Robert Hynes’ murderous jigsaw puzzle shocked suburban Sydney in the 1970s

Forty years ago a man putting up telephone lines in bush near Ingleside made a grisly discovery – the skeletal remains of an adult and a child.

Police examining the scene where the remains of Mary and Emma Goffman were found.

Forty years ago a linesman erecting telephone lines in bush close to Mona Vale Rd at Ingleside made a grisly discovery – the skeletal remains of an adult and a child.

Although it was three days before dental records confirmed their identities, the police were in no doubt the remains found on July 5, 1974, were those of Mary Goffman, 43, and her four-year-old daughter, Emma, who had gone missing from their Mosman home on February 11, 1972.

What they also knew was that the mother and daughter were the first two victims of Robert Hynes, who lived with his wife and family at West Ryde but quit his job as an accountant in late 1971.

Mary Goffman

Emma Goffman.

His former employer regarded Hynes as a model employee and was disappointed when the latter left his employ.

Hynes’ murder spree began after he saw a car for sale advertised by Mosman man Ben Goffman in late January 1972.

Hynes called Goffman and arranged to visit the latter’s home on February 3 but later rang and said he would visit to view the car on February 4, when only Goffman’s wife Mary was at home.

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Mrs Goffman later told her mother she was frightened by Hynes when he visited and refused to go with him for a test drive in the Goffman’s car.

Hynes left but returned on February 10, when a neighbour of the Goffmans was disturbed by his appearance and behaviour.

Mary Goffman, and daughter, Emma, went missing from their home in Mosman in 1972.

Hynes went back to the Goffman’s home on February 11 and managed to enter the house, after which he was believed to have threatened Mrs Goffman with a sawn-off rifle and forced her to sign two cheques in his favour totalling $700.

He then killed Mrs Goffman and her daughter Emma, drove to Ingleside and dumped their bodies in the bush.

Hynes then went to the Goffmans’ bank at Mosman and cashed the two cheques.

Mr Goffman arrived home from work that evening and was immediately disturbed by the absence of his wife and daughter, as well as by the mess he found in the house.

The Goffmans’ two other daughters were with Mrs Goffman’s mother but Mary Goffman and daughter Emma had simply vanished.

Ben Goffman, the husband of Mary and daughter of Emma, had to wait more than two years to learn of their fate.

The matter was referred to the police, who investigated reports of a bearded man who had been seen in the area and who matched the description of the man who cashed the two cheques signed by Mrs Goffman but they had little else to go on.

But while the police could only wait for some clue to present itself, Hynes began stalking his third victim – Allan McColm, 39, a salesman who lived at Terrey Hills.

It was believed that Hynes cultivated McColm by offering to buy his property at an inflated price but on April 26, 1972, Hynes broke into McColm’s home and stole property that he pawned at a ship in Manly by adopting McColm’s identity.

Hynes also used McColm’s identity to pawn a watch he had stolen from Mrs Goffman before he killed her.

Then, on June 10, 1972, Allan McColm disappeared and grave fears were held for his safety.

Police at the site where the remains of Mary and Emma Goffman were found.

On June 16 a message was flashed across the police radio network that a man had used McColm’s driver’s licence to hire a car from the Dee Why branch of a car rental company.

Later that afternoon, police spotted the car being driven towards the Spit Bridge and gave chase.

The chase got as far as the southern side of the Spit Bridge, where Hynes crashed into a bus.

Hynes was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition but he never regained consciousness and died on June 20.

By then the pieces in the murderous jigsaw puzzle had begun falling into place – in the car Hynes had rented the police found a sawn-off rifle and property belonging to McColm.

The body of Emma Goffman was found in Ingleside in 1974.

And a few days before Hynes’ death, while he was still in his hospital bed, his wife found a piece of paper in a drawer at the family home on which was written the name of Ben Goffman and his phone number.

It linked Robert Hynes and the disappearance and presumed murder of Mary Goffman and her daughter Emma.

And on the same day Hynes died in hospital, McColm’s body was found in bush off Mona Vale Rd at St Ives.

He had been shot through the head, dragged into the bush and partly covered by brush and twigs.

The police now knew that Hynes had killed McColm, Mary Goffman, and her daughter Emma.

But they didn’t know where the Goffmans’ bodies had been dumped.

Ben Goffman holds an album of family photographs.

The only positive to come from Hyne’s death was that on the day he crashed into the bus at The Spit, June 16, he might have been setting up a fourth victim.

Inked on Hynes’ hand when he crashed into the bus at The Spit was a phone number that police tracked to a woman at North Curl Curl, who told the police that she had received a phone call on June 16 from a man purporting to be from a well-known carrying company.

The woman told the police the man said he was checking she would be home to receive a heavy parcel.

But the woman wasn’t expecting a parcel and the man’s manner when he arrived at her home instantly made her suspicious and she refused to let him enter her home. It saved her life – the parcel Hynes left at her front door contained nothing but sand.

Then, more than two years later, the bodies of Mary and Emma Goffman were found in bush at Ingleside on July 5, 1974.

All that could be said of the grim discovery was that it brought to a close a case that had haunted the Goffman family and frustrated the police for more than two years.