February 24, 2021 • 17 mins
Anne Zappelli was a young woman from country Western Australia. The beauty queen and Miss Australia Quest contestant was raped and murdered in September 1969, aged just 20. Police bungled the investigation and the case was never solved. A chilling deathbed confession that pointed the finger at the suspect was also useless. How did police get it so wrong?
This story originally aired in 2012. Both prime suspects have since died.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
An incredible case of police bungling that's left the prime
suspect in the murder of a beautiful young woman roaming
the streets for forty two years. Soon you'll hear the
explosive deathbed confession of his accomplice, which places Thomas Craig
at the scene with his hands around Anne Zappelly's neck,
(00:21):
And what happens when Craig is tracked down and confronted
by Ronnie Sadler. Anne Zapelly was a young woman from
country western Australia, beginning to make her way in the world.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But look at the photo of her. That sort of
tells you what she was like. She stood out in
a crowd. You know, she was just a good person.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
She was tiny and small and delicate and dainty. She
was very attractive and very personable. And you know she
went into the Miss Australia quest even though she was
quite shy. I'm sure she would have gone on to
a great life.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It just wasn't to be. In September nineteen sixty nine,
on a lonely road on a cold night, and Zapelly
was raped and murdered. Her half naked body was found
two days later. She was twenty.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
You know who killed your sister Ide.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
He lives in boundary.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
From the beginning, the police bungled the case. It was
a dog's breakfast. There are a lot of things that
got watched.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The police lost evidence, absolute disgraceous for us. I'm concerned.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Repeated attempts to get the case reopened were blocked. They
tried to keep it all secret. The man who wanted
it all to go away would later become the Westertustralian
Police Commissioner. Decades on, this cold case is far from
over tonight, the hunt for the cold blooded killer of
(02:11):
Anne Zappelli.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
You want justice?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Who killed your sister?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Thomas Craig Hi.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Mister Craig, tell me about Anne as a child.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I just remember as being a big sister. She's to
winged at me because we used to share a room
and I was always a messy one.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
She was really tidy. The Zappellis lived in the small
country town of Morower, four hundred kilometers north of Perth.
That's Anne on the right with older brother Colin and
younger sister Ronda.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
How would you have described her personality?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
She was a more quiet, not laird. She wasn't there,
not like me.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
After leaving school, Anne got a job as a telephonist
in Moroua and she was just.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
About to go into a beauty pageant.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yep, she was five days sure. I have been in
the regional judging and jildren.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
For Miss Australia Australia. Was she looking forward to that?
I think she.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
In the lead up to the quest, Anne had raised
over fifteen hundred dollars for charity. On September seventeenth, she
traveled to Geralton.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
She was in Geralton to do an exam so that
she could go further in her job.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Five days later, Anne went to the drive in with
some friends, but they got there late midway through the
film and Anne decided to leave.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
She must have got bored with being there, so she said, well,
I'm just I'm going to go home. So she got
out the car and walked.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
It was undoubtedly this decision to walk about two miles
back to Jerlton cost her her life.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
She didn't know Durop and she wouldn't have known which
way to go.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Passing motorists saw two men in a car slow down
next to Anne. One of them saw the men stop
and get out. They described a short man and a
tall man who walked with a limp. The eye witnesses
drove on and the a. Pelly was never seen alive again.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Obviously she would have been terrified. I don't like to
think about it. It's just too horrible.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
And Zapelly had put up a fierce struggle before being bashed, unconscious,
raped and strangled, probably with her own pantyhose. Two days later,
AND's body was found in Bushland, one and a half
kilometers from the drive. On the night she was murdered,
two local criminals, Thomas Craig, a short man, and Norm Raisbeck,
(05:08):
who was tall and walked with a limp, fled town
at midnight. Four days later, they turned up in Adelaide.
How hard did you work to solve this?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Well?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Would you believe it in ours?
