Australia Australia -the Family, 1979-83, Adelaide, B S Von Einem imprisoned 1984 for 1 victim, 5 + unsolved

[PrimeSuspect]

The Family Murders

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". 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.

The name of the group stems from an interview a police detective gave on 60 Minutes, claiming the police were taking action "to break up the happy family". 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. The other murders remain unsolved.

Police believe that up to 12 people, several of them high-profile Australians, were involved in the kidnappings. The suspects and their associates were linked mainly by their shared habits of "actively [having] sought out young males for sex," sometimes drugging and raping their victims.

Von Einem was convicted in 1984 of the murder of Kelvin and sentenced to life imprisonment. 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.

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.

Suspect 1, an Eastern Suburbs businessman, is believed to have been with von Einem when Kelvin was abducted. Suspect 2, a former male prostitute and close friend of von Einem known as Mr B. Suspect 3, an Eastern Suburbs doctor.

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. The reward carried an offer of immunity to accomplices, dependent on their level of involvement. 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. The ongoing investigation featured in an episode of Crime Stoppers which went to air on 2 March 2009. The cold case review was completed in November 2010 with no charges being laid against any of the three key suspects.

Some authorities do not recognise the term "The Family", stating that "[t]hey should not be given any title that infers legitimacy. These people have no such bond, only an association that with time probably no longer exists". Others, who have examined the cases, however, argue that there were many more victims. Criminologist Alan Perry of the University of Adelaide, has argued that the murders were part of widespread series of kidnappings and sexual assaults of boys that might number several hundred victims in South Australia from about 1973 to 1983.

The Family Murders - Wikipedia

I thought this series of kidnappings and murders deserved its own thread in the serial killer forum, there are victims whose murders remain unsolved and victims who've disappeared, maybe, one day to be discovered. They could be linked to this group of killers or not.

This was the first most horrific crime I read about years ago in a Sunday Mail pull out edition of the paper. One person has been imprisoned and he's not naming his accomplices or victims. One can only hope he makes a death bed confession if he previously feared retribution for speaking. He's a monster like those murderers who came before him and after, they're inhuman and evil to the core.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

The Victims - Unsolved


ALAN ARTHUR BARNES

On Monday 18 June 1979, Alan Barnes, aged 17 years, was reported missing by his mother when he failed to return home after visiting a friend. On 24 June 1979, Alan’s body was found beneath the South Para Bridge, near Williamstown. Forensic examination revealed that Alan had died no more than 48 hours earlier. It is also known that Alan was not murdered in the area of the bridge but the exact location where he was murdered has never been determined. Additionally, it is evident that Alan had been washed and re-dressed after his murder. Toxicology tests showed Alan had alcohol and sedative drugs in his system.

Alan’s movements in the period between him being reported missing and being located are sketchy but there were some unconfirmed sightings of him in that time. One sighting that is considered credible places Alan in the company of two other males on the evening prior to his body being located. These two males are known to police and are considered to be suspects for Alan’s murder.

Police believe this murder is associated with other high profile murders commonly referred to in the media as the 'Family Murders'.

Alan Arthur Barnes


NEIL FREDRICK MUIR

Neil Muir, aged 25 years, resided alone in a unit at Carrington Street, Adelaide. He is believed to have led a transient lifestyle and moved regularly from place to place. He was known to frequent a number of Adelaide nightspots including hotels in Hindley Street, the Duke of York Hotel and the Buckingham Arms Hotel.

At about 2.30 p.m. on 28 August 1979, two people were fishing in the Port River, adjacent to Mutton Cove, Osborne when they sighted two garbage bags, one inside the other, situated between the high and low tide marks. Upon closer examination by the fishermen they saw what appeared to be the heel of a human foot, and reported this finding to police. The contents of the garbage bags were examined by police where the body of Mr Muir was identified.

Mr Muir’s last known movements remain unclear to police.

During the initial investigation a male was arrested and charged for the murder of Mr Muir, but after a Supreme Court trial was acquitted in 1980.

Neil Fredrick Muir


PETER STOGNEFF

On Thursday 27 August 1981, Peter Stogneff, aged 14 years, was reported missing by his parents. He was due to go to school that day, but had also made other arrangements to meet his cousin in Rundle Mall. The cousin did not attend in the city and so it cannot be confirmed that Peter actually went to Rundle Mall.

On 26 December 1981 a property owner was clearing land adjacent to Middle Beach Road, Two Wells, bulldozing some bushes and boxthorns. The occupier returned to the bushes on 20 May 1982 and set them alight with the fires burning for approximately two days. On 22 June 1982, he returned to the area and located in the debris, a human skull. He returned home and contacted the police the following morning. Police then attended and located skeletal remains that have been identified as being that of Peter’s.

Information received during the investigation indicated that Peter may have been seen with a male adult at Tea Tree Plaza on the day of his disappearance. This male has never been identified.

