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). The following morning, however, is a different story. [8] The reward carried an offer of immunity to accomplices, dependent on their level of involvement. During the 1970s von Einem started developing strategies to lure victims into his car. This period saw the creation of gay clubs in Adelaide (such as a location known as the Mars Bar) and other clubs where all sexualities were welcome (such as the Duke of York or Buckingham Arms, known in the area as "The Buck"). "The Family murders" occurred in the period of time between the late 1970s and 1980s. Bevan von Einem had a network of around 25-30 people. Neil's penis had been cut, and he was missing a testicle at the time of discovery. Examiners discovered that just a few inches above his groin - just below his navel - Mark had a small surgical scar that had been sealed shut with staples and a specific type of Johnson & Johnson surgical tape. 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. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 25, and most were found to have suffered brutal violence, sexual assaults, and/or body mutilation before their death. Alan's body had fallen to the dirt below, twisting and contorting in such a way that - should he have been alive - would have surely resulted in death or serious injury. In the days immediately after Neil Muir's death, Dr. Millhouse had gone on a bit of a self-described "bender." Unlike the other murder victims, however, Mark's body showed an odd sign of surgical precision. Millhouse was charged and went to trial but was acquitted. 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. Alan Barnes was a teenager growing up in this environment, who seemed to live on the bubble between childhood and adulthood in the winter of 1979. 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. This caller alleged that the two older men had been driving around a 1963 EJ Holden sedan. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS. 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). The male and female drove off but returned At about 6pm on a Sunday afternoon, Richard walked his friend to the bus stop on O'Connell St, North Adelaide. Meanwhile, as police struggled to answer these basic questions, the trial against Dr. Peter Millhouse remained a thing of the past. The first of which was a very specific call alleging that two men - named Doug and Mark - were responsible for abducting Richard Kelvin. 1979: The Family (1 year) 1999: Snowtown murders discovered (20 years) As of 2021, this is the longest Adelaide has gone without a crime that has made national or international headlines as either a weird case (Somerton Man), child kidnapping or brutal serial killings since WWII. An examination of Richard's body discovered that his cause-of-death was virtually identical to the other young male victims: blood loss caused by extensive anal injuries. Later on, Ian would recall the argument cropping up around cigarettes, but that just proves the point of how nonessential it was. SA convicted murderer Bevan Spencer Von Einem during the jury's tour of North Adelaide dumping spot of Richard Kelvin's body. For that reason, many of these men and women had to keep their sexuality confined to specific locations. 's had discovered the chemical compound chloral hydrate in the system of Alan Barnes, who also had an above-average level of alcohol in his system: roughly four times the legal limit, which was unusually high for a teenager. 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. He had school the next day, dinner was waiting, and he wanted to call his girlfriend. There are also notorious unsolved disappearances in Adelaide, including the Beaumont children. He was last seen while hitchhiking being picked up by a white HQ Holden sedan carrying three or four people. After taking the pills, George's memory began to blur. 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. Some of his strategies were to unscrew his car muffler or pull out his choke and ask an unsuspecting youth to help him with car trouble. POLICE are investigating new information linking convicted killer Bevan Spencer von Einem to the abduction and murder of teenager Alan Barnes. He is 50 metres from his beautiful family home. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George. 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. 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. 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. A witness says she saw Stogneff at Tea Tree Plaza with someone matching Noel Brook's appearance. Mark Langley attended party in Windsor Gardens but left with a male and female. 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. Players - The Family Murders Players Five murdered young men, over 150 violent abduction drug-rapes, two people arrested, one person found guilty. This was cancelled the night before. He had good grades at school, was well-liked by just about everyone, had a stable of trusted friends, and played soccer for a local Lockley club on the weekends. The son of popular local Nine Network news presenter Rob Kelvin, he was abducted a short distance from his North Adelaide home on 5 June. 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. Alan's friend made it back to his house within minutes, but unfortunately, Alan was not so lucky. The evidence is contained in a detailed diary kept by a man who was a close associate of several key players in the so-called Family murders. Several eyewitnesses remembered seeing Alan and his long, blond hair standing along Grand Junction Road that Sunday. Police wouldn't get around to conducting a door-to-door canvas of the neighborhood until Tuesday, two days after Richard had gone missing. Show True Crime Conversations, Ep The Family Murders Of Adelaide - 10 Nov 2021. 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. Murdered victims were kept in captivity by the Family for up to five weeks. 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. 