July 6, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of Real Crime, Adam Shand is joined by former detective Tina Kemp to revisit one of Australia's most baffling unsolved murders — the 1998 car bombing of John Furlan. They unpack the cast of shady characters, including a dodgy car dealer with mafia ties, a confessor with a dark past, and a bomb maker who may still be out there.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Appoch Production.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand. I'm your host,
Adam Shand. Let's talk about a.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Murder mystery Today.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
August third, nineteen ninety eight, a small businessman in the
motor trade, Gianni John Ferlan, was on his way to
work in Melbourne's North. The forty eight year old was
driving his white Suberu Liberty sedan north along Lawrenceon Avenue
near Merlinston Railway station.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
When it exploded.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
The force of the explosion killed John instantly, catapaulting his
vehicle fifteen meters down the road, shattering nearby shop windows
and spraying debris over three hundred meters away.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
The power of the blast breaking windows of houses and
shops along the quiet street.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
But miraculously nobody else was physically injured. At first, it
was thought to be an accident, an exploding LPG tank perhaps,
but Furlin's car didn't run on gas. He'd been killed
with a huge car bomb. A deadly car bombing in
Melbourne's North remains one of Australia's most baffling unsolved mysteries.
(01:22):
That murder is still unsolved all these years later. Victoria
Police have recently increased a one hundred thousand dollars reward
to one million dollars for information about who was responsible.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Senior police say they're refusing to give up until those
responsible are brought to justice.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
In twenty eleven, Arson and Explosive detective Tina Kemp reviewed
the case and knows more about it than anyone else
who wasn't involved in it. It's a case that she
can't let go, and I'm pleased to welcome her into
the real crime studio, can I?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Tina?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Adam? How are you good?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Thanks?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Of all the cases you covered in your career, this
one I think is the one that you've always felt
was left incomplete, correct.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Yeah, there are so many more avenues of inquiry to
cover some of the bases. It's just one of those
ones that doesn't have a clear motive, and that's been
really tricky to navigate through that.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think you once said that it was like being
given a book without the final chapters.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Correct, And even some of the chapters in between are
missing as well, and you just have to find which Well,
sometimes you've given chapters are not even relevant, so you've
got to work out which ones belonging the book and
which ones don't even so. It's quite a bit to
this one, but it's really interesting and I was thoroughly
engaged and enjoyed working on it, and at times I thought, God,
(02:45):
I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this is fabulous.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, it would have been nice if you were able
to put some people behind bars. There's still a possibility
of it, because there are still suspects out there in
this murder, and it is a very tricky one because
the motive is not clear. John Ferlin was not an
underworld figure. He was a small businessman. He had his
normal range of disputes and issues with people, but nothing
(03:12):
that seemed to amount to a motive for murder. And
there is this sort of cast of characters we really
should work through before we get too much further. The
main suspect that you were presented with was a fellow
called Domenico Italiano, who was a half pied gangster from Carlton.
His grandfather had been reputed to be the head of
the Italian mafia back in the fifties, but Domenico was
(03:36):
not of the same milk whatsoever. He was more of
a con man and he was operating what I believed
to be illegal car raffles back in the day where
there would raffle a car in a bogus raffle, and
really it was a way of selling a vehicle to
somebody at a cheap price and pretend that it was
the winnings of a raffle.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Have I got that right?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Yes, from I didn't delve in too much into the
raffle side of things that had already been written off earlier.
But in your previous inquiry so that you pinpointed that
John had actually been offered a car in amongst that
to pay a debt back to Dominica Taliano. So that
sort of changes things in that respect as well.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Because John had a car yard next to his house
there on Sydney Road in Coburg, and Italiano was leasing
that car yard, and of course he fell behind in
the rent and there was a dispute over that. And
the theory that you investigated was that this bogus raffle
was going to be he was going to become the
winner John was in lieu of the rent that he owed,
(04:39):
at least Taliano owed.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I believe that specific aspect was something that you uncovered
when you were looking at it yourself a while back.
We certainly did look at the raffles, and we looked
at the broken lease on the car yard next to
his place.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
There was a whole.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Host of things that we did look at, and to me,
it seems with Dominique Taliano, it wasn't perhaps just the
one thing, but it was that Furlan had become a
bit of a thorn in his side in a number
of ways. He owed him money, you know, they'd broken Carli's,
he was trying to get another caryard.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Maybe that raffle came into it.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And yeah, so I think he'd just become a little
bit of thorny's side and thought that perhaps life was
easier for dominic if John Ferlan.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Wasn't in it, well if he killed him.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And I think that was the problem for police, that
none of these things seemed to amount to a substantial
enough motive for murder. And there were other issues apparently
that Ferlin had given up Italiano to fair trading over
these raffles, and also some other dodgy stuff that Italiana
was doing in the car trade.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yes, that's correct, and John Ferlin had been charged and
find himself. I didn't think it was a massive amount,
maybe eight hundred dollar fine or something thereabouts. I think nineties.
I'd have to go back to the file if I
had it. In ninety six ninety seven thereabouts, it was
reported who particularly annoyed that others such as.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Italiano and other people were still.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Doing similar sort of things and getting away with it,
and that rubbed him the wrong way. So apparently became
quite a nuisance by ringing almost weekly or perhaps even
more to make complaints about these people, and subsequently charges.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Were laid or fines. There was one I'm aware of that.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Italiano had somebody else to take the fall for him
on that one, and that was worth about fifteen grand.
