The most notorious crimes that shook and horrified South Australia
FROM bodies in barrels, to kidnappings in the Outback and sex in the suburbs, these are 21 of the worst crimes ever committed in South Australia.
FROM bodies in barrels, to kidnappings in the Outback and sex in the suburbs, these are some of the crimes that shook South Australia.
The Maria massacre - 1840
In 1840, the Maria, a 136-ton ship, headed to Hobart from Port Adelaide with 25 people on board. Blown off course, it foundered at Cape Jaffa on the reef and its crew and passengers reached land and began trekking back along the Coorong to Encounter Bay - being guided by local Aborigines.
They eventually split into three groups. None were seen again alive, with two wedding rings found on two bodies later identified as belonging to two of the passengers.
The groups were murdered, reportedly by local Aborigines, with four bodies found during the next year or so in different nearby areas. Items of the victims' clothing and the Maria's logbook were found in the possession of some local tribes.
Governor George Gawler, SA's second governor, ordered Major Thomas O'Halloran to investigate and execute those he believed responsible. He later hanged two men.
In April 1841, local Aborigines told a Richard Penny the massacre came after the Maria's passengers refused to hand over clothing for guiding them back to settled land.
Verdict (at the time): Two local Aborigines hanged.
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Monica Schiller - 1970
Kidnapped by three escaped prisoners at gunpoint, and taken on a wild ride up the Birdsville Track complete with police shootout - this is cliched-movie territory, but for Monica Schiller, it was real.
The three men - Terrence Haley, Raymond Gunning and Andrew Brooks broke out of the Cadell Training Centre and entered the Schiller home at Murbko, on the Upper Murray.
They tied up the then-21-year-old's parents and boyfriend, stole guns and food and told Ms Schiller to pack a bag with spare clothes.
They drove first to Semaphore and then in another stolen car towards Darwin, taking the potholed and corrugated Birdsville Track.
Adelaide journalists chartered a plane that also carried Detective Sergeant Bob "Hugger" Giles - although conflicting reports also have him in his own light aircraft. The kidnappers fired shots at the plane when it flew overhead.
The plane landed ahead of the escapees at Birdsville and Det Sgt Giles, with three other officers, seven journalists and two government employees, drove back along the track.
The press tracked kidnappers' car from the air, radioing its position to the police's car.
This allowed the officers to set up a roadblock - when the escapees arrived, shots were fired. Det Sgt Giles returned fire with six shots, saying later he specifically aimed under the car.
Two escapees fled the car, while the other began to brake. All three were quickly arrested - one of the officers emptied his revolver of bullets and ran up to one of the men, and told him, "don't move, or you're dead".
Journalists documented the entire arrest - Advertiser photographer Ray Titus won a Walkley Award for his photograph.
Monica was found alive but traumatised, 26 hours after her ordeal began. Det Sgt Giles returned to Adelaide a hero.
She later married her boyfriend, Graham Smith, and they invited the detective to their wedding. As recently as 2006, the couple were still living in the house from which she was abducted.
Det Sgt Giles died in 2005.
Haley was jailed for 15 years but escaped again in 1972, later serving eight years in NSW before being extradited back to SA to finish his sentence. He was released in 1986.
Brooks and Gunning were jailed for 12 and a half and 11 and half years respectively.
In 1989 Haley was shot in the back while at home, lying on his lounge. He was later charged with attempted murder over another shooting that same night in Campbelltown. The charges were replaced with manslaughter and then dropped.
Verdict: Terrence Haley (15 years in jail), Raymond Gunning (12 and a half years), Andrew Brooks (11 and a half years).
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The Bartholomew family - 1971
The 18-month-old nephew of Clifford Cecil Bartholomew was the last to be killed, shot through the head at point-blank range while he lay sleeping in his cot.
Bartholomew, then 40, had just shot and killed the other nine members of his family at a remote farmhouse in Hope Forest, near Willunga, in what was then Australia's worst mass murder.
He then sat down and had a beer, before remembering his toddler nephew was still alive and reloaded his gun.
Hours before, Bartholomew had snapped. He later wrote that with the "screaming noises that was splitting my head wide open, and that horrible look on my wife's face, I couldn't control my actions".
Bartholomew had become convinced his wife, 40, was having an affair with a Vietnam soldier staying at the farm. Police later determined she wasn't.
Bartholomew had moved out, but the family had a Father's Day dinner that night. He'd intercepted a letter from the soldier to his wife. He stormed off and came back about 1am with two rifles and a rubber mallet.
He walked into the house and hit his wife with the mallet, before shooting her. As the family was roused with the noises, he systematically shot them all - his sister-in-law, his seven children ranging in age from 19 to 4, and then his nephew.
Bartholomew made a coffee, took some aspirin, and covered the bodies with blankets. He called a local doctor and told him what he'd done.
