Australia Willi Koeppen, male, 46, Australia's first Celebrity Chef, Dandenong Ranges, Vic, February 1976

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Chef’s suspected murderer ‘may take their secret to the grave’

Willi Koeppen, the owner of Victoria’s well-known Cuckoo restaurant, mysteriously vanished in February 1976...

www.9news.com.au

This is from 2018.

A coronial inquest into the death of an Australian celebrity chef has renewed calls from his family to shed light on his suspected murder more than four decades ago.

Willi Koeppen, the owner of Victoria’s well-known Cuckoo restaurant, mysteriously vanished in February 1976 after a night of heavy drinking with family friend, Dr Bernard Butler.

Mr Koeppen, 46, was known to be an alcoholic who had extra marital affairs. At the time he’d built considerable wealth from the success of the restaurant and becoming one of Australia's first celebrity chefs.

Channel 9 will feature the case next week in it's Under Investigation programme

 

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It was the early hours of Sunday the 29th February 1976 when 46 year old Willi Koeppen, Australia’s first celebrity chef, was last seen alive. Witnesses say Willi had been drinking heavily and had left the Cuckoo restaurant in Olinda with a local doctor, who many media reports have described as a family friend. The two men supposedly decamped to the doctor’s surgery to continue drinking. Many who knew the pair are not so convinced of this apparent friendship, raising more questions than answers.

The doctor claimed that he last saw Willi leave his surgery sometime around 3am that morning supposedly to return to the Cuckoo. By 4.30am, Willi’s Blue Kombi van sighted by the restaurant cleaner in the car park, but not in the place where he usually parked it. The rear sliding door was wide open and his keys still in the ignition. Willi was nowhere to be seen.

Of interest is a large dark American style sedan followed by a light coloured van were seen in the vicinity of the restaurant around this time and appeared to be travelling together.

For police investigators, the disappearance was initially written off as an orchestrated act by Koeppen himself who would surely resurface at some stage in the future. This was an odd assumption given there was no attempt by Willi to access his bank accounts and had not taken his passport or even a change of clothes.

How does Australia’s first celebrity chef, popular restaurant owner and father of three disappear without a trace? And was there anyone who wanted Willi Koeppen dead?
A convicted killer, a jealous lover maybe or is the answer a lot closer to home?

The Disappearance of Willi Koeppen — Marrett Investigations

For 44 years the disappearance of Celebrity Chef Willi Koeppen has remained a mystery. But this cold case warrants a much closer look. There are too many people that know more than has been revealed, and the truth deserves to be uncovered.

www.marrettinvestigations.com.au

 

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