The Frankston Serial Killer

by Vikki Petraitis

  'What was that? What sort of leather strap?'

  'Just a thin… you would have found it at the scene - in two pieces.'

  'What was that used for?' asked Wilson.

  'Strangling.'

  Denyer then described his murder of Natalie Russell.

  'I saw her walk… she was coming up the track and I saw her walk past, like, that way, and I ran out through the hole in the fence again and followed her.'

  'Did she see you?'

  'She turned around once and saw me. And I stuck about 10 metres behind her until I got to the second hole…and just when I got to that hole, I walked up behind her and stuck my left hand around her mouth and held the knife to her throat… and that's where that cut happened.'

  Denyer indicated the cut on his thumb that he had earlier explained as due to sharpening a knife at home. 'I cut that on my own blade,' he admitted. 'Dragged her through the hole in the fence.'

  'Was she struggling?'

  'At first, but then she sort of stopped.'

  'Why?'

  'Because I told her I was gonna cut her throat… I said I was gonna, yeah, cut her throat… and I dragged her into the trees. Like she offered, she said, "Oh, you can have sex with me if you want." She goes, "You can have all my money, have sex with me," and things - just said disgusting things like that really.' Denyer shook his head to emphasise his disgust.

  It was the only time during the many hours of interviewing that he showed any emotion. His anger and disgust at Natalie Russell were obvious. It was equally obvious to the detectives that Denyer had no comprehension of the fact that Natalie Russell had been a young woman begging for her life. She must have realised she was in the hands of the serial killer who had been splashed so extensively through the media and had obviously been willing to do anything to save her life. Denyer completely failed to see that.

  'And did that… did that upset you?' Wilson asked, surprised by his sudden outburst.

  'In a way,' replied the killer, his anger quickly subsiding and his voice becoming even once again.

  'And I got her to kneel down in front of me and I held the knife blade over her eye, really closely, and yeah, she had the same colour eyes as I have.'

  'Why did you hold that knife so close to her eye for?'

  'Just so she could see the blade.'

  'And why was she kneeling?'

  'No, she was lying on the ground at that stage and I was lying on top of her. I wasn't lying, I was kneeling on top of her. Just holding her by the throat and with the knife next to her eye. And she struggled and then the knife cut her on the face. And she was bleeding a bit then…Yeah, and then when she got up, she started to scream a bit. And I just said, "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up." And, "If you don't shut up, I'll kill you. If you don't do this I'll kill you, if you don't do that." And she said, "What do you want from me?" I said, "All I want you to do is shut up."

  'And so when she was kneeling on the ground, I put the strap around her neck to strangle her and it broke in half. And then she started violently struggling for about a minute until I pushed - got her onto her back again - and pushed her head back like this and cut her throat.'

  Denyer mimicked Natalie Russell's last moments as he described his attack on her. But his description of what he did to the dying schoolgirl made the detectives' stomachs turn.

  'I cut a small cut at first and then she was bleeding. And then I stuck my fingers into her throat.'

  'Mm,' murmured Wilson, trying not to look shocked. He had to appear casual to keep the young man talking. This wasn't the time for incredulity or judgement - he and O'Loughlin had to remain stoic while listening to the litany of horror.

  '…and grabbed her cords and I twisted them.'

  'Why'd you do that?'

  'My whole fingers - like, that much of my hand was inside her throat,' Denyer indicated, holding up his hand for the benefit of the detectives.

  'Do you know why you did that?' repeated Wilson.

  'Stop her from breathing… And then she slowly stopped. She sort of started to faint and then when she was weak, a bit weaker, I grabbed the opportunity of throwing her head back and one big large cut which sort of cut almost her whole head off. And then she slowly died.'

  'Why did you want to kill her?' asked Wilson rubbing his forehead.

  'Just same reason as before, just everything came back through my mind again. I kicked her before I left.'

  'Why's that?'

  'While she was dead, just booted her.'