So we're talking, you know, late sort of ninety so
that's a fair wack of money back then. And his
own company, Moldenfield Proprietary Limited, they were also fine. And
if you look through the list back then, there are
a few companies that italianas associates were involved in those companies,
(06:34):
and so I think that's sort of another area as well. Well.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I try and you mentioned that Ferland was a thorn
in the side of Italiano. I think Ferloon need though
he wasn't a crook, but he was a bit of hotthead,
wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
What sort of person was he?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
My understanding was a bit of a hot head and
a hard businessman, very loyal to his friends. But you know,
there might be some smallish kind of issues with he
might sell something that was reconditioned as perhaps better condition
or knewer than it was. You know, nothing overly massive
that wouldn't go on in a lot of those kind
of businesses. I did look into, and other investigators looked
(07:12):
into whether he did have some sort of criminal activities
going on. I know the registration of the vehicle that
he was killed while striving was registered in the country,
and it kind of seemed a very back door way
of getting it registered because it was an imported car
from Japan that shouldn't have been registered in Australia because
it didn't comply with the standards here. But somehow at
(07:33):
this country vic Rood's office, the number of the engine
the number vehicle identification number was entered with a number
of digits that suited Australia's system. But if it had
been entered in I think there were seventeen digits in
one or the other can't remember which way it went
now with nine digits were required, but he's had seventeen
(07:54):
or vice versa. So that ended up allowing the car
to be registered here when it really shouldn't been. It
should have only been used for parts. So then I
was looking at did he have a little bit of
a scam going with that kind of thing? He also
is a drugs involved I mean that's also always a
thing we look at, you know, are they importing drugs
inside these vehicles? Because dominicantly, Taliano and Ferlin used to
(08:16):
both be at the car auctions. They would see each
other at those sort of locations as well, so I thought, well,
are they up to something more that is behind the
scenes that we.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Just don't know about. But I could never really find.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
That he was up to anything illegally in that way
that could have cost.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Him his life, because I think there was one avenue
of an inquiry where I know in Melbourne there was
a lot of heroin dealing going on through used car
lots where people would deliver heroin around Melbourne using cars
from lots, and I think that was looked at at
one moment, but it didn't seem to pan out.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Correct and also rebirthing vehicles that was pretty big back
then as well, stolen vehicles that would be altered and
you know, in a chop shop sort of thing, and
whether he had been involved in that sort of thing
as well, But we couldn't really establish anything like that.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So in the end, it seems that he was just
a small businessman.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
That wouldn't be like anybody else that walks down the
street that you would probably meet not thinking twice about.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
So that part is really puzzling.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
The motive and whether it's just that whole mixed bag
of things that really annoyed Italio and getting focus on
him when if he was up to something dodgy himself.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
He's not going to want attention from anybody.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And that was the challenge for investigators, wasn't it, Because
massive facts, some minor motivations, no conclusive evidence, so very
difficult to proceed. And when you look at the circumstances
of the bombing, the car had been parked at Ferlin's
house on Sydney Road, Coburg over the weekend while he'd
gone to Tasmania for fishing, so one would presume the
(09:50):
bomb was planted at that time.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I believe so they would have had easy access to
the vehicle at that point. Nobody was staying at the
house while John was in Tasmania, and there's a lane
way at the back of the house that I would
think would be fairly easy access to get over that.
And I'm aware that one of the back doors wasn't
locking properly either in the vehicle, so they wouldn't even
need to break in as such, they just try the doors.
(10:16):
And they had been doing surveillance, so maybe they might
have even been aware of some of that minor.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Detail as well, so they once so inside the yard.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
The yard had a really high fence at the front
and still to this day as far as I know,
high fence, high gates or timber so you can't see through,
So they would have had a nice little protected area
from anybody.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Seeing what they were up to.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And there was a number of cigarette butts found at
the scene, which I believe that you discovered in the exhibits,
and I think they've been compared on DNA databases and
so forth and really haven't come up with any matches.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Well, as far as I know, two of them have
John Fillin's profile were matched to two of them, and
maybe some partials on some of the other. And I
did request further testing, and I think Jeff Marr recently
mentioned that they were sort of being retested again, and
I had tried to and it might be that they
regularly do that run that through anyway on these sort
of major unsolves, but nothing of interest as far as.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Who might have been in the yard. But I had
always wanted to perhaps.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Put out a call, and you know, this is not
something that I'd run past the bosses as far as
put out a bit of a call to his friends
and family who would have been in the front yard smoking.
They knew that they were in the art smoking and
volunteer their DNA so that they could be identified at
least and not one hundred percent eliminated. They could be
involved who we don't know, but at least it might
(11:40):
narrow down who contributed to those cigarette butts on the ground, right.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And Jeff Marr was your senior sergeant back at Arsenal
and Explosives. He's now working at the Academy, still involved
in this case, helping out. And again it's one of
those cases that just defies solution.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
It stays in people's minds. Now.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
The interesting thing about the way the bomb is detonated
is I understand it was that it wasn't a timing device,
it wasn't a pressure device. It had to be detonated
manually with a line of sight. And there were two vehicles,
one red land cruise I believe or missing patrol that
was seen in the area before the day and on
(12:19):
the day, and there was a guy driving it who
had a very particular eagle tattoo on one forearm. This
was seen and I guess it was believed that this
one might have detonated the bomb.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
And he does appear throughout the investigation and turns up
again after as far as the inquiries goes. He even
inserts himself into the whole inquiry by attending at St.
Kildo Police Complex, which was the headquarters for the crime
department back then. Yet very interesting character. I didn't get
to meet him, unfortunately. He committed suicide a few weeks
(12:52):
after his last contact with Jeff mar And he would
confess to all sorts of things then sometimes retract that.
