Investigator Hunter made note of this, finding it odd that one man would have connections to two separate murder investigations - especially two gruesome murders that shared such grisly traits. Hours would begin to pass, and Alan would fail to return home at all that Sunday. It wasn't until Monday morning that Alan's parents decided to contact the police, having not seen him for several days. Police were now back, right where they had started. Hence, the odd scar that seemed to serve no other purpose. However, unlike many of the others, it was believed that Richard had been held captive for an extended period of time, enduring torture and sexual abuse for weeks leading up to his death. Among those voices, he described, was a higher-pitched voice, which sounded almost feminine. Because of this lack of clarity, police were unable to press forward with any charges for the offenders, and George's story would become buried by more pressing police concerns in the coming weeks and months. A few more anonymous calls would be received in the coming weeks. For a week, his loved ones had been bracing themselves for the worst, but this was a confirmation of everything they had been fearing for the past several days: Alan had been violently murdered, and had spent his final hours in agony. While the men in the river struggled to make it back to the shore, the group that had thrown them into the water made their escape before camera crews or onlookers could begin to gather. There was a bridge above where his body had been discovered, with a clearing of about a meter; implying that whoever had tried to throw him into the water below had missed the mark, but had not rectified their mistake. He found like minded people who shared a similar sexual bent, and he found people he could mutually exploit to lure victims into his car. The Family Murders is one of Australia's most captivating true crime stories. Due to the state of the young man's remains, it was believed that Alan had been detained against his will for several days. They tried to hitch a ride on Grand Junction Road, a busy thoroughfare in Adelaide, before realizing that they were going to have no luck hitchhiking together. Noctec was found in his blood, suggesting he had been drugged. Needing to get away from his friends and clear his head, Mark decided to get out and walk away. Despite there being an overwhelming lack of physical evidence, police decided to pursue charges against Dr. Millhouse anyways, using the rope and trash bags recovered from his home as their primary building block. While Neil Muir had endured a similar fate, his remains were too badly mutilated to test for any drugs; however, the injuries suffered seemed to be identical. Analysis of Kelvin's bloodstream revealed traces of four hypnotic drugs,[11][26] including Mandrax and Noctec. While searching, they ended up discovering the body of Richard Kelvin, who had been missing for just shy of two months. He then moved away from Adelaide and the murders continued. [14] The hair around the area had been shaved as it would have been in an operation in a hospital. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for a crime. Rather than have to read the whole site, or miss updates in the case because you dont know they exist, this section will show time-stamped updates so you can keep up to date with developments. Richard walked him down the road to the nearby O'Connell Street bus stop, arriving without incident, and waited there for his friend's bus to arrive. Unfortunately, information gathered by police that fateful Tuesday began to cast doubt on the idea that Richard had willingly chosen to run away from home. 17-year-old Alan Barnes, 25-year-old Neil Muir, 14-year-old Peter Stogneff, 18-year-old Mark Langley and 15-year-old Richard Kelvin were later found dumped in the Adelaide Hills and surrounds. His family knew this but accepted that there was little they could do to curtail this behavior; letting Alan grow and develop at his own pace as his adolescence came to an end. At this point, the idea of a random killer hadn't even crossed investigators' minds. A farmer that lived nearby Middle Beach and Two Wells, roughly an hour north of Adelaide, had been cleansing his farmland during the advised winter months. But, just like the failure to properly drop Alan's body into the water, these bags had failed to make it to their intended location; still resting against the coast, instead of floating out to sea, where they'd have been lost forever. That was when similar stories of young men being drugged and sexually assaulted began to make waves throughout Australia; young men that had been drugged with similar substances. Millhouse would have. When Boris had last seen Richard, walking away from the bus stop down the street from his home, he had still been wearing the collar, and it is has been theorized that the collar itself might have been a trigger for the deviant (or deviants) that ultimately decided to abduct Richard. This theory is that whatever item had been used to sexually assault Mark with - which ultimately led to his death - had gotten caught up in his intestines, and required surgery to retrieve. He also happened to be a relative of Robin Millhouse, South Australia's former Attorney General who would become a Supreme Court Justice in 1982. Peter Stogneff was a fourteen-year-old that lived with his family in a middle-class home, in a northeastern suburb of Adelaide. The severing of Neil's limbs and the mutilation of his body was originally believed to have been part of an effort to dispose of his body. Many of these people were directly involved in the abductions and rape of victims who survived. The Family Murders is one of Australias most captivating true crime stories. At the same time he was developing a network of people who made it possible for him to carry out his sexually sadistic fantasies. Unfortunately, by the time they returned, Mark was nowhere to be found. Global Nav Open Menu . Bevan von Einem was an apex predator. Because very little physical evidence had been left behind, it was hard to tell whether or not these crimes belonged to the same spree, or were simply copycats. But a discovery by the medical examiner seemed to undermine that: in addition to all of this, Neil's genitals had been mutilated by his killer. The "Family Murders" *Warning: graphic content and mentions of sexual abuse ahead. It was a group of homosexual men and transgender women who formed a network around convicted murderer and sexual sadist Bevan Spencer von Einem, based on the drugging, raping and sometimes murder of youths and young men. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the case is how did von Einem find accomplices willing to be involved in such crimes? It was there that they found his backpack hidden in the garage, which ultimately led to calls to all of his friends. However, that was very circumstantial evidence at best, and anything but definitive. [5] Others, who have examined the cases, however, argue that there were many more victims. After taking the pills, George's memory began to blur. Apart from von Einem, three other core members are thought to be directly involved in the murders; while DNA testing re-commenced in 2008, no further charges have been laid. Another anonymous caller claimed that they had seen Richard Kelvin in a snuff film, which had been filmed very recently. Homosexuality itself would become decriminalized just a few years later, in 1975, with the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, making South Australia the first Australian state or territory where members of the LGBTQ community no longer had to fear government persecution. In addition to the driver, there appeared to be a couple of other occupants inside of the car that they, unfortunately, could not recall many details of. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George. When using other people (sometimes transgenders, sometimes cross-dressers, and sometimes Mr B), a common ploy was to ask a lone youth if he want to go to a party where there was plenty of booze and women. His remains had been dissected and neatly cut into many pieces, placed in a garbage bag and thrown into the Port River at Port Adelaide. Hundreds of sordid and terrifying crimes and only one man found guilty in relation to only one victim. Ten years von Einem's junior, Mr B helped von Einem pick up, drug, and rape several young men. However, police would reach out to all of Mark's known friends, and learned that the night prior - February 27th - he had simply wandered off into the night and had not been seen since. A couple of black trash bags were floating on the low tide of the river's coast. Millhouse would have Peter intended to skip school and meet his uncle (similar age) in Rundle Mall. He had been killed elsewhere and then transported to this location postmortem, implying that the killer had a base of operations for his or her dark deeds. He was found wearing most of the clothing he had last been seen in, minus an undershirt and without the chains he often wore around his neck (which contained his zodiac sign, Cancer). So prosecutors and the police began to build their case around Millhouse without his cooperation, including witness statements that alleged the two had been together the weekend before Neil's violent death. It had been reported that Richard was wearing the collar as a joke on the afternoon he went missing, while he was kicking around the soccer ball in the park with his dad and his friend, Boris. In Adelaides gay community in the 1970s and 1980s, young men were coveted for sex. Alan was supposed to find a ride back home and was taking his luck hitchhiking, hoping that someone willing to pick him up would be heading north towards his family's neighborhood of Salisbury. Some of the employees that worked at the area's bars recalled seeing the two together multiple times that weekend, and other character witnesses described Dr. Millhouse and Neil as being very close friends (intimate, even). Richard Dallas Kelvin, (born 4 December 1967) aged 15,[23] murdered in July 1983. Bevan von Einems life revolved around sexual sadism. Because Neil's transient lifestyle led to him becoming known as a bit of a vagabond, his sexuality was not exactly common knowledge. The last victim was the son of our local television newsreader. Neil's numerous tattoos had also been cut away from his flesh, and those patches of inked skin had been placed into his chest cavity along with his severed limbs. The Family Murders was a series of murders in the 1970s and 1980s that targeted young men in Adelaide, South Australia between the ages of 14 and 25. Whatever it was, it looked like a human body but was somehow twisted and contorted in an inhuman nature. The Family werent an official club or group, rather a loose collection of people with Bevan von Einem at the centre. Criminologist Alan Perry of the University of Adelaide, has argued that the murders were part of widespread series of kidnappings and sexual assaults of boys that might number several hundred victims in South Australia from about 1973 to 1983.