The Missing Australia podcast: Bikie link emerges to Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe case

It’s a mystery that has endured for decades – but a shock encounter in a tattoo parlour has revealed an incredible behind-the-scenes struggle to find Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe.

Documents which allegedly showed where the remains of kidnapped friends Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe are buried were stolen by a Gypsy Joker bikie doing community service.

The bikie wanted the matter properly investigated – and later arranged for detectives to visit the location.

The startling chain of events is revealed in the sixth episode of The Missing Australia podcast that examines the abduction of four-year-old Kirste, and Joanne, 11, from the Adelaide Oval in August 1973.

The patched bikie handed the documents to a friend of his, Brad Gardam, who is not a bikie, at a tattoo parlour in December 2008.

Kirste Gordon was kidnapped while attending an Australian Rules football match in Adelaide on August 25, 1973.

Also snatched was Kirste’s friend Joanne Ratcliffe.

“I was at a mate’s tattoo parlour. I’d gifted my son his birthday present to have his tattoo by my mate,” Mr Gardam told The Missing Australia podcast.

“And that very night, my mate handed me some documents and said: ‘Have you read these?’ “My initial reaction was ‘Oh my God, I know these people’.

“I crossed paths with these people when I was in high school myself.”

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The documents were a handwritten “confession” where pedophile Mark Trevor Marshall claims his grandfather Stanley Arthur Hart abducted the girls from the Adelaide Oval and took them to a remote property where they were killed.

Mr Gardam thinks there was enough in Marshall’s ramblings for it to be taken seriously. And he still doesn’t think it has been.

Joanne’s sister Suzie Ratcliffe is dedicating her life to help find missing people, through her organisation Leave the Light on. Picture: Tony Gough

He said he’d known the tattoo artist for a number of years and got on well with him “even after he patched up with outlaw clubs”.

“Back then I was a senior technician with transport department I held a nuclear licence and a lot of responsibilities … and he’s always known that I was no bullshit … He just wanted someone who could look at this with an analytic point of view rather than rather than just a gung-ho, accusatory sort of view,” Mr Gardam said.

His bikie friend and a lawyer accompanied Major Crime Squad detectives near the location of two barrels on a property once owned by Hart.

The Missing Australia host Meni Caroutas has confirmed they were both with the force at the time – one of them still is.

Brad Gardam who was handed documents allegedly relating to Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe’s kidnapping. Picture: Supplied

The Missing Australia podcast host Meni Caroutas.

Mr Gardam said he read an article written by investigative reporter Bryan Littlely in The Advertiser about the case and got in touch with him.

“I rang him and said ‘we need to speak’. And I’ve been working with Bryan ever since,” he said.

Mr Littlely said witnesses to the abduction all said the man was wearing a distinctive hat. A search of a shed on Hart’s farm revealed two old hats – one of which matches the witness descriptions.

Mr Littlely said he had given the hat to police.

“The evidence tells me that Harts are responsible. I think that’s logical. There’s too many ticks in too many boxes.”

Samples from the barrels were tested by a vet clinic and the results showed the possible presence of blood. Mr Gardam took other samples to police and kept receipts, but police later said the evidence was lost.

The samples from the barrel were tested by a vet lab.

The tests showed the possible presence of blood.

Joanne Ratcliffe’s sister Suzie Ratcliffe is also convinced Hart was responsible.

Hart was a known pedophile in South Australia. He had access to a variety of different properties around the area. He lived not far from the Gordon’s grandmother, so it’s possible that he might have seen Kirste prior to that day.

“From what his grandson has stated … it does tighten the noose basically around his neck for me,” she said.

Originally published as The Missing Australia podcast: Bikie link emerges to Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe case