[4][10], Some authorities do not recognise the term "The Family", stating that "[t]hey should not be given any title that infers legitimacy. These were connections that were hard to overlook, as police began to theorize that a single offender (or, rather, a group of offenders) had been behind all of these crimes. Unfortunately, it did not. "The Family murders" occurred in the period of time between the late 1970s and 1980s. No additional leads would surface in that time-span, and police would continue to refrain from stating that the two victims so far - Alan Barnes and Neil Muir - were connected in any way (at least, they wouldn't say so publicly). This was commonly found in the drug Noctec, which was an over-the-counter pharmaceutical used to aid people with sleep problems, which had been given to Alan sometime before his death. The Family Murders revolved around von Einem. 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. Even though Dr. Peter Millhouse had supposedly known Neil Muir for several years, there was never any proof that the two had a sexual relationship. At the same time he was developing a network of people who made it possible for him to carry out his sexually sadistic fantasies. 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. 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.[11]. [5][9] The cold case review was completed in November 2010 with no charges being laid against any of the three key suspects. The following morning, however, is a different story. The Family Murders Of Adelaide. Some of the employees that worked at the area's bars recalled seeing the two together multiple times that weekend, and other character witnesses described Dr. Millhouse and Neil as being very close friends (intimate, even). See what they say here. View description Share. Neil's remains were brought in and carefully examined by the area's medical examiners, who quickly discovered an alarming red flag, which harkened back to the discovery of Alan Barnes' corpse. The very next day - August 28th, 1979 - a couple of fishermen were heading out to the Port Adelaide River, on what was supposed to be a regular workday for them. Enjoy reading. Players - The Family Murders Players Five murdered young men, over 150 violent abduction drug-rapes, two people arrested, one person found guilty. 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. Show True Crime Conversations, Ep The Family Murders Of Adelaide - 10 Nov 2021. Kelvin was held captive for approximately five weeks[24] and a post-mortem examination revealed that he had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury,[25] likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object. After a bit, Rob decided to walk home, leaving the two boys at the park; assured that it was just down the street from their house and it was still early in the day. Once known as the "City of Churches," Adelaide began going through a stark progression in the 1960s. 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. Just a few months later, in June of 1982, the family of missing 14-year-old Peter Stogneff would finally get some resolution. This website was built on publicly available information contributed by many people who have an interest in this case. Like the other victims, investigators would learn a lot from the status of Mark's remains. His body had been severely mutilated and dumped in the South Para Reservoir, northeast of Adelaide. He was last seen stumbling down the street, supposedly wandering off to parts unknown. Following the supposed abduction of Richard Kelvin, the police unit known as Major Crimes was tasked with overseeing the investigation. In 2014 when Trevor passed away, his diaries were recovered. The ongoing investigation featured in an episode of Crime Stoppers which went to air on 2 March 2009. Allegations would even surface that indicated Dr. Millhouse had been one of the people in the area that supplied Neil with prescription drugs, but that would remain an allegation for the foreseeable future. George, an impressionable young man, was enticed by the offer and accepted. 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 father of boat crash victim Mallory Beach refused to shake hands with Alex Murdaugh 's family in court after the legal scion was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and son . High profile lawyer and murder victim Derrance Stevenson regularly entertained teenage youths. The post-mortem revealed that Langley had died from a massive loss of blood from gross injuries to his anus, similar to Barnes. Some showed signs of prolonged captivity, while death came quick to others . 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. 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. 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 site is constantly being updated as more is learned. So the police began reaching out to people that worked or had otherwise been in the area. 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. 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. A farmer that lived nearby Middle Beach and Two Wells, roughly an hour north of Adelaide, had been cleansing his farmland during the advised winter months. Police had still not linked the two cases - Barnes and Neil Muir - but while being questioned about the first murder, von Einem inquired about the second without any provocation. That evening, as Mark drove around with his friend Ian and Ian's girlfriend, Paula, an argument broke out. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS. The body count had essentially doubled within a couple of months, and police were still unsure whether or not the cases were related. It shows the facts and most likely scenarios, but is fluid so when new information comes to light changes can easily be made. The Family murders are the name of the murders of five young men and teenagers who happened in Adelaide, South Australia between 1979 and 1983. Because this murder seemed like the type of crime beset by emotional issues - or likely someone with an ax to grind against Alan, personally - police initially began investigating this as a personal crime. 