Newcastle and Hunter: The terrible crimes that shook the region to its core
Newcastle and the Hunter has been haunted by heinous crimes that have been seared into the region’s collective memory. READ PART THREE OF OUR MINI-SERIES.
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The Newcastle News has launched a multi-part series which revisits notorious crimes as a reminder that beneath the shimmering surface of our beautiful community, a dark heart can sometimes beat.
These are the crimes that shocked the Hunter region.
PART THREE
THE MISSING LAKE MACQUARIE TEENS
It took just four months to turn a time of innocence into a living nightmare for young families across eastern Lake Macquarie.
Three young girls all vanishing into thin air – snatched off the streets by a faceless attacker to be never seen again.
The cases of Leanne Goodall, Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson have been bound together for more than 40 years. Even their grieving parents became close friends as investigations and inquests looked at links.
And a current investigation under Strike Arapaima is looking into the Hickie and Robinson disappearances.
That is because Leanne Goodall’s case was a little different. Despite coming from the Eastlakes area, the 20-year-old was formally last seen by her brother
when he dropped her off at Muswellbrook railway station on December 20, 1978.
However, there is anecdotal evidence that Leanne had made it back to the popular Star Hotel in Newcastle West before taking a bus home to Belmont.
If she had taken the bus ride home, she would have got off just a few hundred metres from the Belmont North bus stop where Robyn Hickie was last seen on the night of April 7, 1979 – just 99 days after Leanne went missing.
Robyn, 18, had the intention of heading to a party. She was seen at the bus stop at 7.15pm but never made it to the party.
Just 13 days later, 14-year-old Amanda Robinson had been at a school dance at Gateshead before catching a bus home to Swansea.
She was last seen walking along Lake Road – just a couple of hundred metres from home – but never got there.
Her mother, Anne Robinson, has shown decades of courage with continuous public calls for assistance in finding out what happened to the girls.
She was at the 2001 inquests into the three disappearances when backpacker killer Ivan Milat gave evidence. They had been part of Strike Force Fenwick, set up in the late 1990s to investigate over a dozen missing persons cases across the Hunter.
At the time, it was the biggest police investigation in the state’s history.
Detectives now do not believe Milat was involved in the cases of Robyn and Amanda.
In fact, the biggest breakthrough in decades came last year when Strike Force Arapaima detectives charged a former Lake Macquarie man with a series of alleged rapes on other women between 1979 and 1997.
ABDUCTION OF GORDANA KOTEVSKI
It was Thursday night shopping and Gordana Kotevski had just left Charlestown Square with her new clothes and a smile on her face.
She headed down Powell Street and towards her aunt’s place before her screams shattered the suburban quiet.
Tuesday marked 26 years since Gordana, a popular and bubbly 16-year-old, was last seen being bundled into a car by two men and driven off.
The 1994 abduction and probable murder shocked Newcastle and Lake Macquarie – rarely have women been snatched off the region’s streets. Never in broad daylight and with so many potential witnesses.
And Gordana’s face has been etched on the region’s psyche ever since. Investigators continue to have several theories in what may have happened and the probable murder remains part of Strike Force Arapaima.
But what is known is that Gordana was just 50 metres from her aunt’s home
when she was dragged into a car at 8.45pm and vanished.
A partial fingerprint was found on a Syndicate clothing store bag which
Gordana either dropped or it was ripped from her during the abduction.
The bag contained a black top Gordana had bought, a Grace Bros bag with
stockings in it and her purse.
The disappearance sent shockwaves through Newcastle and Lake Macquarie
and become one of the headline cases during Strike Force Fenwick, set up in
1999 to investigate more than a dozen missing persons across the Hunter.
It will forever be etched in Stockton’s history
It was supposed to be a little celebration for a 16th birthday, with less than 100 guests and supervised by adults.
But the events which occurred over a couple of drunken hours late on November 3, 1989 will forever be etched into the region’s history.
Stockton woke the following morning a different place – a seaside suburb where a 14-year-old schoolgirl was raped and murdered when she should have been protected.
Leigh Leigh had already complained of being sexually assaulted when she returned to North Stockton Surf Club emotional and affected by alcohol.
But instead of being looked after, she was propositioned by other young men, had beer poured over her before being led away back down to the beach where she would never return.
Matthew Webster, a huge man even at just 18, worked the door as a bouncer at the party.
But instead of being the protector, Webster became the killer.
After being teased and sick of being spat on, an almost hysterical Leigh left the party.
Webster found her near the beach. He sexually assaulted her and attempted to strangle her.
He then discovered a 6kg chunk of concrete and struck Leigh twice over the head with it.
Her battered body was not discovered until a formal search began the following morning.
The murder brought unwanted attention to the close knit community, although some youths were happy to speak with investigators and journalists.
Even Webster poised for a newspaper photographer.
Within a fortnight, Webster was charged with sexual assault. But it took another three months before he was charged with murder.
He was sentenced to 14 years’ jail and was released in 2004.
A collective shiver
It was the level of violence inflicted upon Cheryl Burchell that sent a collective shiver through the ranks of Newcastle working girls.
Not only was the 28-year-old’s body dumped like rubbish next to the filthy Throsby Creek near Pat Jordan Oval at Carrington in 1987, her killer made sure the Islington prostitute would never be able to survive the attack.
Three schoolboys came across her body on the morning of April 23, 1987, still with her own bra tied tightly around her neck after being used to strangle her.
She had also suffered multiple stab wounds to her back, chest and stomach in the horrific slaying which sent shivers through others working on the streets.
Cheryl had been last seen working the notorious Maitland Rd strip around Islington and Tighes Hill about 10.30pm the previous night.
Detectives always suspected she knew her killer and a breakthrough more than 20 years after her death sparked renewed optimism that they may be brought to justice.
A DNA profile was lifted from her bra, prompting homicide detectives to reopen the murder and speak with associates and persons of interest.
One such suspect, known around the strip as the bagsnatcher, was one man who had his DNA taken.
But just like a bevy of others, he was cleared when it failed to match the profile found at the crime scene.
A $50,000 reward remains current for information leading to the conviction of the killer.
PART TWO
Popular corner store owner murdered
Even at 87, Frank Newbery’s work ethic hadn’t waned. He still woke before dawn and was behind the counter of his famous Cooks Hill store Frank’s Ham and Beef by 7am for his first customer to wander through the welcoming door and be greeted with his trademark smile.
But detectives have long held the view that Frank’s regimented lifestyle and work culture could have made him an easier target for the brutal murderer who has somehow evaded justice for over 13 years.
Every day for much of the 58 years he had worked at the Union Street store, Frank was on his own in the shop for the first hour of trade each day and the last hour – between 4pm and 5pm.
And it was after 4pm on March 11, 2007 that his killer entered.
Frank was found slumped behind the counter about 4.30pm, the victim of a brutal beating.
He had suffered four or five blows to the head with a large blunt object that remains missing. The fatal blow was probable one to the let side of his head.
The blow were performed with such force, Frank’s blood and other matter were found metres away from the counter.
Strike Force Rynan detectives quickly believed the motive was robbery, although $1500 was found in Frank’s pocket.
And investigators would reveal nearly a decade later that Frank’s murder was probably targeted.
They have had some suspects.
A 2012 inquest heard of a range of theories and public tips, including an anonymous letter to the coroner accusing two unnamed prostitutes.
There was also a known armed robber who was in their sights. But all were ruled out.
The case remains formally open.
Boxing Day stink turns into murder
Daniel Davies was nasty long before he shot Damien Meredith in the foot during a Boxing Day stink over a DVD player outside Davies’ home at Marks Point.
He had used his considerable size and muscle to standover anyone who got in his way across Lake Macquarie for years leading up to the incident with Meredith in 2001.
But when Meredith decided to turn prosecution witness in a trial which threatened to throw the 25-year-old into jail for the shooting, Davies turned from thug to cold-blooded killer.
And a killer who would stand at nothing in a bid to hide his tracks – including digging up a corpse months after it had been buried as authorities closed in.
Detectives first suspected Meredith had become the victim of foul play when he failed to show up and give evidence at the trial in September, 2002.
But it would take months of dogged investigative work before they could prove his demise.
On the Saturday night before the trial, Meredith had been lured to an old dirt road south of Swansea on the proviso that just his presence at a drug deal would garner him a few dollars and some gear.
But he wasn’t to know that dangling carrot was organised by Davies.
Meredith arrived at the dirt track with another man before Davies ran out of bushland and shot the prosecution witness several times in the head.
But the old .22 calibre rifle did not kill him.
Instead, he tried to escape and was run down by a car before it was reversed over him a few times. Still alive, Davies then shot Meredith several more times in the head, hit him over the head with a pole and jumped on his dying body.
He buried his victim in a nearby shallow grave before returning when the detectives started to put the heat on him.
Extraordinarily, he dug up the remains, placed them in bags and drove them across the other side of Lake Macquarie before dumping them at the Awaba tip.
But he should have been more meticulous. Bones belonging to Meredith were found at the old gravesite.
And a subsequent search of the tip found other body parts.
With the help of a few prosecution witnesses, and a bizarre and unbelievable account by Davies that he had just wanted to speak with Meredith when things went pear shaped, detectives got their man.
The murder was bad enough. But the fact it was that of a prosecution witness made it even more heinous in the eyes of the justice system.
Even so, a call from the prosecution for a life sentence was denied by the sentencing judge, who sent Davies packing for a maximum of 40 years.
Bodies in suitcases
It was a team of firefighters trudging through a remote area of the Watagan State Forest near Quorrobolong nearing the end of the 1997 winter who made the discovery – two big suitcases holding an horrific secret.
Stuffed inside were the bodies of a mother and her two young children, missing for nearly 10 months.
Each had a plastic bag tied over their heads, their hands and feet had been bound with rope and stockings were found near the necks of the children. They had all been suffocated.
The discovery sent shockwaves through the Hunter.
What were their frightening last moments. And who could dispose of a family in such a way.
Police already had their suspicions and the truth would shatter the wider community.
Quan Qin (Susan) Park and her children Andrew and Amy had been killed by their husband and father following a marriage breakdown.
Sung Eun (Nick) Park had left his family for a new woman and by the middle of 1996, things had turned sour.
Susan had rightly begun proceedings to garner some child support money from her cheating husband, and it is an argument she had with Nick’s new girlfriend regarding the payments that was identified as the probable motive.
The girlfriend was to tell a jury that she had received a phone call from an “angry” and “weepy” Nick in the early hours of October 18.
His voice “quavering”, Nick said: “Listen, everything has been resolved now. It will be alright if we go to Korea now.”
In fact, Nick had just killed his family in their own unit in Sydney. He then sold off their furniture - gambling away the money – with their bodies still inside.
And he even withdrew money from bank accounts, including cash left for his children, before waiting three days to move their bodies in the dead of the night.
He fled to Korea but was later extradited and found guilty by a jury of three counts of murder and sentenced to a maximum 26 years in jail.
PART ONE
The unsolved Carrington murders
Joanne Teterin was a stickler when it came to the gear. She may have only dealt in small amounts of “weed” and “gas” – cannabis and amphetamine – but if you wanted to get on, you played by her rules.
And the first rule was no random visits. You needed to phone in first, both for her safety and yours. Joanne was very social and needed to make sure the coast was clear, or those people she may have been hosting were okay with a little deal here or there.
And it is this regime which could still hold the key to the 20-year mystery of who was responsible for the brutal deaths of the Carrington local and her friend, Susan Kay.
Although the pair’s bodies were not discovered for days, investigators are certain they were killed on May 11, 2000. And probably not long after the last phone call to Joanne’s Doran Street home was answered at 8am.
The call was made from a public phone booth on Young Street – less than 100 metres from her home as the crow flies – and it is probable that a few moments later Joanne heard a knock on the door and allowed her killer inside.
It is also a near certainty that Joanne was attacked first. The attack was so brutal that the first police on scene believed she had been shot in the head.
But it was with a blunt instrument. The same blunt instrument that was to be used almost immediately on her friend, who was still in bed.
Detectives have strongly suspected Joanne was the target and Susan was collateral damage.
Only the killer knows whether he first attacked Joanne thinking she was alone before a search of the place found Susan still asleep. And whether they thought she would also have to be silenced to keep their identity from being known.
But within minutes they were both dead.
The killer was probably in and out of the cottage within a few minutes. And then luck appears to have played a large part in them never being formally brought to justice.
The time which elapsed between the murders and the bodies being found definitely helped the killer evade justice. They were not found for six days, when Susan’s sister arrived on the doorstep concerned they may have overdosed.
Decomposition had ruined a lot of evidence which would normally be gleaned from a crime scene.
The backgrounds of the victims were also to prove difficult for police. Susan had long battled drug dependency. She had also worked as an exotic masseuse and prostitute from time to time to help fund her heroin addiction.
The 32-year-old had always suffered self-esteem problems and a series of heartbreaking life events did not help.
