GUILTY Australia - Barbara McCulkin, 34, & two daughters, Brisbane, 16 Jan 1974

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http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...-cold-case-investigation-20140816-104tnp.html

“As a result of fresh information received from the public we have returned to the property to inspect a suspicious site and located a buried shipping container,” he said.

“For the safety of investigators we have called upon the assistance of (State Drug and Serious Crime Illicit Laboratories Investigation Team) members to process the contents of the container.

“We are still assessing the contents.”
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"Two Queensland men have been arrested in connection with three unsolved suspected Brisbane murders from 40 years ago.

A 76-year-old from Warwick and a 67-year-old from Torbanlea were arrested on Saturday afternoon, although charges are yet to be laid, police say."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ystery-mother-two-children.html#ixzz3GT6dGLiz

Just seen this new article on the Daily Mail website I thought I would post it. I'm glad arrests have been made after all these years but it is a terrible shame it has taken so long and the suspects have been able to live freely for most of their lives.
 
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...-40year-cold-case-murder-20141018-1183hc.html

Police have laid multiple rape, murder and kidnap charges against two men over the disappearance of Barbara McCulkin and her two young daughters from their inner Brisbane home more than 40 years ago...

The men have long been persons of interest in the investigation, homicide Detective Superintendent Steve Holhan said...

The men are both scheduled to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday to face the charges.
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As a local I have a feeling this is going to be bigger than expected. The net will be cast wide so stay tuned.
 
Well, they have now named Dubois as the 2nd man arrested .. which was not in yesterday's articles.

They evidently had the assistance of an informer(s) in the Crime and Corruption hearings this year, as I can't imagine how else they would be able to lay the rape charges as well.


The arrests of O'Dempsey, 76, and Dubois, 67, come nearly 35 years after prosecutors were forced to drop murder charges against the pair due to a lack of evidence.

But despite the tantalising gangland link, in announcing the reopening of the investigation in January, Cold Case Detective Acting Superintendent Mick Dowie said new information suggested the motive was far less high-profile.
It took the investigation in a new direction.

He said new evidence that emerged following the reopening of the case this year would form a key component of the prosecution's case.
"In saying that, however, we will be relying on a substantial amount of evidence gathered in previous investigations and the coronial investigation," he said.

The probe was a joint investigation between homicide and cold case detectives and of hearings undertaken by the Crime and Corruption Commission this year, the coercive powers of which Superintendent Holahan credited as providing crucial new evidence.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...-leads-to-murder-charges-20141018-11885n.html
 
McCulkin cold case: Vincent O'Dempsey, Gary Dubois in court

October 20, 2014 - 12:21PM

For Vincent O'Dempsey and Gary Reginald Dubois, an appearance in Brisbane's arrest court was 40 years in the making.

Charged with the 1974 murders of Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki and Leanne, Mr O'Dempsey is now 76 and Mr Dubois 67

Despite their advancing years, there was no special treatment for the pair as they were processed in the Brisbane arrest court.

Just like all accused who spend time in the watchhouse before facing a magistrate, the pair were kept in the holding cells while they waited to formally hear the charges against them.

Mr O'Dempsey and Mr Dubois were also each charged with three counts of deprivation of liberty and two other serious offences.

Both men deny the charges.

Given both men were facing murder charges, neither was able to apply for bail in Monday's Magistrates Court hearing. However their lawyers said they would apply for bail in the Supreme Court soon.

Magistrate Chris Callaghan adjourned the case until November 24

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...s-in-court-20141020-118k4w.html#ixzz3Gga4UJRn
 
Dogged police work leads to fresh arrests in cold cases of McCulkin family and Gerhard Wagner

October 25, 2014


THEY’RE Queensland’s greatest mysteries – more than 170 cold-case murders dating back to the 1950s that have baffled generations of police.

Detectives this week made dramatic inroads into their number, laying charges over the murders of five people in a series of breakthroughs.

And the charges are expected to continue, with The Courier-Mail told that police will seek to use new double jeopardy laws for the first time on a cold-case murder from the 1990s.

The State Government this year overhauled laws to allow police to recharge suspects in historic cases when compelling new evidence emerges.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...d-gerhard-wagner/story-fnihsrf2-1227101635342
 
Appeal for Crime Stoppers caller, McCulkin homicide case

October 31, 2014 at 9:15 am


Appeal for Crime Stoppers caller, McCulkin homicide case

Homicide Cold Case Team detectives are appealing to an anonymous caller who contacted Crime Stoppers last Wednesday to again come forward.

The anonymous caller contacted Crime Stoppers on Wednesday October 22, around 12.30pm.

“The caller has provided information to Crime Stoppers that is of considerable interest to investigators regarding the suspected murders of Barbara, Leanne and Vicki McCulkin in 1974. We are hopeful this person will again contact Crime Stoppers or the Homicide Group. The caller’s identity can be protected, we just need to speak to them about their information,” Detective Inspector Mick Dowie said.

Police cannot divulge any further information provided as the matter is now before the court.

Anyone with information which could assist with this matter should contact Crime Stoppers anonymously via 1800 333 000 or crimestoppers.com.au 24hrs a day.

http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/blog/2014/10/31/appeal-crime-stoppers-caller-mcculkin-homicide-case/
 
Man charged with historic Brisbane triple murder denied bail

A man accused of murdering a Brisbane mother and her daughters more than 40 years ago has been refused bail.
Gary Reginald Dubois, 68, will remain in prison after a Brisbane Supreme Court judge said there was a risk he would interfere with witnesses if released on bail.


http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...urder-accused-in-bail-bid#bbofOPAdMAdTz5Kx.99
 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...t-into-the-light/story-e6frg6z6-1227634516929

That mother, Barbara McCulkin, was sitting in her south Brisbane home on a summer night in January, 1974, sipping beer and pedalling her sewing machine into submission. Across the street, her daughters, Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, were celebrating a friend’s birthday but one falls ill and heads home and the other soon follows.

