How murder clues sank with a body in the bay
When a Frankston chef dumped his wife’s body in Port Phillip Bay, police never doubted it was murder. But a twist set him free.
Victoria
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In a way, it made sense that Caroline Scully should want to run away.
Life with her husband Edward had been no picnic.
Edward, 52, a former Navy man, was six years younger and was less than faithful in marriage.
A few years earlier, in the late 1940s, he’d walked out on Caroline, leaving their home in Ritchie St Frankston to shack up with another woman.
His adult daughter Betty had bumped into him and the mistress by chance at a Melbourne pub in 1949, but there was no acrimony.
Edward had always been a good father, and now he promised to return home and put things right with his wife.
In early 1950, it seemed like he was doing just that.
He moved back to Frankston and he and Caroline visited the real estate agent to put the house on the market.
They intended to start afresh, maybe run a shop in Bendigo or Shepparton.
That was before Caroline vanished on May 29, 1950.
When friends and family asked after her, Edward said he had returned home to find a note explaining that his wife had “gone on the spirit”, suggesting a sea voyage, perhaps to Queensland.
And nobody heard from her again.
It was known the marriage had been in trouble and some might have thought Caroline was finally fed up and wanted out.
But others weren’t so sure.
By now their daughter Betty was heavily pregnant and Caroline didn’t even contact her to tell her where she was going.
She left without telling her employer, the owner of a nearby home where she carried out domestic service twice a week.
Caroline Scully was reported missing almost three weeks after she was last seen and police left no stone unturned in their search.
They dragged a nearby river, sifted through the backyard incinerator, rifled through rubbish heaps and, when suspicion fell on Edward, dug up almost every square inch of the Frankston property and searched every crevice and void of the house.
There was no sign of Caroline anywhere.
Meanwhile Edward gave an interview to a newspaper journalist at the Black Spur Inn at Narbethong where he was working as a chef.
“The murder talk is all a bunch of hooey,” he declared.
“When I arrived home... and found my wife missing and the note saying she had gone on the Spirit of Progress I was not alarmed or surprised.
“I thought she must have gone away for a holiday as she had been nervy and a bit cut up over selling the house.
“You know how women are.”
But Edward was lying.
THE MISTRESS
In early 1951, police believed they had enough to charge Edward Scully with murder.
They tracked him down in Brisbane, arrested him and brought him back to Melbourne.
While separated from his wife, Edward Scully had been with a woman named Jean Baker, a divorcee.
They lived together on and off, sometimes taking up residence in pubs around Melbourne for a fortnight or so at a time.
Sometimes she was known as Mrs Scully, other times they went by Mr and Mrs Nash.
And it was Jean Baker who Scully was living with at the time of his arrest in Brisbane.
Under intense police questioning, Scully broke.
After long denying any involvement in his wife’s strange disappearance, he made a stunning confession.
On the evening of May 29, so claimed Scully, there was an argument about the other woman.
He admitted to going out with Mrs Baker and, when his wife asked why, he bluntly said his mistress was more important to him.
What happened during the argument is unknown, but Edward Scully’s version of events is as follows.
Caroline was so flustered by the argument, which took place in the kitchen of their Frankston home, she turned a ghastly pale.
Then she fainted, striking her skull in the stove as she fell.
Edward panicked.
He checked his wife’s pulse, but felt nothing.
Plenty of friends and family knew Edward had a been off with a mistress and he feared being thrown in jail for murder.
He shoved his wife’s lifeless body in a sack, bound it up and loaded it on a barrow.
Then he shoved it in a large laundry basket on wheels and trundled it down to the bay.
He weighted his wife’s body with bricks and an iron bar, then dragged the heavy mass into the water and swam as far as he could with it.
Then he simply dropped his wife into the deep.
A few days after getting rid of his wife, Edward Scully started the story about how she’d run away on a ship. And he invited Mrs Baker to stay with him at the family home.
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
After Scully’s bombshell admission to police, divers scoured the bay off Frankston.
After four long days of searching, nothing was found.
That was a problem for prosecutors.
When Scully faced court for murder, there was found to be insufficient evidence, even though he had spoken about dragging his wife’s body into the bay and sinking it.
Eventually the murder charge was dropped.
But Scully was found guilty of disposing of a body in a way that prevented a coronial inquest.
For the lesser crime he was sentenced to three years in jail with hard labour.
The judge remarked: “The police evidence shows you are a man who will not hesitate to lie boldly when you think your own safety is at stake.”
Police always suspected Scully murdered his wife.
Jean Baker, who denied any involvement in the death, claimed Scully had told her he intended to return home to his wife in early 1950, sell the house, divide the money then run away again and marry Baker.
Caroline Scully’s body was never found, and what happened on the evening of May 29, 1950, will never be known for sure.
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