  'Why did you kick her after? Like she was obviously dead at that stage.'

  'Make sure she was dead.'

  'Kicking her, would that make sure she was dead?'

  'Well, if she had've moved, I would've known.'

  Denyer left Natalie's body and walked back down the bike track. He'd thrust his bloodied hands in his pockets and walked to the end of the lane. He said he passed a young boy, who had looked at him, going the other way.

  When he emerged onto Skye Road, he saw something that made him stop - two uniformed police officers were walking around his car, taking down its details. Denyer told Wilson that he had merely ducked his head, turned right and walked down Skye Road towards his home and away from the cops.

  Wilson and O'Loughlin couldn't help being struck by Denyer's carelessness during his final murder.

  At the other scenes, he had been careful to take everything away with him. Now here he was, telling them he'd not only left the leather strap behind, but he had bled at the scene, and left his car where it could be checked twice by police. Before that he'd sat in his parked car on Skye Road adjacent to the bike track, in full view of passing traffic and other pedestrians - many of whom had already come forward to report seeing him.

  One witness who knew Paul Denyer saw him as she was driving past. She had described seeing him sitting in his car smiling to himself and then his expression had changed when he caught sight of her. The two had even made eye contact.

  Despite all that, Denyer had still followed Natalie Russell down the bike track and killed her in broad daylight.

  Wilson had the distinct impression that Denyer had become cocky. He had gotten away with two murders and thought he could now kill at any time and get away with it.

  Denyer told the detectives that he had then gone home to change, washed his clothes in the bath and then walked back to collect his car by which time the police were gone.

  He had thrown the knife in a drum in his backyard and then gone to pick up Sharon from work. That evening, he explained, he and Sharon went to her mother's where he had thrown his wet clothing into her washing machine.

  Wilson asked Denyer if there was anything else he would like to talk to them about.

  'Yeah, I slashed her across the face.'

  'Who's that?' asked Wilson.

  'The last victim.'

  'What do you mean you slashed her across the face?'

  'After she was dead.'

  'After she was dead?'

  'Yeah, I just cut her straight down this side of her face.'

  'Why was that?' asked Wilson.

  'Don't know,' he replied shrugging.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Gathering exhibits

  In Denyer's flat, detectives found a cord with what looked like human hair caught in the knot

  Sergeant Brian Gamble had spent all day Saturday examining the crime scene at the bike track. Around 10pm, he was asked to examine Paul Denyer's flat.

  Gamble took his kit and drove the short distance to the flat to begin searching for evidence. When he arrived, the young man in custody had made no admissions of guilt, but was shaping up well as a suspect. The crime scene examiner set about looking for anything potentially incriminating.

  The flat had been secured by detectives as soon as Denyer had been taken to the police station and nothing had been touched when Gamble set about his tasks. The flat had two bedrooms, a lounge room, kitchen, laundry and a bathroom with a toilet in it.

 
Two biologists from the State Forensic Science Laboratory joined Gamble. They were looking for blood traces, and found smears near the front door and around the taps in the bathroom.

  Gamble collected three pairs of shoes from behind the front door, including the black Aerosport runners Denyer had earlier shown the detectives. He bagged and labelled all the shoes.

  He found a blue baseball cap, on top of the freezer in the kitchen, and noted that marks beneath the peak were possibly blood. He bagged the cap too.

  At 1am, Mick Hughes drove around to the flat and collected the runners and the cap, so that Rod Wilson could show them to Denyer on camera.

  Gamble examined the spare room, where clothes and rubbish covered an old couch and most of the floor. He systematically made his way around the room looking for anything of interest. He noticed the glove gun on the book case, but what caught his eye was a cord hanging on the back of the door.

  Gamble carefully examined the cord which was knotted at both ends, and saw what appeared to be a single strand of hair caught in one of the knots. He collected the cord as evidence.

  In the suspect's messy bedroom, Gamble discovered a large home-made knife lying on the dressing table next to a packet of pantyhose. The knife had been cut from aluminium and had black tape wrapped around the handle.

