There, George was plied with beers and other alcoholic beverages while the older women flirted with him. Kelvin was held captive for approximately five weeks[24] and a post-mortem examination revealed that he had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury,[25] likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object. The head was tied to the torso with rope passed through the mouth and out through the neck. Police wouldn't get around to conducting a door-to-door canvas of the neighborhood until Tuesday, two days after Richard had gone missing. [7] Suspect 1, an Eastern Suburbs businessman, is believed to have been with von Einem when Kelvin was abducted. Sadly, almost all of the evidence that may have been left behind was now gone, burned away to ash along with all of Peter's remaining soft tissue. For that reason, this crime remains technically unsolved to this day. The skeletal remains of one victim bore marks to reasonably indicate a similar experience and outcome. While working for Major Crimes, Investigator O'Brien received an anonymous tip that Richard Kelvin was being held against his will in a caravan in the Adelaide Foothills. They kicked the footy around. It was there that they found his backpack hidden in the garage, which ultimately led to calls to all of his friends. He was seen in the presence of individuals who would become relevant later on, but - at the time - were simply believed to have been his friends. He consented to any available tests or analysis, and during a medical screening, it was discovered that the young man did have tears in his anus, proving that he had been raped. Between 1979 and 1983, the city of Adelaide in South Australia was the stage for a horrific string of crimes against young men and teenagers.Five known victims of kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder showed up in those years, and police became convinced that the perpetrator was actually a group of several men . This has come to be disputed over the years, with some speculating that Alan might have willingly consumed the drug the weekend before his death; or, perhaps, he might have been slipped it by someone at the bars he was rumored to visit with his friends that Saturday. While the men in the river struggled to make it back to the shore, the group that had thrown them into the water made their escape before camera crews or onlookers could begin to gather. Due to changes in the Forensic Procedures Act, which later allowed DNA samples to be taken from suspects in major indictable offences, all the suspects voluntarily submitted to DNA testing. Its always easier to visualise events when you have maps. I first heard of the murders in an episode of an Australian television program called . There were signs that he had been tortured and beaten by a sexual sadist, who had likely kept Alan drugged with a chemical compound named chloral hydrate. Some of the employees that worked at the area's bars recalled seeing the two together multiple times that weekend, and other character witnesses described Dr. Millhouse and Neil as being very close friends (intimate, even). It was this rapport that caused Peter to skip school on Thursday, August 27th, 1981. View description Share. The Family were not an official group, gang, or organisation. The closest thing to hard evidence that police found in this sweep was what appeared to be traces of blood on the bathroom floor, which had been cleaned multiple times over with a chemical agent; and, as such, could not be tested. His body also showed signs of beatings and torture. [4][5] In 1989, von Einem was charged with the murders of two other victims, Barnes and Langley, but the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi (voluntarily discontinue criminal charges) during the trial when crucial similar fact evidence was deemed inadmissible by the presiding judge. On Saturday, February 27th, 1982, Mark attended a friend's 18th birthday party in Windsor Gardens, a neighborhood in northeastern Adelaide. The Family Murders is the name given to a series of five sadistic murders committed by a loosely connected group of individuals who came to be known as The Family. . He had multiple channels to procuring young men. Because of this prime location, Adelaide has become one of the country's most populated areas, and more than a million Australians live in the city itself; which is split in half by the Torrens River, which runs through the center of Adelaide. On this night, in particular, that included these three men. Within hours, Alan's father and grandfather found themselves tagged to identify the remains, which were undoubtedly the remains of their missing 17-year-old. Over the next few days, it became apparent that Alan Barnes was not returning home. On the afternoon of Sunday, June 5th, 1983, Richard was kicking around a soccer ball with his father Rob and his friend Boris at a park near his home. Because homosexuality was still outlawed in Australia at this point, Vice officers would often detain individuals that they believed were loitering nearby known gay hotspots. 