Cold Case vow: Victoria Police will never stop hunting Sarah MacDiarmid’s killer says top cop
VICTORIA’s new top cop today vowed detectives under his command will never stop investigating cold cases like that of murder victim Sarah MacDiarmid.
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VICTORIA’s new top cop today vowed detectives under his command will never stop investigating cold cases like that of murder victim Sarah MacDiarmid.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told the Herald Sun he was passionate about continuing to throw resources at Victoria Police’s cold case and missing persons squad.
It is 25 years on Saturday that Ms MacDiarmid, 23, disappeared from Kananook railway station.
Her body has never been found and no charges have been laid over what police are convinced was her abduction and murder.
Ms MacDiarmid’s parents, Peter and Sheila MacDiarmid, were this week thrilled to learn the cold case and missing persons squad is having a fresh look at the case and that new leads have recently been provided through Crime Stoppers.
The squad’s Mark Berens visited the MacDiarmids at their home in country Victoria on Wednesday.
“I told them people have contacted Crime Stoppers about Sarah and we are following those leads in the hope they advance the case by pointing us in the right direction to a person or persons who committed the crime,” detective Sen-Constable Berens said.
Mr Ashton, who has met the MacDiarmids and spoken to them about their daughter’s disappearance, told the Herald Sun he intends ensuring missing persons and cold case homicide and sex crimes remain a priority under his leadership.
“It’s something I am very passionate about,” he said.
“It’s really important that when the spotlights have gone off a particular crime, and it’s not solved, that the people who have been traumatised by that crime know that the case isn’t closed, that we will continue to have people working on cold cases.
“Having had the opportunity to meet with a number of families of cold case victims, for example, the MacDiarmids, there are some really nice people out there who have had to cope with great tragedy and great hardship.
“We would like to try to bring some sense of closure to them.”
Ms MacDiarmid’s father Peter welcomed Mr Ashton’s commitment to never giving in.
“It is very reassuring that even 25 years after Sarah disappeared; Victoria Police is still actively investigating the case,” he told the Herald Sun.
“It was particularly pleasing to be told this week by cold case and missing persons squad detective Mark Berens that the squad is re-examining Sarah’s case.
“He assured us they are actually following up some lines of inquiry, but they don’t, at this juncture, want to say too much more other than to reiterate it is very much an ongoing case that will not be closed until it is solved.”
Police were able to piece together Ms MacDiarmid’s movements on the day she disappeared.
It had become her habit to regularly play tennis on Wednesday nights with friends from the city insurance company where she worked as a clerk.
She left her home in Skye Rd, Frankston, at 7.20am on July 11, 1990 and caught the 7.35am train from nearby Kananook station to Melbourne.
Ms MacDiarmid left her Collins St office at 5.10pm with workmates Gavan Thorne, Dianne Wright-Smith and Mike Garrad.
They drove together in Mr Garrad’s car to what is now known as the National Tennis Centre at Melbourne Park, arriving at 5.25pm.
As was their usual practice, they had drinks at the tennis centre lounge after several sets of tennis.
Ms MacDiarmid, Mr Thorne and Ms Wright-Smith then walked to Richmond railway station and caught the 9.20pm train to Caulfield.
At Caulfield station they transferred to the 9.39pm Frankston train and got in the third and last carriage as it was the only one with lights on.
Mr Thorne and Ms Wright-Smith got off the train at Bonbeach at 10.15pm after saying their goodbyes to Ms MacDiarmid and arranging to meet her on the train the following morning to go to work.
Ms MacDiarmid got off the Frankston bound train at Kananook station at 10.20pm and was seen by three witnesses to walk towards the poorly lit station car park.
Several people later told police they heard screams coming from the Kananook station area.
One of those witnesses, Maria Babacala, told police she got off the same train as Ms MacDiarmid at Kananook station and shortly afterwards heard a female say “give me my car keys back and stop fooling around”.
“The words I heard were in a firm but not a yelling type voice,” Ms Babacala told police.
“I couldn’t see what was going on when I looked over the bridge as it was dark and obscured by bush.
“Within a few seconds of hearing the female voice, I heard a female scream.
“It was cut off after a very short time, for less than a second.
“I stopped and looked everywhere, the car park, the station and the railway line, but I couldn’t see anyone.”
On the nights Ms MacDiarmid played tennis it was usual for her to return home between 10.30pm and 10.40pm. Her parents Peter and Sheila, and younger brother Alisdair, became concerned when she still wasn’t home at 11pm.
At 1am, Alisdair MacDiarmid, who was 21 at the time, drove to Kananook station in the hope his sister would arrive on the last Frankston bound train from the city. Sadly, she wasn’t on it.
He found his sister’s red Honda Civic in the station car park. He checked, and found the doors and boot were still locked.
Believing Ms MacDiarmid might have decided to spend the night at a friend’s house, the MacDiarmids waited until the next morning before making further inquiries.
