by Ruth Wykes
In fact, this poor young child was an innocent teenager, being brutally assaulted, and latterly murdered, by the Birnies.
This second-hand account, while perhaps an overstatement in some ways, offers insight into how the police were approaching the reports of the missing women at the time. There had been no bodies found at this stage, and only one other person missing. The only 'evidence' available to police at the time was that Susannah had 'contacted her family' to say she was all right. It isn't altogether surprising that the police were yet to become suspicious that something far more terrible was going on.
Noelene
Noelene Patterson lived with her mother in the beautiful riverside suburb of Bicton, near Fremantle. The 31-year-old woman was a former Ansett airline hostess who had worked for the airline for nine years. She then went to work for entrepreneur Alan Bond for two years on his private airline, and in 1986 was working at the Nedlands Golf Club.
Described by those who knew her as elegant, beautiful and popular, Noelene was driving home from work on Saturday 1 November 1986 when her car ran out of petrol. She was stuck on the Canning Highway in East Fremantle, not far from home.
The Birnies had been out hunting that night when they came across Noelene. As it happened they knew her and, according to some reports, had even been to her house to help with wallpapering. They pulled up alongside Noelene and offered to take her to the nearest service station. Relieved to see someone she knew, Noelene accepted the offer.
As soon as she got in the car a knife was held to her throat and Noelene was taken to the Birnies' Willagee home. Bound, gagged, raped and tortured, it had been the intention of the Birnies to kill Noelene that night and dispose of her body in Gleneagle.
But David Birnie developed an emotional attachment to Noelene and kept putting off her murder. He kept her alive for three days. Catherine, on the other hand, took an instant dislike to the beautiful Patterson. In part it was because she sensed David's attachment to Noelene and felt jealous. After three days Catherine had had more than enough. She held a knife to her own breast and delivered an ultimatum to her partner: 'Her or me - you choose!'
David Birnie gave Noelene Patterson a massive dose of sleeping pills and then strangled her while she slept. The couple then followed a familiar routine - they drove to Gleneagle where they dug a shallow grave and buried Noelene Patterson, but not before Catherine drew some personal satisfaction from throwing sand in the dead woman's face.
Denise
Denise Brown was a fun-loving 21-year-old woman who worked as a part-time computer operator. Like many of her friends she loved dancing and nightclubs, and she lived with her boyfriend and another couple in Nedlands. Denise is described by people as having been warm, friendly, trusting and naive.
On Wednesday 5 November Denise had spent the day with a girlfriend at the Coolbellup Hotel. She was waiting for a bus outside the Stoned Crow Wine House in Fremantle that evening when the Birnies pulled up alongside her and offered her a ride home.
It may have been her happy, trusting nature that led her to accept the ride from the Birnies instead of waiting for a bus. In any case, as soon as she was in the car a knife was held to her throat. She was abducted and taken to the Moorhouse residence where, like the women before her, she was raped, time and time again.
Cruelly, the Birnies forced her to make phone calls to tell friends she was okay. It was their way of throwing investigators off any trail, to slow down the inevitability that Denise Brown would be the fourth Perth woman reported missing in the space of 27 days.
The day after abducting Denise Brown from the street, the Birnies decided to kill her. They drugged her, and dragged the bound woman into their car. In a departure from their routine of heading to Gleneagle Forest, the Birnies headed north, and drove more than 60 kilometres to Gnangara Pine Plantation at Wanneroo.
Once they had arrived in the forest David Birnie decided he would rape Denise Brown again while he waited for darkness to fall. During one of the rapes he stabbed her in the neck with a knife, an injury which, while horrific, proved not to be fatal. Catherine Birnie found a bigger knife and handed it to her partner. He stabbed the badly wounded young woman again, this time believing he had killed her.
He set about digging a shallow grave and after he placed Denise Brown's body in it, he was shocked when she sat up, trying to escape. At this point David Birnie grabbed an axe and struck Denise Brown twice on the skull with great force. Then the Birnies covered her body with sand.
Kate
Just a few days later, on Monday 10 November 1986, 17-year-old Kate was walking along her street in the fashionable suburb of Nedlands. She was on the Stirling Highway when a friendly couple pulled up and asked her for directions. While she was chatting to them the man jumped out of the car, produced a knife and forced her to get in.
She was taken back to Willagee, where she was tied to the bed and raped twice. Kate was forced to phone her parents to say she was all right, and while on the phone she had the presence of mind to draw stick figures on a writing pad, symbolising the phone number she was calling from. It was smart thinking because not only would those stick figures help Kate recall the phone number, it was also evidence that she had been in the house.
The following morning David Birnie left for work, and Kate was left alone with Catherine. Kate convinced Catherine that she desperately needed to use the toilet and eventually Birnie relented and undid the chains. Coincidentally someone knocked on the door while Kate was free from her chains. The distraction gave her the only opportunity she would have, and she escaped through an unlocked window.
Semi-naked, Kate ran through the streets of Willagee until she came to a nearby supermarket in a small shopping centre. Close to hysteria, she demanded that they call the police.