But then if he did scratch around and have a
bit of a look to try and corroborate things. Sometimes
some of the most amazing things that he was confessing
to were actually real. I give you the main example
was he put his hand up for a bombing that
(13:15):
he did at a house in Flemington that I think
was probably requested or orchestrated by these same people.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Behind this bomb.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
But he also someone very close to him had committed
a murder and he helped dispose of the body as
in this particular fellow, and he phoned police and said,
if you go out to this particular freeway on the
side of the freeway, you'll find a body. And in
the end they had to have a couple of looks
and they finally found it. He ended up getting charged
for well, the other person got charged with murder and
(13:46):
he got charged with helping dispose of the body. So
you can't just sort of dismiss any of his claims
because sometimes they were really good information.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
You're talking about Philip Lander, also known as Philip Matthews,
and he was a young man I think he was
nineteen at the time or twenty when this car bomb detonated,
And you're right, it comes in two thousand and four
to the police unannounced and says I killed John Ferland
and this doesn't happen. A walk up start to a
confession like this just simply doesn't happen. And Jeff Maher
(14:17):
it was your boss, interviewed him and some parts of
his evidence were very compelling. Others were doubtful, and it
led them to overall have doubts about him. You were
reading about him in the file and when you mentioned
the murder there, of course, this was a murder committed
by his twin brother. Correct, Yes, so he ends up
(14:40):
giving up his twin brother for a murder. This boy
liked to confess.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And I don't know if that was something that he
would be involved with these things, but then he'd be
a little bit at odds with himself on what he'd
done and what to come clean.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It was with this one.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
With John Ferlan's murder, it was like he wanted to
get it off his chest. And you know, I don't
know his motivation for committing suicide where this was part
of it and it was just the guilt factor and
maybe other things that he'd done. But I also think
he and his brother were raised in the school of
hard knocks, so that I think there's a lot of
demons in there. For him, and it's funny, but I
(15:17):
kind of got to like him a little bit, almost
like he was the underdog, which is kind of weird.
I've not really felt that towards anybody else that I've investigated,
or certainly.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That's got a criminal history like his.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
But it was almost like I wanted him to sort
of be able to offload this and succeed. But you know,
already by the time I was anywhere near the file,
he was long gone.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Well, it's interesting because he does commit suicide weeks after
he turns up and kill or rode police headquarters, and
even the manner of his death if you're a conspiracy theorist,
could get you excited because he attaches a hose from
his car exhaust into the vehicle and gases himself like that,
you know, I mean, if you're a conspiracy theorist, as
(15:59):
I say, you might say, well, maybe he was killed
to cover up his confessions, to stop him giving more
d tale.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yes, And that's something that would have been looked at
it at the time, given the involvement that he'd had
in this matter, and just is you know, in other
matters that he'd been involved in and the type of
people that he mixed with and mingled with. He could
easily have been the target of somebody, but there was
nothing established in that respect. It was a non suspicious
(16:28):
action that I believe he committed suicide.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, the toxicology didn't show any sedatives or anything else.
He might have been compelled to kill himself, not that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I'm aware of.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
I did read the autopsy results in that, but I
don't recall anything other than just the whole situation with
the car.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I think if there had been anything that suggested foul play,
your bosses would have been strayed on too. I mean,
Jeff mar being one of the best homicide detectives in
the state, he would have been right onto this. But
nothing was found, so that had to be so frustrating
because there the evidence seemed to stop. And for instance,
he did talk about other explosive detonators at a property
(17:09):
up in the country. He did talk about bearing detonators,
explosives and other items in the country somewhere there yet
to be found, and that could be critical evidence to
standing up what he did tell police in the past
that he was the bomber.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Absolutely, and I believe that that those items were there
at some stage. I mean, the investigations earlier did establish
that he went out to a particular location near where
he lived many years ago, and he spent time at
that location, and we did I was involved too with
a search. We had ground penetrating radar, we had drug dogs,
(17:45):
explosive dogs to try and establish where that was. And
at one stage I got very excited because I found
this nice area there and we thought, oh, we're onto
something here. But in the end it was just pushing
and mounding for where they bopped off the track for vehicles.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But I was so hoping that we would find something there.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
But it's often crossed my mind just to go out
as a little bit of a you know, a member
of the public and just have a bit of a
poke around if it's not there. I think it was,
and that's where some people will know. The friends of
his and I think even his brother were aware of
what was there, as Phil Matthews himself said that there
(18:23):
were things in there, like maps of where he was
supposed to do the surveillance on Ferlin. There were explosive
leftover Balaclavi's and you know, all sorts of things. A
good little crooks kit and that'd be magnificent to be
able to find.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Well, because you'd probably have DNA on there as well.
And you could, of course, you've got his twin brother
who's still alive. You could compare the DNA to him
and say, well, this is Phil Matthew's little cachet.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Yes, And that was going just briefly back to the
cigarette butts. That was something I thought, Oh, I wonder
if any of these cigarette butts were Phil Matthews and thought, oh,
only he had an evil twin brother who already had
his profile on the system. And I was like, oh, okay,
maybe not evil. That's probably well, I don't know, he's committed.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
For so I think we can call him out.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
He's committed murder, so he's probably not squeaky clean, and
you know, he's an identical twin And unfortunately there there
was no match there.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
So that was always the challenge to connect Philip Matthews
with Domenico Italiano, who the theory went, had ordered the murder.