On ringing Ms MacDiarmid’s work, they discovered she had not turned up so they reported her missing to police shortly after 9am on July 12, 1990.
Detective Senior Constable Colin Clark then drove to Kananook station to check out the scene, parking near Ms MacDiarmid’s car.
“I then approached the vehicle,” he said in his statement to the Coroner.
“As I did I noticed what appeared to me to be a quantity of blood on the bitumen car park surface underneath the area of the driver’s side door of this Honda Civic and further blood patches on the bitumen under a car parked adjacent to the driver’s side of the Civic.
“This blood, although visible, appeared to have soaked into the bitumen surface,
“Without entering or touching the vehicle, I observed both doors appeared to be locked and there were no bags or clothing items in the vehicle.
“I then located a number of other blood spots on the bitumen surface and then followed them to a small area of vegetation and trees immediately to the western side of the car park, a short distance away.
“I saw further blood spots on the concrete gutter edging and on the grass surface leading to the bushes I saw what appeared to me to be two parallel running drag marks that had slightly indented the dirt.
“Immediately into the bush area, I observed further blood still in fluid form on wire meshing which was lying on the ground, also some on the branches of bracken nearby.
“To the immediate right hand side of this blood, I saw a green coloured cigarette lighter lying also on the ground.
“The dirt and bracken in this area appeared to have been recently disturbed.
“It appeared to me from this evidence that a person who had started bleeding near the driver’s side door of the Honda Civic had been carried or dragged into the bushes nearby.”
Forensic tests later determined the blood was from Ms MacDiarmid and that the green cigarette lighter was from a cafe in Collins Place, Melbourne, near to where smoker Ms MacDiarmid worked.
More than 250 police spent the next 21 days conducting what turned out to be a fruitless air, sea and land search for Ms MacDiarmid’s body.
An inquest in 1996 determined Ms MacDiarmid met with foul play shortly after 10.20pm and was killed at or near her car by a person or persons unknown.
Twenty five years on and that’s still basically all that is known for sure about what happened to Ms MacDiarmid on the night of July 11, 1990.
Mr MacDiarmid said police had investigated — and told him about — a number of suspects over the years.
He said those suspects included:
NOW dead prostitute Jodie Jones, who once stabbed a man to death with her stiletto heels.
FRANKSTON serial killer Paul Denyer.
COP killer Bandali Debs.
“These three have been suggested as suspects, but there is nothing to prove whether or not they were involved,” Mr MacDiarmid told the Herald Sun.
“The sad truth is, even after 25 years, neither I nor the police really have any idea what happened to Sarah or where her body is.
“That’s the worst part, it’s absolutely dreadful not knowing.
“Just last week I was out walking the dogs and my mind started running through all the possible scenarios.
“Was she killed during a robbery gone wrong; was she a victim of the slave trade; was she attacked and dragged into the bushes for reasons I don’t even want to think about — all these things still go through my head.
“We are assuming, 25 years down the track, that she’s probably been murdered.
“You are talking a very, very high probability that she has met with foul play, but without a body it’s not an utter certainty.
“That’s the damnable thing.
“While finding the body might provide valuable clues as to who did it, it would be a real blow to my wife and me because it would definitely be evidence that she has been killed.
“But on the positive side, at least we would know more about what happened. We could perhaps cope better knowing the uncertainty was behind us.”
Finding the body and having a funeral would also give the MacDiarmids somewhere other than Kananook station to go to pay their respects.
This weekend, as they have done on other anniversaries, Peter and Sheila MacDiarmid will visit the memorial they established for their daughter at the scene of her disappearance, which includes a tree they planted.
“It has gone gangbusters since then. It’s a very healthy tree,” Mr MacDiarmid said.
“Sheila has also planted some nice ground covering geraniums around the tree.
“The 25th anniversary will be hard for us, but it is also a timely chance for us to remind people there is still a $1 million reward available as well as an indemnity to anybody who might have been present but didn’t participate in whatever happened to Sarah.
“Such a person could grab a slice of the $1 million and not have to worry about being charged with anything.
“I appeal to any such person, or anybody who knows anything about what happened to Sarah, to come forward.”
The first suspect Mr MacDiarmid was told about was street hooker Jodie Jones.
Police were told in the days after Ms MacDiarmid went missing that drug addict Jones had confessed to friends that she was responsible.
One of those friends later told police Jones had stayed at her flat for a few days after Ms MacDiarmid disappeared and that Jones had confessed to her that she and two men were involved in murdering Ms MacDiarmid at Kananook station.
The friend told police Jones started her confession by saying: “You know that murder up at the Kananook station, I was there with two other blokes and I’m worried because I don’t know how staunch they are.”
That friend’s daughter told police she had been listening when Jones confessed.
“I overheard a conversation between her and Mum, Paul (a man who shared the flat with the mother and daughter) did to,” the then 11-year-old told police a few weeks after Ms MacDiarmid disappeared.
“We were in the lounge but we could hear them in the bedroom.
