by Bob O'Brien
Our first decent bit of information came to us on Tuesday — two days after Richard had gone missing. The door knock had been widened. We had now covered alternative routes to the bus stop. The quickest way for Richard would have been straight down Ward Street and right into O’Connell Street. An alternative route was to turn right into Boulton Street about 50 metres from O’Connell Street and left into Marian Street to come out next to the delicatessen and bus stop.
Margaret Street was near the Kelvin’s and certainly was not the shortest route to O’Connell Street but Trevor wanted to widen the search to make sure that we covered all possibilities. This move gave us our first bit of information. A young officer reported that a local resident living just around the corner from the Kelvin’s had heard something unusual that Sunday evening.
‘I was asleep in bed,’ he said. ‘I was suffering from the ’flu. I went to bed late that afternoon but some noises woke me about 6.15 p.m. I heard some cries for help and some car doors banging. There was a loud exhaust noise as the car accelerated away. I didn’t think much of it at the time and went back to sleep.’
There was a university boarding college in Ward Street and a hotel in Margaret Street and unusual noises were heard all the time.
I couldn’t believe it. The poor kid was fifty metres from his home and he had been grabbed and pushed in a car. He would have been rushing home for dinner when someone approached him.
Good on him, I thought. At least he tried to resist. But he was unlucky to have been snatched late on a Sunday afternoon in the streets of North Adelaide. Those streets are not exactly like Hindley Street nor those of Sydney’s Kings Cross.
Now, at least this confirmed our thoughts that he had been abducted. He didn’t just wander off. We were ninety-nine per cent sure but this news confirmed it.
By this time, Richard Kelvin’s disappearance was declared a major crime, the same as the disappearances of all the boys. Declaration by police that a crime is considered major allows set procedures to occur and additional resources to be pulled from other sections of the police to assist with the investigation. A team leader is appointed and a primary investigatory team is nominated. The primary team is allocated the task of interviewing any suspects while secondary team members provide a supporting role. An exhibit officer is appointed to handle any property seized by detectives. The Major Crime Plan formalises each person’s duties and allocates responsibilities. Trevor Kipling and I were nominated as the primary investigation team for the Kelvin disappearance. Trevor’s previous partner, Paul Madden, had started working with Lin Strange as primary team members, investigating the unusual disappearance of Louise Bell, a young girl, from her bedroom in the southern suburbs. While this seemed a completely unconnected case at the time, it did sap police resources.
Trevor organised the crime scene examiners to attend Rob and Betteanne Kelvin’s home after he went missing. They examined his bedroom and took samples of his hair from a brush. These hairs were obtained for comparison purposes if Richard’s hairs were found at some other location, such as in a house or a car of a suspect. Also, we took one of Richard’s schoolbooks, which had his handwriting in it, in case we received a ransom note.
As we normally do, police media requested assistance from the public and we received different bits of information. The most interesting phone call was from an anonymous caller saying that Richard Kelvin was being kept in a caravan in the hills. The call was a local one and when Adelaide people talk about the hills they are referring to the Adelaide Hills, which extend roughly north and south for sixty-three kilometres just to the east of the city.
Where do you start when you are looking for a caravan in the Adelaide Hills? Was it a false lead? Were the abductors giving a false lead to divert police efforts in the wrong direction? Trevor assessed it as worthwhile. Besides, Alan Barnes had been dumped in the northern part of the Adelaide Hills at the South Para Reservoir. Mark Langley also had been dumped in the central Adelaide Hills. We weren’t having much luck with any of the other leads, so we decided to concentrate on the hills north of Mount Lofty and also publicise that we were looking for a caravan. Obviously, that would alert Richard’s abductors and they would have an opportunity to move him or even kill him. Making the decision to release the information was an extremely difficult one, but the area was so vast that police could not search it alone. Publicity was the best option, with the hope that something would happen. Trevor spoke to our boss, Chief Superintendent Gerry Edwards and the information went out.
Trevor and I spent some time in the emergency services helicopter, Rescue One, flying over the hills — over the Mt Crawford Forest and the towns of Kersbrook and Williamstown. A few caravans were spotted, but not that many. Besides, many would have been stored in sheds on different properties. The search was long and unrewarding.
Other detectives were added to the team to provide extra resources for the investigation. Among them were David Hunt, the son of the Commissioner of Police, and Peter Woite, the former footballer, who had played for Port Adelaide and Glenelg. Peter won the Megary Medal for the best and fairest player in the South Australian football league.
On Sunday 24 July 1983, seven weeks after Richard Kelvin disappeared, the investigation took a real turn. Trevor Holmes was collecting moss rocks from the scrub adjacent to Mt Crawford Forest. The forest is situated in the northern Adelaide Hills, about two kilometres from the township of Kersbrook and about five kilometres from the reservoir where Alan Barnes was found. He was walking in the scrub next to a dirt and gravel airstrip that slopes down a ridge for 300 metres from the forest towards the coast. Crop-dusters used the airstrip to service the local rural community and the dirt road that ran diagonally from the airstrip towards the city was appropriately called Airstrip Road. Standing on the eastern edge of the airstrip, you could see the coast and tall chimneys of the Torrens Island power station that stood next to the Port River on the opposite side to Mutton Cove, where Neil Muir was found.