And as I talked to people when I've been looking
this case over a number of years, I started to
get a profile of Matthews as someone who was incredibly
willing and wanted to do this wasn't seeking even there's
(19:39):
no discussion of money, And I wonder whether there's a
discontinuous link between Matthews and Italiano, whereby some people talk
to Philip Matthews while he's in jail and say, you
could make a name for yourself by blowing up this individual,
he goes and does it. It may not have been
directly ordered by Italiano, even though he benefited from that.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Do you think that's possible.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Part of the investigation did look at whether there was
talk and we never could quite confirm it whether he
actually did the Flemington bombing A is a bit of
a run up to this one to show that he
could do it and then he would do it, and
also that by also confessing to that that was another
situation where he's gone in and said, oh, you know,
(20:26):
I did that bombing and he ended up being locked
up as a result of that. But there was some
suggestion that that was so that he could be inside
to have the discussion with these two particular people that
were already inside, to have that approach made through them.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
So it's a little bit of an obscure kind of
way of going about it.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
But I did look at those people and they were
in prison at the same time, and he gave a
location in the prison where that conversation took place. So
I checked those units and the floor plan and everything
to see if that could have taken place at that location.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So we did have a look at that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I've actually corroborated that with another sawce who knew both
Ferl and Italiano. Those individuals did have links to Italiano
and could well have been the organizers and the urgers
for Matthews to do what he did. So it's fascinating
and of course we should just go to Italiano to
ask him what happened, but we can't because, as luck
would have it, he was jailed. In fact, Jeff Maher
(21:21):
when he was looking at these dodgy raffles as part
of the film and investigation that well, here's some offenses here,
and Italiana was charged, went to jail, and when he
came out, he decided to visit the wife or girlfriend
of his former cell mate, which is a bit cheeky.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
What happened then, well.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
My understanding is there was a little blue pill involved
with a session with this lady and he died in
the process of having an enjoyable afternoon or evening with her.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So that was the end of Dominique.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Taliano died on the job.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yes, this is a case that just keeps on giving.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
There some things in it that you you know, it's
like stranger than fiction sort of thing. You couldn't make
some of this up, or if only an egle twin brother,
or this sort of death of the main suspect. So
it's like somebody's written it for a TV series, but
it's real.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And what struck me when I was in Perth, I
had a good look at the killing of Don Hancock
and he's mate Louis Lewis ex Coppers. That was in
two thousand and one, first of September, and the bomb
in that case was very, very similar to the bomb
that was used to kill John Ferland. The large amount
of explosives set under the passenger seat, slightly different mechanism
(22:39):
for detonation, but I think there was enough similarities for
police and Victoria to go Matt's notes with Western Australia
to see if there's still a bomb maker at large somewhere.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Yeah, it certainly didn't go and noticed the similarities and
our expert here, John calliher very very experienced and very
intelligent man, is probably one of my.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Most favorite people in the world.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
He and his equivalent in Western Australia, they did compare
notes a lot. I think Western Australia learned a lot
from the way that the investigation was conducted here, and
some of those similarities are very very similar that if
it's not the same person, you have to think that
they had knowledge from that person or some sort of
(23:24):
extension of it, because it's there are too many similarities
just you know, even to the placement location in the
car to be completely coincidental that we just don't have
that many of the bombings for it to be too.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Out of two kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
And car bombings are very rare in Australia.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And if you have skills like this and other people
will want to hire you, I think that would be
a very reasonable line of inquiries. So that's one of
the interesting things. Like Matthews is dead, obviously, Furland's dead,
Italiano's dead. Who do we charge now if there's anything
coming forth, and you've got a couple of options. If
there is the technician who supplied the materials knew how
they were going to be used. There's an accessory. And
(24:05):
what I find fascinating is that we still have Philip
Matthew's ex girlfriend, and we actually doorknocked the street where
he used to live and talk to the neighbors who'd
been there for a million years, and they said, yes,
there was all kinds of funny goings on at that house.
There were people coming and going, there was cars, and
there was equipment going in and out. So it seems
(24:25):
like there was something criminal going on there. And Matthew's girlfriend,
while not being involved in it in any way, she
was never a suspect, but she will have information that
could eventually close this case.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Absolutely, and it would be wonderful as she would come
forward and even Phil's twin brother to finish off what
seemed to be trying to do, to offload it from
his conscience. And his girlfriend at the time was very staunch,
and even after they split up, she still wouldn't divulge
much in.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
The way of information. And there's various reasons that we
know she knew more.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
She was already talking about it being a bombing before
it was known to be a bombing. Initially, it was
thought to be an LPG tank that had exploded in
the vehicle, but the car wasn't fitted with a vehicle.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It didn't come out till later in the day.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
As far as I'm aware that it was actually a
bomb that had occurred, but she apparently had been referring
to it as a bombing prior to that being known
in the public, so that I thought was very interesting.
But you know, this has not really come directly from her,
but she would be able to provide a lot of information.
And also the associates. There's an associate that Phil had
(25:33):
back at the time I think would be able to
help with some information about Phil and what he was
up to, what he was capable of with as far
as putting where could he put a bomb together? Would
he have known? Would he know where to go and
get the resources or get the components that he needed
for the bomb? And I think that person is it's
(25:53):
probably pretty key as well. The girlfriend, his twin brother,
and this particular person I've got in mind, I think
could really advance investigation well.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And there's one million reasons to come forward now I'd
like to keep working out so I can claim the
rewards somehow. If there's a way of doing it. And
it's funny how there are quite a lot of these
million dollar rewards in Victoria. They're very rarely paid out,
but I think this one is something that is one
that could be paid out.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
And what would your advice be.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Sometimes people are too close to crimes they and they
fear that they might be prosecuted as well. But I
think if they're lesser offenses, there's usually something that can
be done so their information can be used and they
can avoid prosecution.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
That's my understanding of it.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I mean to be honest, I get most of my
information on that from just TV shows myself. I don't
know that much about what is on offering that respect,
but I believe they'd be able to come to some
agreement and understanding where they'd either not be prosecuted, or
there might be lesser charges, or there'd be some trade
off where the information that they could provide be more
(26:58):
valuable to investigators than them staying silent.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So it's certainly something.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
That would be good for them to discuss and then
they can make that informed decision whether they would want
to take it any further or not.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
We'll leave it there, Tina, Thank you so much, for
your time today.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You're very welcome and good luck with it all.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
That was Tina Kemp, the detective who reviewed the murder
case of John fernand blown up in a car bomb
back in nineteen ninety eight. There is a million dollars
on office, so if you can help in this case,
maybe send me an email first, but you can also
call the police. A crime stoff is one eight hundred,
triple three, triple zero. Your information will always be treated
as confidential, but you can also email me if you
(27:38):
like as well. I'd like to know what happened to
myself as with Tina, So Adam Shand writer at gmail
dot com, thank you for listening. This has been real
crime with Adam Shanmed. This is Adam Shand signing off.