When the police arrived that morning - one of them was legendary SA detective Allen Arthur, on one of his first major cases - he was sitting in the kitchen, with an empty Bacardi bottle beside him.
During the police interviews that followed, he told police he "had to kill all of his family".
"Once I had shot Christine, I realised I had to kill all of them,'' he said. "I loved my children that much, I couldn't leave any of them behind.''
Detective Arthur noted the murders were "a conscious decision each time to reload and kill his family".
"The older children, if they had survived, would have suffered severe trauma, but the little baby was so young and asleep in his cot, he could make his way in life later," he said.
Bartholomew was sentenced to death in 1971. This was later commuted to life in jail.
He was released after just eight years - or nine months per murder.
In 1991, The Advertiser reported he was living in Adelaide under a new name and identity.
Verdict: Clifford Cecil Bartholomew served 8 years jail
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Hambly-Clark gun shop siege - 1976
The man who ended the Hambly-Clark gun shop siege in Rundle St, in 1976, died last September.
SA police sniper Detective Senior Constable John Ramsden cut short one of Adelaide's most dramatic events, when Victorian man Michael O'Connor walked into the gun shop and loaded two shotguns with his own bullets.
He ordered the employees to leave and fired shots - first in the shop and then at police.
Officers fired tear gas into the shop to force O'Connor out, and when he walked outside he waved the two shotguns at a police officer.
Det Sr Const Ramsden, watching O'Connor through his Armalite rifle at the first-floor window of a furniture shop 100m away, received the order to fire.
The shot took him in the chest, killing O'Connor.
Det Sr Const Ramsden was a member of the Armed Offenders Apprehension Group - the predecessor to today's STAR Group - and acknowledged as SAPOL's best marksman.
O'Connor, also known as Michael Hooke, had spent three months in Royal Park Mental Hospital, Melbourne, before arriving in Adelaide in mid-1974.
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The Truro murders - 1976-1977
It was a simple tyre blowout that ultimately stopped the Truro serial-killing spree - the ensuing car crash killed the rapist and psychopath Christopher Worrell, his ex Deborah Skuse and seriously injured the man besotted with him, James Miller.
Worrell and Miller - the elder by 17 years - met in prison. Both were serving terms for rape - Miller for raping a 14-year-old boy and Worrell for a 20-year-old woman.
They became what are thought to be one of Australia's first "tandem" serial killers.
Some reports put Miller in love with and dependent on Worrell, who was charismatic, more heterosexual and prone to black moods. Miller called him "Jekyll and Hyde".
But SA Detective Glen Lawrie, the man who hunted Miller down, said Miller was the dominant personality.
Once they were out of prison they cruised Adelaide for girls for Worrell to have sex with. These pick-ups became more violent, and turned to rape.
Then, during just seven weeks of the summer of 76-77, Worrell and Miller picked up and killed seven young women aged 15-26, dumping five at Truro.
The killings stopped after the car crash, but the first body wasn't found until April 1978 - Veronica Knight. About a year later Sylvia Pittman's remains were found. Three more bodies were found during a search of the Truro area.
Miller was arrested because of a cryptic comment to a female friend about Worrell's "black moods" at his funeral. Police received word of the comment and eventually arrested Miller when he went to collect his dole payment.
Miller claimed he was merely the chauffeur - he would drive them somewhere, go for a walk and when he came back Worrell would have raped and strangled the girls. He admitted to then helping dump their bodies, usually at Truro.
He knew the exact location of the two bodies not buried at Truro and led police there.
Detective Lawrie says the murderer had admitted he and Worrell had formed a pact that, this time, there would be no survivors to identify them.
A jury disagreed with Miller's claim that he was passive in the murders.
In March 1980 he was sentenced to life in jail after being convicted of six of the seven murders he was charged with.
In 2000, the Supreme Court set a non-parole period of 35 years.
He died of liver failure, related to Hepatitis C, in October 2008, several years short of being eligible for parole.
Verdict: James Miller, convicted of six murders and sentenced to life in jail
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Derrance Stevenson - 1979
The man convicted of the shooting death of highly regarded Adelaide lawyer Derrance Stevenson, 44, has always maintained his innocence.
Mr Stevenson's body was found dumped in his freezer, in a foetal position and wrapped in two green garbage bags. He had been shot in the back of the head with a .22 calibre rifle, dressed in a shirt, underpants and socks.
His partner David Szach, 19, was jailed for the murder for 18 years and was released on parole 14 years later. He still maintains he did not commit the crime.
Mr Stevenson was linked to the Family murders - reports in 1988 said he regularly met with a secret group and tried to leave just before his death.
The report said a friend of Stevenson at the time had procured boys for the dead lawyer - one had been Szach.
It was revealed Stevenson had been a member of a group that procured youths for sex. He had attempted to break from the gang, which also used and distributed drugs, and was then murdered.
