Little is known about the unidentified man, but Roger James had his ankle broken when he was plunged into the river that May, and was only able to escape with the help of a friendly onlooker. 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. 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. Ten years von Einem's junior, Mr B helped von Einem pick up, drug, and rape several young men. However, unlike many of the others, it was believed that Richard had been held captive for an extended period of time, enduring torture and sexual abuse for weeks leading up to his death. After all, three of the victims (Alan Barnes, Neil Muir, and Mark Langley) had all died of similar injuries, and at least three (Alan Barnes, Mark Langley, and now Richard Kelvin) had all gone missing on Sundays. 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 Arthur Barnes, aged 16, murdered in 1979. Dylan John Kovarskis murdered Nathan Russell in 2021 . The bags looked as if they had been dropped from the higher-up wharf, just like the body of Alan Barnes had been. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for the crimes: Bevan Spencer von Einem was sentenced in 1984 to a minimum of 24 years (later extended to a minimum 36-year term) for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. Suspect 3, an Eastern Suburbs doctor. Mark's remains had also clearly been thoroughly washed before being dumped, just like Alan Barnes. He was in G Block of Yatala Prison for decades but was transferred to Port Augusta Prison in the north of the state in 2007. 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. In May of 1972, three gay men - George Duncan, Roger James, and another man (whose identity has been withheld in the decades since) - were picked up by members of South Australia's police force. 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. His body also showed signs of beatings and torture. He likely did this to hide it from his parents, in case they made it home before he did. How did he manipulate large numbers of people to get involved to various degrees even if that involvement was merely remaining silent? He never made it home. The Family werent an official club or group, rather a loose collection of people with Bevan von Einem at the centre. But he decided to instead head to a local mall, named Tea Tree Plaza, where Peter and his friends often hung out on the weekends. The older man in the driver's seat reached into the backseat and pulled out a beer from a cooler, offering it to George. Alan's body had fallen to the dirt below, twisting and contorting in such a way that - should he have been alive - would have surely resulted in death or serious injury. 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. There are also notorious unsolved disappearances in Adelaide, including the Beaumont children. He was able to exploit and manipulate enablers, helpers and participants over a long period of time. Darko's brother dropped them at a bus stop near the corner of on Grand Junction Rd and Addison Neil Muir was last seen in Hindley St, Adelaide in the company of Dr Peter Leslie Millhouse at 3pm on the day he was murdered. The next day was a Sunday, they both planned to hitchhike to Alan's home in Salisbury. It shows the facts and most likely scenarios, but is fluid so when new information comes to light changes can easily be made. Noctec was found in his blood, suggesting he had been drugged. Because of this lack of clarity, police were unable to press forward with any charges for the offenders, and George's story would become buried by more pressing police concerns in the coming weeks and months. Witnesses would later recall having seen the two at some of the area's gay bars and clubs (which I referenced just a moment ago). It's 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. The Family Murders is one of Australias most captivating true crime stories. The two were hiking through the area near the South Para Reservoir when they noticed something on the ground. 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. This argument would carry on for a few minutes, while the trio was parked along War Memorial Drive, overlooking the Torrens River. (What a lovely country, Australia!) It was at around this time - the end of August - that Investigator Rod Hunter finally got around to interviewing Bevan Spencer von Einem, the man implicated by an anonymous caller in the murder of Alan Barnes. Mr B - The Family Murders Mr B Mr B was named by South Australian police in 2008 as one of the three main suspects who were involved in the murders alongside Bevan von Einem. Just east of Adelaide, this area is well-known to Southern Australians, as it serves as a primary destination for the area's outdoorsmen and women. Shockingly, police found an insane combination of sedatives in his system, which included the drugs Noctec, Mandrax, valium, Rohypnol, and amytal. In the latter half of the 1970s, South Australia had started to regulate drugs like Mandrax, known throughout most of the world as "Quaaludes." He immediately contacted the police, and when they arrived at the scene, they were able to quickly identify the remains as Peter. From the outside looking in, von Einem was incredibly average. While in rehab, Dr. Millhouse refused to speak to police about Neil Muir (or his alleged relationship with the man). Progressive ideas began to spread out from Adelaide, but even then, progress itself was rather slow to catch on throughout large chunks of South Australia. He also happened to be a relative of Robin Millhouse, South Australia's former Attorney General who would become a Supreme Court Justice in 1982. This group was believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a number of teenage boys and young men, as well as the torture and murder of five young men aged between 14 and 25, in Adelaide, South Australia, in the 1970s and 1980s. The victims were all young men, who had gone missing in or near the northern section of town. The next day was a Sunday, they both planned to hitchhike to Alan's home in Salisbury. Unfortunately, that Thursday, Peter never arrived at the mall to meet his friend. In a word, no. The medical examiners conducting the autopsy and examinations also discovered that Alan's body had been washed extensively after his death; likely an effort to scrub away any evidence linking him to the killer. Do you think the Family Murders case will ever be solved? This is an analysis of the information provided by Wendy Roles and Greg McInerney in the book The Family Murders: Dissected The Timeline 25 Aug (Sat) Michael B sees band-aid on Neil's leg at the methadone clinic during the day. But the rumors that he engaged in sex work were mainly perpetrated by those that knew him from his regular haunts: members of Adelaide's gay community, who regularly saw Neil at the gay-friendly bars they frequented. The Family Murders is the name given to the murders of five young men and boys between 1979 and 1983, with all abducted from the streets of Adelaide before being taken to another location,. A few more anonymous calls would be received in the coming weeks. Detective O'Brien was the unfortunate one tasked with notifying the Kelvins that Richard's body had been found; which he describes in his book as one of the most heartbreaking duties he's ever had to endure. [15] A post-mortem examination revealed that Muir had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object[16] and Noctec was found in his blood. The Adelaide Festival of Arts (also known as just Adelaide Festival) started in 1960 and led to something of a "cultural revival" in the area. Alan lived with his parents, both English immigrants, in Salisbury: a northern suburb of Adelaide. Stogneff still skipped school but never made it home. Make no mistake, Bevan Spencer von Einem is the architect behind all these crimes. 