Police release fresh computer generated images of SA’s most wanted fugitive Stuart Pearce
SEE THE PICTURES: Police have released new computer-generated images of what Stuart Pearce, South Australia’s most wanted fugitive, may look like now after 23 years on the run.
POLICE have released new computer-generated images of what Stuart Pearce, South Australia’s most wanted fugitive, may look like now after 23 years on the run.
Pearce has not been seen since his wife and three of their children perished in a northern suburbs house fire 23 years ago. The case is one of the state’s most baffling mysteries.
State-of-the-art technology has produced images of what SA’s most wanted fugitive would look like now in the hope someone will come forward with fresh leads.
Police have been searching for Pearce since January 6, 1991 - the day his family was found murdered in the burnt-out remains of their Parafield Gardens house.
The murders shocked the city with their brutality.
The body of Pearce’s wife Meredith, 31, was found tied to a chair with a towel pushed into her mouth.
Three of his children - Adam, 11, Travis, 9, and Kerry, 2 - were suffocated with plastic bags placed over their heads. They all died before the house was set alight with petrol.
A fourth son, Matthew, survived because he was staying at a friend’s home overnight.
Police admit they do not know if Pearce is alive or even still in Australia.
His son Matthew, who has been interviewed several times, cannot shed light on his father’s fate, Major Crime Detective Inspector Greg Hutchins said.
An earlier investigation into an unconfirmed sighting of Pearce in Canada also led to nothing, Det-Insp Hutchins said.
“We don’t know if he’s alive or dead, 23 years on, it’s really hard to know but we hope these images will generate some information that we can follow up and hopefully bring this matter to a conclusion.’’
Reported sightings “many years ago’’ and another in Victoria in 1996 have not been confirmed.
The SA Government recently announced a $1 million reward for information that leads to finding out what happened to Pearce.
The fatal fire was reported at 7.10am on January 6. There is no evidence Pearce, who would be 56 now, went home when his night shift at a Wingfield BP petrol station finished - just 27 minutes before the fire started.
His Datsun 240K was later found abandoned at the Kilkenny shopping centre. He’s been missing ever since.
Twenty-five cannabis plants were found in a bunker under his burnt-out home, leading to questions of drug links but police said there was no evidence of anyone else having been involved in the murders.
Pearce was under financial pressure and his best friend Gary Austin - who lived in a unit in the backyard - killed himself in 1990.
Pearce was believed to have been sheltered by friends after he disappeared, possibly in the South-East.
He hid in his hometown of Mt Gambier, but was recognised by locals. He was spotted several times in 1991 but the most recent confirmed sighting was in June, 1997, at a Knox shopping centre in Melbourne.
The horrific murder of the Pearce family took a tragic toll on surviving son Matthew, who has since been jailed twice and before the courts numerous other times.
In 2002, Matthew Pearce told The Advertiser he believed his father to be innocent but dead — murdered by whoever killed his family. He thought the killers had been trying to get information from his mother.
Two years later, Matthew was jailed for criminal trespass after hiding for four hours in the ceiling of a toy shop. Matthew told the court he believed whoever had killed his family would come after him if he was identified.
And last year, he was jailed again, this time for firearms offences, with District Court Judge Paul Slattery saying the courts had run out of patience, despite his tragic childhood.
READ MORE: SA’s most notorious unsolved crimes and mysteries