Thanks for listening.
Appoch Production.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand. I'm your host,
Adam Shand. Let's talk about a.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Murder mystery Today.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
August third, nineteen ninety eight, a small businessman in the
motor trade, Gianni John Ferlan, was on his way to
work in Melbourne's North. The forty eight year old was
driving his white Suberu Liberty sedan north along Lawrenceon Avenue
near Merlinston Railway station.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
When it exploded.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
The force of the explosion killed John instantly, catapaulting his
vehicle fifteen meters down the road, shattering nearby shop windows
and spraying debris over three hundred meters away.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
The power of the blast breaking windows of houses and
shops along the quiet street.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
But miraculously nobody else was physically injured. At first, it
was thought to be an accident, an exploding LPG tank perhaps,
but Furlin's car didn't run on gas. He'd been killed
with a huge car bomb. A deadly car bombing in
Melbourne's North remains one of Australia's most baffling unsolved mysteries.
(01:22):
That murder is still unsolved all these years later. Victoria
Police have recently increased a one hundred thousand dollars reward
to one million dollars for information about who was responsible.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Senior police say they're refusing to give up until those
responsible are brought to justice.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
In twenty eleven, Arson and Explosive detective Tina Kemp reviewed
the case and knows more about it than anyone else
who wasn't involved in it. It's a case that she
can't let go, and I'm pleased to welcome her into
the real crime studio, can I?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Tina?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Adam? How are you good?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Thanks?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Of all the cases you covered in your career, this
one I think is the one that you've always felt
was left incomplete, correct.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Yeah, there are so many more avenues of inquiry to
cover some of the bases. It's just one of those
ones that doesn't have a clear motive, and that's been
really tricky to navigate through that.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think you once said that it was like being
given a book without the final chapters.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Correct, And even some of the chapters in between are
missing as well, and you just have to find which Well,
sometimes you've given chapters are not even relevant, so you've
got to work out which ones belonging the book and
which ones don't even so. It's quite a bit to
this one, but it's really interesting and I was thoroughly
engaged and enjoyed working on it, and at times I thought, God,
(02:45):
I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this is fabulous.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, it would have been nice if you were able
to put some people behind bars. There's still a possibility
of it, because there are still suspects out there in
this murder, and it is a very tricky one because
the motive is not clear. John Ferlin was not an
underworld figure. He was a small businessman. He had his
normal range of disputes and issues with people, but nothing
(03:12):
that seemed to amount to a motive for murder. And
there is this sort of cast of characters we really
should work through before we get too much further. The
main suspect that you were presented with was a fellow
called Domenico Italiano, who was a half pied gangster from Carlton.
His grandfather had been reputed to be the head of
the Italian mafia back in the fifties, but Domenico was
(03:36):
not of the same milk whatsoever. He was more of
a con man and he was operating what I believed
to be illegal car raffles back in the day where
there would raffle a car in a bogus raffle, and
really it was a way of selling a vehicle to
somebody at a cheap price and pretend that it was
the winnings of a raffle.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Have I got that right?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Yes, from I didn't delve in too much into the
raffle side of things that had already been written off earlier.
But in your previous inquiry so that you pinpointed that
John had actually been offered a car in amongst that
to pay a debt back to Dominica Taliano. So that
sort of changes things in that respect as well.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Because John had a car yard next to his house
there on Sydney Road in Coburg, and Italiano was leasing
that car yard, and of course he fell behind in
the rent and there was a dispute over that. And
the theory that you investigated was that this bogus raffle
was going to be he was going to become the
winner John was in lieu of the rent that he owed,
(04:39):
at least Taliano owed.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I believe that specific aspect was something that you uncovered
when you were looking at it yourself a while back.
We certainly did look at the raffles, and we looked
at the broken lease on the car yard next to
his place.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
There was a whole.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Host of things that we did look at, and to me,
it seems with Dominique Taliano, it wasn't perhaps just the
one thing, but it was that Furlan had become a
bit of a thorn in his side in a number
of ways. He owed him money, you know, they'd broken Carli's,
he was trying to get another caryard.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Maybe that raffle came into it.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And yeah, so I think he'd just become a little
bit of thorny's side and thought that perhaps life was
easier for dominic if John Ferlan.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Wasn't in it, well if he killed him.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And I think that was the problem for police, that
none of these things seemed to amount to a substantial
enough motive for murder. And there were other issues apparently
that Ferlin had given up Italiano to fair trading over
these raffles, and also some other dodgy stuff that Italiana
was doing in the car trade.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yes, that's correct, and John Ferlin had been charged and
find himself. I didn't think it was a massive amount,
maybe eight hundred dollar fine or something thereabouts. I think nineties.
I'd have to go back to the file if I
had it. In ninety six ninety seven thereabouts, it was
reported who particularly annoyed that others such as.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Italiano and other people were still.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Doing similar sort of things and getting away with it,
and that rubbed him the wrong way. So apparently became
quite a nuisance by ringing almost weekly or perhaps even
more to make complaints about these people, and subsequently charges.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Were laid or fines. There was one I'm aware of that.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Italiano had somebody else to take the fall for him
on that one, and that was worth about fifteen grand.