In December 1988 Szach, who was 16 when he began his relationship with Stevenson, said he had no idea whether Stevenson was part of The Family and intimated that only during his time in jail was it suggested to him that "there was more to Derrance than I realised".
A year later, the Sunday Mail reported that Stevenson had been murdered because he refused to take part in "snuff films" within The Family.
But senior police called Stevenson's links with The Family "complete speculation".
Stevenson also acted as lawyer for the unnamed witness at the inquest into Dr George Duncan, who drowned after he was thrown into the Torrens in 1972.
Bevan von Einem was there that night.
In 2006, Szach began a push to clear his name.
In 2008, the distinctive home where Stevenson and Szach had lived - and where Stevenson's body was found - was demolished.
Verdict: David Szach, sentenced to life in jail. Released on parole in 1993.
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The victims of paedophile Peter Liddy - 1983-1986, jailed in 2001
He was the tough-talking magistrate, known for harsh sentences and speaking out against Supreme Court appeals on his sentences.
But SA Magistrate Peter Liddy was also a paedophile, a coach at the Brighton Surf Life Saving club who preyed upon club nippers. He was convicted for sexually abusing four young boys, aged from seven to 13, between 1983 and 1986.
Liddy faced trial in 2001, pleading his innocence. A jury found him guilty of nine of the charges, and one of trying to bribe one of his victims. He was jailed alongside many of the same prisoners he had once sentenced.
That prompted him to successfully seek solitary confinement - for 10 years he saw only his lawyers, spending up to 23 hours a day inside his cell.
An anonymous, two-page letter to The Advertiser in 1999 triggered the chain of events that led to Liddy's arrest and eventual incarceration.
It was from the father of 'M', and directed police to the Brighton club, from whom police received a list of names of nippers.
One of them, known as 'D', was Liddy's special friend, to whom he allegedly promised to leave everything in his will and to whom Liddy gave $5000. The jury found this was an inducement to withhold evidence.
D initially denied Liddy had done anything wrong. But on June 30, 1999, he contacted police and changed his story.
Four other complainants came forward later.
At trial, it was revealed Liddy had gained the trust of parents, even writing to them on paper with court letterheads. He bought a big-screen TV for his court chambers, mini motorbikes and fireworks.
Liddy refused to face his victims for their impact statement, was jailed for 25 years in 2001 with a non-parole period of 18 years, and unsuccessfully appealed his conviction.
He has since been diagnosed with sensory deprivation syndrome and a dementia syndrome of depression after years in solitary confinement.
But the story of Peter Liddy continued to twist and turn, even into one of the state's highest political offices.
Convicted armed robber and fraudster Terry Stephens bought Liddy's mansion in Kapunda for $500,000, along with the treasure trove of antique gun, coins, and maritime artefacts, some of which was auctioned off for $80,000.
But he was later jailed for a public smear campaign against former Speaker Peter Lewis, telling police Mr Lewis had taken 200 antique firearms and cutlasses from the mansion, worth $10 million.
Mr Lewis denied having the collection of guns. He had earlier written to then police minister Robert Brokenshire asking for permits for the guns.
Meanwhile, Liddy's victims fought for compensation for Liddy's crime, ultimately winning just $10,000 each because the crimes took place in the 1980s before the maximum was raised to $50,000.
Last April, a court ruled that he could have back some of his collection of rare coins and firearms upon his release.
Verdict: Peter Liddy, jailed for 25 years with 18-year non-parole period.
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Richard Kelvin and Bevan Spencer von Einem - 1984
One of South Australia's most notorious criminals, child and sex killer Bevan von Einem murdered the son of Channel 9 newsreader Rob Kelvin in 1984.
Von Einem picked up Richard, who was 15 at the time, from North Adelaide - and the teen was found five weeks later. An autopsy revealed he had died from massive blood loss and had been drugged and horrifically sexually abused.
Von Einem admitted he had picked Richard up - after first denying it - but pleaded not guilty to murder. He was eventually jailed for life with a non-parole period of 36 years. Key to the case's evidence was matching fibres from von Einem's house found on Richard's clothes.
In 1989 he was charged over two other deaths - Alan Barnes and Mark Langley, two of the teenagers murdered by the mysterious group of Adelaide men known as The Family, believed to be responsible for vicious sex killings of at least five male teenagers. The charges were later dropped after crucial evidence was ruled inadmissable.
But the story of von Einem has continued - he maintained his innocence, giving Advertiser journalist Dick Wordley an interview in 1989 in which he named names, nicknames and jobs of people he believed were involved in The Family killings but said he feared for his safety in jail were he to turn informant.
In 2006, it emerged prison guards were buying his handpainted greeting cards and, later that year, that he had received preferential treatment in prison.
That same year, a prison guard named Mary spoke of the bizarre friendship she had sparked up with the inmate.
In 2007, he was charged with possessing handmade child pornography - two years later he was sentenced to three months in jail.
