South Australia’s history of current and historical country killers

SA’s history of violent country town murders has made headlines not only in Australia but around the world. Here are some of the state’s most notorious country killers.

You’ll often hear the “murder capital” status claims bandied around at pubs or even worldwide-syndicated cable network programs in regards to South Australia’s reputation for homicide.

Perhaps what has cemented this reputation is SA’s historical penchant for particularly grisly murder quirks and a lingering image of rural isolation in certain high-profile cases.

Murder cases with a countryside element, the Snowtown case particularly, have become synonymous with the state’s identity.

There’s been films made, endless documentaries and even spurred certain local soccer fans’ morbidly tongue-in-cheek “you’re going home in a barrel” chant historically reserved for particularly irksome opposition players.

Here are some of our most infamous country killers.

Tarikjot Singh – Shallow grave killer (Flinders Ranges)

Tarikjot Singh was expected to stand trial until he suddenly pleaded guilty to murdering Adelaide student nurse Jasmeen Kaur in outback SA this week.

Singh, 22, abducted Ms Kaur, an Adelaide nurse in March 2021 before killing her somewhere in the proximity of Parachilna, 160km north of Port Augusta – west of the Flinders Ranges.

Tarikjot Singh led police to his victim's shallow grave.

Singh led later led police to her shallow grave in Moralana Creek, about 60km south of Parachilna, where the killing is believed to have taken place.

Singh will likely now face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Clifford Bartholomew – Family mass murderer (Hope Valley)

Perhaps most shocking about the case of Clifford Bartholomew murdering 10 people in total, including his wife and seven children, is the eight-year sentence he received and subsequent assistance in raising another family.

Clifford Bartholomew served just eight years in prison for killing his wife and his seven children at Hope Valley on September 7, 1971.

Those slain were estranged wife Heather, 40, children Neville, 19, Christine, 17, Sharon, 15, Helen, 13, Gregory, 10, Roger, 7 and Sandra, 4; sister-in-law Winnis, 26 and her son Daniel, 19 months.

After killing his family, Bartholomew rang his mother, with whom he was living at nearby Meadows, to tell her what he’d done.

Clifford Bartholomew served less than eight years in Yatala jail for the killings before being freed in 1979.

However when police arrived at the scene he was passed out in a drunken stupor at the kitchen table.

In a remarkable turn Bartholomew was released from prison and lived out the rest of his life in Queensland with a new family that were largely unaware of his sinister past.

He told his family that he had let his new wife know that he had served time in prison for killing his wife after finding her in bed with another man.

Jason Alexander Downie – Rowe family slayings (Kapunda)

Jason Downie’s unreciprocated obsession with a 16-year-old led to a gruesome triple murder in the state’s northeast.

In the early hours of November 8, 2010, Jason Alexander brutally murdered Chantelle Rowe and her parents, in a callous infatuation-driven attack.

He gained access to the family’s home with the intention of having sex with Chantelle and subsequently murdered her parents when confronted.

Chantelle’s father, Andrew Rowe, became aware of Downie’s presence in his home and was stabbed 29 times when he was attacked.

Downie then attacked his wife, Rose, stabbing her 50 times as she tried to crawl away.

Jason Dowie was sentenced to at least 35 years in jail back in 2012.

Downie then found Chantelle hiding under her bed and stabbed her multiple times.

When she regained consciousness and tried to resist him, Downie stabbed her again and raped her.

Justice John Sulan in sentencing said Downie “did not exhibit any of the criminological characteristics of typical defendants”.

The knife used to murder the Rowe family was reportedly found in their kitchen by Downie.

Christopher Worrell and James Miller – Truro murders

The Truro murders are etched in South Australian history as one of our worst serial killings.

In an eight-week spree between December 23, 1976 and February 12, 1977, seven young women were raped and murdered before being buried in locations at Truro, Port Gawler and Wingfield.

The spree may have continued had Christopher Worrell not been killed in a car accident a week after the final killing on February 19, 1977.

Several of Christopher Robin Worrell and James William Miller's victims were taken to Blanchetown.

James Miller confessed to the crimes on May 23, 1979 and was granted permission to lead police to the graves of his remaining undiscovered victims.

This resulted in investigating officers committing a deliberate breach of the Police Offences Act.

When Miller agreed to help police find the remaining bodies (police had already located four), there wasn’t a provision in the act to remove a prisoner from custody to assist detectives in investigating a crime they had been charged with.

This unprecedented move to remove Miller led to the discovery of the remaining bodies and an amendment of the law to allow police up to eight hours for further criminal investigation.

Teenage Callington killers

The murder of pensioner Pirjo Kemppainen, who was stabbed more than 120 times by a 14-year-old boy, is one of the most shocking cases in SA history.

Ms Kemppainen had lived alone in Callington, a 20-minute drive from Murray Bridge, for 15 years before a murderous plot hatched by two teenagers ended her life.

The two boys, both 14, formed a kinship that prominently focused on morbid violent acts before one of them murdered Ms Kemppainen in her own home.

"Never heard anything as bad": Veteran police officers were shook to the core hearing details of Pirjo Kemppainen's murder.

The duo visited her home twice, the first time was a reconnaissance mission where they spun a lie at her back door about looking for a dog.

On their second visit, they agreed to throw a rock through Ms Kemppainen’s window.

Only one of the children did this, her eventual killer.

The 14-year-olds told a chilling account of the encounter in the Adelaide Supreme Court.

“I tried to stab her twice in the stomach and then I repeatedly stabbed her in the head,” one said.

“She tried to hold her arms up to keep me from stabbing her, she was screaming. I felt like God.”

