Sydney Murder Map reveals sex workers killed in cold blood
The Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Murder Map has uncovered a sickening disregard for the life of female sex workers around the city. Here are some of the sex workers who were killed over the years.
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They work in a dangerous industry, where they deal with strangers daily as part of their job.
And over the years, the dangerous career of being a sex worker becomes brutally clear as when they become targets of murderers.
The Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Murder Map has shown a sickening disregard for the life of female sex workers around the city.
These are some of the sex workers who met their demise.
SALLIE-ANNE HUCKSTEPP
A prominent writer, sex worker and whistleblower, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp’s murder resulted in one of the longest inquests in Australia’s history at the time.
Ms Huckstepp left her Edgecliff apartment on the evening of February 6, 1986 after receiving a phone call.
It was alleged during the inquest Ms Huckstepp went to meet a drug dealer to purchase heroin, before she was lured to a remote area of Centennial Park.
It’s here she was strangled and drowned, with her body discovered the next morning by a man walking his dog.
Notorious gangster Arthur ‘Neddy’ Smith was interviewed multiple times over the murder and later charged, but was acquitted.
Killer cop Roger Rogerson was also a person of interest, as he had shot Ms Huckstepp’s partner Warren Lanfranchi dead years earlier.
Rogerson’s case went to the Supreme Court but he was exonerated and commended for bravery.
Smith was one of his key witnesses during the trial.
Ms Huckstepp went on to claim widespread corruption in NSW Police and was a regular magazine contributor.
Her murder is yet to be solved.
VIVIANNE RUIZ
When a decomposing body was found dumped in garbage bags with no ID, dental or fingerprint records in 1992, the odds were stacked against NSW Police.
The young woman became known as ‘Jane Doe’ as police began working on evidence, which included a few dog hairs and a fingerprint found on a piece of newspaper stuffed in her mouth.
A big media campaign was launched to help identify the woman, and it wasn’t long before the police were given a name: Vivianne Ruiz.
A prostitute and dancer in Kings Cross, Miss Ruiz, 21, was known to be in a relationship with Englishman Richard White, who she met through her work.
Investigators realised White was a convicted criminal with a history of assault and drug trafficking and had flown back to the UK soon after Ms Ruiz’s body was found.
Police found White owned a German Shepherd named Ted, and discovered Ted’s hairs matched the ones found on Miss Ruiz.
They also matched the fingerprint found on the newspaper in Miss Ruiz’s throat to White’s.
A warrant was put out for his arrest and White returned to Australia to face a murder trial.
After two trials were aborted due to White’s conduct, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 15 years in jail.
DONNA HICKS
Serial killer Bandali Debs was a man out for blood.
With a long criminal record in Victoria, Debs found himself at the Colyton Hotel on the evening of April 21, 1995.
It’s here he met part time prostitute Donna Hicks, 34, at the bar before inviting her into his four-wheel drive so they can continue their night elsewhere.
He took the mother-of-three to a deserted road near a Mount Druitt quarry before he shot her in the head and left her body in nothing but a dog collar around her neck.
He would later kill another sex worker, Kristy Harty, in Victoria two years later.
Debs didn’t become a person of interest in Ms Hicks’ death until 13 years after her body was found.
He was found guilty of murder in 2011 and remains in prison for numerous murders.
REBECCA BERNAUER
Rebecca Bernauer’s body was discovered crammed behind an old refrigerator in a Darlinghurst alleyway in June 1997.
The find shocked Sydney, an 18-year-old with her life ahead of her found raped, strangled and lifeless.
Miss Bernauer was a popular prostitute in Kings Cross and her death reverberated through the clubs.
She due to give evidence in the drug trial of a former police officer in the weeks soon after her death.
Miss Bernauer’s murder is yet to be solved.
MICHAELA DUNN
His civilian arrest in the middle of bustling CBD streets made headlines around the world, but it was the lives Mert Ney destroyed leading up to his capture which will be most long lasting.
Ney booked a “girlfriend experience” with Michaela Dunn on August 13, 2019 in her city apartment and claimed he didn’t intend to have sex with her.
As he was departing the unit, Ney pulled out a knife and stabbed Miss Dunn, 24, in the neck before inflicting further fatal wounds.
Ney filmed himself gloating over her lifeless body and sent it to friends on social media before he ran onto the city streets wearing a balaclava.
Ney stabbed bystander Lin Bo in the shoulder and caused general chaos before he was pinned down by members of the public with a milk crate and a chair.
Ney was found guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in jail.
Originally published as Sydney Murder Map reveals sex workers killed in cold blood
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