Snowtown Murders - The Storage of Bodies

The Storage of Bodies

The barrels containing the bodies were stored in several places before being moved to the bank vault in Snowtown. These places included a shed behind Bunting's house at Murray Bridge in April 1998. Three barrels were moved to Haydon's property at Smithfield Plains later in 1998. Five barrels were stored in a Toyota Land Cruiser at Hoyleton, a locality on the Adelaide Plains near the Clare Valley, with a sixth in a Mitsubishi Sigma back at Murray Bridge. Both of these vehicles were later moved to Snowtown and the barrels moved into the bank vault, which had been rented by Haydon using the name "Mark Lawrence", the name he had used before he married.

Of the Snowtown location one local police source said, "From what I understand there was no person involved in those murders from within Snowtown or the surrounding district. They were murdered elsewhere and the drums were brought to Snowtown because it was a quiet little town and there was a premise ideal for the persons involved."

Examiners attempting to identify the remains found them to be mummified rather than dissolved. The killers had stored the bodies in acid with the apparent intention of dissolving the remains, but had chosen hydrochloric acid which has the effect of mummification instead.

The discovery of the barrels in May 1999 in Snowtown was the culmination of two years of criminal investigation. Police involvement with the then unlinked crimes had begun with the disappearance of Barry Lane in 1997. After Elizabeth Haydon's disappearance, the police installed a listening device in Mark Haydon's house in Smithfield Plains, recordings which were later used as court evidence. The loading activity at the old bank led to the bank building being searched.

The remains found at Lower Light were later determined to have been those of Clinton Trezise, who had been murdered in Bunting's living room at Salisbury North. Ray Davies and Suzanne Allen were found buried in the back yard of that house.