Revealed: Crimes that shook the Gippsland region
From an ‘A’ sliced into a woman’s chest to a society Belle missing for 70 years, these are some of the horrific and baffling crimes of Victoria’s southeast.
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Gippsland has been a hotspot for some of the state’s most terrifying and tragic crimes — from murders to mysteries.
Read about the incidents that made people’s skin crawl.
ARNOLD SODEMAN MURDERS MURDER FOUR GIRLS IN INVERLOCH AND LEONGATHA
Two young girls were tragically murdered back in 1935 by Arnold Sodeman, who also killed two other girls in 1930 and 1931.
12-year-old Ethel Belshaw — who was going to buy ice cream before she disappeared — was strangled to death and her body was found in a small clearing off a track at the end of Pier Rd in Inverloch on January 1, 1935.
The second murder that year was six-year-old June Rushmer, who was taken from a local park on December 1 and her body was found the next day near her Leongatha home.
Sodeman confessed to all four killings before he was executed at Pentridge Prison in 1936.
14-MONTH-OLD JAIDYN LESKIE MURDERED IN MOE IN 1997
Jaidyn Leskie would have turned 28 just days ago had his life not been cruelly cut short.
The mystery of what happened to the 14-month-old — characterised by theories, rumour, innuendo, urban myths and bizarre happenings — has captivated Victorians for the 27 years since his death.
Throughout, Jaidyn’s brave mother, Bilynda Williams, has fought long and hard for justice for her son.
But that fight has still not brought an answer, and Victorians may never know the truth about what happened to the tragic toddler.
Bilynda’s then boyfriend Greg Domaszewicz was charged and then acquitted of the toddler’s murder but 10 years ago — who still maintains his innocence — admitted in an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun his “stupidity” led to the death of Jaidyn.
He says he left Jaidyn at home when he drove to pick up Bilynda from the pub, but when they returned the boy had disappeared.
“It’s upsetting, still, because ultimately there’s a kid that died because of my stupidity,” Domaszewicz said.
The 14-month-old’s tiny, battered body was found six months later, weighted with a crowbar in the freezing waters of Blue Rock dam.
Despite the acquittal in the Supreme Court, a 2006 inquest failed to throw up any compelling new evidence.
The coroner stopped short of naming a killer, but did find Mr Domaszewicz contributed to Jaidyn’s death by throwing the toddler’s body in the dam.
In his final submission to the inquest, counsel assisting the Coroner said there was enough evidence to find that Mr Domaszewicz killed Jaidyn.
He ruled out all other suspects.
JACK HAZELDENE STRANGLED TO DEATH IN HOME: MARCH 5, 2005 — WONTHAGGI
A Wonthaggi man was strangled to death inside his own home at the beginning of 2005.
Jack Hazeldene, 84, was found with an electrical cord wrapped around his ankle and neck by police.
A court heard in 2006 the cause of death was strangulation and there was evidence of blunt head trauma.
Mary Rose Curtis, a friend of Mr Hazeldene, pleaded guilty to his murder at the Supreme Court of Victoria and was sentenced in 2006 to 14 years imprisonment with a minimum term of 10 years.
The court heard after Mr Hazeldene’s death, Curtis told a friend, “I have done something wrong ... he started mucking around with me so I pushed him. He fell down and hit his head”.
But Curtis told her son, “I think I killed Jack. He was saying bad stuff about me so I grabbed him from behind and strangled him.”
DALIBOR PANTIC MISSING FROM LAKES ENTRANCE FOR FIVE YEARS
A Lakes Entrance man went missing in 2019, prompting a major search by police across the region.
Dalibor Pantic, 38 was last seen at a farm in Perry Bridge – between Sale and Bairnsdale – on April 10, 2019.
In November 2021, 33-year-old Sale man Sam Gordon Blake was charged with Mr Pantic’s murder and he later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Blake was uncooperative with police trying to find Mr Pantic’s body, and investigators have been unable to find the vehicle involved in the incident.
Detective Insp Dave Dunstan of the Missing Persons Squad said investigators remained committed to finding Mr Pantic’s remains.
“If you do know something or might have seen or found the car seats or the pram in the river, then I urge you to come forward and hopefully we can continue to fill in all the pieces of this puzzle until we get the result and answers Dale’s family deserve,” Insp Dunstan said.
AFFAIR ENDS IN BRUTAL STABBING OF BETH BARNARD ON PHILLIP ISLAND
A woman was brutally stabbed to death in her Phillip Island home in September 1986, where her body was covered with slash wounds and the letter “A” was carved into her chest.
Despite a 13 year age gap, Beth Barnard had had an affair with wealthy businessman Fergus Cameron.
Beth grew up on Phillip Island and became acquainted with the Cameron family when she began work on their land as a farmhand.
Police quickly established a link between the ‘A’ carved into Beth’s chest and her affair with Fergus, theorising their prime suspect, Fergus’s wife 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.
