Snowtown

by Jeremy Pudney

  ‘Were you involved in the murder of your wife?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Were you involved in the murder of Troy Youde?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Prior to your arrest on 21 May 1999, did you have any inkling that there were human bodies in barrels at the bank at Snowtown?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Had you ever heard of a person called Michael Gardiner before your arrest?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Had you ever heard of a person called Gavin Porter before your arrest?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Had you ever heard of a person called Gary O’Dwyer before your arrest?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Did you see Troy Youde at any time in 1998?’

  ‘No.’

  Haydon’s appearance on the stand presented an opportunity for him to be depicted as a typical ‘battler’—a forty-six year old who had spent the past five and a half years in jail, having been unwittingly caught up in Australia’s worst ever case of serial killing. The jury was shown glimpses of Haydon’s personal life, such as his brother’s death in a car accident at age twenty-six, and the fact that he had left school without completing Year 11.

  Haydon’s first job was at the General Motors Holden plant in Adelaide’s north, after which he was in and out of work. It was at a welding course in 1989 that he met John Bunting. He met Elizabeth Haydon in 1994, formed a relationship and she moved in with him. Elizabeth was interested in ceramics, and she and Mark undertook courses with a view to setting up their own business. The business was being discussed with Bunting’s de facto, Elizabeth Harvey, who was also interested in ceramics.

  In 1996 there was a dispute between the Haydons and Elizabeth Harvey which drove a wedge between Bunting and Mark Haydon. Their friendship resumed in 1998 when Bunting showed up out of the blue. That same year Haydon bought the house at 4 Blackham Crescent, Smithfield Plains, where he lived with Elizabeth, who was by then his wife. Also living there were two of Elizabeth’s sons, and her sister, Gail Sinclair, who began a relationship with Bunting.

  Throughout his testimony Haydon referred to his once-friends as ‘Bunting’, ‘Wagner’ and ‘Vlassakis’, perhaps hoping to distance himself from his former mates.

  After her client was settled on the stand, Mrs Shaw’s questions turned to Elizabeth Haydon. Mark Haydon claimed to have still loved her. They were trying for a baby—he certainly didn’t want her dead.

  ‘We know this from the medical records that your wife was having pregnancy tests in late 1998?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Were your taking her to the doctor?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Were you and your wife endeavouring to have a child at this time?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Was that the position right up until the time your wife disappeared?’

  ‘Yes.’

  You have heard that your wife suffered from genital herpes?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did that concern you in relation to your efforts to have a child?’

  ‘No, because it wasn’t contagious unless it was flaring up.’

  ‘In your relationship you were able to manage that so it wasn’t an issue?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Haydon’s attention was then turned to the other murder with which he was charged.

  ‘Can I take you to Murray Bridge…did you and your wife ever visit Murray Bridge after you saw Mr Bunting again in 1998?’

  ‘Yes, we dropped him off there a couple of times and also picked him up a couple of times.’

  ‘Did you go into the house at any stage with your wife?’

  ‘No, we only ever dropped him off or picked him up at the end of his street.’

  ‘You know of the charges against you? That you were at Burdekin Avenue when Mr Youde was killed in August 1998; that’s the allegation against you.’

  ‘Yes, I’m aware of that allegation.’

  ‘Did you ever go into the premises at Burdekin Avenue in 1998 at any time when Troy Youde was there?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Had you met Troy Youde before 1998?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘In 1994.’

  ‘Had you seen him since 1994?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Several times between ‘94 at Kilsby Street, it was where his mother was living, a few times at Tilshead Street where Marcus Johnson was living.’

  ‘Is that when he was living with Marcus Johnson?’

  ‘Yes. I think once up at a place called Bakara in the Riverland and that was it.’

  Still one of the most damaging areas of evidence had to be tackled. Under oath, Haydon admitted he had stored the barrels in his garage, and then helped move them to Snowtown. He admitted leasing the bank with Bunting and shifting the barrels there. His explanation was that he had not known the barrels contained human remains, that Bunting first told him the barrels contained animal skins and later that there were actually kangaroo carcasses inside. Haydon told the court he never looked in the barrels and had no sense of smell, so never had reason to doubt Bunting’s story. Bunting had first asked Haydon to take the barrels when he was moving house.

  ‘On that topic, did Mr Bunting speak to you about that?’

  ‘Yes, he said he had no shed at the place where he was moving to and he needed somewhere to store what he had in the shed.’

  ‘Did you agree?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did some property arrive at Blackham after that conversation?’

  ‘After that conversation, yes.’

  ‘Before the property arrived, did you know exactly what it was going to be?’

  ‘No, I didn’t.’

  ‘What did Mr Bunting bring to Blackham?’

  ‘One morning him and Wagner came around in a truck, had some drums on it, some garbage bags.’

  ‘What did they do with them?’

  ‘Drums went into the corner of the garage and the garbage bags on the floor in front of the drums.’

  ‘How many drums did you see?’

  ‘I remember about four.’

