South Australia's most notorious unsolved crimes and mysteries
THESE are some of the crimes and mysteries that have baffled South Australia for decades. From missing children to murders and bombings - here's the list.
THESE are some of the crimes and mysteries that have baffled South Australia for decades. From missing children to murders and bombings - here's the list.
Bertha Schippan - 1902
IT was one of the first crimes to send the state in a frenzy: the bloody murder of Bertha Schippan at Towitta on New Year's night of 1902.
Bertha, nearly 14, was found with her throat slashed five times from ear to ear in the family's humble cottage.
Such was the public sensation The Advertiser became the first paper in the country to buy a staff car to get reporters to the scene and then rush to nearby Angaston to wire back updates.
Because the roads were rough - and the car rougher - the paper also had cyclists, two horsemen and even carrier pigeons on standby. It was a desolate place, even back then - one reporter called it a "windswept desert of red sand".
The murder scene was brutal - stabbed and slashed in the bedroom she shared with Mary and screaming "Gustave", Bertha had struggled through the living room and died in her parents' bedroom, coating the floors with blood.
During an inquest held at Towitta, her sister Mary's fiance, Gustave Nitschke, admitted he and Mary had cavorted on the kitchen sofa that night, leading to the suspicion Mary killed Bertha to silence her.
It was a scandal - Nitschke was even attacked in the street, but never implicated.
The inquest's jury found Mary had killed her sister, and Mary was charged.
During Mary's trial, the Chief Justice, Sir Samuel Way, said Nitschke was "a contemptible fellow" and had provided the prosecution with the motive they needed.
Mary's account was that on the night of the murder, their parents were staying in Eden Valley. Their two brothers, Gustave and Willie, slept in an outbuilding.
Mary said she woke in the night of January 2 to find a man lying across her, holding a knife. She escaped, leaving Bertha being attacked and ran to wake her brothers. A nearby neighbour refused to help - the siblings called for Bertha, saw blood, and fetched the local constable who lived a mile away. When they all returned they found Bertha's mutilated body.
Mary was acquitted at trial that March, to cheers - 4000 people waited outside the court for the jury's decision. She married Nitschke and died at 41 from tuberculosis.
The case was never solved. Suspicion fell on the father, Matthias, with many believing he had ridden through the night from Eden Valley, killed his daughter and rode back - a long ride with no motive.
A Barossa local later claimed Matthias gave a deathbed confession. Others at Eden Valley claimed the Schippan horse was lathered in sweat that morning.
Bertha's body was later exhumed and her head removed and sent to the city for further examination.
The Somerton Man - 1948
HIS was the body that was found at Somerton beach in the early morning of December 1, 1948. Walletless, keyless, labels torn from clothes and still unidentified, theories have labelled him a Cold War spy, a lovelorn suicide, or murdered by an unknown poison.
Among the few items in his pockets was an unused railway ticket, and the next year a suitcase was found at the Adelaide railway station with clothing that matched the dead man's. Again, labels were torn out.
A name was discovered in the suitcase - T. Keane. This man's friends viewed the body, and said it wasn't him.
The mystery deepened when, found in a hidden pocket on the man, was a piece of paper with the words Taman Shud - translated as 'it is ended', torn from the Persian poetry collection The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam.
The book was found after a Glenelg doctor discovered it tossed into the seat of his car. Adding to the spy theory were four or so lines of unexplained letters, seen to be a code.
But the puzzle became even stranger - a phone number was in the back of the book. It belonged to a nurse, known as Jestyn, who lived 400 metres from where the body was found. She had owned a copy of The Rubaiyat, but had given it away to an Alfred Boxall years before.
Jestyn, whose name has been revealed as Jessica Thomson, identified the dead man as Boxall, but police found him alive.
What was more, he still had his copy of The Rubaiyat - intact.
The woman, who was to be married, denied all knowledge of the deceased and has died.
Late last year Jessica's daughter Kate Thompson told 60 Minutes she believed her mother was a Russian spy who may have had a hand in his death.
While Jessica told police she didn't know who the Somerton Man was, Kate said she told her she did know.
Jessica also had a son, Robin, to another man. But now Robin's wife Roma Egan and their daughter, Rachel, claim Robin was the progeny of the Somerton Man and Jessica Thomson.
