The Frankston Serial Killer

by Vikki Petraitis

  Debbie Fream had been stabbed in the right side of her neck and Rod Wilson quickly asked the suspect, 'Why did you indicate that exact area?'

  'I was just pointing, that's all,' said Denyer, looking even more uncomfortable.

  'But why did you point there?' persisted Wilson.

  Denyer looked embarrassed and said it was a lucky guess.

  Rod Wilson asked him what else he knew about the murders. Denyer said that he knew Debbie Fream was the mother of a 12-day-old baby called Jake, and that she had lived with a de facto husband. Elizabeth Stevens had been a student at the Frankston TAFE. He remembered that Elizabeth Stevens was 18 and that Debbie Fream was 22 years old.

  Rod Wilson asked Denyer if he had discussed the murders with anyone else.

  'Oh well, just with Sharon. We just talked about it, you know, taking precautions-'

  'Did you ever discuss the injuries that we're just discussing with anyone else?'

  'Well, Sharon heard a rumour that the killer cut her, played noughts and crosses with a knife on the bodies, and I heard that-'

  'On which body?' interrupted Wilson.

  'On both, two bodies,' Denyer said.

  'And Sharon told you that?'

  'A girl from Sharon's work, her husband is a detective working on this case. That's what I was told. This lady told her… you know how husband and wife tell each other everything.'

  Wilson wondered if Denyer told Sharon everything.

  Mark Woolfe took over the questioning and went over all the details again. Woolfe's style of questioning was different to that of his senior sergeant. He fired questions thick and fast, challenging Denyer on the smallest details about the car and which tools he carried. He suggested that Denyer was lying about the severity of the water leak problem. It would have only cost around 30 dollars to fix the problem and Woolfe suggested that if the leaks were that bad, Denyer would have fixed them rather than putting up with his car overheating all the time. The suspect sat leaning back against the wall of the interview room, his arms crossed defensively in front of him.

  When Denyer said he only once missed picking Sharon up from work - on the night Debbie Fream went missing - Mark Woolfe pressed the point and Denyer backtracked. He then said there were other nights, but he couldn't remember which ones. Mark Woolfe asked what the arrangements had been for Sharon the night that Elizabeth Stevens was murdered.

  All along, Denyer had stressed that he had picked Sharon up or met her at the station every night, and yet, on the night of the first murder, Paul Denyer had visited Sharon's mother and stayed there, waiting for Sharon to get home. Denyer explained that her sister would pick her up or else she would catch a taxi. In the end, he said, she had caught a taxi.

  'Why did you pick a storm to go for a two-hour walk to have a look at a battery?' Woolfe asked him.

  'I don't know. I just felt like walking.'

  'Well, I suggest to you that's a lie. What do you say to that?'

  'Well, I don't reckon it's a lie.'

  'I suggest to you that you did not go to your parents' place that night.'

  'I did.'

  Woolfe continued to press him about the story sounding unbelievable, but Denyer stubbornly stuck to it. At 11.25pm, Rod Wilson suspended the interview for a coffee break. Denyer asked for white with two and then yawned towards the camera as Wilson left the interview room.

  Over an hour later, the taped interview started again and Rod Wilson again cautioned the suspect before requesting a sample of his blood. He explained that Denyer didn't have to give his consent, but if he refused, they would apply to a magistrate and get an order for blood. Denyer now began to look a little upset. He agreed in a quiet voice. Wilson then asked if he agreed to having his fingerprints and a sample of his hair taken. Denyer agreed.

  The interview was suspended while a doctor was summoned to take the samples.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  O'Loughlin

  Senior Detective Darren O'Loughlin was a dedicated cop in his early 30s. He came from a family of police officers: both parents, brothers and uncles all serving or past-serving members. Tall but slightly built, O'Loughlin had a gentle, almost inconspicuous way about him. His deep brown eyes stared intently at whoever he was talking to and his quiet voice and ready smile convinced more than one offender that confession was good for the soul.