[11]. While in rehab, Dr. Millhouse refused to speak to police about Neil Muir (or his alleged relationship with the man). Trace evidence, including hair and fibres from von Einem's home, was found on Kelvin's body and clothing. Once in the car they would be offered a drink that was laced with a knockout drug. [18] His skeletal remains were found in October 1982 later by a local farmer at Middle Beach, 50km north of Adelaide. So the police began reaching out to people that worked or had otherwise been in the area. But at this point, police were already preoccupied with a separate lead from Neil Muir's social circle: a man named Dr. Peter Millhouse. Over a span of several years starting in 1979 and into the 80s five young men, aged from 14 to 25, went missing in different areas of Adelaide. On this night, in particular, that included these three men. The Family Murders is the name given to a series of five murders speculated to have been committed by a loosely connected group of individuals who came to be known as "The Family".This group was believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a number of teenage boys and young men, as well as the torture and murder of five young men aged between 14 and 25, in Adelaide, South . He likely did this to hide it from his parents, in case they made it home before he did. Both witnesses - who were friends with Neil and drug users themselves - were prepared to testify should this man be tried for the murder. He was able to exploit and manipulate enablers, helpers and participants over a long period of time. He vividly remembered hearing a young voice shout out (which we can assume was Richard) and a group of voices screaming in protest, almost in unison. The skeletal remains of one victim bore marks to reasonably indicate a similar experience and outcome. Mark Andrew Langley, aged 18,[17] murdered in February 1982. Boris left on a bus, and Richard started making his way back home a trip that was no more than four-hundred meters. However, what wasn't up for debate was the fact that Alan had been violently tortured for hours before his death, with his death ultimately coming from blood loss due to an anal injury. Mr B made contact with police two days after Alan Barnes was found. They now had five bodies - five victims - and five families pushing for answers. This meant that his remains had likely been sitting out in the wilderness for about a week. He loved music - both playing it and listening to it - and had a good rapport with his friends, whom he hung around constantly. Stogneff's body had been cut into three pieces in a similar fashion to Muir. There are also notorious unsolved disappearances in Adelaide, including the Beaumont children. Trevor Peters lived two doors away from one of the transgender suspects and mixed in the same circles as a number of suspects. It was broad daylight, and both were assured that Alan would easily be able to find a ride to take him the few miles home. Darko's brother dropped them at a bus stop near the corner of on Grand Junction Rd and Addison Neil Muir was last seen in Hindley St, Adelaide in the company of Dr Peter Leslie Millhouse at 3pm on the day he was murdered. After being arrested, Dr. Millhouse had denied ever knowing Neil, and continued stating so over the next year, openly defying the dozens of witness statements that claimed they were acquaintances at the least, intimate friends at the most. The Family murders are the name of the murders of five young men and teenagers who happened in Adelaide, South Australia between 1979 and 1983. On the afternoon of Sunday, June 5th, 1983, Richard was kicking around a soccer ball with his father Rob and his friend Boris at a park near his home. He remembered going to a back room of the house to have sex with one of the older women, only to discover - during the act itself - that she was transgender. Later on, Ian would recall the argument cropping up around cigarettes, but that just proves the point of how nonessential it was. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for the crimes: Bevan Spencer von Einem was sentenced in 1984 to a minimum of 24 years (later extended to a minimum 36-year term) for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. He had been sexually assaulted and went on to report this bizarre, terrifying incident to police. Alan and his friend bid adieu to one another, with his friend assured that Alan would be okay; Grand Junction Road was always busy and teeming with life, and it wasn't like he was leaving Alan in the middle of the night. Progressive ideas began to spread out from Adelaide, but even then, progress itself was rather slow to catch on throughout large chunks of South Australia. The Family Murders Of Adelaide. The Family Murders revolved around von Einem. He was also found to be wearing clothing that did not belong to him, and his original clothing was missing entirely. This was done in a different method to what had happened to Neil Muir's remains, but medical examiners were able to identify points in the bones just above the knees and the back where a saw had carved the body into pieces. An accountant by profession, he was convicted in 1984 for the murder of 15-year-old Adelaide teenager Richard Kelvin, the son of local television and radio personality Rob Kelvin. He was last seen stumbling down the street, supposedly wandering off to parts unknown. Police got the number one offender. (What a lovely country, Australia!) Police didn't believe that this voice was Richard, as he was a teenager with a deep voice that had already cracked. It was the body of Neil Muir or, rather, what remained of him. Shockingly, police found an insane combination of sedatives in his system, which included the drugs Noctec, Mandrax, valium, Rohypnol, and