Kurnell bones confirmed as male model and Neddy Smith victim Mark Johnston
Notorious gangster Neddy Smith’s killing fields have yielded another victim after confirmation remains found in the Kurnell sand dunes are those of male model Mark Johnston.
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Notorious gangster Neddy Smith’s killing fields have yielded another victim after confirmation that remains found in the Kurnell sand dunes are those of male model Mark Johnston.
Sydney’s underworld is now buzzing with anticipation over the identity of yet another body — found at the same lonely seaside graveyard as that of Johnston 13 years ago — which will undergo the same forensic testing.
At least two sets of remains — and perhaps three — were revealed during digging for Sydney’s desalination plant.
They were sent to America for mitochondrial DNA testing but it was only through advanced technology that Johnston’s remains have now been confirmed, police said yesterday.
Johnston, 36, was last seen in September 1986 at the $3.5 million Dover Heights home of Smith’s late solicitor, Val Bellamy, who according to secret prison recordings had asked Smith not to get blood on his wife’s new carpet.
Instead of shooting him, Johnston was reportedly garotted by Smith.
How and why Mark Johnston was killed
Dubbed the “Playboy Punter” because of his life of largesse, Johnston had moved from the Gold Coast to Sydney, where he quickly became a fixture at the swankiest parties as he trafficked drugs among the city’s elite.
Three months before he died, Johnston had given Bellamy, who had represented both Smith and his sidekick, corrupt cop Roger Rogerson, $60,000 cash to keep for him.
Johnston had returned from the glamorous southern French town of Biarritz to sort out his affairs before heading back to be with the love of his life, Simone-Maree, and buy a property there.
After farewell drinks in Paddington, Johnston had gone to Bellamy’s mansion to pick up the money on the night he disappeared. When he got there Bellamy, Smith and an associate were waiting with a ute.
Police believe Bellamy had lost the $60,000 at the races and couldn’t afford to pay him back.
Smith has never been charged over Johnston’s murder but detectives long believed he was buried in sand dunes. Smith also dumped the body of brothel owner Harvey Jones, who he murdered in 1983, in dunes at Botany Bay.
Jones’ skeleton was found in 1995 after a man walking his dog discovered a set of teeth in the sand.
Smith was convicted of the murders of Jones and tow truck driver Ronnie Flavell. A drunken Smith stabbed Flavell to death after the tow truck flashed his lights at Smith’s car in Coogee in 1987.
While in jail over Flavell’s murder, police bugged his cell and recorded his conversations with a cellmate known only as Mr Brown.
Smith, a major heroin dealer, was convicted of murdering Harvey Jones but murder charges over drug dealers Danny Chubb, Barry McCann, Barry Croft, Lewton Shu and Bruce Sandery were dismissed at committal.
South Australian drug dealer Sandery’s body was found just a few hundred metres away from that of Jones when a walker spotted a foot sticking out of the sand.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that police intend to interview Smith, 75, in Sydney’s Long Bay jail where he is serving two life sentences as Johnston’s murder continues to be investigated by homicide detectives with Strike Force Brompton.
While police had their suspicions, the bones found at the same time as Johnston’s have been tested to see if they belonged to missing Rent-A-Kill Christopher Dale Flannery or prostitute and informant Lyn Woodward, who vanished while giving evidence against Rogerson over the shooting of Warren Lanfranchi in 1981.
Flannery vanished in 1985 and Smith has been named among those who wanted him dead. It is understood the bones were no match for either person.
Former assistant police commissioner John Laycock, who headed Strike Force Snowy into Smith’s murderous reign in the ’80s and ’90s, on Wednesday said he had previously believed Johnston’s remains were at Botany and not Kurnell.
“It is great news for Mark’s family,” Mr Laycock said yesterday.
NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan last month returned findings that the body was that of Johnston.
In May 1999 an inquest held into his disappearance was terminated after two days when the then-deputy state coroner John Abernethy found he had been murdered most likely at Bellamy’s house by Smith. A shin bone was first uncovered by workers in early October, 2007. A week later, 300m away, ribs and other, smaller bones were discovered in sandy scrubland off Sir Joseph Banks Drive. Further searching unearthed a pelvis and foot bones.
Some of the feet bones were found in a sock.
BRUCE SANDERY
The South Australian drug dealer was last seen alive at the Zetland Hotel in 1988.
His body was found in the dunes of Botany Bay when a walker spotted a foot sticking out of the sand.
Neddy Smith was charged with Sandery’s murder but the charge was dismissed at the committal stage in 1996.
HARVEY JONES
Smith dumped the body of the brothel owner in the sand of Botany Bay after murdering him in 1983.
His skeleton was found by a man walking his dog, who discovered a set of teeth in the sand. Smith once boasted to a cellmate about Jones’ death: “I blew his heart out with a big .357’’.
MARK JOHNSTON
A male model who gained the nickname the “Playboy Punter“, Johnston became known as a drug supplier to Sydney’s elite.
The 36-year-old disappeared after giving Neddy Smith’s lawyer Val Bellamy $60,000 in cash to hold for him.
Police believe Johnston was murdered 34 years ago by Smith at Bellamy’s Bella Vista mansion after heading there to reclaim the cash.
Authorities have confirmed remains found 13 years ago in sand in Kurnell belong to Johnston.