Murder mystery: Could a pair of Dunlop Volleys lead to killer of cold case victims Margaret and Seana Tapp?

THIRTY years after this mum and daughter were found dead at home, the identity of the killer is still a mystery. Could a pair of Dunlop Volleys crack the case?

Margaret Tapp who was found murdered in her home in Fern Tree Gully, in August, 1984. Picture: Police Supplied/vic

THIRTY years after Margaret Tapp and her daughter Seana were found dead in their suburban Melbourne home, the identity of the killer is still a mystery. But could a pair of Dunlop volleys be the key to cracking this case? And could a suspect appear out of the blue?

THE deviant who murdered Margaret Tapp then raped and killed her little girl 30 years ago this week is probably reading this, hoping no one notices his fascination. What he won’t know is that he has claimed another victim: Margaret’s only son, Justin.

Justin Tapp wasn’t strangled like his mother and his little sister, Seana. He was slowly poisoned by the horror of what happened to them. He rarely spoke about it but was haunted by the thought that if he’d been at home at the time, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. He was only 14 then — just old enough to blame himself over the evil act that took two lives and destroyed his.

Calendars are cruel for the broken-hearted. For Justin, the unbearable became too much recently as time moved closer to the 30th anniversary of the murders at Melbourne’s east in early August, 1984.

It was his former partner, Wendy, who found him dead on June 3. No one knows if he deliberately suicided or “accidentally” drank and drugged himself into oblivion. The body had deteriorated so much the British coroner insisted on not only a toxicology report but formal identification by DNA testing.

This is ironic, because it is bungled or incomplete DNA tests that have covered the trail of the man who murdered Margaret and Seana Tapp. Justin’s death is the third act of a tragedy in a family let down by modern forensic science and old-time police work.

After 30 years, the killer might expect to take his secret to the grave. But how has he got away with it this long? Is it luck — or did the investigation veer off course in the first days, the “golden hours” when most murders are solved? That’s the question that torments the dwindling group of family and friends who wonder how a vile crime fell between the cracks.

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Originally published as Murder mystery: Could a pair of Dunlop Volleys lead to killer of cold case victims Margaret and Seana Tapp?