amytal. A post-mortem examination revealed that Barnes had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object. The father of boat crash victim Mallory Beach refused to shake hands with Alex Murdaugh 's family in court after the legal scion was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and son . It is confirmed that 5 of these victims were murdered, usually by having an object forced so far up their anus that it split the lining and they bled out. Gambier, a city roughly five hours south of Adelaide. Mark had likely hitched a ride with someone, and his friends trusted that he would make it home. Young Blood refers to the age of the victims who were brutally murdered. This meant doing away with large plots of dried-out farmland in a prescribed burn to prepare for the upcoming spring bloom. While police began to investigate who might be responsible for this heinous crime, medical examiners testing the body made a pretty shocking discovery: the presence of drugs in his blood. I first heard of the murders in an episode of an Australian television program called . According to his family, this was right in-line with Richard's odd sense of humor. A thrash metal band singer and members of his family were killed in an apparent murder-suicide late last month, according to police. The head was tied to the torso with rope passed through the mouth and out through the neck. These individuals have come to be known as the "The Family" and are believed to have kidnapped and sexually abused over 150 boys and are believed to have tortured and murdered at least five teenage boys during a crime spree in Adelaide, South Australia. He failed to make any contact with his family, and police began to express concern that he had gone missing under duress. Following the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1975, Adelaide began to be known as one of the more progressive cities in all of Australia. They admitted that he'd faced some issues with other kids at his school, but he was otherwise happy and had just gotten a serious girlfriend. In the days after Neil Muir's body was discovered in separate black trash bags, police had received two separate phone calls alerting them to the victim's relationship with a local doctor. Their psychological profile indicated that Neil's body had been carved up due to either a psychotic killer that derived pleasure from inflicting pain on others or someone that wanted to hide his/her identity. The other murders remain unsolved. The older driver not only offered to give George a ride but offered to show him a good time with some ladies he knew. Ian and Paula, Mark's friends, drove away but would return just minutes later, cooler heads having prevailed. Although each attack and mutilation appeared different, police investigators soon began to link the horrific murders to one another. They organized a helicopter search of the area, which O'Brien was present for, but unfortunately, the police were unable to find anything definitive. He was in G Block of Yatala Prison for decades but was transferred to Port Augusta Prison in the north of the state in 2007. After a bit, Rob decided to walk home, leaving the two boys at the park; assured that it was just down the street from their house and it was still early in the day. Richard's family disputed this, vigorously denying the notion that Richard would have run away of his own accord. The information is easy to navigate and easy reference. Although there were in excess of 150 youths and young men who were drugged and raped, often by multiple men, this section focuses on the five young men who didnt come home. During the 1970s von Einem started developing strategies to lure victims into his car. This group was believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a number of teenage boys and young men, as well as the torture and murder of five young men aged between 14 and 25, in Adelaide, South Australia, in the 1970s and 1980s. I think we might get closer to understanding what happened but I think lack of physical evidence pretty much rules out any more charges being laid. South Australia's overdue for another The Family Murders (Part Two: The Family) Unresolved The Family Murders Part Two: The Family As the families of five young men mourned, investigators began to circle around their top suspect, Bevan Spencer von Einem. The emergence of this drug would prove to be very interesting in the years to come, but at this point in the investigation, police were still struggling to connect all of the dots. They had no idea that they were about to make one of the most gruesome discoveries in Australian history. It was speculated that a foreign object had caused the internal perforations, leading to the belief that the killer had been a sexual sadist whose only intent was to cause physical pain. The other two men thrown into the river with him managed to escape with their lives, but they did not escape unscathed. Like the other victims, Richard Kelvin's blood and organs were tested for any sign of drugs, with investigators hoping to find a connection to any of the prior victims. Like most of the victims targeted by this unknown subject, Richard Kelvin was a young and athletic young man, who seemed destined to have a long and rewarding life. "The Family murders" occurred in the period of time between the late 1970s and 1980s. He had seemingly disappeared, and a brief search of the area failed to come up with him. Things then came full circle when he began using heroin again, and shortly thereafter, followed that up with a dependence on Rohypnol ("roofies", commonly known as the date-rape drug).
