Richard was found wearing the same clothing that he had been wearing on the day of his disappearance, but in an unusual twist, was found to be wearing his family dog's collar. The Family Murders was a series of murders in the 1970s and 1980s that targeted young men in Adelaide, South Australia between the ages of 14 and 25. A few more anonymous calls would be received in the coming weeks. Although each attack and mutilation appeared different, police investigators soon began to link the horrific murders to one another. 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. This ultimately resulted in a victory for Dr. Peter Millhouse's attorneys, earning the man an acquittal and his freedom. Hundreds of sordid and terrifying crimes and only one man found guilty in relation to only one victim. Because Neil's transient lifestyle led to him becoming known as a bit of a vagabond, his sexuality was not exactly common knowledge. A short time later, police were contacted and later arrived at the scene to document the grisly find. View description Share. He had seemingly disappeared, and a brief search of the area failed to come up with him. Mr B made contact with police two days after Alan Barnes was found. Over the next year or so, the case would stagnate. The medical examiners would also find a significant head wound on Neil, which wasn't significant enough to have killed him, but would have likely happened to incapacitate or subdue the man. The head was tied to the torso with rope passed through the mouth and out through the neck. They kicked the footy around. It was this rapport that caused Peter to skip school on Thursday, August 27th, 1981. Neil's remains were brought in and carefully examined by the area's medical examiners, who quickly discovered an alarming red flag, which harkened back to the discovery of Alan Barnes' corpse. Unfortunately, Richard Kelvin would never make it home. His friend likely just assumed that Peter had bailed on their plan, and likely gone to school that day. One victim was killed and dumped within 24 hours, another was kept alive for five weeks, and the rest were in between. 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. The other two men thrown into the river with him managed to escape with their lives, but they did not escape unscathed. Unfortunately, that Thursday, Peter never arrived at the mall to meet his friend.
Dylan John Kovarskis sentenced to 20 years' jail for murder of Adelaide This group was believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a number of teenage boys and young men, as well as the torture and murder of five young men aged between 14 and 25, in Adelaide, South Australia, in the 1970s and 1980s. Neil's numerous tattoos had also been cut away from his flesh, and those patches of inked skin had been placed into his chest cavity along with his severed limbs. [21] Among the mutilations was a wound that appeared to have been cut with a surgical instrument that went from his navel to the pubic region and part of his small bowel was missing. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George.
[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. This section explores the people who at this stage are thought to have been on the periphery. It wasn't until the next day, Sunday (February 28th), that Mark's parents began to grow concerned. [4][5] In 1989, von Einem was charged with the murders of two other victims, Barnes and Langley, but the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi (voluntarily discontinue criminal charges) during the trial when crucial similar fact evidence was deemed inadmissible by the presiding judge. While police began to investigate who might be responsible for this heinous crime, medical examiners testing the body made a pretty shocking discovery: the presence of drugs in his blood. The severing of Neil's limbs and the mutilation of his body was originally believed to have been part of an effort to dispose of his body. 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. 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. 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. Bob O'Brien was an investigator for Major Crimes, who had just started working with the unit the year prior (1982). In August of 1979, Neil was living alone in an apartment on Carrington Street, right in the middle of Adelaide itself. The Family Murders is the name given to the murders of five young men and boys between 1979 and 1983, with all abducted from the streets of Adelaide before being taken to another location,. This website was built on publicly available information contributed by many people who have an interest in this case. Likely, he was one of the people seen hanging out with Neil at the bars and clubs just days that weekend. But his teachers recalled him being absent, and hours would pass that afternoon (heading into the evening) and Peter would fail to return home. There's a conviction in the last murder in the series, but I will include it due to the similarity and due to the man convicted being suspected in the other murders as well. Alan's friend made it back to his house within minutes, but unfortunately, Alan was not so lucky. Analysis of Kelvin's bloodstream revealed traces of four hypnotic drugs,[11][26] including Mandrax and Noctec. Detective O'Brien was the unfortunate one tasked with notifying the Kelvins that Richard's body had been found; which he describes in his book as one of the most heartbreaking duties he's ever had to endure.
