Suspected serial killer Daryl Suckling died of natural causes: inquest

The father of a victim of suspected serial killer Daryl Suckling proclaimed “I hope the prick suffered” after an inquest heard the murderer struggled with serious health issues for at least 15 years before he died in jail.

The father of a young victim of notorious murderer and suspected serial killer Daryl Suckling proclaimed ‘I hope the prick suffered’ after an inquest heard the murderer struggled with serious health issues including emphysema for at least 15 years before he died in jail.

The grim details of his final years came as cold comfort for the heartbroken father Ken Larcombe, whose daughter Jodie Larcombe was his known victim.

This week would have marked the 58th wedding anniversary of parents Dot and Ken Larcombe — except that Dot Larcombe killed herself in 1997, a week after Suckling’s appeal against his conviction had been heard in court.

His appeal later failed and he was jailed for life for the murder of Jodie, who he held prisoner at the isolated Wyarama Station near Pooncarie in the NSW’s south west before he killed her in 1987.

It was the second time Suckling had been charged with the murder. He has been accused of raping three other women and each time escaped conviction.

Sadistic killer Daryl Francis Suckling.

Jodie Larcombe was abducted, taken to an isolated property in NSW and killed.

Jodie’s body has never been found but last weekend Ken Larcombe was back at the isolated spot where she was last seen slumped in Suckling’s Landcruiser ute.

He mowed the grass around the tree which the family planted to mark the spot along the Arumpo Rd and the tree they later planted to mark her mother’s death.

When the road was upgraded, it was realigned to preserve the lonely trees.

Coroner Carmel Forbes has ruled that habitual criminal Suckling, 85, died of natural causes from cerebral haematoma while also suffering from chronic obstructive airways disease and chronic ischaemic heart disease.

Jodie Larcombe. Picture: David Sickerdick

Jodie’s mother Dorothy Larcombe.

He had a rap sheet six pages long covering NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland that included almost every crime in the book, including carnal knowledge.

The coroner said he was found dead in room 8 of the aged care rehabilitation unit at Long Bay’s aged care rehabilitation unit at 10.46pm on August 30, 2021.

“I hope the prick suffered,” Mr Larcombe, 79, said after the inquest.

“They shoudn’t even have wasted money having an inquest into his death.”

Ken Larcombe pictured at his home in Mildura. Picture David Sickerdick

The former truck driver who sold his company so that he and Jodie’s mum could search for her body around Mildura, said he felt as if Jodie and Dot were together when he visited the trees.

“The girls are there together. I go out there quite often and tidy it up,” he said.

Two of Suckling’s rape victims died before their trials reached court. He was suspected of murdering a number of women who went missing from Melbourne where he prowled the streets and then burying their bodies..

Jodie’s parents Ken and Dot Larcombe would have celebrated theit 58th wedding anniverary this week bit she killed herself after Jodie’s killer Daryl Suckling appealed his murder conviction. The appeal later failed.

It became one of the state’s highest-profile murders after Suckling was originally charged with Jodie‘s murder in 1988 but the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charge because of lack of evidence - despite photographs of Jodie, 21, naked and obviously heavily drugged in the front seat of the old, rusted Land Cruiser ute Suckling had been driving, red handcuff marks clearly visible on her wrists.

The purple T-shirt dress Jodie was wearing when she was last seen alive was stuffed into his wardrobe, her silver jewellery was in a cardboard box in his bedroom, her dental plate wrapped in tissue paper in the wastepaper basket.

He had a note saying JODIE 27.12 -- the day Jodie had disappeared.

Wyarama Station near Pooncarie where Daryl Suckling held Jodie Larcombe prisoner before killing her. Picture: Supplied

Devoted police continued their inquiries despite one detective, the late Mick McGann, quitting the police in disgust over the DPP’s decision.

With the investigation led by since-retired Superintendent Peter Lennon, 1994 while Suckling was in jail for social security fraud, a former cell mate told police Suckling had confessed to Jodie’s murder.

Suckling was then caught on tape boasting that police and the Larcombes knew he had murdered Jodie but they were unable prove it.He was arrested the police Polair helicopter taped him looking for a fresh burial site on the NSW Central Coast for a woman he had targeted as his next victim.

The first tree that marked the spot where Jodie Larcombe was last seen along the Arumpo Road near Pooncarie. Her body has never been found.

Months before his death, Suckling had twice been controversially been allowed out of jail to return with homocide detectives to the Arumpo Road when he promised he could show them where Jodie was buried. Despite a massive excavation, no trace of her was found.