At approximately 6:15pm on 5 June 1983, von Einem (likely along with other unknown persons) abducted Kelvin near the intersection of Margaret Street & Peppertree Lane, North Adelaide, just 60 metres from Kelvin's home around the corner in Ward Street. Kelvin was 15 years old at the time of his death. Youre gunna drown one., It seemed to OShea that the practice of tossing homosexuals in the river went back a long way. Von Einem was the leading suspect in the unsolved murders of four other young men between 1979 and 1982, and police continued to pursue leads on those cases in the years after his murder conviction. She called a cab and left. There has been no justice for Duncan, but within seven weeks of his death, the first bill in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality had been introduced into the South Australian parliament, by a conservative politician. Autopsies are surgical procedures that confirm the cause and manner of death. Days later, Masterson confessed to Houston police that hed killed Honeycutt by strangling him in a sleeper hold. I cant help wondering if many would have preferred the dunking to the opprobrium of coming across OShea and his fellow conscientious officers; being charged, named in the paper. The priest whose church had been the scene of the terrible murder picked up the idea and launched a change.org petition which went viral after it was re-tweeted by British actor Stephen Fry. And thats how it went when Michael Lindsay, his two sisters, his de facto and a couple of mates came through the doors of the Hallett Cove Tavern around midnight. He endured numerous operations. In a little ray of light shining through the darkness, though, recent retesting of exhibits has enabled South Australian police to create a DNA profile of a suspect. The gay men victim and witnesses were all questioned at length about what it was they were doing in Veale Gardens and about such germane matters as where they would have had sex had they met the right man. Why would they obscure the fact this was almost certainly a hate crime? They were white-collar office workers. Maybe he dozed off. On August 28 of that same year, a body cut in pieces was found inside garbage bags thrown in the Port River. Despite the intricate details of von Einem's alibi and his version of events, his alibi had two huge problemsit completely contradicted his initial statement of his whereabouts on 5 June 1983, where he said he was in bed with the flu. Little effort was put into concealing Kelvin's body; he was found wearing the same Channel 9 shirt, blue jeans and white Adidas sneakers which he wore on the day of his abduction, together with the dog collar fitted around his neck. With all the fibres being accounted for with his albi, von Einem concluded his statement by saying that Kelvin stayed for two hours before von Einem dropped him off in the Adelaide CBD near the Royal Adelaide Hospital and gave Kelvin $20 to catch a taxi home. It was May 2005, exactly three months after Shaine Moores body had been found. Only one man, however, was convicted for just one of the murders. The scientists stated that if von Einem's story was true, then there should be a very small amount or even none of the fibres and hair samples from that night still on Kelvin's clothing some 36 hours later, let alone five weeks later. You know hes going to go home to his girlfriend., Verco claimed at first not to remember any of this the next morning. Further down the river, 27-year-old Roger James was walking home from dinner with a friend. It was before lunch that I was told about it, recalls Lewis, and it made me sick and Im not often made sick because hed been afraid of that happening to him., I ask Lewis if he was alleging that Woodland had been killed to shut him up. They won the court case but lost the fight. The defence opted for von Einem to give an unsworn statement from the dock, rather than give sworn evidence from the witness box. He cruises back, senses fully alive. The Saint family didnt hear from police again until recently when a detective from the new cold-case unit rang her brother asking to use Johns image on a deck of playing cards that was to be distributed to prisons. Some 23 years after Rex Robinson found Jim Blaxland brutally bashed beside his red Mercedes in Veale Gardens, I knock on his door and explain my purpose. He admitted going home and putting his bloodied jeans and his Metallica T-shirt in cold water to soak before washing them the next day. Weve killed him.. It contains several medical reports in lieu of the examination they took from the deceased. It was a great success and it was the memory of that triumph that kept drawing him back. It took a couple of days to even identify the victim. Then he draws on a literary allusion that perfectly describes the way so many people had acted in the stories I am researching. And somewhere in there, most of the people present heard Negre say, Ill pay you for sex, then.. All Australian police forces now have lesbian-and-gay liaison officers to bridge the gaping chasm that has historically existed and still exists between the two sides. Of the 92 offenders he studied, 43 were teenagers and 23 were in their early 20s. And even then, I dont think any of us were in there saying this is definitely connected. The prosecution, on the advice of the Attorney-General, then entered a nolle prosequi for the Barnes murder charge. The jury came down on Verco and Londemas side. Documentary series. Criminologist Stephen Tomsen doesnt want to be too dismissive of police who focus on the robbery-gone-wrong aspect of a crime. So when he heard about the murder at a well-known beat, he got straight on to a police inspector who hed had previous dealings with. The evidence presented was that they went to the park just to rob someone. Von Einem's defence team (now consisting of barrister David Peek with assistance from Helena Jasinski) appealed the conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeal in South Australia and requested that a new trial be set. Negre said he didnt want to be alone. About a month after Paul Walker was tragically killed in a fatal car crash, the Los Angeles coroner has released the actors complete autopsy report. He loved holidaying with the family, taking his speedboat down to their shack on the Murray. This made police suspect that Kelvin was dumped by a single person, most likely after nightfall in order to avoid detection. It was like pulling up bloody weeds. But Mildwaters didnt see who delivered them. It became rather surreal at the time. Despite the court rejecting the gay panic argument, the jury convicted the pair of manslaughter, not murder. Two days later, Lewis got up in parliament to say that Handley had been another of his witnesses. His housemate, Brigette Mildwaters, told him to let Negre go. When I phoned Woodlands mother, she stated, emphatically, that her son was not gay, that he