They wanted to continue eliminating suspects that personally knew Alan ahead of time, but promised to check out von Einem in the future. This was commonly found in the drug Noctec, which was an over-the-counter pharmaceutical used to aid people with sleep problems, which had been given to Alan sometime before his death. There, George was plied with beers and other alcoholic beverages while the older women flirted with him. They hoped to use character witnesses to build up the relationship between the two, and then use other eyewitnesses to fill in the rest (the drugs, the sexual relationship, etc.). But underneath the surface, a monster lingered Investigators were unable to pinpoint Peter's exact cause-of-death, or even estimate when he had been killed. The head was tied to the torso with rope passed through the mouth and out through the neck. Neil's penis had been cut, and he was missing a testicle at the time of discovery. This meant that his remains had likely been sitting out in the wilderness for about a week. A span of 4 years. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS. On Saturday, June 16th, 1979, Alan spent the night at a friend's house. Of the five men that fell prey to this violent killer, at least two had been drugged with Mandrax, as had George. Millhouse was charged and went to trial but was acquitted. 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. While changes in Southern Australia's draconian laws had decriminalized homosexuality, there were still people eager to prey on or harass gay men and women - behavior that lingers to this day. 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. 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. It wasn't until the following year, 1983, that police finally rediscovered George's story. This argument would carry on for a few minutes, while the trio was parked along War Memorial Drive, overlooking the Torrens River. This included people that visited the same bars and clubs as Neil and perhaps knew him that way. The Family Murders is a well known and notorious series of crimes that occurred in Adelaide, Australia. 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 consented to any available tests or analysis, and during a medical screening, it was discovered that the young man did have tears in his anus, proving that he had been raped. Trevor Peters lived two doors away from one of the transgender suspects and mixed in the same circles as a number of suspects. George and the driver, a man roughly twice his age with artificially-dyed hair, traveled to a nearby house where a couple of young women welcomed them. He was seen in the presence of individuals who would become relevant later on, but - at the time - were simply believed to have been his friends. The following Sunday, June 24th - one week after Alan had last been seen alive - a couple of hikers were bushwalking up in the area known as the Adelaide Foothills. Hence, the odd scar that seemed to serve no other purpose. If your information is verified and its not breaking any laws, we may publish it. In 2014 when Trevor passed away, his diaries were recovered. After taking the pills, George's memory began to blur. The other two men thrown into the river with him managed to escape with their lives, but they did not escape unscathed. Police wouldn't get around to conducting a door-to-door canvas of the neighborhood until Tuesday, two days after Richard had gone missing. This site is constantly being updated as more is learned. He never made it home. von Einem is serving life imprisonment. [14][24] His body was found on 24 July by a geologist who was searching for moss-covered rocks near a dirt airstrip at Kersbrook. This case includes mysterious attacks, brutal murders, and a dark conspiracy surrounding a secret group of elites that preyed on the young in the city. Just two days after the body of Alan Barnes was discovered - when the investigation was still unfolding - an anonymous caller reached out to police. Mark Langley The Family Murders is one of Australias most captivating true crime stories. Richard Dallas Kelvin, (born 4 December 1967) aged 15,[23] murdered in July 1983. Likely, he was one of the people seen hanging out with Neil at the bars and clubs just days that weekend. The name of the group stems from an interview a police detective gave on 60 Minutes,[1] claiming the police were taking action "to break up the happy family". This has come to be disputed over the years, with some speculating that Alan might have willingly consumed the drug the weekend before his death; or, perhaps, he might have been slipped it by someone at the bars he was rumored to visit with his friends that Saturday. Among those voices, he described, was a higher-pitched voice, which sounded almost feminine. The Family were not an official group, gang, or organisation. If that was true, then could that have been happening to the other young male victims that had been viciously murdered in the preceding years? Oh, that reminds me. 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"). Mark Langley was an 18-year-old with the entire world in front of him: an athletic and good-looking young man, who quickly endeared himself to others. Bevan von Einem had a network of around 25-30 people. There was not much to connect them, other than the graphic sexual nature of the crimes, and months would continue to pass before this story would begin to surface again in the public eye. by enjin | Feb 12, 2021 | victim. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George. Bevan von Einem was no exception he also preferred youths between the 15 and 19 year old age group. Mr B made contact with police two days after Alan Barnes was found. Some time after they went missing, their bodies would each be found, often horribly mutilated. Neil Muir's body had been so badly mutilated that he still barely resembled an entire being. Like the other victims, investigators would learn a lot from the status of Mark's remains. 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. 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. 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. Hundreds of sordid and terrifying crimes and only one man found guilty in relation to only one victim. 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. 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. South Australia's overdue for another See what they say here. Alan lived with his parents, both English immigrants, in Salisbury: a northern suburb of Adelaide. That Monday - August 27th, 1979 - Neil Muir was seen alive for the last time. Unfortunately, from there, the trail would go cold for over a year at which point, another victim had already become ensnared in this tragic saga. While working for Major Crimes, Investigator O'Brien received an anonymous tip that Richard Kelvin was being held against his will in a caravan in the Adelaide Foothills. The Clermont County Sheriff's Office . 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. Victims - The Family Murders Victims Alan Barnes Feb 12, 2021 The night before he went missing he stayed at Darko Kastelan's house in Cheltenham. Our locations section shows where all the events happened and where all the players lived. It wasn't until Monday morning that Alan's parents decided to contact the police, having not seen him for several days. Even though Dr. Peter Millhouse had supposedly known Neil Muir for several years, there was never any proof that the two had a sexual relationship. Ten years von Einem's junior, Mr B helped von Einem pick up, drug, and rape several young men. The Adelaide Festival of Arts (also known as just Adelaide Festival) started in 1960 and led to something of a "cultural revival" in the area. Both witnesses - who were friends with Neil and drug users themselves - were prepared to testify should this man be tried for the murder. The information is easy to navigate and easy reference. [3], Von Einem was convicted in 1984 of the murder of Kelvin and sentenced to life imprisonment. 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. 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. 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. The Kelvins, though upset at the duration of time that had already passed, understood why the process was so delayed but were hopeful that their son would return home to them, safe and sound. Police first treated Richard as a runaway; an unfortunate symptom of the times. In a word, no. Among friends, Alan had begun to smoke weed and experiment with new things, pushing himself to the limits of his comfort zone to discover who he was and what he enjoyed. Enjoy reading. Ian and Paula, Mark's friends, drove away but would return just minutes later, cooler heads having prevailed. 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. A man who donned a balaclava and stormed a man's Adelaide CBD unit, stabbing him within nine seconds, will spend 20 years behind bars. Mark had likely hitched a ride with someone, and his friends trusted that he would make it home. At the time of the murder, Dr. Millhouse - a gay man in his mid-forties - lived alone in northern Adelaide, and drove a ten-year-old Holden sedan. For many, that meant gay-specific bars and clubs, where these individuals were allowed to socially express themselves honestly for the first time in their lives. 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. Australian police launch appeal to solve string of notorious killings stretching back to 1966, The Advertiser - Doctor found not guilty of Family murder of Neil Muir dies in NSW, Kimberly Riley & Jeremy Britt-Bayinthavong, Paul Skiba, Sarah Skiba, and Lorenzo Chivers, June & Jennifer Gibbons (The Silent Twins). Bevan von Einem was an apex predator. Within hours, Alan's father and grandfather found themselves tagged to identify the remains, which were undoubtedly the remains of their missing 17-year-old. Its always easier to visualise events when you have maps. This bore signs of premeditation, implying that this wasn't an impulsive decision, but a conscious one by a killer afraid of being identified through forensic testing. Darko's brother dropped them at a bus stop near the corner of on Grand Junction Rd and Addison. The medical examiners would also find a significant head wound on Neil, which wasn't significant enough to have killed him, but would have likely happened to incapacitate or subdue the man. Noctec was found in his blood, suggesting he had been drugged. This witness would also recall hearing this supposed argument on the street come to a sudden end, punctuated with the sound of a loud exhaust system as a car sped down the street. When they finally got around to doing this, after the discovery of Richard Kelvin's body, one name popped out at them. Part One: The Murders Between 1979 and 1983, a series of heinous murders shocked Adelaide. 