Possibly Related Cases
In 1973 two children, Joanne Ratcliffe (aged 11) and Kirsty Gordon (aged 4) disappeared from Adelaide Oval during a football match, and they are presumed to have been abducted. Their parents had allowed the two girls to leave their group to go to the toilet. They were seen several times in the 90 minutes after leaving the oval, apparently distressed and in the company of an unknown man, but they vanished after the last reported sighting. The police sketch of the man last seen with the two girls resembles that of the man last seen with the Beaumont children. The police sketch of the Beaumont children suspect is not a satisfactory identikit image, however.
In 1979, the body of a young man was found in Adelaide. He was identified as Neil Muir (aged 25). His body was badly mutilated. In 1982, the mutilated body of Mark Langley (aged 18) was found. Before his death, he had been subjected to "surgery" — his abdomen had been sliced open, and had been shaved prior to this. Part of his bowel had been removed and Langley had died from loss of blood. Over the next few months more bodies were found. The dismembered skeletal remains of Peter Stogneff (aged 14) were found almost a year after his disappearance and Alan Barnes (aged 18) was found mutilated in a similar manner to Langley. A fifth victim, Richard Kelvin (aged 15), was found in 1983, once again with the same mutilations. Bevan Spencer von Einem was convicted of Kelvin's murder in 1984 and was charged with the murders of Barnes and Langley in 1989. However, the prosecution was forced to enter a nolle prosequi (unwilling to pursue) when crucial evidence was deemed inadmissible. Known collectively as "The Family Murders", police believe that a core group of four people and up to eight associates were involved in the murders. Testimony given during von Einem's trial alleged he was involved in both the Beaumont children disappearance and the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirsty Gordon.
Read more about this topic: Beaumont Children Disappearance
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