads having prevailed. It wasn't until the next day, Sunday (February 28th), that Mark's parents began to grow concerned. by enjin | Feb 12, 2021 . The skeletal remains of one victim bore marks to reasonably indicate a similar experience and outcome. At this point, the idea of a random killer hadn't even crossed investigators' minds. Five murders and over 150 rapes. If your information is verified and its not breaking any laws, we may publish it. It was the body of Neil Muir or, rather, what remained of him. If you have information about the case then contact us through our contact page. 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. Richard Dallas Kelvin, (born 4 December 1967) aged 15,[23] murdered in July 1983. Over the next year or so, the case would stagnate. But he didn't commit these crimes on his own. According to his family, this was right in-line with Richard's odd sense of humor. 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. That evening, as Mark drove around with his friend Ian and Ian's girlfriend, Paula, an argument broke out. The last victim was the son of our local television newsreader. For obvious reasons, he didn't tell his parents, setting out that morning with his backpack and heading off like any other day. 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. They now had five bodies - five victims - and five families pushing for answers. 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. From the outside looking in, von Einem was incredibly average. One victim was killed and dumped within 24 hours, another was kept alive for five weeks, and the rest were in between. So the police began reaching out to people that worked or had otherwise been in the area. 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. After doing away with his old, dried-up crops, the farmer was looking over his land when he came upon the now-charred remains of young Peter Stogneff. A post-mortem examination revealed that Barnes had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object. Both witnesses - who were friends with Neil and drug users themselves - were prepared to testify should this man be tried for the murder. Bevan Spencer von Einem was jailed for life for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. Police were called out to the scene, and an extensive search of the area commenced. Suspect 3, an Eastern Suburbs doctor. 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. It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. Things then came full circle when he began using heroin again, and shortly thereafter, followed that up with a dependence on Rohypnol ("roofies", commonly known as the date-rape drug). 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. Hundreds of sordid and terrifying crimes and only one man found guilty in relation to only one victim. 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. 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.
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