Rowland Legg: Pamela Anderson lie almost blew hunt for killer

He said he knew where a body was buried then claimed he was saving money to sleep with Pamela Anderson. Luckily, police still followed his tip.

Rowland Legg had concerns when a witness to a murder claimed to be saving money to sleep with Pamela Anderson.

• Rowland Legg is one of Victoria’s most experienced murder investigators. In a new series he delves into some of his strangest and most challenging cases.

On Mother’s Day 2001, May 13, the homicide squad crew I led was on a rest day and was the “on call” first response crew for the state. Obviously we all hoped for a quiet, special day with our families.

Shortly before 2pm I responded to a call from the online supervisor at D24, who requested I contact Senior Sergeant Godfrey at the Flemington Police Station.

I was told the divisional van had picked up a man who had earlier that day called to report that one week before he had assisted in the disposal of a body after being conscripted by the alleged killer.

I was informed the caller had a psychiatric history, had falsely confessed to murders in the past and had been shot by police during a siege.

The senior sergeant at Flemington said that despite the unstable nature of the history, the informer appeared lucid. He had said the name of the person he assisted to bury was “Steve”.

I arranged for the matter to initially be handled by local detectives who were to caution the informer/confessor, obtain further details from him of what he was alleging had occurred, attempt to establish the location of the body, if there was one, and to compile more information on the informer’s history.

Former homicide squad detective Rowland Legg. Picture: Alex Coppel

At 3.30 that afternoon I responded to another message from the online supervisor and was told of the suspicious death of a 46-year-old woman in Brunswick. On calling the local detective at the scene I was informed the lady had been found on her kitchen floor by her mother after she failed to arrive at a Mother’s Day lunch.

There was no obvious sign of injury, however detectives had concerns regarding the position of the body, the gate along with front and rear doors having been found open and water running in the sink. The deceased woman lived with only her 10-year-old son who was at a camp and due to return that afternoon. (Obviously preventing the boy’s return directly to the house was a priority.)

After briefing members of the crew, the on-call pathologist and forensic crime scene examiners, I left for Brunswick. On later viewing the scene and body we were of the belief the most likely cause of death was natural causes. This was later also the initial assessment of the pathologist and confirmed by the autopsy he performed.

While at this scene I was contacted by a detective from Flemington. He said some aspects of the story provided by the informer were firming. I then had two members of the crew, Detective Senior Constables Leigh Abbey and Julian Horan attend at the Flemington Police Station.

Shortly after 8pm they provided me with the name of the suspected killer, his address in Ascot Vale, being the likely scene of the killing and confirmation of the informer’s claim that there was a stolen vehicle in the car park of the subject block of flats.

The murder had allegedly occurred on Friday May 4 and the body buried “on the road to Shepparton” on Sunday May 6.

It was decided the informer would be “put on ice” overnight and a search conducted the following day, Monday May 14.

A STRANGE TRIP TO SHEPPARTON

Horan and Abbey set off that morning with the informer in search of the grave. I needed to attend court and at 10am telephoned Detective Senior Constable Horan in response to a message from him.

I was told they had not travelled far but were querying whether I really wanted them to pursue the matter as by this stage in the journey the informer had relayed to them, among other revelations, that his pastime was filming aliens and spaceships, then selling the recordings to passers-by in the Bourke Street Mall, and that his friends were collecting funds to enable him to have sex with actor Pamela Anderson.

I conveyed my understanding that the trip may be fruitless but that we could not ignore the information we had.

Pamela Anderson on Baywatch.

The informer claimed he filmed aliens.

At midday Horan called again. They had been directed to a point near Mangalore, just off the Shepparton Road (Goulburn Valley Highway) and discovered newly-turned earth which could well be a grave. After arranging attendance of the Wangaratta and Melbourne Crime Scene Units I left the office.

