Dangerously close: Radio star Meshel Laurie’s chilling brush with serial killer Peter Dupas

Comedian Meshel Laurie has revealed how a former job at a brothel brought her close to a Melbourne serial killer. WARNING: Graphic

The idea there’s six degrees of separation between everyone on the planet has been proven by scientists but what happens when that theory applies to a serial killer?

TV and radio personality Meshel Laurie experienced the chilling phenomenon when she found herself just one person removed from notorious serial rapist and murderer, Peter Dupas.

Over three decades, Dupas committed a string of increasingly violent attacks, identifying himself through his ‘criminal signature’ of removing his victim’s breasts.

Numerous minimum prison sentences only exacerbated his offending, until he was finally sentenced to life without parole in 2000 for the murder of Nicole Patterson.

He was later convicted of the murders of Mersina Halvagis, Margaret Maher and remains a suspect in three other cases.

Serial rapist and murderer Peter Dupas terrorised women over three decades, his violence escalating every time he was released from prison after serving a minimum term. Picture: Supplied

For Laurie, it was Dupas’ final victim Nicole Patterson, that brought her orbit in eerily close rotation to one of Australia’s worst predators.

Before establishing herself as a much-loved comedian, Laurie worked as a receptionist in a brothel in the late 1990s.

“We had this beautiful boss Miss Vick. She organised staff meetings, which we thought were hilarious, once a month,” Laurie said.

“One month, she had this young woman come who was a counsellor and psychotherapist, to talk about self-esteem issues and self-care, mental health — way ahead of her time.

“This young woman was wonderful and everyone did get really into the talk, and took cards.

“I remember she ran out of cards and she started getting bits of paper and writing her phone number on them because she said, ‘I’m starting up my own practice out of my house. And this is the number if you want an appointment’.”

The psychotherapist was 28-year-old Nicole ‘Nikki’ Patterson.

The last photo taken of murder victim Nicole Patterson, at a family dinner on the Saturday night before she was killed. Picture: Supplied

Patterson advertised her counselling services in the local paper and the weekend before she was murdered, excitedly told family that would meet her first client ‘Malcolm’, on Monday at her home in Northcote, Melbourne.

On Monday 19 April, 1999, Patterson’s neighbours reported hearing screams coming from her house between 9-9.30am.

Eight hours later, her body was discovered. She had been stabbed 27 times in her chest and back, and was naked from the waist down, a portion of flesh missing from her upper thigh. Both breasts had been removed, with breast tissue found in her mouth.

It was a vicious attack on a woman who had no reason to suspect she may have been in danger.

Nicole Patterson (left) with her sister Kylie’s daughters. Picture: Supplied

“It was about a week-and-a-half later that one of the girls said to me, ‘I’ve been trying to phone Nikki, she’s not calling me back, and I really do want to go and have an appointment’,” Laurie remembers.

“I said, ‘Oh, she’s busy. She’ll get back to you’.

“Then we found out a little bit after that — because we worked night shifts we were always catching up with things a bit late – that she had been murdered. And, of course, we were just shocked. We couldn’t believe it.”

Three days after Nikki’s murder, police arrested Dupas.

Mersina Halvagis with her fiance Angelo Gorgievski approximately a year before she was murdered.

An appointment book found at her home included details of her scheduled meeting with ‘Malcolm’.

Police found Patterson’s blood on Dupas’ jacket, and discovered a piece of paper in his wheelie bin torn into tiny pieces, which when reassembled bore the word ‘Malcolm’ followed by Patterson’s phone number.

Dupas was later convicted of the murder of Margaret Maher, a sex worker, when police recognised Maher’s breasts had also been removed — the trademark of the serial killer.

Margaret Maher, aged 22, would tragically be murdered by Dupas.

His conviction for the murder of 25-year-old Mersina Halvagis, who he attacked at her grandmother’s grave, came after he gave a jailhouse confession to fellow inmate, disgraced lawyer Andrew Fraser.

While Laurie’s comedy career blossomed, so did her fascination with crime, which she channelled into hit podcast, Australian True Crime and new book, CSI Told You Lies.

Of course, she never forgot her chance meeting with Patterson, just days before her murder, and after airing an episode on Dupas, found an email from Patterson’s sister, Kylie, in her inbox.

Nicole Patterson’s sister, Kylie Nicholas and mother, Pam O'Donnell.

The two women have forged a friendship, Laurie inspired by Kylie’s capacity for kindness through her work as a school pastor.
“She’s a beautiful person and just lives with generosity. That’s her whole reason for being: giving. She found that to be the thing that got her through.”

CSI Told You Lies by Meshel Laurie (Penguin Random House, $34.99) is available on 3 August.