17-year-old Alan Barnes, 25-year-old Neil Muir, 14-year-old Peter Stogneff, 18-year-old Mark Langley and 15-year-old Richard Kelvin were later found dumped in the Adelaide Hills and surrounds. He would literally go on to write the book about this terrifying saga, called "Young Bloods," which - if you're interested - is one of the best resources for this case. Richard was found wearing the same clothing that he had been wearing on the day of his disappearance, but in an unusual twist, was found to be wearing his family dog's collar. As the 1970s entered their homestretch, Alan was beginning to enter the phase of his life where he experimented with drug and alcohol usage. Mark Langley was an 18-year-old with the entire world in front of him: an athletic and good-looking young man, who quickly endeared himself to others. They admitted that he'd faced some issues with other kids at his school, but he was otherwise happy and had just gotten a serious girlfriend. The severing of Neil's limbs and the mutilation of his body was originally believed to have been part of an effort to dispose of his body. Description. Peter Stogneff was a fourteen-year-old that lived with his family in a middle-class home, in a northeastern suburb of Adelaide. However, what wasn't up for debate was the fact that Alan had been violently tortured for hours before his death, with his death ultimately coming from blood loss due to an anal injury. After being arrested, Dr. Millhouse had denied ever knowing Neil, and continued stating so over the next year, openly defying the dozens of witness statements that claimed they were acquaintances at the least, intimate friends at the most. If that was true, then could that have been happening to the other young male victims that had been viciously murdered in the preceding years? He was able to exploit and manipulate enablers, helpers and participants over a long period of time. Subsequent efforts to reach Alan through his friends had failed, and none of them had seen him since the weekend. Veale Gardens had a thriving male prostitution scene, many of which were underage. Victims - The Family Murders Victims Alan Barnes Feb 12, 2021 The night before he went missing he stayed at Darko Kastelan's house in Cheltenham. Because very little physical evidence had been left behind, it was hard to tell whether or not these crimes belonged to the same spree, or were simply copycats. When police had arrived at the crime scene, they assumed that whoever had tried to dump the body of Alan Barnes had failed, in some way. His remains had been dissected and neatly cut into many pieces, placed in a garbage bag and thrown into the Port River at Port Adelaide. The father of boat crash victim Mallory Beach refused to shake hands with Alex Murdaugh 's family in court after the legal scion was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his wife and son . They tried to hitch a ride on Grand Junction Road, a busy thoroughfare in Adelaide, before realizing that they were going to have no luck hitchhiking together. It shows the facts and most likely scenarios, but is fluid so when new information comes to light changes can easily be made. [20] His mutilated body was found in scrub in the Adelaide foothills nine days after his disappearance. He remembered going to a back room of the house to have sex with one of the older women, only to discover - during the act itself - that she was transgender. Most were later described as being worthless, but a few piqued the interest of Investigator O'Brien. Rather than have to read the whole site, or miss updates in the case because you dont know they exist, this section will show time-stamped updates so you can keep up to date with developments. In the days immediately after Neil Muir's death, Dr. Millhouse had gone on a bit of a self-described "bender." Also, like the other victims, Mark's cause-of-death seemed to be nearly identical: blood loss from an anal injury, caused by the forced insertion of an unknown item. For obvious reasons, he didn't tell his parents, setting out that morning with his backpack and heading off like any other day. This notoriety brought with it a poor reputation, however, and by the late 1970s, Mandrax had become a regulated prescription drug throughout Australia. Nine days after Mark Langley went missing, his body was discovered in the Adelaide Foothills, close to Mount Lofty in the area known as Summertown. Some of his strategies were to unscrew his car muffler or pull out his choke and ask an unsuspecting youth to help him with car trouble. Any person complicit in the abduction, rape and murders of the five victims, plus any person who visited the place of captivity when a victim was knowingly present, plus any person involved in the abduction, spiking and raping of teenage boys or young men with other members of The Family. Dylan John Kovarskis murdered Nathan Russell in 2021 . Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is perhaps most well known for its beautiful, scenic landscape, which is wedged in-between the Adelaide Foothills to the east, the coastline that runs along the west and down into the southern cape, and expanse of vast Australia that lies to the north. Like the other victims, investigators would learn a lot from the status of Mark's remains. Because Mark had been killed and his body been dumped in the Australian summer months, his remains had already suffered some serious decomposition by the time police were called to the scene. Mark Andrew Langley RICHARD KELVIN Richard Kelvin, aged 15 years, was abducted at about 6.15 p.m. on Sunday 5 June 1983 from a laneway off Ward Street, North Adelaide. The name of the group stems from an interview a police detective gave on 60 Minutes,[1] claiming the police were taking action "to break up the happy family". Alan Arthur Barnes, aged 16, murdered in 1979. The 'Family murders' involved the killing and torture of five young men from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 25, and most were found to have suffered brutal violence, sexual assaults, and/or body mutilation before their death The Family Murders are a series of violent and depraved sex crimes committed against five young men and boys in South Australia throughout the 1970's and 1980's. In 1988 Detective Trevor Kipling described a group of people whom he suspected as being responsible as "one big happy family" and vowed to do all that he could to bring them to justice. Peter Stogneff, aged 14,[17] murdered in August 1981. 