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. This has come to be disputed over the years, with some speculating that Alan might have willingly consumed the drug the weekend before his death; or, perhaps, he might have been slipped it by someone at the bars he was rumored to visit with his friends that Saturday. One victim was killed and dumped within 24 hours, another was kept alive for five weeks, and the rest were in between. But a discovery by the medical examiner seemed to undermine that: in addition to all of this, Neil's genitals had been mutilated by his killer. This was about 300 metres from his family home. 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. He was also found to be wearing clothing that did not belong to him, and his original clothing was missing entirely. [11], Last edited on 24 February 2023, at 04:35, List of serial killers by number of victims, Von Einem: Lawyers in new bid to re-open Kelvin case, "Doctor found not guilty of 'Family' murder of Neil Muir dies in NSW", "Australian police reopen notorious 1970s Family murders case", "Body in bag: jury acquits doctor in Adelaide", "Lost diary gives South Australia police new lead into Alan Barnes murder by The Family", "Many Theories, Few Clues in String of Adelaide Murders", "Record 24-year non-parole period for boy's killer", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Family_Murders&oldid=1141259172, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 04:35. Stogneff's body had been cut into three pieces in a similar fashion to Muir. In October of 1982 - in the very midst of this crime spree - a teenage hitchhiker named George had been picked up by a passing car. . As the 1970s entered their homestretch, Alan was beginning to enter the phase of his life where he experimented with drug and alcohol usage. 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. From the outside looking in, von Einem was incredibly average. The first of which was a very specific call alleging that two men - named Doug and Mark - were responsible for abducting Richard Kelvin. And Marshall is no novice at delving into the minds of evil men. The skeletal remains of one victim bore marks to reasonably indicate a similar experience and outcome. The severing of Neil's limbs and the mutilation of his body was originally believed to have been part of an effort to dispose of his body. Unfortunately, information gathered by police that fateful Tuesday began to cast doubt on the idea that Richard had willingly chosen to run away from home. Bevan von Einem had a network of around 25-30 people. Because of this lack of clarity, police were unable to press forward with any charges for the offenders, and George's story would become buried by more pressing police concerns in the coming weeks and months. Over a span of several years starting in 1979 and into the 80s five young men, aged from 14 to 25, went missing in different areas of Adelaide. On Saturday, June 16th, 1979, Alan spent the night at a friend's house. [16][22] The sedative-hypnotic drug Mandrax, popular in the 1970s disco scene, was found in Langley's blood. Neil Muir had been missing for less than 24 hours by the time his body was discovered, and because he was an adult that lived alone, police were already at a disadvantage when it came to trying to figure out what happened to him. One such case is the Family Murders of Adelaide, Australia. They hoped to use character witnesses to build up the relationship between the two, and then use other eyewitnesses to fill in the rest (the drugs, the sexual relationship, etc.). But now, they needed to find a suspect. Boris left on a bus, and Richard started making his way back home a trip that was no more than four-hundred meters. Young Blood refers to the age of the victims who were brutally murdered. Some of his strategies were to unscrew his car muffler or pull out his choke and ask an unsuspecting youth to help him with car trouble. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the case is how did von Einem find accomplices willing to be involved in such crimes? A witness says she saw Stogneff at Tea Tree Plaza with someone matching Noel Brook's appearance. Mark Langley attended party in Windsor Gardens but left with a male and female. Also, like the other victims, Mark's cause-of-death seemed to be nearly identical: blood loss from an anal injury, caused by the forced insertion of an unknown item. [6] Von Einem was also one of the last people seen with a fourth victim, Muir, following his abduction. He also happened to be a relative of Robin Millhouse, South Australia's former Attorney General who would become a Supreme Court Justice in 1982. 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. Oh, that reminds me. The information is easy to navigate and easy reference. They had no idea that they were about to make one of the most gruesome discoveries in Australian history. [18] His skeletal remains were found in October 1982 later by a local farmer at Middle Beach, 50km north of Adelaide. It was at around this time - the end of August - that Investigator Rod Hunter finally got around to interviewing Bevan Spencer von Einem, the man implicated by an anonymous caller in the murder of Alan Barnes. Make no mistake, Bevan Spencer von Einem is the architect behind all these crimes. While in rehab, Dr. Millhouse refused to speak to police about Neil Muir (or his alleged relationship with the man). But he didn't commit these crimes on his own. Several eyewitnesses remembered seeing Alan and his long, blond hair standing along Grand Junction Road that Sunday. The medical examiners conducting the autopsy and examinations also discovered that Alan's body had been washed extensively after his death; likely an effort to scrub away any evidence linking him to the killer. A span of 4 years. The 'Family murders' involved the killing and torture of five young men from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. An ear witness said they heard some shouting, 2020 familymurders.com All Rights Reserved. Alan was supposed to find a ride back home and was taking his luck hitchhiking, hoping that someone willing to pick him up would be heading north towards his family's neighborhood of Salisbury. Suspect 3, an Eastern Suburbs doctor. He then moved away from Adelaide and the murders continued. For that reason, this crime remains technically unsolved to this day. Bevan von Einem was an apex predator. Investigator Hunter made note of this, finding it odd that one man would have connections to two separate murder investigations - especially two gruesome murders that shared such grisly traits. However, the medical examiners in Adelaide concluded definitively that Alan had died several hours before this happened. They knew then that the description of the remains - should it become public knowledge - would alert a lot of media to the story and scare a lot of people. It had been reported that Richard was wearing the collar as a joke on the afternoon he went missing, while he was kicking around the soccer ball in the park with his dad and his friend, Boris. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for a crime. Mr B - The Family Murders Mr B Mr B was named by South Australian police in 2008 as one of the three main suspects who were involved in the murders alongside Bevan von Einem. But his teachers recalled him being absent, and hours would pass that afternoon (heading into the evening) and Peter would fail to return home. Another anonymous caller claimed that they had seen Richard Kelvin in a snuff film, which had been filmed very recently. 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. Things then came full circle when he began using heroin again, and shortly thereafter, followed that up with a dependence on Rohypnol ("roofies", commonly known as the date-rape drug). Because of this prime location, Adelaide has become one of the country's most populated areas, and more than a million Australians live in the city itself; which is split in half by the Torrens River, which runs through the center of Adelaide. It was a group of homosexual men and transgender women who formed a network around convicted murderer and sexual sadist Bevan Spencer von Einem, based on the drugging, raping and sometimes murder of youths and young men. On Saturday, February 27th, 1982, Mark attended a friend's 18th birthday party in Windsor Gardens, a neighborhood in northeastern Adelaide. This notoriety brought with it a poor reputation, however, and by the late 1970s, Mandrax had become a regulated prescription drug throughout Australia. If that was true, then could that have been happening to the other young male victims that had been viciously murdered in the preceding years? They now had five bodies - five victims - and five families pushing for answers. That Monday - August 27th, 1979 - Neil Muir was seen alive for the last time. Neil Fredrick Muir, aged 25,[12][13] murdered two months after Barnes in August 1979. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George. The son was fifteen when he was snatched from the street . Despite there being an overwhelming lack of physical evidence, police decided to pursue charges against Dr. Millhouse anyways, using the rope and trash bags recovered from his home as their primary building block. He was found wearing most of the clothing he had last been seen in, minus an undershirt and without the chains he often wore around his neck (which contained his zodiac sign, Cancer). Neil Muir had suffered the same type of anal injuries as Alan, implying that a large, bottle-shaped object had been used to intentionally injure him, which caused a large amount of blood loss. Both witnesses - who were friends with Neil and drug users themselves - were prepared to testify should this man be tried for the murder. 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. Trevor Peters lived two doors away from one of the transgender suspects and mixed in the same circles as a number of suspects. He was able to exploit and manipulate enablers, helpers and participants over a long period of time. The Family were not an official group, gang, or organisation. So prosecutors and the police began to build their case around Millhouse without his cooperation, including witness statements that alleged the two had been together the weekend before Neil's violent death. This is an analysis of the information provided by Wendy Roles and Greg McInerney in the book The Family Murders: Dissected The Timeline 25 Aug (Sat) Michael B sees band-aid on Neil's leg at the methadone clinic during the day. South Australia's overdue for another On the afternoon of Sunday, June 5th, 1983, Richard was kicking around a soccer ball with his father Rob and his friend Boris at a park near his home. 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". 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. The Kelvins, though upset at the duration of time that had already passed, understood why the process was so delayed but were hopeful that their son would return home to them, safe and sound. So they tried to safely guard the parts of the investigation that they could. With tattoos, long hair, and a gruff demeanor, Neil looked like your average rock musician, and his transient lifestyle seems to support that. His friend likely just assumed that Peter had bailed on their plan, and likely gone to school that day. This ultimately resulted in a victory for Dr. Peter Millhouse's attorneys, earning the man an acquittal and his freedom. He was last seen while hitchhiking being picked up by a white HQ Holden sedan carrying three or four people. Neil Muir's body had been so badly mutilated that he still barely resembled an entire being. 2020 familymurders.com All Rights Reserved. Investigators were unable to pinpoint Peter's exact cause-of-death, or even estimate when he had been killed. So, they believed that this crime might have been perpetrated by someone that Neil owed money to, who wanted to cover up their tracks afterward. The Family werent an official club or group, rather a loose collection of people with Bevan von Einem at the centre. I first heard of the murders in an episode of an Australian television program called . He had been killed elsewhere and then transported to this location postmortem, implying that the killer had a base of operations for his or her dark deeds. Suspect 2, a former male prostitute and close friend of von Einem known as Mr B. Just like Neil Muir, whoever had taken him had killed him and dumped his body pretty quickly, within a day or two. 