That same year, The Australian reported that police were reviewing archive TV footage appearing to place von Einem at the scene of an early search for the missing Beaumont children, who disappeared from Glenelg beach in 1966.
The murderer was also linked to the Beaumonts in 1990, when a witness told a court von Einem had told him he'd killed the children - but the claim was discredited.
Von Einem is now eligible for parole, but no application has been made. Former Premier Mike Rann vowed to change legislation if necessary to prevent him from ever leaving Port Augusta Prison.
Last year, on the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon from Adelaide Oval, a new connection to von Einem was revealed - a man known as "Frank" who accompanied Joanne and Kirste on the day they were abducted from Adelaide Oval later sold his Campbelltown home to von Einem's mother in the 1970s.
Verdict: Bevan Spencer von Einem - life in jail, 36-year non-parole period.
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The 12 people killed in the Bodies in the Barrels murders - 1992-1999
Australia's worst serial murders were a complex web of death, torture, sex and pain. Intrinsically linked to a disused bank in Snowtown, in Adelaide's north, neither the killers nor the victims were from the town. Just one victim, David Johnson, was killed there.
On Thursday, May 20, 1999, police discovered eight bodies in six plastic drums hidden in the bank vault. Police discovered two more bodies in the backyard of a house at Salisbury North on May 23 and 26. Two more bodies were found at separate locations in the city's north.
Led by John Bunting, the killers - and many of the victims - were from the Salisbury North area. Eight of the victims' remains were dumped in barrels filled with hydrochloric acid and stored in the bank.
Bunting would call this taking them to the "clinic" and described killing people as "Smurfing" - a reference to them turning blue.
Many of the victims were known - and in some cases related - to the murderers. They were often chosen because of Bunting's perceived belief they were paedophiles, or gay, or were simply obese or drug users. In several cases they were suffering from mental illness.
Bunting kept a "wall of spiders" in his home, with names and addresses of people he believed to be paedophiles.
James Spyridon Vlassakis was besotted with Bunting, the trial heard. His mother had begun a relationship with Bunting and he began to murder with Bunting after he learned his mother, Elizabeth Harvey, had helped kill one of the victims, Ray Davies.
In total 12 people were killed, over a period of seven years - including extreme torture and even cannibalism, with some of the victims' pensions then stolen.
The victims were Clinton Trezise, 22, Ray Davies, 26, Michael Gardiner, 19, Barry Lane, 42, Thomas Trevilyan, 18, Gavin Porter, 29, Troy Youde, 22, Fred Brooks, 18, Gary O'Dwyer, 29, Elizabeth Haydon, 37, and David Johnson, 23.
Bunting and Robert Wagner were found guilty of all 11 of those murders. James Vlassakis pleaded guilty to four counts of murder, including his half-brother and stepbrother, and testified against his fellow killers. Wagner and Bunting were acquitted over the death of Suzanne Allen, 47.
The 11-month trial cost $15 million.
In 2011 a movie based on the life of John Bunting was released to critical acclaim.
Verdict: John Justin Bunting and Robert John Wagner - life sentences, no parole. James Spyridon Vlassakis - life sentence, 26 years non-parole. Accomplice Mark Ray Haydon - jailed for 18 years non-parole.
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Hamish McLachlan - 1997
He was trying to impress his stockbroking father, but in 2004, former Olympic rower Hamish McLachlan - a son of the Adelaide business elite - ended up jailed for nine years for his role in a share fraud scandal that preyed largely on the elderly.
The fall of McLachlan - a privileged, educated, gifted athlete from Adelaide's eastern suburbs who represented Australia at the 1988 Seoul Olympics - came about because he hated to lose.
In the gym and on the water, he was known for his strength, ability and refusal to quit.
But at Prince Alfred College, he was "academically useless", the court heard.
In sentencing, Judge Bishop said that from 1989 until 1997, McLachlan transferred losing options from his account - and those of the Adelaide Rowing Club and other associates - into the accounts of his unsuspecting, "vulnerable" clients.
His clients lost more than $550,000 but eventually recovered their money through an indemnity fund.
At one point in the investigation - years in the making - he was charged with 91 counts of fraud over his alleged role in a $17 million RetireInvest share scandal.
He was permanently banned as a stockbroker or investment adviser in 1999. An appeal in 2004 was dismissed.
Verdict: Nine years jail, non-parole of five.
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Margaret Tobin - 2002
On October 14, 2002, South Australia's chief psychiatrist was gunned down as she stepped out of an elevator on the eighth floor in the Citi Centre building on Hindmarsh Square.
Police arrested Jean Eric Gassy, a deregistered Sydney psychiatrist, who was eventually found guilty twice of her murder - first in 2004 and then in 2009, after the High Court granted him a retrial.
In 2010, he again appealed to the High Court - which this time ruled against him.
Gassy's motive was one of revenge. He believed Dr Tobin was conspiring against him in the early 1990s to have him deregistered after she raised concerns about him.
