Melbourne cold cases: $10m to help solve brutal murders
COLD case squad detectives are about to offer $10 million in reward money to try to crack some of Victoria’s most brutal unsolved murders. Here are some of the cases.
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COLD case squad detectives are about to offer $10 million in reward money to try to crack some of Victoria’s most brutal unsolved murders.
These are among the cases selected by Victoria Police for ten new $1 million rewards:
MARGARET and SEANA TAPP, whose bodies were discovered in their Ferntree Gully home in 1984.
Ms Tapp, 35, was beaten and strangled while her daughter Seana, 9, was raped and killed in her bed.
COULD A PAIR OF DUNLOP VOLLEYS LEAD TO KILLER OF MARGARET AND SEANA TAPP?
CHRIS PHILIPS, 42, a civil engineer with the Board of Works who died of head injuries at his Cheltenham home in 1989. His throat was also cut.
RENITA BRUNTON, 31, was stabbed to death in her Sunbury shop in 1993.
A suspect is serial sex monster Peter Dupas.
Dupas has already been convicted of the murders of Mersina Halvagas, 25, Nicole Patterson, 28, and Margaret Maher, 40.
He is also a suspect in the murders of 95-year-old great-grandmother Kathleen Downes and of Helen McMahon, 47, who was bashed to death while sunbathing on a Rye beach in 1985.
25 YEARS OF CRIMES THAT SHOCKED US
UNSOLVED MELBOURNE MURDERS YOU MAY NEVER HAVE HEARD ABOUT
RICKY BALCOMBE, 16, was stabbed repeatedly in the back and chest at Geelong’s busy Market Square Mall in front of his best mate and shocked shoppers in 1995.
The other six $1 million rewards will be revealed during Channel 7’s new true crime series Million Dollar Cold Case, which starts on Wednesday at 9pm.
POLICE HOPE REWARD CAN SOLVE 20-YEAR MURDER MYSTERY OF RICKY BALCOMBE
Homicide squad boss Detective Inspector Mick Hughes is hoping the publicity — and the chance at a life-changing $1 million reward — will prompt those with knowledge of the crimes to contact police.
A 2014 Herald Sun article resulted in murder rewards being increased to $1 million.
It reported murder victims’ relatives’ complaints about the inequity of some unsolved murders attracting $1 million rewards while others offered much less, or nothing.
Daryl Floyd, the brother of murdered schoolboy Terry Floyd, and Peter MacDiarmid, the father of murder victim Sarah MacDiarmid, were quoted appealing for uniformity in the rewards system.
Then-police chief, Ken Lay, told the Herald Sun the article had moved him so much he ordered an immediate review of the rewards system.
That review resulted in the Herald Sun being able to report in December, 2014 that all new rewards offered to solve murders would be for $1 million, and that all murder rewards already offered would be reviewed and progressively increased to $1 million.
Anyone who has any information about the Tapp, Balcombe, Brunton or Philips murders should contact Crime Stoppers by calling 1800 333 000 or visiting crimestoppersvic.com.au