In their search for Vivienne, police came across her Toyota Land Cruiser parked near the San Remo Bridge with a knife and blood inside.
It’s believed she threw herself off the bridge.
She has never been seen alive since and her body has never been found.
In 2020, a podcast was released that explored whether Ms Cameron actually murdered Ms Barnard and how she vanished without a trace.
BRADLEY LYONS TORTURED AND MURDERED AFTER SUPERMARKET SHIFT IN LAKES ENTRANCE
A Lakes Entrance man finished his early morning shift at the local supermarket and hopped into bed at midday in December 2018, before four men broke into his house.
Bradley Lyons woke up when men entered his bedroom armed with weapons, including a sawn-off shotgun and metal pole and attacked him.
The pack — who had mistaken Mr Lyons for a pedophile due to rumours — tortured the 30-year-old for 18 hours before dragging his bound body out of a Toyota Corolla boot in the remote bushland.
A shot was then fired into Mr Lyon’s head, and his body was dropped into a makeshift grave, with dirt and debris tossed over it.
It was not until March 2019 that Mr Lyon’s body was discovered in the shallow grave.
In December last year — five years after the terrifying ordeal — Mr Lyon’s murderer Albert Thorn was jailed for 32 years.
The 58-year-old was found guilty on all charges following a jury trial.
Nick Stefani — one of Thorn’s co-accused — was jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to the assault, intentionally causing injury, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
The other co-accused, Jordan Bottom and Rikki Smith, were found not guilty of murder, but found guilty of assault and unlawful imprisonment.
The pair are yet to be sentenced.
MARGARETTA WILLIAMS FOUND WITH THROAT SLIT IN WONTHAGGI
Almost a century ago, a woman was found dead with her throat cut in her sister-in-law’s Wonthaggi home in September 1928.
Murderer William Watson Carr confessed he cut victim Margaretta Williams’ throat during a quarrel and he was charged with her murder.
Carr was originally sentenced to death but instead spent his life behind bars.
SCHOOL TEACHER MANDY MELZER MURDERED BY CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART
A retired school teacher was stabbed by her partner after she told him she wanted to end their brief relationship at their farm in Bendoc.
65-year-old mortgage broker Trefor William Kingdon pleaded guilty to the murder of Mandy Melzer in the Supreme Court in December 2021, where prosecutor Kristie Churchill said Mandy’s death was yet another “violent and brutal attack on a woman in her own home, where she was entitled to feel the safety and sanctity of that environment”.
Before the pair reunited in 2019, they met at school in the 1970s and moved into a rented hobby farm just south of the New South Wales border.
After stabbing Ms Melzer repeatedly, Kingdon went into the room their friend was staying in and told them, “I think I’ve killed Mandy”.
Ms Melzer’s two adult daughters, Georgia and Alexandra Head, who were from a previous relationship, told the court they were devastated at the loss of their mother.
Daughter Alexandra said she was haunted by Kingdon in her dreams and that he robbed her mother of the chance to become a grandma.
Justice Lex Lasry jailed him for 23 years, with a non-parole period of 16 years.
NURSE AMANDA DAWSON BASHED TO DEATH AFTER ENDING AFFAIR IN TRARALGON
An obsessed lover bashed a Glengarry nurse, knocking her unconscious after he could not accept she wanted to end their affair.
Amanda Dawson formed a friendship 57-year-old Lindsay Masatora after meeting him in Western Australia when she took a six-month contract at Derby Hospital in early 2015.
The mother of four returned to Victoria to be with her husband David in their Glengarry home in April that year, and Masatora arrived a month later where they continued their affair.
On October 13, 2016, Ms Dawson tried to convince Masatora to get back in her car at the Traralgon Neighbourhood Learning Centre where they both had enrolled in a creative writing course.
Masatora then become enraged after Ms Dawson intended on ending their relationship, and he hit her in the head twice.
She died three days later.
Masatora pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in May 2017.
“There is an enormous sense of grief and emptiness — she’s gone,” Mr Dawson told the Herald Sun at the time.
MARGARET CLEMENT’S DISAPPEARANCE FROM TARWIN LOWER
From the belle of Melbourne society who lived in a 17-room mansion with her sister, Margaret Clement’s life fell into squalor and she became known as the Lady of the Swamp.
Once a jewel of Gippsland, the sisters’ mansion Tullaree became overrun with cats, rats and snakes.
And then one day in May, 1952, Margaret Clement was gone too.
Vanished. Never to be seen again.
Did she simply fall victim to the murky floodwaters surrounding her derelict homestead and
get washed out to sea? Was she murdered? And, if she was murdered, who was the killer?
It has become one of Australia’s greatest unsolved mysteries and a source of local legend.
Extensive searches by police and 200 volunteers failed to find any trace of the Swamp Lady.
Initially, it was thought Ms Clement had slipped and drowned, but when her walking stick —
which she took everywhere — was found back at the house, suspicions were raised.
More than 70 years later, the police file remains open but inactive.
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