  At the Frankston police station, homicide detectives had spent hours interviewing Paul Denyer. Darren O'Loughlin had remained in his own office during this time, ostensibly waiting in case the detectives needed him for anything; but also because he, like every other detective working on the case, wanted to know for certain whether their suspect was indeed the killer.

  During the wait for the doctor to arrive, Denyer asked to go the toilet. O'Loughlin accompanied him. On the way back to the interview room, Paul Denyer turned to Darren O'Loughlin and said, 'Can I ask you something?'

  'Sure,' replied O'Loughlin.

  'I see you're wearing a cross under your shirt. Are you a Christian?'

  'Yes I am, why?'

  'Sharon is but she doesn't go to church any more. Can I ask you something before I go back in there?'

  'Yeah sure,' replied the detective, offering Denyer a cup of coffee. The two walked into the kitchen area next to the interview room and O'Loughlin made two coffees.

  'I'd love something to eat,' Denyer said. He had been at the police station for nearly eight hours.

  'No worries, I'll organise it. What do you feel like?'

  The man accused of three brutal murders asked O'Loughlin for a hamburger.

  'Anything else?' asked the detective.

  'Can you tell me something off the record?' Denyer asked him.

  'I won't know until you ask me.'

  'How long do DNA tests take?'

  'I don't know. I'm just helping out.'

  'Have they got something to DNA because they've asked for my blood and stuff?'

  'I don't really know. You should ask the homicide squad detectives.'

  'When they get the blood, will the DNA match?'

  'Again, I don't know Paul. You really should be asking Detective Senior Sergeant Wilson about all this.'

  O'Loughlin looked at the 21-year-old man and Denyer met his gaze and said, 'Okay, I killed all three of them.'

  Caught off guard, the young detective quickly cut him off. 'Before you say anything else, I'll have to go and get Senior Sergeant Wilson.'

  O'Loughlin realised that this was the breakthrough they had been waiting for.

  'Can't I talk to you about it?' asked the young killer. He had found a sympathetic face in the crowd of detectives and it was to Darren O'Loughlin that he wished to make his confession.

  'No,' said O'Loughlin, firmly but gently. 'I'll have to go and get Mr Wilson. He's in charge of the investigation.'

  'Okay.' Denyer looked disappointed.

  'You might as well tell him that I attacked another woman at Seaford the night that Debbie Fream was killed.'

  'Okay,' said the detective, ushering Denyer back into the interview room, 'but don't say anything else until I speak to Mr Wilson.'

  O'Loughlin sat the accused man down and contacted Mick Hughes, telling him about the confession. Excitement reigned.

  Hughes left to tell Rod Wilson. Wilson thought it best if O'Loughlin sat in on the interview since Denyer had shown a predisposition towards him and the young detective agreed.

  In the meantime, a police photographer took pictures of the wounds on Denyer's hands and, at 2.25am, a female police forensic physician arrived to take blood and hair samples.

  As soon as she entered the room, Paul Denyer swung around on his chair, fixed her with a stare and said, 'I'm a killer.'

  Taken aback, the doctor looked over the consent form which Denyer had signed for the samples to be taken. She confirmed his consent verbally and was intensely aware that the young man was trying to stare her down. The doctor, with 20 years experience in medicine and forensic lecturing, noticed that
Denyer was nervous and tense. His sweaty hands trembled as he refused a medical examination after she had taken a sample of blood and some strands of hair from his head.

  She noted the numerous lacerations on his fingers and on the backs of his hands. From her extensive experience in the examination and interpretation of injuries she estimated that the cuts were about 48 hours old. Some of them appeared to have become infected. She took her samples, gave them to Mark Woolfe and left the police station.

  Mark Woolfe had noticed something strange when the doctor walked into the interview room. Denyer had been calm and almost casual with the male detectives but as soon as the woman had entered the room, his whole expression changed. Woolfe noticed the way he looked at her. His look seemed to say to the detectives: If you weren't here, I'd tear her to shreds.

  The change in him for those couple of moments was frightening, and Mark Woolfe gained a small insight into what his victims must have seen.