Paul Ferguson
Detective Paul Ferguson had been worried about the reports of missing women, and by 5 November, when Denise Brown was reported missing, he was convinced a serial killer was operating in Perth. Ferguson had checked into the girls' backgrounds: there was nothing to link these women, no secret lovers or married men, no hidden drug use, no reason to run. They all came from good families and were leading normal lives - until they disappeared.
He was uncomfortable that two of the missing women had apparently contacted family or friends - either through letters or phone calls - after they went missing. This suggested a pattern. His suspicions led him to contact CIB Chief Bill Neilson, who had been in charge of the investigation for serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke in the 1960s. Neilson agreed with him.
Paul Ferguson and Detective Sergeant Vince Katich were working when they heard on the two-way radio that a semi-naked young woman had run into a Willagee supermarket asking for the police. They quickly responded, hoping it was missing girl Denise Brown. They were stunned to find another young woman, and even more stunned when they listened to what she had to tell them.
Kate was an intelligent, observant young woman and she was able to tell the police the address and telephone number of the house in Willagee she had been driven to at knifepoint. She told them about being raped, chained and photographed. But it was when she told them that she had been forced to phone home that the detectives realised they were very, very close to breaking this case.
Ferguson and Katich went to the dishevelled cottage at 3 Moorhouse Street, Willagee, and knocked on the door. Nobody was home. They hid in a panel van in the driveway, and it wasn't long before Catherine Birnie came back from what would be her last free trip anywhere. When the detectives approached her Catherine was tense and cold, but she did tell them where David Birnie worked.
The detectives brought David Birnie home in handcuffs, and then took both him and Catherine to Fremantle police station where they began an intense interrogation. They separated them in different interview rooms, and both Birnies held to the story that Kate had come to their house of her own free will, and had just been partying with them. They stated emphatically that Kate had come to the
ir place the previous evening to share some marijuana, and that one thing had led to another. Both Birnies claimed that David and Kate had consensual sex, and she had stayed the night. They emphatically denied knowing anything about any other missing women.
A search of the house found the handbag and a packet of cigarettes that Kate had hidden in the ceiling to prove that she had actually been there, but there was little to prove the allegation of rape or connect the Birnies with any of the other missing women.
Back at Fremantle police station, Detective Sergeant Katich was beginning to wonder how they would ever get the Birnies to talk. The lack of physical evidence back at Moorhouse Street meant they would need to elicit a confession from at least one of them. At around 7pm Katich said half-jokingly to David Birnie: 'It's getting dark. Best we take the shovel and dig them up.'
To Katich's complete surprise Birnie responded with: 'Okay. There's four of them.'
As soon as she was informed that David had confessed to the crimes, Catherine Birnie capitulated. She confessed her role in the kidnapping, rape and murder of the four dead women, and to her role in Kate's kidnapping and rape.
The Birnies were bundled into a car with the detectives after agreeing to show them where they had buried the bodies. They headed north past Perth city to Wanneroo and then on to the Gnangara Pine Plantation. During the trip David Birnie was relaxed and very chatty. He was so engrossed in making conversation with the police that they were almost at Yanchep before Birnie realised they had gone too far. Catherine, on the other hand, was silent.
They turned back and headed towards the city. As they reached the turn-off from the highway, Birnie directed the detectives to drive about 400 metres into Gnangara Pine Plantation. When they did that he indicated a spot and said, 'Dig there.'
It didn't take police long to uncover the remains of Denise Brown, who had been buried there just five days previously.
The detectives left other police to guard Denise's grave and headed back down the highway with the Birnies, this time heading south. They travelled past the city, then along the Albany Highway until they reached Gleneagle Picnic Area near Armadale.
David Birnie guided the police into the forest and along a narrow track. Up a slight incline, about 40 metres from the track, was where they had buried Mary Neilson. Another kilometre down the same track the Birnies pointed out Susannah Candy's grave. Throughout this trip the police were struck by the fact that the couple showed no emotion, no embarrassment as they led them from one crime scene to another. If anything, the police thought, the Birnies were enjoying being the centre of attention.
After showing the police where they had buried Susannah Candy, Catherine Birnie decided it was her turn. She told police that she wanted to show them where Noelene Patterson was buried. She went to great lengths to describe to the police how much she had disliked Noelene, and stated that she was glad she was dead. As she led police to the final victim, Catherine Birnie walked up to Noelene's grave - and spat on it.
As they were leaving Gleneagle Forest David Birnie paused, looked back, and then said to Detective Sergeant Vince Katich, 'What a pointless waste of young life.'
One of the police officers involved in the investigation, Neville Collard, described the feeling among police that night: 'When they said they had caught the Birnies, the next day they recalled me to work I was on the evening shift. The admission that occurred, I think somewhere around seven or eight o'clock at night, the jubilance in the office and the detectives and shouting and running around saying, "He's admitted to four murders."
'The jubilation that people feel in relation to cracking a really hard case, for me, because I had been in the room with Kate taking statements and interviewing her and going over the facts and going over everything, she was a lucky girl.'
