Beth Barnard: Phillip Island murder still open despite coroner’s finding
Phillip Island was the setting for one of Victoria’s most gruesome murders, and the real-life horror story had all the makings of a Hollywood thriller – a wealthy businessman, a younger mistress and a jealous wife.
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Beth Barnard was asleep in her Phillip Island home after spending the afternoon with her married boss, Fergus Cameron, in September 1986 before her brutal stabbing murder.
The two were having an affair, though 36-year-old Fergus was 13 years Beth’s senior and the father of two young boys.
Now common knowledge for others in town, their tryst was becoming undeniable for Fergus’ wife, Vivienne Cameron.
Police would come to believe this was the reason Beth was found murdered in her home with the letter ‘A’ slashed into her chest.
Beth grew up on Phillip Island and became acquainted with the Cameron family when she began work on their land as a farmhand.
The family were well-off having once owned the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, but Fergus continued working on the farm.
At 9.20pm on September 22, Vivienne sat in the Cameron family home waiting for Fergus to return where she confronted him about his affair with Beth.
Vivienne became so enraged, she smashed a wine glass across Fergus’ face and back, causing him injuries so severe she had to drive him to hospital.
The couple’s boys were still at the house during the fight, so Vivienne and Fergus arranged for Fergus’ sister Marnie and her husband Ian to watch them.
The pair returned from the hospital at about 12.30am.
Fergus and Vivienne decided to divorce before Vivienne drove Fergus to Marnie and Ian’s house at 2am.
Vivienne and Fergus returned from hospital just after midnight, but Vivienne made a call to her friend Robin Dixon at around 3:00am asking her to watch the boys while she drove Fergus to the hospital – a trip that had happened hours earlier.
Fergus woke the next morning to a phone call from Robin asking why Vivienne had not returned to collect the children.
With the violent fight with Vivienne over his affair the previous night still fresh in his mind, Fergus asked his brother Don and brother-in-law, Ian to check on Beth.
The pair arrived at Beth’s Rhyll home to find her body riddled with stab and slash wounds and the letter ‘A’ carved into her chest.
The killer had placed a blanket over Beth’s battered body, at first concealing that her throat had been slashed and that Beth’s fingers were cut from trying to hold back the killer’s blade.
Police quickly established a link between the ‘A’ carved into Beth’s chest and her affair with Fergus, theorising their prime suspect, Vivienne, took inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, in which a woman must wear a scarlet ‘A’ on her
clothes to identify her as an adulteress.
Former detective Rory O’Connor led the investigation into Beth’s murder and described it as “a vicious and frenzied attack”.
In their search for Vivienne, police came across her Toyota Land Cruiser parked near the San Remo Bridge with a knife and blood inside.
Vivienne has not been seen alive since she dropped Fergus off at his sister’s house.
Police believe she leapt to her death over the side of the bridge.
Her body has never been found.
Coroner BJ Maher concluded in 1988 that Vivienne “is dead and that she leapt from the San Remo Bridge into the water below, and I am satisfied that the deceased contributed to the cause of (Barnard’s) death”.
Victoria Police this week confirmed the investigation into Beth’s unsolved murder remains active.
Anyone with information on the 1986 murder should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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Contact Brooke at brooke.grebert-craig@news.com.au
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