Interview with a monster: The City of Corpses murders - news 1979: The Family (1 year) 1999: Snowtown murders discovered (20 years) As of 2021, this is the longest Adelaide has gone without a crime that has made national or international headlines as either a weird case (Somerton Man), child kidnapping or brutal serial killings since WWII. Among those voices, he described, was a higher-pitched voice, which sounded almost feminine. Unfortunately, from there, the trail would go cold for over a year at which point, another victim had already become ensnared in this tragic saga. 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. The following Sunday, June 24th - one week after Alan had last been seen alive - a couple of hikers were bushwalking up in the area known as the Adelaide Foothills.
He was the son of Channel 9 News host Rob Kelvin, who had just recently taken over the hosting gig after more than a decade of field reporting through the station and a radio affiliate.
The Family Murders - Wikipedia In 2014 when Trevor passed away, his diaries were recovered. It wasn't until Monday morning that Alan's parents decided to contact the police, having not seen him for several days. This included people that visited the same bars and clubs as Neil and perhaps knew him that way.
The Family Murders (Part Two: The Family) Unresolved Just like Neil Muir, whoever had taken him had killed him and dumped his body pretty quickly, within a day or two. They now had five bodies - five victims - and five families pushing for answers. So prosecutors and the police began to build their case around Millhouse without his cooperation, including witness statements that alleged the two had been together the weekend before Neil's violent death. Neil Muir's body had been so badly mutilated that he still barely resembled an entire being. Young Blood refers to the age of the victims who were brutally murdered. We know, from the 2014-2017 Royal Commission, that Debi Marshall's count of 150 disappeared boys in Adelaide is miniscule compared to the number tens of thousands of victims who stepped forward once they were invited by the RC. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 25, and most were found to have suffered brutal violence, sexual assaults, and/or body mutilation before their death. 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. 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.
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Australia's murder capital: Why can't Adelaide bury the myth? On the afternoon of Sunday, June 5th, 1983, Richard was kicking around a soccer ball with his father Rob and his friend Boris at a park near his home. [3], Von Einem was convicted in 1984 of the murder of Kelvin and sentenced to life imprisonment. Sadly, this dark and tragic saga was just beginning. 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. 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. This was commonly found in the drug Noctec, which was an over-the-counter pharmaceutical used to aid people with sleep problems, which had been given to Alan sometime before his death. Some showed signs of prolonged captivity, while death came quick to others . That was when similar stories of young men being drugged and sexually assaulted began to make waves throughout Australia; young men that had been drugged with similar substances. Meanwhile, the mutilation of Neil Muir's body seemed to be identical to that perpetrated upon Peter Stogneff's remains, whose limbs had been similarly severed with a saw-like device. . Some were involved in the abduction of victims who were murdered, some were involved in the rape of murdered victims, and some were involved in murder. Whatever it was, it looked like a human body but was somehow twisted and contorted in an inhuman nature. Victims - The Family Murders Victims Alan Barnes Feb 12, 2021 The night before he went missing he stayed at Darko Kastelan's house in Cheltenham. Four of the five murders remain unsolved. Veale Gardens had a thriving male prostitution scene, many of which were underage. What the two got up to that evening is anyone's guess, but rumors and theories have propagated this story in the decades since. The victims were found in random locations throughout the state, their bodies neatly cut into pieces. This section explores his social network. He had become so messed up on drugs and alcohol that a bouncer had to physically drag him outside of a bar, where he stumbled onto the pavement and struggled to get up. This caller alleged that the two older men had been driving around a 1963 EJ Holden sedan. However, they were able to learn from a witness that a young man matching Peter's description had been spotted at Tea Tree Plaza the morning of his disappearance, and had been in the company of an adult male. This horrific sight was quickly reported to police, who arrived at the scene and immediately cordoned off the area around where the fisherman had reportedly discovered the floating trash bags. Police got the number one offender. Because of this prime location, Adelaide has become one of the country's most populated areas, and more than a million Australians live in the city itself; which is split in half by the Torrens River, which runs through the center of Adelaide. Rumours of high-society involvement and cover-ups. As the 1970s entered their homestretch, Alan was beginning to enter the phase of his life where he experimented with drug and alcohol usage. Do you think the Family Murders case will ever be solved? Over time Trevor kept diary records of his conversations with that suspect as well as another suspect. 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. It is estimated that over 150 youths and young men were abducted, drugged, and then raped. Just a few months later, in June of 1982, the family of missing 14-year-old Peter Stogneff would finally get some resolution. Boris left on a bus, and Richard started making his way back home a trip that was no more than four-hundred meters. If you recall, M.E. Bevan Spencer von Einem is serving a life sentence for one of those murders. Like the other victims, investigators would learn a lot from the status of Mark's remains. How, why, or where they had seen this tape escaped the caller, but it was enough to send detectives through the paces of investigating every lead related to this: known deviants, underground porn shops, etc. [6] Von Einem was also one of the last people seen with a fourth victim, Muir, following his abduction. Unfortunately, it did not. A witness says she saw Stogneff at Tea Tree Plaza with someone matching Noel Brook's appearance. Mark Langley attended party in Windsor Gardens but left with a male and female. 's had discovered the chemical compound chloral hydrate in the system of Alan Barnes, who also had an above-average level of alcohol in his system: roughly four times the legal limit, which was unusually high for a teenager. At the same time he was developing a network of people who made it possible for him to carry out his sexually sadistic fantasies. Part One: The Murders Between 1979 and 1983, a series of heinous murders shocked Adelaide. Following the supposed abduction of Richard Kelvin, the police unit known as Major Crimes was tasked with overseeing the investigation. I first heard of the murders in an episode of an Australian television program called . Any person complicit in the abduction, rape and murders of the five victims, plus any person who visited the place of captivity when a victim was knowingly present, plus any person involved in the abduction, spiking and raping of teenage boys or young men with other members of The Family. They drove to War Memorial Drive (150m east of the Adelaide Rowing Club ) when Mark had a minor argument with the other male so got out and left. 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. The closest thing to hard evidence that police found in this sweep was what appeared to be traces of blood on the bathroom floor, which had been cleaned multiple times over with a chemical agent; and, as such, could not be tested. Hence, the odd scar that seemed to serve no other purpose. But he then set off again, likely headed towards the distant Rundle Mall, where he was due to meet up with his friend, Daniel, that day. George, an impressionable young man, was enticed by the offer and accepted. In 1979, residents of Adelaide were gripped by fear when several young men began to go missing under mysterious circumstances. Bevan Spencer von Einem was jailed for life for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. Mark had likely hitched a ride with someone, and his friends trusted that he would make it home. Five murders and over 150 rapes. For obvious reasons, he didn't tell his parents, setting out that morning with his backpack and heading off like any other day. He was last seen while hitchhiking being picked up by a white HQ Holden sedan carrying three or four people. His head had also been removed from the rest of his body, but was placed in its own separate black trash bag and connected with a rope tie to the rest of the remains. The Butchered Boys: This episode revisits Adelaide's notorious Adelaide Family Murders case, where six young Adelaide men were murdered during the 1970s and '80s.
Family Murders Are Adelaide's Most Horrific Unsolved Crime - PEDESTRIAN.TV Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan, Producers: Maggyjames, Ben Krokum, Roberta Janson, Quil Carter, Peggy Belarde, Laura Hannan, Damion Moore, Amy Hampton, Scott Meesey, Steven Wilson, Scott Patzold, Marie Vanglund, Lori Rodriguez, Jessica Yount, Aimee McGregor, Danny Williams, Sue Kirk, Victoria Reid, Sara Moscaritolo, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, Seth Morgan, Sydney Scotton, Alyssa Lawton, Kelly Jo Hapgood, Patrick Laakso, Meadow Landry, Rebecca Miller, and Tatum Bautista, Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music, Other music created and composed by Ailsa Traves, Young Bloods: The Story of the Family Murders by Bob OBrien, Crime Stoppers (South Australia) - Alan Arthur Barnes, Crime Stoppers (South Australia) - Neil Fredrick Muir, Crime Stoppers (South Australia) - Peter Stogneff, Crime Stoppers (South Australia) - Mark Andrew Langley, Crime Stoppers (South Australia) - Richard Kelvin, The Sydney Morning Herald - Adelaides Duncan case: letting some light shine in, The Sydney Morning Herald - Boys murderer refused High Court appeal, The Sydney Morning Herald - Macabre Adelaide (1), The Sydney Morning Herald - Macabre Adelaide (2), The Sydney Morning Herald - Murderer quizzed on death of youth, The Age - Men fled as Duncan died, court told, The Sydney Morning Herald - The Beaumonts, Kirste and Joanne: the mystery may be over, The Sydney Morning Herald - Witness feared threats to his life, The Age - Court told rape victim thought he would die, The Sydney Morning Herald - Family killings murder charge dropped, The Age - Lock up your sons in the worlds murder capital, The Weekend Australian - How Mother Goose ducked pedophile net, The Advertiser - Police seek von Einem associate, Perth Now - DNA tests for Family murder suspects, The Advertiser - $5M reward bid to solve Family murders, The Sydney Morning Herald - Reward doubled to solve Family murders, The Telegraph - Australian police reopen notorious 1970s Family murders case, The Sydney Morning Herald - Aussie pedophile deported from Indonesia, The Advertiser - Focus on three key suspects, The Advertiser - Revealed: The double life of a magistrate who sought young men, ABC News - Mother Goose sex trial starts in Adelaide, The Advertiser - Mother Goose claims he was set up by gay ex-prostitutes, The Advertiser - Doctor with alleged links to The Family identified as Stephen George Woodards, The Advertiser - Sex-case doctor Stephen George Woodards free to practise, ABC News - Mother Goose acquitted of sex charges, The Advertiser - Paedophile Peter Liddy fears prison attack, ABC News - Former TV entertainer sentenced for sex offences, The Advertiser - Lost diary gives South Australia police new lead into Alan Barnes murder by The Family, The Daily Mail - Will $13million reward solve the murders of 18 children? The death of George Duncan would serve as a catalyst, eventually martyring Duncan himself and leading to repeals of South Australia's harsh anti-homosexuality laws. He is 50 metres from his beautiful family home. When a warrant was eventually served on Dr. Millhouse's cottage in northern Adelaide, police found the same type of trash bags and rope that had been found with Neil Muir's remains. And at least one witness - a security guard that lived just down the street from the Kelvins - recalled some more details succinctly. Shockingly, police found an insane combination of sedatives in his system, which included the drugs Noctec, Mandrax, valium, Rohypnol, and amytal. The body count had essentially doubled within a couple of months, and police were still unsure whether or not the cases were related. Both witnesses - who were friends with Neil and drug users themselves - were prepared to testify should this man be tried for the murder. This was as good of a tip as police were going to get, and since the most recent victim of this strange killing spree had been found in the Foothills, police decided to follow through on the tip. He failed to make any contact with his family, and police began to express concern that he had gone missing under duress. Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is perhaps most well known for its beautiful, scenic landscape, which is wedged in-between the Adelaide Foothills to the east, the coastline that runs along the west and down into the southern cape, and expanse of vast Australia that lies to the north. If your information is verified and its not breaking any laws, we may publish it. Nine days after Mark Langley went missing, his body was discovered in the Adelaide Foothills, close to Mount Lofty in the area known as Summertown. While charges would later be filed against several police officers, they were ultimately acquitted; and it has been widely accepted in the decades since that local law enforcement engaged in a systematic cover-up. That Monday - August 27th, 1979 - Neil Muir was seen alive for the last time. 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 . Through these connections, police were able to link all of these crimes together. He had been killed elsewhere and then transported to this location postmortem, implying that the killer had a base of operations for his or her dark deeds. But he didn't commit these crimes on his own. He has spent that Sunday, June the 5th, playing footy, until the afternoon when his best friend Karl came over. They organized a helicopter search of the area, which O'Brien was present for, but unfortunately, the police were unable to find anything definitive. It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. Now twenty-five years old, Neil had spent the better part of the last few years struggling with addictions and vices that left him moving from place-to-place pretty regularly. 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"). Dylan John Kovarskis murdered Nathan Russell in 2021 .