Police believe this murder is associated with other high profile murders commonly referred to in the media as the 'Family Murders'.

Peter Stogneff


MARK ANDREW LANGLEY

On the evening of Saturday 27 February 1982, Mark Langley, aged 18 years, attended an 18th birthday party at Windsor Gardens. At around 1.15 a.m. Mark left the party with two friends in a white Datsun 1600 and drove to the city where they parked on War Memorial Drive (alongside the River Torrens). A minor argument occurred between Mark and his friends which resulted in Mark getting out of the car and walking off on the northern side of the road.

The friends drove off before returning to War Memorial Drive a few minutes later to collect Mark, but he could not be located. He was never seen alive again.

On 8 March 1982, Mark’s body was found dumped alongside Sprigg Road at Summertown. It was apparent that he had been murdered at a different location and then dumped at Summertown.
Police believe this murder is associated with other high profile murders commonly referred to in the media as the 'Family Murders'.

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. This was about 300 metres from his family home.

Witnesses from the immediate vicinity heard the sounds of raised voices coming from the area. As a result, investigators are convinced that more than one person was involved in Richard’s abduction. A car with a loud exhaust was heard to drive away. That car has never been identified.

Richard is believed to have been held captive at an unknown location for approximately five weeks. On 24 July 1983, a geologist was searching for moss rocks with his family near a dirt airstrip at Kersbrook when they located Richard’s body.

Similarly to the Alan Barnes murder, there were indications that Richard had been washed and dressed after death. Richard’s toxicology results showed the presence of alcohol and sedative drugs.

Bevan Spencer von Einem has been convicted of the murder of Richard and remains in custody at this time. However, police are convinced that more than one person was involved in Richard’s murder.

Police believe this murder is associated with other high profile murders commonly referred to in the media as the 'Family Murders'.

Richard Kelvin


Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on
1 800 333 000, on-line or email an investigator.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Shadowy clique preyed on young
Sunday Mail (SA) March 29, 2008 NIGEL HUNT


FRESH investigations into the Family murders will concentrate on up to three suspects but up to 10 others will also come under scrutiny.
Detectives believe it is likely the associates – several of them high-profile – can provide vital evidence to assist the investigation.

Many were interviewed during the initial investigations into the Family murders, but did little to co-operate with police.

The existence of The Family, a close-knit group of Adelaide homosexuals, was uncovered by detectives investigating the murder of Richard Kelvin in 1983.

The detectives discovered the group, which preyed on young men and teenage boys, had been flourishing for a decade before Kelvin's murder in 1983.

The key players of the group specialised in picking up young male hitchhikers, drugging them and then sexually abusing them.

The deaths of four others – Mark Langley, Alan Barnes, Neil Muir and Peter Stogneff – have been linked to the group, most notably through a 1988 coronial inquest.

So far the public is aware of the identity of just one Family member – Bevan Spencer von Einem, who was convicted in 1984 of murdering Kelvin.

Investigations into the other sex killings continued throughout the 1980s following von Einem's conviction. In late 1989, von Einem was charged with murdering Barnes and Langley, but the charges were withdrawn in 1991 when crucial similar fact evidence was ruled inadmissible.

The police investigations that resulted in those charges discovered the Family consisted of three to four core members and their associates – or peccadilloes as police dubbed them.

The core members included von Einem, an eastern suburbs businessman, a doctor who now lives interstate and another man, a former male prostitute, who was a close friend of von Einem and the businessman.

The associates included several well-known members of the legal fraternity, the brother of a well-known Olympic sportsman and other men, some well-known in sections of the community.

The identity of one senior principal – the businessman – has been suppressed since 1990. The supression was granted during von Einem's committal hearing into the Barnes and Langley murder charges.

The names of the other two principal members and two associates were last year suppressed in Adelaide Magistrates Court after being aired in unrelated case.

Several other associates have died in recent years, one is currently in prison in Indonesia and one is currently the subject of Pedophile Task Force investigations.

While detectives believe the same core members were most likely involved in each murder, different associates were either indirectly involved, had knowledge of the individual murders and in some cases were not involved but continued to interact with those who were indirectly involved because of their lifestyle.

While each of the men came from different walks of life, they all had one thing in common – they actively sought out young males for sex. They frequented gay beats around the city and socialised in gay haunts such as the Pulteney 431 sauna, the old Green Dragon Hotel, the Colonel Light, the Buckingham Arms or the Mars Bar.

For the principals, picking up hitchhikers and drugging them was perhaps their major source of prey. Police believe they engaged in such activity hundreds of times during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

They were armed with stupifying drugs such as Rohypnol, Mandrax and Noctec – supplied by two doctors known to police – which were slipped into alcohol given to their unwitting victims.

