Cold cases: Police offering big rewards to solve 92 unsolved murder mysteries
POLICE are currently investigating 92 unsolved murders in NSW and are offering big rewards in a bid to crack the case. Can you help?
NSW
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CHRISTMAS will forever be a black day for the McMaugh family.
Eleven days after they celebrated on December 25, 2007, charity worker Stacey McMaugh, 41, and her partner Robert Pashkuss, 51, were be found bludgeoned to death in their home at Caves Beach, south of Newcastle.
Ms McMaugh’s teenage son Ethan made the gruesome discovery before alerting authorities and his grandparents. His sister Katie and grandparents Doris and Brian arrived at the house before police.
“They are tortured by it every day,” Ms McMaugh’s sister Dallas Anderson said.
“They said there was a lot of blood there. My dad had to take my sister’s pulse to see if she was still alive, when it was really obvious that she was not.”
Despite an extensive police investigation and a $100,000 reward, the killer is yet to be caught.
The case is one of 92 cold cases for which NSW Police are offering cash rewards for information that leads to an offender being charged and convicted.
CAN YOU HELP CRACK THESE COLD CASES? FIND OUT MORE
“Our family has been robbed of so much, but this person, who is capable of such a horrific crime, is out there enjoying his family Christmas and probably enjoying his family,” Mrs Anderson, 58, said.
“He is walking around, having good days and bad days, whereas my family, we live with pain every day.”
Mr Pashkuss was a small-time cannabis dealer in Caves Beach. He wanted out of the game and it is believed his impending exit from the drug trade was what motivated the double murder, which happened on January 5 or 6.
The case is part of a three-day coronial inquest in Newcastle beginning on July 20.
Mrs Anderson said police have already received more information following the preliminary coronial hearing in March.
Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon has issued several subpoenas for people to give evidence.
Mrs Anderson commended the police for their work and said her family was happy that $100,000 was on the table.
“That sort of money is quite significant and must be tempting for people,” Mrs Anderson, from Nowra, said.
“If this person is arrested, my mother will be free to focus solely on grieving for the death of her youngest child and not constantly wondering who committed this terrifying crime.
“Someone in the community knows who did this and we would like them to know just how much it would mean to Stacey’s parents, siblings, children and grandchildren if they came forward and assisted the police.”
There is more than $11.1 million in rewards on offer, including the largest of $500,000 to solve the murder of young Gulgong local Michelle Bright.
Others range from $50,000 to $250,000, including $200,000 for information about the 1987 murders of Georgina Watmore and colleague Catherine Holmes (nee Pollard).
The pair were bludgeoned to death following a party in Cowra on April 15. Police spoke to 1200 people but the case remains open.
Another $250,000 is on offer for anyone who can solve the disappearance and suspected murder of Sydney model Revelle Balmain, who was last seen with a man near the Red Tomato Inn at Kingsford on November 5, 1994.
Police Minister Troy Grant said despite the large amounts on offer, just $120,000 was paid in 2013-14, and none in 2014-15. In the past five years there has been $640,000 paid out for a total of six rewards.
Mr Grant said there is still a lot of secrecy around who receives the reward.
“Their identities are not advertised so there would be no reaction from the community because they would not know,” Mr Grant said. “When the police ask for a reward to be offered it is with good reason.”
Mr Grant spent 22 years in the NSW Police, including a stint in the major crimes squad.
The case which stands out for him was the disappearance of Gordana Kotevski on Thursday, November 24, 1994.
The 16-year-old student was most likely snatched from a busy street in Lake Macquarie by a person in a white Toyota Hilux ute.
Her body and the killer have never been found, with a 2003 coronial inquest finding she was most likely abducted by a “fit male” who had been stalking her for some time.
Mr Grant said the reality is that rewards are a valuable enticement for people who could otherwise not come forward.
“The greatest benefit is that it gives the family members of those missing people some level of comfort that we have explored every opportunity to bring their loved one home,” Mr Troy said.
Often the hardest thing for the families is not knowing where their loved one’s body is. Families often start their own investigations, hire private investigators and refuse to believe that their child, sibling or parent is dead.
Lee Karen Bourke was 10 when her father, 44-year-old butcher Graham Kelvin Bourke, was murdered in 1993. He was last seen at a Mona Vale butcher on Monday, October 25.
His body was found in the boot of his car in Hornsby on November 29. He had been shot and had his throat cut.
Ms Bourke, 32, said the $100,000 reward on offer showed that police were doing all they could to try to find her father’s killer.
“Not knowing who did this is the worst part of all,” Ms Bourke told The Sunday Telegraph.
“The reward gives me a little bit of hope that all this pain is worth it.”