  Outside in the driveway, Gamble made a preliminary examination of the dirty yellow Toyota Corona, noting that it was in poor condition. Inside the boot, in a tool box, he noted the presence of a number of tools as well as a large wooden-handled knife and a replica plastic gun. Gamble arranged for the car to be taken to the forensic science laboratory in Macleod for a more detailed examination.

  Brian Gamble spent five hours combing the flat for evidence before returning with his exhibits to the Frankston police station.

  In Denyer's flat, detectives found a replica of the knife he used to kill Debbie Fream.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  'Anything you haven't told us?'

  Towards the end of Paul Denyer's account of the three murders and the attempted abduction of Roszsa Toth, Rod Wilson asked him, 'Anything you haven't told us?'

  Denyer thought for a moment and then began explaining about the knife he had used to kill Elizabeth Stevens. He had bought it a while back from the Big W store at Karingal Hub.

  'I walked into the store one night and went to the sporting department and I grabbed a fishing knife. And I grabbed one of the female shop assistants there in the toy department and held it to her throat and said I was gonna cut her to pieces.'

  Denyer couldn't remember exactly when the incident had occurred and he said he hadn't physically hurt the shop assistant and that the knife was still in its packet.

  Rod Wilson asked Denyer when he had first begun to 'feel the urges' to kill. Denyer told him that he had always wanted to kill and then qualified his answer saying that he had experienced the urge to kill since he was about 14 years old.

  Wilson wanted to know why it had taken Denyer so long if the urges had been with him for seven years.

  'I don't know,' Denyer replied. 'Just waiting for the right time, waiting for that small silent alarm to trigger me off.'

  'And the incident you spoke about at Karingal Hub in the Big W, was that the first time you felt you were progressing into something?'

  'Yeah. I've been stalking women for a few years in Frankston.'

  'How long do you think you have been doing that?'

  'Three or four years, or since I was 17, I think. I've been following heaps of women around.'

  'Just waiting for the opportunity?'

  'Waiting for the sign,' Denyer nodded.

  Rod Wilson questioned Denyer about the unsolved murders of Sarah McDiarmid and Michelle Brown. Denyer denied knowledge about the two murders apart, he said, from what he'd heard on the news.

  Rod Wilson brought up the subject of the police scanner and asked Denyer whether he had really heard his name being mentioned over a police scanner as he had previously stated. This question opened a hornet's nest and solved another crime on the books of the Frankston CIB.

  While he was still at the flat, Denyer had told detectives that a friend had heard his name mentioned over the police radio scanner on Friday when his car was checked as a suspicious vehicle on Skye Road. Wilson asked who owned the scanner. The scanner, Denyer told them, belonged to a friend of Donna Vanes. And it transpired that Donna was the sister of Denyer's neighbour Tricia.

  'That was the girl I went to see in Claude Street that night.'

  Wilson and O'Loughlin didn't understand what Denyer was talking about.

  'She used to live there. She moved out of Claude Street because I broke into her place and killed all of her cats.'

  Darren O'Loughlin, a local detective, remembered the incident.

  'When did you do that?' asked Wilson.

  'Earlier this year.'

  'What did you do that for?'

  'I went there to kill her but she wasn't home.'

  'Did you prepare yourself for that?' asked O'Loughlin.

  'Yeah, I had a large knife on me.'

  'Where did that come from?'

  'Well, I bought that for about $7.50 from Aussie Disposals in Frankston, Beach Street.'

  'Was there any other preparation?'

  'I had gloves,' Denyer volunteered, 'so I wouldn't leave any prints. I don't think I did leave any prints, no.'

  'When did you put the gloves on?'

  'Just as I walked up to the front door. I knocked on the door first to see if there was anyone there. But there was no one there so I walked around the back and climbed through the window. Cut a hole through the fly screen and sort of wedged myself through.'