Forensic evidence showed he inflicted 58 wounds, and several strikes had gouged the pensioner‘s skull.

Gary Newman – Carly Ryan slaying (Port Elliot)

The murder of SA teenager Carly Ryan at Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot, was orchestrated by a manipulative pedophile and drastically changed discourse around online safety.

The Carly Ryan Foundation was established in an effort to educate people on online safety.

Newman posed as a teenage boy in order to build a relationship with Ms Ryan, also posing as the boy’s father in his communication online with her.

He created elaborate lies about the possibility of Carly meeting his fictional son, “Brandon”, in person.

Newman flew to South Australia to attend Ms Ryan’s 15th birthday party to deliver gifts from “Brandon”, saying that he was unable to make it.

He subsequently made sexual advances and displayed erratic behaviour before Ryan’s mother, Sonya, demanded he leave.

This enraged Newman, who later travelled back to South Australia to seek revenge.

He employed the help of an underage boy, posing as Brandon, and arranged to pick Ryan up.

She was later assaulted, raped and murdered on the beach at Horseshoe Bay.

This case had significant impact on education promoting online safety and was directly responsible for new legislation targeting online predators.

Robert Wagner and John Bunting – Bodies in the barrels murders (Snowtown)

None of the victims of John Bunting and Robert Wagner’s killing spree were residents of Snowtown, yet the visual image of human remains found in the new infamous bank vault capture the world’s attention.

The barrel imagery, the use of a former bank and the magnitude of cruelty in their killings made it hard to ignore the twisted saga as it unfolded.

Between December 1995 and May 1999 the duo were responsible for 10 killings, making them Australia’s worst serial killers.

John Bunting and Robert Wagner bonded over a mutual disdain for pedophiles and homosexuals.

Bunting and Wagner developed a friendship in 1991 that would ultimately lead to a bloody trail of murder, torture and mutilation.

Police discovered tools of torture and death in their possession including shotguns, knives, tape, rope and a metallurgy tool used for electrocution after arresting the killers.

In sentencing, Judge Brian Martin told Bunting and Wagner they were “incapable of true rehabilitation.”

“It is no exaggeration to say that you were in the business of killing for pleasure.”

Jose Omonte-Extrada – Axe murders (Quorn)

Jose Omonte-Extrada received one of the longest South Australian sentences on record for his brutal slaying of Jessie-Leigh Fullerton and Rebecca Wild.

Armed with a knife and an axe, Omonte-Extrada drove 120km from Quorn to Port Pirie and murdered Ms Wild, having had a previous sexual advances rejected.

After stabbing her multiple times in the head, face and arms, he drove her back to Quorn – still alive.

Jose Omonte-Extrada was only 19 when he killed Rebecca Wild, 16 and Jessie Fullerton, 22.

Jessie-Leigh Fullerton encountered Omonte-Extrada and his severely wounded victim when they arrived and was subsequently murdered with an axe, striking her nine times to the head.

Ms Wild was then also murdered with the axe, before Omonte-Extrada attempted to burn her body, before burying her in a shallow grave in the Quorn cemetery.

In sentencing, Justice Kelly described Omonte-Extrada as “narcissistic” and “self-absorbed” before giving him a minimum of 33 years in prison.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Recorded Victims of Crime Report released in 2022 reported 35 victims of homicide and related offences recorded in South Australia, an increase of seven victims from the previous year.

Neil Heyward, Matthew Heyward, Jeremy Minter – Glenys Heyward murder (Mount Gambier)

Glenys Heyward was in the process of escaping her tormentor and de facto partner Neil Heyward when she met her end.

Ms Heyward was lured to vacant childcare centre on Pick Ave, Mt Gambier, on the night of July 23, 2007, by her youngest son Matthew Heyward.

Glenys Heyward with her former de facto partner Neil Heyward.

SA murder victim Glenys Heyward.

Matthew Heyward outside of court.

It was there a hidden Neil Heyward and former farmhand Jeremy Minter pounced, with Ms Heyward shackled, bound and gagged then wrapped in curtains and stuffed into a wheelie bin.

The bin was put into a borrowed vehicle and Neil Heyward dropped off Minter before taking Ms Heyward to a property at Wilkin, in western Victoria, where her battered body was found, buried and still shackled alongside an iron bar on November 30, 2007.

Matthew Heyward was found guilty of assisting his father’s plot to kill his mother in 2007. Both he and former farm worker Jeremy Minter were given life jail sentences when they were convicted. Neil Heyward hanged himself in prison awaiting trial.

Pawel Klosowski – Double slaying of high school sweethearts (Millicent)

Pawel Klosowski hunted down and shot dead his son Lukasz Klosowski and Lukasz’s girlfriend Chelsea Ireland in a moment of inexplicable rage and will spend at least 34 years behind bars.

Klosowski, 46, shot the two 19-year-olds dead at his Mt McIntyre property, between Millicent and Kalangadoo in the South-East, while fuelled with alcohol and rage after an argument broke out on August 22, 2020.

In sentencing, Supreme Court Justice Anne Bampton said she would have imposed a non-parole period of 40 years for the “deliberate and purposeful” murders but reduced that term to 34 years, allowing a 15 per cent discount for Klosowski’s early pleas of guilty.

Lukasz Klosowski presenting girlfriend Chelsea Ireland with a corsage for his Year 12 formal in 2018. Both Lucas and Chelsea were shot dead on August 22, 2020, by Lukasz’ father Pawel Klosowski.

Pawel Klosowski, 46, of Mount McIntyre near Kalangadoo, was arrested and charged with the murder of his son, Lukasz Klosowski and Chelsea Ireland, both 19.

Originally published as South Australia’s history of current and historical country killers