Diagnosed with delusional psychiatric disorder in 1993 and with a self-diagnosis of AIDS - refuted by doctors - he went about collating a hit-list of those he thought were responsible.
During his trial, a court heard one of his lists was written on the back of a used railway ticket, while another was two pages of notes and photos, with names and addresses.
Prosecutor Peter Brebner noted that "another section, wide enough for another set of initials and an address, had been torn off" the list.
Dr Tobin's name was missing from the list.
The court heard he trained at shooting ranges, bought "spare" slides for his two Glock handguns, and browsed websites showing how to obscure evidence from ballistics experts.
Gassy tried to murder Dr Tobin at a Brisbane psychiatric conference in April 2002 but dropped something "metallic and heavy", attracting attention and fleeing the scene.
Gassy - who largely represented himself during trials and appeals - travelled from Sydney under false names, including Chris King and David Pais, and paid cash for hire cars and motel rooms for both the Adelaide and Brisbane trips.
The fumbled Brisbane hit proved to be an early link to Gassy - the conference sound engineer heard the gun hit the ground and rang police after Dr Tobin was shot.
Another person saw Gassy run and noted the hire car's numberplate. Gassy's name-check turned up the registered Glock pistols. And Dr Tobin's involvement with him made him a person of interest. A search of his house matched ammunition with shell casings found at the scene.
Jailed for 34 years after his first trial, he successfully argued the trial judge had not been balanced in directions to the jury.
He was jailed for 30 years at his second trial.
In 2003, then Premier Mike Rann announced three annual mental health awards would be presented in Dr Tobin's name, in recognition of her service.
Verdict: Jean Eric Gassy, jailed for 30 years for murder.
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Megumi Suzuki and Maya Jakic - 1999 and 2001
The search for missing Japanese schoolgirl Megumi Suzuki ended in tragedy, but also sent a rapist and murderer to prison.
Megumi, 18, was last seen on a city bus on August 3, 2001. The search went for weeks and perplexed police. Theories of drugs or criminal activity were quickly discounted.
Meanwhile her killer, Mark Errin Rust, was continuing his crimes.
Rust started as a flasher and lit fires as an arsonist before turning to rape and murder.
He killed Croatian immigrant Maya Jakic in 1999, left her at the old Payneham police station and began to try to tell police where she was. A call to the SA Ambulance Service and a note left at the Norwood police station failed. So he rang Crime Stoppers anonymously. That phone call was his downfall.
Rust has Kleinfelter's Syndrome, which affects one in every 500 men and means he has an extra female hormone, leaving him infertile and with sexual difficulties.
In and out of jail for arson and trespassing, his crimes were growing in intensity and frequency.
Ten days after being released on July 23, 2001, he indecently exposed himself to a woman at a Cumberland Park ATM.
Rust murdered Megumi on August 3. He wrapped her body in plastic and dumped it in a rubbish bin.
Just 13 days later he raped a woman at a Kensington Rd office.
He was arrested for the rape and placed on remand, not yet connected to the murders of Maya and Megumi.
Calls to Crime Stoppers proved to be key to his arrest - an old acquaintance recognised Rust's voice when his Crime Stoppers call was played on TV.
And the boyfriend of the 18-year-old girl he tried to grab at an ATM on Goodwood Rd contacted police after details of Megumi's disappearance was televised on CrimeStoppers.
Police visited Rust in his cell at Port Augusta Prison. In his possession was an electronic organiser that belonged Megumi.
A check of its serial number and DNA matching confirmed it was hers.
He was charged with Megumi's murder in late October 2001, and police began searching the Wingfield tip for her body. For more than a month, they moved about 1500 tonnes of rubbish under a scorching sun, in flies and the stench of waste before finding her body.
In 2003, Rust pleaded guilty to the two murders and rape. He was jailed for life with no parole.
To be released, he will have to prove to psychiatrists and the court he has become capable of controlling his sexual urges, and then apply for a non-parole period to be set.
At sentencing, Royal Adelaide Hospital expert Dr Ken O'Brien said he had asked Rust why he killed Megumi - who replied, "because I did".
Verdict: Two life sentences, no parole.
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Carolyn Matthews - 2001
She was a devoted, normal suburban housewife and mother. But her husband's affair with sexual predator Michelle Burgess saw Carolyn Matthews fatally stabbed seven times in the chest in her kitchen by contract killer David Keys - who was also sleeping with Burgess.
The affair began after Kevin Matthews and Burgess met at a Beaurepaires Christmas function - Matthews and Burgess' husband Darren worked at different branches. Liaisons took place in parks, and in hotels.
Darren left Michelle in 2001, and Kevin was struggling to keep up with the high cost of an affair with Burgess.
Burgess and Matthews needed an out. And a court heard a mother at Burgess' child's primary school suggested her brother, David Key, a convicted armed robber.
