Truth behind Geelong’s most twisted unsolved crimes
Geelong is home to some of the state’s most brutal unsolved crimes, with police continuing to call for fresh clues into dozens of cold cases. These are some of the most shocking.
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Geelong is home to some of the state’s most brutal unsolved crimes, with police continuing to call for fresh clues into dozens of cold cases. These are some of the most shocking.
ANNETTE STEWARD
A friend discovered the naked body of Annette Steward in the bedroom of her Hope St, Geelong West home about 1pm on Wednesday March 18, 1992.
The 29-year-old mother-of-two left work at the Winchester Factory in Point Henry about 4.30pm the day before, went shopping in Geelong and shared tea with four male friends at her home later that evening — with the men leaving afterwards.
On March 18, a passing friend saw Ms Steward’s car in her driveway and let himself in to her home to visit, discovering her body.
Reporting on the case have suggested the champion marching girl was found dead, naked bashed and with an electrical cord around her throat.
A post-mortem revealed she had died as a result of strangulation.
In 2015, police announced the $1 million reward for information leading to the solving of Ms Stewards murder.
In January, detectives had arrested a 52-year-old man under a joint operation by Victoria Police and Western Australia Police linked to two murder investigations — one being the Steward case.
THERESE, KATHRYN, JAMES AND KAREN CRAWFORD
While not so much unsolved, the case of the 1970 deaths near a famous Great Ocean Road landmark has yet to be finalised, with the perpetraor still on the run.
A 1971 coronial inquest found that Elmer Kyle Crawford was responsible for the 1970 murder of his pregnant wife and three children aged six to 13 – but Elmer was nowhere to be seen.
The bodies of the 35-year-old mother and her children were discovered in the family car on July 2, 1970 — with the car having been pushed over a cliff face at Loch Ard Gorge in Port Campbell.
A search of the family’s Glenroy home suggested the trio had been murdered there, with each appearing to have died as a result of electrocution and or blunt force trauma to the head.
Mr Crawford was seen at the family home on the day the bodies were discovered, but despite extensive searches police have never been able to locate him.
In 2008, investigators released a graphically manipulated age enhanced image of Elmer Kyle Crawford, and announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders.
JOHN STUART CHAPMAN
John Stuart Chapman’s body was found wedged between rocks on a Point Lonsdale foreshore about 7am on June 19, 1996.
John’s facial injuries were obvious, and a post mortem soon listed the cause of death as “neck compression with blunt head trauma” – with John suffering four distinctive head wounds caused by a blunt object and marks on his neck consistent with strangulation.
Police were quick to launch a murder investigation, but little did they know the investigation would drag on and remain open 25 years later.
A police brief of evidence prepared into John’s death outlined all the evidence investigators would share in 2006 to suggest John’s wife Juliana Chapman had been involved in his death.
But, a coronial inquest found no compelling evidence to support that claim. Similarly, the Director of Public Prosecutions found there was insufficient evidence to charge Juliana Chapman.
Police had made it clear from the beginning they suspected Juliana of being involved in her husband’s death – arresting, interviewing and releasing her without charge on three separate occasions.
Investigators included a list of 23 circumstances they believed implicated Juliana in the death of her husband – including traces of a bloody footprint found by police on the front porch of the Chapman’s family home two days after John’s body had been discovered, in a covert test. When police returned the next day with a warrant, the footprint appeared to have been cleaned.
The Geelong Advertiser is not suggesting that any of the allegations by police regarding Mrs Chapman are true or could be proved, only that they are contained on the police brief of evidence.
The Director of Public Prosecutions concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge Juliana Chapman.
By the end of a 2006 inquest, coroner Phillip Byrne had returned a similar conclusion to the DPP, and appeared to stress the point that there was a lack of compelling evidence for the police focus on Juliana Chapman.
SALVATORE ROTIROTI
Police say the person who killed Salvatore Rotiroti inside the gates of his Manifold Heights home on September 5, 1988, wanted “to take control of his family”.
They say his killer was so feared by relatives that they swore an oath not to reveal him — an oath that appears to remain strong today despite a $1 million reward for information on the unsolved cold case.
They originally arrested a 21-year-old man in relation to the murder of the father of five less than a month after the killing.
Those charges were dropped after witnesses withdrew their statements, and the man once believed responsible has since changed his name and moved interstate.
Police say he remains a person of interest.
BERT DRISCOLL
Bert Driscoll is still talked about, more than 30 years after he died in the arms of police after being stabbed in the chest at his inner-Geelong pinball parlour in 1973.
Driscoll’s bloody murder at the Funarama amusement parlour, in Union Street, remains unsolved to this day.
A smashed glass panel in the office door showed Driscoll tried to fight off his attackers.
The injuries he sustained in the fight were deadly — one to the chest, another near the throat, one of which severed an artery.
Driscoll was stabbed with a sharp instrument, police said.
Homicide and Geelong CIB detectives interviewed teenagers who were in the Funarama amusement parlour between 10 and 11pm that night, but no killer — or killers — have ever been brought to justice.
CLARE MORRISON
Norlane teenager Clare Morrison’s semi-naked body was washed up on Bells Beach on December 19, 1992 with police labelling the case as a homicide.
Clare suffered head and neck injuries before her death.
A shark mauling meant the cause of death could not be identified.
She was last seen walking down Little Malop Street mall towards Moorabool St, where she was planning to meet a friend at what was then a McDonald’s fast food outlet.
Witnesses at the time said the 13-year-old girl appeared to be drunk.
AIMEE MILNE
Few crimes have shaken the Geelong community more than the bombing of the Milne family home in 1936.
Senior Constable Fred Milne lived in Manning St with his wife Aimee and two youngest children — daughter Chloris and son Norman.
The family had called Geelong home since Milne had transferred from Melbourne CIB nearly four years earlier.
On July 12, Milne and his wife were in bed by 11pm. It had been an uneventful Sunday with nothing to warn of the horrific events that would unfold before daybreak.
About 3.20am the couple were woken by the sound of breaking glass and the thud of something heavy landing on the floor. A bomb had been flung into their bedroom.
The Milne’s weatherboard villa was half-demolished in the initial blast, the explosion so strong it was heard as far as North Geelong and East Geelong and shook houses along Manning St.
Miraculously, Milne survived after being shielded from the direct force of the blast. His children, who slept on the opposite side of the house, escaped the explosion unharmed. His wife, however, wasn’t as fortunate and died at the scene.
To this day, no one has ever been charged with Mrs Milne’s murder.
Last year, she became the first civilian awarded the prestigious Victoria Police Star.
EARL MOORING
54-year-old Spirit of Tasmania security guard Earl Mooring disappeared from his Whittington home on Tuesday October 10, 2000.
Four years later, his body was discovered in Towrang in New South Wales following a tip-off from a Bandido bikie.
Mr Mooring had reportedly been keeping a $120,000 retirement nest egg in his home, with his death a suspected burglary attempt.
It is understood Mr Mooring was bashed with a hammer, tied up in a tarpaulin then driven from the scene in his own car, a 1996 red Nissan Micra Coupe with registration NTD-626 — which police have never located.
Reports following the murder suggest Mr Mooring’s ATM card was used seven times on the east coast of Australia in the days following his disappearance.
Police in 2003 announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the 54-year-old mans death, then boosting the reward to $500,000 in 2007.
Originally published as Truth behind Geelong’s most twisted unsolved crimes
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