Crime Stoppers: The SA cases citizens have helped to solve
THE improved quality of public information to Crime Stoppers is helping police catch more people and solve more crimes each year. See what significant cases have been solved
THE improved quality of public information to Crime Stoppers is helping police catch more people and solve more crimes each year.
Crime Stoppers South Australia has helped solve 26,860 cases, apprehend 18,047 people and recover $8.5 million in cash and property since its inception in 1996.
Information provided to the program has allowed police to make, on average, one arrest from every six calls, and there are 1660 calls received every month.
Crime Stoppers SA chairwoman Sharon Hanlon said the program was ultimately established to allow people who felt intimidated, or feared reprisal, to anonymously report suspicions to police.
She said anonymity was “absolutely the crux” of the program because breakthroughs were likely to come from people associated with, or on the fringes of, criminal elements.
“The intelligence that we receive has continued to improve and grow in volume across a vast range of crimes from clan labs and distribution of drugs to arson and major crimes,” she said.
“A very serious crime — particularly with a young child like the Wynarka bones — public sentiment, and people wanting to make a contribution to be able to resolve something, definitely generates a huge volume of interest for us.”
Significant cases solved from information provided to Crime Stoppers include:
MAYA JAKIC AND MEGUMI SUZUKI — murdered in 1999 and 2001 by Mark Errin Rust, who pleaded guilty and is serving two life sentences without parole.
CAROLYN MATTHEWS — murdered at her home in 2001. Her husband Kevin Matthews and his lover Michelle Burgess were both found guilty and each jailed for at least 30 years.
CHELTENHAM CEMETERY — desecrated by vandals in 1997. A boy, 16, and girl, 13, were charged with property damage. The boy was sentenced to six months at Cadell Training Centre, while the girl was given 200 hours’ community service and a 12-month curfew.
Figures obtained by The Advertiser show the number of suspects arrested and charged from information provided to Crime Stoppers increased 71 per cent from 878 in 2009-10 to 2013-14.
The number of crimes solved through the program increased 52 per cent from 1415 to 2126 during the same period.
Statistics for crimes solved in 2014-15 are not yet available but the number of suspects arrested and charged dropped slightly.
SA Police Operations Support Service Chief Superintendent Bob Fauser said Crime Stoppers provided a significant contribution to its investigations.
“We achieve some of our best results when we receive information from our community and Crime Stoppers is a great conduit for SA Police to use,” he said.
Chief Supt Fauser said police had received 1264 “contacts” about the Wynarka child murder through Crime Stoppers since the discovery in July.
He said more people were willing to leave contact details when providing information, but stressed that they should not be discouraged from contacting the program anonymously.
“Solving crime is much like a jigsaw and any information may be a significant piece of the puzzle that leads to an apprehension so any information is of value to us,” he said.
“The person may possess one piece of information and they may be thinking that alone is not of great value to police but they are not aware of other information that we have and that one particular piece may be the one piece that we need for a suspect to be identified.”
Ms Hanlon urged anyone with concerns or suspicions about criminal activity to contact Crime Stoppers, no matter how insignificant they believed the information was.
She said the arrest of a person or resolution of a crime, not just a conviction, were sufficient grounds to receive a financial reward.
Cold case homicide rewards, paid by the State Government, range from $200,000 to $1 million, while other rewards are determined on a case-by-case basis and paid directly by Crime Stoppers.
“On the whole, people who call in to Crime Stoppers are not actually seeking a reward despite the fact that rewards are a really important component for us in being able to encourage people to make contact,” Ms Hanlon said.
“Sometimes the smallest piece of information provides that final link, so nothing is too small to report.
“People do want to make sure that their street, their neighbourhood and their local community is a safer place, and Adelaide, South Australia, overall.”
SIGNIFICANT CASES SOLVED BY CRIME STOPPERS INFORMATION
MAYA JAKIC AND MEGUMI SUZUKI
When Japanese exchange student Megumi Suzuki went missing in August 2001, police were investigating another case — the murder of Maya Jakic.
An anonymous phone call made to 000 about Ms Jakic was posted on the Crime Stoppers website by police in October 2001, in an appeal for help with the unsolved 1999 murder case.
Within a week, a man contacted police and provided the identity of the caller — Mark Errin Rust.
Rust was in prison on remand for rape and had a criminal history for sex offences when police visited him and found Ms Suzuki’s CD player in his cell.
Rust pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and was jailed for life without parole.
Police are convinced that without Crime Stoppers publicising the voice recording on the website, both cases may not have been solved and Rust could well have killed again.
CAROLYN MATTHEWS
Mother-of-three Carolyn Matthews was murdered at her West Lakes Shore home in 2001.
Her husband, Kevin Matthews, and his lover, Michelle Burgess, plotted the killing with hitman David Key, who was also in a relationship with Burgess.
Shortly after the murder, a caller contacted Crime Stoppers and provided information about the identity of the person who was hired to kill Carolyn Matthews.
The caller also advised that Kevin Matthews hired the person to commit the murder.
Key pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for life with a non-parole period of 20 years.
He gave evidence against Kevin Matthews and Burgess during their trial, which heard that he and Burgess arrived at the home, where Burgess gave him a kitchen knife and urged him to murder Mrs Matthews, who was home alone.
Kevin Matthews had taken his three sons to the shops and staged his return to the family home so they would find their mother dead on the kitchen floor.
Kevin Matthews had agreed to pay Key $25,000 for the killing and then share the $100,000 life insurance with Burgess.
The pair was found guilty of murder and each jailed for life with a non-parole period of 30 years.
CHELTENHAM CEMETERY
Cheltenham Cemetery was desecrated by vandals in 1997, with 140 headstones destroyed and the site left strewn with smashed vases and trampled flowers.
The community empathised with the pain and despair of families who had to see their loved one’s headstones destroyed in this mindless way.
Some had been torched, others smashed and others picked up and thrown on to other graves.
Two youths had been seen jumping the cemetery fence on the night of the rampage but that was all the information police had to work with.
However, a caller contacted Crime Stoppers with information that they had heard the youths bragging about their night of destruction.
A boy, 16, and girl, 13, were charged with property damage. The boy was sentenced to six months at Cadell Training Centre.
The girl was a first-time offender and had to face the families, who decided her punishment, and apologise for her actions.
She was given 200 hours’ community service and a 12-month curfew.
Anyone with information about criminal activity can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or lodge an online report at https://sa.crimestoppers.com.au — and remain anonymous.