Outside that primary school a plan was hatched to kill both Darren and Carolyn. Key would receive $50,000 to stage two fatal car crashes.
Key - who pleaded guilty before the trial started - began sleeping with Burgess.
On July 21, 2001, Matthews "had had enough" and Burgess was hysterical. The car crash plan was ditched for a more bloodthirsty killing.
Matthews picked up his children - then aged 12, 13 and 16 - and took them to the video store.
Key and Burgess then confronted Carolyn, who was taking out the rubbish. In his evidence, Key said he punched her and dragged her into the kitchen. Burgess found a knife - but Key claimed he was getting cold feet, until Burgess said "kill her, be a man and show me you love me."
"Then I lost the plot," he told the court. "I grabbed Mrs Matthews and started stabbing her. I don't remember how many times."
Minutes later Matthews allowed his young children to find their dead mother's brutally stabbed body.
Police quickly established the affair between Matthews and Burgess, and on July 26, 2001, Key was arrested over a high-speed chase with police in the Barossa Valley.
The contract to kill Mr Burgess was in his wallet. His boots' pattern matched that found in Mrs Matthews' blood. Blood on his boot matched her DNA.
He later told the court he put the contact to kill Carolyn Matthews in a sandwich and ate it.
Two days later Burgess was arrested - she had begun an affair with Jason Colenso, who interfered with witnesses in the case.
In 2010, a prison officer resigned after beginning a sexual relationship with Burgess in jail.
Verdict: Michelle Burgess and Kevin Matthews, jailed for life with 30 years non-parole. David Key, jailed for life with 20 years non-parole.
For more details on the Carolyn Matthews killing, click here
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Ian Humphrey - 2003
In a case that created controversy and outrage, Adelaide barrister and former police prosector Eugene McGee struck and killed cyclist Ian Humphrey on the Kapunda to Gawler Rd.
McGee had been seen drinking that day but denied being drunk. With help from his brother Craig he avoided police and a breath-test for about six hours. Arrested later that night, McGee was charged and but acquitted at trial of causing death by dangerous driving.
He was instead found guilty of driving without due care and failing to stop and render assistance, fined $3100 and lost his licence for 12 months.
Two years later a Royal Commission recommended that fleeing a crime scene to prevent evidence from being gathered should be an offence.
It cleared police of corruption or favouritism but found there was a delay by police in locating and interviewing McGee and confusion over whether police should arrest or simply report him.
Commissioner Greg James also found crash investigator Sergeant Dan Hassell did not ask McGee to submit to a blood test because he was unfamiliar with the Act and ambiguity and confusion surrounded its use.
The McGee case continued, however - he and Craig were charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice in 2005. Five years later they were acquitted by District Court Judge Peter Herriman.
And in 2011, the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board found McGee not guilty of "infamous" conduct and said he could continue practising.
In February last year, the Opposition delivered a 7000-signature petition to refer McGee to the highest-ranking lawyers' disciplinary body, the Legal Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal.
For analysis on the McGee case, click here
Verdict: Eugene McGee, fined $3100 and loss of licence for 12 months
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Carly Ryan - 2007
In January of 2007, a man Carly Ryan believed was a 20-year-old, Texas-born, Victorian emo appeared on her doorstep. Carly, 15, had been talking to "Brandon" online for months and believed he was the love of her life.
But his real name was Garry Francis Newman, and he was 47, a divorced father-of-three. He had more than 200 online identities.
When Carly rejected him and her mother Sonya kicked him out, he went back to Victoria, got a 17-year-old he barely knew and returned to SA.
He convinced Carly to go to Victor Harbor and on February 19, he murdered her. Her bashed, suffocated, sand-choked body was found the next day at Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliot.
Police searched Carly's computer records and when they swooped on Newman, he was logged in and talking to a 14-year-old girl in WA.
During the trial, Newman's name was suppressed - Newman tried to blame the younger man for the killing.
He was found guilty in January 2010, while the younger man was acquitted. He was sentenced to life in jail, with a 29-year non-parole period and courts removed the suppression on his identity. Newman appealed his sentence a year later. It was unanimously rejected.
Verdict - Garry Francis Newman, life sentence with 29 years non-parole.
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Glenys Heyward - 2007
She died at the hands of violent men - her son and abusive partner. Glenys Heyward had escaped from Neil Heyward months earlier, but always feared the man that had abused her for two decades would not let her go.
Thanks to the betrayal of her son Matthew, he ultimately claimed her life. Neil's cowardice led him to take his own before his trial, committing suicide in prison.
Glenys left Neil after years of violence in 2006 and went into hiding, also fearing her eldest son Thomas.
But after she sought legal advice about the $6.9 million family fortune in their Mt Schank dairy farm, Neil enlisted their son Matthew and farmhand Jeremy Minter to exact revenge.
A jury found Matthew Heyward lured his mother to a vacant Mt Gambier childcare building in July 2007, knowing his father planned to kill or seriously injure her.