So we're talking, you know, late sort of ninety so
that's a fair wack of money back then. And his
own company, Moldenfield Proprietary Limited, they were also fine. And
if you look through the list back then, there are
a few companies that italianas associates were involved in those companies,
(06:34):
and so I think that's sort of another area as well. Well.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I try and you mentioned that Ferland was a thorn
in the side of Italiano. I think Ferloon need though
he wasn't a crook, but he was a bit of hotthead,
wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
What sort of person was he?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
My understanding was a bit of a hot head and
a hard businessman, very loyal to his friends. But you know,
there might be some smallish kind of issues with he
might sell something that was reconditioned as perhaps better condition
or knewer than it was. You know, nothing overly massive
that wouldn't go on in a lot of those kind
of businesses. I did look into, and other investigators looked
(07:12):
into whether he did have some sort of criminal activities
going on. I know the registration of the vehicle that
he was killed while striving was registered in the country,
and it kind of seemed a very back door way
of getting it registered because it was an imported car
from Japan that shouldn't have been registered in Australia because
it didn't comply with the standards here. But somehow at
(07:33):
this country vic Rood's office, the number of the engine
the number vehicle identification number was entered with a number
of digits that suited Australia's system. But if it had
been entered in I think there were seventeen digits in
one or the other can't remember which way it went
now with nine digits were required, but he's had seventeen
(07:54):
or vice versa. So that ended up allowing the car
to be registered here when it really shouldn't been. It
should have only been used for parts. So then I
was looking at did he have a little bit of
a scam going with that kind of thing? He also
is a drugs involved I mean that's also always a
thing we look at, you know, are they importing drugs
inside these vehicles? Because dominicantly, Taliano and Ferlin used to
(08:16):
both be at the car auctions. They would see each
other at those sort of locations as well, so I thought, well,
are they up to something more that is behind the
scenes that we.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Just don't know about. But I could never really find.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
That he was up to anything illegally in that way
that could have cost.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Him his life, because I think there was one avenue
of an inquiry where I know in Melbourne there was
a lot of heroin dealing going on through used car
lots where people would deliver heroin around Melbourne using cars
from lots, and I think that was looked at at
one moment, but it didn't seem to pan out.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Correct and also rebirthing vehicles that was pretty big back
then as well, stolen vehicles that would be altered and
you know, in a chop shop sort of thing, and
whether he had been involved in that sort of thing
as well, But we couldn't really establish anything like that.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So in the end, it seems that he was just
a small businessman.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
That wouldn't be like anybody else that walks down the
street that you would probably meet not thinking twice about.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
So that part is really puzzling.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
The motive and whether it's just that whole mixed bag
of things that really annoyed Italio and getting focus on
him when if he was up to something dodgy himself.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
He's not going to want attention from anybody.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And that was the challenge for investigators, wasn't it, Because
massive facts, some minor motivations, no conclusive evidence, so very
difficult to proceed. And when you look at the circumstances
of the bombing, the car had been parked at Ferlin's
house on Sydney Road, Coburg over the weekend while he'd
gone to Tasmania for fishing, so one would presume the
(09:50):
bomb was planted at that time.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
I believe so they would have had easy access to
the vehicle at that point. Nobody was staying at the
house while John was in Tasmania, and there's a lane
way at the back of the house that I would
think would be fairly easy access to get over that.
And I'm aware that one of the back doors wasn't
locking properly either in the vehicle, so they wouldn't even
need to break in as such, they just try the doors.
(10:16):
And they had been doing surveillance, so maybe they might
have even been aware of some of that minor.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Detail as well, so they once so inside the yard.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
The yard had a really high fence at the front
and still to this day as far as I know,
high fence, high gates or timber so you can't see through,
So they would have had a nice little protected area
from anybody.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Seeing what they were up to.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And there was a number of cigarette butts found at
the scene, which I believe that you discovered in the exhibits,
and I think they've been compared on DNA databases and
so forth and really haven't come up with any matches.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Well, as far as I know, two of them have
John Fillin's profile were matched to two of them, and
maybe some partials on some of the other. And I
did request further testing, and I think Jeff Marr recently
mentioned that they were sort of being retested again, and
I had tried to and it might be that they
regularly do that run that through anyway on these sort
of major unsolves, but nothing of interest as far as.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Who might have been in the yard. But I had
always wanted to perhaps.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Put out a call, and you know, this is not
something that I'd run past the bosses as far as
put out a bit of a call to his friends
and family who would have been in the front yard smoking.
They knew that they were in the art smoking and
volunteer their DNA so that they could be identified at
least and not one hundred percent eliminated. They could be
involved who we don't know, but at least it might
(11:40):
narrow down who contributed to those cigarette butts on the ground, right.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And Jeff Marr was your senior sergeant back at Arsenal
and Explosives. He's now working at the Academy, still involved
in this case, helping out. And again it's one of
those cases that just defies solution.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
It stays in people's minds. Now.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
The interesting thing about the way the bomb is detonated
is I understand it was that it wasn't a timing device,
it wasn't a pressure device. It had to be detonated
manually with a line of sight. And there were two vehicles,
one red land cruise I believe or missing patrol that
was seen in the area before the day and on
(12:19):
the day, and there was a guy driving it who
had a very particular eagle tattoo on one forearm. This
was seen and I guess it was believed that this
one might have detonated the bomb.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
And he does appear throughout the investigation and turns up
again after as far as the inquiries goes. He even
inserts himself into the whole inquiry by attending at St.
Kildo Police Complex, which was the headquarters for the crime
department back then. Yet very interesting character. I didn't get
to meet him, unfortunately. He committed suicide a few weeks
(12:52):
after his last contact with Jeff mar And he would
confess to all sorts of things then sometimes retract that.