By about 10pm all three were allegedly inside but, as the rest of the street slept, Barbara and her girls vanished. They have not been seen since. The assumption was always that Barbara knew too much about the gang activity at the time and the Whiskey Au Go Go tragedy, and paid for it with her life.

It would be another 41 years before a jury would be asked to determine responsibility for the family’s disappearance. This week, in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, Vincent O’Dempsey and Garry “Shorty” Dubois, alleged players in the so-called Clockwork Orange Gang, were committed to stand trial for the murder of the trio.
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McCulkin family murder accused win right to separate trials
ABC Nrws
Thu Aug 11 15:40:10 EST 2016

'Two men accused of raping and murdering siblings Vicki and Leanne McCulkin and their mother Barbara more than 40 years ago have won the right to have separate trials.'

'Justice Peter Applegarth concluded there was a risk inadmissible evidence could prejudice each man's right to a fair trial if a joint trial went ahead.

The accused men have pleaded not guilty to all charges.'

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-...-accused-win-right-to-separate-trials/7721296
 
McCulkin murders: Garry Dubois's brother says blackmail could have been a motive

'The brother of accused murderer Garry Reginald Dubois has told a court blackmail may have been a motive for the alleged murders of the McCulkin women.'

'Paul Dubois gave evidence today in the Brisbane Supreme Court, outlining a conversation he had with his brother after seeing him implicated in the crimes on a television show.

He told the court he spoke to his brother over the phone, asking if he had anything to do with the murders.

"I said, 'Were you involved in this? Did you do this?'" Paul Dubois said.

"He said, 'I wasn't there, I had nothing to do with it'.

"He said, 'Vince O'Demspey did it'.

"He said ... 'Barbara McCulkin had information on O'Dempsey that he felt could've got him 20 years and this is how he dealt with it'.

"He said, 'She was blackmailing him'."

Paul Dubois said he also questioned his brother about why Vicki and Leanne were involved.

"I said, 'Well what about these kids?' and he said, 'Well Vince told me the kids weren't meant to be there'."

O'Dempsey, who will face a separate trial next year, has pleaded not guilty.'

Related:

Billy McCulkin chased wife and daughters' alleged killer, court told

Garry Dubois confessed to role in killing Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters, court told

Witness tells Dubois murder trial police mistrust kept him quiet for 40 years
 
McCulkin murders: Key witness reliability questioned by Gary Dubois' defence

'Defence lawyers for the Queensland man accused of killing the McCulkin family in the 1970s have attacked the reliability of the key witness, saying he lied to "save his own neck".'

'The court heard the case centres on the reliability of the evidence given by Dubois' criminal associate Peter Hall, who previously told the court Dubois confessed to him in the days after the family disappeared.

Dubois and his co-accused Vincent O'Dempsey took the McCulkins to bushland, where Ms McCulkin was separated from her daughters and strangled, Mr Hall said during the trial on November 10.'

'The daughters were then murdered, he said.

Defence barrister Dennis Lynch said the jury cannot convict his client on questionable evidence.

"What this case is all about is the reliability of Peter Hall," Mr Lynch told the court.

"It's abundantly clear that Peter Hall has told lies, it's abundantly clear that he continued to lie.

"His reason for telling a lie was to save his own neck because it had been made painfully obvious to him that he wasn't believed."
 
Garry Dubois's lawyer points to 'possibility' Billy McCulkin killed wife, daughters

'The lawyer for a man accused of murdering Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters has suggested Mrs McCulkin's estranged husband could plausibly have committed the crime instead.'

'The court this morning heard the closing statement from defence barrister Dennis Lynch in which he suggested it was possible that Billy McCulkin murdered his wife and daughters.

"I don't suggest to you, members of the jury, that it proves beyond reasonable doubt that Billy McCulkin was the real killer, but you might think this evidence certainly leaves it open," he said.​
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"If, on all of the evidence that you've heard, it's reasonably possible that Billy McCulkin was responsible for the death of his wife and daughters, then it follows you couldn't convict Garry Dubois."'
 
Crime and mayhem in the Sunshine State detailed in two new true crime books
Fran Metcalf, CourierMail
September 15, 2012 12:00am

'On 16 January 1974 [Billy] McCulkin's estranged wife, Barbara, and his thirteen- and eleven-year-old daughters, Vicky Maree and Barbara Leanne, disappeared. They were never seen again. Things had not been all that well in the household for some time and there was a suggestion that Barbara had become close to Vince O'Dempsey, who had been staying with them while working with McCulkin as a debt collector. McCulkin was said on one occasion to have beaten Barbara in front of his girlfriend in a Valley nightclub, something that he said, at the later inquest into the deaths of his wife and daughters, he could not remember. McCulkin had moved out of the house in November 1973 and gone to live with his girlfriend.

Although he had seen his wife in the street early in 1974, he did not go to the house until 18 January, to give her some money, and found it locked and deserted. There was a blouse in the sewing machine, the cats were locked up in the bathroom and the lights were still on. Barbara had recently had a breast operation and her comfort brassiagrères were also left behind. Cheques totalling $370 were in the mailbox. McCulkin spoke to a young girl next door, who told him she had seen O'Dempsey and Dubois there two evenings earlier. McCulkin went to the police.

For a number of issues of the Port News, Stokes laid the blame for the disappearance of the McCulkin women firmly on O'Dempsey, and claimed that Dubois, who already had a conviction for rape, had sexually attacked them.'
 
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