In 2011, Attorney-General John Rau refused Adelaide University professor Derek Abbott's application to exhume the body - and the mystery rolled on with an identification card discovered that could offer a clue to the man's identity. And of course, the internet loves the case.
In July, Professor Abbott commissioned a new image of the Somerton Man in the hope it would lead to an identification.
The Beaumont children - 1966
ALONG with the Somerton Man, it's arguably one of South Australia's most enduring mysteries, and its most tragic. Much has been written about the three Beaumont children - Jane, Arnna and Grant.
The siblings went to Glenelg Beach on January 26, 1966. The last confirmed sighting of the children was at 3pm, three hours after they were due home, walking alone on Jetty Rd. Witnesses earlier saw the children leaving the beach with a tall, blond-haired man.
Gallery: The Beaumont children
They have never been found, nor have their bodies, and the disappearance went some way to altering Australia's relaxed attitude towards child safety.
Psychic Gerard Croiset's prediction they were buried under a warehouse was proved wrong, and letters allegedly written by Jane two years later were deemed false.
The case has spawned many books, was linked to the infamous murderer Bevan Spencer von Einem and The Family murders, and an opera based on one of the books on the case will be produced in 2016.
Chillingly, the 'Man' was similar in appearance to another man seen with Kirste Gordon and Joanna Ratcliffe, who disappeared from Adelaide Oval in 1973.
A witness known as Mr B claimed during the 1990 aborted trial of Bevan von Einem that he had killed the trio but there was no evidence.
Recently police have investigated several leads - that the Beaumont children may be living in New Zealand, a possible confession from several convicts and a family that claims their father was involved.
And in 2012, on the virtual 46-year anniversary of the case, a US man said he believed he may be Grant Beaumont.
Police late last year searched a Plympton factory for the children's remains.
Reward for information leading to conviction: $200,000.00
The Family - 1970s-1983
DURING the 70s and early 80s in Adelaide, a shadowy group of high-profile people preyed on young male teenagers - often hitchhikers. Up to 200 were drugged, sexually abused, and at least five were murdered and dumped, sometimes first mutilated and dismembered.
The case became known as the The Family murders after a comment by one police officer to 60 Minutes.
It's unknown how many youths were attacked but at least five were killed - a 1988 inquest named Mark Langley, 18, Alan Barnes, 17, Neil Muir, 25, Peter Stogneff, 14, and Richard Kelvin, 15.
Bevan Spencer von Einem was convicted in 1984 and jailed for the horrific death of Richard Kelvin. He was charged over two others in 1989, but police dropped those charges after crucial similar fact evidence was ruled inadmissable.
Police have evidence he was with Alan after he was abducted and drugged.
Alan's mutilated body was found dumped on the banks of the South Para reservoir in June 1979, seven days after he vanished.
The dismembered body of Neil was found in garbage bags on the banks of the Port River, at Osborne, in August 1979.
A dismembered skeleton found at Middle Beach in June 1982, was identified as Peter Stogneff, 14, 10 months after he disappeared.
Mark's mutilated body was found at Summertown in March 1982, and Richard's body was found near One Tree Hill.
The core members are said to have included an eastern suburbs businessman, a doctor who now lives interstate and another man, a former male prostitute, who was a close friend of von Einem and the businessman.
In 1989, a prisoner naming himself Peter contacted the Sunday Mail and alleged that murdered Adelaide lawyer Derrance Stevenson and chiropractor Gino Gambardella were members of the Family, along with von Einem.
Gambardella was charged as an accessory to Stevenson's death in 1979, but was acquitted and fled to Italy. He completely denied all claims he was linked the Family.
Senior police discounted the claims as "complete speculation".
A cold case review was completed in 2010 - without any new charges being laid.
Reward for information leading to conviction in relation to Alan Barnes, Neil Muir, Mark Langley, Peter Stogneff and Richard Kelvin: $200,000 per victim
Dr George Duncan - 1972
IN 1975, South Australia became the first state to decriminalise homosexuality. The drowning death of UK-born law lecturer Dr George Duncan three years before in part helped this law to pass.
Dr Duncan and Roger James were thrown into the River Torrens from the southern bank, near Kintore Avenue, on May 10, 1972, about 11pm. The area was a well-known meeting spot for gays.
Mr James broke his ankle, crawled from the river, and was rescued by a passing motorist - who was Bevan Spencer von Einem.