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). This website was built on publicly available information contributed by many people who have an interest in this case. He then moved away from Adelaide and the murders continued. This horrific sight was quickly reported to police, who arrived at the scene and immediately cordoned off the area around where the fisherman had reportedly discovered the floating trash bags. In 2014 when Trevor passed away, his diaries were recovered. Mark had likely hitched a ride with someone, and his friends trusted that he would make it home. It is estimated that over 150 youths and young men were abducted, drugged, and then raped. His head had also been removed from the rest of his body, but was placed in its own separate black trash bag and connected with a rope tie to the rest of the remains. See what they say here. Neil Muir had been missing for less than 24 hours by the time his body was discovered, and because he was an adult that lived alone, police were already at a disadvantage when it came to trying to figure out what happened to him. Trevor Peters lived two doors away from one of the transgender suspects and mixed in the same circles as a number of suspects. The 'Family murders' involved the killing and torture of five young men from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. Referred to as a "Randy Mandy" among the era's deviants, Mandrax was a sedative that had just become popular worldwide with the branding "Quaalude." However, Neil's life was far less glamorous; rumors persist to this day that, leading up to August of 1979, Neil was engaging in sex work to support his bad habits and lifestyle. His body had been severely mutilated and dumped in the South Para Reservoir, northeast of Adelaide. This was as good of a tip as police were going to get, and since the most recent victim of this strange killing spree had been found in the Foothills, police decided to follow through on the tip. The Family Murders is one of Australia's most captivating true crime stories. The son was fifteen when he was snatched from the street . When Boris had last seen Richard, walking away from the bus stop down the street from his home, he had still been wearing the collar, and it is has been theorized that the collar itself might have been a trigger for the deviant (or deviants) that ultimately decided to abduct Richard. Richard walked him down the road to the nearby O'Connell Street bus stop, arriving without incident, and waited there for his friend's bus to arrive. Police got the number one offender. This section explores the people who at this stage are thought to have been on the periphery. But he didn't commit these crimes on his own. Mr B made contact with police two days after Alan Barnes was found. For a week, his loved ones had been bracing themselves for the worst, but this was a confirmation of everything they had been fearing for the past several days: Alan had been violently murdered, and had spent his final hours in agony. Now twenty-five years old, Neil had spent the better part of the last few years struggling with addictions and vices that left him moving from place-to-place pretty regularly. After a bit, Rob decided to walk home, leaving the two boys at the park; assured that it was just down the street from their house and it was still early in the day. Bevan von Einem was no exception he also preferred youths between the 15 and 19 year old age group. Unfortunately, by the time they returned, Mark was nowhere to be found. This witness recalled Alan getting into a vehicle, which appeared to be a white Holden sedan. 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. 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. Because this murder seemed like the type of crime beset by emotional issues - or likely someone with an ax to grind against Alan, personally - police initially began investigating this as a personal crime. In particular, they were members of the Vice Squad, who typically crackdown on "moral" crimes such as gambling, narcotics, pornography, and illegal substances. Millhouse was charged and went to trial but was acquitted. He then moved away from Adelaide and the murders continued. "The Family murders" occurred in the period of time between the late 1970s and 1980s. [8] The reward carried an offer of immunity to accomplices, dependent on their level of involvement. Mark Langley This was commonly found in the drug Noctec, which was an over-the-counter pharmaceutical used to aid people with sleep problems, which had been given to Alan sometime before his death. These were connections that were hard to overlook, as police began to theorize that a single offender (or, rather, a group of offenders) had been behind all of these crimes. Mark Andrew Langley, aged 18,[17] murdered in February 1982. He had seemingly disappeared, and a brief search of the area failed to come up with him. After doing away with his old, dried-up crops, the farmer was looking over his land when he came upon the now-charred remains of young Peter Stogneff. 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. He is 50 metres from his beautiful family home. They drove to War Memorial Drive (150m east of the Adelaide Rowing Club ) when Mark had a minor argument with the other male so got out and left. 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. 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. However, when Neil Muir's body was discovered, his internal organs had been removed and were gone entirely, leading to police being unable to test his blood levels. 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. However, instead of charging them with any known crimes, the officers proceeded to throw the three men into the nearby Torrens River. 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. 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. The evidence is contained in a detailed diary kept by a man who was a close associate of several key players in the so-called Family murders. 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. By the time they managed to look outside, whoever had been outside had already sped off. But his teachers recalled him being absent, and hours would pass that afternoon (heading into the evening) and Peter would fail to return home. This reported sighting led police to the notion that a group of people might have been acting in-tandem to abduct Richard, for reasons that appeared nefarious. Even though he was nearly an adult at this point - and had a fair amount of independence in his life - this disappearance was deemed very out-of-the-ordinary. 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. It was this rapport that caused Peter to skip school on Thursday, August 27th, 1981. 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 [7] Suspect 1, an Eastern Suburbs businessman, is believed to have been with von Einem when Kelvin was abducted. 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. The head was tied to the torso with rope passed through the mouth and out through the neck. 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 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. For that reason, many of these men and women had to keep their sexuality confined to specific locations. 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.