According to Paul Kidd in his book Never to Be Released, there was at least one other young woman who was very lucky to be alive after her near encounter with the Birnies. He describes how after the Birnies' capture, a 19-year-old student told police how she was offered a lift by two people who she later recognised as Catherine and David Birnie from photos in the newspapers.
After finishing university for the day, she was walking along Pinjar Road, Wanneroo, when a car pulled up beside her. There were two people in the front and another slumped in the back seat. Later she realised that the person in the back was probably Denise Brown.
She went on:
I felt uneasy. I didn't recognise the car. There was a man driving and a woman in the front seat of the car. The man kept looking down, not looking at me, and the woman was drinking a can of UDL rum and coke. I thought the fact that she was drinking at that time of day was strange. He didn't look at me the whole time. It was the woman who did all the talking. She asked me if I wanted a lift anywhere. I said, 'No, I only live up the road.'
They continued to sit there and I looked into the back seat where I saw a small person with short brown hair lying across the seat. I thought it must have been their son or daughter asleep in the back. The person was in a sleeping position and from the haircut looked like a boy but for some reason I got the feeling it was a girl. I told them again I didn't want a lift because walking was good exercise. The man looked up for the first time and gazed at me before looking away again. By this time more cars had appeared and I started to walk away but they continued to sit in the car. Finally the car started and they did another U-turn and drove up Pinjar Road towards the pine plantation. It wasn't until I saw a really good photo of Catherine Birnie that I realised who they were. Somebody must have been looking after me that day. I don't know what would have happened to me if I had got into that car.
It quickly became obvious to everyone that had Kate not managed to escape from Moorhouse Street, she would have been killed. It was equally apparent that the killings would have continued. David Birnie had a taste for it; he was driven by something inside himself to keep finding women. He had no intention of stopping.
During the police interviews with Kate, and then the Birnies, it became clear that there was a pattern to the crimes. But what wasn't as obvious was how Kate managed to escape.
Catherine's version of the events that led to her arrest are, predictably, very different from Kate's. She told police:
I think I must have come to a decision that sooner or later there had to be an end to the rampage. I had reached the stage when I didn't know what to do. I suppose I came to a decision that I was prepared to give her a chance.
I knew that it was a foregone conclusion that David would kill her, and probably do it that night. I was just fed up with the killings. I thought if something did not happen soon it would simply go on and on and never end.
Deep and dark in the back of my mind was yet another fear. I had a great fear that I would have to look at another killing like that of Denise Brown, the girl he murdered with the axe.
I wanted to avoid that at all costs. In the back of my mind I had come to the position where I really did not care if the girl escaped or not. When I found out that the girl had escaped, I felt a twinge of terror run down my spine. I thought to myself, David will be furious. What shall I tell him?
Kate has grown into a beautiful woman, a mother of three children with a partner who dotes on her. At times Kate seems driven by nervous energy; at other times she is a thoughtful, determined woman. Since surviving an ordeal that almost cost her life, Kate seems to have grabbed everything life offers her: she is driven, sometimes loud, opinionated, intelligent, and free - everything Catherine Birnie will never be. Her contempt for the Birnies is never far from the surface and sometimes, in unguarded moments, you can glimpse the scars.
Her recollection of that terrible day is that she outsmarted Catherine Birnie. Chained to the bed, she convinced Catherine that she really needed to use the toilet. Catherine eventually relented, and while Kate was in the bathroom she escaped by squeezing through the small window.
Catherine is reluctant to talk about how Kate actually got away.
The story she told the police, in which she described her 'below the surface fears' and wanting the killings to end, is simply incredible. If her story is to be believed she left a young woman, whom she had abducted the night before, to roam around her house while she answered a knock on the door. Maybe she wanted the killings to end, and saw prison as the only way she would ever escape from David. Or maybe she was outsmarted by a young, terrified woman who was willing to do anything to survive.
On 12 November 1986 David and Catherine Birnie appeared in Fremantle Magistrates Court, where they were charged with four counts of murder. They had attracted a hostile crowd, and everyone who entered the courtroom that day had their bags checked. Waiting in the holding cells before their court appearance, the Birnies were heavily guarded by police.
David Birnie was led into court handcuffed to two police officers. He was wearing faded blue overalls, joggers and socks. Catherine arrived in court, cuffed to police, wearing blue jeans and a brown checked shirt. She was barefoot.
As the charges were read out the couple stood together, betraying no emotion. Statuesque. Neither of them had legal representation, and no plea was entered. Bail was refused and the couple was remanded in custody. When the magistrate asked Catherine if she would prefer eight or 30 days to prepare for her next appearance, she looked over at David and said: 'I'll go when he goes'.
On 10 February 1987 a huge crowd had gathered outside Perth's Supreme Court. They were an angry group of people, a microcosm of a community whose horror at the Birnie crimes was manifesting itself in impotent rage. As the prison truck carrying the Birnies arrived, the crowd made their feelings clear. Cries of 'String them up! Hang the bastards' echoed through the crowd. A police guard was there to protect the Birnies as they waited in their holding cells.
