If you have information about the case then contact us through our contact page. This website was built on publicly available information contributed by many people who have an interest in this case. When Boris had last seen Richard, walking away from the bus stop down the street from his home, he had still been wearing the collar, and it is has been theorized that the collar itself might have been a trigger for the deviant (or deviants) that ultimately decided to abduct Richard. 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. [18] His skeletal remains were found in October 1982 later by a local farmer at Middle Beach, 50km north of Adelaide. Unfortunately, it would later be determined that he would suffer in anguish for weeks before meeting eventually dying more than a month after his initial disappearance. He had multiple channels to procuring young men. When police had arrived at the crime scene, they assumed that whoever had tried to dump the body of Alan Barnes had failed, in some way. On July 24th, 1983, a family was out looking for moss rocks in the vast reaches of the Mount Crawford Forest, about 35 kilometers northeast of Adelaide. Little is known about the unidentified man, but Roger James had his ankle broken when he was plunged into the river that May, and was only able to escape with the help of a friendly onlooker. The skeletal remains of one victim bore marks to reasonably indicate a similar experience and outcome. This bore signs of premeditation, implying that this wasn't an impulsive decision, but a conscious one by a killer afraid of being identified through forensic testing. Referred to as a "Randy Mandy" among the era's deviants, Mandrax was a sedative that had just become popular worldwide with the branding "Quaalude." The Family Murders - 5 Teen Boys Raped, Tortured, And Killed Police spoke to Alan's friend, who had left him behind on Grand Junction Road. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George. Some time after they went missing, their bodies would each be found, often horribly mutilated. The name of the group stems from an interview a police detective gave on 60 Minutes,[1] claiming the police were taking action "to break up the happy family". 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. Richard Dallas Kelvin, (born 4 December 1967) aged 15,[23] murdered in July 1983. Police wouldn't get around to conducting a door-to-door canvas of the neighborhood until Tuesday, two days after Richard had gone missing. SA convicted murderer Bevan Spencer Von Einem during the jury's tour of North Adelaide dumping spot of Richard Kelvin's body. Millhouse was charged and went to trial but was acquitted. This section explores the people who at this stage are thought to have been on the periphery. This included people that visited the same bars and clubs as Neil and perhaps knew him that way. In 1979, residents of Adelaide were gripped by fear when several young men began to go missing under mysterious circumstances. Alan's body had fallen to the dirt below, twisting and contorting in such a way that - should he have been alive - would have surely resulted in death or serious injury. He then moved away from Adelaide and the murders continued. 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. Subsequent efforts to reach Alan through his friends had failed, and none of them had seen him since the weekend. The bodies were found from 24th June 1979 and the fifth and last body on 24th July 1983. 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. Over time Trevor kept diary records of his conversations with that suspect as well as another suspect. Progressive ideas began to spread out from Adelaide, but even then, progress itself was rather slow to catch on throughout large chunks of South Australia. At the same time he was developing a network of people who made it possible for him to carry out his sexually sadistic fantasies. He likely did this to hide it from his parents, in case they made it home before he did. That Monday - August 27th, 1979 - Neil Muir was seen alive for the last time. It wasn't until the next day, Sunday (February 28th), that Mark's parents began to grow concerned. However, instead of charging them with any known crimes, the officers proceeded to throw the three men into the nearby Torrens River. Banquet: A Marvelous Book about "The Family Murders" in Adelaide Witnesses would later recall having seen the two at some of the area's gay bars and clubs (which I referenced just a moment ago). An accountant by profession, he was convicted in 1984 for the murder of 15-year-old Adelaide teenager Richard Kelvin, the son of local television and radio personality Rob Kelvin. Eventually, Peter returned home with his backpack, stowing it in his family's garage while his parents were at work. However, they were able to learn that - before his body was burned in the brush fire - his remains had been cut into multiple parts with a saw. Neil's penis had been cut, and he was missing a testicle at the time of discovery. 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 Sadly, this dark and tragic saga was just beginning. Darko's brother dropped them at a bus stop near the corner of on Grand Junction Rd and Addison. Murdered victims were kept in captivity by the Family for up to five weeks. "The Family murders" occurred in the period of time between the late 1970s and 1980s. [20] His mutilated body was found in scrub in the Adelaide foothills nine days after his disappearance. But at this point, police were already preoccupied with a separate lead from Neil Muir's social circle: a man named Dr. Peter Millhouse. After doing away with his old, dried-up crops, the farmer was looking over his land when he came upon the now-charred remains of young Peter Stogneff. 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. In May of 1972, three gay men - George Duncan, Roger James, and another man (whose identity has been withheld in the decades since) - were picked up by members of South Australia's police force. The Family Murders Of Adelaide - True Crime Conversations Just two days after the body of Alan Barnes was discovered - when the investigation was still unfolding - an anonymous caller reached out to police. This caller alleged that the two older men had been driving around a 1963 EJ Holden sedan. Of only one victim. Other times he would just pick up a hitch hiker. George, an impressionable young man, was enticed by the offer and accepted. 