  'Was the window open?'

  'Yeah, wide open.'

  'What did you want to kill her for? You knew her, didn't you? Isn't she-?'

  'Vaguely,' interrupted Denyer.

  'Tricia who lives in flat 3. Isn't it her sister? What had she done wrong? Or had she done anything wrong?'

  'Didn't like her sister.'

  'Trish?'

  'No, didn't like Trish at all,' Denyer said shaking his head.

  'So what did that have to do with Donna?'

  'Well, I knew she was home by herself most of the time.'

  'Donna was? Did you dislike Donna for any reason?'

  'Never really liked her, no.'

  Denyer and the detectives established that the cats had been killed in February and Denyer volunteered that he thought it was 28 February. It was in fact 19 February.

  'And you went to Donna's flat in Claude Street to kill her?'

  'Yeah.'

  'And she wasn't home?'

  'No, she wasn't home.'

  'So you broke in and what did you do?'

  'I killed her cats.'

  'How many?'

  'Three.'

  'How did you kill her cats?'

  'Stabbed 'em all.'

  Considering the carnage witnessed by investigators in Donna Vanes's flat, Denyer had in fact done a lot more than just stab them. O'Loughlin asked exactly what had happened when Denyer had first entered the flat.

  'I walked slowly into the lounge room cause the lights were all on, just cause I thought somebody was there. And then I just went into a blind rage and just killed anything that was alive in the house.'

  'What would have happened if Donna was there?' asked O'Loughlin, knowing the answer.

  'I would've cut her throat,' Denyer said casually.

  'Can you explain what happened to the cats? Where were they?'

  'In the lounge room. A mother and her two kittens.'

  'And what happened to the cats?'

  'Well, the mother cat ran into the laundry and I chased after it. It lunged at me and I just stabbed it in the side and it died straight away.'

  'And what happened to the others?'

  'I slit their throats and threw 'em in the bath tub.'

  Denyer didn't mention disembowelling the mother cat and he didn't mention placi
ng the picture of the bikini-clad model on its stomach, writing on the wall or slashing the baby clothes.

  He told Wilson and O'Loughlin that Donna had reported the break-in to police. 'It was on the news,' he said almost proudly. 'Everybody knew about it.'

  Apart from the incident at Karingal Hub and the killing of the cats, Wilson asked Denyer if he had anything else he wished to tell them.

  'No, that was about it,' Denyer replied.

  Rod Wilson tried one last time to get to the bottom of Denyer's motives for the killing spree. He asked the young man what his general attitude towards women was.

  'Just don't like some of them,' Denyer explained.

  'Obviously you're in love with, or I'll assume that you're fond of Sharon.'

  'Sharon's not like anyone else I know,' Denyer said earnestly, looking straight at Wilson.

  'Well, you wouldn't think of hurting her?'

  'Never,' replied the killer of three young women. 'No, I'd never hurt her. She's a kindred spirit.'

  The detectives then asked questions that would help explain forensic evidence. Denyer described wearing his black runners while committing each murder. He had, he explained, put them on the stove at his flat to melt the soles to prevent the shoes being used to link him to any of the crime scenes. The pattern on his shoes could never be compared to shoe impressions at the crime scenes, because the pattern no longer existed. Although the detectives didn't consider Denyer particularly bright, they gave him credit for a degree of animal cunning.

  His questions exhausted, Wilson turned to Darren O'Loughlin and asked him if he had any matters he wished to raise.

  O'Loughlin, who had been sitting silent for most of the lengthy interview, asked the question that was foremost in his mind.

  'You mentioned David, your brother, was the cause. Is that correct?' he asked, referring to the earlier mention of sexual abuse.

  'Some of it,' replied Denyer.

  'Some of it,' repeated O'Loughlin. 'If that's the cause, then why have women been the victims?'

  'I've only ever had two relationships and Sharon was the third. And the first two ones were older women with kids. And one of them was using me for something… yeah.'