  At 3.45am - in the presence of Rod Wilson and Darren O'Loughlin - the Frankston serial killer, Paul Charles Denyer, finally began his official videotaped confession.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Confessions of a serial killer

  Paul Charles Denyer

  Detective Senior Sergeant Rod Wilson sat opposite Paul Denyer while Darren O'Loughlin sat to the side. The video camera taped the proceedings as Wilson advised Denyer of his rights for the fifth time. Denyer looked sullen.

  Wilson then asked Denyer if it was true that he had told O'Loughlin during the break that he was responsible for the murders of the three women. Denyer nodded and Rod Wilson asked him to describe the murder of Elizabeth Stevens in his own words. Denyer stared downwards, then at the camera, hesitating a full 20 seconds before beginning.

  'I saw her get off the bus. I was walking across the road. Just something hit me straight in the head, you know, go! - so I ran across the road in front of all these cars and got to the other side where I followed her around the corner…

  'I walked up behind her and stuck my left hand around her head right here,' he said indicating with his big hands how he had grabbed Elizabeth Stevens. And then I dragged her into the front lawn, told her to shut up, and she just agreed to my terms. And I said, "Well, we're gonna take a walk."

  'So we walked down on the road. A couple of cars drove past us and I held her hand to make it look like, you know, a couple, I suppose, so it wouldn't arouse any suspicion. Walked past two people on the footpath, a guy and a girl, and they just didn't take any notice.'

  Wilson asked if Elizabeth had screamed or cried out.

  'No, I told her I'd kill her if she did,' he said. Rod Wilson nodded and Denyer added, a grin flashing across his face, 'With my fake gun.'

  Denyer described the gun as a square bit of aluminium piping with a wooden handle and a glove finger taped to the end. Inside the glove finger, ball bearings were wedged in order to fire it.

  Denyer lit a cigarette as Darren O'Loughlin left the interview room to get a Melway street directory so Paul could show them the route he had taken from the bus stop to Lloyd Park with his captive. Denyer showed the detectives exactlty where he had walked with Elizabeth Stevens, and then began describing her murder.

  'Walked in a bit of bushland beside the main track in Lloyd Park. Sat there, you know, stood in the bushes for a while just, I can't remember, just standing there I suppose. Held the gun to the back of her neck, walked across the track over towards the other small sand hill or something. And on the other side of that hill, she asked me if she could, you know, could go to the toilet or, so to speak. So I respected her privacy. So I turned around and everything while she did it and everything. When she finished, we just walked down towards where the goal posts are and we turned right and headed towards the area where she was found. Got to that area there and I started choking her with my hands and she passed out after a while. You know, the oxygen got cut off to her head and, and she just stopped. And then I pulled out the knife and stabbed her many times in the throat.

  'And she was still alive. And then she stood up and then we walked around and all that, just walked around a few steps, and then I threw her on the ground and stuck my foot over her neck.'

  Rod Wilson asked Denyer why he had stood on her neck.

  Denyer replied casually, as if it should have been obvious: 'Oh, to finish her off.'

  His lack of emotion and casual manner would be consistent throughout the entire confession.

  Denyer told the detectives that Elizabeth Stevens's body had begun shaking. He demonstrated her final death shudders for their benefit and for the video camera.

  He then described dragging the body to the creek bed where it was found.

  Wilson questioned Denyer on the first part of his statement where he had said that he walked from Sharon's mother's house to his own mother's house.

  Denyer said that he really had gone to his mother's house and then, on his way back to Sharon's mother's house, he had killed Elizabeth Stevens after he saw her get off the bus. He traced the route with his finger on the Melways. So well did he know the areas, he pointed to locations on the map with barely a glance.

  Denyer described and sketched the knife and its dimensions for the detectives and told them he had worn a green army jacket, black pants and shoes, a blue jumper and a blue and white baseball cap.

  Wilson asked Denyer if he had ever met Elizabeth Stevens before he killed her. He said he hadn't.

  The detective knew the injuries to Elizabeth Stevens were more extensive than those Denyer had admitted to.

