Louise Bell murder: Week 2 of South Australia Supreme Court trial of Dieter Pfennig

AN anonymous man called one of Louise Bell’s neighbours days after she vanished and gave chilling details about the little girl’s disappearance, a court has heard..

AN anonymous man called one of Louise Bell’s neighbours days after she disappeared to say the girl was “with them, happy and did not want to go home”, a court has heard.

In the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a woman — whose identity is suppressed — recalled a seven-minute phone conversation she had on January 17, 1983.

Prosecutors allege the caller was Dieter Pfennig, who is standing trial having pleaded not guilty to Louise’s murder.

“He said that Louise Bell was with them, that she was happy with them and that she did not want to go home,” the witness said.

“He said that he needed my help, that it was a desperate situation and that it could save someone’s life.”

The woman said the man went on to explain in a quavering voice, that he needed medical advice for Louise and could not ring the authorities because his voice would be traced.

She said the caller also wanted her to call the press about the situation but she refused, saying she would be calling police.

“I said ‘how do I know this is a genuine call?’ And he told me that to prove he had Louise Bell this was where her earrings could be found,” she said.

“He told me that if the police went to a rock or broken brick on the corner of South Rd and Beach Rd her earrings could be found.”

The trial has previously heard police recovered Louise’s earrings on that corner from beneath a broken brick.

The woman said the caller criticised the police as “stupid” and questioned the logic of the theories then held about Louise’s abduction.

One of those criticisms was that a child would not climb through a window if she “wanted to run away” because it would be too noisy.

The caller claimed to have chosen her number at random, and that, in 1983, her name appeared atop a column in the phone book.

As soon as the caller hung up, the woman — who made handwritten notes during the conversation — contacted police.

The woman said that she found Louise’s pyjama top neatly folded on her front lawn, by her mailbox, two weeks after the phone call.

After realising what it was, she handed it over to police.

A photo of Dieter Pfennig, taken days before he allegedly abducted Louise Bell in 1983. Source: Supreme Court Registry.

The court also heard evidence from Pfenning’s former wife, Sandra, who divorced him in January of 1990.

She described her ex-husband as a very intelligent, German-born, military trained man who had many wideranging interests.

She said he was “always a very heavy smoker” whose clothes and skin “reeked of cigarette smoke”.

Sandra said she knew of Louise Bell because the girl attended the same school and played in the same basketball club as eldest daughter, Petra.

“No, they weren’t close friends, I don’t think so,” she said.

“We certainly had children sleep over from time to time but I don’t recall Louise being one of them.”

She said her ex-husband would go out jogging at night but she did not learn of this for some time because he always left after she had fallen asleep.

She said Pfenning told her he “had insomnia or something” but she never discussed the matter further with him.

Earlier, the court heard Louise’s alleged murderer encouraged his fellow teachers to come jogging with him late at night because it was “amazing what you see through windows”.

The second week of Pfennig’s trial began in the court with evidence from his former co-workers at Mitchell Park High School.

They recalled “unnerving and alarming” comments Pfennig made to them in the wake of Louise’s January 1983 disappearance.

They said Pfennig spoke of Louise being in the same class as his daughter Petra, and having sleepovers, and further claimed he had taught the missing girl at the local youth club gymnasium.

One witness said Pfennig described how you “never see another living soul” on the streets of Hackham West after dark and that, while jogging, you “see amazing things through windows”.

A man who went canoeing with Pfennig told the court the teacher had described getting his paddle tangled in sheep bones in the Onkaparinga River before suggesting police should search it for Louise’s body.

The court was also read three statements authored by Louise’s sister, Rachel.

Rachel said she had no independent recollection of the night her sister went missing, nor of the events of the following days — she was eight at the time.

She said she knew of Dieter Pfennig, because he would park his blue combi van across the road from the Bell home in the years following the disappearance, but had no personal interaction with him.

Prosecutors said Rachel Bell would not be called to give evidence at the trial.

Pfennig, 67, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Louise, 10, between January 4 and March 1, 1983, and is standing trial without a jury and by judge alone.

Prosecutors have alleged Pfennig abducted Louise from her home and evaded arrest for decades until a “one in one billion” DNA match linked him to her torn pyjama top.

They claim he lived seven minutes’ walk from her home and liked to canoe on the Onkaparinga River — and that Louise’s pyjama top tested positive for trace elements from the river.

Pfennig, a former high school teacher, is serving a life sentence for the 1989 abduction and murder of Michael Black, 10, while he was fishing at Murray Bridge. His body has never been found.

A witness in the Louise Bell case claims Pfennig told him that her body rests in the same place as Michael’s, which has never been recovered.

Another witness claims that, when questioned about his whereabouts when Louise disappeared, Pfennig said “my alibi’s been sprung”.

A police re-enactment of the abduction, prosecutors claim, proves Louise would have been taken from her bedroom in just 30 seconds.