Child killer takes secrets of Adelaide's 'Family Murders' to the grave
The only person convicted over Adelaide's chilling Family Murders has taken any secrets about the unsolved killings to his grave.
It was a chilling series of murders that haunted a whole generation of Aussies.
Now, a convicted child killer has taken to the grave any secrets he possessed of a shadowy cabal called The Family, who terrorised Adelaide 40 years ago.
Police have always believed Bevan Spencer von Einem did not act alone in the torture, rape and murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin in July 1983.
Richard’s gruesome death was one of five similar abductions and killings which fall under the “Family Murders”, a chilling moniker stemming from detective Trevor Kipling’s pledge to break up the “happy family” responsible in a 1988 television interview.
Police told the media at the time that the five deaths were linked, sexually motivated “serial killings”.
“We have looked at the pattern in these murders very seriously,” one detective said.
“We have got certain views on these teenage killings, but they will have to remain confidential.”
Those who lived in Adelaide in the 1970s and 1980s have recalled the terror and paranoia within the community as young men were snatched from the street and killed.
Von Einem, who died in jail from cancer on Friday aged 79, was the only person convicted over any of the murders. He was serving a life sentence.
Gruesome details of Richard’s death – too graphic to publish – were aired through feverish coverage of his trial, further horrifying the community.
Richard vanished on June 5, 1983 having walked a friend to a bus stop near the North Adelaide home where he lived with family including then-Nine News presenter father Rob Kelvin.
His decomposing body was found seven weeks later in scrubland 50km northeast of Adelaide.
Von Einem denied killing the boy but admitted to meeting him on the night he went missing, claiming he spent time with the teenager before dropping him at a taxi rank.
A jury convicted him of murder in 1984 and he was sentenced to at least 36 years in prison.
The paedophile was also charged with the murders of Alan Barnes, 16, and Mark Langley, 18, but the cases against him collapsed in court.
Neil Muir, 25, and Peter Stogneff, 14, were the other two victims linked to The Family.
Loved ones of the victims had hoped von Einem would shed light on the unsolved crimes before he died – but this did not occur, as revealed by South Australia’s Premier.
“He had every opportunity to assist investigators, to confirm what so many long believed, that he was responsible for the murder of other young men and to help bring other perpetrators to justice,” Peter Malinauskas said in a statement on Saturday.
“Instead, he chose silence, callous, deliberate silence, denying victims’ families even the faintest chance of closure. His decision to take critical information to the grave is an act of cruelty in its own right.”
Richard’s death was the last of the five Family Murders, which are believed to have started with Alan Barnes’ abduction on June 17, 1979.
Alan was hitchhiking having been dropped off on Grand Junction Rd by a friend’s brother.
His body was found seven days later, and an autopsy found injuries to his anus.
He was “known to” von Einem, having previously delivered Coca Cola to the killer’s workplace.
Neil Muir’s dissected remains were found at Mutton Cove after he was last seen at an Adelaide pub on August 26, 1979.
Police were told von Einem also had past dealings with Neil, who was found with similar injuries to Alan.
A doctor was arrested and charged with Mr Muir’s murder, but was acquitted at trial in 1980.
Peter Stogneff’s body was located 10 months after he wagged school on August 27, 1981.
His body was also dissected but it had also accidentally been burnt by a farmer clearing scrub on the Middle Beach property.
Mark Langley was found at the base of the Adelaide foothills nine days after he was last seen by friends on February 28, 1982.
An autopsy found there had been a surgical incision on his torso, a tear in his rectum and the presence of a drug, Mandrax, which was also found in Richard’s system after his death.
Former detective Bob O’Brien, who investigated the murders, wrote in his book Young Blood that he believed the family was comprised of von Einem’s “many associates … his ‘extended’ family; not a blood family but some of them were linked through the abuse of boys and the spilling of young blood”.
In announcing a $1 million reward for information on the crimes in 2008, former premier Mike Rann said the “evil” inflicted on the victims had echoed through the years.
“It is a scar on our history. Most of us cannot think of crimes worse than the torture and murder perpetrated on these young innocent victims,” he said.
More Coverage
Speaking after news broke that von Einem was close to death last month, Attorney-General Kyam Maher said: “every day that he’s not on the planet I think is a good day for society”.
“South Australians rightly have been for many, many years horrified at what that person has done,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s a single person who will have any remorse at his death.”