  'When the body of Elizabeth Stevens was found, it had a number of marks on the chest area and seven stab wounds around the breast. Do you know how they came to be there?'

  Denyer said that he didn't remember.

  'You don't remember? What do you mean by that? Could you have done this?'

  'Possibly,' the young man conceded with a nod of his head.

  Wilson wanted to establish the reason for the killing of Elizabeth Stevens. So far Denyer seemed happy enough to talk about what he did but the burning question was why.

  'Can you tell me why you attacked her on that night? What led to it?'

  'Just… I just had… just the feeling, that's all.'

  'What sort of feeling? Can you possibly describe it, where you had this feeling?'

  'Just wanted… just wanted to kill.' Denyer looked down at the table in front of him. 'Just wanted to take a life because I felt my life had been taken many times.' Denyer's quiet voice became ever softer and he looked downwards.

  'By whom?' asked Wilson.

  'David,' Denyer murmured.

  'Who is David?'

  'My eldest brother.'

  'When did he… do you wish to say what he…?' Rod Wilson's voice showed a compassion for the man in front of him that he didn't feel.

  'No, no.'

  'Was it of a sexual nature?'

  'Yeah.'

  'When you were younger?'

  'Mm.'

  'Abused you?'

  'Mm'hm.'

  'And you felt cheated by that or something?'

  'Yeah.'

  Paul Denyer didn't want to expand upon what was obviously an uncomfortable subject for him. Wilson didn't push him further and led the questioning back to the night Elizabeth Stevens was murdered.

  'Do you remember what Elizabeth Stevens was wearing?'

  'Dark sweater with a hood, grey tracksuit pants. White socks with orange bands and-'

  'How do you remember all that?' asked Wilson. 'Is it something you found out later in the newspapers or can you remember?'

  Denyer told him that he had seen the mannequin the police had prepared to help jog the public's memory of Elizabeth Stevens and her last movements.

  'So you don't really remember what she was wearing?'

  'No.'

  Wilson asked Denyer why he had picked Elizabeth Stevens and he was told that she was the only one who got off the bus.

  'When would you say that you firs
t started feeling this aggression when you were walking around here? When did you first feel like you had to kill?'

  'Somewhere between Sharon's mum's place and my mum's place, somewhere between.'

  'And did Elizabeth Stevens offer any resistance to you at any stage?'

  'A little bit, when we got to the park.'

  'Was she frightened, do you think?'

  'She didn't cry,' Denyer said, as if he admired her bravery.

  'Well, did she see you take the knife out of your pocket?'

  'No, she would have blanked out or something.' He told them he had choked her before he took out his knife.

  Wilson asked where the knife was and Denyer told him that he dumped it at the side of a road in Langwarrin. He explained that the blade had broken off and he had dumped the pieces together. Wilson asked him if he had broken the blade off himself.

  Denyer explained. 'Well, it bent when I was stabbing her. The blade went zoop and then I broke the rest of it off and then carried it in my pocket till I got to there when I dumped 'em.'

  'When you said that you were stabbing her at this location back at Lloyd Park, what were you feeling at the time? For example, were you angry?'

  Denyer reflected for a moment. 'Happy, sad, angry, many things.'

  Rod Wilson led the questioning around to evidence at the first crime scene. It was necessary for Paul Denyer to account for as much as possible. False confessions were not unheard of and the detectives needed to make absolutely sure that the man sitting in front of them was indeed the killer.

  Wilson asked him why he moved the body from the site of the murder and Denyer told him that it was in order to destroy evidence. He explained that he thought the rain would wash away footprints and blood and that investigators would have difficulty finding the exact location of the murder. Denyer then described ripping a branch from a tree near the creek to conceal the body.

  Denyer told Wilson that Elizabeth had been carrying a bag when he had taken her to the park and said that he left the bag about ten metres from her body. Wilson took Denyer over the details of the abduction and murder once again, covering everything in minute detail. Denyer admitted that he had told Elizabeth Stevens that he would 'blow her head off' if she screamed and he also admitted telling her to kiss the end of the gun but she had refused.