By the time I arrived at the location on the eastern side of the Melbourne to Shepparton railway line, 207 metres north of Gerrards Road, sufficient earth had been removed to expose what was obviously a body wrapped tightly in plastic.

The scene was forensically examined and the body removed and conveyed to the mortuary at Southbank where it would be unwrapped by the pathologist and his assistant, as usual in the presence of a photographer and Homicide Squad member.

Analysts and a fingerprint expert were then arranged to attempt to identify “Steve” the alleged victim, and other members of our crew asked to prepare the affidavit for a warrant to search the suspect’s flat in Ascot Vale, the apparent scene of the killing.

The surveillance unit was tasked in the meantime and later reported it was apparent our suspect was at home. He was described as being particularly violent so the Special Operations Group (SOG) was also briefed.

At 9.30pm that evening at the Moonee Ponds police station after briefings, I received a call from the surveillance unit reporting they had our suspect on foot.

The SOG were then directed to arrest. He was returned to his flat and handed over to us by the SOG, then conveyed to the Homicide Squad office where he was interviewed but refused to answer questions. (It is misleading when news media reports in such circumstances invariably declare the interviewee is “assisting police with their inquiries”. So often this is very far from the truth.)

A BRUTAL DEATH REVEALED

Later that evening Homicide detective Rick Nugent at the autopsy rang to inform me the pathologist confirmed some nine severe head injuries resulting in exposure of the brain. Damage was consistent with a shock absorber having been involved. A forensic examination of the flat revealed, among other evidence, new black and orange shock absorbers in a cupboard.

Another witness, later located, who had allegedly been summoned from a neighbouring flat by the offender to observe the second part of the attack, told us a hammer had also been used in his presence prior to the offender pouring washing liquid into the victim’s gaping head wounds. (The pathologist reported the odour of ammonia.)

Rowland Legg on the scene of a crime with SOG members.

That witness had then been instructed by the offender to dispose of a shock absorber which was wrapped in a white and black jacket. This he claimed to have then discarded on a nature strip in nearby Dunlop Street.

Our original informer had told us implements used to dig the grave, a shovel and star picket, were at the home of the alleged killer’s grandmother in Footscray, so prior to our completing work at 5am the next morning an affidavit and warrant to search that property were prepared. The warrant was issued by a magistrate later that day, Tuesday May 15 and executed that afternoon. The implements as described were recovered from against the rear wall of the house.

From there we went to Dunlop Street Ascot Vale, in the faint hope that after ten days we may still recover one of the weapons, the shock absorber, or at least locate someone who had seen it.

We each took several addresses. In the front garden of the first I visited, working on the engine of a car, were two very tall slim men of African appearance. After some lengthy language-related difficulty in explaining to them what I was looking for, one stared blankly at me, then beckoned me to follow him down the driveway towards the rear of the house. To my shock and relief, leaning against the side wall of the house was a black and orange apparently bloodstained shock absorber of the same brand as those located in the offender’s flat.

He then took me about twelve properties along Dunlop Street to the only house with a knee-high nature strip. There among it was the apparently-blood-stained jacket as described, in which the shock absorber had allegedly been wrapped.

Peter Sharp was subsequently convicted of murder in the Melbourne Supreme Court and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with a minimum of 15 years. We did not discover exactly why the murder occurred. The victim would visit Sharp to smoke cannabis.

Rarely during an investigation does everything virtually fall into place.

More importantly, this investigation also remains clear in the memory because had information from a person with glaring credibility issues been dismissed, the body of 37 year old Stephen Wilks would most likely still be buried beside the railway line, his family would never have known what happened to him and the killer Peter Sharp would not have been brought to justice, receiving the punishment he so much deserved.

– with Mark Buttler

Rowland Legg is one of the state’s most experienced and respected murder investigators.

By the time he retired in 2010, Mr Legg had worked for 18 years in the homicide squad, 15 of those as a senior-sergeant leading a crew of detectives.

Mr Legg and his crew investigated some of the state’s biggest cases and others little known.