There, Neil kicked Glenys in the face. She was bound and gagged and shoved into a wheelie bin, which Minter and Neil Heyward lifted on to the back of a ute.
Minter was dropped off at a property just out of Mt Gambier where Thomas was waiting for them. A murder charge against Thomas was dropped in 2009.
Glenys' bound body was unearthed from a septic pit at Wilkin, 48km from Mt Gambier.
Heyward's story changed several times, and the jury rejected Minter's claim he was too stoned to know what was happening.
Glenys was reported missing that July. Neil claimed she had taken her own life, but on August 4, it was Minter's loose mouth that ultimately gave up the game. A court heard he told bouncer Ben Griffin - a man he didn't know - he was promised $3000 to take Glenys' life.
Mr Griffin went to the police the next day, and undercover officers set up a sting that obtained a confession later played to the jury.
Glenys' body was found in December - that same month, Neil was arrested after a six-hour siege at Beachport. He, Matthew and Minter pleaded not guilty in April 2009. In August, Neil was found hanged.
Matthew Heyward and Minter were found guilty at trial in 2010, and sentenced to 23 years each.
An inquest into Neil Heyward's suicide found prison officers did not mismanage Neil in the lead-up to his death.
Verdict - Jeremy Minter and Matthew Heyward jailed for life with 23 years non-parole.
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Vonne McGlynn - 2008
The callous and horrific murder of elderly pensioner Vonne McGlynn was spurred on by the most basic of human emotions - that of greed for money.
Latvian immigrant Angelika Gavare, a mother of two, killed and dismembered the pensioner in a bizarre plot to sell her Reynella house.
A Supreme Court found her guilty of murder in 2011, with her conviction hanging off key evidence from her mother, Inara Dombrovska, who testified that her daughter confessed to the murder during a Christmas celebration in 2008.
Prosecutors said Gavare broke into Ms McGlynn's home through the roof, and knocked her unconscious with an ornamental statue.
They said Gavare used a child's pusher to dump body parts in a creek near her Christie Downs home. Ms McGlynn's hands and head have never been found.
There was no forensic evidence to tie Gavare to the crime scene, but her attempted use of the pensioner's ATM card and a forged power of attorney made her the prime suspect, as did the smell of rotting flesh in her shed.
At trial, Gavare showed virtually no emotion, apart from laughing during police interviews. And then, she suddenly changed her story. Her lawyers accused her ex-lover, Giuseppe Daniele, of killing the pensioner in a hit-run crash and claimed Mr Daniele forced Gavare to help him stage a fake robbery as a cover-up, planting the ATM card in her car.
Mr Daniele responded by laughing - a reaction Justice Trish Kelly found to be truthful, and convicting Gavare of murder.
Gavare was jailed for life with a 32-year non-parole period, and has never explained where Ms McGlynn's head and hands are. She unsuccessfully appealed her non-parole periodin 2012.
Verdict: Angelika Gavare, jailed for life with 32 years non-parole.
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The children of the Parafield Gardens' House of Horrors - 2008
From February to June 2008, a group of children sustained horrific abuse in a house swarming with cockroaches, flies and maggots. Rotting rubbish and faeces was found on the floor.
The children were beaten, starved, choked and fed only the scraps left over after the other children living there were fed.
Five adults and 21 children lived in the three-bedroom home at Parafield Gardens. The abuse was discovered when a five-year-old boy collapsed and was taken to hospital suffering severe hypothermia. Each of the abused children had injuries, scabies and were suffering from malnutrition.
Gallery: See the shocking photos from inside the house here
A complex web of sibling jealousy emerged at trial; the instigator Tania Staker, a mother of 14, had felt threatened by the children because they were the progeny of her then-partner Luke Armistead and another woman who also lived at the house with Staker.
Justice Duggan, presiding over the trial, said the abuse was "beyond comprehension". The adults stopped the children from eating more and forced the children to stand along a wall from morning until night.
In May of this year, the Government released its response to 32 recommendations by the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee where it emerged the children were virtually unknown to state authorities. Staker was this year back in court over a jailhouse assault.
Verdict: Tania Staker - 10 years in jail. Luke Armistead, Michael Quinlivan and Robert Armistead - nine years. The children's mother - six years.
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Pirjo Kemppainen - 2010
The truly brutal killing of Pirjo Kempannein was horrific.
Worse that it was at the hands of a 14-year-old who, during sentencing, admitted to being obsessed with killing people since Year 1.
Two boys, known as A and B throughout the trial, were charged over the murder. B was jailed for at least 15 years after pleading guilty, while A was acquitted by a jury.
The boys had thrown rocks at the 63-year-old's home earlier that night, prompting her to call police, but no police patrol was dispatched.
Later that night, after the boys met under a tree across the road, B broke into the house and used a knife and brick to inflict 121 injuries, breaking the knife off in Ms Kemppainen's skull.
