Like Neil Muir, Peter had been cut up with a saw. His back had been sawn through leaving an oblique cut. The legs had been cut above the knees with the same saw and his lower legs were missing. The people who were killing these boys now were not even trying to dispose of the bodies. The first and second were dumped into water with the expectation that they would be lost out of sight but Mark Langley was dumped alongside a dirt road not far from Mount Lofty, the highest point of the Adelaide Hills, which overlooks the city. Now, Peter Stogneff had been dumped on the side of a nearby country road.
South Australia now had four young men killed in a relatively short space of time. Three had anal injuries, so it was possible that the same people killed three of them — Barnes, Muir and Langley. The fourth, Peter Stogneff, was cut up — not exactly in the same way as Neil Muir but similarly enough to make detectives wonder whether or not the same people killed them. If the same people killed Muir and Stogneff, then perhaps the same people had killed them all.
Those questions were now in the minds of the police when another young man disappeared. This time the public’s attention skyrocketed.
Richard Kelvin lived with his mum and dad in North Adelaide amongst some of the smartest houses of the city. Rob and Betteanne Kelvin lived in a modern townhouse in one of the newer developments of the time. Their home was ‘trendy’ but Rob and Betteanne were down to earth people who did not exude airs and graces. Their modern comfortable home stood about one kilometre from the Torrens River and less than half that distance from O’Connell Street, the main shopping road of North Adelaide, which splits North Adelaide into two. The broad street allows traffic from the CBD to pass through the northern suburbs before heading to the premier wine district, the Barossa Valley.
Rob was working for Channel Nine, the local television station that consistently won the ratings war against the three other local television stations. Channel Nine started broadcasting television to excited South Australians before any of the other rivals and the station has never looked back. Rob Kelvin joined Channel Nine after working as a journalist on Adelaide radio. He was well known from radio and his profile had become higher presenting the news-bulletin.
Rob and his two boys were playing at home on the weekend. It was 5–6 June 1983. Richard played football for a Lockleys football club on the Saturday and Rob had been kicking the football with his eldest son, Richard, at one of the nearby parks on Sunday. Richard’s best mate Karl ‘Boris’ Brooks was with them. Richard was a normal fifteen-year-old Australian boy. He was tall for his age, good looking and had blond hair. He liked sport, he put up with school and had just found a girlfriend.
He met his girlfriend at the Prospect Oval, a football ground where the North Adelaide football team play. They had been going together for over a month. She was similar in age and height, she was pretty and he really liked her. He liked having a girlfriend. They rang each other just about every day and went to the movies together. They even talked about getting engaged in four years time when they would be nineteen. Richard and Boris were speaking to the girl on the phone just before they walked to O’Connell Street. He said that he’d ring her back after he walked with Boris to the bus stop.
Richard and Boris walked along Ward Street, turned right onto O’Connell Street and stopped next to the yellow bus stop in front of a delicatessen. Although it was Sunday and some of the shops were closed, O’Connell Street was still active, with cars passing by and people walking to the restaurants and cafes across the road. A grey government bus arrived a few minutes after they walked to the bus stop. Frank Marrollo got off with his cousin, Frank D’Antiocchia. Marrollo spoke to Richard, who he knew as ‘Sticks’ while Boris got onto the bus. The three boys knew each other and spoke as Boris stepped onto the bus to ride home. Everything was still OK. Richard started to head home, about 400 metres away, to have dinner with his parents and younger brother.
But Richard Kelvin didn’t arrive home. Like the other boys before him, he simply disappeared. None of the neighbours saw him that afternoon. They did not see him walk to the bus stop nor did they see him walk home. No-one saw him arrive home because he never made it.
Chapter 2
The Search for Richard Kelvin
I had just moved to the Major Crime Squad when the remains of Peter Stogneff were found near Middle Beach. Detectives from the squad were already working on the Alan Barnes, Neil Muir