Dr Duncan's body was thrown back into the river so a cameraman could film the retrieval.
During a Coroner's inquest in June into Dr Duncan's death, two Vice Squad police officers refused to answer questions. Three eventually resigned, the inquest returned an open finding and failed to recommend prosecution.
Later in 1972 Scotland Yard was asked to investigate the death. The report was closed for thirty years and led to no new charges.
Mr James, as the only named witness, declined to talk, claiming he was afraid for his safety. The Scotland Yard report noted he may also have been afraid of facing charges, and identified him as a practising homosexual - still illegal at the time.
In 1985, a series of articles in The Advertiser appeared to have broken open the case.
Former SA Police vice squad officer Mick O'Shea broke a 13-year silence to disclose evidence denied to the coronial inquest into the drowning.
Mr O'Shea said it was "common practice'' at the time of Dr Duncan's death for some of the SA Police vice squad to "terrorise'' gays at the River Torrens by throwing them into the water.
The reports led to a police task force, and a report, which was not made public.
In February 1986, three former vice squad officers were arrested - Michael Clayton, Brian Hudson and Francis Cawley - and charged. Clayton and Cawley went to trial, but refused to testify. They were acquitted in 1988 after the jury failed to reach verdicts.
This led to a police taskforce review which, in 1990, found insufficient evidence for further charges.
It mentioned allegations Vice Squad officers at the time had fired shots at gays, took money from them and put them in trunks of police cars and driven around.
In 2002, a memorial to Dr Duncan was constructed on the banks of the River Torrens in recognition of his life and death, and how it had led to decriminalising homosexuality.
That same year then-Attorney-General Michael Atkinson made most of the Scotland Yard report public. It named Cawley, Clayton and Hudson as responsible for Dr Duncan's death, caused in a "high-spirited frolic which went wrong" and said other officers may have taken part.
Click here to read more about Dr George Duncan
Reward for information leading to conviction: $200,000
Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe - 1973
LAST year marked the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of Kirste Gordon, 4, and Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, from an SANFL match at the Adelaide Oval between North Adelaide and Norwood.
The girls disappeared on August 25, after they went to the toilet together.
They were last seen at about 4pm trying to coax two cats from under a car with the help of a mystery man in a hat and jacket, who was later seen leaving the Oval with the two children.
He was carrying the smaller Kirste under one arm, walking with a "stoop", with Joanne punching him in the back saying, "we want to go back".
They were never seen again, nor were their bodies found. Drains were searched, the Torrens was drained, doors were knocked but it remains one of South Australia's most enduring mysteries.
A witness known as Mr B claimed during the 1990 aborted trial of Bevan Spencer von Einem that he had killed the duo but this was never proved.
In 1998, the then-retiring Assistant Commissioner Rob Lean said the disappearances of the Beaumont children and Joanne and Kirste may be linked and suspected the same person had abducted and murdered them.
Some days after the anniversary last year, a Prospect man came forward to say he'd seen the girls being loaded into a van at a Prospect boarding home the day they were abducted. He even sketched the girls and the man who he knew as Scotty.
It is still an active investigation.
Reward for information leading to conviction: $200,000
The Pearce family - 1991
POLICE have been searching for Stuart Pearce since January 6, 1991 - the same 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 his 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.
The 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 the 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, and that they were trying to get information from his mother.
Two years later, he 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.
Gallery: Stuart Pearce, one of SA's most wanted men
Reward for information leading to conviction: $200,000
Rhianna Barreau - 1992
ON the morning of October 7, Rhianna Barreau, 12, went to buy a Christmas card for her American penpal, Jessica, from a Reynella newsagent.
She must have returned home - the card was found on the table - but at some point went out again that day, either voluntarily or not. She has not been seen since.
Some days later, Rhianna's mother Paula told The Advertiser: "The simple fact of not knowing any answers at all is the hardest. This could go on for another 20 years or we might never know what has happened to our daughter."
Tragically, that's just what happened: Rhianna has never been seen again.
The last sightings of Rhianna were at the newsagent about 11am, at Morphett Vale High School at 12.30pm and then later, at 3.50pm, walking alone, eastwards along Highwray Drive near the corner of Acre Ave in Morphett Vale.
They believe she was abducted on Highwray Drive about 4pm.