Speaker 7 (05:23):
Are they?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
So?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Is there anything in relation to the investigation that you
wished you'd done differently? Nope, You're happy with the way
things went exactly. Royce Stewart was a young detective sent
from Perth to join the investigation led by this man,
Detective Sergeant John Porter. Early on, basic police work was
(05:46):
overlooked or bungled. Imprints of shoe and tire marks found
at the crime scene weren't taken. There was no forensic
examination of the car Craig and Raisbeck fled to Adelaid in.
The clothes they were wearing that night were confiscated but
later lost, along with fingernail scrapings and swamps taken from
(06:08):
Anne's body. And Anne's own fingerprints were never taken, so
couldn't be matched with any found in or on the
killer's car. Fingerprints weren't taken from Anne Zappelli herself.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Well, I believe that is correct.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Was that a bit of a That was a mistake,
So some mistakes were made.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, that was a mistake.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Then there's the two prime suspects. Raisbeck and Craig had
prior convictions for assaulting girls and young women. The car
they fled to Adelaide in matched the description of the
car witnesses saw following Anne z Appelli, as did their
physical descriptions. Thirteen days after Anne's murder, Detective Sergeant Porter
(06:56):
flew to Adelaide to interview both men, but quickly the
mount of suspects, Accepting an alibi provided by Raisbeck's to
facto that they'd left town before Ann's murder.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
We made inquiries along the those lines at the time
and it fitted with what they had said.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
But the alibi was false.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Everyone was led to believe that these were the best
detectives at West Australia could muster when this investigation started.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Do you think they're the best detectives.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
No, I don't think they're the best detectives at all.
I think a plumber or a milkman could have solved
before that.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
After Detective Sergeant Porter dismissed them as suspects, rais Beck
and Craig slipped out of sight. Eighteen months later, Thomas
Craig assaulted a young woman in the home of Kay Preedy,
whose family knew him. Eighteen year old Kay was in
another room when she heard screams coming from the lound
(07:58):
roomund and saw Craig with his hands around the woman's throat.
Speaker 8 (08:05):
I heard him say to her, I'll strangle you like
I did to Anza Pelli with hoes, and that's when
I screamed out to my husband.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Kay's husband chased him down the street. The fearful young
victim asked the police not be told, and Thomas Craig
disappeared again. Four years later near Margaret River. Sixteen year
old Kate Edwards accepted a ride from Craig, who she
(08:39):
knew from around town.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
I was hit taking home. I was on the sort
of side of a fairly barren ride and Tom Craig
stopped and picked me up.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Craig started driving, but not long later pulled.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
Over, stopped the car and said, look, I'll be just
backing a minut I've just got to get something at
the back to find out where I'm going next. And
the next thing I knew, he was opening my door,
pushed me forward and he had a piece of firewood
and he just bashed me over the head and she
started hitting me and hitting me again and again with
a piece of wood or over this side of my head.
Was he saying anything, No, not at this time. He's
(09:16):
trying to knock me unconscious. He's just, you know, wanting
me to be quiet. I just knew that I was
going to be dead on the side of the road.
He's going to kill me and put me on the
side of the road. I was so terrified.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Showing amazing presence of mind, Kate says she pleaded with Craig,
talking him out of the attack, promising to tell no
one and to be his friend. He drove her home,
but as soon as he left, the bruised and battered
teenager called police, who charged him, but Thomas Craig got off.
(09:50):
The court was not allowed to hear of his prior convictions,
including a nine month jail sentence for bashing a woman
with a hammer in nineteen sixty seven. To this day,
Kate says, the police brief was woefully inadequate.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Sort of thought that they were on my side. The
police are on my side and they really wanted to
get him, that they would do about a job. My
sister calls him the teftline man that nothing sticks to him.