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. But other than that, this friend had nothing new to offer police: he hadn't seen or heard from Alan since the two went their separate ways. 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. 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. That evening, as Mark drove around with his friend Ian and Ian's girlfriend, Paula, an argument broke out. Gay people (in particular, gay men) began to become more comfortable in their own skin, and no longer had to suppress their sexuality in public. This included people that visited the same bars and clubs as Neil and perhaps knew him that way. Just a few months later, in June of 1982, the family of missing 14-year-old Peter Stogneff would finally get some resolution. Stogneff's body had been cut into three pieces in a similar fashion to Muir. And, with the recent discovery of the chemical cocktail found in Richard Kelvin's system, they had a pretty decent foundation for their investigation. He failed to make any contact with his family, and police began to express concern that he had gone missing under duress. Millhouse would have. See what they say here. What the two got up to that evening is anyone's guess, but rumors and theories have propagated this story in the decades since. Hence, the odd scar that seemed to serve no other purpose. Detective O'Brien was the unfortunate one tasked with notifying the Kelvins that Richard's body had been found; which he describes in his book as one of the most heartbreaking duties he's ever had to endure. Its always easier to visualise events when you have maps. 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 'Family murders' involved the killing and torture of five young men from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. 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. Other times he would just pick up a hitch hiker. Meanwhile, the mutilation of Neil Muir's body seemed to be identical to that perpetrated upon Peter Stogneff's remains, whose limbs had been similarly severed with a saw-like device. Add onto that abductions, drug-lacing, mutilations, victims held in captivity for weeks, and death by sado-masochism. This was as good of a tip as police were going to get, and since the most recent victim of this strange killing spree had been found in the Foothills, police decided to follow through on the tip. Needless to say, over the past few months, this investigation had become a new beast entirely. He has spent that Sunday, June the 5th, playing footy, until the afternoon when his best friend Karl came over. Police were called out to the scene, and an extensive search of the area commenced. Part One: The Murders Between 1979 and 1983, a series of heinous murders shocked Adelaide. This section explores the people who at this stage are thought to have been on the periphery. 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. In Adelaides gay community in the 1970s and 1980s, young men were coveted for sex. He had multiple channels to procuring young men. It has been reported that the exposed skin on his face and neck had begun to wither away, leading to the theory that he had been killed shortly after going missing. The next day was a Sunday, they both planned to hitchhike to Alan's home in Salisbury. Police didn't believe that this voice was Richard, as he was a teenager with a deep voice that had already cracked. On this night, in particular, that included these three men. On Saturday, June 16th, 1979, Alan spent the night at a friend's house. Even though he was nearly an adult at this point - and had a fair amount of independence in his life - this disappearance was deemed very out-of-the-ordinary. The Family Murders is the name given to the murders of five young men and boys between 1979 and 1983, with all abducted from the streets of Adelaide before being taken to another location,. One such case is the Family Murders of Adelaide, Australia. 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. On Saturday, February 27th, 1982, Mark attended a friend's 18th birthday party in Windsor Gardens, a neighborhood in northeastern Adelaide. Because this murder seemed like the type of crime beset by emotional issues - or likely someone with an ax to grind against Alan, personally - police initially began investigating this as a personal crime. This reported sighting led police to the notion that a group of people might have been acting in-tandem to abduct Richard, for reasons that appeared nefarious. This meant that his remains had likely been sitting out in the wilderness for about a week. How did he manipulate large numbers of people to get involved to various degrees even if that involvement was merely remaining silent? This witness recalled Alan getting into a vehicle, which appeared to be a white Holden sedan. The other murders remain unsolved. However, they quickly began to narrow in on the one avenue of the investigation that seemed most enticing to them at the time: Neil's dependency on drugs and alcohol. 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. 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. We know that on the morning of Sunday, June 17th, Alan and his friend woke up, and tried their luck hitchhiking back to Alan's family's house (a practice that wasn't that uncommon in the late 1970s). Over the next year or so, the case would stagnate. They now had five bodies - five victims - and five families pushing for answers. In the latter half of the 1970s, South Australia had started to regulate drugs like Mandrax, known throughout most of the world as "Quaaludes." The medical examiners conducting the autopsy and examinations also discovered that Alan's body had been washed extensively after his death; likely an effort to scrub away any evidence linking him to the killer. The closest thing to hard evidence that police found in this sweep was what appeared to be traces of blood on the bathroom floor, which had been cleaned multiple times over with a chemical agent; and, as such, could not be tested.