Paula returned home 20 minutes later to find a locked door, the still-wrapped card on the table and a vinyl record on the floor.
Police also considered the disappearance might be related to that of Louise Bell, who was taken from her Hackham West home in 1983. The two girls look very similar and the homes are only kilometres apart.
The investigation centred around a white Holden Torana with Victorian plates, seen in the area at the time.
Victorian police have questioned the owners of more than 3000 Holden Toranas in a bid to track down the schoolgirl's presumed killer or killers but no arrests were made.
Last year, police denied a suspect was being reinvestigated after a report by Channel 7 News said Major Crime detectives had approached relatives and asked who they thought had abducted her.
The investigation is still open, and there is a $200,000 reward on offer.
Peter Livingstone - 1993
AN average man, with a lawn-mowing round and a fondness for drinking, Peter Livingstone became entangled with someone who was horrifically violent.
On the afternoon of Saturday, March 6, 1993, Peter, 32, was sharing a beer in a friend's Housing Trust flat in Oaklands Park. They decided to go the pub, and his friend went into his bedroom to change clothes.
When he came out, Peter was gone. He was never seen again.
On March 19, workmen found part of his remains in a drain at Westcliff Court, Hallett Cove. His arms and legs had been wrapped in three jumpers which, in turn, were wrapped in a batik-style cloth fashioned into a curtain. This was placed inside garbage bags.
The curtain and 1960s-style jumpers did not belong to Peter and his head and torso have never been found.
Peter was identified through fingerprints, taken after a violent argument with his girlfriend.
A $100,000 reward was offered in September that year. It is now $200,000 for information leading to a conviction.
The only clues in the case remain the distinctive batik-style curtain - red with a white pattern - and the jumpers.
In the nearby flat Peter was minding for a friend, police found his watch and sneakers - he never went anywhere without them. Residents heard nothing suspicious, and Peter was a strongly built man who wouldn't have gone down without a struggle.
When he didn't show up for work, his boss raised the alarm - his brother and sister-in-law were already worried after he hadn't come around to collect clothing.
In the ensuing years, police considered the idea he may have been a victim of the Bodies in the Barrels murders, and in 1998, the case was examined by FBI profilers.
Peter's arms and legs were buried with his mother, who died in August.
Reward for information leading to conviction: $200,000
Geoffrey Bowen / National Crime Authority bombing - 1994
IF the disappearance of the Beaumont children was the day the state - and the country - began to fear for its children, then the NCA bombing was arguably the day adults began to fear for themselves as well.
Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen, 36, on secondment from WA, was killed when he opened a parcel bomb addressed to him on March 2.
The explosion in the NCA's offices on the 12th floor of the CPS Credit Union building in Waymouth St also seriously injured lawyer Peter Wallis.
Police raided the homes of known organised crime figures, because the NCA was investigating the drug trade. And nine days after the blast, police swooped, arresting Domenic Perre.
He was charged, protested his innocence and was committed to trial - but the charges were dropped.
SA's then-Director of Public Prosecutions, Paul Rofe, said "on all the evidence ... there was not a reasonable prospect of conviction".
In 1997, Mr Perre was jailed for seven years over an amphetamine drugs set-up at Angle Vale and the next year for another four over a 10,000-plant cannabis crop in the Northern Territory.
In 1999, then-coroner Wayne Chivell ruled Perre had posted the parcel bomb but no charges have been laid and the case remains open.
In 2009, Perre began legal action against Corrective Services because he was banned from entering Yatala Labour Prison to visit friend and convicted killer Michael Barry Fyfe.
Last year, the widow of Det-Sgt Bowen, Jane Bowen-Sutton, pleaded with the government to prosecute Perre and let a court case decide his innocence.
Reward for information leading to conviction: $200,000
Corinna Marr - 1997
THE ensuing legal twists and turns of the suspect in Corinna Marr's murder - Derick Sands - have virtually overshadowed the murder itself.
Corinna, 25, a part-time promotional model, was preparing for a job to promote Strongbow cider when she was shot dead in her Collinswood unit in 1997 sometime between 3.15pm and 3.45pm.
Corinna's husband, Robert Marr, said he had not noticed his wife's body in the darkened bedroom and found her about 15 minutes after arriving home at 3.45pm. Police ruled him out as a suspect.