I think he's quite sick.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I'm sure she would have had a great life, but
thanks to somebody, her life came to an end.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Beauty Queen anne the Pelly was raped and murdered in
nineteen sixty nine. From the start, the police investigation was flawed,
crucial evidence never collected, Keith suspects, Tom Craig and Norman
(10:58):
raised Back never investigated.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
It's been a frustrating investigation and police have all but
given up hope of finding Anneza Pelly's killer.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
This is nine one situation but out of the blue
in nineteen eighty a decade on a new lead.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
I was involved in a crime.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
An anonymous call tw at Perth radio station.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
We did something terrible, how terrible.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
It's Geraldon. It's a country town. I don't think murder's
a light charge. The caller didn't give his name, but
police suspected it was Norm Raisbeck. An Australia wired alert
was issued to track him down. Raise Beck was to
be offered an indemnity in return for his testimony that
Tom Craig had killed Anne Zappelli, but the hunt for
(11:45):
raise Beck was shut down by John Porter, the detective
who'd led the original bungled investigation. Porter was about to
be appointed police commissioner and told the detective responsible to
back off.
Speaker 9 (12:01):
He was called to mister Porter's office, who was then
the Deputy Commissioner, and told to cease any further inquiry
as it had been thoroughly investigated by mister Porter in
nineteen seventy.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
The case was put on ice for another eight years. Then,
in nineteen eighty eight, three years after his retirement, a breakthrough.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
So Norm, let's go back to that night in Geraldon,
back in nineen sixty nine.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Police finally tracked down Norm Raisbeck to a hospital in Adelaide,
where he was seriously ill. What he told them was explosive.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
Norm, did you have sex with the girl?
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Yes? And Tommy, Oh, he had her in a headlock
and he pulled that down at some point.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Raisbeck said that the last time he saw Anne she
was alive and Craig's arms were around.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
Her neck.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And autopsy revealed she'd been strangled.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Norm, have you told us the truth here today?
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Police now thought they had the evidence to go after
Tom Craig, but critically, they only took notes, not a
sworn statement. One month later, Raisbeck died and his confession
was useless because it had no legal standing. So the
man confessed to the crime, yet still nothing could be
(13:37):
done about it. About it, the police kept the confession
from Anne's a Pelly's family for six years. Well, I
was shocked.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I thought, well, the thing is, you think the police
are on your side.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Ronda's a Pelly now pressured police to reopen the case.
In nineteen ninety six. An internal police investoration was launched,
but retired former Commissioner John Porter refused to be interviewed.
So what reason did mister Porter give for not allowing
himself to be interviewed?
Speaker 9 (14:15):
His reputation, He had his reputation to consider.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
You say there was no cover up, what do you suggest?
Speaker 7 (14:23):
He that.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Porter's fellow detective rejects any suggestion their investigation was flawed.
But in two thousand and one a coronial inquest concluded
Raised Beck and Tom Craig should never have been excluded
as suspects. It also found that half of the evidence
in the case had been lost and this one should
(14:47):
have been solved, could have been solved. John Porter is
now eighty nine. He refused our request to be interviewed
on camera, tracked down Thomas Craig to a car park
in Bunbury.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Left her right, So you better, that's the way.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Forty two years after Anne Zeppelli's murder, the prime suspect
worked for the Uniting Church clearing charity Binds. Hi, mister Craig,
did you have a pattern of violence towards women? Didn't
you have a conviction in sixty seven for attacking.
Speaker 9 (15:23):
A woman with a hammer?
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Yes, love me that you were wrongly a conviction.
Speaker 7 (15:27):
That's right, And he just bashed me over the head
with that.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
What about Kate Edwards. You didn't attack her either and.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
Saw him with his hands around her throat.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
What about the woman who's who you allegedly puts your
hands around the neck and said I'll.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Kill like Ansepelli.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
No, so all of these people are telling lies.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Yes they have.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Good day to you if you look at the evidence all.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Your charge with harassment.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I've got a photo of Van in the house and
like every time you see it, when you look at
it every day, yeah, it brings back memories and you're
reminded that someone still hasn't been punished for that.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Ronnie Sadler, with our investigation and after eleven years of
silence and after we began our inquiries, WA Police have
contacted the Zappelli family. They've told them that they plan
to use new DNA technology to test Anne's dress and exhibit,
which wasn't lost
An incredible case of police bungling that's left the prime
suspect in the murder of a beautiful young woman roaming
the streets for forty two years. Soon you'll hear the
explosive deathbed confession of his accomplice, which places Thomas Craig
at the scene with his hands around Anne Zappelly's neck,
(00:21):
And what happens when Craig is tracked down and confronted
by Ronnie Sadler. Anne Zapelly was a young woman from
country western Australia, beginning to make her way in the world.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But look at the photo of her. That sort of
tells you what she was like. She stood out in
a crowd. You know, she was just a good person.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
She was tiny and small and delicate and dainty. She
was very attractive and very personable. And you know she
went into the Miss Australia quest even though she was
quite shy. I'm sure she would have gone on to
a great life.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It just wasn't to be. In September nineteen sixty nine,
on a lonely road on a cold night, and Zapelly
was raped and murdered. Her half naked body was found
two days later. She was twenty.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
You know who killed your sister Ide.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
He lives in boundary.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
From the beginning, the police bungled the case. It was
a dog's breakfast. There are a lot of things that
got watched.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The police lost evidence, absolute disgraceous for us. I'm concerned.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Repeated attempts to get the case reopened were blocked. They
tried to keep it all secret. The man who wanted
it all to go away would later become the Westertustralian
Police Commissioner. Decades on, this cold case is far from
over tonight, the hunt for the cold blooded killer of
(02:11):
Anne Zappelli.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
You want justice?
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Who killed your sister?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Thomas Craig Hi.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Mister Craig, tell me about Anne as a child.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I just remember as being a big sister. She's to
winged at me because we used to share a room
and I was always a messy one.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
She was really tidy. The Zappellis lived in the small
country town of Morower, four hundred kilometers north of Perth.
That's Anne on the right with older brother Colin and
younger sister Ronda.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
How would you have described her personality?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
She was a more quiet, not laird. She wasn't there,
not like me.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
After leaving school, Anne got a job as a telephonist
in Moroua and she was just.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
About to go into a beauty pageant.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yep, she was five days sure. I have been in
the regional judging and jildren.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
For Miss Australia Australia. Was she looking forward to that?
I think she.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
In the lead up to the quest, Anne had raised
over fifteen hundred dollars for charity. On September seventeenth, she
traveled to Geralton.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
She was in Geralton to do an exam so that
she could go further in her job.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Five days later, Anne went to the drive in with
some friends, but they got there late midway through the
film and Anne decided to leave.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
She must have got bored with being there, so she said, well,
I'm just I'm going to go home. So she got
out the car and walked.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
It was undoubtedly this decision to walk about two miles
back to Jerlton cost her her life.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
She didn't know Durop and she wouldn't have known which
way to go.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Passing motorists saw two men in a car slow down
next to Anne. One of them saw the men stop
and get out. They described a short man and a
tall man who walked with a limp. The eye witnesses
drove on and the a. Pelly was never seen alive again.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Obviously she would have been terrified. I don't like to
think about it. It's just too horrible.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
And Zapelly had put up a fierce struggle before being bashed, unconscious,
raped and strangled, probably with her own pantyhose. Two days later,
AND's body was found in Bushland, one and a half
kilometers from the drive. On the night she was murdered,
two local criminals, Thomas Craig, a short man, and Norm Raisbeck,
(05:08):
who was tall and walked with a limp, fled town
at midnight. Four days later, they turned up in Adelaide.
How hard did you work to solve this?
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Well?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Would you believe it in ours?
Speaker 7 (05:23):
Are they?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
So?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Is there anything in relation to the investigation that you
wished you'd done differently? Nope, You're happy with the way
things went exactly. Royce Stewart was a young detective sent
from Perth to join the investigation led by this man,
Detective Sergeant John Porter. Early on, basic police work was
(05:46):
overlooked or bungled. Imprints of shoe and tire marks found
at the crime scene weren't taken. There was no forensic
examination of the car Craig and Raisbeck fled to Adelaid in.
The clothes they were wearing that night were confiscated but
later lost, along with fingernail scrapings and swamps taken from
(06:08):
Anne's body. And Anne's own fingerprints were never taken, so
couldn't be matched with any found in or on the
killer's car. Fingerprints weren't taken from Anne Zappelli herself.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Well, I believe that is correct.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Was that a bit of a That was a mistake,
So some mistakes were made.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, that was a mistake.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Then there's the two prime suspects. Raisbeck and Craig had
prior convictions for assaulting girls and young women. The car
they fled to Adelaide in matched the description of the
car witnesses saw following Anne z Appelli, as did their
physical descriptions. Thirteen days after Anne's murder, Detective Sergeant Porter
(06:56):
flew to Adelaide to interview both men, but quickly the
mount of suspects, Accepting an alibi provided by Raisbeck's to
facto that they'd left town before Ann's murder.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
We made inquiries along the those lines at the time
and it fitted with what they had said.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
But the alibi was false.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Everyone was led to believe that these were the best
detectives at West Australia could muster when this investigation started.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Do you think they're the best detectives.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
No, I don't think they're the best detectives at all.
I think a plumber or a milkman could have solved
before that.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
After Detective Sergeant Porter dismissed them as suspects, rais Beck
and Craig slipped out of sight. Eighteen months later, Thomas
Craig assaulted a young woman in the home of Kay Preedy,
whose family knew him. Eighteen year old Kay was in
another room when she heard screams coming from the lound
(07:58):
roomund and saw Craig with his hands around the woman's throat.
Speaker 8 (08:05):
I heard him say to her, I'll strangle you like
I did to Anza Pelli with hoes, and that's when
I screamed out to my husband.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Kay's husband chased him down the street. The fearful young
victim asked the police not be told, and Thomas Craig
disappeared again. Four years later near Margaret River. Sixteen year
old Kate Edwards accepted a ride from Craig, who she
(08:39):
knew from around town.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
I was hit taking home. I was on the sort
of side of a fairly barren ride and Tom Craig
stopped and picked me up.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Craig started driving, but not long later pulled.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
Over, stopped the car and said, look, I'll be just
backing a minut I've just got to get something at
the back to find out where I'm going next. And
the next thing I knew, he was opening my door,
pushed me forward and he had a piece of firewood
and he just bashed me over the head and she
started hitting me and hitting me again and again with
a piece of wood or over this side of my head.
Was he saying anything, No, not at this time. He's
(09:16):
trying to knock me unconscious. He's just, you know, wanting
me to be quiet. I just knew that I was
going to be dead on the side of the road.
He's going to kill me and put me on the
side of the road. I was so terrified.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Showing amazing presence of mind, Kate says she pleaded with Craig,
talking him out of the attack, promising to tell no
one and to be his friend. He drove her home,
but as soon as he left, the bruised and battered
teenager called police, who charged him, but Thomas Craig got off.
(09:50):
The court was not allowed to hear of his prior convictions,
including a nine month jail sentence for bashing a woman
with a hammer in nineteen sixty seven. To this day,
Kate says, the police brief was woefully inadequate.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Sort of thought that they were on my side. The
police are on my side and they really wanted to
get him, that they would do about a job. My
sister calls him the teftline man that nothing sticks to him.
I think he's quite sick.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I'm sure she would have had a great life, but
thanks to somebody, her life came to an end.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Beauty Queen anne the Pelly was raped and murdered in
nineteen sixty nine. From the start, the police investigation was flawed,
crucial evidence never collected, Keith suspects, Tom Craig and Norman
(10:58):
raised Back never investigated.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
It's been a frustrating investigation and police have all but
given up hope of finding Anneza Pelly's killer.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
This is nine one situation but out of the blue
in nineteen eighty a decade on a new lead.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
I was involved in a crime.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
An anonymous call tw at Perth radio station.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
We did something terrible, how terrible.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
It's Geraldon. It's a country town. I don't think murder's
a light charge. The caller didn't give his name, but
police suspected it was Norm Raisbeck. An Australia wired alert
was issued to track him down. Raise Beck was to
be offered an indemnity in return for his testimony that
Tom Craig had killed Anne Zappelli, but the hunt for
(11:45):
raise Beck was shut down by John Porter, the detective
who'd led the original bungled investigation. Porter was about to
be appointed police commissioner and told the detective responsible to
back off.
Speaker 9 (12:01):
He was called to mister Porter's office, who was then
the Deputy Commissioner, and told to cease any further inquiry
as it had been thoroughly investigated by mister Porter in
nineteen seventy.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
The case was put on ice for another eight years. Then,
in nineteen eighty eight, three years after his retirement, a breakthrough.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
So Norm, let's go back to that night in Geraldon,
back in nineen sixty nine.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Police finally tracked down Norm Raisbeck to a hospital in Adelaide,
where he was seriously ill. What he told them was explosive.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
Norm, did you have sex with the girl?
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Yes? And Tommy, Oh, he had her in a headlock
and he pulled that down at some point.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Raisbeck said that the last time he saw Anne she
was alive and Craig's arms were around.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
Her neck.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And autopsy revealed she'd been strangled.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Norm, have you told us the truth here today?
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Police now thought they had the evidence to go after
Tom Craig, but critically, they only took notes, not a
sworn statement. One month later, Raisbeck died and his confession
was useless because it had no legal standing. So the
man confessed to the crime, yet still nothing could be
(13:37):
done about it. About it, the police kept the confession
from Anne's a Pelly's family for six years. Well, I
was shocked.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I thought, well, the thing is, you think the police
are on your side.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Ronda's a Pelly now pressured police to reopen the case.
In nineteen ninety six. An internal police investoration was launched,
but retired former Commissioner John Porter refused to be interviewed.
So what reason did mister Porter give for not allowing
himself to be interviewed?
Speaker 9 (14:15):
His reputation, He had his reputation to consider.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
You say there was no cover up, what do you suggest?
Speaker 7 (14:23):
He that.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Porter's fellow detective rejects any suggestion their investigation was flawed.
But in two thousand and one a coronial inquest concluded
Raised Beck and Tom Craig should never have been excluded
as suspects. It also found that half of the evidence
in the case had been lost and this one should
(14:47):
have been solved, could have been solved. John Porter is
now eighty nine. He refused our request to be interviewed
on camera, tracked down Thomas Craig to a car park
in Bunbury.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Left her right, So you better, that's the way.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Forty two years after Anne Zeppelli's murder, the prime suspect
worked for the Uniting Church clearing charity Binds. Hi, mister Craig,
did you have a pattern of violence towards women? Didn't
you have a conviction in sixty seven for attacking.
Speaker 9 (15:23):
A woman with a hammer?
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Yes, love me that you were wrongly a conviction.
Speaker 7 (15:27):
That's right, And he just bashed me over the head
with that.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
What about Kate Edwards. You didn't attack her either and.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
Saw him with his hands around her throat.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
What about the woman who's who you allegedly puts your
hands around the neck and said I'll.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Kill like Ansepelli.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
No, so all of these people are telling lies.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Yes they have.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Good day to you if you look at the evidence all.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Your charge with harassment.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I've got a photo of Van in the house and
like every time you see it, when you look at
it every day, yeah, it brings back memories and you're
reminded that someone still hasn't been punished for that.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Ronnie Sadler, with our investigation and after eleven years of
silence and after we began our inquiries, WA Police have
contacted the Zappelli family. They've told them that they plan
to use new DNA technology to test Anne's dress and exhibit,
which wasn't lost
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