had never spoken to Lewis and never made the allegations attributed to him. Zito joined in. Robert Woodlands body was just starting to decompose, the papers said, after four days in the early summer heat, when it was discovered by a dog walker on December 8, 2004 50 metres from Sir Lewis Cohen Drive, a busy road feeding into the city centre. It can also be available for the police to check if it helps with their investigation. He had died from the head injuries. This time the charge was murder and he got a minimum of 22 years. Several witnesses living near to the Kelvins' home heard cries for help, car doors slamming and a car with a noisy exhaust speeding away. Around this time, Negres girlfriend, Fiona Ninos, woke up in her bed alone. Hell go call the cops.. [6], On 4 February 2007, the ABC reported that von Einem had been charged over commercial dealings during his incarceration, including selling hand-painted greeting cards. He sees the lump on the road is a man, face down, motionless. His name was Pete., Can I tell you what he did? He was asked if he kept any other drugs in his possession, and he said no. And well never know how much of a thing. However, the police then found the bottle of Noctec and von Einem immediately became nervous and told police that he "rarely used those drugs". And I just never felt comfortable with it.. Milton Keynes: Fatal police shooting 'necessary', watchdog finds von Einem is serving life imprisonment. The witnesses included colleagues and friends who testified to him being unwell and at home during the first week of Kelvin's captivity. Von Einem admitted that the drugs were his and said that he used them to help him sleep. So the investigation into Duncans death came up with nothing. I dont care if everybody knows., Because the dude was gay? the house-mate persists. The Family murders cowed the gay community in South Australia. I hit beats at the sweet spot where it coincided with the legalisation of homosexuality in South Australia, and shortly after also in NSW. The now controversial forensic pathologist, Dr Colin Manock, had him pinned as a homosexual at his autopsy, owing to the funnel shape of his anus. Its a meeting place for men who want to meet other men. Within a week, police had declared robbery as the motive. Autopsy And while other Adelaide crimes like the disappearance of the Beaumont children and the Snowtown murders grabbed the headlines and gave the city its perhaps undeserved reputation, with one notable exception the cases I was looking at like most gay-hate crimes went by largely unnoticed. Hes dead, thank Christ. His arms are folded and a cigarette dangles from his lips. But then, a partial victory. More people suspected in the abduction and murder of Richard Kelvin They grabbed him. Security footage showed no such grope by Ruks, but it did show that relations soured quickly. Steve Williams has not been seen since and is presumed murdered. The street kids I hung out with used to go down to Popeyes boathouse near the River Torrens [the Number One beat where George Duncan was murdered]. Woodlands dark-blue Commodore was parked in the Veale Gardens car park at the Adelaide Pavilion restaurant, while the 36-year-old's corpse was found 700 metres away at the far end of the beat, and off to the left in long grass. Even some of the out-and-proud gay community looked down on what those men did in the darkness. The next thing I know, he had taken the shoelaces out of my pair of black patent leather shoes I remember the shoes very well, with pointy toes and was attempting to strangle me with my laces. Lewis told me that the perpetrators had infiltrated the police service and its administration and evidence was then either corrupted or destroyed. But it didnt take long to figure out that it wasnt about that. She noted that the glove box had been rifled and papers were strewn about the front seat. And then whether or not a homosexual advance was sufficient to explain the subsequent extreme violence meted out. They said a body had been found. So just imagine the besieged atmosphere of an office where you were hearing stories like this every day implicating powerful people. He was in G Block of Yatala Prison for decades but was transferred to Port Augusta Prison in the north of the state in 2007. I remember the kids saying they did it because they were gay and easy prey. When police knocked on von Einem's door and enquired about whether they could ask him a few questions, his immediate reaction was to say that he wouldn't answer anything without speaking to his lawyer first. Indeed Shannon recalled a time in the late-80s when he was hanging around Veale Gardens: By six oclock in the morning youd start to get what we called the morning shift and all of these guys would come through who had told their wives, Im just ducking out to get the paper and milk.. "Mr B" also gave startling allegations of von Einem being involved in the unexplained Beaumont children disappearance in 1966, as well as the disappearance of two girls at the Adelaide Oval in 1973. WebAn autopsy report is a written document that determines the cause of death of the victim. A jury of 12 people (seven women and five men) was selected and agreed upon by the prosecution and defence. He kept looking at me with a smiling face, Blaxland would recall. Interested Parties may contact Coroners & Medical Examiners for questions about: Finding Dallas death records; Locating death certificates; Order autopsy reports I wish people in other states would step in and actually start research projects on whats happened elsewhere, he said. You have no place to live. Of course, it didn't. 1915. At home? A time where people were forced to find their freedom under the cover of darkness, and in doing so risked violence, victim-blaming and institutional prejudice. And its needed. At trial, he argued it wasnt him that stabbed Negre, it was Hutchings. This was a shattering blow for the prosecution's case, and on 21 December 1990, on advice from the Attorney-General of South Australia, prosecutors withdrew the charge for the murder of Langley. The prosecution was led again by Brian Martin QC, who was assisted this time by Tom Birchall, and their case against von Einem relied on evidence of the Kelvin murder, with the details of the crime being so strikingly similar to the murders of Barnes and Langley. Justice Duggan did rule that "Mr B"'s evidence could be heard, but that the defence would be allowed to question the evidence as it was being given. He said Hutchings did it. Out of Sight: The untold story of Adelaides gay-hate murders A forensic pathologist (currently Dr. Michael Hunter) analyzes the official autopsy reports of various celebrities to determine their cause of death. He denied that they went there to bash gay men. In fact, the prosecution had to present the evidence of provocation to show a motive, but not so strongly as to turn a motive into an excuse.