The brutal slaying of Beth Barnard on Phillip Island remains a mystery

FEW tourists now flocking to Phillip Island know it is also the setting of a gruesome murder involving a wealthy businessman, a mistress and a jealous wife.

FEW tourists flocking to Phillip Island know it is also the setting of the gruesome murder of Beth Barnard.

Each year thousands of people flock to the shores of Phillip Island in search of sun, surf and sand.

But as they pass over the bridge linking the idyllic summer getaway to the mainland, what few remember is that it was the setting of one of Victoria’s most gruesome murders.

This real-life horror story had all the makings of a Hollywood thriller - a wealthy businessman, a younger mistress and a jealous wife.

It played out on the night of September 22, 1986.

Elizabeth Barnard, known as Beth, lay asleep at her parents’ Rhyll home. She lived alone.

Beth worked as a farmhand on the Cameron family property. The Camerons were wealthy, having once owned the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and large tracts of land.

Just hours before her death, 23-year-old Beth had said good night to her lover and boss, married father-of-two Fergus Cameron.

Mr Cameron’s lies about the affair were beginning to unravel, and waiting at home was his enraged wife Vivienne.

During the heated fight that followed, Vivienne lashed out, slashing Mr Cameron across the ear and back with a broken wine glass. 

The pair went to the local hospital before returning home to discuss their failing marriage.

After confessing to having an affair with Beth, Mr Cameron was driven to his sister’s house around 2am, where he was to stay.

Later that morning, he would wake to news that his mistress had been brutally murdered.

The attack on Beth was “horrific”, says former homicide squad detective Rory O’Connor, who headed the investigation.

The killer placed a blanket over Beth’s body, concealing at first glance the savagery of her death.

She had been stabbed repeatedly and her throat had been cut.

“This was a vicious and frenzied attack,” O’Connor told True Crime Scene.

“It was personal all right. There is no doubt about intent whatsoever. Even Beth’s fingers were all cut up because she was trying to hold the blade back.”

Most shocking was the large letter “A” carved into Beth’s chest.

“You’re talking about four slashes one way, ten slashes the other and five across. That’s not just someone gently carving an A,” O’Connor said.

The killer then smoked a few cigarettes and washed their blood-stained hands in Beth’s bathroom.

Investigators believed the carved letter paid homage to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter, in which a woman is forced to be publicly identified as an adulteress with a red “A” sewn to her clothes. 

It was confirmed that Vivienne had read the 1850s romantic novel at school, so investigations turned their attentions to the jilted wife.

But Vivienne was missing. She had not been seen since farewelling her husband at his sister’s house.

Her Toyota Land Cruiser was discovered at near the San Remo Bridge. 

Inside was her handbag, two packets of Claridge cigarettes, a carving knife and a blood-stained face washer.

While the car wasn’t found until 3.50pm, it had been seen at the park by a baker doing his deliveries as early as 5am.

The car’s tyres matched imprints left outside Beth’s house.

This evidence became vital police calculations about the movements of the various players that night.

They concluded that after dropping her husband off, Vivienne drove to Beth’s house, where she murdered her in a frenzied attacked.

They believed that faced with the atrocities she had committed, she then drove to the San Remo Bridge and jumped to her death.

Police mounted a full-scale search for Vivienne’s body. Divers scoured the seas, while the beach was searched for any signs of life. The search proved fruitless.

Local fishermen told police that the tide that swept under the bridge was fierce – between 8 to 10 knots – and surviving a jump was a remote possibility.

The treacherous stretch of water is also breeding ground for white pointer sharks and is laden with sea lice.

Coronial inquests in 1987 and 1988 supported the police theory that Vivienne had committed Beth’s murder before taking her own life.

"I am satisfied that she 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 death (of Beth),” Coroner B.J. Maher found.

Testing conducted years later confirmed that the cigarettes found in Beth’s house contained traces of Vivienne’s DNA.

However, O’Connor acknowledges that “while DNA can always confirm that someone was in a particular situation or a particular place, maybe at a particular time, it never says that they actually killed somebody”.

Twenty-six years later, locals remain divided on whether Vivienne wielded the knife.

But as unlikely a killer as Vivienne appears to have been, O’Connor believes everyone has the capacity if driven to it.

“The horror of what she’d done forced her to jump. She had a couple of kids and had lost everything,” he says.

“That’s just how emotions get the better of you.

“You hope you’d never have it in you to actually do that to somebody, but you don’t know what circumstances are going to drive you to it.

“Frenzies happen and people are pretty remorseful and can’t live with what they’ve done. “

Mr Cameron lost his wife and mistress in horrific circumstances, but O’Connor doesn’t see him as a blameless figure in the tragedy.

“It’s all right to paint Fergus as a victim in this, but it was brought about by Beth’s circumstances and his circumstances (in having an affair),” O’Connor said.

Former local police officer Jack McFayden also played a role in the investigation, including spending a good part of a day taking a statement from Mr Cameron.

He doesn’t believe Vivienne was Beth’s killer, pointing to statements made by her friend Glenda Frost as being crucial in casting doubt on the coronial findings.

Ms Frost claimed to have spoken to Vivienne at 10am on September 23 – hours after Vivienne was said to have jumped to her death.

According to police statements, Frost said she had “no doubt” it was Vivienne on the other end of the phone.

As further proof it was Vivienne she spoke to, Frost stated that no one else could have known about the things they discussed during the call.

But Mr McFayden admits the suspicions of investigators are nothing more than that without proof.

“You might have knowledge but if you can’t tick all the boxes for points of proof in law, then you haven’t got a case,” he said.

“Until we have proof we can’t really say too much in all fairness to possible suspects,” he said.

A warrant remains for Vivienne’s arrest. 

This report first appeared in the Herald Sun's True Crime Scene in October 2012.