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. [7] Suspect 1, an Eastern Suburbs businessman, is believed to have been with von Einem when Kelvin was abducted. The jury visits spot where Richard Kelvin's body was found, northeast of Adelaide. He had been sexually assaulted and went on to report this bizarre, terrifying incident to police. Of only one victim. When a warrant was eventually served on Dr. Millhouse's cottage in northern Adelaide, police found the same type of trash bags and rope that had been found with Neil Muir's remains. Due to the state of the young man's remains, it was believed that Alan had been detained against his will for several days. The victims were found in random locations throughout the state, their bodies neatly cut into pieces. 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 skeletal remains of one victim bore marks to reasonably indicate a similar experience and outcome. The area around the scar had even been shaved away, implying that this a methodical decision by someone with surgical experience perhaps someone trying to rectify a mistake. 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. 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. One victim was killed and dumped within 24 hours, another was kept alive for five weeks, and the rest were in between. While police pounded the pavement to find out what had happened to Richard Kelvin, the young man's life was slowly coming to an end. After all, three of the victims (Alan Barnes, Neil Muir, and Mark Langley) had all died of similar injuries, and at least three (Alan Barnes, Mark Langley, and now Richard Kelvin) had all gone missing on Sundays. 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 other murders remain unsolved. . The first of which was a very specific call alleging that two men - named Doug and Mark - were responsible for abducting Richard Kelvin. 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. Sadly, this dark and tragic saga was just beginning. But he didn't commit these crimes on his own. 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. 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. View description Share. 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. Now, with Mark Langley, police were able to confirm the presence of the drug Mandrax in his system. So, they believed that this crime might have been perpetrated by someone that Neil owed money to, who wanted to cover up their tracks afterward. 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. Peter Stogneff was a fourteen-year-old that lived with his family in a middle-class home, in a northeastern suburb of Adelaide. 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. In May of 1972, three gay men - George Duncan, Roger James, and another man (whose identity has been withheld in the decades since) - were picked up by members of South Australia's police force. 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. However, they were able to learn that - before his body was burned in the brush fire - his remains had been cut into multiple parts with a saw. These were connections that were hard to overlook, as police began to theorize that a single offender (or, rather, a group of offenders) had been behind all of these crimes. The last victim was the son of our local television newsreader. In June of 1983, Richard Kelvin was approaching sixteen years of age. Suspect 3, an Eastern Suburbs doctor. At the same time he was developing a network of people who made it possible for him to carry out his sexually sadistic fantasies. Police got the number one offender. Most were later described as being worthless, but a few piqued the interest of Investigator O'Brien. Young Blood refers to the age of the victims who were brutally murdered. Richard was found wearing the same clothing that he had been wearing on the day of his disappearance, but in an unusual twist, was found to be wearing his family dog's collar. 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. "The Family murders" occurred in the period of time between the late 1970s and 1980s. This caller told detectives that a man named Bevan Spencer von Einem was responsible for Alan's death, and his name was added to the list of potential suspects to explore. Some showed signs of prolonged captivity, while death came quick to others . His mother, Judy, would later describe him as being incredibly witty; "cheeky," as she describes in a 2006 documentary, going on to say that Alan was always quick on his feet, and would respond to any type of comment with something sarcastic and bitterly funny. He would literally go on to write the book about this terrifying saga, called "Young Bloods," which - if you're interested - is one of the best resources for this case. With these results, police were able to successfully link Richard's disappearance and death to at least two prior cases: Alan Barnes and Mark Langley, who had been similarly drugged and sexually assaulted before their deaths. 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). 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 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". High profile lawyer and murder victim Derrance Stevenson regularly entertained teenage youths. Mr B - The Family Murders Mr B Mr B was named by South Australian police in 2008 as one of the three main suspects who were involved in the murders alongside Bevan von Einem. There are also notorious unsolved disappearances in Adelaide, including the Beaumont children. But only one recalled seeing where Alan might have gone. Regardless, this information was incredibly helpful to police, who began to expand their interests to finding people in the area that drove similar vehicles. POLICE are investigating new information linking convicted killer Bevan Spencer von Einem to the abduction and murder of teenager Alan Barnes. Five murders and over 150 rapes. 