2020 familymurders.com All Rights Reserved. Global Nav Open Menu . It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. The post-mortem revealed that Langley had died from a massive loss of blood from gross injuries to his anus, similar to Barnes. In 2014 when Trevor passed away, his diaries were recovered. He found like minded people who shared a similar sexual bent, and he found people he could mutually exploit to lure victims into his car. But he then set off again, likely headed towards the distant Rundle Mall, where he was due to meet up with his friend, Daniel, that day. Alan lived with his parents, both English immigrants, in Salisbury: a northern suburb of Adelaide. Unlike the other murder victims, however, Mark's body showed an odd sign of surgical precision. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 25, and most were found to have suffered brutal violence, sexual assaults, and/or body mutilation before their death. It wasn't until the following year, 1983, that police finally rediscovered George's story. Shockingly, police found an insane combination of sedatives in his system, which included the drugs Noctec, Mandrax, valium, Rohypnol, and amytal. Apart from von Einem, three other core members are thought to be directly involved in the murders; while DNA testing re-commenced in 2008, no further charges have been laid. Young Blood refers to the age of the victims who were brutally murdered. He had school the next day, dinner was waiting, and he wanted to call his girlfriend. Mark's remains had also clearly been thoroughly washed before being dumped, just like Alan Barnes. [citation needed]. This site is constantly being updated as more is learned. The Family Murders is a well known and notorious series of crimes that occurred in Adelaide, Australia. Trace evidence, including hair and fibres from von Einem's home, was found on Kelvin's body and clothing. In the days after Neil Muir's body was discovered in separate black trash bags, police had received two separate phone calls alerting them to the victim's relationship with a local doctor. Add onto that abductions, drug-lacing, mutilations, victims held in captivity for weeks, and death by sado-masochism. Major Crimes was primarily responsible for serial killings, mass killings, and any other high-profile crimes that the local government wanted to be handled by a specialized task force. He had been sexually assaulted and went on to report this bizarre, terrifying incident to police. Add onto that abductions, drug-lacing, mutilations, victims held in captivity for weeks, and death by sado-masochism. Our locations section shows where all the events happened and where all the players lived. The emergence of this drug would prove to be very interesting in the years to come, but at this point in the investigation, police were still struggling to connect all of the dots. George gave police a description of the older man that had picked him up and driven him to the house in question, but he could not remember his name, nor the name of the two women at the house they had traveled to. They phoned police that evening, hoping that their son's whereabouts could be chalked up to a simple miscommunication. The Family Murders was a series of murders in the 1970s and 1980s that targeted young men in Adelaide, South Australia between the ages of 14 and 25. This argument would carry on for a few minutes, while the trio was parked along War Memorial Drive, overlooking the Torrens River. Millhouse would have. George and the driver, a man roughly twice his age with artificially-dyed hair, traveled to a nearby house where a couple of young women welcomed them. He told officers what the two had been up to that weekend: hanging out on Saturday and into Sunday morning, before splitting up. He then explained to the investigator that he was a former lover of Neil's, from roughly four years beforehand, and had run into the man just days before his eventual murder. Neil Muir had suffered the same type of anal injuries as Alan, implying that a large, bottle-shaped object had been used to intentionally injure him, which caused a large amount of blood loss. The death of George Duncan would serve as a catalyst, eventually martyring Duncan himself and leading to repeals of South Australia's harsh anti-homosexuality laws. Mark had driven there with his family, as they were attending the party alongside him, but he would leave with a couple of friends afterward to hang out and cruise around the city with the young adults trying to squeeze out every bit of the Adelaide summer that they could. Medical examiners and investigators began to theorize about the rationale for the surgical scar, and the most plausible one to-date is perhaps one of the worst to imagine. When a warrant was eventually served on Dr. Millhouse's cottage in northern Adelaide, police found the same type of trash bags and rope that had been found with Neil Muir's