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. There were signs that he had been tortured and beaten by a sexual sadist, who had likely kept Alan drugged with a chemical compound named chloral hydrate. Murdered victims were kept in captivity by the Family for up to five weeks. This section explores his social network. The police came to this conclusion due to the status of his remains, which weren't nearly as decomposed as they should have been; by the time he was discovered at the end of July, he had been dead for no more than a week or two, despite having gone missing at the beginning of June. They began probing those that knew Alan and might have taken issue with something he did or said in the weeks before his death; in particular, those that drove a white sedan. Mark had likely hitched a ride with someone, and his friends trusted that he would make it home. 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 Police didn't believe that this voice was Richard, as he was a teenager with a deep voice that had already cracked. He then explained to the investigator that he was a former lover of Neil's, from roughly four years beforehand, and had run into the man just days before his eventual murder. On the final weekend of August 1979, Neil was spotted at both the Duke of York and Buckingham Arms ("The Buck"), two local gay bars that I referenced at the top of the episode. The Adelaide Festival of Arts (also known as just Adelaide Festival) started in 1960 and led to something of a "cultural revival" in the area. It's important to note that, even though members of the LGBTQ community felt more comfortable to express themselves socially, that did not mean that everyone in the area was necessarily welcoming. In August of 1979, Neil was living alone in an apartment on Carrington Street, right in the middle of Adelaide itself. 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. Alan's friend made it back to his house within minutes, but unfortunately, Alan was not so lucky. They organized a helicopter search of the area, which O'Brien was present for, but unfortunately, the police were unable to find anything definitive. It was the body of Neil Muir or, rather, what remained of him. He had been sexually assaulted and went on to report this bizarre, terrifying incident to police. While Neil Muir had endured a similar fate, his remains were too badly mutilated to test for any drugs; however, the injuries suffered seemed to be identical. by enjin | Feb 12, 2021 . But at this point, police were already preoccupied with a separate lead from Neil Muir's social circle: a man named Dr. Peter Millhouse. Police believe that up to 12 people, several of them high-profile Australians, were involved in the kidnappings. Although each attack and mutilation appeared different, police investigators soon began to link the horrific murders to one another. Peter Stogneff. The Family Murders is the name given to the murders of five young men and boys between 1979 and 1983, with all abducted from the streets of Adelaide before being taken to another location,. The fishermen probed the bags - a mystery just waiting to be unearthed - and quickly discovered that the bags held human remains. Alan Barnes was a teenager growing up in this environment, who seemed to live on the bubble between childhood and adulthood in the winter of 1979. [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. 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. His body also showed signs of beatings and torture. Some time after they went missing, their bodies would each be found, often horribly mutilated. Peter Leslie Millhouse was a doctor from Mt. [4][5] 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. Later on, Ian would recall the argument cropping up around cigarettes, but that just proves the point of how nonessential it was. Between 1979 and 1983, the city of Adelaide in South Australia was the stage for a horrific string of crimes against young men and teenagers.Five known victims of kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder showed up in those years, and police became convinced that the perpetrator was actually a group of several men . Peter Stogneff was a fourteen-year-old that lived with his family in a middle-class home, in a northeastern suburb of Adelaide. However, instead of charging them with any known crimes, the officers proceeded to throw the three men into the nearby Torrens River. Now, with Mark Langley, police were able to confirm the presence of the drug Mandrax in his system. von Einem is serving life imprisonment. 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. Veale Gardens had a thriving male prostitution scene, many of which were underage. I think we might get closer to understanding what happened but I think lack of physical evidence pretty much rules out any more charges being laid. 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. There are also notorious unsolved disappearances in Adelaide, including the Beaumont children. While changes in Southern Australia's draconian laws had decriminalized homosexuality, there were still people eager to prey on or harass gay men and women - behavior that lingers to this day. They kicked the footy around. At the time of the murder, Dr. Millhouse - a gay man in his mid-forties - lived alone in northern Adelaide, and drove a ten-year-old Holden sedan. This was done in a different method to what had happened to Neil Muir's remains, but medical examiners were able to identify points in the bones just above the knees and the back where a saw had carved the body into pieces. The bags looked as if they had been dropped from the higher-up wharf, just like the body of Alan Barnes had been. The news was heartbreaking for those that had known Alan. Richard Dallas Kelvin, (born 4 December 1967) aged 15,[23] murdered in July 1983. The medical examiners would also find a significant head wound on Neil, which wasn't significant enough to have killed him, but would have likely happened to incapacitate or subdue the man. Because very little physical evidence had been left behind, it was hard to tell whether or not these crimes belonged to the same spree, or were simply copycats.