  ‘The garbage bags, did they stay on the shed floor or were they placed somewhere else?’

  ‘No, I moved them down into the cellar out of the way.’

  The Judge then asked, ‘Is the cellar what has been referred to by some of the witnesses as the “pit”?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Haydon also explained that when he had moved a car from Bunting’s house at Murray Bridge to his own home, he had been unaware that the body of Fred Brooks was in the boot.

  ‘How did you come to do that?’

  ‘Bunting was at my place with the truck in the morning.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And he asked me if I still wanted the Torana back.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I said “Yes, I do”.’

  ‘Did you go and get it?’

  ‘Yes, later that afternoon.’

  ‘Did you open up the boot?’

  ‘No, when I first had a look at the car at Murray Bridge I tried to open the boot and the key I had wouldn’t fit.’

  ‘So what did you do? Did you try once you got it down to Blackham?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What did you do about that?’

  ‘I had some old Holden keys, I just kept trying keys in the lock to see if I could get it open.’

  ‘Did you get it open?’

  ‘Yes I did.’

  ‘When you got it open, did you see anything in there?’

  ‘Spare tyre…a few scraps of paper.’

  ‘We have heard that luminal testing of that boot [for blood] was negative. Did you see anything in there that looked as though it might have had any garbage bag in there?’

  ‘No.’

  Next Haydon gave the jury his version of events surrounding his wife’s disappearance. The night before, he said, her two sons had gone to stay at their
uncle Garion’s house. During the day, Haydon said he worked around the house while Elizabeth and her sister went to a doll-making class. Bunting was there, as he often was, and Robert Wagner came to visit.

  That night, Haydon took Gail Sinclair for a drive.

  ‘You did take [Gail Sinclair] to Reynella?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How did that come about?’

  ‘Elizabeth asked me to go.’

  ‘Which car did you go in?’

  ‘Bunting’s Marquis.’

  ‘Is there any reason why you didn’t go in your car?’

  ‘Mine had very little fuel and I didn’t have a lot of money at the time.’

  ‘How was it, what did Elizabeth say to you to persuade you to take [Gail Sinclair] to Reynella?’

  ‘She said [Gail] wanted to go and have a look at a dog to mate with her two females, that she didn’t know where Reynella was and John Bunting had to be somewhere at some point that evening, he said he did.’

  ‘Did you say anything about your car and petrol when Elizabeth asked you that?’

  ‘I said, “Well, I haven’t got the fuel or the money to get that”.’

  ‘How was that problem solved?’

  ‘Bunting offered to let me use his car and gave me $20 for gas.’

  Haydon said he and Gail Sinclair set off about five o’clock, reached the meeting place at Reynella in Adelaide’s south, and waited. The dog owners failed to arrive, so they began driving home. On the way Haydon stopped to make a telephone call.

  ‘Where did you stop to do that?’

  ‘I tried to make a phone call outside the Bolivar Caravan Park.’

  ‘When you say you tried, you stopped at the phone box?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was your reason for trying or wanting to make a phone call?’

  ‘I just thought I would check to see if she [Elizabeth] wanted like milk or bread or anything like that when I was on my way home.’

  ‘What happened when you first tried?’

  ‘The phone seemed to ring out, but I wasn’t sure whether it was—it had actually rung out and she didn’t answer or if the phone booth I was using was out of order.’

  ‘Did you stop again?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Where did you stop?’

  ‘Salisbury.’

  On the second attempt, Haydon said Bunting answered the phone.

  ‘He just said, “All hell has broken out. Your wife has gone into the bedroom ranting and locked herself in there.” I asked him what was the problem and he said it would be better if he explained when I got home.’

  ‘Did you return home?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘When you got home, who was there?’

  ‘Bunting and Wagner, my wife was in the bedroom still.’

  ‘Did [Gail Sinclair] come inside with you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Can you tell us what was said?’

  ‘Bunting told me that my wife had made a sexual advance towards him, he rejected her and she stormed into the bedroom.’

  ‘Did he and [Gail Sinclair] stay there or go somewhere else?’

  ‘No, they went into the kitchen.’

  ‘Did he tell you what the nature of the advance was?’

  ‘Not at that stage.’

  ‘Did he say what his response was to the advance?’

  ‘He said he refused it.’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I went down to the bedroom to talk to my wife.’

  ‘What happened when you went to the bedroom?’

  ‘I knocked on the door, went in, asked for her side of the story.’

  ‘What was your wife doing when you went into the bedroom?’

  ‘Lying on the bed.’

  ‘Did she appear happy or unhappy?’

  ‘She appeared like she had been crying.’

  ‘You told us what you said, did she respond to that?’

  ‘She accused me of sleeping with [Gail Sinclair].’

  ‘What were her words?’

  ‘I can’t remember her exact words but she said, “You’ve been sleeping with Gail”, and she also called me a lazy good-for-nothing.’