The Family Murders: 'Dissected' Kindle Edition - Amazon.com.au Police spoke to Alan's friend, who had left him behind on Grand Junction Road. Police were called out to the scene, and an extensive search of the area commenced. He then moved away from Adelaide and the murders continued. Because homosexuality was still outlawed in Australia at this point, Vice officers would often detain individuals that they believed were loitering nearby known gay hotspots. At the time of the murder, Dr. Millhouse - a gay man in his mid-forties - lived alone in northern Adelaide, and drove a ten-year-old Holden sedan. Like the other victims, Richard Kelvin's blood and organs were tested for any sign of drugs, with investigators hoping to find a connection to any of the prior victims. In the latter half of the 1970s, South Australia had started to regulate drugs like Mandrax, known throughout most of the world as "Quaaludes." Five young men were mysteriously abducted in different . March 3, 2023 - 7:08PM. This has come to be disputed over the years, with some speculating that Alan might have willingly consumed the drug the weekend before his death; or, perhaps, he might have been slipped it by someone at the bars he was rumored to visit with his friends that Saturday. He remembered going to a back room of the house to have sex with one of the older women, only to discover - during the act itself - that she was transgender.
The Family Murders | Adelaide's most notorious unsolved serial killings While searching, they ended up discovering the body of Richard Kelvin, who had been missing for just shy of two months. The Family Murders is the name given to a series of five sadistic murders committed by a loosely connected group of individuals who came to be known as The Family. He had multiple channels to procuring young men. [5] Others, who have examined the cases, however, argue that there were many more victims. Eventually, Peter's parents discovered the plot among Peter and his friend to skip school, and conveyed this information to the police - who were just as alarmed as they were. 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. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for the crimes: Bevan Spencer von Einem was sentenced in 1984 to a minimum of 24 years (later extended to a minimum 36-year term) for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. When this young man woke up the next day, he was surprised to find himself both at home and in significant pain. Later on, Ian would recall the argument cropping up around cigarettes, but that just proves the point of how nonessential it was. This caller told detectives that a man named Bevan Spencer von Einem was responsible for Alan's death, and his name was added to the list of potential suspects to explore. 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. And, with the recent discovery of the chemical cocktail found in Richard Kelvin's system, they had a pretty decent foundation for their investigation.
Australia - Australia -the Family, 1979-83, Adelaide, B S Von Einem Australia's most notorious unsolved serial killings. The Family Murders is one of Australia's most captivating true crime stories. However, they quickly began to narrow in on the one avenue of the investigation that seemed most enticing to them at the time: Neil's dependency on drugs and alcohol. by enjin | Feb 12, 2021 | victim. [16][22] The sedative-hypnotic drug Mandrax, popular in the 1970s disco scene, was found in Langley's blood. 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. 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. Richard's family disputed this, vigorously denying the notion that Richard would have run away of his own accord. These details made it clear to police that this mutilation was not done simply for the killer's ease-of-mind, but indicated that they were a particularly savage killer that had likely committed similar crimes in the past.
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