This tension can consume the lives of those left behind and split families, Homicide Victims’ Support Group executive Martha Jabour said.
She believes the rewards system is best used as an investigative tool to “rattle a few cages”.
“It is a necessary evil, but the problem is that not many people are picking up on that necessary evil,” she said.
In her 23 years supporting the families of homicide victims, she is only aware of two homicide cases where there was a payout, or the offer of one.
One eligible payee was to British backpacker Paul Onions, whose evidence about his escape from Ivan Milat helped to convict the serial killer.
“That reward was never paid out for Milat because Paul Onions did not want what he called ‘blood money’,” Ms Jabour said.
She said money was also paid to an informant who helped convict Arthur “Neddy” Smith for the 1983 murder of brothel owner Harvey Jones.
“There has to be some element of secrecy around the payments because you do not want to compromise the person who has come forward,” she said.
For police, that bond between detective and witness is crucial to getting someone over the line. Some detectives can end up having lifelong relationships with homicide victims’ families, Homicide Squad commander Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor said.
Det Supt Taylor said the families of victims generally wished to be kept up to date by police on the unsolved cases.
SOME OF THE COLD CASES
GEORGINA WATMORE, 24, AND CATHERINE HOLMES, 28
MURDERED: April 14-15, 1987
THE friends were bludgeoned to death after a party at Catherine’s home in Cowra. Their bodies were found the next day by a work colleague from the Edgell cannery.
MICHELLE BRIGHT, 17
LAST SEEN: February 27, 1999
DROPPED off by a friend in Herbert St, Gulgong, after attending a birthday party. Semi-naked body found three days later on Barney’s Reef Rd. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered.
COLLEEN WALKER, 16
LAST seen on September 13, 1990
WHILE Colleen’s body has never been found, she is believed to have been killed along with Evelyn Greenup, 4, whose body was found in bushland in Bowraville, and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, 16.
RAHMA EL-DENNAOUI, 19 MONTHS
LAST seen on November 10, 2005
KIDNAPPED from the bedroom of her Lurnea home sometime between 2am and 8am. Despite intensive search and coronial inquest, Rahma has never been found.
KELLIE ANN CARMICHAEL, 25
LAST seen on April 29, 2001
THE Geelong woman was staying at a hostel in Katoomba but vanished after telling staff she would return to collect her belongings. She was reported missing by her parents on May 5.
RACHELLE CHILDS, 23
LAST seen on June 7, 2001
MS Childs’ partially burned body was found in a shallow ditch near Crooked River Rd, Gerroa, on Friday, June 8. The previous night she was meant to meet someone at the Bargo Hotel, where her car was later found.
LYNETTE DAWSON, 33
LAST seen on January 9, 1982
THE mother-of-two was meant to meet her mother for lunch at Northbridge Baths but never arrived. Mrs Dawson was reported missing by her husband Christopher Dawson on February 18.
ELIZABETH DIXON, 31
LAST seen on April 3, 1982
THE receptionist's body was found insider her car in bushland at Ashtonfield on Tuesday, April 6, 1982. Known as “Betty”, Ms Dixon is believed to have been stabbed to death between April 3 and April 6.
GRAHAM BOURKE, 44
LAST seen October 25, 1993
THE butcher was reported missing after failing to meet up with his ex-partner and their daughter. His body was found a month later in the boot of his car parked on Sherbrook Rd, Hornsby.
ROBERT PASHKUSS, 50, AND STACEY McMAUGH, 41
LAST SEEN: January 5, 2008
BODIES discovered by MsMaugh’s son inside their Caves Beach home, south of Newcastle, on Sunday, January 6. The couple had been bashed to death.
CLINT MILAZZO, 24
BASHED on February 23, 2003. Died March 2.
THE police recruit was attacked outside the Ettamogah Hotel on Kellicar Rd, Campbelltown, where he had been drinking with a friend. Suffered extensive head injuries.
BILL ROACH, 25
LAST seen on December 31, 1993
THE Sunnyvale resident was last seen on New Year’s Eve walking along Grafton Rd, Armidale. Police believe he has been murdered with officers this year searching an Armidale property for his remains.
CHERYL ANNE BURCHELL, 28
LAST seen on April 22, 1987
MS Burchell’s body was found near Pat Jordan Oval on the northern bank of Throsby Creek at Carrington, Newcastle, on April 23. She had been strangled and stabbed. It is believed Ms Burchell knew her killer.
REVELLE BALMAIN, 22
LAST seen on November 5, 1994
DISAPPEARED after being spotted with a man near the Red Tomato Inn, Kingsford. Body has never been found but police believe the “strikingly beautiful woman” has been murdered. Strike force Aramac was set up to investigate Ms Balmain’s disappearance and suspected murder.
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