  Haydon said his wife would not accept his denials. He left the room, telling her he would return when she was prepared to ‘start talking sense’. Bunting and Gail Sinclair went and got some dinner while Haydon stayed at the house with Wagner. Within moments Elizabeth came ‘storming’ out of the bedroom yelling that her ‘boyfriend’ was coming to pick her up. She ‘staggered’ in drunk at four o’clock the next morning and passed out on their bed.

  According to Haydon’s version of events, Wagner had gone home but John Bunting had stayed the night with Gail Sinclair. The following morning Bunting and Sinclair went out.

  ‘Did you leave the house?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Before you left the house did you speak to your wife?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was said?’

  ‘I asked—again asked her where she had been, who she had been with, she said it was nobody I knew. She didn’t intimate whether it was male or female. She said she was going to get up and have a shower and go again. I asked her to stay put at least until I got back from seeing my father. She said she would. I also asked her just to think about what she is doing and what she really wants to do.’

  That night, Haydon said, his wife never came home. He went to pick up the boys from her brother.

  ‘When you got to Garion’s place, did you say something to Garion about Elizabeth?’

  ‘Yes, after he asked a few questions.’

  ‘What did you tell him about where Elizabeth was?’

  ‘I told him that she was at home sleeping.’

  ‘Why did you tell him that?’

  ‘Because the boys were within earshot at the time and I didn’t want to be upsetting them.’

  The next day, Monday 23 November, Haydon sent the boys to school but they didn’t return home. When he went to his mother-in-law’s to look for them, he told her Elizabeth had taken off. Haydon found the boys back at Garion Sinclair’s house. They had told him their mum was missing.

  ‘Did you speak to Garion about what was going to happen to the boys?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was said about that?’

  ‘…as far as the boys were concerned, he said they would be better off with him and I agreed, I said, “If they wish to stay here they are quite”—I was quite happy for them to.’

  ‘Did you say anything about speaking to them?’

  ‘Yes, I said, “I’ll ask them”; make sure they definitely wanted to stay there.’

  ‘Was something said about the welfare?’

  ‘Yes, he also said that he had been to welfare that day and they advised him to report my wife missing to the police, if the welfare needed to serve papers on her.’

  ‘Did you say anything about the topic of reporting her missing?’

  ‘He asked me if I was going to and I said, well, it would be a waste of time me reporting her missing if he was going to do it.’

  Haydon told the court that during later visits to Garion Sinclair he had told his brother-in-law that Elizabeth had run off, and that he’d lied at first so the boys were not upset.

  On Monday, 30 November 1998, the police visited Haydon’s house. He was out at a training course, but Gail Sinclair was home. This was the day, Haydon admitted, that he helped move the barrels from his garage.

  ‘When you came home from the course, was something said by [Gail Sinclair] on the topic of the police?’

  ‘Yes, she informed me that the police had been there looking around, they wanted to have a look in the garage, which was locked that particular day.’

  ‘Did you go anywhere?’

  ‘I went down to Wagner’s place.’

  ‘Did you have Bunting’s phone number?’

  ‘At the time I was unsure as to whether it was in the house anywhere.’

>   ‘Why did you go to Wagner’s place?’

  ‘Because I knew he had Bunting’s phone number.’

  ‘Why did you want to contact Bunting?’

  ‘Because I wanted him to get—to remove what I assumed to be stolen property he had stored in my garage.’

  ‘Had you seen items in your garage that you thought were stolen property?’

  ‘Yes, a couple of stereos, fire extinguisher, electrical water pump.’

  ‘You told us Mr Wagner placed some drums in your shed.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did he tell you at the time what was in the drums?’

  ‘He said it was animal skins that he was tanning.’

  ‘After you had been to Mr Wagner’s place, did you go back to Blackham Crescent?’

  ‘Yes, we all did.’

  ‘When you got back there what happened, what did you do?’

  ‘[Gail Sinclair] was asked to go in the family room to keep an eye out for the police. Wagner had a look up in the ceiling.’

  ‘Was something said about that before he did that?’

  ‘Yes, we had the idea to see if there was any room—just to see if we could put the property up there. Then, after Wagner came down, I just said, “There’s no point in putting it up there because if the police are looking around they are going to look up there eventually anyway.’”

  ‘Once you said that, what happened?’

  ‘Then we went out to the garage and just had a look at everything. Bunting asked what I wanted done with the four-wheel drive because I told him earlier that I was worried about having too many vehicles in the front yard.’

  ‘You said that the registration of the four-wheel drive had expired back at the end of September. Where had the four-wheel drive been located since September; that is from the end of September to the end of November?’

  ‘Parked in front of my bedroom window parallel to the house facing north.’

  ‘What was said? You were about to tell us what was said about the four-wheel drive on this occasion after Mr Wagner had a look in the ceiling.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘Well, Bunting suggested he take everything he put in my shed that night, it wouldn’t all fit in his vehicle so he decided to take my four-wheel drive, store that for me and use that to transport what he had in the garage.’

  ‘That was unregistered at the time?’