“I could hear Jodie say that she was in deep s — t because she was in the Kananook murder and that there were two other guys with her and she didn’t know whether they would lag on her.
“I heard Mum tell her that she didn’t want any trouble and then Jodie asked for the $100 Mum owed her because she wanted to go interstate and Mum said she didn’t have the money.
“Their voices were a bit raised.
“Then I went into Mum’s bedroom and Jodie sort of stopped talking a bit.
“Then Paul came in to and asked her to leave.
“She sat there for about two minutes on Mum’s bed and then she took her bag and stormed out.”
Other friends told police similar things about Jones allegedly confessing to murdering Ms MacDiarmid.
One even told police she saw the attack on Ms MacDiarmid.
“As the train pulled away I saw Jodie and these two males follow a girl who was dressed in sporting gear,” Jodie’s friend said in a sworn statement to police on December 9, 1990.
“I watched these people for a while and I seen Jodie and the two males start belting into that girl near the driver’s side door of the car.
“I heard a female voice scream as she was being attacked.
“Jodie came screaming out from behind the car and the two males were following her.
“Jodie was hysterical and I ran towards her. I then saw blood on Jodie’s clothes.
“Jody was screaming ‘she’s dead, she’s dead’. I have not seen Jodie since this happened.”
Jones was arrested on July 23, 1990, and interviewed about the allegations. She denied being involved in Ms MacDiarmid’s death and was never charged.
This below is part of the taped interview between then homicide squad detective Charlie Bezzina and Jones.
BEZZINA: It’s been alleged by a number of persons that you’ve told them you were involved in the death and stabbing of Sarah MacDiarmid at the Kananook railway station. What do you say to that?
JONES: I don’t know what they are on about. I don’t know what they are trying to do.
BEZZINA: Do you agree that they have made statements to the police telling the police that you have, in fact, made admissions to them in relation to being involved in this? Do you agree with that?
JONES Yeah, but I don’t agree with what they’re saying.
BEZZINA: Can you offer any explanation why they, of their own free will, would make a statement to the police, setting out these details and the conversations you have related to them?
JONES: I know Leon and Queenie used to ring each other and I had a fight with Queenie over money. I don’t know why. I wish I did.
BEZZINA: I also put it to you that you’re involved in the disappearance and death of Sarah MacDiarmid. What do you say to that?
JONES: I’ll put it to you that you’re lying.
Jones, 26, died of a heroin overdose in a St Kilda motel room 14 months after Ms MacDiarmid was murdered.
She had previously served time in jail for killing a man, car theft, prostitution, burglary and drug offences.
She was sentenced in 1985 to 12 years’ jail for the manslaughter of a man in St Kilda.
The court was told Jones was wearing stiletto heels when she jumped off a wall on to the victim’s chest.
Jones was released from jail early on parole after her stiletto stabbing conviction, which meant she was free when Ms MacDiarmid was murdered on July 11, 1990.
Mr MacDiarmid said police also told him Frankston serial killer Paul Denyer had to be considered a suspect because of what he did to other woman near where Ms MacDiarmid disappeared from.
Denyer confessed during a police interview in 1993 to the murders of Elizabeth Stevens, 18, Debbie Fream, 22 and Natalie Jayne Russell.
But when questioned about the disappearance of Ms MacDiarmid, Denyer denied being involved.
“I’d tell you if it was me,” Denyer told the then homicide squad detective Ron Iddles in 2011.
“I’ve always admitted what I have done.”
The Herald Sun revealed last year that four-time killer Bandali Debs was being examined as a possible suspect for murdering Ms MacDiarmid.
Debs, 61, is serving two life jail terms for the 1988 murders in Moorabbin of policemen Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rod Miller.
He has also been found guilty of the 1995 murder of Sydney sex worker Donna Hicks, 34, and of killing 18-year-old Melbourne prostitute Kristy Harty in 1997.
News of Debs being regarded by police at the time as a person of interest in the MacDiarmid case prompted her brother Alisdair to write to Debs.
In an open letter through the Herald Sun in May last year, Alisdair MacDiarmid made an emotional plea to the cop killer.
He offered to visit Debs in jail to talk to him face to face.
“I’m not sure what name you were known by within your family, but I will address you as Bandali,” the letter to Debs said.
“My name is Alisdair. My sister is Sarah MacDiarmid.
“I don’t know what makes you tick, any more than you know what makes me tick.
“Neither you nor I have a rosy-coloured view of the world.
“Forrest Gump was wrong. Life is not a box of chocolates. There is plenty of rubbish in that box too.
“The fortunate have many chocolates in there. Some have a good number, others are grateful for the few they find — no matter the flavour.
“So this is just a straightforward request. If you know where Sarah is, please say so.
“Tell someone. Tell me. Bandali, I am willing to visit you if you wish to tell me face to face.”
Debs never replied.
A $1 million reward is available to solve the MacDiarmid case.
Detective Sen-Constable Berens is today appealing to anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or through www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
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