But then if he did scratch around and have a
bit of a look to try and corroborate things. Sometimes
some of the most amazing things that he was confessing
to were actually real. I give you the main example
was he put his hand up for a bombing that
(13:15):
he did at a house in Flemington that I think
was probably requested or orchestrated by these same people.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Behind this bomb.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
But he also someone very close to him had committed
a murder and he helped dispose of the body as
in this particular fellow, and he phoned police and said,
if you go out to this particular freeway on the
side of the freeway, you'll find a body. And in
the end they had to have a couple of looks
and they finally found it. He ended up getting charged
for well, the other person got charged with murder and
(13:46):
he got charged with helping dispose of the body. So
you can't just sort of dismiss any of his claims
because sometimes they were really good information.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
You're talking about Philip Lander, also known as Philip Matthews,
and he was a young man I think he was
nineteen at the time or twenty when this car bomb detonated,
And you're right, it comes in two thousand and four
to the police unannounced and says I killed John Ferland
and this doesn't happen. A walk up start to a
confession like this just simply doesn't happen. And Jeff Maher
(14:17):
it was your boss, interviewed him and some parts of
his evidence were very compelling. Others were doubtful, and it
led them to overall have doubts about him. You were
reading about him in the file and when you mentioned
the murder there, of course, this was a murder committed
by his twin brother. Correct, Yes, so he ends up
(14:40):
giving up his twin brother for a murder. This boy
liked to confess.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And I don't know if that was something that he
would be involved with these things, but then he'd be
a little bit at odds with himself on what he'd
done and what to come clean.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It was with this one.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
With John Ferlan's murder, it was like he wanted to
get it off his chest. And you know, I don't
know his motivation for committing suicide where this was part
of it and it was just the guilt factor and
maybe other things that he'd done. But I also think
he and his brother were raised in the school of
hard knocks, so that I think there's a lot of
demons in there. For him, and it's funny, but I
(15:17):
kind of got to like him a little bit, almost
like he was the underdog, which is kind of weird.
I've not really felt that towards anybody else that I've investigated,
or certainly.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That's got a criminal history like his.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
But it was almost like I wanted him to sort
of be able to offload this and succeed. But you know,
already by the time I was anywhere near the file,
he was long gone.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Well, it's interesting because he does commit suicide weeks after
he turns up and kill or rode police headquarters, and
even the manner of his death if you're a conspiracy theorist,
could get you excited because he attaches a hose from
his car exhaust into the vehicle and gases himself like that,
you know, I mean, if you're a conspiracy theorist, as
(15:59):
I say, you might say, well, maybe he was killed
to cover up his confessions, to stop him giving more
d tale.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yes, And that's something that would have been looked at
it at the time, given the involvement that he'd had
in this matter, and just is you know, in other
matters that he'd been involved in and the type of
people that he mixed with and mingled with. He could
easily have been the target of somebody, but there was
nothing established in that respect. It was a non suspicious
(16:28):
action that I believe he committed suicide.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, the toxicology didn't show any sedatives or anything else.
He might have been compelled to kill himself, not that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I'm aware of.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
I did read the autopsy results in that, but I
don't recall anything other than just the whole situation with
the car.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I think if there had been anything that suggested foul play,
your bosses would have been strayed on too. I mean,
Jeff mar being one of the best homicide detectives in
the state, he would have been right onto this. But
nothing was found, so that had to be so frustrating
because there the evidence seemed to stop. And for instance,
he did talk about other explosive detonators at a property
(17:09):
up in the country. He did talk about bearing detonators,
explosives and other items in the country somewhere there yet
to be found, and that could be critical evidence to
standing up what he did tell police in the past
that he was the bomber.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Absolutely, and I believe that that those items were there
at some stage. I mean, the investigations earlier did establish
that he went out to a particular location near where
he lived many years ago, and he spent time at
that location, and we did I was involved too with
a search. We had ground penetrating radar, we had drug dogs,
(17:45):
explosive dogs to try and establish where that was. And
at one stage I got very excited because I found
this nice area there and we thought, oh, we're onto
something here. But in the end it was just pushing
and mounding for where they bopped off the track for vehicles.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But I was so hoping that we would find something there.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
But it's often crossed my mind just to go out
as a little bit of a you know, a member
of the public and just have a bit of a
poke around if it's not there. I think it was,
and that's where some people will know. The friends of
his and I think even his brother were aware of
what was there, as Phil Matthews himself said that there
(18:23):
were things in there, like maps of where he was
supposed to do the surveillance on Ferlin. There were explosive
leftover Balaclavi's and you know, all sorts of things. A
good little crooks kit and that'd be magnificent to be
able to find.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Well, because you'd probably have DNA on there as well.
And you could, of course, you've got his twin brother
who's still alive. You could compare the DNA to him
and say, well, this is Phil Matthew's little cachet.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Yes, And that was going just briefly back to the
cigarette butts. That was something I thought, Oh, I wonder
if any of these cigarette butts were Phil Matthews and thought, oh,
only he had an evil twin brother who already had
his profile on the system. And I was like, oh, okay,
maybe not evil. That's probably well, I don't know, he's committed.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
For so I think we can call him out.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
He's committed murder, so he's probably not squeaky clean, and
you know, he's an identical twin And unfortunately there there
was no match there.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
So that was always the challenge to connect Philip Matthews
with Domenico Italiano, who the theory went, had ordered the murder.