Days after the murder, Sands voluntarily went to police to tell them he was friends with Ms Marr. The former Messenger photographer had met her during a photo shoot for her real estate job. He then had no contact with police for five years.
Police outed Sands as a suspect in 2004. They took his fingerprints - they didn't match those at the scene.
He was never charged, leading Sands to begin unsuccessful defamation cases, most recently against SA Police.
In 2009, during Sands' first defamation case against Channel 7 and the ABC, Supreme Court Justice David Bleby branded Sands a liar who had misled the court.
Justice Bleby found that Sands' status as a suspect was common knowledge among many friends and colleagues before his name was broadcast and that he had given three different accounts of his movements on the afternoon of the murder.
During Sands' second defamation case - against SA Police - investigating officer Detective Sergeant John Keane told Justice Trish Kelly that Sands became a suspect in 2002 after an interview. The court heard further investigations only heightened his suspicion.
Sands lost both defamation cases, the most recent one in April last year, when Justice Kelly found he had lied during the trial about a range of matters, including his whereabouts on the afternoon of the murder.
Both Justices found that, on the balance of probabilities, Sands had had a sexual relationship with Ms Marr. He denied this - and involvement in the murder.
Last September he lodged a $60,000 cash surety to ensure his appeal against SAPOL could proceed.
More detail on the Corinna Marr case
Reward for information leading to conviction: $200,000
Bernadette Liston - 2002
IT'S a grim tale of butchery, secret sex, and ugg boots - and the killer has never been revealed.
Bernadette Liston was stabbed to death in 2002 at her Victor Harbor home because of simple jealousy, the prosecution alleged.
Ms Liston was shot 22 times, struck 20 times, mostly with the steel door of a safe, her throat was slit and she was stabbed with a knife so hard it bent upon its impact with her rib cage.
Her body was found on October 25, 2002, by her 12-year-old daughter, with a trail of bloodied footprints leading away from the body - police later revealed the footprints came from ugg boots.
It wasn't until six years later in 2008, that police arrested and charged someone - Ms Liston's de facto partner, Francis "Frankie" Marshall.
At trial, the prosecution claimed the motive for the killing was pure jealousy - Ms Marshall had discovered Ms Liston was planning to leave her for her brother, Daryl Purcell, with whom Ms Liston had been having an affair. Her comfortable life was about to "implode", the prosecution alleged.
Four years beforehand the two had conceived a child together, at Ms Marshall's request, and the relationship had continued.
But the prosecution had no solid proof, Ms Marshall's defence said - just suspicion.
The prosecution said Ms Marshall had no alibi and had taken the couple's four-year-old daughter for an unplanned five-hour drive on the day - without a change of clothes, food or her car booster seat.
Hair belonging to Ms Marshall was found on Ms Liston's hands, and she had an injury consistent with nail gouging and "being in a fight". But the court heard this was due to her practice of hitting the wall when she became angry.
In a police interview, Ms Marshall denied owning ugg boots until she was shown a photo of her wearing them.
The court heard the days before she was killed, Ms Liston wrote a cheque to Mr Purcell for $30,000 for a new home and another $40,000 cheque to Ms Marshall to pay out her share of the couple's family home.
Ms Marshall chose not to mount a defence at trial, and she was found not guilty - Supreme Court Justice Margaret Nyland ruled suspicion wasn't enough to find someone guilty of murder.
"I'm satisfied that the accused had a motive ... and that there are a number of suspicious circumstances which point to the accused as the person who committed the crime," Justice Nyland said. "But suspicion piled upon suspicion does not equate to proof beyond reasonable doubt."
No one else has ever been arrested for the murder.
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Superintendent Des Bray, the officer in charge of the Major Crime Investigation branch, said solving murders and other "declared" major crimes remains a priority until those cases are solved, regardless of the passage of time.
"A case is never closed until solved and the appeal for new information remains constant," he said.
"If anyone has any information about murdered or missing people presumed murdered, please contact Crime Stoppers anonymously to provide information on any of these or other crimes - 1800 333 000 or report online at www.sa.crimestoppers.com.au."
All information taken from The Advertiser and Sunday Mail archives.
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MORE CRIME WEEK STORIES
PART 1: 21 crimes that horrified South Australia
PART 2: A horrifying discovery in Snowtown (book extract)
PART 3: The Postcard Bandit's final prison break (book extract)
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