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. However, the medical examiners in Adelaide concluded definitively that Alan had died several hours before this happened. Mark Langley was an 18-year-old with the entire world in front of him: an athletic and good-looking young man, who quickly endeared himself to others. His remains had been dissected and neatly cut into many pieces, placed in a garbage bag and thrown into the Port River at Port Adelaide. Part One: The Murders Between 1979 and 1983, a series of heinous murders shocked Adelaide. Hundreds of sordid and terrifying crimes and only one man found guilty in relation to only one victim. [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. For a week, his loved ones had been bracing themselves for the worst, but this was a confirmation of everything they had been fearing for the past several days: Alan had been violently murdered, and had spent his final hours in agony. A Breakdown of a series of murders that took place in Adelaide, South 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. He had been sexually assaulted and went on to report this bizarre, terrifying incident to police. The son of popular local Nine Network news presenter Rob Kelvin, he was abducted a short distance from his North Adelaide home on 5 June. 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. The Family Murders - Wikipedia Between 1979 and 1983, a series of heinous murders shocked Adelaide. Because Mark had been killed and his body been dumped in the Australian summer months, his remains had already suffered some serious decomposition by the time police were called to the scene. For that reason, many of these men and women had to keep their sexuality confined to specific locations. They tried to hitch a ride on Grand Junction Road, a busy thoroughfare in Adelaide, before realizing that they were going to have no luck hitchhiking together. 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. 2020 familymurders.com All Rights Reserved. Many of these people were directly involved in the abductions and rape of victims who survived. 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. 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. He has spent that Sunday, June the 5th, playing footy, until the afternoon when his best friend Karl came over. Lost diary gives South Australia police new lead into Alan Barnes But underneath the surface, a monster lingered While police pounded the pavement to find out what had happened to Richard Kelvin, the young man's life was slowly coming to an end. It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. Alan and his friend bid adieu to one another, with his friend assured that Alan would be okay; Grand Junction Road was always busy and teeming with life, and it wasn't like he was leaving Alan in the middle of the night. They admitted that he'd faced some issues with other kids at his school, but he was otherwise happy and had just gotten a serious girlfriend. Father of boat crash victim Mallory Beach snubs Alex Murdaugh's family While searching, they ended up discovering the body of Richard Kelvin, who had been missing for just shy of two months. 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. He was able to exploit and manipulate enablers, helpers and participants over a long period of time. He found like minded people who shared a similar sexual bent, and he found people he could mutually exploit to lure victims into his car. [14][15] Skin bearing tattoos had been removed and most of the body parts were placed in another garbage bag before being placed within the abdominal cavity. His body had been severely mutilated and dumped in the South Para Reservoir, northeast of Adelaide. Australia's murder capital: Why can't Adelaide bury the myth? Do you think the Family Murders case will ever be solved? Stogneff still skipped school but never made it home. The body count had essentially doubled within a couple of months, and police were still unsure whether or not the cases were related. Neil Fredrick Muir, aged 25,[12][13] murdered two months after Barnes in August 1979. The group was involved in kidnapping, sexually abusing, torturing and murdering 5 boys. However, Neil's life was far less glamorous; rumors persist to this day that, leading up to August of 1979, Neil was engaging in sex work to support his bad habits and lifestyle. His body also showed signs of beatings and torture. The son was fifteen when he was snatched from the street . The Family Murders is one of Australia's most captivating true crime stories. Victims - The Family Murders It was speculated that a foreign object had caused the internal perforations, leading to the belief that the killer had been a sexual sadist whose only intent was to cause physical pain. The Family Murders - Strange Matters Podcast 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. Four of the five murders remain unsolved. Bevan von Einems life revolved around sexual sadism. Just like Neil Muir, whoever had taken him had killed him and dumped his body pretty quickly, within a day or two. Police first treated Richard as a runaway; an unfortunate symptom of the times. In particular, they were members of the Vice Squad, who typically crackdown on "moral" crimes such as gambling, narcotics, pornography, and illegal substances. Players - The Family Murders Players Five murdered young men, over 150 violent abduction drug-rapes, two people arrested, one person found guilty. However, unlike many of the others, it was believed that Richard had been held captive for an extended period of time, enduring torture and sexual abuse for weeks leading up to his death. 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. Some showed signs of prolonged captivity, while death came quick to others . 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. Examiners discovered that just a few inches above his groin - just below his navel - Mark had a small surgical scar that had been sealed shut with staples and a specific type of Johnson & Johnson surgical tape. An examination of Richard's body discovered that his cause-of-death was virtually identical to the other young male victims: blood loss caused by extensive anal injuries. This story would become historic, in more ways than one. The emergence of this drug would prove to be very interesting in the years to come, but at this point in the investigation, police were still struggling to connect all of the dots. Another anonymous caller claimed that they had seen Richard Kelvin in a snuff film, which had been filmed very recently. In 2014 when Trevor passed away, his diaries were recovered. He had struggled to wean himself off of heroin, using methadone to do so, only to have methadone become his next addiction. "CIA: Crime Investigation Australia" The Butchered Boys (TV - IMDb He was last seen stumbling down the street, supposedly wandering off to parts unknown. This conflict has endured because Alan's bloodstream also showed signs of alcohol consumption, which Alan had participated in that same weekend. 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. 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. The male and female drove off but returned At about 6pm on a Sunday afternoon, Richard walked his friend to the bus stop on O'Connell St, North Adelaide. Within hours, Alan's father and grandfather found themselves tagged to identify the remains, which were undoubtedly the remains of their missing 17-year-old. 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.