He then spent the rest of the night playing video games.
Two buckets were taken from the house, and the court heard a knife with a broken tip was found at one of the boys' homes along with bloodied clothes and shoes. Bloodied footprints at the scene matched the shoes, court heard.
A had intimate knowledge of the crime scene before it was reported in the media, the court heard.
During the trial, the court heard B was raised on a "constant diet" of violent entertainment by a father who encouraged retaliation, was "mildly retarded", practically illiterate and had an IQ of between 60 and 71. He was exposed to a lifetime of domestic violence and considered all strangers to be enemies.
Prosecutors alleged the boys formed a joint plan to kill Ms Kempannein. They had relied on testimony from B to convict A, but jurors found B to be an unreliable witness and disregarded his evidence.
Verdict: 'A' acquitted of murder, 'B' sentenced to life in prison with non-parole period of 15 years.
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The Rowe family killings - 2010
It was a jealous, anger-driven man that killed Andrew, Rose and Chantelle Rowe at Kapunda. Jason Downie, a loner whom Chantelle had befriended, knew the 16-year-old's boyfriend Dylan wasn't there that night of November 8, 2010.
He had become sexually infatuated with her.
He parked his car around the corner, climbed through a bathroom window and sexually assaulted Chantelle while stabbing her at least 33 times.
Downie then stripped the girl of her bloody clothes and redressed her.
The body of Chantelle's father Andrew was found on the kitchen bench with 29 stab wounds.
His wife Rose was nearby, stabbed at least 50 times in two separate attacks, and likely while she was crawling on her hands and knees. Pieces of knife were found in their bodies.
The scene of the extraordinarily vicious killing stunned South Australia, and even hardened police - 22-year homicide veteran Sergeant John Keane called it the "worst I had seen".
There was so much blood that police first looked in the house through windows and doors to avoid tainting the scene.
Downie's name first came up when police spoke to Chantelle's friends about a party. Later a fingerprint was found on Chantelle's door and semen on her body.
But it was Sergeant Keane's hunch that ultimately led them to Downie. He found it odd that in his original statement he mentioned not having a girlfriend four times, and also offered an alibi without being asked. He said Chantelle hadn't invited him to the party.
Police found deep cuts on his arms - he said they were the result of a biking accident. The fingerprint was his, as was the DNA.
Five days later, a TV camera crew filmed him visiting a memorial for the Rowes.
He was arrested on November 16 after voluntarily attending Kapunda Police Station at police request. His identity was immediately suppressed, but was already all over social media.
He pleaded guilty a day before the one-year anniversary of the murders, but police took the unusual step of asking him to re-enter the plea, citing intercepted conversation Downie had with his family in which he said he had pleaded guilty only because police didn't believe his version of events.
He claimed he had driven past the Rowe house, seen blood on the walls, and found Andrew and Rose dead. He then claimed Chantelle died in his arms, and blamed the killings on a man in "dark clothing with a green shopping bag".
His absurd claims didn't matter - he had already admitted his guilt to a court and the evidence was incontrovertible.
Eventually, Downie was sentenced to life in jail, with a 35-year non-parole period - one of the longest non-parole periods in the state.
Verdict: Jason Downie, jailed for life with a 35-year non-parole period.
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Anne Redman - 2011
The murder of Seacliff pensioner Anne Redman was completely senseless.
Two teenage would-be burglars, called J and B at trial, cut the power to her home on January 25, 2011, thinking it was empty. J broke in through the bathroom window - when the 87-year-old went to investigate the sound of glass smashing, she saw B crouching behind a bin.
He punched her in the face, breaking her neck. J then went to their car, retrieving a blunt hunting knife. Ms Redman was alive as they used the knife.
At trial the boys blamed each other as the instigator of the horrific murder.
The court heard J returned from the car and asked why B hadn't knocked her out. B replied, "I'm not going to knock her out, I'm going to kill her."
B claimed J said he would kill Ms Redman and B if B didn't perform the deed.
Ms Redman was found by her son-in-law the next afternoon.
The murder saw a spike in the sales of a padlock used to secure household meter boxes and a rise in demand for household security and personal emergency systems.
Before any arrests were made, police said the killers tracked blood traces through the house as they left via the front door.
The boys - the 17-year-old son of a policeman and his friend, 16, were arrested months later.
They eventually pleaded guilty, and in November last year were given 20-year non-parole periods - the equal record minimum sentence imposed upon youths in SA's legal history.
An appeal against the severity of the sentence was rejected in May.
Gallery: The Anne Redman murder investigation
Verdict: Teen killers J and B, jailed for life with 20-year non-parole periods.
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READ MORE: Quorn axe-murderer Jose Ormonde-Extrada’s horrific crimes - Part one | Part Two | Part Three
READ MORE: South Australia's most notorious teenage killers
All information taken from The Advertiser and Sunday Mail archives.