My first reaction was: Well, if you were off work for a week, then you had the opportunity to be with Richard Kelvin.
During Trevor’s interview, von Einem said that he suffered from a nervous condition and this led to questions about drugs in his possession.
‘What medication had you been prescribed for this nervous complaint?’ Trevor asked. He typed the response on the A4 piece of paper sitting in the Remington typewriter.
‘Serepax, Sinequan.’
‘You would have those medications in your house now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Would there be any other form of drug there?’
‘Rohypnol, which I need to sleep.’
Trevor asked him questions about the length of time he had lived in his house at Paradise and the length of time he had lived in his unit at Campbelltown before returning to questions about drugs.
‘Have you ever been prescribed Mandrax tablets?’
‘Yes, I have.’
‘Would you tell me in detail about that, please?’
‘I took Mandrax some five years ago for sleeping and wanted to get off them but I still have a sleep problem and my doctor put me on Rohypnol.’
‘When was the last time you got Mandrax tablets?’
‘It would have been about twelve months ago.’
More questions were asked about other matters before Trevor came back to the Mandrax. When detectives move the questions around, it sometimes puts the person being interviewed off guard. Von Einem may have thought Trevor had finished with that topic and started to relax, but Trevor again asked about the Mandrax.
‘Do you have any left?’
‘I have some left but I don’t take them.’
‘Where are they now?’
‘They are at home.’
Trevor continued the interview and towards the end he asked:
‘Did you kill Richard Kelvin?’ No point beating around the bush. You never know what people will say.
‘No.’
‘Do you know who killed him?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know who abducted him?’
‘No.’
‘Could you conceivably abduct a youth, drug him, abuse him and then kill him?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘I think it would be unethical of me; I shy away from violence of any description.’
They were interesting words. I didn’t know what to make of them. They weren’t words a normal person would use.
‘Did you kill Alan Barnes?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know who did?’
‘No.’
‘Did you kill Neil Muir?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know who did?’
‘No.’
‘Did you kill Peter Stogneff?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know who did?’
‘No.’
‘Did you kill Mark Langley?’
‘No.’
‘Do you know who did?’
‘No.’
Trevor asked him if he had any objection to the police examining his house and the police doctor taking a sample of his blood and hair. He allowed these things to happen. One of the police doctors, Noel McCleave, came to the Angas Street building and took a small sample of von Einem’s hair, scraped under his fingernails and took a sample of his blood. These were standard samples taken by police when examining rape suspects. The blood allows tests to check whether or not it matches any sperm from a rape victim. The scraping from under the fingernails sometimes reveals tiny amounts of skin that have been scratched from a victim and, sometimes, pubic hair is left behind. These samples weren’t expected to produce any evidence because sperm wasn’t found on or in the boys and their skin wasn’t scratched but we were working on the belief that the killers received sexual satisfaction from their crimes and these were standard tests.
We returned to von Einem’s Paradise home the same day. Von Einem agreed that we could search his house. He returned to his home with Trevor and me. He agreed to leave his car with us to allow us to check its contents.
He didn’t appear too worried about our interest in him. He was going to let us search his home. He is letting us keep his car for a couple of days. He could have refused, and lawyers could have disputed our legal right to search if we went ahead. He lives at home with his mother. All of these things suggested he had nothing to hide. But we couldn’t ignore the possibility that he was involved. Some of his answers sounded funny. Especially saying it was unethical for him to kill someone.
Trevor Kipling led the return visit to Bevan von Einem’s home. This time we had Des Phillips, one of our crime examiners, with us, along with Daryl Kruse from police photographics and Arch Kempster from our Fingerprint Section. We arrived at 4.15 p.m., eight hours after we had gone there in the morning.
Des put on his overalls and surgical gloves and entered the home, followed by Arch and Daryl. The lounge room opened up immediately you entered the front door. The only notable thing about the lounge was that it was ordinary, with a three-piece lounge setting, table, television and a few ornaments. The furniture was not cheap and nasty, but Christies wouldn’t be auctioning any of it as antiques. Opposite the front door a narrow passage ran to the left from the lounge to the bedrooms, laundry and toilet. The carpets in the house were low quality. The passage carpet was a mild blue colour with a soft purple swirl in it. The kitchen was immediately behind the lounge. Trevor spoke to von Einem in the lounge while I did a preliminary search of his bedroom, which was at the front of the house nearest to the front door.
I walked on the dark blue bedroom carpet, which contrasted with the bright yellow bedspread covering his single bed. The bedspread had an orange check pattern over the base yellow colour. The bedspread was the brightest thing in the house. A white rectangular cupboard was standing against the wall alongside the bed. It was a standard affair with two doors either side of a central mirror which had drawers underneath it. A similar cupboard built without a mirror stood against the opposite wall. Small sideboards stood either side of the bedhead and at the foot of the bed on one side was an expensive looking harp. The harp was probably the most exceptional single item in the house. Police don’t often see
