Suspect in SA triple murder investigation was prison pen pal with slain grandma Beverley Hanley

STEVEN Hainsworth — the man who this week outed himself as the prime suspect in three murder investigations — was pen pals with one of the victims when he was in jail. Beverley Hanley’s granddaughter revealed to The Advertiser she had warned the “vulnerable and trusting” woman about Mr Hainsworth.

• I am not a serial killer: Suspect declares his innocence
• Three murders — and police now say one killer was responsible
• The Phyllis Harrison murder: Family searching for answers
• The Beverly Hanley murder: ‘Our family has been shattered’
• The Stephen Newton murder: Sister mourns gentle recluse

MURDERED grandmother Beverley Hanley was a pen pal with her nephew Steven Hainsworth — the man now suspected of killing her — when he was in prison, it can be revealed.

The doting grandmother was warned by her family about liaising with Mr Hainsworth, but she continued to have contact with him when he was released from jail shortly before her murder.

Ms Hanley’s granddaughter, Tasha Chase, told The Advertiser she had read a pen pal letter Mr Hainsworth had written from jail in the months prior to her death and confronted her about it.

One of Tasha Chase’s favourite pictures with her grandmother, Beverley Hanley, who was murdered in 2010. Picture: Supplied by Tasha Chase

“I was at Grandma’s house not long before she died. I found a letter on her kitchen table from him saying when he got out of jail he was going to be a changed man,’’ she said.

“Everyone in the family had started to wipe their hands clean of him and didn’t believe he was going to change.

“His mother would not visit him in jail because she had given up on him.

“I read the letter and asked her why she was bothering, why?

“She just said ‘well, no one else is going to’. I was mad at her and didn’t want her to have contact with him when you know someone is very vulnerable and trusting.

“She was a smart lady but she would give anyone the benefit of the doubt.’’

Steven Hainsworth in his Mildura home, where this week he emphatically denied he was a murderer. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Hainsworth, 43, on Wednesday outed himself as the suspect in three cold case murder investigations — that of grandmothers Phyllis Harrison, 71, at Elizabeth South in 1998, Beverley Hanley, 64, at Elizabeth North in 2010 and Stephen Newton, 55, at Mt Gambier in 2011.

Major Crime detectives believe Ms Hanley’s killer confronted her at her house on Homington Rd on October 6, 2010. She was severely bashed with a cricket bat and suffered multiple stab wounds.

Her house was ransacked and her handbag stolen. Mr Hainsworth’s DNA was found at the crime scene — on a phone plug pulled from the wall.

Mr Hainsworth was living just two streets from Ms Hanley at the time of her murder, after being released from jail a few months earlier.

Ms Chase said she and her mother, Robyn Schaefer, learned that Mr Hainsworth was a suspect in January 2011, three months after Ms Hanley’s murder.

She said living with that knowledge for years had been “extremely difficult’’ and had impacted her wider family.

“The family has been separated by this. One half believes he is innocent and hasn’t done it, they are in absolute denial,’’ Ms Chase said.

“My mum and I are the only ones that have been fighting for this and keeping our mouths shut and trying to make them see what is going on has been hard, it has been horrible.

“Mum and I only have each other, we don’t have any other family, it has been hard.’’

She said she still missed her grandmother immensely and was “terribly sad’’ that she had not been alive to witness landmark events such as her marriage “and to see my children being born’’.

“I believe some sort of justice will be done, it is just a matter of time,’’ she said.

Her lasting memories of Mr Hainsworth growing up were that he was “always in trouble”.

“I remember him being in and out of jail, taking drugs, the family used to talk about it all the time,’’ she said.

“They tried to reach out and help and he wasn’t interested.’’

Beverley Hanley’s loved ones gathered at Carisbrooke Park to remember her in 2015 on the five-year anniversary of her murder — granddaughter Tasha Chase, daughter Robyn Schaefer, son Rob Hainsworth and long-term friend Gloria West. Picture: Mike Burton

Ms Hanley’s daughter, Ms Schaefer, said she was pleased to see police ramping up the investigation, but was shocked when Mr Hainsworth outed himself as the prime suspect on Wednesday.

“I didn’t see that coming. I certainly was shocked,’’ she said.

Mr Hainsworth has emphatically denied he was responsible for the three murders, stating he was an “innocent man’’.

“I hope whoever is responsible is caught so the bloody monkey comes off my back,’’ he said.

Major Crime detectives have appealed for anyone with any information on the murders, or who may have been an accomplice and given police false or incomplete information previously — particularly concerning the murder of Mr Newton — to come forward and contact police.

“We know that they may be feeling vulnerable and scared, but we can help them,’’ said Major Crime officer-in-charge Detective Superintendent Des Bray.