Richard was found about fifteen metres from the airstrip and about fifty metres from Airstrip Road. At the time anyone could drive from Airstrip Road straight onto the airstrip past the small sheep yard on the left. Now, a fence stops cars driving on the airstrip, and a locked gate allows access by forest rangers to the airstrip and the fire-track that runs off to the north alongside the edge of the forest.
Richard was lying on the ground on his left-hand side facing a blackboy bush. He was curled in the foetal position with his legs tucked up, almost nursing fronds of the bush. His head was bent forward, accentuating the arch of his curved back, with his arms to the front. His hands were almost on his stomach. He was wearing the same jeans and T-shirt that he sported when he disappeared. The Channel Nine logo stood out on the rear of his T-shirt, and the dog collar had been returned and was sitting firmly around his neck. If he didn’t die there, it looked like one person had carried him to the blackboy bush with one arm under his legs and one arm under his arms before they placed him on the ground. If two people carried him into the bush, it would have been more likely that they would carry him by the arms and legs. If that was the case, when he was put down on the ground the body more likely would have been extended rather than in the foetal position.
I was familiar with the area. When I was riding police motorcycles, it was a boom time in motorcycle sport and a group of us formed a police motorcycle club. We rode the trails of Mt Crawford Forest. Within the forest, there were fire-trails that were large enough to take a motor vehicle and smaller tracks only large enough for walking or riding motorbikes.
If the killers had gone into the forest and dumped Richard, he probably would never have been found. Obviously, the abductors were not that concerned whether or not Richard was found. After the Alan Barnes and Neil Muir murders, they changed their modus operandae (the way criminals do things). With Alan Barnes and Neil Muir, the killers had a vehicle to take their bodies to water and dump them, hoping that they would disappear. The modus operandae
for Peter Stogneff and Mark Langley was to use a vehicle and then dump them alongside a bush road. Richard Kelvin’s dumping was similar to Peter Stogneff’s and Mark Langley’s. If the same people were involved, they had changed because dumping into water hadn’t worked.
‘I’ll go with the body to the post-mortem.’ Trevor said, more as a quiet order rather than a request. ‘Can you tell the Kelvins that Richard has been found?’
Thanks very much, I thought. But I wasn’t going to argue. Trevor was the boss — but what a job, telling Rob and Betteanne that their son’s body had been found.
As with the other boys, Richard was taken in that same white van to the Forensic Science Centre where Dr Ross James performed the autopsy.
Trevor followed the van. Police are concerned with what we call the ‘chain of evidence’. For example, when a body is found one of the detectives stays with the body to make sure that evidence is not contaminated. It is one way of stopping defence solicitors saying that something happened to the evidence from the time it was found till the forensic scientists took over.
No-one from the police likes attending post-mortems and some police say that there is no need for the investigating police to watch the body be cut open. They argue that the pathologist’s report provides the information required by the police. But pathologists look at things differently from the police. Their emphasis is on the body and what might be wrong with it. The police perspective revolves more around the cause of any injuries and how they may have happened. Did a glass or wooden object cause the split anus? Were the saw marks made by a right- or left-handed person? This aspect is changing as pathologists have more and more knowledge about investigations but individual approaches are still different.
Dr James found that Richard had been undressed and redressed, and that he had the same injury to his anus as Alan Barnes, Neil Muir and Mark Langley. The forensic scientist could not say about anal injuries to Peter Stogneff because only his skeleton was found.
One job police hate more than attending a post-mortem examination is telling loved ones that a member of their family is dead. If the message is about a child, then it is even more difficult. Trevor got the better of the two jobs but it was a more efficient use of our time to do it that way; time is always important during a murder investigation.
I rang the buzzer on the wall outside Rob and Betteanne’s home.
I didn’t have a plan for how I was going to tell Rob and Betteanne. I had done it before, as all police officers have done in their careers, but telling a parent or a child that a family member has died is never easy.
On reflection, Rob and Betteanne must have realised that it would be a miracle if their son were still alive. There had been no ransom note. The chance that he had been kidnapped and was still alive was unlikely. As parents, they believed he had not run away, although parents can never be completely sure about these things.
All the indications were bad. Richard was happy with his new girlfriend and she had not heard from him. As well, there had been a run of terrible murders of young men. It all pointed to demons lurking in the city. Any news now would be bad.
Rob and Betteanne took me into the dining area and we sat down at their table. They didn’t say anything and they let me lead the conversation.
I told both of them that we thought we had found their son. A boy had been found alongside an old airstrip near Kersbrook.
‘We think that it is Richard,’ I said and paused before continuing. ‘The clothing is the same but we won’t be 100 per cent sure until the identification is done.’
I still remember the conversation to this day. Why didn’t I say ‘the boy’ instead of ‘it’? I thought at the time. I wasn’t being as sensitive as I could have been.