remains. The night before he went missing he stayed at Darko Kastelan's house in Cheltenham. Part One: The Murders Between 1979 and 1983, a series of heinous murders shocked Adelaide. This theory is that whatever item had been used to sexually assault Mark with - which ultimately led to his death - had gotten caught up in his intestines, and required surgery to retrieve. But other than that, this friend had nothing new to offer police: he hadn't seen or heard from Alan since the two went their separate ways. [14][15] Skin bearing tattoos had been removed and most of the body parts were placed in another garbage bag before being placed within the abdominal cavity. [21] Among the mutilations was a wound that appeared to have been cut with a surgical instrument that went from his navel to the pubic region and part of his small bowel was missing. Unfortunately, as the farmer's land burned, so did the remains of the missing teenager. The information is easy to navigate and easy reference. A span of 4 years. See what they say here. While police pounded the pavement to find out what had happened to Richard Kelvin, the young man's life was slowly coming to an end. In August of 1979, Neil was living alone in an apartment on Carrington Street, right in the middle of Adelaide itself. Because Neil's transient lifestyle led to him becoming known as a bit of a vagabond, his sexuality was not exactly common knowledge. Police believe this murder is associated with other high profile murders commonly referred to in the media as the 'Family Murders'. Among those voices, he described, was a higher-pitched voice, which sounded almost feminine. Neil's numerous tattoos had also been cut away from his flesh, and those patches of inked skin had been placed into his chest cavity along with his severed limbs. Once known as the "City of Churches," Adelaide began going through a stark progression in the 1960s. Mark Andrew Langley, aged 18,[17] murdered in February 1982. That evening, as Mark drove around with his friend Ian and Ian's girlfriend, Paula, an argument broke out. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for a crime. Suspect 2, a former male prostitute and close friend of von Einem known as Mr B. At this point, the idea of a random killer hadn't even crossed investigators' minds. The victims were all young men, who had gone missing in or near the northern section of town. Mr B made contact with police two days after Alan Barnes was found. Mandrax was quickly gaining notoriety as a drug used in the commission of date-rape crimes, and the local government decided that the best way to combat their usage was to keep them regulated so that they had a record of everyone that was prescribed them. It wasn't until the next day, Sunday (February 28th), that Mark's parents began to grow concerned. Following the supposed abduction of Richard Kelvin, the police unit known as Major Crimes was tasked with overseeing the investigation. Unfortunately, from there, the trail would go cold for over a year at which point, another victim had already become ensnared in this tragic saga. Murdered victims were kept in captivity by the Family for up to five weeks. Peter Stogneff. 4 had horrific injuries with clear signs of torture, abuse and confinement lasting up to 5 weeks. On July 24th, 1983, a family was out looking for moss rocks in the vast reaches of the Mount Crawford Forest, about 35 kilometers northeast of Adelaide. Needless to say, over the past few months, this investigation had become a new beast entirely. This caller told detectives that a man named Bevan Spencer von Einem was responsible for Alan's death, and his name was added to the list of potential suspects to explore. There was not much to connect them, other than the graphic sexual nature of the crimes, and months would continue to pass before this story would begin to surface again in the public eye. Unfortunately, it would later be determined that he would suffer in anguish for weeks before meeting eventually dying more than a month after his initial disappearance. His mother, Judy, would later describe him as being incredibly witty; "cheeky," as she describes in a 2006 documentary, going on to say that Alan was always quick on his feet, and would respond to any type of comment with something sarcastic and bitterly funny. [5] Others, who have examined the cases, however, argue that there were many more victims. Some of the victims were brutally tortured, or horrifically mutilated or cut up. Likely, he was one of the people seen hanging out with Neil at the bars and clubs just days that weekend. When using other people (sometimes transgenders, sometimes cross-dressers, and sometimes Mr B), a common ploy was to ask a lone youth if he want to go to a party where there was plenty of booze and women. Unfortunately, Richard Kelvin would never make it home. He is 50 metres from his beautiful family home. The victims were all young men, who had gone missing in or near the northern section of town. He was also found to be wearing clothing that did not belong to him, and his original clothing was missing entirely. A farmer that lived nearby Middle Beach and Two Wells, roughly an hour north of Adelaide, had been cleansing his farmland during the advised winter months. Millhouse was charged and went to trial but was acquitted. Investigator Hunter made note of this, finding it odd that one man would have connections to two separate murder investigations - especially two gruesome murders that shared such grisly traits.