She had been abused as a teenager, had lost a child at birth, experienced a broken marriage, had become estranged from another child and discovered the body of a close friend.
Susan had been off heroin for about six months when she decided to stay at her friend’s house at Carrington. It was a decision that would prove fatal.
Joanne, 38, was a bit of a misfit and happy to be one. She was adopted as a young child into the family known for the large Novocastrian business Teterin Engineering.
Although only a small-time drug dealer, it is almost certain that was the reason for their horrific deaths.
Susan’s clients were reluctant to come forward for obviously reasons. Ditto Joanne’s clientele.
And although Carrington had begun to emerge from its seedy underbelly, there was still a strong distrust of law enforcement. There were many walls that were hard to break down for investigators.
One suspect was identified straight away – Joanne had first run off the rails after her mother was murdered in 1979 by one of Joanne’s old boyfriends.
Eleanor Teterin was stabbed six times by the then 20-year-old man, who had blamed Eleanor for the breakdown of the relationship.
He had spent 16 years in jail for the attack and was living in the Newcastle area in 2000 – but was quickly ruled out as a suspect in the deaths of Joanne and Susan.
There were also a couple of others, although police strongly suspected one man.
He was named as a “person of interest” at a coronial inquest a few years later.
Then Newcastle coroner Alan Railton had referred the matter to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to see whether there was sufficient evidence to charge someone.
But no one has ever hit the dock for the murders.
Caves Beach double murder
Robert Pashkuss was found on the kitchen floor after being attacked from
behind with a heavy, blunt instrument that struck him at least eight times in
the head.
His partner, Stacey McMaugh, was still in bed after being hit in the head two or three times with the same weapon.
Other than their horrific injuries, their Caves Beach house showed no signs of a struggle. Nor a break-in.
No, the person or persons responsible for the vicious 2008 unsolved double murder were at least known to the couple. And could well have been friendly.
It was about 11am on January 6, 2008 when a relative made the horrific discovery inside the couple’s Macquarie Grove home.
The murders sent shockwaves throughout the Eastlakes community. Both were well-known and well-liked.
The motive was almost certainly Pashkuss’ penchant for dealing amphetamines.
And what was also almost certain was that Stacey was killed just because she was there – the 41-year-old was a popular woman who spent most of her spare time volunteering for charities.
Her 51-year-old partner was a little different.
An inquest into their deaths heard Pashkuss was growing concerned about his dealings with a group of bikies in the lead-up to the murders. And the stink centred around the quality of the amphetamine they were supplying him.
It was cheap, but it was also rubbish. And that’s bad for business.
But Pashkuss was also careful. In the lead-up to the deaths, he was becoming increasingly paranoid that he was being watched by law enforcement.
He kept his dealing away from his everyday life – friends rarely heard about or saw it, he kept strict business hours and never let anyone into the house at night.
Which again points to him knowing his killers.
Lovers’ lane shooting
It was the dawn of a new decade when young lovers Raymond Hill and Irene
“Alex” Rees took advantage of the balmy Friday night to enjoy a movie before
heading to a lovers’ lane overlooking South Newcastle Beach.
But as the young forklift driver from Lambton and his teenage nurse girlfriend
enjoyed a passionate embrace inside Ray’s Valiant two days into 1970, a killer
lurked nearby.
Detectives believe the gunmen approached the car about 1.40am, probably
driving up alongside the Valiant before firing at least two bullets from a .22
calibre rifle.
The bullets crashed through a window and struck the pair. They had no chance.
But a series of lucky breaks has allowed the killer to escape justice for 50 years.
Despite the area being popular with young couples – and detectives believing
there could have been a couple of dozen cars using the area at different times
of that night on January 2, 1970 – no one saw or heard a thing other than a few
residents who later mentioned hearing three bangs.
It wasn’t until a university student parked adjacent to the Valiant near dawn
that the discovery was made.
And the crime scene was already lost, with unaware council cleaners already
been and gone, brooming up the crime scene and taking with it vital evidence.
Hundreds of people were interviewed by a team of detectives that included a
young Roger Rogerson, and despite a range of suspects and even more
theories, no one was ever charged.
The murders swept away the innocence of Newcastle and changed the way
young lovers lived.
It formally remains an open case and is one of the oldest cold cases still on the
books with the state’s unsolved homicide squad.
Return tomorrow for more crimes that rocked Newcastle and the Hunter region.
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