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. 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. 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 Subsequent efforts to reach Alan through his friends had failed, and none of them had seen him since the weekend. 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. The smallness of Adelaide and the six degrees of separation theory became even more evident when it was revealed that one of the Family murder victims was Richard Kelvin, son of a popular Channel . The two were hiking through the area near the South Para Reservoir when they noticed something on the ground. Neil Muir had been missing for less than 24 hours by the time his body was discovered, and because he was an adult that lived alone, police were already at a disadvantage when it came to trying to figure out what happened to him. [18] His skeletal remains were found in October 1982 later by a local farmer at Middle Beach, 50km north of Adelaide. Veale Gardens had a thriving male prostitution scene, many of which were underage. At this point, the idea of a random killer hadn't even crossed investigators' minds. For that reason, many of these men and women had to keep their sexuality confined to specific locations. Some of the victims were brutally tortured, or horrifically mutilated or cut up. Sadly, almost all of the evidence that may have been left behind was now gone, burned away to ash along with all of Peter's remaining soft tissue. For that reason, this crime remains technically unsolved to this day. The son was fifteen when he was snatched from the street . Major Crimes was primarily responsible for serial killings, mass killings, and any other high-profile crimes that the local government wanted to be handled by a specialized task force. It was at around this time - the end of August - that Investigator Rod Hunter finally got around to interviewing Bevan Spencer von Einem, the man implicated by an anonymous caller in the murder of Alan Barnes. 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. During the 1970s von Einem started developing strategies to lure victims into his car. His body had been dissected into parts, with his internal organs carved out and missing, replaced by his lower legs and arms, which had been sawed off and placed inside of his hollowed-out chest cavity. This young man, Bevan Spencer von Einem - an acquaintance of James' - had helped James make it to shore and then drove him to the nearby Royal Adelaide Hospital. 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. [14][15] Skin bearing tattoos had been removed and most of the body parts were placed in another garbage bag before being placed within the abdominal cavity. 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. This screening also revealed that the young man had been drugged with Mandrax ("Randy Mandys"), which had resulted in him losing consciousness. Neil Muir was someone that you could describe as a transient. In October of 1982 - in the very midst of this crime spree - a teenage hitchhiker named George had been picked up by a passing car. [2] The suspects and their associates were linked mainly by their shared habits of "actively [having] sought out young males for sex," sometimes drugging and raping their victims. The 'Family murders' involved the killing and torture of five young men from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. 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. Referred to as a "Randy Mandy" among the era's deviants, Mandrax was a sedative that had just become popular worldwide with the branding "Quaalude." This is made apparent when we look at a story from 1972, which ultimately led to drastic overhauls in Southern Australian law and cemented its place in the nation's history. [citation needed]. Mark had driven there with his family, as they were attending the party alongside him, but he would leave with a couple of friends afterward to hang out and cruise around the city with the young adults trying to squeeze out every bit of the Adelaide summer that they could. 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. Mark Andrew Langley, aged 18,[17] murdered in February 1982. Unlike the other murder victims, however, Mark's body showed an odd sign of surgical precision. 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. The Family Murders is a well known and notorious series of crimes that occurred in Adelaide, Australia. A thrash metal band singer and members of his family were killed in an apparent murder-suicide late last month, according to police. Unfortunately, by the time they returned, Mark was nowhere to be found. After doing away with his old, dried-up crops, the farmer was looking over his land when he came upon the now-charred remains of young Peter Stogneff. Nine days after Mark Langley went missing, his body was discovered in the Adelaide Foothills, close to Mount Lofty in the area known as Summertown. Neil had several drug debts throughout Adelaide, and that is where police started their investigation. Sadly, Neil's biggest vice was his ever-evolving drug addiction. Whatever it was, it looked like a human body but was somehow twisted and contorted in an inhuman nature. He had struggled to wean himself off of heroin, using methadone to do so, only to have methadone become his next addiction.