Many victims awoke disoriented the next morning – in the houses of either of two associates usually – suffering injuries after being sexually assaulted.

Others were not so lucky.

burgerIcon

Sadly, the gay community's reputation would've been tainted by these rapists/murderers who walked among them, many might have been victims too, drugged, abused and released and didn't speak of it. Those murdered victims discovered were not known as homosexuals, they were very young, kidnapped, tortured and died of severe blood loss.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Doctor denies links to Family murders
Tim Dornin
February 11, 2011


A Sydney doctor has denied any connection with South Australia's infamous Family murders after appearing in an Adelaide court on sex charges.
The 61-year-old man was granted bail when he appeared before the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday, charged with five counts of rape dating back to 1982.

Outside the court, his lawyer Craig Caldicott said the man, who cannot be identified, denied the charges against him and would fight them to the best of his ability.
He said the doctor also denied any suggestions he was under investigation for The Family killings or that he had any connection with The Family.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/doctor-denies-links-to-family-murders-20110211-1apjt.html

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Lost diary gives South Australia police new lead into Alan Barnes murder by The Family

Nigel Hunt
February 8, 2014


POLICE are investigating new information linking convicted killer Bevan Spencer von Einem to the abduction and murder of teenager Alan Barnes.
The evidence is contained in a detailed diary kept by a man who was a close associate of several key players in the so-called Family murders.

The diary entries, provided to Major Crime Investigation detectives this week by The Advertiser, reveal sensational evidence that indicates von Einem took photographs of Alan Barnes, 17, after sexually abusing him and that von Einem and another suspect in the five murders rented a unit in the eastern suburbs where they took hitchhikers they had picked up and drugged to sexually abuse them.

The diary entries, containing the correct names of the three so far uncharged suspects and their associates, corroborate evidence Major Crime detectives already have linking von Einem to the Barnes murder and provide more evidence of the activities of the group in picking up young male hitchhikers, drugging them and then sexually abusing them.
Significantly, the diary entries provide several new lines of inquiry for detectives and are likely to lead to several suspects and close associates being re-interviewed.
.........

In 2008 Major Crime detectives conducted an exhaustive review of the Family murders, targeting von Einem and three other key offenders and up to eight of their associates.
In 2010 then Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras, QC, said after examining the review report that there was not enough evidence to charge either von Einem or any other suspects.
In the latest development in the case, the diary entries which detectives are now investigating were made by Kensington Park man Trevor Peters, who died last November. They were found by his brother while he was cleaning out the Shipsters Rd terrace house occupied by his sibling.
The house is one door from another occupied by a close associate of von Einem's.

more at link .....
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[PrimeSuspect]

Doctor found not guilty of ‘Family’ murder of Neil Muir dies in NSW
Andrew Dowdell
July 18, 2015

A DOCTOR once acquitted of one of Adelaide’s so-called “Family Murders” has died at a New South Wales retirement home.
Dr Peter Leslie Millhouse was found not guilty of the sickening murder of Neil Muir, whose mutilated body was found dumped in the Port River in August 1979.
........

At trial, the court heard Dr Millhouse had been with Mr Muir in the days before his murder and prosecutors alleged the manner in which the body was mutilated suggested it had been done by someone with medical training.
Dr Millhouse, formerly of Mt Gambier, was acquitted after denying any involvement in the murder and claimed he had been a “totally inadequate” surgeon.
........

Dr Millhouse died in a nursing home at Cessnock in NSW on June 30, aged 80.

No Cookies | The Advertiser

 

[PrimeSuspect]

• 'The Family' believed to have drugged, raped, murdered up to 150 teenage boys
• Only one ringleader, Bevan Spencer von Einem, was ever convicted - in 1984
• Jailed for life for killing one boy but believed to have murdered four others
• He refuses to confess to this day and instead blames his victim
• Gay identity Lewis Turtur said years before murders he was an accomplice
• Von Einem used his house to rape hitchhiking boys, but they left alive next day

15 September 2019

Prominent Sydney gay identity Lewis Turtur admitted he let his acquaintance Bevan Spencer von Einem bring drugged boys to his home in the early 1970s.
......

Mr Turtur, the brother of Olympic cycling gold medallist Mike Turtur, said von Einem would pick up the boys as they hitchhiked, then bring them to his home.
There they would be given a spiked drink and taken inside Mr Turtur's home where the abuse would begin.
......

Mr Turtur said he was in the car several times when von Einem picked up hitchhiking boys but couldn't remember much of how it was done.
'Half the time I was drugged out anyway so I don't really care. I was in my own little world,' he said.
Mr Turtur said he didn't know of von Einem's alleged murders until much later, and told police his suspicions during the investigations.