Rob and Betteanne sat still. They did not comment. There wasn’t any outpouring of emotion. All of their tears had been shed in the weeks beforehand. They had just endured seven weeks of not knowing but suspecting the worse. Knowing would have been an unwelcome relief. Resignation showed in their faces and bodies. I was expecting to console Rob and Betteanne but what happened then surprised me. Tears welled up in my own eyes. I shouldn’t have been surprised, I suppose, as my wife had been saying for some time that I was a softie. Here was this supposedly tough detective getting all emotional at the critical moment.
The conversation continued for another ten minutes as I explained what would happen from that point forward. The body needed to be formally identified as their son, a postmortem would be performed and then Richard could be released to the family for burial. I asked about getting additional support for Rob and Betteanne and whether I could do anything for them. Of course, I couldn’t. They had just been told that their son had been found dead next to a dirt airstrip in a lonely part of bush out of town. Their grieving had begun and the police officer investigating the murder was not the right person to be involved with that process. Someone else had to do that. I left and went back to the office trying to put that part of police work behind me.
Chapter 3
The Evidence
The police radios were quiet at 7.30 in the morning and the two officers who were allocated to guard the airstrip area overnight quickly passed over their log sheet to the next shift. The night had been uneventful and the two were tired and wanted to get home to bed. Guarding a murder scene in the middle of the night is not much fun, especially in a desolate area where no lights exist to brighten the area and remove the darkness. Newer officers are allocated the duty because they are still excited about being involved in a murder investigation even in a relatively small way and they can learn from the experience. The police guard is required to log the arrival of different people and anything of interest that happens in the general area. New men are more likely to remain observant and record events that might be missed by an older officer. Two police officers were present during the night to keep each other company but only one officer was present during the day because other people were around.
The new officer guarding the scene was busier, as different cars arrived and parked close by. He was first to arrive that next morning, stopping his patrol vehicle on the airstrip before walking to the police command vehicle, which had been parked just outside of the orange plastic bunting laying on the ground from the previous day. The bunting extended from the scrub onto the dirt and gravel of the airstrip and stretched down the strip for about forty metres before disappearing into the low bushes and small eucalyptus trees. The area where Richard Kelvin was found was still surrounded by the orange bunting, as police crime scene tape had not yet been introduced to South Australian police.
The police command vehicle was a converted Toyota van with a pop-top roof to allow greater movement inside the rear. Tables were installed and police radios fitted to the cupboards inside the van, which were accessed by sitting on the chairs on coasters, allowing the van to become a mini office. Command vehicles also carry generators to provide extra power for longer operations.
Trevor Kipling and I arrived early, parked our plain Mitsubishi sedan and waited for the others to arrive. As different police turned up they parked close to the bunting so they did not have carry their equipment too far, but not close enough to disturb any evidence the killers might have left. Crime scene examiners and the police photographers returned. Detectives came and left after having a look. Police media liaison was present to speak to the different news reporters who visited the site. At one stage fourteen vehicles lined up along the airstrip.
Trevor and I had assembled a busload of police cadets at the end of the airstrip just off the dirt road. There were thirty cadets in the police bus as well as the cadets’ instructor, who parked alongside the other vehicles that had arrived earlier.
Trevor coordinated operations and asked me to work with the cadets and do a search down the dirt runway and in the scrub along the sides of the airstrip. I stepped onto the bus shortly after it arrived and spoke to the cadets, mainly fresh-faced young men, but there were a couple of women wh
o wanted to have a go at policing. They were excited to be involved and to have an opportunity to get away from their classroom. Nowadays, police are more likely to use State Emergency Service volunteers to search around crime scenes because cadet training is so intensive over a six-month period that they cannot be spared to search crime scenes.
‘We are going to search for evidence at a murder scene,’ I said before explaining about Richard Kelvin and how he was abducted near his home before being found murdered.
‘Solving a murder investigation is teamwork. You are now part of the team,’ I continued, looking earnestly into their faces to make sure that everyone was listening intently. I didn’t want anyone goofing off and missing any evidence.
‘We are going to carry out an “emu parade” looking for any evidence that might solve this crime.’
I continued for about ten minutes, explaining that an emu parade took its name from the actions of the big bird slowly moving along and bobbing down searching for food. On this occasion the cadets would walk side by side searching for anything unusual. I would walk behind the line stopping their movement when anything was found and recording what, when and where anything of interest was found. Stopping the line made sure that the cadets stayed in a row, which lessened the possibility of them missing anything.
In scrub, things that catch the eye are generally man made. Such things as bullet shells, discarded clothing, a blanket used to wrap a body or even a discarded cigarette may provide some evidence or information about a crime. Other items can also be very important — such things as blood on the ground, a rock that has been moved and used as a bludgeon, or a heavy branch used as a club, which may have blood or hair on it.
The murder weapon in this case was something like a bottle with a tapered neck — similar to a beer bottle. This was hardly distinctive and couldn’t be isolated like a gun or a bullet. The finding of a bullet shell can tell ballistic experts that it was an automatic rifle and, depending on the ammunition, even the type of weapon may be named.