And as I talked to people when I've been looking
this case over a number of years, I started to
get a profile of Matthews as someone who was incredibly
willing and wanted to do this wasn't seeking even there's
(19:39):
no discussion of money, And I wonder whether there's a
discontinuous link between Matthews and Italiano, whereby some people talk
to Philip Matthews while he's in jail and say, you
could make a name for yourself by blowing up this individual,
he goes and does it. It may not have been
directly ordered by Italiano, even though he benefited from that.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Do you think that's possible.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Part of the investigation did look at whether there was
talk and we never could quite confirm it whether he
actually did the Flemington bombing A is a bit of
a run up to this one to show that he
could do it and then he would do it, and
also that by also confessing to that that was another
situation where he's gone in and said, oh, you know,
(20:26):
I did that bombing and he ended up being locked
up as a result of that. But there was some
suggestion that that was so that he could be inside
to have the discussion with these two particular people that
were already inside, to have that approach made through them.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
So it's a little bit of an obscure kind of
way of going about it.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
But I did look at those people and they were
in prison at the same time, and he gave a
location in the prison where that conversation took place. So
I checked those units and the floor plan and everything
to see if that could have taken place at that location.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So we did have a look at that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I've actually corroborated that with another sawce who knew both
Ferl and Italiano. Those individuals did have links to Italiano
and could well have been the organizers and the urgers
for Matthews to do what he did. So it's fascinating
and of course we should just go to Italiano to
ask him what happened, but we can't because, as luck
would have it, he was jailed. In fact, Jeff Maher
(21:21):
when he was looking at these dodgy raffles as part
of the film and investigation that well, here's some offenses here,
and Italiana was charged, went to jail, and when he
came out, he decided to visit the wife or girlfriend
of his former cell mate, which is a bit cheeky.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
What happened then, well.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
My understanding is there was a little blue pill involved
with a session with this lady and he died in
the process of having an enjoyable afternoon or evening with her.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
So that was the end of Dominique.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Taliano died on the job.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yes, this is a case that just keeps on giving.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
There some things in it that you you know, it's
like stranger than fiction sort of thing. You couldn't make
some of this up, or if only an egle twin brother,
or this sort of death of the main suspect. So
it's like somebody's written it for a TV series, but
it's real.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And what struck me when I was in Perth, I
had a good look at the killing of Don Hancock
and he's mate Louis Lewis ex Coppers. That was in
two thousand and one, first of September, and the bomb
in that case was very, very similar to the bomb
that was used to kill John Ferland. The large amount
of explosives set under the passenger seat, slightly different mechanism
(22:39):
for detonation, but I think there was enough similarities for
police and Victoria to go Matt's notes with Western Australia
to see if there's still a bomb maker at large somewhere.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Yeah, it certainly didn't go and noticed the similarities and
our expert here, John calliher very very experienced and very
intelligent man, is probably one of my.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Most favorite people in the world.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
He and his equivalent in Western Australia, they did compare
notes a lot. I think Western Australia learned a lot
from the way that the investigation was conducted here, and
some of those similarities are very very similar that if
it's not the same person, you have to think that
they had knowledge from that person or some sort of
(23:24):
extension of it, because it's there are too many similarities
just you know, even to the placement location in the
car to be completely coincidental that we just don't have
that many of the bombings for it to be too.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Out of two kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
And car bombings are very rare in Australia.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And if you have skills like this and other people
will want to hire you, I think that would be
a very reasonable line of inquiries. So that's one of
the interesting things. Like Matthews is dead, obviously, Furland's dead,
Italiano's dead. Who do we charge now if there's anything
coming forth, and you've got a couple of options. If
there is the technician who supplied the materials knew how
they were going to be used. There's an accessory. And
(24:05):
what I find fascinating is that we still have Philip
Matthew's ex girlfriend, and we actually doorknocked the street where
he used to live and talk to the neighbors who'd
been there for a million years, and they said, yes,
there was all kinds of funny goings on at that house.
There were people coming and going, there was cars, and
there was equipment going in and out. So it seems
(24:25):
like there was something criminal going on there. And Matthew's girlfriend,
while not being involved in it in any way, she
was never a suspect, but she will have information that
could eventually close this case.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Absolutely, and it would be wonderful as she would come
forward and even Phil's twin brother to finish off what
seemed to be trying to do, to offload it from
his conscience. And his girlfriend at the time was very staunch,
and even after they split up, she still wouldn't divulge
much in.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
The way of information. And there's various reasons that we
know she knew more.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
She was already talking about it being a bombing before
it was known to be a bombing. Initially, it was
thought to be an LPG tank that had exploded in
the vehicle, but the car wasn't fitted with a vehicle.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It didn't come out till later in the day.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
As far as I'm aware that it was actually a
bomb that had occurred, but she apparently had been referring
to it as a bombing prior to that being known
in the public, so that I thought was very interesting.
But you know, this has not really come directly from her,
but she would be able to provide a lot of information.
And also the associates. There's an associate that Phil had
(25:33):
back at the time I think would be able to
help with some information about Phil and what he was
up to, what he was capable of with as far
as putting where could he put a bomb together? Would
he have known? Would he know where to go and
get the resources or get the components that he needed
for the bomb? And I think that person is it's
(25:53):
probably pretty key as well. The girlfriend, his twin brother,
and this particular person I've got in mind, I think
could really advance investigation well.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And there's one million reasons to come forward now I'd
like to keep working out so I can claim the
rewards somehow. If there's a way of doing it. And
it's funny how there are quite a lot of these
million dollar rewards in Victoria. They're very rarely paid out,
but I think this one is something that is one
that could be paid out.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
And what would your advice be.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Sometimes people are too close to crimes they and they
fear that they might be prosecuted as well. But I
think if they're lesser offenses, there's usually something that can
be done so their information can be used and they
can avoid prosecution.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
That's my understanding of it.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I mean to be honest, I get most of my
information on that from just TV shows myself. I don't
know that much about what is on offering that respect,
but I believe they'd be able to come to some
agreement and understanding where they'd either not be prosecuted, or
there might be lesser charges, or there'd be some trade
off where the information that they could provide be more
(26:58):
valuable to investigators than them staying silent.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So it's certainly something.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
That would be good for them to discuss and then
they can make that informed decision whether they would want
to take it any further or not.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
We'll leave it there, Tina, Thank you so much, for
your time today.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You're very welcome and good luck with it all.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
That was Tina Kemp, the detective who reviewed the murder
case of John fernand blown up in a car bomb
back in nineteen ninety eight. There is a million dollars
on office, so if you can help in this case,
maybe send me an email first, but you can also
call the police. A crime stoff is one eight hundred,
triple three, triple zero. Your information will always be treated
as confidential, but you can also email me if you
(27:38):
like as well. I'd like to know what happened to
myself as with Tina, So Adam Shand writer at gmail
dot com, thank you for listening. This has been real
crime with Adam Shanmed. This is Adam Shand signing off.
Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.