Gay leader Lewis Turtur reveals the inner workings of 'The Family' sex abuse ring | Daily Mail Online

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Interview with a monster: The City of Corpses murders

It’s visiting time at Port Augusta prison and the diabolical Bevan Spencer Von Einem, the only man jailed in any of Adelaide’s teen boy torture serial murders, is licking his lips.
Thirty-five years since Von Einem murdered Richard Kelvin, 15, in a prolonged slaying of barbaric sexual sadism, the now 72-year-old is facing a visitor from the outside world.
Crime author Debi Marshall is the first such person Von Einem has seen in years, and the vile killer chooses to regale her with talk about his favourite subject: sex.
......

Marshall is on a mission. With a podcast, a TV series and now a book, she is trying finally to resolve five serial murders for the sake of families still anxious for answers about their lost boys.
......

The backstory of the murders has always been the same, that a tight-knit group of five or six adult men, paedophiles who include members of Adelaide’s elite, carried out the slayings.
Bevan Spencer Von Einem was the only one who got caught, after the fifth boy – the son of a popular Adelaide newsreader – was abducted, tortured and horrifically killed.

Richard Kelvin, 15, (above with his father, former Channel 9 Adelaide newsreader Rob Kelvin) was abducted and murdered in 1983.

......

And Marshall is no novice at delving into the minds of evil men.

The award-winning journalist and author has written books about the Snowtown murders, NSW Family Court bomber Leonard Warwick and Derek Percy, perhaps Australia’s most prolific child killer.

Marshall’s goal is to prove what the South Australian justice system has to date failed to do: that more than one male youth saw this same monster and his evil cohorts before dying.
.....

As Marshall writes, in his imaginary world Von Einem is descended from a privileged Germanic family going back to the time of the Crusades.
He imagines himself to be a high-flying professional, a pilot or perhaps a gynaecologist, a gay man but not a boring old gay, instead a someone that other men want to be with.

In reality, Von Einem grew up in a house collapsing from termite infestation with a vicious brute of a Germanic father who allowed his drinking buddy to rape his own son as a boy.
Von Einem was a would-be accountant who slogged it out in a tedious job as a bookkeeper for years, while living with his mother.
In his secret life, he became a drug supplier and exploited drug-addicted trans women to lure victims off the streets.

He was a 193cm-tall coward who used date rape drugs like Mandrax to overpower and sexually abuse boys.

In revisiting the murders, Marshall is trying to unearth long-held secrets in South Australia, where suppression orders have protected “people of power and influence” for decades.
They still do: she succeeded in having five suppression orders on names overturned.
These include a man named Lewis Turtur, a former acquaintance of Von Einem’s who decided it was “time” the truth about the killer’s days of drugging and raping boys.
......


Nevertheless, powerful people who were implicated back then still today, armed with lawyers, continue to resist public exposure.
These include a shadowy figure she calls “the businessman”, who Marshall finds and confronts in a scene she retells in the book, but who remains anonymous to most of us.
Not to the victims’ families who know the names of the people who likely killed their sons and brothers.
......

Before being sent to the netherworld of Port Augusta prison, Von Einem lived as much of a high life that you can behind bars.
Inside Yatala Labour Prison, he charmed guards and programs staff to bring him special food and creature comforts.
Von Einem and fellow murderer Stephen McBride were eventually rumbled for living in a “luxury cell” with carpet, two TVs and comfortable furniture.
......

Von Einem’s power of manipulation go back decades to when he was masquerading by day as the mild-mannered bookkeeper.
His mother was the envy of her friends for having such a “good” son who dutifully drove her to the Adelaide Hills to stay with a friend while he got up to nefarious life back in town.
By night, Von Einem frequented Adelaide’s Mars Bar and the Green Dragon, and its notorious gay beats down by the Torrens River where boys were picked and sometimes tossed in to its depths.
.......

“He’s the ultimate coward,” Marshall says with not a small amount of loathing.
“Imagine how it is for the families?” she asks.
“Key suspects are still walking the streets, their identities protected by the law.
“The same names that keep coming up time and time again, they’ve been hanging around for decades and these people are so determined to keep their reputations intact.
“It’s time … to drag these cases out of the darkness and into the light. It’s long, long overdue.”

Anyone with information regarding the Family Murders or any of Adelaide’s unsolved killings can contact Marshall on dminvestigates@foxtel.com.au

Interview with a monster

It's incredibly infuriating that these murderers are still free and Von Einem has had a cushy life in prison! He should've been kept in solitary confinement for his whole life with the bare minimum of necessities, they could've got him to talk with bribery, a name for an item, like his harp!
He doesn't deserve to live any kind of 'normal' existence, mingling with other prisoners, continuing his warped sense of reality. This could've shortened his life, a relief to all his victim's families. He's currently 75 years old, has type 2 diabetes, he could live well into his eighties, it isn't fair!
Jmo

 

[kadman]

It's a truly horrific case. Such depravity. Such disregard for human life.