The decomposition of Richard’s body and the work of Beryl Morris indicated that he was dumped about two weeks beforehand and killed shortly before he was dumped — possibly on Sunday, 10 July 1983. If he was dumped then and snatched on Sunday, 5 June, where was Richard Kelvin for five weeks? Five weeks! It was an unbelievable length of time to be held captive. Where was he kept? The physical handling of the boys’ bodies indicated that more than one person was involved, and now, with Richard, that possibility was more likely. The length of time that he was kept alive indicated that more than one person had to be around to assist with feeding and keeping him under control. But we couldn’t be certain — other individuals have kept people caged over long periods of time.
The location of the bodies gave more clues about the killers. The first two bodies were dumped into water or, more accurately, the killers tried to dispose of the bodies into water. Alan Barnes was flung from the bridge into the dry South Para Reservoir, and Neil Muir was dropped into the low tide of the Port River about seventeen kilometres to the north-west of the city but within the metropolitan area. After the first two bodies were found, not hidden by water, if the same people were involved, did the killers not worry about trying to dispose of evidence of their crime in water? The other boys, who were murdered after Alan Barnes and Neil Muir, were simply left by the side of the road.
Other similarities were simple: Alan Barnes, Mark Langley and Richard Kelvin all were dumped in the Adelaide Hills. Mark Langley was closer to the city, about twelve kilometres away slightly to the south-east, but in the Adelaide Hills. Alan Barnes and Richard Kelvin were also left in the Adelaide Hills, Richard’s body being found in the same general area as Alan Barnes. The dumping sites indicated that the murderers lived in the greater Adelaide area, possibly on the northern side.
Trevor Kipling collated the information as we went along. The following table outlines the events as we knew them.
Trevor was trying to fathom this information when another detective in the Major Crime Squad, Lee Haddon, received information about the murder of Neil Muir.
Chapter 4
The Arrest of Dr Millhouse
Neil Muir was a druggie but he didn’t deserve to die. He was the oldest of the butchered boys and at twenty-five, a man rather than a boy. He moved around, and lived with a mate at Unley ’til shortly after his mate went to jail for possessing housebreaking implements. He lived with a girlfriend at Kilburn for a while but just before he was killed he was sleeping on the floor of a dosshouse in Carrington Street in the centre of Adelaide.
During 1979 he was on a downward spiral from his drug use. His friends said he was looking the worse for wear. He had been abusing narcotics for six years, having started when he was nineteen. He first sought help at a methadone clinic in 1978, but Neil Muir was like so many druggies — the methadone just became another drug to use and abuse.
The clinic assessed Neil Muir as having a moderate physical dependence on opiates. He was being treated with methadone but when he complained about general discomfort and agitation from withdrawal, he was given Clonidine, an antihypertensive drug, and Rohypnol, a sedative and an hypnotic.
On the Friday, three days before he disappeared, he was at the methadone clinic at Hillcrest Hospital in a northern suburb of Adelaide. He was wearing a distinctive bulky knit cardigan, bone coloured, with black stripes running through it. The cardigan complemented his light-coloured cord jeans. An ebony bangle was on his wrist, and a sleeper was in one earlobe and a drop-earing in his other ear. He carried a flick knife. None of these items have been found.
Neil Muir, like Alan Barnes, was good looking but he had softer features than Alan Barnes. Neil Muir’s long brown hair and light beard tended to elongate his face, which was thinning from poor nutrition resulting from his drug habit. He was a poly (multiple) drug user. He abused heroin, methadone and barbiturates.
While Neil Muir’s murder was similar, with an anal injury, there were no other linkages to suggest it was connected to Alan Barnes’. Neil Muir was cut up while Alan Barnes was intact. They did not know each other so the common thread of being killed by an associate was discounted. Initially, Neil Muir’s killing was thought to be drug related. Neil Muir owed some money around town for drugs that he had scored. One theory related to the possibility that he was killed because he had not paid his debts. Detective Rod Hunter and others who were investigating the Alan Barnes’ murder were working on the possibility that he was murdered by the family of a girl that he allegedly raped. His anal injuries were thought to be a sadistic sexual payback. Over time we learnt this was not the case.
Major Crime and police generally were still basking in the success of Glen Lawrie and Peter Foster solving the Truro serial killings and, at that time, there was nothing to suggest we had another run of killings starting. John Woite and Lee Haddon were the detective sergeants working on Glen Lawrie’s team in the Major Crime Squad. John was tall — a big man in height and size. He was very methodical with his investigations. Lee was an older detective, single and dedicated to his work like most of the detectives at Major Crime. Lee Haddon was working on the murder of Neil Muir. The things that differentiated the detectives in the squad were their intelligence, experience and how much
